18 4

She chuckled lightly. "I'm so gonna kill you when this is over. You'd better make it worth it." She smirked back at me.

Whack! Her smirk quickly turned into an 'O' of surprise as my hand came down to smack her other cheek. It quickly turned the same shade of pink as her right cheek. I felt a little guilty about making her hurt though, so I bent down and gently kissed her cheek. She really enjoyed that, and arched her back so my lips had better access to her cheeks.

I was planning on thrusting into her with no warning, but I guess I had to adapt to the situation. I got down close to her ass and continued to sensuously kiss her ass cheeks as my hand snaked its way between her legs. I bet she could feel me smirking against her ass. She shaved for the party.

I caressed her slit, making my touches light, teasing. I could feel her breathing quicken as I continued my light petting. Testing the waters, I gently nudged my finger slightly in between the soft, tender lips of her her pussy. Nicole, as if I should have doubted her, was wetter than I thought, and my finger made a lot more progress than I thought.

I earned myself a moan of approval from Nicole and figured I should capitalize on it, continuing to kiss her ass. My kisses got closer and closer to the center of her ass before I realized what was going to happen if I continued. I had heard of rimming from the Internet, but the idea of it was kind of gross to me. I mean, I was in grade 9. I think holding off on some kinks wouldn't hurt.

Instead, I got back up and aligned my cock, rock-hard and pulsating with temptation, to her pussy. Nicole moaned as soon as she realized what was pushing up against her. She recovered easily though. "That was foreplay?" She teasingly asked. "You barely got your finger inside me!"

Perfect moment. Without warning, I thrust myself all the way into her, earning myself an "Ohmygod," and the sight of Nicole hanging her head, breathing deep and scrunching the sheets. I laughed at the sight and grabbed her hips, starting to slowly pump myself in and out of Nicole's beautiful pussy. The feeling of being inside her never got old – I loved the feeling of her pussy, holding on to my dick like a velvet vice, practically begging for me to release inside her with every spasm every muscle made. For the 'school slut,' I would have expected her to be a lot looser than she was. She was no Megan, but it felt amazing to be inside her. I loved the way her ass curved, and showed the appreciation with a few more smacks as I started to go faster and faster inside her.

Before long, Nicole was moaning and rocking back and forth, expertly meeting me with every thrust and knowing my moves before I myself knew them. She knew what I wanted, and was only too happy to oblige. She did have the upper hand, I thought to myself. She was dominating. Well, I wasn't out of tricks just yet.

I was reluctant at first, before realizing I had to be confident with this or it wouldn't work. I reached forward, my dick fully inside her, and grabbed her hair. She couldn't feel it yet, and I could swear a small smile spread across my lips as I pulled back, readying myself for the biggest thrust I will have, at this point, ever given her, and thrust forward, yanking her hair as I did so.

Nicole's head jerked back slightly. "Ow!" She exclaimed, and for a brief moment, I regretted what I did. I slowed down to let her accommodate to these new developments.

"Not bad for a freshman, squirt." She growled. "You pull like a bitch though."

That was my cue. I enjoyed the intense sensations my new position of power gave me as I pulled harder, keeping Nicole's head back as I rammed her again and again, my other hand pulling her waist back into me as I aimed to go deeper with every thrust.

Nicole had finally given up her charade of confidence and given in to the sensations she was feeling. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," She was panting. "Give it to me, Adam. Give me all you got." She lifted one hand from the bed, able to balance herself while fucking with just the one, and squeezed her boob, hard.

"There's my good girl." I murmured as I continued to drill her. I wanted to kiss her, if only her lips were closer. I wanted to ravage her. I wanted to have her. I wanted to own her. She was the sexiest thing I had ever met.

"Harder!" Nicole begged. "Please, Adam. Give it to me. Fuck me harder!"

"First, tell me what you are." I roared as I continued thrusting into her. The sounds of our union were filling the air, as was the sweet smell that always came from the moments Nicole and I shared. Nicole was shivering, trembling, as I held her and gave her a rougher pounding than I ever have before.

"I'm…" She weakly started, knowing what I wanted to hear. "I'm your slut, Adam." She said, just above a whisper.

"Louder." I demanded.

She tried to look back at me, but I still had her hair in my grasp, making it impossible. I could feel her body giving out in the wake of at least a mini-orgasm as she moaned loudly, "I'm your fucking slut, Adam Watson."

Grinning, I was all too happy to give her what she wanted. I really liked being in control – not only was it different from the relationship Nicole and I normally shared, but it was also nice to know that she was putty in my hands, that I could pleasure her just by dominating her, and I could have my way with her, holding nothing back.

At least, not under most circumstances. We had continued thrusting into each other wordlessly for but maybe a minute, maximum, when suddenly the door burst open. Shocked as hell, I immediately withdrew from Nicole, coaxing an "Aah!" from her, and covered myself up.

"Oh, shit." A low-voiced guy piped up from the doorway. He was your usual jock – jacked, tall, short brown hair. Hazelwood High apparently had fun with a cloning machine when they made their jocks. A short blonde girl with blue eyes was under his arm, smiling in shock at what she was seeing.

Nicole was a hell of a lot calmer than I was. She rubbed her pussy gingerly as she turned her head around to see the couple. "Oh, hey James." She began warmly. "Looking for a room?"

"Sup Nic." He responded just as coolly. "Yeah, kinda. Are you two done in here?"

Nicole was about to say something, then stopped herself and gave me a look. "No…" She said slowly, looking me straight in the face. "But stay. You up for a little show?"

What the shit was going on at this party? Was there a 'leave your inhibitions at the door' sign that I missed? "Are you serious?" I whisper-asked Nicole.

"Not so confident now, are you?" Nicole whispered back jokingly. "C'mon, lighten up. The more the merrier."

I looked back at the couple, who were talking it over with each other, then back to Nicole. "I dunno…"

"You don't have to do anything with them if that weirds you out." Nicole reassured me. "But I totally wanna do it with an audience."

"Why?!" I asked her.

She shrugged. "It's fun to be an exhibitionist sometimes." She winked at me, then looked at the couple. "Look, guys, do what you want, but Adam and I have unfinished business."

Group sex was definitely something every guy says they want, but when it comes down to the heat of the moment, I couldn't do it. Even having an audience was something I wasn't sure if I was ready for, but Nicole was Nicole, and she didn't wait for my approval, she earned it. Facing me and giving a small smile, she leaned forward until her lips met with mine. I was hesitant at first, but quickly closed my eyes and tried to push the fact that the couple was definitely still there out of my mind.

The kissing got more and more intense and before long, I genuinely forgot we were being watched as I started groping Nicole's beautiful boobs. She broke the kiss and slyly smiled at me.

"I knew you'd come around." She naughtily purred before going for my neck, hungrily sucking and kissing. I sighed in pleasure as my hand started to rub her bare pussy. She was even wetter than before.

Nicole was softly moaning into my neck as I kept up my actions. Kissing her way up my neck, she lifted her head and looked me in the eyes. "Think you're ready to do it again?" She asked. I started to look back to see if the couple was still there, but she took my head in her hands. "Don't look at them, look at me." She ordered, before kissing me tenderly and slowly. "Are you ready?"

I sighed. I wanted her. She wanted me. I was ready. "Let's do it." I nodded.

"That's what I love to hear." She beamed. She turned around and bent over. "Let's do this."

I loved when Nicole got like this. I turned back to see the couple were, to my surprise, watching us, intently. The girl was lightly kissing the guy's neck as he was unabashedly looking at Nicole. "Oi." Nicole called. I whirled my head around. "Me, not them, remember?"

I chuckled. She was eager. This was her way to tell me to hurry up. Who was I kidding? I was eager too. Having an audience was rapidly going from nerve-wracking to exciting. I hadn't felt such anticipation in so long. I reached down and felt Nicole's soft, fleshy pussy lips as I heard her moan softly from my touch. I dragged my fingers up and felt her soft, hot skin as I aligned my cock with her pussy using my other hand. Nicole wasn't just beautiful, she felt beautiful. And now I was going to make a show of her beautiful body. Making sure my moves were exaggerated so the spectators could see, I thrust into Nicole, watching as my cock entered her.

I could swear I heard a soft moan behind me as I began to pick up speed, grabbing onto Nicole's hips as I thrust into her harder and harder. The alcohol, the music pounding just a floor below us, the atmosphere of the party… Whatever it was, I was feeling some kind of contagion as I picked up speed, fucking Nicole with as much force as I could muster. I was feeling great. The feeling of Nicole's hips as I grabbed onto them, allowing me to slam in and out of her, was great. I could feel her pushing back into me, allowing every millimeter of me to slide into her. Every nerve in my dick was going off like a firework as my thrusts matched the pounding beat bleeding through the floor.

"Fuck, you're so good." Nicole panted. "You guys enjoying this?" She yelled across the room.

There was no answer, so while I was fucking her, I looked behind me to see that the couple had gotten into it. Like, really into it. Like, 'their clothes were on the floor and she was on her knees straight-up blowing him' into it. So, the show had become a competition, huh? I smirked to myself. I doubled my efforts, determined to make Nicole cum before anyone else could.

Nicole felt amazing. I couldn't have even been buzzed at this point, but something just felt different. Her skin was soft and hot to the touch, slightly damp from her sweat. Her love tunnel worked around my shaft, making sure every square centimeter of my dick got full attention as I thrust it into her, again and again. It felt so good that I lost track of my actions, and without warning, I realized my body was experiencing an electric shock of euphoria. Without giving her so much as a warning, I was releasing my load inside Nicole.

"Oh my fuck." Nicole panted sexily as she felt my creamy blast let loose inside her. I could feel it splash against the walls of her vagina as her beautiful body coaxed the last few drops out of me. She arched her back, appreciating the feeling of me filling her. I became dizzy – letting loose my load really took it out of me. What the hell was going on? I thought to myself as I popped out of Nicole and sat back on the bed, spent.

She grinned back at me. "First to cum, huh?" She asked. "It was going to happen sooner or later." She stretched a bit, relishing the feeling of me being inside her, then looked back at the spectators. Lazily my eyes followed hers.

He was behind her, in a doggystyle position like we had been in just seconds before. Both of them were clearly watching us intently until I stopped, and they were really into it. The girl looked really pretty in a 'popular girl' kind of way – a 'fuck me' expression, a curvy body with breasts that looked bigger than they should be on her relatively small frame. The guy had at least an 8 inch dick, putting mine to shame, and he was amazingly using all of it, thrusting all the way in and out with speed that made me wonder if the girl was secretly hurting, or if they just did this a lot. From the looks of them, they were close.

"Gettin' close, baby…" James mumbled.

This caught the girl's attention. "Babe, pull out." She said with urgency. "I'm not on the pill. Please, pull out!"

The guy didn't stop, presumably because he was through the looking glass at this point. Nicole sprang into action, leaping up from the bed and joining them with lightning speed on her knees.

"Tag out, girl." Nicole jokingly told the girl as she separated the duo and quickly replaced the girl's pussy with her hand, stroking the guy's cock with every ounce of skill she had. The girl just collapsed on the floor, a little taken aback at the vivid difference of having someone inside her one second and outside her the next.

Within seconds, Nicole's hand was replaced with her mouth as she managed to deepthroat most of his frankly huge dick. I was shocked, but also had to wonder to myself: Was this some kind of test? A way for me to prove to her that I was okay with not being the only guy in her sex life? I wasn't sure, but the little wink she gave me as she continued sucking the guy's dick sure didn't prove me wrong.

As Nicole continued sucking James off, slurping all over his dick, the girl beside them began to rub her clit, clearly still enjoying watching. She must have been close when James was pounding into her because in no time at all she stifled what I could tell would have been a large moan as she writhed on the floor and her pussy noticeably drooled onto the floor, leaving a small wet spot.

"Wow." She panted. "You guys are so hot." Nicole only smiled, or did as much as she could to imitate a smile with her mouth full of dick, as she continued. Hesitantly, the girl crawled over and began feeling up James's abs as he got his blowjob. Slowly, delicately, she lowered her mouth until she could close it around Nicole's nipple, and began tenderly sucking.

"Woah, woah, woah." Nicole snapped to attention as she pulled the dick out of her mouth and lightly swatted away the girl. "No thank you."

The girl seemed very embarrassed. "Didn't you like…?"

"Not into girls. Sorry, sweetheart." Nicole answered flatly, going back to James' dick. The girl rolled up into a little ball out of embarrassment, and I actually felt pretty bad for her. She looked upset.

I got off the bed and slowly walked over to the girl, rubbing her back sympathetically. "Don't worry." I reassured her. "you didn't do anything wrong. Nicole's just not afraid of saying what she wants." She gave me a small smile, and the longer we looked at each other, the more it dawned on us that we were both naked. I felt a stirring feeling as I could feel my dick rising again.

She looked down at my dick, then back at me, and her smile widened. I returned the smile as I leaned down and did what the girl had done to Nicole, wrapping my mouth around her nipple. Slowly, playfully, I began to suck at her nipples, and that made the girl purr. Instinctively, she grabbed my shaft and began pumping up and down.

The feeling wasn't as great as when I was with Megan or Nicole, but this girl definitely knew what she was doing. Before long my hips were making small, involuntary movements to accommodate her actions as I moved from nipple to nipple, enjoying how sensitive they clearly were. My tongue flicked her nub again and again, each one creating a small ���Ooh" that escaped her lips as softly as… Well, as her skin.

Naturally, after already blasting away once, I didn't have that much left in me, and I think the girl knew that. Pretty soon I felt that all-too-familiar feeling and grunted in warning. The girl understood immediately as she switched from a handjob to a blowjob, just in time as my cock erupted wave after wave of sperm into her mouth.

Just kidding. It was a few drops at best, but the girl didn't seem to mind. After I was clearly finished, she smiled at me, and I smiled back. Even if it was just petty sex, I clearly made her feel better, and I'm glad I did. I turned around to see both Nicole and James, fully dressed, staring at us.

"About frigging time. At least you don't cum after two pumps, for her sake." Nicole dryly remarked. "Way to take your time, you two."

"Thanks for the BJ, sweetie." James warmly said to Nicole, going in for a hug.

"You know I enjoy it too." Nicole slyly replied. "You're welcome."

James turned to me. "That was a lot of fun, dude." He told me, fist-bumping me. "We gotta swap girlfriends again some other time."

"Oh, I'm not… You are… We…" I managed to say.

James stared at me for a few seconds. "Freshman." He remarked, then turned to Nicole. "You're dating a freshman, aren't you?"

"Nah, not dating. Just fucking." Nicole answered him. "He's got to get his sex ed lessons from someone." She then grabbed her bottle of mint water from the ground and started chugging. Did she even bring that with her…?

James laughed. "Don't ever change, Nicole." He told her.

"Unless it's out of this top?" She asked him with a wink.

"Unless it's out of that top." He confirmed. He grabbed his girlfriend by the wrist and led her out before I even got to say goodbye to her. "Later!" He called out after the duo left.

"…Wow." I exhaled, shocked at all the shit that just went down.

"Yup. Welcome to parties at Phil's place." Nicole laughed. "This isn't even the craziest one I've been to."

"I bet." I remarked.

"So, what happened to 'I would never do anything with anyone who had a partner'?" Nicole asked me playfully.

"Hey, don't hit below the belt." I complained. "It's kind of different if they're both cool with it. Plus, I didn't even know she was his girlfriend. Why'd you kiss Megan if you're not into girls?"

"It's a gag, dumbass." Nicole retorted. "It's fun to do shit like that. James has kissed a dude before."

"Is he gay?" I asked.

Nicole looked at me like I was stupid. "Yes, squirt. James is gay. But don't let his girlfriend know that. Now put some clothes on."

"You know what I mean." I replied as I started to put my underwear on. "Is he bi?"

Nicole shrugged. "Maybe. I don't think so though. It was just a gag. I think Hazelwood is a lot more open than most high schools."

"I noticed." I remarked. "I saw a gay couple kissing in the hallway earlier."

Nicole nodded. "Yup, it's pretty normal here. Although unless those were two dudes in the closet until tonight, that was probably Jerome and Chris. They're cute."

"Getting worked up again?" I asked her jokingly.

"I'd fuck 'em." Nicole replied seriously. "It just sucks neither of them likes girls. A threesome with me in it is the best threesome ever."

"You'll have to show me sometime." I joked as I put the last of my clothes on, joining her. She chuckled and slapped my ass, earning a yelp from me. "Quit doing that." I mumbled.

Wordlessly, we started heading back downstairs. We, or at least I, didn't really have any plans on what to do from there, and communicated as much with my eyes to Nicole.

She shrugged. "Living room?" She suggested. I shrugged in response, and followed her. We walked into the living room, and Nicole started dancing with the crowd. I wasn't much of a dancer, or a crowd person for that much, and just stood back, people-watching.

And what a person I had stumbled upon. In another corner of the room was the unmistakeable figure of Megan, striding up to a guy. I could see what she was saying, but she was talking to a tall, hunky guy.

"Hey look, it's your ex." Nicole pointed out fake-seriously, popping out of nowhere. When I looked back at her, she gave me a huge grin. "Jealous?"

I looked back at Megan. "Nah." I replied. "Good for her."

"Your words say one thing, your tone says another." Nicole said in a sing-song voice. It was true, my tone wasn't the happiest. But that was less out of jealousy and more out of a general 'Oh dear god I fucked a thirteen-year-old and turned her into a sex addict' feeling.

And how fucking true was it ringing. As soon as I concentrated back on Megan, away from my thoughts, I saw she was shyly kissing the hunk, rubbing his package and he grabbed her ass.

Nicole was intently watching her too. "Wow, she's not even buzzed." She commented. "She must really like it. I never took Megan as the type to be a slut."

That's because the real Megan isn't one, I thought bitterly to myself as I watched the couple disappear upstairs, his hand clasped around her wrist. I wished so badly that I could turn back the clock and have treated her right. I think she would have turned out completely different if I have.

I was broken out of my thoughts by a pair of arms hugging desperately around me, almost tackling me to the floor. From the sea of people came May, now clinging on to me for dear life, her face buried in my shirt. Even over the music I could hear that she was crying.

"May?" I managed to ask in confusion. "Are you okay?"

Yeah, stupid question. I looked over at Nicole, who was surprised enough that she hadn't said anything or made any move by that point. Eventually, May looked up at me, her body still vibrating due to her violent crying. "Adam, help me." She pleaded.

"What's going on, what's wrong?" I asked urgently.

"It's… It's Phil." She managed in between sobs. "He… He…"

"Is Phil okay?" I asked, trying to see where she was going with this.

"I wanted to make you jealous…" May started. "But I never wanted to… I… He did things, Adam."

"Phil raped you?!" I asked her. In response, she burst into a fresh set of sobs, nodding into my shirt as she did so.

Almost as if on cue, Phil burst into the room, searching frantically until he found us. "Adam." He called out to me with an urgent voice, then marched right up to us. "Nicole. Adam. Don't listen to whatever this fucking liar is telling you."

"Fuck you!" May yelled at him, then looked me in the eyes. "It's true, Adam. I promise you. I'm being a hundred percent honest."

"I never did anything against her will." Phil protested.

"Then how do you know she was coming to Adam to tell him you raped her?" Nicole asked him slowly.

Phil gave her a grave look. "Aw, Nicole. not you too." He said solemnly.

I looked over at May, who was still bawling away, then at Phil, who still had to do his fly up, looking like he was pleading me to side with him with his eyes. Here I was, in the middle of a party, trapped between a guy who didn't know that no meant no and a girl who lied to get her way in the past, and I had zero clue who to trust.

Son of a bitch.

Chapter Thirteen

I frantically looked around me. I was trapped, pure and simple. May was clinging to me, failing to make any kind of coherent word, as Phil tried to talk over her anyway. As I looked around us, I couldn't help but notice the dozens of people with their eyes on us. On every face I read confusion. People knew that something had happened but they didn't know what.

In desperation, I turned to Nicole, who was looking down at the floor, an uneasy look on her face. She wasn't even bothering to try to make eye contact with anyone in the room. I was hoping she'd be the one to get me out of this mess. She always was in the past, but I guess it was all up to me now.

But I didn't know what to do. I just didn't. My eyes darted around the room, going from person to person, until they landed on a noticeably curious face.

Paul's face, to be precise. He was sitting down again, and was scanning me. I moved my eyes from him to May, back and forth, hoping he would get the message. His eyes moved to May, then Nicole, then Phil, then back to mine. He nodded and stood up.

He sauntered over to us, stopping just in front of our crowd, and turned around to face the crowd. He was conveniently within arm's reach of the music player, and turned it down as he cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, everyone! Could I have your attention, please?" he addressed the crowd. He was met with one or two 'shut up's from class jokers, but aside from that, the crowd quieted down. "Could everyone please keep an eye peeled for an earring? My cousin lost one, and it's from her grandmother so it's kind of important to her. Now, she knows she had it when she arrived, so it's probably on the ground somewhere. If you find it, she'll be in the drum room. Thank you all so much in advance!" With that, he turned back up the music, covering the murmurs from the crowd, as he silently ushered the group – Phil, May, Nicole and myself – into the drum room. Luckily, there was no one in there that we would have had to shoo out.

As soon as Paul closed the door behind him, the ominously quiet group exploded again with words, most of them swear words, being flown around in all direction. When the smoke had cleared from the general venting, Nicole turned to Paul.

"What the fuck was that?" she asked him with a razor-sharp tone. "This is a private thing. Why the fuck do you always think you need to get involved and prance into every little thing?"

The playful glow that normally surrounded Paul left as he listened to Nicole. His eyes widened just a little as he cleared his throat and slowly started walking forward, his eyes never leaving Nicole. "Listen, you." he spoke in a scarily calm, yet furious tone, speaking quickly yet articulating every word perfectly. "You all were clearly in some kind of situation back there, and I didn't see you doing a single damn thing about it." He jutted out a finger into her collarbone, effectively making her take a step back. With each word he got closer to her face. "I just got you all a place to talk, and prevented any gossip forming as a result of this, and you still find a reason to crawl up my ass. This is my first and only warning – get off my fucking back. I don't even know what I did to piss you off, but you'd better let me know what it is right now or you can try to actually be a kind person, as hard as that must be for you. Which one is it going to be?"

Paul was such a goofball in most situations that I never saw this coming. He was scary. His tone was terrifying. His serious face bared no resemblance to his normal joking face. Everyone in the room stopped talking as soon as he started. His mere presence in the room made everyone shrink back, with him towering over everyone in the room despite being maybe 5'9.

Out of everyone, Nicole was clearly the most taken aback. For the first few seconds she processed what he said, her eyes fearfully darting back and forth. Her eyes slowly traced their way back up to his, then immediately went down to the floor.

"Sorry, sir." She quickly and shakily muttered.

Holy shit. I was floored. I never thought anyone would break Nicole. I thought I was watching history unfold. The effect he left on Nicole left me feeling silly that I thought I was 'dominating' Nicole just a few short minutes ago.

That was good enough for Paul. He nodded and turned to Phil. "I don't know what's going on here, but I figure it's serious enough that you guys want your privacy. Want me to keep an eye on the door for you guys? Make sure no one comes in?" He asked him.

Phil was still visibly disturbed by this whole thing. "Nah, it's cool." he said to Paul. "Just enjoy the rest of the party."

"If you insist." Paul responded, not wishing to press the issue. "You got my number if you need anything." Without waiting for a response, he swayed out of the room, shutting the door behind him. as soon as he was gone, the yelling continued, except for Nicole, who was clearly upset. She walked backwards over to the wall, leaning up against it and sighing. If it were any situation other than this, I would have immediately gone over to her and tried to comfort her.

"So what the hell is going on?" I tried to cut through the yelling.

May noticed me, evidently for the first time since we came in to the drum room, and ran to my side. "Keep me away from him, Adam." she rasped, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You want to know what's going on? He did things to me." She could barely finish the sentence without bursting into tears.

Phil pointed a finger right back at her. "Don't listen to this bitch." he told me, seething with anger. "She was the one to come onto me. She wanted it. She told me she wanted it. Five minutes later she runs out with this fake crying shit. I don't know why but this cunt is trying to ruin me."

"So she was drunk and didn't consent to it halfway through?" I asked him.

"No!" May interjected. "He's lying. I didn't say I wanted it. He just took what he wanted. He just assumed I would go down easy and took what he wanted."

"So you ran from him?" I asked.

She shuddered. "He did things to me first, Adam." she told me quietly.

"I'm not denying we did stuff." Phil pointed out. "Yeah, we had sex. But she expressly told me she wanted it." He turned to her. "Hey. If you wanted a more convincing lie you should have told him it's because you were drunk and… and the whole 'halfway through' thing." He waved his hand around in my general direction, referencing what I had said before.

"Okay…" I said, mostly to myself. There was no way I could fairly take anyone's side. "I guess the only way we can prove this is with medical testing. Swiping for sperm or something."

"That won't work." May uneasily pointed out.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Well I… I escaped halfway through, so he didn't… you know… finish."

I sighed into my hands. I didn't know if that was a thing. Could medical testing for rape victims still work if the rapist hadn't ejaculated? I didn't know. I didn't know a lot of shit, so I took her word for it. Shit, I was only a freshman. I should not be the mediator for shit like this, I thought to myself.

Phil, as if looking for holes in her argument in the future, nodded. "That's kinda true. Halfway through she just got off me, grabbed her clothes and straight-up fuckin' ran out of the room."

I saw a ray of sunshine in the agreement. "So maybe this is a misunderstanding. Maybe you thought you consented, but you didn't and went along with it until you couldn't take it anymore." I concluded, pointing to May and Phil respectively as I made my point.

"He didn't even wait for me to object, Adam. That's not what happened." May timidly told me.

Phil was facing the ceiling, trying to remain calm in his building anger. "She literally fucking told me that she wanted to have sex with me. It doesn't get more crystal-clear than that." he told the ceiling.

"Okay." I huffed. "I… we… um…" I eyed Nicole, who was still against the wall. "Nicole, jump in any fucking time here. We could use another opinion."

"Shut up." She mumbled, not looking up.

I sighed loudly. "Nicole, any other time it's fine, but could you please put whatever it is aside and h-"

"I said shut up." she told me firmly. I looked at Phil, who shrugged and shook his head no. I guess Nicole was out of this debate for whatever reason.

I thought to myself as tension and silence hung heavily in the air. "The only thing left I can think of would be to call the police if th-"

"No!!" both of them called out at the same time, then looked at each other with a distrusting sneer.

"Why?!" I asked exasperatedly. I was getting sick of this.

Phil was the first to voice his objections. "Word is going to get out if the police are called to my house, bro. And what do you think is going to happen to my reputation? Shit, even if the rape isn't mentioned my life is going to be hell. And I already told you about that, remember?"

There was no malice to his voice, but a chill ran down my spine as I remembered his threat. I sighed as I realized that Phil had me by the balls. "Okay, sure, whatever." I replied, giving less of a crap by the second, and turned to May. "Alright, why the hell don't you-"

"Are you living in a fantasy world?!" May accused Phil, turning to him. "First of all, anything that happens to you, you fucking deserve it. Secondly, if I say you raped me and you say you didn't, they're never going to take me seriously. They're going to ask me if it was actual rape or just eye contact, and they're just going to press me for anything I may have done to 'ask for it.' You get off scot-free because 'she's probably lying' or some shit."

"Yeah, that never happens." Phil dismissed May.

"Sometimes it does." Nicole piped up, still keeping her head to the floor.

"Now you choose to contribute?!" I yelled at her.

"You have no idea what it's like to be violated! Fuck you!" May spat at Phil.

"Fuck me?! Fuck you!" Phil shouted back at her. Before long, the room had devolved once again into a series of shouts and disagreements. Not knowing what else to say, and emotionally spent, I backed up and joined Nicole by the wall.

She lazily looked over at me. Evidently, she had gotten over what was making her inconsolable, but still didn't feel 100%. "Oh, right, you don't like yelling." she remarked calmly, noting how uncomfortable I looked. I nodded, so with great effort, she got up from the wall and clapped in between May's and Phil's faces, which were getting closer by the second.

"Alright, fuckers, listen up." she addressed them with not a shred of emotion in her voice. "If you're not going to call the police or do anything decisive about this, then there's really nothing else we can do, so that means Jimmy Carter and I are outta here." She grabbed me by the wrist and started to lead me out. "Hope this all gets resolved." She stopped as soon as she was in front of Phil, and looked him in the eye. "Bye, Phil. Thanks for the party." She gave him no smile, and continued to lead me out of the room, practically dragging me. I didn't feel it was right to leave those two alone, especially if Phil really did violate her. Leaving them alone with someone making sure no one came in would just make it… worse.

"Nicole, come on, please, wait." Phil begged as Nicole opened the door, waited until I was past it, then slammed it after me. She was still looking back at the door as Paul walked up to us.

"Is everything resolved?" he asked warmly. Nicole, upon seeing him, gasped, bringing both hands to her mouth, letting go of me in the process. Her back hit the door as she recovered from the shock.

"Sorry." she mumbled defeatedly, throwing her hands down to her side and walking as quickly as she could without running towards the main door.

I looked at her then back to Paul, who was watching Nicole with a cocked eyebrow. "No clue what her problem is." he said to no one in particular. "Don't get me wrong, she's interesting, but she's hated me for no reason for a long time now."

I ignored him and pointed to the door. "They're alone in there, and they probably shouldn't be." I told him. "Go back in there and ask if they're willing to tell you what happened. You'll be better at helping them than me."

"Are you okay?" He asked me, noting how distressed I both looked and sounded.

I ignored him again. "Even if they don't feel comfortable telling you, just don't let them be alone in that room together. Hopefully this whole thing will blow over. I gotta go." I didn't even wait for a response as I ran out the door and to Nicole's car, where she was waiting and idling.

As soon as I shut the door behind me she mumbled, "About time." She started driving as silence loomed over the car.

"…Jimmy Carter?" I finally asked, hoping to cut the tension. It seemed to work, as Nicole chuckled.

"I guess not everyone pays attention to Israeli-Palestinian conflicts." she said humorously as she kept driving. "Not your fault, squirt." She kept driving for a few more seconds before adding, "None of this is your fault."

"Are you okay, Nicole?" I asked, my voice reflecting real concern. She turned to me and gave a small, hesitant smile. She turned back to driving, but my gaze remained on her.

"Was it really that smart leaving those two alone? I mean, rape is a pretty serious thing." I lamely kept up conversation.

She shrugged. "Who even fucking cares." she told me flatly. "If it's just a game of he said she said, more people being involved just means more bullshit."

"If she was violated, it would have been nice for people to have comforted her and taken her side." I pointed out.

Nicole shrugged. "Maybe. It's the most devastating fucking thing in the world right now, but she'll get over it. It's just one of those things life throws at you. Give it a couple of years and she'll realize it's no big deal."

I scoffed. "I bet that's how May will justify it to herself." I said aloud. "But I bet she's still hurting. I'd like to do whatever I can to make that hurting go away. I like seeing her happy."

I was no longer talking about May. Nicole, still looking at the road, bit her lower lip slowly. Her right hand came off the steering wheel and extended towards me, grabbing my left hand and bringing it in between the seats. I looked at our hands, entwined awkwardly.

"I thought you don't l-"

"Shut the fuck up and hold my damn hand, squirt." Nicole told me, her voice slightly quivering.

I nodded and looked forward. We didn't say anything for the longest time, but every so often, I'd give her hand a compassionate squeeze.

***

There was really no indication of how word spread, but did it ever. Before first period even started, the school was abuzz. Phil raped May. No he didn't, she was lying. Maybe both happened. How could both happen?! You're stupid. No, you're stupid. Etc.

I had come by bus, which meant I really only had fifteen minutes to make of the situation before I had somewhere to be. The school administration seemed to have about as much of a clue as I did as to what to do with what was passing by everyone's lips. Just as I was sitting down in Mr. MacDonald's geography class, the P.A. system piped up.

"Good morning, staff and students. This is Mr. Scott speaking."

"Yeah, we know." The class clown piped up, earning a generous two slight chuckles.

Mr. Scott's voice sounded oddly hesitant in comparison to his normal jolly self. "Uh… could Phil Love and May Stevens please come to the main office as soon as possible? Apologies for the interruption. Morning announcements will commence in five minutes."

An initial response of 'ooooooh' waved throughout the room. I looked around at everyone, almost sad. Everyone knew what was happening, but no one seemed to care. To everyone else, this was just a spectacle. Something for them to watch, not someone's feelings. It made me uneasy.

I turned to Megan, shock evident on my face. I was about to say something, but then realized she didn't know what was going on. For all I knew, she spent the whole night upstairs and this whole thing didn't mean anything to her.

"What do you think that was about?" I asked her, trying to play it cool.

Megan looked at the PA box, then back to me. She shrugged. "I don't know." she simply responded.

For some reason, I was relieved. I think some of it was the guilt knowing that I had dragged Megan through a lot of shit, and I didn't want to complicate things further.

"Hey." she attempted to get my attention again. I turned back to her and nodded. "Would you like to sneak off at lunch? I think the janitor's closet is unlocked that time of day…" she trailed off, giggling and looking at me with her trademark innocent yet mischievous face she had managed to perfect in such little time.

I'm sure a few months ago such a proposition would thrill me. Now, I had to prevent the worry from showing on my face. "I'm, uh… fine, thanks." I managed, not bothering to hide the shock. "Boy, when you said you wanted to be like Nicole, you weren't kidding, were you?"

She blushed. "Well, I mean, it's… you know… fun." she feebly responded.

"No no." I reassured her. "Don't worry, I didn't mean it like that. I just didn't expect it. I mean, we're practically adults, there's no reason to judge someone for sleeping around or sleeping with a lot of guys or something…" I attempted to parrot Nicole, and somehow managed to put together a worse speech than Herman Cain. Great.

Still, it appeared to satisfy her. "Really?" she beamed. "You think it's okay?"

Whatever made her happy. "Yeah, totally. I didn't want to stop you when you were having sex with that other guy at the party. It looked like you two were having fun."

"So it's okay for a girl to sleep around?" Megan concluded, as if looking for my approval.

"Um, sure…" I stumbled awkwardly. Where was she going with this?

Her smile turned blatantly mischievous. "Then it's your loss." she told me. "If you don't want to sneak off, I'm going with someone else." She playfully tossed her hair over her shoulder. "If you want to reconsider, you know how to reach me."

Oh, great. Great. "Megan…" I began exasperatedly.

Within seconds that innocent look was back on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Didn't you mean what you said about me?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I meant it." I admitted. At that point I was wishing my problems were only limited to Phil and May.

Without another thought, Megan turned around and started chatting up another guy. I didn't really need to guess what she was talking about, seeing as after thirty seconds the boy's responses went from general disinterest to hormonal excitement.

My head collapsed into my arms on the table. You know what? I thought to myself. Fine. As long as she stays out of trouble, that's totally fine. I already had a lot of worry clouding my mind – I really didn't have the energy to spare some of that worry for another.

***

I didn't actually have to go to the washroom, I was just nosy as hell. It didn't matter much to Mr. MacDonald, so I had a fair amount of time to look into just how events were unfolding.

And unfolding they were. As I approached the main office, the sounds of faint murmuring and some kind of occasional beep greeted my ears. As the situation came into my viewpoint, the worst case scenario came up and hit me straight in the gut.

Police. The police were called. Memories of what had been said at the party flashed through my mind as I realized that this was probably the school's doing, not May's or Phil's. The beeping came from inside the office as some police officer was talking into a walkie-talkie. I looked around cautiously then tiptoed my way up to the front door of the office, peering into the door's window.

I could faintly make out civil arguing between May and Phil. Why the school thought this would help, I had no clue, but no surprise, the officer was doing a much better job of being a mediator than I was.

"If there's no evidence, how can you charge me with anything?" Phil asked loudly, his voice muffled by the door coming between he and I. His voice was slightly raspy and very angry. "Don't you realize what you guys being here is even doing? I won't be able to fucking walk around in the halls here anymore without feeling guilty for shit I didn't do!" he shouted. I had never seen Phil so angry in my life. He attempted to calm down and added, "Suppose even for a second that this bitch is lying. Isn't it-"

"Fuck you you stupid rotten bastard!!" May leapt up from her chair and came within millimeters of Phil's face before the officer intervened and grabbed her, making her sit back down on the chair. If this weren't such a serious situation, I would have laughed at how genuinely terrified Phil's face looked when May went all bonzai on him.

I can't imagine the use of 'this bitch' earned Phil any points. At any rate, it was abundantly clear they were getting nowhere fast. My guess was they had already interviewed the both of them and realized how much of a game of 'he said she said' it was, so they were trying to find something out while having them together in the same room. But anything was possible. I didn't know about police proceedings and I didn't know how they handled cases like this. Unfortunately, I knew this meant that someone was going to win, and someone was going to lose. Whether or not Phil actually did it, they were either going to charge him or not, and that meant there was a clear winner and a clear loser.

"This is a private matter, young man." An authoritative female voice piped up from behind me. "I need to ask you to leave."

I turned around and faced a giant of a woman with one eyebrow cocked, with most likely the most scared expression my stupid face could provide. "S-sorry." I stammered.

She looked me up and down. "What's your name?" she asked me.

"A-Adam." I timidly answered. "Adam Watson. Yours?"

It was stupid of me to try to make conversation but it was a nervous reflex. I could see the woman hold back a chuckle. "Officer Dickson. I'm responsible for this school."

"Why aren't you in there then?" I asked.

"This is the last question you get to ask me." she warned. "This is a serious matter, so we needed multiple officers to respond. If word gets out about this you could seriously be damaging people's lives. You understand that?"

I chuckled nervously. "Half the school's been talking about this since before announcements." I told her honestly.

She sighed, and looked down the hallway. "Sounds like the Hazelwood I remember." she remarked bitterly. "And no, before you ask, you can not know what this situation is about. Now go."

"I already do." I continued conducting the Train of Honesty. "May claims Phil sexually harassed her, Phil claims he didn't."

She folded her arms. "Is that all you know?" she asked me seriously.

"Pretty much." I nodded. "After the fact May found me and told me what happened, then Phil told me his side. It's probably the same stuff you guys heard." I paused. "Isn't there no evidence? How do you guys approach a 'he said she said' thing like this?"

"I can't answer that." she told me bluntly. "You already know too much. It's your responsibility as – I'm going to assume you're their friend…"

I meekly shrugged.

"…to not say anything about this situation to anyone. Not a word. This situation is only going to get worse."

"I know." I replied, a little offended.

She didn't respond. She moved her lips from one side to the other in thought.

"Do I get to know what you're thinking about?" I asked her.

"I think I'm going to need to send you home for today." she answered. She read my face and immediately added, "Don't worry. This isn't a punishment. You did nothing wrong. But we need to do as much damage control as possible. You understand, you know a lot about this. We'll make a decision and we'll try as hard to make the right one, but anything not handled by us could have major consequences for those two." She gestured with her head towards the office.

"I'm not going to blab about this!" I replied, a little angry. "Hell, half the school knows already."

"I can't know for sure that you won't, or if you didn't already." she told me. "This is supposed to be need-to-know information."

I gestured around me. "We're having this conversation in the main freaking hallway!" I argued.

She ignored me. "Come on." With that, she ushered me into the main hallway, where the other officer was talking to May and Phil. May had her back to me, so she didn't see me come in, but Phil noticed immediately.

"Him! That's him."He energetically pointed to me. "That's Adam. He knows."

The male officer turned to face me, then Officer Dickson. "Is he a witness?"

"He claims Phil and May came up to him afterwards and told him everything they know." she answered him. "He also claims we would know everything he knows."

"Good find, sir." the male officer responded, then turned back to Phil and May.

"Sir?" I whisper-asked Dickson. She shushed me.

"Alright, you two. We're going to ask Adam here a couple questions to see if both of your stories check out. Can you both verify that you told Adam the truth?"

"Yes." Phil practically beamed. For some reason he thought I was his saving grace.

"Y-yeah." May replied, not less confident but instead shaken from the whole event.

The two were ushered out of the room by Dickson and presumably taken to some other room as the officer sat me down.

"Adam, my name is Officer Teeson," he told me in a warm, calm voice, mildly reminiscent of Salvadore's. "Could I please have your full name, the name of your parents, your current address and phone number?"

I complied, then used the opportunity to ask my first question. "Officer Dickson said I know too much and need to be sent home. Is that true?"

Teeson shrugged. "It may have been true about a minute ago but now you're a witness. We'll discuss what happens with you after this depending on the situation and if anything has changed. Please tell us the whole truth. If you were threatened or put in any other situation implying personal harm, talk to us and you will be protected. Do you understand?"

"Yeah." I replied a little shakily. "Oh, and my geography teacher will need to be notified. He thinks I'm going to the washroom."

His eyes trailed up from his notebook to meet mine. "Did you come down here specifically knowing you could be a witness?"

"No, I just wanted to know what was going on." I answered.

"Under the circumstances we're glad you did but in the future do not do that, at least without being honest to your teacher. Dickson is going to tell him what's going on but he will know he was lied to. We are going to stress that part. Lying to people who are paid to watch over and take responsibility for you is never a good idea. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." I meekly responded. Teeson mumbled into his walky-talky, presumably telling Dickson to tell MacDonald, then clicked his pen.

For the next thirty minutes he grilled me for every detail. Who left the bedroom and came to me first, what their emotions were, who else knew (and I honestly answered Nicole and possibly Paul), how proper their clothes and May's makeup looked – hell, even Phil's fly. They needed a reason to trust or distrust one particular suspect, and I was the key to finding out which suspect they could trust.

At the end, Teeson clicked his pen a few times and sighed. "I think we have all of the information we need." he informed me. "Thank you for your compliance. I am going to trust you to keep this entire thing to yourself though. If anyone asks you who did it, your only answer is 'I don't know.' If anyone asks what happened over the weekend, your only answer is 'I don't know.' They ask about the police in the school, where May Stevens and Phil Love are, or even where you were, your answer is 'I don't know.' If you fail to keep this information private, we will find out and there will be severe consequences."

"Aren't I being sent home?" I asked him.

He shook his head no. "Officer Dickson talked it over with the principal and reached an agreement with him. This agreement is based on trust. Do not break it."

"I understand." I replied, then scratched my head. "So what happens now? Do you have enough information to make the decision?"

"I can not disclose that." Teeson replied. "Besides, you don't know anything about this situation to begin with."

"Ah right, how could I forget." I replied sarcastically. I got up from my chair and started to make my way towards the door, looking up at the clock above the door. Still another thirty minutes left in class, I realized. With that, I made the trip back to class hastily, as if that would improve the reaction I would inevitably get from MacDonald.

When I got back in the room, the class was borderline silent, working on some paper. "Ah, Adam." Mr. MacDonald welcomed me. "You were in the washroom a long time. Are you okay?"

No malice was evident on his face. He clearly didn't want to make a big deal of the situation, at least while others could see.

"Uh, yeah." I lamely replied, then patted my stomach. "Just a little disagreement if you know what I'm saying."

***

One uneventful Spanish class later, lunch had begun. Ever since the police interview had sucked the energy of the situation out of me, the whole thing was no longer at the forefront of my mind. I didn't really give it much thought until I saw Phil at his locker, packing his stuff.

"Phil!" I shouted over the crowd. He didn't hear me, so I ran up to him. "Phil." I repeated.

"Hey, buddy." he replied in an energy-deprived tone, not taking his eyes off of the backpack.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"May and I were asked to pack up our stuff and go home for the day." he informed me.

"Well, yeah, I could guess that, but what was their decision?" I asked eagerly.

He faced me with dead eyes. "You know I can't let you know that." he told me, then gestured to the people around us. "Especially here."

I bit my lip and stared at the ground. "Yeah, I know." I replied bitterly. "Are you gonna be okay?"

He sighed. "I dunno." he said. "I mean, never mind the decision the cops made, apparently half the school knows what went down. I have no clue what's going to happen going forward. My college applications, my presidency, fuck, even just how people view me. May can preach all day about how this looks bad for her, but she clearly doesn't remember that in her story, I was the attacker, and in mine, we consented. There's no winning for me. There never was. The best thing I can do going forward is avoid her like the plague. I'm lucky I wasn't relocated to a new fucking school. The absolute best case scenario for me is that everyone forgets, nothing bad happens to me and a bitch gets away with a serious false accusation."

"What's the worst case scenario?" I asked him, sympathy in my voice.

A small smile appeared on his otherwise lifeless face. "The worst case scenario would have been me being carried out in handcuffs, and I'm sure you've noticed, that ain't happening." His smile got bigger as what he said dawned on me. "See you later, my man. Thanks for the help." With that, without waiting for my reaction he turned around and started to walk slowly down the hall.

So, the decision was made. I had no clue about whether Phil had actually done it, and I got the feeling that the cops didn't know either, but my recounting of the story clearly helped in one way or another. I made my way to the cafeteria, but stopped short of entering,looking for something else.

And sure enough, I found her. Quietly, solemnly eating her lunch on her own, was May, shoulders hunched up, practically in a little ball. Sighing, I got up the courage to walk over to her and sit beside her.

"Hey," I remarked as I slid down the wall, sitting down.

"Hey." she softly replied. We sat in silence for a good ten minutes before I finally asked, "Shouldn't you be packing to go home?"

"My mom is running late." she timidly answered me.

"Ah." I replied, not knowing what else to say.

May sighed. "I don't blame you." she told me.

"For what? I didn't say anything other than the truth." Open mouth, insert foot. I cringed as I realized what I was saying and who I was talking to. "Sorry."

"It's okay." she replied.

"So, Phil got off free." I remarked.

She shivered. "Yeah."

"Now that it's over, I want to hear it from you." I told her. "Did Phil do what you said he did?"

She nodded quickly, tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." I repeated, not knowing how to console her. I also still didn't know who was lying. Both of them were sticking to their story, and given how radically different their stories were, it was clear that one of them was just a really good liar. "So what happens now?"

She shrugged. "I just carry on. Avoid Phil. I was thinking of getting transferred to a new school."

"That's pretty extreme." I commented.

She shrugged. "I'll give it a few more days then decide."

"I'm sure you'll make the right decision." I said, wrapping one arm around her and kissing her forehead.

She gave me a weak smile then returned to her sandwich. "Is it okay if I want to be alone now?" She asked after a bit.

"Of course." I assured her, starting to stand up. "If you ever need anything, you have my number."