“Laine…” she prompts. “Did he..? Are you..? Jeez, don’t tell me you finally ditched the V-card?”
I tug her elbow and pull her to the side of the corridor. “No. Not yet. But I will.”
She rolls her eyes. “For real? You and Hannibal? So many hot guys out there and you pick the creepy old dude. Daddy issues much?”
My cheeks are on fire. My whole body feels on fire.
“That’s what this is, right?” She laughs. “Daddy issues.” She pretends to suck her thumb and I get an icky rush of butterflies. “Ooh, Daddy, that feels so nice, Daddy. I’ll be a good little girl, Daddy.”
“Stop it,” I say. “It was nice. The whole thing was amazing.”
She props herself against the wall, acts like the big, cool girl. “The whole thing? So spill, oh virginal one, what is the whole thing?”
She’s ruining it. My only friend, my only confidante, even if she’s always been a shit one, and she’s ruining it.
“Forget it,” I mumble, and make to move past her.
She grabs my arm. “Hey, Laine. Chill, I’m only goofing around.”
“It’s not funny.”
She looks so shocked as I scowl as her, and it’s about time. It’s about time I let her know she’s being a fucking asshole.
“It’s a fucking joke, alright?” She sighs, like I’m the unreasonable one. “I’m serious, I want to know. If it’s a big deal for you, it’s a big deal for me.”
If only that were true. That’s never been true.
I shrug, and why not. She’s the best I’ve got.
“It was nice,” I say. “He was really considerate, and really respectful, and took it really slow…”
“And…” Her hands are egging me on. “Juicy gossip, please…”
I lower my voice. “He kissed me…”
“Yes, and…”
“And it was amazing.” I can’t stop smiling. “He was amazing. He kissed me, and touched me, and…” I check there’s nobody close. “And he put his mouth on me, and sucked my clit until I came, and then he put his dick there, and it was massive… really big…”
She laughs. “How would you know?”
I laugh right back. “I’m not a total baby, you know. I’ve watched pornography, just like you do.”
“The very fact you call it pornography says it all.”
“But he is,” I continue. “He’s big. And it felt amazing.”
“But he didn’t fuck you, with this big giant cock of his?” She raises an eyebrow.
I grin. “Not yet, but he will.”
She groans. “So what did he do with it?”
The memories come back, and so do the tingles, the feeling of him, rubbing, and making those noises. The sound of the bed creaking.
“He rubbed me… right against my clit… and I came… and he came…”
“He fucking dry humped you?!”
I shrug. “It wasn’t so dry…”
“Gross,” she says, but she’s lying. She’s scowling again.
I sigh, hug my lunchbox to my chest. “I love him.”
“Excuse me? You fucking what?!”
I smile. Simply. “I love him.”
She stares at me like I’m a simpleton. Mum stares at me like that, too, and I hate it. I always hate it. “I mean it,” I tell her. “I love him, and he loves me.”
“You don’t even know him,” she snaps.
“I know enough,” I snap back. “It’s fate.”
“Not those fucking horoscopes again…”
“I don’t need horoscopes to tell me it’s fate,” I insist. “I already know. And he knows it, too.”
“Then you’re both fucking cray cray.” She spins a finger in the air.
“He’s going to be the one,” I say, and I don’t give a shit anymore. Not what she thinks, nor what she says. Not at how she looks at me, or how Mum looks at me, or how anyone else in the whole world looks at me.
None of it matters, not now I have Nick. Daddy.
Not now I have someone who loves me.
“Fine,” Kelly Anne says finally, and lets out a sigh. “If you insist on being cray cray with Hannibal-old-guy then you do that. Just let me have all the juicy gossip, deal?”
I think I’ve won some invisible battle, and I’m not even sure what I was fighting.
“Sure,” I say. “But his name’s Nick.”
“Daddy Nick,” she laughs, and I’m sure my burning cheeks are going to give me away, but she slaps me on the back and doesn’t even notice. “Alright,” she says. “Now, let’s talk about blowjobs, I’ve got some great techniques…”Chapter FourteenLaineNick’s smiling when I slip into the passenger seat, and I can’t stop giggling as Kelly Anne’s silly-arse blowjob techniques flash back through my mind.
“What?” he asks. “What’s got you so tickled?”
I shake my head, and try to stop, but he leans toward me, his eyes so questioning, and it’s too much. It’s much too much.
“Kelly Anne,” I say, and he sighs before I’ve even started. “No!” I tell him, “it’s funny. She was, um… trying to teach me… in the toilets…”
He raises an eyebrow. “Trying to teach you what exactly, Laine?”
The giggles stop as I realise I’ve committed myself to sharing the stupid story. And with that comes the truth that I’ve been blabbing about us, about what we did. It feels like I’ve done wrong somehow, like I shouldn’t be talking about that, and I guess my expression says so, because his eyes won’t leave mine.