(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. This story is highly serialized, and though it's not 100% necessary to have read the whole story up until this point to enjoy the content of the chapter, it's definitely advisable to understand some of the ongoing plots.)
(Author's Note: I know it's been a while, but I wanted to thank you for your patience while I dealt with some necessary issues while battling my writing burnout. I hope this chapter proves worth the wait. On top of everything else, I want to give special thanks to fellow Literotica author and SYM reader Lil_kitty for many excellent ideas and acting as a second set of eyes on this chapter, for letting me know what did and didn't work and that I wasn't completely crazy for how long this chapter turned out to be. Thank you very much!)
Previously, on Senior Year Memories: The first week back after winter break has been busy for 18-year-old Ryan Collins, from a quickie in the library with slutty library aide Marie Halpern, to the curious affections of many of the school's female teachers, and the challenges of balancing tutoring three of his classmates. Much of this came to a head at the offices of the school's newspaper, when Ryan chatted up beautiful and kind assistant editor Nica Dubois. Though their conversation started with working on Ryan's articles, it soon progressed to hot sex in the dark room, where Ryan was happy to help Nica face some of her demons about sex. Returning home, Ryan was surprised to find bubbly blonde cheerleader Brooke King waiting for him, and even more surprised that she was there to profess her love for him, made more complicated by Ryan's love for her and for his absent girlfriend, Josie Wong. With an uncertain future, Ryan has much to consider.
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What do you do when someone tells you they're in love with you?
Well, in the ideal event that they're someone you want to be in love with you, you tell them you love them back, cheer, and reap all the rewards that come with having someone you love love you back.
If it's someone you'd rather steer clear of, then let them down however you can and get as far away as you can before things get any worse.
These are the kinds of situations our parents tell us about, the ones movies and songs and epic poems are written about. They don't tell you what to do when someone tells you they love you when you're in love with someone else, especially when you love them too.
This is why I had trouble sleeping the night after Brooke King told me she loved me. The blonde cheerleader with the ever-present pigtails, a love for the color pink and one of the freakiest minds I ever knew when it came to sex had slowly become my best friend over the past few months, and my feelings for her had only gotten more confused as the year went on. Before this year, Brooke was one of those people I'd just never talked to, we were just so different, but with this being the year of one thing leading to another, this was where I was stuck.
I loved Brooke, that much was clear. I also loved Josie Wong, my beautiful and equally dirty goth girlfriend. I hadn't seen her for weeks since she left with the rest of her family to visit her sick grandmother in Hawaii, and maybe that had weakened my resolve, made it more possible for me to follow up on bad instincts.
This didn't feel bad, though. That was the fucked-up part of it, I think. Loving Brooke felt every bit as natural as loving Josie, but it was still undeniably a problem.
Lying in bed, wakefulness came upon me slowly as I came to the morning after I found Brooke sitting sorrowfully on my front porch. I had flashes of the night before, of pleasure and melancholy as Brooke and I talked, then had sex, then talked some more, then had more sex before turning in for the night curled up next to each other in bed. I'd hoped that between the two of us that we'd be able to put something resembling a plan together, but this was uncharted territory for both of us.
I tried to focus on the brighter moments of that night, of the way Brooke's face looked when she came while riding me, how utterly tight she felt as I took her from behind, but the reality of what we faced had a way of intruding into the fantasy that there was nothing amiss in our world.
I didn't want to fuck anything up. That was the long and the short of it. I didn't want to fuck anything up, but it felt like I had no choice that wouldn't fuck things up for someone. I had this image of teetering on the edge of a cliff, just waiting to go over and lose the best people I'd met this year. I didn't want to do that. I just wanted everybody to be happy, but that just didn't seem to be in the cards, and in a year where I'd already had the fallout of what happened with Rachel and Tori I was not looking forward to another disaster.
Until then, I could still wrap myself in the warm and comforting blanket of denial. Denial, and Brooke in the bed next to me. Just being around her always had a way of lighting up my life in the past, and her being here now was the only thing keeping me from losing my mind.
There was shifting in the bed next to me, enough that I was stirred closer toward consciousness. I rolled over, hoping to wrap an arm around Brooke, but found her side of the bed strangely empty.
"Brooke?" I muttered, wiping the sleep from my eyes.
"Not even close."
That voice snapped my eyes wide open. It was impossible, it had to be a dream, but if it was a dream it was the most vivid dream I'd ever had. I looked around the room, caught her sitting on the edge of the bed. In my waking state, she was a dark angel, dressed from head to toe in a long black coat, with choppy, jet black hair cut back to the same pixie length she had when I first met her and a pale face. Her lips, painted black, curled in an amused smile at me.
Josie.
"You're real," I said in wonderment.
"Uh, last time I checked, yeah, I was real," she said, scooting a little more in my direction.
I sat up and, overjoyed, instantly leaned into her and hugged her tightly. She hugged me back enthusiastically. "Why didn't you tell me you were back?"
"It's called a surprise, and I wanted to drop a big one on you," Josie said, kissing me. Fuck, I'd forgotten how good it felt to kiss her. Part of it felt grim, like I was betraying her by not being completely honest right now, but it felt too good to tell her right now.
"Mission accomplished," I said.
"I thought you'd think so," she replied, smiling. "You know, I've really missed you."
"The feeling's mutual," I said, wanting to keep the conversation flowing. "How's...?"
"Grandmother? Recovering, but well enough that she can take care of herself with the help of her local friends. She's a tough old lady," Josie replied.
