Walk with Kaylee

I fell in beside her, easily matching her pace. “Uh-huh. You,” she pointed at me. “Wanted to watch me.” The finger turned towards her. “Practice.”

“Uh… Yes?”

She grinned, knowing I was lying through my teeth. “You hate sports.”

“True,” I said nodding. “But watching hot girls run around in short shorts and bump and grind against each other is a sport I can get behind,” I said, shooting her a thumbs up. Her laugh was like a clear bell on a cool afternoon.

“You sure it doesn’t have anything to do with us having a giant packet of calc based physics due tomorrow that I know for a fact someone hasn’t even started on?”

My blood ran cold as a cold sweat covered my body. Fuck me. I’d forgotten all about that. “No. Nothing to do with that.”

Well, there went any hopes of sleeping tonight.

Beside me, Kaylee gave a short snort. She didn’t believe me but decided to play along anyway. “Okay then. Only one other possible explanation. As your friend, I am obligated to tell you that being a fan doesn’t get you a free pass into someone’s pants.”

I ignored the little jab of pain at the word friend and carried on with a smile. “Not my intention either.”

“That’s good because if it was, you’re pretty shit at it. You’ve been to every game and still haven’t managed it.” She thought for a moment. “Unless you have and no one told me.”

“Nope,” I said, realizing I was stressing it a bit too much. “I’m just coming out to support a friend.”

Kaylee gave me a look like she didn’t believe me, but shrugged. “If you say so.” We took the stairs in silence. The couple from earlier was gone. Now that most of the students had made their way outside, it was a lot easier to get around not having to fight your way past throngs of people. Kaylee turned her head towards me.

“But seriously, if you are trying to hook up with one of the girls, let me know.” She gave me a light elbow to the side, grinning. “Don’t tell anyone,” she said with a conspiratorial whisper. “But I’m kinda a big thing around here. I can put in a good word for you.”

I **** a grin, wondering if she could put in a good word to herself. Too often, I found myself wondering what she would say if I told her how I felt about her. My daydreams always had a happy ending, unlike reality. Fear kept my feelings inside, sealed away. I didn’t fear rejection. Not entirely. What I feared was something far worse. Nothing terrified me more than simply remaining friends. That she would mistake our friendship as me wanting to get preferential treatment. I wasn’t necessarily afraid of her inviting me into her bed, but that I wouldn’t be able to restrain from accepting it. I liked her—a lot—but if she didn’t share that level of feeling, anything sexual would be meaningless. Even if the world didn’t care about such things, I did.

Fuck. I wished more than anything I was normal. Life would be so much easier. I was a guy after all. A teenager at that. It wasn’t like I had no desire to have sex. My body was ready and willing to sprint around school screwing every girl who spread their legs. My mind, on the other hand, was repulsed by the idea. The disconnect between the two was hell—especially since the mind seemed to always get its way. Easy, since all I had to do was remember that letting my dick do the thinking was a surefire way to get my ass locked away in a lab somewhere and my parents tossed into prison.

“Well?” she pressed, shaking me from my thoughts.

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that.”

She stuck out her lip in a pout. “Boo. You know, one of these days, I’m going to find out your type.” Her eyes lit up. “That’s right. You’ve been with Faith right? Is that your type? Let me think… Silky black hair, tight little body, kinda on the small side?” She fingered her hair, muttering something I couldn’t quite catch. Something to do with being due for a dye soon. Maybe. She was always changing her highlight colors.

“I didn’t—” I caught myself before I ripped off the bandage Liam had managed to stem the bleed with. “That just uh… happened.” I hated how easily my face gave away my embarrassment.

Kaylee chuckled beside me. “Why are you getting so flustered? I’m glad you’ve been with someone. To be honest, I was getting worried since you never…” She trailed off before clearing her throat. “I’m just glad you were interested in someone.” She tapped her chin, looking thoughtful. “You know, you might get more interest if you update your preference profile. Last time I checked, it was blank.”

I cringed at the thought. There was a reason for that. I hated it. Everyone was using the app now. Developed and backed by the government, it was supposed to make things easier. At a glance, you could see the likes and dislikes of your partner. You could select people to have access to more information, like sexual partner history, fetishes, etc. The latest update was experimenting with a rating system where you could give your partner a star rating of one to five. With the update came a huge upswing in usage by college and high school students. They were obsessed with ratings and it was subject to frequent conversations at the lunch table as the girls bragged about their high ratings. I knew Kaylee was sitting at a 4.9 as of a few weeks ago. All of the girls who sat with us scored above 4.5.

If you asked me, the whole thing was creepier than hell.

“You checked my profile?”

It wasn’t often I saw Kaylee in a full-on blush. Today was my lucky day. It was nowhere near what my face got, but her cheeks took a reddish hue. “I was… um… curious. Concerned,” she corrected. “You never talk about girls. I worried you might be…”

“A virgin?” I finished for her, remembering what happened earlier with Zoe.

Pressing her lips tightly together, she nodded. All at once, she looked guilty. Not meeting my eye, she looked towards the floor as we walked. “Really sorry about Zoe.”

“Not your fault.”

“No. She only knew about it because I’ve talked to her about it.”

“You regularly talk about me with her?”

Her eyes popped open. “Oh no! Just uh… Every so often? From time to time. When it comes up. In conversation.” Letting out a weak cough, she looked away before nervously fiddling with her hair.

Before I could press her on that, I found us standing in front of the locker room. Stopping, she turned to face me. She had managed to collect herself in that time.

“Okay,” I said, rubbing my hands together. “I’ll see you inside?” I asked, jerking my finger over my shoulder.

She quirked her eyebrow, an impish smile on her lips. “The locker room?”

“The gym, dumbass.”

“Why not come inside?”

I blinked, not sure if she was being serious or not. She still had that mischievous glint in her eye. I decided to play it safe.

“Because its the girl's locker room?”

“So? I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, but the others might.”

She made a rasping noise with her lips. “Please. You wouldn’t be the first guy we’ve had inside.”

Wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Looking at her, I could tell she was serious. I glanced over my shoulder and then down the hall, finding no one. My heart raced as I contemplated my options.