Naked In School

"Good." He gave me a note to get into class. "Get going."

I did-accounting had already started. I gave the teacher the note, and he waved me to my seat.

"Where have you been?" Natalie whispered as I sat down.

"Just something I had to take care of," I whispered back. The teacher shot us a look, so we quieted down.

Natalie pretty much avoided me after that. She didn’t say much in the classes we shared. She ate lunch with us, but planted herself down the table from me with the girls.

I thought, all day, about what Ellie said. Did I have the guts to do this?

Anyhow, we got out of school, and went for our clothes at the entrance. She started walking away and I grabbed her.

"Listen, would you come to the baseball game?"

"I don’t know," she said.

"I’d like to talk afterwards," I told her.

"Look, Ed, I said all I have to say this morning."

"I don’t know if I did," I replied.

She drew herself up and stared into my eyes. "There’s only one thing you have to say, Ed Bauer. Yes or no. I can’t do this. I don’t have the strength. I poured my heart out at you today, I can’t do it again. There’s nothing to talk about. Yes, or no, that’s all."

"But, I don’t know if…" I started.

"That’s the problem! I can’t deal with you not knowing! If you’re going to break my heart, get it over with already!" She was almost frantic, and we were being stared at. She took a breath and calmed down. "Yes or no, Ed. I told you want I want. I told you what I need. Yes or no. That’s all you have to say. Yes, or no."

Make a fucking decision, Ed, I said to myself. And you know what the only true decision is. So, I took her hands in mine, and said, "Yes, goddammit, yes! Yes!." She looked at me in utter shock. I laughed. "I don’t even know what the question is, but if you’re asking, then it’s yes. OK? Yes." And then I kissed her. "Yes." I only wish I had a camera to take her picture then. I kissed her again. Then I dropped her hands. "I have to go play baseball," I said with a grin. And then I headed for the field, leaving her standing there.

Standing there in utter shock. But I saw, as I disappeared around the corner, the beginnings of a stunned smile forming on her lips.

Ellie’d be proud of me. I was proud of me. I was also terrified. But I couldn’t say no. I just couldn’t.

Thank God for baseball. I needed something else to think about for the next two hours.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN NATALIE

Oh my God.

Did what I think just happened really happen?

I couldn’t believe I had done what I just did. I stood up for myself. I practically attacked him-verbally-and didn’t back down. In front of a whole parking lot full of people!

And he said yes.

Oh God.

I felt…giddy. Me. Giddy, of all things. And tingly. Oh God.

I headed towards the baseball field. I couldn’t go home and leave things like this. Bought a ticket, went in. It was just then that it dawned on me that I was still nude. I really was getting used to this. Whatever, I had to be nude here, anyway.

I wandered through the stands in a stupor. I found Jared and Amanda and sat down next to them. Obviously, I had a dazed look on my face, because Amanda said, "Hi, Natalie. Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Fine. Better than that." I grinned at them. "I think I just asked Ed to go out with me. And I think he just said yes."

"You think?" Jared said, amused.

"It wasn’t your normal conversation." I told them about what Ed had told me before school.

"Yeah, I knew all about Annie," Amanda said. "And I knew it still affected him."

"Well, I guess I lit into him a little bit," I admitted.

"You did?" Amanda said, surprised.

"Yeah. I was mad. I thought we really had a chance at something, and I thought he was going to blow it. So I told him, don’t be an idiot. Then, after school, when he said he wanted to talk some more, I told him that I was all talked out, and the only thing I wanted to hear him say was yes or no." I blushed. "He said yes." I laughed. "I’m not sure either of us knows exactly what he said yes to, mind you-I was just winging it in the parking lot-but he said yes all the same."

"That’s great. And funny," Amanda laughed. "I’m happy, for both of you. Well, as soon as you figure out what ‘yes’ means."

"I think we both have an idea," I grinned. "I amazed myself. I didn’t think I had that in me."

"You’ve changed a lot in the past four days," Jared said. "The program will do that."

"Yeah, who woulda thunk it?" I laughed.

Amanda looked at me, suddenly serious. "I can’t help this, Natalie. I have to say this. I knew Annie, she was my friend, too, back then-and Ed was one of my very best friends even then. I saw the whole thing from beginning to end." She took a breath. "And, I apologize, I have to say this. If you rake him over the coals, I will hunt you down and kill you."

I was taken aback by that, for a minute. She was dead serious. Then it dawned on me, just what that meant. And I said it. "Ed’s a lucky guy to have such good friends," I smiled. And I meant it. Nobody was telling him not to rake me over the coals. Not that I thought for a second he would. But he really was lucky.

Amanda blinked, and grinned. "I thought you’d get mad at me. I just, you know, saw what he was like…"

"I know," I told her. "Look, it’s OK. I’m not mad. Look, I don’t know what the future holds. I think Ed and I are still figuring out what the present holds. But I’m not going to rake him over the coals. I promise." I thought for a minute. "Yesterday morning, I told Ed a few things about myself. Has he told either of you any of it?" They both said no. "I’m pretty sure he told Mike, and I’d expect that. I can’t do it myself again, but I’ll tell Ed he can say anything he wants to the two of you. And, if you know certain things about me, you might realize how hard this is for me. You also might realize that Ed means far more to me than either of you realize. You know his past, so you know how far out on the limb he went by saying yes to me."

"Right," Amanda said. "That’s why I’m a bit worried."

"And I don’t blame you. What you don’t know is I went right off the limb."

"OK," she said. "I’ll take your word for it. I know you had some serious problems, but I don’t know what they were. But that’s fine." She grinned. "I saw how you were looking at Ed last night. That’s quite a reassurance."

"Was I really?" I laughed.

"You were glowing," Jared laughed.

"Oh, that. Well, yeah, OK, some of it was just general glowing at him. But the glowing was partially post-orgasmic. And my very first, at that."

"WHAT?" Amanda said, amazed and grinning. "You and Ed…"

"With his hand," I pointed out.

"You’re kidding. I’ve seen you in the halls when guys’ hands go down there," Amanda said.

"Yeah. And that was Ed’s idea. I had told him, earlier, that I trusted him. So he decided to take matters into his own hands, so to speak," I giggled. "He took me to his bedroom, made me lie down on his bed with him, and spooned behind me. He started with his hands around my waist, and he kept telling me to breathe deep and relax. And it worked, which shocked the daylights out of me. And when I was nice and relaxed, he moved his hands from around my waist. And moved them other places. And he kept whispering encouraging words." I grinned. "And a few minutes later I was very relaxed."

"Wow," Amanda said. Then she looked at me. "But that’s not the whole attraction, I hope."

"Of course not," I said. "It’s part of it, I won’t deny it. Hey, you’ve told me straight out that you’ve had multiple partners but nobody compares to Jared, right?"

"Not by a long shot," she grinned.

"Look, I’ve never been able to abide anything from anybody-not even touching. And Ed made me cum. He made me cum because he got me to relax. He got me to relax because I already trusted him-and already had some feelings for him."