Hell, yes.
Like I said, The Program is a dangerous thing.
I had gotten burned too many times trying to make a friendship into something more-but that was always because I was turned down. Or, like that one I talked about, where the girl just wanted friendship with a little sex on the side. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
Luckily, after art, Cassie seemed back to normal. We walked to lunch, chatting about normal things. She didn’t make any jokes about me fingering her, and she wasn’t looking at me funny. We ate lunch with all my pals. She was fine. I breathed a sigh of relief.
We walked to our next classes-different, but near each other-and I noticed she was getting fondled more. I was glad.
The rest of the day was fine. I saw her in last period, she was fine. I went to baseball practice, she went to band practice. It was just post-orgasmic bliss, like she said.
I ate, did my homework, and went to bed.
CHAPTER EIGHT CASSIEI was in turmoil the whole afternoon, I admit it. Oh, I hid it from him. I saw the look on his face when he saw my drawings-and what I saw was fear. He knew what was in my head when I drew him-and it scared him.
Hell, it scared me.
He’s your friend, Cassie. Friend, friend, friend. That’s what I kept telling myself. After a while, it almost worked.
The good thing was that it seemed like people were getting more used to the scars. I got fondled a lot more in the hallways that afternoon. I even got fingered to an orgasm in the gym showers, by a guy I didn’t even know.
He wasn’t as good as Frankie, though.
Ah, shit. I just had to stop thinking about this. I just had to. It wasn’t ever going to happen. It wouldn’t be fair to Frankie or me if we risked our friendship on a quick fuck. No matter how much I wanted it. And, let’s not forget, I had no idea whether or not he would want it.
I got through the rest of the afternoon, and band practice. Went home, ate, did my homework. OK, I confess-I was a little distracted doing my homework.
I played with myself before I went to sleep. I thought about Frankie while I was doing it.
Oh, hell.
PART THREE WEDNESDAY
I got to school the next morning, and met up with Cass. Everything seemed fine, she was her normal self. We went to the entrance, got undressed, and went inside.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
We walked in, and noticed people huddled in knots at various points along the corridor. We went to one of them, and took a look. People were looking at something that had been hung up on the walls.
GodDAMMIT!
Someone had gotten a camera. Somehow, they had taken a picture of Cassie-not all of her, just from the bottom of her breasts to her knees. Yeah, in other words, the scarred area. They had copied this picture and had hung it up all along the walls-each one with a ‘clever’ caption. One said, "Get the new Cassie Vyshenko road map!" Another one said, "Play connect the dots on Cassie’s stomach!" And one-the cruelest one-said, "Windshield one, Cassie zero!"
It was horrible. And poor Cassie turned white, and then started bawling. She was crying out in the middle of the halls-the crowded halls, remember-while these horrible pictures of her were hanging all over the place. Everyone was looking at her. I put my arm around her and she cried on my shoulder.
"We need to go see Mr. Tilling," I said. She sniffled and nodded.
We got there, and walked in. "Cassie? What’s wrong?" he asked when he saw her crying.
"Mr. Tilling, have you walked the halls this morning?" I asked him.
"No, not yet."
"You might want to do so. We’ll wait here. That’s better than explaining." He looked at me, and then walked out of his office. I cuddled Cassie against me and let her cry it out. She was starting to settle down when Mr. Tilling walked back into the office, a pile of the pictures in his hand, and a furious look on his face.
"Cassie, I’m sorry this happened. Believe me, we will find out who did this and they will be punished."
"Oh, we know who did it," I said, "We just can’t prove it."
Cassie nodded, and said, "Missy Jenkins and Laura Elliot. There’s no doubt in my mind. They’ve been cruel about this all week."
"I thought they were your best friends," Mr. Tilling said.
"Yeah, so did I," Cassie said. "But they’re not. Not after the last two days. They’ve said some horrible things to me."
"And I went after them, in defense of Cassie, on Monday," I added. "This is their idea of revenge, I have no doubt. I’d bet my spot on the baseball team that it was them."
"Well, then that’s where will at least start the investigation," said Mr. Tilling. "Cassie, are you all right?"
"No, I’m not," she said, and took a deep breath. "Mr. Tilling, I’d like to ask a favor." Another deep breath. "I’d like for you to go to the box outside and get my clothes, please."
I looked at her in shock. Mr. Tilling was pretty surprised himself. "Cassandra, are you sure?" he asked.
"Yeah. I can’t do this anymore."
"All right. Be right back."
He left, and I turned to her. "Cassie, I think you’re making a mistake."
"Easy for you to say," she snorted.
"No, it’s not. I saw those pictures, too. And I can’t help feel partially responsible because of how I ripped into them. But you can’t let them win, Cass."
"Dammit, Frankie, this isn’t a baseball game! This is my life! I’m a freak. I’m deformed, as one of them said yesterday. I walk around the halls and people look at me like I’m a monster."
"But I thought that was getting better," I argued. "It looked like you were getting more attention in the halls late yesterday, at least when I saw you."
"Well, a little," she admitted.
"People are getting used to it. I think some people are deciding it doesn’t detract from the rest of you. It’s just a few people, Cassie. I told you before, I think you’re beautiful."
She smiled sadly at me. "Frankie, I appreciate it, but let’s face it-it’s easier for you to say that. We’re friends, and you’re also my Program partner."
"Being friends does not make it easier. Are you kidding me?" I didn’t mean to say it, it just came out. "Dammit, Cassie, it would be easier if we weren’t friends. Because, if we weren’t, I could do what I really want to do every time I see you naked-ask you if you’ll come in the woods with me and let me fuck your brains out. Fuck, I haven’t been touched at all today and I have a raging hard on! Where do you think I got it? More to the point, who do you think gave it to me? The gorgeous naked chick next to me, that’s who."
Oh, shit. Did I really say all that? It was out before I could stop myself. Take can of worms, open, and spill all over the floor. And she was looking at me in complete shock.
"Shit, now I’ve said too much. Forget all that. But, please, drop this ‘it’s only because you’re my friend’ crap, OK?"
"OK," she said with a little smile. Just then, Mr. Tilling came back into his office. "I’m sorry, Mr. Tilling, but I’ve changed my mind." She grinned. "Frankie convinced me to stay in The Program."
"Good for Frankie. I’ll put your clothes back in the box later on. Now, get to class, would you? You’re already late for first period. And, don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of those pictures.
We thanked him, and took off.
Well, at least my diatribe helped her. I wasn’t feeling too great, myself. Oh, man, I did not want to tell her that!
Ah, well, I couldn’t take it back now. And it wasn’t a lie. If we weren’t friends, I would’ve killed to get her in bed. But we were friends. And, as I said, that just didn’t work.