Love Lessons

"I'm so sorry, Simon. I've already agreed to go with Brad, ages ago, before we got together."

His face fell, and he looked so defeated. Brad, bully-in-chief, captain of the football team. His arch-nemesis. "Can't you tell him you're going with someone else?"

"Have you tried saying no to Brad? Besides, you know I'm not comfortable letting everyone know about us."

Simon seemed to wither in front of her eyes.

"I'm sorry it has to be like this," she pleased, softly. "School will be over, soon. Then I promise we can be together in public."

Yeah, right, he thought. How could she do this to me? Isn't she my girlfriend now? Maybe she's been playing you all along, the devil whispered in his ear. But he didn't want to believe it. She'd seemed genuine enough, vulnerable enough, when they'd spent time just the two of them. He understood what it was like to live a secret life. Not long now. And he understood, still, her not wanting to be associated with the geek.

They arrived separately. He wore an ill-fitting suit that he'd borrowed from his father; she in a stunning off-the-shoulder dress, loose to the knee, tight round the waist, accentuating all her best features.

In the darkness, amongst their dancing classmates, he did manage to steal a word in her ear. "Meet me at the Chemistry lab in ten minutes," he said. "There's something I need to say to you."

Curious, she snuck way unseen from the dance floor and made her way through the corridors to the other end of the school where the science block was located. She pushed the door open to find him waiting inside.

"I know you don't want to be seen with me. That's okay, I understand. But this is my prom, too, and I want a dance with you." He started playing a slow romantic song on his phone and pulled her to him.

God, you're so sweet, she thought, and her heart melted. They moved together, bodies pressed close, and she could feel him tremble, feel his hardness against her hip.

The song ended, and they stepped apart. They shared a brief, almost chaste, kiss. "Thank you," he said.

"I'd better be getting back," she said.

"Just a moment," he countered. "Come here, sit up on the bench." He lifted her effortlessly up onto the teacher's desk at the front of the lab, then pulled up a stool and sat directly in front of her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, puzzled.

"Lie back," he said. "I want to try something."

Excited, she lay back as he asked, felt his hands glide up her thighs. "Simon, no! Not in school!"

"Don't you think we have great chemistry together?" he joked. He needed this. Wanted to take her here, on this desk, in the room where he'd first seen her. He tucked his fingers through the band of her white lace thong and drew it down her legs, tucking it into the inside pocket of his suit. "You won't be needing those."

"Hey, they were expensive!"

Simon considered the tiny garment. Must be operating on some less-is-more principle, he thought. "Come and find me after prom, you can blow me to get them back," he teased.

"Simon, what has got into you tonight?" she said. She wasn't used to this new brash, confident Simon. She decided she liked it - and realised it was her influence that had brought on the change over the past weeks.

"You. You're in my head. I can't stop thinking about you. And if I can't be with you tonight, I want something of you with me." He leant forwards. "I want to be marked with your scent. I want to walk among our classmates with your juices smeared across my face." He kissed his way up her thighs, could see this dirty talk was getting her wet already. "Something I can know, and you can know, but they'd never guess."

"Oh Simon, I..." she began, but that was all she managed before his tongue slipped inside her, and she became incapable of speech.

Simon licked across her smooth skin, tasted deep inside, teased over her clit, pushed his lips and jaw hard against her as he made love to her with his mouth. Claire grabbed his face, pulled him into her, as he ate; she directed him - faster, higher, flick me there - and he obeyed.

This was so wrong, she thought. They could get caught at any moment. Anyone could walk in and find him buried between her legs. It was such a huge turn-on. And what he lacked in experience, he made up for in enthusiasm. He brought his fingers into play as he licked and sucked on her clit, stroking her thighs, probing teasingly at her ass. You want my scent on you, she thought, you've got it. She could feel the juices flowing, feel how slick his face had become.

"Come for me, Claire," he begged. "I don't care what anyone else thinks. Soak me, show me how much I turn you on."

The words called to her, and her body responded as he wanted, covering his face in her pleasure; she clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle the screams of delight as he brought her shaking in a tremendous orgasm.

"Mmmm," he said, licking the cream from her core. "So much better than I imagined it would be."

"God, I don't deserve you," she said. "You're so on for that BJ later. But I really must get back now, before anyone notices I've been missing."

Simon watched, sad and yet proud, as she dashed along the corridor. She was worth the secrecy.

///

Brad must have seen Simon come back into the hall, because he strode straight over to engage in his favourite hobby: bullying the class nerd. His minions followed him; it wasn't long before they were saying all the usual mean things.

They grabbed at his suit, one on each arm. "What's this cheap shit polyester?" they laughed, yanking hard at the material. To his dismay, Simon heard a rip, felt the shoulder give way. Dad's gonna kill me; he needs this for a meeting on Monday.

"That's enough!" Claire shouted across the hall, and all eyes turned in her direction. "I've had it with this bullshit!"

"Oh, look lively lads, the blowjob queen has arrived!"

"Should we kneel?"

"It's her that will be doing the kneeling," Brad said. "Form an orderly queue, she can work her way along. It's homecumming time."

"Fuck you, Brad. Fuck all of you," she spat.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you have, slut," Brad replied, lip curling in contempt.

"Hey," Simon said. "There's no need for that!"

"Who gives a shit what you think?"

"I do," Claire said. "Simon has more decency in his finger than the lot of you."

"Weenie little finger," Brad teased, curling his pinkie by his groin.

That's what you think, Claire said. Simon has made me come more than you ever could. "You're such a pathetic bunch of losers, you'll never amount to anything. I don't need your lust to validate me any more."

She took Simon's hand, started to lead him to the dance floor, trying to explain herself. "I'm so, so sorry. I've been such a selfish idiot, been so horrible and unfair to you. I've been in denial. The truth is..."

"Where the fuck are you going, with him?" Brad shouted at her. A crowd started gathering around them - Brad's cronies, Claire's girl friends - all staring at her holding the class loser's hand.

"You have got to be kidding me," said one of the girls. "You're not seriously going to dance with that tosser?"

Simon wanted the ground to swallow them up. But then he saw the defiance in Claire's eyes. You can do this, he told himself. Stand strong.

"Yes! Yes, I am! And do you know why?" Claire shouted. "None of you know what you're talking about! Girls, stop hanging round with those slimeballs," she nodded to Brad's crew. "Get some self-respect and find yourself a man who'll treat you how you deserve to be treated, love you for who you are and not just lust after you for how you look or what you agree to let them do to you. Get a man who'll have your back, not just use your body. Be yourself, that'll be enough for the right person. Because when you're with the one," she said, looking back at Simon, her face lighting up, "with someone who truly loves you, who treats their pleasure as more important than their own... it's everything. And the sex, my god, sooooo much better."

Simon at least had the decency to blush.

"Ewww, you can't be serious?" Brad said. "You chose that," he nodded dismissively at Simon, "over this?" indicating his own body.

"Every day of the week, and twice on Sundays," she replied. She fished inside Simon's jacket, retrieved her lace thong, and threw it at Brad's face. "Here you go - something to remember me by," she joked. It had the intended effect; she watched the realisation dawn across Brad's face. How else could Simon have had her underwear in his suit, if not that he'd been fucking her?

The couple walked slowly away. Simon leant in, whispered "But I still get the blowjob, right?"

"Damn straight," she whispered back. The way I feel right now, so affirmed and horny, I'd let you take me up the ass right here in front of the whole damn school.

They reached the dance floor, took each other in their arms, started to sway. Claire had an apology to finish. "Like I was saying, I've been in denial for so long. This Mean Girls cheerleader persona, the dumb blonde socialite, it's so fake. It's like my secret identity, something for the real me to hide behind, so I wouldn't get hurt. Keeping it up is so exhausting. It was protecting me... but it was hurting you. I don't ever want to hurt you, Simon. You know the real me, you love me despite all my fakes and flaws, you've forgiven me all the wrongs I've done you. I don't deserve you. But I want to. I want to be the girl you think I am, the girl you dream of.

"Dance with me. Grab my ass, in front of everyone, and kiss me. Kiss me like you own me, because you do. I love you, you wonderful nerd." She looked round, shouted it out. "I LOVE YOU!!" Wrapping her hands round his neck, as he grabbed her ass as she'd insisted, she pulled his face down to kiss him, long and deep. "I love you so much, Simon. You consume me. I'm yours, totally yours."

They danced a little more. Claire suddenly had the realisation that her parents had met in a similar way at high school. Just as sci-fi had brought her closer to Simon, music had brought her parents together; they even played in a band for a while. It was like history repeating itself: experienced hot girl falls for virgin class nerd - and her parents had turned out alright, happily married for over 20 years. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, she thought, her heart pounding.

Simon had been right, back in her bedroom all those weeks ago. She was his first, but in many ways, he was hers too. The first man she'd opened up to. The first she could be herself with. The first she'd loved, as she could now admit to herself and to the world.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" she asked him, looking up into his eyes. That's when she saw the tears running down his face.

It wasn't that Simon didn't have any response. It was that he was so overcome, he couldn't speak. Instead, he went back in for another kiss, never wanting this perfect moment to end.

THE END

The story of how Claire's parents Paul and Samantha met is told in "Cultural Exchange", "Weekend at Samantha's", and the upcoming "Their Last Long Hot Summer".