(Usual Disclaimer Time: Even though this story almost entirely takes place in a high school setting, all the characters in this story are 18 years old or older, and since we're living in the wide wonderful world of porno-land here, where clichés roam free and things might get a little unrealistic from time to time, please remember it's all in good fun, I swear.)
Previously, on Senior Year Memories: Nerdy 18-year-old Ryan Collins has been living the high life after rumors have swirled about the size of his cock. After fucking a few cheerleaders and his favorite teacher, Mrs. Lynn, Ryan took his best friend Tori's advice and tried out for the school paper. He nailed the interview with editor Nadia Barclay before nailing her in all three holes, all while they were watched by the paper's gothic photographer Josie Wong. Feeling on top of the world, Ryan was ambushed after school, sucker punched and knocked out cold by his bully archnemesis, the dreaded Kyle Bowman.
***
So I'd made a mistake.
It wasn't the first time in my life this had happened, and it wouldn't be the last, but this time felt bigger than most, probably because it'd hurt more than most. In the past, on those rare occasions where Kyle thought more of beating the shit out of me than extorting me, he usually worked over my body and left the head alone. He was smart enough to leave as few marks as possible because, in spite of his size, he wasn't an idiot. This time I'd worked him up pretty badly and got a punch to the eye for my trouble.
It wasn't all Kyle, though. It didn't take much consideration to know that I'd gotten cocky. Too cocky. I let my guard down, and life caught up with me and showed me what happens when you get cocky.
You get knocked out and discovered by a janitor ten minutes later.
You get taken to the nurse's office, then the hospital to get checked for a concussion.
You get picked up by your dad who was drawn away from work when he hates getting drawn away from work. He's worried sick and terrified that something happened to you like it happened to mom years back. I told him I was fine, but I wasn't fine, not deep down. He didn't believe me, but since I was as fine as he could make me, he let me return to the status quo where I wallowed in the misery of my own making, the misery I deserved.
Because I'd gotten cocky.
I'd forgotten my place in the pecking order of Regan Hills High School, thinking I was a bigger man than I was just because I was getting laid. Getting laid didn't make me a bigger or better person; it just made me the same person who was getting laid. I shouldn't have forgotten that, and I vowed that I never would again.
For the next week, I did everything possible to become the old Ryan Collins again, the quiet, fearful nerd who never stuck his neck out and didn't draw any attention to himself. I stopped answering texts from Kaitlyn and Brooke, kept quiet during my first Puma Press staff meeting, and didn't raise my hand in class unless I had to. Everyone who cared to look at me knew something was wrong, and they tried to say or do something. It was hard avoiding Tori and Mrs. Lynn and Nadia, but I managed. I very nearly deleted my 'Senior Year Memories' album, but couldn't quite pull that trigger.
Not yet.
I had some vague plans for what I'd do next. I could keep my head down for the rest of the year like I'd always planned, I could show some humility. I could stay on Kyle Bowman's good side, and by staying on his good side, avoid his bad side.
The funny thing was, that even seemed to be working. Though I avoided him as best I could, I still saw Kyle sometimes, at the cafeteria, in the hallways. He never came for me, never threatened me, he just seemed to watch and smile at the way I ran from him like a deer from a pack of wolves. It was a return to the way things used to be, maybe even the way they ought to have been, and though it wouldn't give me the joy that the past few weeks had, it would at least be familiar.
I could've lived with familiar.
Could've, if the strangest damn alliance hadn't come for me with a different plan.
***
It was the day before Homecoming, and it started out in a familiar enough way. I'd just gotten home from school and was sitting at the computer. The swelling around my black eye had finally subsided enough that I could see pretty well, and I was feeling bold enough that I was actually considering jacking off, but it wasn't as easy a proposition as that. Not when I was trying to think of things like they were before this year, trying to forget about all that had happened since I started tutoring Kaitlyn. I'd gone into a period of self-inflicted abstinence when Kyle punched me out, but knew that if I wanted anything to be like it was before, I'd have to act like I did before.
When I realized that it shouldn't have been this hard to jack off, that made it even harder to decide whether I should've been sad or laughing like an idiot.
As it had almost a month ago, a knock at the front door stole my attention.
This time I wasn't expecting a package, and because I wasn't expecting a package, and I was pretty sure Dad wasn't expecting a package, I let them go on knocking. The knocks got louder and more insistent, and I let them. If it was a real emergency, I'd hear the sirens soon enough, and then could get moving.
When the knocking stopped, I was grateful to focus back on my computer. Since jacking it was sounding more difficult and less fun than I'd hoped for, I figured I'd shoot some assholes online and then sort out how I'd spend the rest of my day.
I'd pulled on my headphones and was loading a game when I felt the hand on my shoulder.
I'm not proud enough to say I didn't scream, and that there may have been some not entirely dignified words shouted at a very high pitch. I've no idea what they were, because the sight of the trio standing in my room all at the same time kind of took more priority than remembering my screams.
"You do know I know where you stash the extra house key, right?" Tori said, hands on her hips and looking about as pissed at me as I'd ever seen her. Whether it was because I'd been ignoring her for the week, or that she was in my room alongside Kaitlyn and Brooke, I couldn't have said, but the sight of them together was almost enough to start a brand new wave of screams.
There's no reason these three should've been here now, and sure as shit not together. Tori, my redheaded tomboy best friend, Kaitlyn, the brunette seductress, and Brooke, the bubbly and slender blonde, her hair still done up in two messy pigtails. I'd had sex with two out of the three of them, and can't say that this scenario never passed through my mind as a wild fantasy, but if I had fantasized about it (and I'm not confirming that I did), they'd have been a lot happier and a lot less clothed.
"Well, that's not exactly the kind of welcome I was expecting," Kaitlyn said, bored, propping out on my bed and staring up at the ceiling.
"What'd you expect? Look at him, he's been through hell!" Brooke said, bouncing over to me and wrapping me in a tight hug. It was friendly and warm when I wanted neither friendship nor warmth. I pushed Brooke away, and she looked up at me with such hurt I thought she was about to cry.
Like I wasn't feeling enough like shit already.
"What are you all doing here?" I asked.
"Looking for you and wanting to know when you're ready to stop being an asshole," Tori said.
"I'm not being an asshole," I said.
"Could've fooled me," Brooke pouted.
"I'd say he's being more of a little bitch than an asshole, if I'm being honest," Kaitlyn said.
"Sounds right to me," Tori said. At last report, Tori hated Kaitlyn something fierce and would've disagreed with her if she'd said the sky was blue just on principle. Seeing the two of them here, together, and on the same side was disorienting and a little scary.
"Don't you guys have anything better to do than gang up on me?" I asked.
