Senior Year Memories Ch. 05

(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.

"Probably, but we're ganging up on you because we want you to snap out of this shit," Tori said.

"And... and you found these two to do it?" I asked.

"Actually... actually this was Kaitlyn's idea. I was content to let you deal with this like you'd usually deal with these sorts of things, even though I was starting to really like the new you, because I know you got your own way and that you'd find your way to the other side eventually, but she came to me, and..." Tori trailed off.

I turned my attention to Kaitlyn, angrily. She said, "What? You weren't answering Brooke's and my texts, and we got worried. We wanted to find someone who knew you, a friendly face, or friendlier than ours-"

"Hey, I'm plenty friendly," Brooke interrupted.

Kaitlyn continued like she hadn't even heard, "-so I got to talking with Tori."

"And you told her?" I asked.

"What? She didn't buy my 'concerned for my tutor' approach, even though I'm a pretty fucking good liar," Kaitlyn said.

"She really is," Brooke interjected.

"So she backed me in a corner, and, yeah, I had to tell her! We were worried, damn it, and we didn't know what to do!" Kaitlyn exclaimed. For something that should've had her more worked up, I was surprised to see how distracted she was, staring at the ceiling and... was she holding back tears?

Tori pushed me. "Good going, asshole! You have to go and have sex and lie to me about it, and it has to be with Kaitlyn Pruitt? I thought you had some fucking standards!"

"Still in the room," Kaitlyn said.

"Hey, he had sex with me too!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Yeah, well you're cuter and nicer and have a tighter ass," Tori said.

Brooke beamed. "Aw, thank you! I really try to-"

"Still in the room!" Kaitlyn said.

Tori stared daggers into me, and I won't say they didn't burn. She was right to be angry with me; she was my best friend, and I didn't tell her any of what had been really going on in my life this past month. I was greedy, and I made her suffer because of my greed, and now I felt like shit. I knew it would get out eventually, and that she'd be pissed at me, but I was hoping it'd be under slightly different circumstances than this.

"I'm sorry," I said, weakly. "I'm sorry I lied to you. I'm sorry, I'm... I'm just sorry."

My voice was weak, like a chastised child, and if there had been a stiff breeze in the room at that very second, it would have knocked me over easily. I was close to crying, which with a black eye was close to hurting like hell. If Tori had stayed mad at me, I probably would've, but her face softened. She still looked disgruntled, but definitely softened.

"We're not here to yell at you. I'm still pissed at you for not telling me, but that's a different conversation for another time. That's not why we're all here," Tori said.

"It's not?" I asked.

"Nope!" Brooke interjected. "We're here to help!"

"Believe it or not," Kaitlyn added. Her voice was hollow, lacking her usual spark of either excitement or bitchiness. It felt so unlike Kaitlyn that I almost got out of my own head and asked her what was wrong, but before I could, Brooke answered my question for me.

"Oh, don't mind her! She's all pissy because she found out she lost out on Homecoming Queen," Brooke said, sitting on my bed beside Kaitlyn and stroking her hair sympathetically.

"That's it?" I said, knowing that it was a stupid fucking thing to say the moment I said it.

Kaitlyn sat up from the bed violently, tears rolling down her cheeks. "That's it? THAT'S IT? Being the fucking Homecoming Queen might seem like nothing to you, but it was something to me! Despite what you may think, I don't get what I want all that much! There's always someone better, someone smarter, someone prettier, someone willing to do what it takes to win just slightly more! I may be a phenomenal slut to you right now, but nobody's going to remember that after high school. If I'd have gotten Homecoming Queen, people might've remembered me, but now?"

Kaitlyn was crying. More than crying, she was damn near sobbing. Next to the shitstorm this last week was for me, I wanted to be angry at her, to tell her this wasn't shit next to being hunted by Kyle Bowman, but I couldn't be, not when she was crying like that. Not when I had to realize that I wasn't the only one who had a life here. Brooke slid closer to her, wrapping her in a tight hug. I couldn't help myself, sitting down and hugging her too. The three of us sat there on the bed, wrapped in a weird, sad group hug that felt a lot like friendship, which was strange considering what Kaitlyn, Brooke and I had done.

Still standing in the center of the room, Tori said, "I'm not getting in on this group hug, but, you know, I'm still in for this plan."

"What plan?" I asked.

Brooke broke from the hug. "Well, you know how I said we were here to help? It's not so much 'help' as it is 'revenge.'"

This piqued my curiosity. "Revenge?"

Tori put her hands behind her back and began to pace. "Kyle Bowman's a fucking plague on Regan Hills High, but the son of a bitch is seemingly untouchable. He's got a good reputation, a great spot on the football team, and a beautiful girlfriend who just so happens to be our Homecoming Queen, Addison Gonzalez. I think... I believe... I know we can take all of those away from him. We can destroy him."

Not that I hadn't fantasized about pretty much this exact scenario (Kyle's downfall, not the three girls currently in my room, well, alright, maybe them too), but it sounded like too much to ask for, and sure as shit was more than we could pull. Still, Tori was usually good at planning, and was always worth hearing out when she had a plan.

"How?" I asked.

"Well, my weed dealer knows and hates the guy who sells Kyle his steroids, so he wouldn't mind ratting him out. Probably won't take much for him to roll on his clients, so that's a start," Tori said.

"Kyle's on steroids?" I asked.

"Is that really a surprise?" Kaitlyn asked.

"No," I admitted. Steroids were a good start; no way in hell he'd still have a spot on the football team if that one got found out, and say goodbye to any scholarships he probably had lined up.

"That's a start, but he's still gonna be a problem even if he's not on the team. Maybe even worse," I said.

"Well, I might maybe sorta have something that'll help with that. Remember last April when someone ran a car through the side of Principal Carpenter's house and never got caught?" Brooke said sweetly.

"Yeah? That was him?" I asked.

Brooke nodded. "He kinda sorta accidentally sent me a text, probably 'cause I used to blow him and he never deleted me, I guess. Anyway, in his text he was tryin' to get in touch with one of his football bros, said that he was mad at Principal Carpenter and drunk and to cover for him. Then when he figured he sent it to me, he offered to pay me to be quiet about it. I said no, 'cause I was still a bit sweet on him."

She blinked. I blinked. We might've all blinked at her there and then.

"What?" Brooke said. "He can be very charming when he wants to be! Small dick, but charming!"

I tried not imagining Brooke blowing Kyle Bowman, but it was really hard.

"Do you still have that text?" I asked.

"Of course! Who deletes their texts?" Brooke asked.

"If we forward that to the cops and Principal Carpenter, well, that's goodbye Kyle," Tori said.

It sounded too good. It probably was too good to be true, but it was a way of clearing Regan Hills High School of one of its biggest problems, and if we could do that, what would that make us? Heroes? Vigilantes? Maybe. Kyle gave a lot of people a lot of shit, a lot of them worse than me even, if we could take him down it felt like there had to be some justice to it, especially if it was off of stuff that he'd already done.

"That's not enough," I said.

"How do you mean?" Tori asked.

"We knock him down a few pegs, get him kicked out of school, that's all well and good, but that son of a bitch has fucked over too many people for too long and almost made me forget who I am. I want that asshole humiliated," I said.

Kissing my cheek, Kaitlyn said, "Now that's the kind of evil I was hoping for."

"And the kind we've planned for," Tori said, grimacing at Kaitlyn's kiss.

"Oh?" I asked.

Kaitlyn blinked up at me. "How would you like to be my date to Homecoming tomorrow?"

***

Every time I ever heard the phrase, "it was so crazy it just might work," the part that always caught my attention was the margin for error in that phrase. "Might work" wasn't "working," which is why I didn't put a lot of stock into plans that were so crazy that they just might work. However, there were times when the only available plans were crazy and you just had to roll the dice on them and hope for the best.

Or, at least, that you don't fuck up your own small part of it.

It was probably worrying about the plan that kept me from focusing too much on Homecoming itself, though I could at least recognize that the school went out on it. Every surface that could be covered in blue and white was covered in the colors. There were posters of the Regan Hills High Puma everywhere, and the carnival and all its games would've been fun if I could pay more attention to them. I did my part in pretending that everything was as it should've been, hiding from Kyle Bowman whenever he saw me and making sure he approved of how I was cowering.

It was humiliating, but not as bad as what was going to happen to him if we pulled everything off tonight.

Until then, I kept my head down and trusted that Brooke and Tori would get the information to the right places at the right time

As the sun began to set, I went home and got dressed for the dance. I hated looking formal, even moderately formal (since the dress code for Homecoming wasn't that harsh), but I did what I had to, looking at it as going undercover. Dad was happy to see me doing something normal at least, taking a picture of me that let me hide my black eye, and made me actually look something close to decent by everyone else's standards.

When the car horn honked outside, I ran out and got in Kaitlyn's car.

"Hey, and, uh, wow," I said, looking at her in the driver's seat. She'd dressed to the nines in a slinky, dark blue dress with slits that went high up her legs, her hair done up and made up as if she was going to walk the red carpet. There was still sadness on her face, but a hopefulness too, the kind of hopefulness I could get behind. The kind of hopefulness that almost made me forget the last week's hell and start growing an erection.

"Thanks. You know, you're almost looking not bad yourself," Kaitlyn said, smirking.

"Uh, thanks, Brooke's been working me out pretty hard," I said.

"When she's not taking your cock up her ass," Kaitlyn joked.

"Yeah, when she's not doing that," I admitted.

Kaitlyn pulled away from the curb, driving us toward the school. There would be a dance tonight where the king and queen would be crowned, followed by a game where our football team would attempt to trounce our bitter school rivals, whoever they were (notice how much I care about school sports). By the end of the night, I'd either have the crap kicked out of me by Kyle Bowman, I'd be part of the conspiracy that destroyed him, or, both.

Honestly, I was looking forward to any option that didn't involve getting the crap kicked out of me.

"You heard from Tori and Brooke?" Kaitlyn asked me.

"Yeah, they're already there, getting in position," I replied after checking my phone.

"Good. We're right on time for a fashionably late entrance," Kaitlyn said.

I watched the road, dancing around the fact that I was on what could be considered a date with Kaitlyn Pruitt. She clearly didn't want to think too hard about it either, but I couldn't help asking.

"So, you're not afraid to be seen with me in public?"