I turned to look at Jason. He was watching Hip as well, his eyebrows furrowed, face set into a full frown. I was confused, then I realized that was the first time Hip had done something that intimate to me in public and it was in front of Jason. As far as I was aware, he had no idea about the others and might think that he and I were exclusive now.
“Jason…”
His eyes snapped to me. “Yes?”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I didn't know what to say! It wasn’t like I could outright say, ‘hey, you're not the only guy I'm interested in or is interested in me.’
I never felt like more of a whore in that moment.
I couldn’t look at him. Instead I shut my mouth and stared down at my shoes like they were the most interesting things in the world.
“I talked to Percy the other day,” Jason began. I saw him shifting around out of the corner of my eye, messing with the old satchel at his side. “He told me about…he told me he had feelings for you.”
My heart stopped for a moment and my gaze left my shoes to look up at him, my eyes wide.
“He also said he wasn’t the only one,” he added.
Oh my God, I wasn’t ready for this. He knew. I couldn’t do this. What did he think of me? Why did I care? I shouldn’t care what he or any one of the other guys thought of me, but I did.
Not really knowing what to do, I bolted. Like a coward, I tried to justify my running with the fact that class was about to start, and I didn’t want to be late. I didn’t get far.
Jason shouted my name and took my hand, jerking me backwards. I looked at him, anxiety quickly morphing into panic.
I said the only thing I could think of. “Jason, please believe me that I’m not trying to take Percy from you. I swear, when he kissed me I—”
“He kissed you?” He interrupted.
“Yes,” I squeaked.
“He didn’t tell me that. When did he kiss you?”
I couldn’t look him in the eyes, so I stared down at my shoes again. “The day that he took me home.”
He growled. "That fucker…Well at least it was before.”
I glanced back up at him. “Before what?”
“Before I told him how I felt about you.”
“Jason, I’m sorry,” I said, knowing that my apology meant nothing.
“When he kissed you, did you stop him because you wanted to or because you were afraid to hurt me?”
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” I replied, surprised by his question.
“But not really because we were literally going on a date the next day, or because I was interested in you. But because I told you of my feelings for him.” He pointed out.
He wasn’t wrong. That day, while I had felt somewhat bad about kissing Percy when I had a date with Jason, I had honestly been more worried about hurting Jason’s feelings over kissing his longtime crush.
I bit my lip and nodded in confirmation.
His face scrunched up and he leaned forward and ran his hands through his hair. “Ugh! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“Jason, I’m—”
“No,” he held his hand up. “please don’t apologize again. I don’t hold monopoly on who Percy likes and your feelings are your own. If you have feelings for Percy…or even Hip, that's none of my business. I asked you on a date, not to be a nun.”
“But—”
He shook his head, halting me again. “Just tell me one thing. Do I stand a chance? Because I could handle this a lot better if I wasn’t fooling myself into trying to think that I actually stood a chance being with you.”
What the fuck do you say to something like that? When someone begs you to consider them. Of course, I thought about Jason. And yes, I could admit that I liked him. But to basically be asking someone to be okay with being one of several, vying for my attention?
It wasn’t right, and I should just lie and tell him I felt nothing for him. Break his heart so he could go find someone else.
I certainly should, and I would, and—OMG WHY WAS I KISSING HIM?!
My lips were currently locked onto his, my hands up into his hair keeping him close to me like my life depended on it. His own hands hesitated for a moment before sweeping right under my butt and pulling. My legs were heaved up and wrapped around him. He held me up, devouring my mouth.
I felt us moving until there was a wall at my back. He pressed into me about as close as he possibly could be, grinding himself against me.
In the back of my mind I knew that we were outside the school, and there were probably stragglers who were seeing a show, but I didn't care. All I cared about right then was having Jason and keeping his lips on mine.
“Atalanta,” He murmured against my lips between kisses.
I hummed in question. I tugged lightly at his hair, enticing a hiss from him. I was rewarded with him grinding just a bit harder against me.
He broke away with a gasp. “We should probably stop.”
I growled and used my hold on his hair to pull him back towards me. I wanted to finish what he had started the other day. This time with no broken table to get in our way.
Of course, I didn’t consider teachers being worse than coffee tables.
I heard a throat being cleared once, twice, three times, and didn't even consider what the sound meant until someone said, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Will you break it up before I have to give you both detention for indecent behavior?”
I pulled my mouth away to see Mr. K standing next to us, his arms crossed and his eyebrow quirked.
The flare of embarrassment nearly doused the warmth of my arousal as I hopped out of Jason’s arms.
Mr. K smirked. “Get to class, Ms. North.”
He moved aside and gestured towards the front door. I looked back at Jason. His eyes were crazed as he breathed heavily and stared at me like a man starved and I was a huge steak.
As I walked away, I could have sworn I saw Jason begin to follow me, but Mr. K stopped him.
My head down, I made my way to get a tardy slip from the front office and then head to class. I made some excuse about having woman problems and the thirty something year old male history professor clamped right up about my tardiness.
A few of the students stared at me curiously, but none with the look that said, ‘I know what you’ve been doing’.
That didn’t last long, as by second period I was getting those looks and whispers were flying around the classroom. By third period, I got my first question.
“Did you really get caught giving Jason Monroe a blowjob?” A girl with huge glasses and braces asked me.
I scrunched my nose at her. “What? No.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, but it didn’t really look like she believed me.
After that, I noticed as I walked the halls that people were staring and murmuring under their breath.
I wouldn’t have cared about the rumors, but so many eyes on me at once made me nervous and for some reason Jason didn’t meet me in between classes like he normally did, so I suffered through the discomfort alone.
By the time lunch had rolled around I had been asked twice about giving Jason a blow job, three times about being caught just fucking in front of the school, and one time a guy asked me if it was true that I let Jason do me in the ass. The rumor mill was a funny thing. The truth hardly ever stayed the same color.
Jason wasn’t at the door to my classroom when the bell rang, and he wasn’t outside sitting with Davie and Margo either. As they weren’t technically my friends, I was nervous to approach them without Jason.
“Come on, Atalanta, there’s nothing to be afraid of. They like you even without him around,” A voice whispered next to me. It was warm like honey and soothed my nerves.