“Beach Day,” Kevin repeated with a lamenting tone. “Jesus Christ, Beach Day.”

“It’s just a bunch of girls Morgan knows going to the beach. She wanted me there as her boyfriend,” I replied defensively, making sure everything was packed and ready. “Is that so weird?”

“Quinn, the beach party is the place to be. It’s how you know you made it. And you don’t even know half of the people there.”

“I told you, I can tell her that I’m not going unless you come too if you’d like.”

Kevin flashed me a smile. “As much as I’d like that, you know how thrilled they’d be. Nah, I’m no crasher. I’m like a vampire, you gotta invite me in.”

“Yeah, and you stay up way too late, and you reek of death,” I quipped. 

“And I’m gravely misunderstood and finally girls are catching on to just how hot I am,” he replied. I gave him a look of confusion and he waved me off. “Twilight meme. Never mind. Point is, if nothing else, I’m fuckin’ proud of ya.”

“Proud of what?” I asked. “If it’s anything like the last few parties, I’m just going to cling to Morgan all day, barely talk to the others… I actually pissed off a few guys at the last party.”

“Oh shit, huh? What did you do?”

“Okay, so Crystal’s nudes got leaked by this one guy – wait, that might be sensitive info, don’t let anyone know I told you that…”

“Quinn,” he began with a knowing smile. “Who am I, dude? I already knew about that shit. Nasty business.”

“Oh. Yeah, I told off the guy that did it,” I concluded.

“Ah, dredging up the past. Perfect recipe for drama,” he mused. “You know, the thing about-”

I held up a finger as I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket and pulled it out. Morgan was calling me. “I gotta go,” I replied quickly as I picked up my bag of beach stuff. Kevin just shrugged and walked off as I was out the door, only putting the phone to my ear and answering Morgan once there was a shut door between my mouth and Kevin’s ear.

The standard ‘we’re here’ and ‘I’m on my way’ conversation was expected, but one thing I was not yet aware of hit me – Joel was driving. For some strange reason, I expected Morgan to be driven by Doug again, but of course, she was going with her friends. As Kevin probably revealed, this beach party was a big thing to the popular kids, which meant that Taylor’s usual rule of ‘if Quinn’s going, I’m not there’ was out the window.

I tried to avoid eye contact with her and Joel as I approached the car. Morgan greeted me warmly, showing off her new sunglasses and bikini, laughing at the fact that I was not dressed for the beach at all and would have to change once I was there. She was in the middle seats along with Lexi, and Taylor and Joel were in the front. As expected, neither addressed me, and I was ordered into the back seats with Crystal and Milo.

I thought that would have been ideal, given Taylor and I had history and Lexi and I had, uh, recent history, but I quickly discovered that along with me, the gang picked up something else, something heavy: tension.

I felt Crystal and Milo staring at me from the moment I sat down, and after a few minutes of driving with the others talking and playing music near the front of the car, I finally got the courage to look at Crystal, then at Milo. Of course, I had to be in the middle seat.

“What?” I finally asked after a while. 

“Crystal’s pissed you slept with Lexi,” Milo pointed out. Classic Milo.

“Wha-?! Oh my God, I did not sleep with her!” I protested, trying to keep my voice down. This was the last thing I wanted. “Who even blabbed about this?”

“Le-”

“Lexi did, yeah, stupid question,” I admitted bitterly. “Look, Morgan proposed it to me, Lexi really wanted me to, so…”

“But, like, why did you do it?” Crystal asked with this weird tone to her voice. “If I asked you to fuck Milo, would you? You fucked my best friend, Quinn.”

“I – ugggh,” I complained, raking my hands over my face. “Okay, first of all, we did not go all the way. Second of all, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t and still am not sure if I even wanted to for my own sake. I did it as a favor to Lexi. It’s complicated, but-”

“You keep suggesting that, like, your lack of intent somehow makes you the good guy,” Milo cut in.

“Is that what this is about??” I asked exasperatedly. 

“Look at it from our point of view,” he replied calmly. “Think about what I know about you, and how you got into our friend group.”

“What do you mean by that?” Crystal asked.

I sighed. “Please, just-”

“So,” Milo continued, “that happens, and then you’re dating Morgan, and now we hear that you’re doing stuff with Lexi. It looks sketchy. Like, tell me I’m wrong for wondering if you’re just this skeeze that has ulterior motives or something.”

“How’d he get into our friend group?” Crystal asked.

In the nick of time, Morgan whipped her head around. “What’s going on back here?”

“Nothing,” Crystal immediately and obediently replied.

Morgan was not moved. She turned to Milo and asked, “What’s going on?”

Milo gave a polite smile. “Just talking about recent events.”

Morgan took her shades off to show Milo how amused with him she wasn’t. “Whatever you’re doing, knock it off, okay? Quit stirring the pot.”

“You couldn’t even hear anythi-”

“No, but I recognize that look Quinn’s giving,” Morgan replied dryly. “It’s Beach Day. Can you just knock it off for one day?”

Milo leaned in. “He slept with Lexi and you expect me to overlook that.”

“I am going to kill myself,” I murmured.

“You know how seriously I take this shit,” he continued. “I don’t care if you gave him your blessing, I’m allowed to call out red flags when I see them.”

“Wait, how is it a red flag if I wanted it?” Lexi asked, having turned around and getting fully into this conversation. 

“Why do I have to like it if Quinn is trying to seduce everyone in the friend group?” Milo continued.

“Everyone?” Morgan asked with fake confusion. “Quinn only slept with me and fooled around once with Lexi, right Milo?”

“I just don’t get why he’d do that with Lexi. Like, why? It’s just weird,” Crystal complained.

“Wait, I thought-” Lexi began, though, clearly, Morgan did something below the backrest to make Lexi shut up prematurely.

Angrily, I just turned away. More bullshit. More bullshit, and I was being blamed for it. What was even new at this point? If nothing else, at least this was giving me more ammo to convince Morgan to stop being such a yes-woman to… all of this weirdness.

In my anger, I had darted my eyes around – out the window, at the floor… and towards the front. I had hoped that she wouldn’t have looked at me for the whole drive, but to my horror, Taylor was, without shame, looking right at me.

She was wearing her own pair of sunglasses, but I knew, I just knew, she was looking right at me. And I looked back. Could she hear? I didn’t know. She was just… burning a hole through me with her stare. We stared at each other for a long time. I didn’t know what expression was on my face, but in that moment, I couldn’t do anything but looked back. For the first time in what felt like forever, we openly just stared at each other.

***

In an annoying bait-and-switch, Beach Day was gender-segregated. There were two sections of the beach: the guys’ section, and the girls’. I was kind of annoyed – I came here because my girlfriend convinced me, and now I had to spend the day with a bunch of guys I didn’t know? To add insult to injury, this just meant more time with Joel and Milo, the two boys I knew the most – to my own displeasure.

In an accurate reflection of high school, I just found my own little part of the settled area away from most of the guys and minded my own business. I was still dressed in jeans and a t-shirt while the rest of them sported swimming trunks. The metaphor was almost too perfect. Occasionally, one or two of the guys would eye me with confusion, no doubt wondering why I was there, but they wouldn’t vocally question it. 

Sadly, someone else didn’t get the same treatment. As soon as he was settled, Milo was hit with a small platoon of muscle-y Chad-looking guys, some looking mildly apologetic, others looking annoyed.

“Hey, uh, Sadie… we get the whole thing and all, but, uh… maybe you’d be happier hanging out with the girls. I mean, that’s the group you hang with, right?” one of them piped up.

“Could you use my actual name, please?” Milo asked with a voice meant to be calm. It came across as shaky. 

“Ha, your actual name?” another guy with a more annoying voice asked. “Sorry, what’s the name on your ID? Can you give us some proof here?”

“My name is Milo, and if we’re grouping boys in with boys, I should be here, shouldn’t I?” Milo asked.

“If you’re a guy, why don’t you take off your shirt?” another one snickered.

The first guy held up his hands in some kind of demonstration of ‘no harm intended.’ “I’m just saying, I think you should go with the girls, okay?”

“What am I taking away from you guys by being here?” Milo asked, his voice cracking more with each protest.

“Look, how’s about this – compromise. We call you Milo, but you join the girls. Huh?” the first one asked. 

“I’m not fuckin’ calling her Milo. If she wants to play make-believe, that’s on her, but she can’t make us do it too,” another one complained. “Nathan, just lay it down, man. Tell her to fuck off.”

The first guy, whose name was Nathan I guess, gave Milo a polite, sad smile. “I’m sorry,” he simply said. “But yeah. Pack up your stuff, go over there. We, uh… the guys don’t want you here.”

It may have been a silly little beach party, but something about this clearly meant a lot to Milo. I could see it in his eyes; he was crushed. And in a way, I kind of understood. He just wanted to be himself, and live the way he wanted, but other people kept insisting he do things their way because they were used to something else. Milo was right, it wasn’t costing them anything to even just not pay him attention, but they decided to dedicate energy just to making him feel bad for… being the way he wanted to be. 

I wish I acted earlier. By the time I got up, Milo was already walking back towards the girls. He was crying, but keeping it together. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I approached Nathan and cleared my throat.

“He wasn’t harming anyone.”

Nathan looked at me, confused. “Who wasn’t?”

“Milo.”

“Just call her Sadie man, she’s not gonna fuck you if you call her that,” one of them jeered. 

Another one joined in. “You’re really going through all these hoops, you’re just gonna make more people like her think they can get away with making us call them whatever,” another added. “Like, you can’t just shrug and leave, you have to… pretend to believe it too! Like, why?”

“It’s Orwellian,” some other guy added.

“Clint, you never read 1984, just shut the fuck up,” Nathan replied.

“I mean… that’s what Milo wanted. For you guys to shrug and leave him be. You went up to him,” I pressed them.

“Umm, yeah, after like a whole year of his – fuck, her, bullshit,” one of the guys replied. 

“It just seemed like here, he was minding his own business, and you guys made the effort to make it a problem. It doesn’t make sense,” I told them.

“Sorry for standing up for ourselves?” one of them replied with a hostile tone.

“You’re, uh, Morgan’s boyfriend, right?” Nathan asked. “Well, look man, if it bothers you that much, you could probably go hang out with them too. No skin off my back.”

“Yeah, man. We didn’t invite you. We don’t even know you,” another one added.

“I mean, this guy fits in with us about as good as Sadie does, so he might be happier with his girlfriend or whatever,” I heard from the boys.

“Clint, we literally just said that,” Nathan replied, annoyed.

As much I would have liked to make a stand and go be with the girls, my situation with them was kind of… sticky. Doubly so if Milo was going to be with them. I wanted to really stand my ground – if I do say so, I was getting kind of good at it – but I elected to back down.

“Whatever, guys,” I replied, throwing my hands up. “I was just saying.”

“Nah, but it’s a good idea,” Nathan said emphatically. “You should go and, uh, check up on your girl or something.”

“I’m good, I’m good,” I replied, backing down. “I get it. I’ll shut up now, okay? I just wanted to say my piece. I’ll go back to my bag.”

One of the guys eyed where I came from. “Your bag, huh?” With speed far greater than my own, he sprinted over to my bag, made it into a ball shape, and tossed it in the general direction of the girls’ area. Of course, it didn’t go that far, but it was enough to make a point.

The guy looked at me with a crooked, toothy grin. “Oops,” he said smugly. “You’d better go get that.”

I looked at the guys once more and sighed. I guess my message came through loud and clear, I guess. With the girls, it may have been awkward, but I had to put that behind me. I walked over to my discarded bag, checked to make sure my poor 3DS was okay, then made the journey to the girls’ section. Given this was supposed to be a party for everyone, it was actually a decently long walk.

Once I was there, I sought out Morgan immediately, getting her attention by waving at her. She gave me a confused expression, but waved back. “Hey, what’s wrong? Did you need something from the car?”

“I wish,” I grumbled. “No, Milo got ousted from the boys’ group-”

“Yeah, he’s over there,” Morgan interrupted quietly, gesturing to a nearby towel. Milo was on it, curled up in an upright ball, with some girl I didn’t recognize supportively rubbing his back.

“Well, I didn’t like what the boys said, and they kinda kicked me out too,” I finished.

“Quinn, they can be jerks, you just have to stand your ground sometimes with them,” she replied softly.

“I did, and they threw my bag,” I complained. “I’ll be good, I promise, but could I please just stay here a bit? We can just pretend I’m checking up on you or something.”

Morgan moved her mouth to the side of her face in thought. “Yeah, okay,” she concluded. “I’m sorry the guys are like that. Good news is, we’re away from them now.”

“I don’t know why you wanted me to be around them anyway,” I told her. “The only people from there are guys I know from parties, Joel, and I guess I just met Nathan.”

“Nathan’s not terrible,” Morgan thought out loud. “Like, he’s kinda pushy, but he… Nathan at least tries.”

“Yeah, I think I got that impression. He still was a dick to Milo for no reason, though,” I replied. Morgan went back to her spot without another word, and I joined her.

Immediately, the girls were way friendlier than the boys. It was clear none of them knew why I was hanging around, but unlike the guys, they didn’t make a stink about it, and a few used it as an excuse to actually talk to me, which was sweet, if invasive.

“So, what’s Morgan actually like?”

“Is she your first girlfriend? What’s your, like, body count?”

“Oh my God, I love Korea, I’ve always wanted to visit.”

After a few minutes, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Milo. His eyes were a little red but aside from that, he had basically fully recovered. “Hey, can we, uh, talk? Nothing bad, I just wanted to talk to you in private,” he told me.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” I managed. I followed him down some path into an area by the parking lot, a little nervous but also believing him that this wasn’t just him stirring the pot again. Once we figured we were out of earshot, Milo found a nearby bench and gestured for me to sit next to him.

“So, uh, I can get a little protective of the group sometimes,” he began. “And I have my principles. Like, when I feel something is wrong, I really feel it’s wrong, and I won’t deny I’ve gotten crazy red flags from you for the past few months. But, uh, I, uh…” His voice got murkier. “I heard what you did.”

“Anyone would have done that,” I asserted.

“No, Quinn, anyone wouldn’t have, because all that would happen is that the guys would hate them,” Milo assertively replied. “The girls, even Morgan, they talk a big game, but they know that if they ever stand up for me or even acknowledge I’m a boy around them, their reputation is in the toilet.” He got up and paced for a bit. “I’m not popular. No one in my situation could be. I just hang with a popular crowd and I get to look popular because no one dares to get into the group to rip me out of it. I was really lucky my friends accepted me for who I am, but… they never really stood up for me like that.”

We were silent for a bit. “So I guess I’m saying, I don’t get what your game is.”

I had a theory. “I’m not popular, so I guess popularity doesn’t mean anything to me. As far as I can tell, I don’t know those guys, so if I stand up for you, I don’t lose anything like they would, I guess.”

“Yeah, but people don’t think like that,” Milo protested. “They don’t go around doing good things as soon as the bad shit is dropped. They need reasons to do the good shit in the first place. What was your reason?”

Another beat of silence passed between us. Eventually, I shrugged. “They were harassing you just because of who you were,” I replied. “That’s not nice. You deserve to feel good about who you are.”

Milo began to tear up again, although his expression looked closer to anger than joy. Eventually, I turned away. “I don’t get it,” he murmured, looking away from me.

“Do you need to?” I asked. “I’m not trying to get with you. I just saw you hurting and wanted to help.” I let my words sink in. “I’m not just mindlessly trying to get with the others either. It’s just how shit has happened. Consider, maybe, that I’m doing this because making others feel good makes me feel good, and that’s why Taylor and Lexi wanted to use that and help themselves.”

“You’re trying to tell me that this whole thing that has happened has been because of others being selfish and you happen to be the only one not being selfish,” Milo quietly retorted.

I hung my head. “A part of it is enjoying what’s happening, yeah,” I admitted. “Is that so bad? I would have helped Taylor, or Morgan, or Lexi, or you, without expecting anything in return. Are you angry because I got something in return?”

“I’m angry because you did stuff with a girl in a relationship, caused trouble for us, then fucked two other girls in my friend group. If I already see you as a skeezy perv, why the fuck wouldn’t that make me angry?!” he demanded. 

“So what? I’m supposed to just go away? I’m Morgan’s boyfriend now. I care about her. You can’t expect me to just walk away from that,” I replied, standing up.

“So what the fuck is the deal with Lexi?!” he asked, voice building.

“I’d kind of like to know the answer to that too!” I replied, my voice matching his. “She and I get closer, as friends, then out of nowhere Morgan tells me I have her blessing, then it all just falls into place.”

Milo’s eyes narrowed. “Is that the whole story?” he asked.

I paused, then sighed. “Maybe not,” I admitted. “Lexi had one of those ‘if you weren’t with Morgan’ conversations with me like a week earlier.”

“A week?”

“I don’t remember exactly when, does it matter?”

“It all matters, Quinn,” he huffed. “…Something about all this doesn’t add up.”

“Milo, I feel the exact, same, way,” I replied, putting emphasis on each word. “And fuck, don’t believe me if you want, but I can’t help but feel like I want the most for me to be monogamous with her.”

He gave me a weird look. “What does that mean? Just say no to Lexi. Have you done anything with Taylor since I did… you know… that thing?”

“What, you mean telling Joel and causing the exact rift in the group you’re pretending was my fault?” I asked with heat. He didn’t answer, so I huffed. “No, of course, I haven’t. Is that good enough for you?”

We didn’t say anything for a bit. A shifting sound caught Milo’s attention, and he whirled his head around to something nearby. I followed his gaze to see that a certain somebody was spying on us.

“Lexi, what the fuck are you doing here?” Milo asked.

Lexi emerged from behind a rock. “What?” she asked as if what she was doing was completely normal. “I mean, you’re talking about me anyways. Don’t I deserve to be here for this? Or are you trying to do something here?”

I didn’t know what the implications were. ‘Do something’ as in stop me from being in the group? Maybe something sexual? I didn’t know. I just looked at Milo and he looked back and forth between us for a bit, then something in his face changed. 

“Quit treating him like your plaything.”

“What?!” Lexi asked.

“Quinn is not some toy to be passed around, and he clearly feels uncomfortable in this situation,” Milo continued. “He did this stuff for you, but you can’t not know that he’s unsure of his own feelings. Give him space, it’s not hard. Treat him like a human being instead of a service.”

Lexi was looking more upset with each word Milo said, so I decided to jump in. “I’m not unhappy we did what we did, Lexi, but this kind of stuff is very new to me, and I’m still not sure if it’s the path I want to go down,” I added soothingly. “I enjoyed, uh, eating you out, but we may end up not doing this anymore. We may keep doing it too. I just don’t know, okay?”

Lexi stared at me for a bit before pouting and stomping away. “Well, at least she took it well,” I quipped to myself.

“It’s Lexi. She’ll probably insist on cuddling up to you on the drive home,” Milo humorously shot back. “I didn’t like that she spied on us, though. She’s getting bolder.”

I turned back to Milo and shifted. “So, where are we at? I didn’t expect you to defend me to Lexi.”

He stared at me. “I just don’t get why…”

“You don’t need to always know why. Imagine if I myself don’t know why. You’re going to keep chasing for an answer I don’t have, and if you think I know the answer and I don’t, anything I do will be suspicious.” I breathed dramatically for a bit. “What’s more likely, that I’m secretly nefarious or that I’m a clueless nobody that had all this shit thrown at him over the course of a few months?”

He slowly nodded. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Well, if everyone else is cool with it, I guess I’ll just shut up.” He exhaled noisily. “I mean what I said. I can’t remember the last time someone defended me like that.”

I shrugged. “You’re worth defending. You deserve to feel happy as who you are.”

“Now you’re just trying to guilt-trip me,” he laughed, and I joined in. “But, okay. Clean slate. Everything up to now is null and void. Forgive and forget. If you do something bad, I’ll call it out…”

“I definitely believe you’ll do that.”

“…But until then, you’re not a skeeze and you’re being nice to my friends. Thanks for, uh, doing what you did today.”

I gave him a smile in return and then that was that. We walked back to the group, with me feeling very happy and validated. Finally, the chip the size of Arkansas was off of Milo’s shoulder, or at least, so he said. Morgan saw that we came back together and raised an eyebrow, and I gave her a reassuring smile.

“Good conversation,” I told her as I sat down next to her. “Milo seems cool with me.”

I didn’t notice that Morgan was mid-conversation with another girl, and immediately added, “Oh, sorry,” and got up. I recognized the girl; Abby, the Student Council President. I never talked to her personally but everyone knew who the President was.

“No no, no worries,” the other girl replied. She smiled at me, and wow, did she ever have a politician’s smile. She’d done up her hair in box braids, which looked really good with her hair half black and the rest dyed a kind of red. She wore a surprisingly revealing white bikini, which even with my newfound experience, made me blush.

Kevin had a huge crush on her, although I think he just had a thing for black girls which he refused to outright say. I could only imagine how jealous he would have been of me to see her this way.

“So this is your boytoy?” she continued, looking me up and down.

I chuckled. “Jeez,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying bashfully. 

“Oh, sorry, I’m just like this,” she laughed it off. “Don’t be nervous. Morgan has talked a lot about you. You seem like quite the gentleman, Quinn.”

I turned to Morgan, who shrugged ambiguously, though her eyes were twinkling humorously. “I, uh…” I managed. “I… thanks.”

Abby gave this cute little chuckle and readjusted herself. “So how long have you two been together, anyway?”

“Oh, like… a few months?” I asked Morgan.

She nodded calmly. “A few months, yeah.”

“Aww, so cute, you’re so in sync!” Abby marveled. “Well, we’re glad to have you, Quinn, and I’m sure you two are going to enjoy the fuck outta Beach Day.” She turned to Morgan. “You’re lucky. Me, I couldn’t even get me a man for Beach Day.”

“Oh, come on,” Morgan replied dismissively. “You could get, like, any guy, you just didn’t want to let any of them know they could feel like owning you, even for a day.”

Abby laughed her melodic laugh again. “Maybe, maybe,” she teased, then turned to me with some kind of knowing grin. “What about you, Quinn, would you say you own your girl?”

“Wha- of course not!” I spat. “That’s such a – ‘owning?’ No, definitely not.”

“Oh,” Abby replied, the humor gone from her face. “So, like, she can do anything with any man she wants?”

“Um…” I turned to Morgan, who weirdly, wasn’t saying anything. “I-if she wants, and… communicates openly about… is there something I should know?”

Both Abby and Morgan started laughing at me. “Relax, relax, I’m fucking with you,” Abby soothed me. 

“It seems kind of private,” I managed. “I feel weird when this stuff is brought up, even as a joke.”

If I thought the humor left Abby’s face before, it really left now. “Oh. Um, sorry,” she replied seriously. “I’m sorry. My sense of humor is all about riling people up, but I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. “But yeah, Morgan and I are happy. And, uh, she owns me as much as I own her.”

Abby started laughing again, probably at my wording. “Oh my fuck, that’s good,” she chuckled. “I’m gonna hold out for a man that admits I own him.”

“If you ever stay with the same guy long enough for that to even happen,” Morgan replied with a wink. “Did you want to go swimming, Quinn?”

“Yes,” I immediately replied. I didn’t want to, but I was happy to get away from this. Grabbing my bag, I turned back to Abby. “Nice to meet you, Abby,” I told her.

“Likewise, Quinn,” she told me with a pleasant smile. Quickly, I started to walk towards the water, with Morgan following closely behind me.

“In case you’re wondering, Abby is off-limits,” she began, clearly meant more as a joke than anything.

“She scares me,” I admitted.

“So, are you going to swim in your jeans, or what?” Morgan asked, looking me over.

“Oh. I just, uh, wanted to…” I fumbled with my words.

Morgan laughed. “You wanted to end the conversation with Abby,” she inferred.

“Kind of, yeah.”

“She’s harmless, Quinn,” she reassured me. “She just likes pushing buttons. All Presidents do. Come on, changing room is thataway.” She turned me around and soon we were walking in the other direction, back past Abby.

Abby noticed, and looked at us, smirking. “And just where do you think you’re going? The water’s that way.”

Morgan looked at Abby as if she was just realizing something. Weirdly, she had a full reaction: gasping, turning pink, and holding her hand over her mouth.

Abby’s knowing smile only widened. “Ohh, I seee, Quinn needs to change, doesn’t he? I guess he needs to go to the changing house.”

At the mention of ‘changing house,’ the few girls around us took notice and started giggling. Morgan was only blushing deeper. Abby looked over at Morgan and laughed. “You know the rules, Morgan,” she sang.

“What rules?” I asked Morgan.

“So, uh… I’m sorry, I totally forgot this…” Morgan mumbled, her face red. “So, there’s this dumb tradition involving Beach Day, the changing room, and the year’s power couple…” She trailed off, blushing too hard to even look me in the eye.

I turned to Abby with a confused expression, who only nodded. “Changing room’s yours, you two,” she laughed. “It’s school tradition.” She eyed my confused expression and rolled her eyes. “It’s Beach Day rules. The year’s power couple goes and fucks in the changing room.”

I looked at Morgan in disbelief, who only cutely shrugged. “Wait,” I began. “We can’t possibly be the year’s power couple. No one knows me, and we’ve only been together for a short time!”

Abby lowered an eyebrow, a smirk painted on her face. “Who here knows Quinn?” she asked, and nearly every girl who was paying attention put her hand up. 

What? Why?? What even was there to know about me? Morgan added, “Plus, it just sort of became any couple that’s still together on Beach Day. I’m uh, sorry, I totally forgot.”

“Well, we don’t have to…” I began, though quickly got booed by Abby and her little gang.

“Quinn, honey, at least drag her in there and give her a kiss,” she laughed. “It’s tradition. You care about us, don’t you?” Faux hurt was dripping off of every word. 

“It’s a dumb tradition,” Morgan added in a voice so quiet only I could hear it. “Your boundaries are important.”

I surveyed the group and saw Milo, Crystal, and… Taylor among them. She was no longer wearing her shades, and wasn’t shy about looking me in the eye. Interestingly, she didn’t look vulnerable, or sad, or even angry. She caught my gaze and gave me a kind of gesture with her face. One that said, ‘hey, might as well.’

I turned to Abby, who was giving me this mock concerned expression, with a humorous undertone. I turned back to Morgan, who was still pink and looking down. I exhaled and grabbed her hand, and murmured, “Come on,” leading her away to the changerooms. The girls cheered, even though I didn’t want to look back at them, and soon enough, we were out of sight and earshot from the cheering crowd.

“Sorry,” Morgan repeated. “I know how much you must hate these situations.”

“Why would I hate it?” I asked, not recognizing my own voice. “We’re the power couple.”

Morgan looked at me with a confused smile, and I stopped walking and kissed her. “Do you want to do it?”

“You’re taking this way better than I thought,” she admitted.

“Sweetheart, you keep setting up things you’d think I’d like, like telling me it’s okay for us to be open or something, but more than anything, I want you,” I told her. “It’s kind of nice having people know we’re doing it, especially if they’re, uh, wayyy over there.”

She giggled. “You really don’t like Abby, do you?”

“I just think I need to adjust to her.”

“Totally fair.” She glanced at the changing room and looked back at me. She bit her bottom lip. “So, uh…”

I gave an adventurous laugh and took her hand again, walking into the building with her. It was not very big, but definitely big enough to accommodate us. As soon as we were inside and the door was closed, our lips were locked, enjoying our public-yet-not display of affection.

I don’t know what came over me in that moment, but some part of me really wanted to have Morgan, and have her right then and there. I loved the feeling of my body pressing right up against hers when we kissed, and when Morgan was wearing this cute little blue bikini that left little to the imagination, well, that was just the cherry on top. 

“Do you like what I’m wearing?” she asked between kisses.

“Of course, I do,” I practically moaned back. “I love anything you wear.”

“But I bought this especially for you,” she said with a mock-pout. “I thought you’d like what it, uh, shows off.” She grabbed her boobs with both hands and moved her hands around her chest to solidify her point. Like the hypnotized horny teenager that I was, my eyes could only follow what her hands were doing, much to her amusement. 

Eventually, I had enough of only being a spectator, and my hands quickly replaced hers. I loved how hot Morgan’s body felt. Of course, having a big pair of breasts in my hands, being rewarded with a popular hot girl moaning for me when I massaged them, that just made this whole thing perfect.

I gasped in realization even though my hands didn’t stop moving. Morgan’s eyes shot open. “What is it?”

“Do you have a condom?” I asked, realizing only now how far we were going.

Morgan’s eyes squeezed back shut and she threw her head back and groaned. “No, I don’t,” she said quietly. “Fuck.”

I waited until her head was back up and matched her look of disappointment with one of my own. My hands were still moving though, of course. “It’s okay. We can just fool around and if they as-”

As I spoke, Morgan adopted this almost mad look on her face and she eventually cut me off by kissing me. “No,” she simply said.

“No…?”

“I don’t care. Just this once, I don’t care. Pull out or fucking don’t, you’re taking me here.” She kissed me again, this time groping my cock over my jeans as she did. “Okay?”

I had to chuckle. “What’s gotten into you?”

She smiled sweetly out of nowhere. It almost sent a shiver up my spine. “Don’t you want me too, Quinn?”

“Get the fuck out of here,” I replied humorously, playfully slapping her face. “You looked like a horror villain.”

She chuckled too, but remained focused. “I just feel like this is an opportunity for us. This is, like, a moment. I don’t want it to be spoiled, so I’m willing to work around it. Just say yes, and I’m yours. Please say yes.”

I smiled at her. She was such an enigma, and I loved it. “Yes,” I emphatically told her, and we resumed our kissing, this time with her undoing her bikini top as we kissed.

Soon, she was up against the wall, with one of my hands groping her breast and playing with her sensitive erect nipple, and the other rubbing her slit over her bikini bottoms. To top it off, my mouth was busy leaving marks on her neck. That way, the other girls wouldn’t need to ask, they could just see. 

What a fucking life I was living.

Morgan could only take so much teasing and, with a wink, bent herself over the nearest counter and looked back at me as she peeled her bikini bottoms down her legs. My breath caught in my throat. I thought I was hard before, but now I swear it felt like it was going to rip right through my jeans. 

“Fuck, you’re so… hot, Morgan,” I told her, coming up behind her and quickly dropping my pants.

“Thanks, I know,” she said with a giggle. “What are you going to do about it, cutie?”

I blushed and she giggled again. I freed my manhood and stroked it a few times, drinking in the beautiful sight of Morgan’s wet pussy waiting for me. I lined myself up and slid it in, with the both of us exhaling in pure pleasure.

“Fu-uck, you’re in me…” Morgan moaned. “You’re just in me. Nothing else between us.”

“I just want to say, fuck condoms,” I moaned.

“Fuck condoms,” she agreed as I began to pump back and forth. “Except, like, we will definitely have to wear condoms after this, but like, fuck condoms. Oh, fuuuck…”

And there we were, getting into a rhythm with each others’ bodies, fucking like animals in a public changeroom, with our classmates not only knowing, not only cheering us on, but practically making us do it. Not that I was complaining. The only thing better than being made to fuck in this room that could have happened today was forgetting the condom. I was closer to Morgan than anyone else. I was inside her, I was getting to be in her, and we both loved it. 

The changeroom had just enough variety to its layout that we could try a couple of different positions, but in the end, I think we both liked it from behind best, because that’s what we kept coming back to. I even found a way to fuck her from behind against a wall and grope her breasts from behind, and clearly, this was a day where she wanted a lot of attention on them. Naturally, at every opportunity I could, from behind, I would grab them and play with them, and from the front, I would kiss them and suck them and worship them with my tongue.

Eventually, I felt every nerve in my body being lit like a fuse, and grunted, “M-Morgan…”

She knew immediately what was going on, and despite being in the middle of a good rhythm, she stopped what she was doing, hopped off of my dick, whirled around, and knelt in front of me, jacking me off.

“What’s… what’s going on?” I asked.

“Ever thought about finishing on my face?” she asked as innocently as possible.

I’m sure it would have been hot to grunt and go “fuck yeah, babe” and grab her hair to prepare her or whatever, but it didn’t quite go that way. I swear, the moment those seductive words left her mouth, my vision just went pure white. I grunted, the sexiness of the situation being too much for me, and immediately shot my load all over Morgan’s beautiful face. She smiled mischievously as she felt my load painting and covering her face, with me shooting a bigger load than I was usually used to. 

She chuckled. “So I take it you’re a fan,” she joked.

“Oh my God,” I breathed. “When’s the next fucking Beach Day?”

She chuckled again, reaching into my bag. “I’m using your towel, by the way,” she told me, right before wiping her face off. 

“Hey, wait – ew,” I reacted, watching my load go from her face to the towel.

“What did you expect?” she asked. “Did you want me to walk back with this still on my face?”

“Would you have?” I asked with a grin.

“You’re such a pervert,” she said with a smile, shoving me as she got to her feet. “You’re wasted on a good girl like me.”

“I think the wasting is the other way around, sweetheart,” I told her, moving in for a kiss. I winced as I felt fluid touch my cheek. “Bleh.”

“Your fault,” she said with a laugh. 

The two of us got cleaned up and clothed, realizing that even though the likelihood of getting caught wasn’t great, it wasn’t exactly zero either, and plus, Morgan clearly wanted this on some level, and probably wanted to brag to her friends or whatever people do after these things do down.

That said, bragging wasn’t needed. As soon as we got back to the girls’ section, we were met with a chorus of cheers and claps. Abby, of course, was leading the cheers and chanting various praise our way, much to my embarrassment. 

I didn’t need a mirror to know I turned some shade of pink knowing the girls were cheering for us. Morgan was clearly slightly embarrassed too, though she also clearly was proud of what she had done. I caught her gaze and she gave me a smile, something I knew she didn’t do much in crowds. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Want to go swimming?” she asked as the cheers died down.

I was about to say yes, then realized the hilarity of the situation. “I’d, uh, love to, but…” I trailed off. “…I’d need to change first. Want to come with me?”

Morgan and I laughed together.

***

I was exhausted by the time I got home. Thankfully, everyone was in bed when I made it in, so, as quietly as I could, I dropped off my bag, brushed my teeth, and hopped into bed.

“Welcome home,” Kevin’s voice greeted me in the darkness.

“Thanks,” I replied. If this were the first time I might have been frightened, but years of sharing the room with him made me used to situations like this.

“Had a good time?”

I could hear something in Kevin’s voice. He sounded… deflated. Sad. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“No no, you first, did you have a good time?”

“I’m not a good swimmer, but I got to spend a lot of time with Morgan, so that was nice,” I answered.

“Cool, glad to hear it,” Kevin said tiredly. “And you don’t wanna hear it, it would probably just sound bitter and jealous anyway.”

“Are you bitter and jealous about how I got to go to Beach Day and you didn’t?” I asked.

“More than that. I’m kinda… like, no offense, why did you get into the popular crowd so effortlessly?” he asked. “I swear I spend my entire conscious life trying to get into people’s good books and then, again, I’m super happy for you and want to see you succeed but, I just see you instantly blow past me. It’s making me question a lot of stuff. Like, was everything I did in high school for nothing?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” I replied. “First of all, I’d give all of my popularity to you, if I even have any, in a heartbeat. Though I think I squandered it by standing up for the marginalized.”

“Ooh, viva la revolution! Is there a story there?”

“Someday. Not now. Secondly, this was all just because Morgan started dating me, which was all because I tutored Taylor. This was all just random chance.”

“Quinn, I love you, but that definitely makes it all worse,” Kevin complained. “I put in a solid effort all year and it all gets squished by random chance.”

I remained silent, not knowing how to comfort him further.

“Like, yeah, sometimes I could be a little overbearing, and maybe sometimes I pushed buttons, but… I tried, you know? Think whatever you will of me, but I put in the effort.”

“‘Think whatever you will of me?’ You’re my brother, Kev.”

“Figure of speech.”

“I think you did try, and if I had any kind of actual control over this stuff, you would have become popular and I wouldn’t have. Okay?”

Kevin let the words sink in. “I’m sorry,” he eventually said. “I know it’s not your fault. And I know I shouldn’t care so much.”

“Caring a lot is a good thing,” I found myself saying. “It’s good to care a lot. You can get hurt easier, but you can feel joy a lot easier too.” I paused. “You know I’d do what I could to make you feel more joy.”

“Weird way of saying that, but you’re sweet,” Kevin affectionately replied. “I shouldn’t let it get to me. We should get some sleep, huh?”

“Yeah,” I murmured. “G’nite, Kev.”

“G’nite,” he replied, and soon, silence filled the room.

I really did feel bad for Kevin. It was true, he did try, he tried his butt off, and apart from him, no one could see that more consistently than I could. And yet, I was the popular one, just because of who I was dating. I was like that guy that Oprah married. Stetson, Steadman…? I couldn’t remember his name. I guess that proved my point. 

Even though I had my own crap to look out for, by some metrics, I was popular at this point. And if it meant enough to Kevin, maybe there was a way that I could help him out a little. It felt good to help people out, but after all of the effort he put in, Kevin, out of everyone, deserved to see some returns. Besides, even with all of the shit going on in my life… I smiled. It hit me for the first time, the first time I consciously thought it… I was happy.