She comes to a sudden halt when she sees Gio on the couch with me and quickly swings the bags behind her back, but he had his eyes closed and didn’t see them.
“Oh, hey, Gio, I didn’t expect you to be here,” Stacey stammers nervously, and my brother’s eyes open slowly.
He turns toward her, his face blank as usual when dealing with her. “Where did you expect me to be? This is my house.” There’s no warmth in his voice, and Stacey fidgets on the spot, not quite sure how to respond.
Smacking my brother on the leg, I decide to put my best friend out of her misery and get up off the couch, putting down my knitting. “Come on, Stace. Let’s leave this grump alone. I don’t think he got enough sleep last night. He was too busy banging randos.”
He flips me off and closes his eyes again, grabbing a cushion and placing it over his head. It looks like he’s settled in for the afternoon.
I lead the way upstairs to my bedroom with Stacey following behind, quiet like a mouse. I’m not sure how she thinks her plan for popularity is going to go if she gets nervous around Gio the minute things get difficult. He’s one of the popular people, after all, but I guess he’s in a whole category by himself.
By the time we get to my room, she’s back to her normal, bubbly, over enthusiastic self. She throws her bags on my bed and turns, grabs both of my hands, and jumps up and down. “I am so excited about this. Thank you so much for helping me.”
I must look unsure, because her face drops. “You don’t want to help me anymore?” she whispers in a disappointed voice, and guilt stabs my heart.
“It’s not that I don’t want to help you, Stace, I just don’t know how I can.” The upset look disappears, and she’s smiling again. Deep down, I know she’s manipulating me to get her way, which should sting because I’m supposed to be her best friend, but because she’s my only one, I’m going to let her get away with it.
“Right, so my thought is that to get James, I’m going to have to wow him with my sexual prowess.”
I gag a little internally. It’s such a bullshit reason for a guy to like you. They should like what’s on the inside as well as the outside, and not for how well you suck their cock. However, I’m pretty sure that has a lot to do with her upbringing, and her chauvinistic father and doormat mother.
“Yes, and that’s why I don’t know how I can help you. I have no say in who Gio fucks. Trust me, I wish I did, I’m sick of him picking skanks. Anyway, nothing I say to him will convince him to have sex with you.” Not that I would do it anyway, but she doesn’t need to know that.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Although he’s not picky, he still won’t give me a second glance.” She sounds bitter and twisted, and the look that flashes across her face is one of anger, but it’s only there for a second before she’s smiling again. “I’m sure it would be easy enough to lose my virginity to any number of boys, but then there will be rumors flying around about it, and I won’t seem so mysterious.” She digs around in her bag before pulling out an object. “So that’s where you come in.” She holds up a strap-on dildo with a huge grin, and I think my brain just about leaks out of my ears.
“What the fuck do you want me to do with that?” I cross my arms, and I’m sure she can hear the disbelief in my voice.
She drops the thing onto her lap and looks at me. “You’ve never been interested in boys before, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you on a date,” she says with a small frown on her face.
“So? What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, aren’t you gay?” Now, even she sounds confused.
Oh wow. I sit down on the bed in surprise. “Well, I’m not really sure. I guess I’ve never thought about it. I mean, ah, yeah. I guess. Maybe.”
Fuck, I’m all flustered now that she brought it up. Call me a late bloomer, but she’s right, I’ve never been all that interested in boys, and the few I have kissed were more something that was expected, not something I wanted to do. I mean, sure, there are some women I find attractive, but gay was something I only just started considering. Obviously Stacey had been thinking about it for a while.
“You kissed me last night,” she states, and I get defensive.
“No, you kissed me,” I correct her”
“Yeah, but you didn’t hesitate,” she accuses me, and I shrug.
“No, but we’d been smoking and drinking, and you asked me to, so I just went with it. What about you, are you gay?”
“No, I mean the kiss was nice and all, but I really like boys.” Now she looks unsure, and we sort of just sit there in awkward silence.
“Well, it’s possible to like girls too,” I say quietly.
She shrugs, and the lost look disappears. “I don’t care, I just know that I want to be good at this stuff before we start school again. Will you help me with this, or should I find someone else? I’m asking you because I trust you to keep it a secret. It would just be between you and me. I won’t tell anyone you’re into girls until you’re ready to tell everyone.”
Normally I’m not a weak person, and I have no problems saying no to something that I don’t want to do, but Stacey knows just how to manipulate me into doing things her way. I cave every time. I know it’s happening subconsciously, I just don’t know how to tell her no. It’s like she has a superpower—not to mention I’m secretly interested in playing her game.
“Please, Tori, please,” she begs, and I hold up my hand.
“We’ll start slow. If, at any stage, either one of us wants out, we just have to say so and it will never be mentioned again. I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. I still want to be friends at the end of summer, even if it means you go back to school a virgin. You have to promise not to hold it against me.”
She squeals and jumps up and down on the bed before throwing herself at me and giving me a big hug. “Awesome! Shall we start now?” she asks, wide-eyed as she pulls away from me.
