Page 57 of Ancient History

“Me?” I could feel my cheeks turn red. Everett had eerily good powers of deduction. “I had to run here from my car. Because I was getting something there. At my car.”

“The teacher parking lot is actually very close to the gym, though,” Chase said. “I can’t see why you would’ve needed to race here.”

“I was cutting it close running back.”

“Did you leave something in there?” Julian asked. “You’re usually pretty anal about having everything on you so you can avoid running back to the parking lot.”

Damn my friends for knowing me so well.

“I’m not perfect, Julian. I’m a human being and sometimes I forget chapstick in my car.”

He put up his hands in defense. Everett smacked them down.

“Who cares about Amos running away from cars. We want to hear what happened on Friday night. When we left your apartment, Hutch was still there, if I’m not mistaken.”

My three friends faced me, three spotlights blinding me. Since the band was playing at full blast and the nearby students were ensconced in their own conversations, I had some cover that this story wouldn’t be overheard. Still, I kept my voice low.

“You are correct. Hutch was the last to leave my party.”

“You two seemed to be getting along well,” Julian said.

“I think the slutty outfit Everett picked out for you helped.” Chase shrugged, not one to mince words.

“It wasn’t slutty. It was different. Black is inherently sexy.” Everett had convinced me to take a wild swing with my outfit. We danced around the why, saying it was to make an impact as a party host when really, I didn’t want Hutch to see me in my normal, nerdy outfits.

“But you did look great,” Chase added. He could be blunt but he always cared.

And he was helping me stall for time. I had to get it out before Aguilar started. He was known to call out people for talking while he was speaking.

“Anyway,” I said.

“Anyway…” Everett gestured for me to keep talking.

“He and I were talking in my bedroom, and one thing led to another, and we wound up exchanging birthday cards.”

The guys and I had come up with a code language to talk about certain topics in school without getting in trouble. The last thing I needed was a student hearing about me going down on his gym teacher.

Three slack jaws and unblinking eyes faced me.

“Happy birthday to you,” Everett said.

“Wow.” Julian blushed a little, as he usually did with sex stuff.

“Yeah.” I nodded along, still processing that wild Friday night. And the backseat adventures of forty minutes ago.

“Was it a nice card? Did he write something personal in there?” Chase asked.

“It was. One of the best cards I’d ever received.”

I’d said before that I’d been ruined by Hutch Hawkins, and I stood by my statement. His mouth and entire body were gifts from the gods above to us mere mortals. My entire body was on fire from that blow job.

“Do you think you’re gonna–” Everett stopped himself, hissing with frustration. He had a hard time sticking to the code. “Is this going to be a regular exchange?”

“I don’t know. I’m just taking it one birthday card at a time.”

“But you like him,” Julian said. “You two were cute together at Chase’s party.”

“Like him? It was combustion. An outburst of magenta tension.”

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