This Is Our Story Ch. 09

Then the heavy curtains that separated the lab from the classroom parted, and in came Heather. The curtains didn't see much use, but once in a while it made for a nice private place for an interview when the editor's office was unavailable. (Sometimes, less scrupulous students used it as a place to nap or make out.) When Heather turned to draw them closed behind her, it gave Conner a moment to appreciate her beauty before she turned around again and he had to play it cool. She was even prettier than usual today in a cream-colored sweater and thin red dress with black ankle-high boots. More than that, she was smiling and happy and as lovely as ever.

"Feeling pretty cocky about that exam, eh?" he said, swiveling his chair to face her. He kept his voice low so it wouldn't carry into the classroom. The curtains muffled sound, but with an exam in progress, he wanted to be courteous to the rest of the class still testing in the classroom.

"After working all semester under the editor-in-chief himself? Forget about it!" She laughed, settling down on the desktop right next to him. Once, having such a girl's hips not two feet away from his face would have been too distracting to handle; thanks to his time Hailey, he was unfazed.

"Yeah, that was a pretty easy one, I thought. Though did you notice that part on page two where she went from 12-point font to 11.5? Party foul, Miss C." He grinned, knowing Heather usually found his font-nerdery amusing.

"Yeah, it super bothered me, too," she replied with playful sarcasm, then giving way to a little laugh. "But yeah, that's my last final! All my ones for tomorrow had final projects and papers, so I am officially done with my second-to-last semester of high school!"

"Congrats, superstar. Seven down, one to go."

"You say that like there's no chance I'll flunk all my classes next spring."

They bantered on for a couple minutes. Outwardly he was trying his best to seem normal, but on the inside he could feel his guts twisting in anxiety, like they were trying to squeeze the question out of him. The moment met all the criteria on his checklist. They were alone together. She was in a good mood. He'd made her laugh. They weren't somewhere they'd be stuck together for a long time after (in case it went badly).

No guts, no glory.

"Heather, I think you're really pretty, and smart, and funny, and I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but... would you maybe wanna go out sometime?" The words had all come out in a massive rush, and he might have even interrupted her. He didn't know. Deep breath. "With me, that is."

One side of her lips quirked up into a half-smile. "Were you worried I might think you were asking me out for someone else?"

"You don't get to be editor-in-chief without owing people some favors," he joked, glad his voice didn't break.

A full smile at that. But only for a moment. "Look," she began, and he could already feel his heart dropping down through his intestines. "I think you're a really nice guy, Conner. Honestly. You're one of the nicest people I know. But I've been thinking lately that... well, high school is almost over, you know? And then the summer, and then - as long as I keep up my A's - I'll be off to college, and... I'm just not looking to start a relationship right now. Do you understand?"

This was Conner's first rejection of consequence; right now, he could barely understand which way was up and down. "Yeah. Yeah, I get that."

She made a sympathetic face, sensing his disappointment. "Oh, Conner. Seriously, this is not a reflection of you at all. If you'd ask me a month or two ago, I totally would've said yes. You're a great guy, and any girl would be lucky to have you."

Conner was right about to respond when suddenly, he heard a voice from not far away. "You guys! Conner just asked out Heather, and she totally shut him down!"

Two things happened simultaneously then. The first was that Jordan threw open the curtains, treating Conner to the sight of his broad, shit-eating grin, as well as the rest of the class looking up from their exams. Miss C was looking up from her seat at her desk in shock and budding anger at Jordan for disrupting her final.

The other thing was that Conner fainted.

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Jordan was already gone, banished to the vice principal's office, when Conner came to. Miss C was kneeling over him, and kept him from standing up with a firm hand on his chest. She looked quite nearly panicked, but as Conner realized his head was positively throbbing, he directed his sympathy back inward. He must have hit his head on the floor when he fell; it hurt like hell when he put a hand to it.

Heather returned a moment later with the school nurse, Mrs. Bissell, who asked him a few simple wellness questions before asking DeShaun to help steady him on his way to her office. DeShaun, who Conner was pretty sure he'd seen laughing at Jordan's stunt, murmured a few reassuring words, for which the editor-in-chief was grateful. DeShaun wasn't a bad guy, Conner decided; he was just a normal dude who'd needed a moment to remember his kindness. He thanked his staffer for the help as he left him with Mrs. Bissell.

Conner spent the rest of the afternoon in the nurse's office. It seemed Heather had told her how it had happened; Mrs. Bissell didn't make him rehash it, but he could tell she knew. While she was quite concerned about him, the boy assured her the only thing he was in danger of dying from was humiliation. She had the presence of mind to ask about his ride home, so Owen and Angelica were summoned via the school's intercom right before the last bell, so the announcement didn't interrupt exams.

"Wow, dude. That's... that's just..." Owen began, once he'd heard Conner's tale.

"That's the worst fucking rejection story in the history of rejection," Angelica supplied. "Seriously. The only way that could have been worse was if she'd been making out with Jordan when you woke up."

"Lucky me, she already got that out of her system junior year," he grumped.

"I mean, can you play sick tomorrow?" Owen asked. "It's gonna be bad, for sure. I already heard people saying your name on the way down here, but I didn't know what for."

"No can do. Still have three more exams tomorrow." He sighed.

"I'd worry fainting ran in the family, except we're not blood-related," Angelica said. Conner had almost forgotten her initial reaction to learning what TIOS had done to her. "So what'd Heather say, anyway? I mean, besides 'no.'" Angelica asked.

Conner frowned. "You'll be happy to know you were right - only she was ahead of the curve. Doesn't want to get in a relationship right before leaving for college. She even said if I'd asked sooner, she'd have said yes." Just remembering it was like a punch in the gut. She might have been saying that to let him down easy, but that thought didn't help.

"Ouch. That's rough, man. Sorry." Owen patted his shoulder.

"Me too." He raised his voice so it would reach the nurse in her office. "Mrs. Bissell? Is it OK if I get going?"

She rolled her chair back into the doorway and addressed her reply to the other two. "He should be fine - just keep an eye on him, and definitely don't let him drive. You may want to see a doctor about your head. One of you got your license?"

They both responded in the affirmative, and with that, the nurse went back to her paperwork and let them leave. Conner laid down in the back seat and did his best to pretend he couldn't hear his stepsister giving Owen road head while he drove them home. If she overdid it and he crashed and they all died, it would be the perfect end to his day.

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"I can get Heather to go out with you, if you want," Angelica said abruptly in the middle of their study session later that night. With the necessity of icing the bruise on his head, Conner had had no choice but to tell her he fainted. He'd had to practically force the woman to leave him be after that, so his study time was now in preciously short supply.

His stepsister had interrupted his rehashing of Newton's second law of motion mid-sentence, but her offer bade him ignore the rudeness. "Um, what? How exactly are you going to do that?"

"Easy. We hang out with some of the same people, so we're quasi-friends. Friends enough that it wouldn't be weird for us to talk. All I need to do is steer the conversation in the right direction, and push it until she says something you can put into your little yearbook thingy and presto! She's yours."

"No. I'm not going to use TIOS to... force her."

"Oh, you make me..." She glanced to the door, then lowered her voice. "Make me addicted to your dork friend's cock, but suddenly you're too high and mighty to do it for yourself?"

"Look, I'm sorry about that, and I told you I'd undo it if I could, but I can't."

She shook her head. "Well lucky for you I fucking love that thing, so I can't seem to mind. Which, by the way, is basically my point. You go this route, and she'll bethankingyou for it. Sure, maybe there was a time when I would have rather put dog shit in my mouth than Owen's dick, but now? My sex life hasnever been better. It's the fucking bomb."

"You only feel that way because wemade you."

"So? Nobody evermade you try something you turned out to like? My dad had to make me get on a roller coaster; Jenna had to make me try yoga; you and Owen had to make me try cock addiction. Now, even if you could undo it, I'd fight to stop you."

"Still..."

"Still nothing. Think about it. Heather Blake, those ginormous bazongas of hers flopping around while she'd perched on your shwing-shwong, coming her brains out and has so much fun she thanks you for the privilege and begs for another go. Tell me how that'snot a favor...?"

"I'm glad you're having fun, I really am, and I know Owen's happy with the arrangement. But I don't want that for Heather. She's great the way she is, and I'll just have to suck it up."

"Oh come on. She said she would've gone out with you, right? Let me at least give you theoption. You'd never have to use it, but maybe one day you'll realize she's cheating herself out of, what, seven or eight months of potential happiness? And you'll want to help her get out of her own way."

Conner's eyes narrowed. "All right, let's say I take you up on this. What's in this for you, Saint Angelica?"

"There ya go." She grinned. "Look, are you gonna be OK if I speak frankly?"

"You couldn't say anything worse than what I've already seen you two doing."

"Good. So... look, there are times when Owen and I are hanging out that he just... well, gets selfish. Like, he's sitting there playing video games, and even though there's no reason I couldn't keep his dick in my mouth while he plays, he zips up and won't let me do more than lay with my head in his lap. Or that weekend when he visited his grandparents, and when he came back he'd backed up so much he came in like twenty seconds and then kicked me right out. Or another time, when-"

Conner held up his hands to bid her to stop. "I get it, I get it. You want more access."

"Total access. I only want him to want what I want. I'm not asking for anything you didn't already do for him."

Conner thought again of the study of the rats, starving to death because they wouldn't stop seeking the dopamine release. It took Conner fewer than five seconds to imagine the likely result of her request: Owen and Angelica dropping out of school and spending every second of every day with his cock in her. They'd wind up two degenerates living under a bridge because work would mean taking a break.

"No thanks, Angelica."

"But-"

"I said no. Now do you want to study, or are you on your own?"

"Looks like I'm on my own," she said with a glare, storming out and slamming his door behind her. He groaned at the effect it had on his headache.

Conner wasn't able to resume studying after she left. What she had said made some sense. Heather had said she would've liked to have dated him, and had insisted he was a nice guy. Great guy, he thought she'd said. They could always break up at the end of the summer if they wanted, and in the meantime make hay while the sun was shining.

Plus, there was the other issue he'd been dreading. Tomorrow, he'd have to go back to school and face a building full of students - teachers too, probably - who knew he was the loser who'd asked a girl out and passed out when she rejected him. He'd be a laughing stock. Conner had never been part of the in crowd, but this was the kind of thing that would relegate him all the way down to the Hefty Hailey level on the social ladder. He could picture his peers snickering as he walked by, pointing and whispering - and some not bothering to whisper - behind his back.

There goes Conner Fishers, the pussy who fainted at Heather Blake's feet when she shot him down.

Unless Heather changed her mind. It would be a lot harder to mock him if he had the gorgeous busty blonde on his arm. She already trusted his every word as gospel. Surely he could find some combination of words that would get her to give it a try. Save him from being a walking punchline.

Not that that was the reason he was going to do it. Err, might do it. Was considering doing it. But probably wouldn't.

Probably.

There goes Conner Fishers...

No. He wasn't going to change Heather's story any more than he already had. If that meant taking some lumps, then she was well worth it.

With a regretful sigh, he opened up his physics book, and started in on Newton's third law.For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction...