Young Writers Society

"Okay, okay, wait." Michael's voice was muffled on the other end of the phone, which was entirely the fault of speaker phone. I had it lying on my chest, with Nicky's head on my stomach, while I was sprawled out on my bedroom floor.

"Did you kiss him?"

Nicky's head shot up, mouth hanging open in the slightest of ways. "How did I not think to ask you that?" She looked down at me, the lines worked into her forehead the picture of concern. "Did you kiss him?"

"No." I looked from Nicky to my ceiling, arms reaching up so that I could adjust the pillow I had under my head. "We were both too... tired, I guess. Didn't feel right to make that big a move while neither of us could fully understand the weight of it."

There was a pause, during which I could feel Nicky frowning at me. Which was odd, because I'd been positive that she would've been horrified if I'd said yes. I mean, Nicky was supportive of pretty much all my decisions and always had been, but I'd been anticipating a turn of the tables when I told her that Parker and I were official. It hadn't happened.

Michael was the one to speak up. "If you don't kiss him on Saturday, I'm flying back down there specifically to strangle you. Or smother you with your cat."

Nicky grunted, head returning to my stomach. "I'm disgusted with myself for saying so, but I almost- almost- second Michael. I mean, I still don't like him, but you two do have, like, fifty tons of chemistry. And he makes you happy, for whatever reason. So kudos. But if things go well on that date, and you still don't kiss him, I might have to shake you up a little."

I didn't know how to respond to that. If it had been Michael saying so, I wouldn't have been surprised. A response, equal in dry humour but more subtle about its placement, would've been on the tip of my tongue and out my mouth before any of us had time to blink. But it hadn't been Michael.

"I'll try to gather the guts to do so?" It was more question than statement, and both hands fell to my face and started rubbing. "If I don't kiss him, I don't kiss him. And I just survived one NDE. I don't need to have another."

Michael blew a raspberry, which sounded absolutely disgusting (more so than it did in real life) through the receiver. "I say you should've just jumped his bones right then and there. You're both virgins, right? Would've gotten off way before his aunty got home."

My face flushed, and Nicky let out the loudest, shortest sarcastic laugh. "You are not ruining our abstinence pact with your bad advice, Michael." She must have noticed how tense I got, because she squeezed my knee. "Don't listen to him, boo. You make that sucker wait. Watch him grovel a little."

I chuckled, but it came out nervous. "I planned on it. I mean, not the grovelling part, but the waiting part." I didn't want to make Parker grovel for anything. It was just rude. "Can we, you know, not talk about sex? Or, at the very least, not about me having it?" The more tension that built in my shoulders, the more pressure I felt on my chest. I was glad that Michael couldn't see me; I was sure that my face had contorted at least a little bit.

"Fine," was the response Michael gave me. Nicky was more sympathetic- I got a worried look from her that I countered with a reassuring smile. I took a deep breath and shot her a thumbs-up to boot.

"How's your love-life going there, Michael?" Nicky asked, and I mouthed a thank-you at her when she looked up for confirmation. She nodded and continued. "Any leeway?"

The sound that he made was indescribable- something vaguely resembling a dying elephant and a blender with a fried motor, all wrapped into one groan. "No. Don't even talk to me about Richard." He paused. "Actually, do. Because I'm selfish and I need to vent about how damn stubborn these Inuit boys are."

My eyebrows furrowed. "All Inuit boys, or just Richard?"

Another pause, and then, "Just Richard. Seriously though, he's kind of a prick." He sighed, and I wrinkled my nose at how crackly it sounded. "Like, totally down for a relationship when I got back, right? Bought me goddamn flowers and everything, and if you think bouquets are expensive in Ontario, lordy, you need to take a trip up here. But anyway, he was okay with bedding me yesterday night, and then we went out for a walk together today, and he said that the commitment's still freaking him out."

"Did he break up with you?" Nicky asked.

Michael laughed. "Yeah, no. I haven't been broken up with since Braz and I had our fling, and he's extra special, so it doesn't even count."

"Does so," I countered. Because it did count. "You'd looked like you wanted to cry a little bit and everything, Michael."

"Yeah, well, I didn't. And if you're not Brazil Liu, you don't just break up with Michael."

Nicky sat up again and spun around, legs crossing, chin propped on one fist. "Okay. So if he didn't break up with you, in what way does he resemble a prick?"

"Because he told me that he needs to not see me for a couple weeks outside of school."

Nicky and I winced simultaneously. "You know," I started, "as bad as that might feel-"

He cut me off. "Oh, please. Don't go on one of your lectures of understanding. I'm not even done yet."

I frowned. "What else did he say?"

"He was fine with casual sex."

Another pause. Nicky blew a bubble with her gum and popped it, brow cinched, forehead stormy. "Dump his sorry butt. That's just rude, Michael." She shot another sideways glance at me, and I waved my hand.

I'm fine, I mouthed at her, and she nodded.

Michael sighed, and once again, I had to make a face at the way it sounded coming through the phone. "I can't. Honestly, he's got his stuff, I guess. I told him that if he didn't want to see me for two weeks outside of school, he wasn't getting any ass, dick or mouth, and next time, he was blowing me to apologize. I'm not that promiscuous."

"You're not that promiscuous at all," I muttered, because he wasn't. Nobody else would have been, but both Nicky and I were surprised when he'd explained his Richard-wooing tactics the first time. To paraphrase, he planned on playing sex games. But in reality, Michael never had sex outside of a relationship that had the potential to last. Granted, he didn't qualify oral as actual sex, so it was more often than that, but still.

"Yeah, well. You'd still love me if I was. I'd still love me if I was."

"Amen," Nicky threw out.

He laughed, and then there was a fraction of a second where nobody said anything. Michael came back with an excited-sounding, frazzled, "Guys. Guys he's downstairs and he has flowers and I gotta go before my sister and her creeper-stache boyfriend scare him away."

"Details later!" Nicky demanded, and I called a lazy second.

"Yeah okay bye." The line clicked, and I grabbed the phone to hit the end call button.

I sat up as Nicky stood, and she held out her hands. I accepted the help, wincing when I put weight on my bad leg. They'd told me that it might bother me like that for the rest of my life, and I still hadn't decided how I felt about that. When it didn't hurt, it didn't feel like a big deal. When it did? I remembered that it was probably a pretty big deal.

"How's it feeling?" she asked with a half-frown.

I shrugged. "Not so good. It was worse yesterday, though."

Her eyebrows went up. "That had double-meaning and you know it. Wednesday, Braz. How're you feeling about Wednesday?"

That, I didn't know how, nor did I particularly want, to respond to. In fact, Wednesday was a topic that I would've preferred to avoid altogether. A certain cousin was coming with his now-wife, and he wasn't someone that I wanted to have anything to do with. At all. Ever. "Awful." I swallowed, rubbing the back of my neck with one hand, looking anywhere and at anything but Nicky. "I don't... do you think Michael knew that I panicked?"

"Nah. He's too busy writhing in his own angst to notice it. Not over the phone." She shuffled to my door, squeezing my shoulder on the way over. "You sure you're okay?"

I sighed, rubbing my face with both hands. "Not really. Chad's not exactly my favourite person. I didn't... need that." My hands fell, and she grabbed one of them and gave it a squeeze.

"Want me to be there on Wednesday? I can meet you after school lets out."

I paused, gaze landing on her other hand, which was wrapped around my doorknob. "Yeah." I swallowed, licking my lips. "My mom'll think it's rude, but- she doesn't know, you know? Being told that it's rude after they leave's better than facing them alone."

"Yeah," she whispered. "You'll be fine, okay? Their homophobic crap-holes can't do anything while everyone's there."

She opened the door, and I followed her out, murmuring an unconvincing, "I know," while still gripping her one hand like a lifeline. Granted, it practically was a lifeline. I was glad that she didn't mind when I needed that.

I tried to clear my head as we stepped into the living room, waving at Francis when she waved at me from the couch, our calico, Flu Bug, sprawled out over her lap. I'd named the beast when I was seven, and whereas the entire family always regretted my decision, I did not. Nobody else had a cat named Flu Bug.

"Are you guys still going out for supper?" Francis asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. Wanna come?" We couldn't exactly leave her here, and Mom had called before Michael had to tell us she'd be a little late. Plus, she calmed me down. "I think we're just going to that wing place on Eighth."

She grinned and nodded, removing cat from lap with no gentleness, and made a run for the door to put on her boots. "If Nicky's buying, Mom can probably pay her back for me." She grabbed the house key from the dish off the wire shelf we had shoved into the corner of the entry and stuffed it into her pocket.

"She doesn't have to pay me back," Nicky assured her, grabbing for her jacket.

"She probably will anyway," I said, nodding at France. "Put a jacket on, okay? It's March, not June." I grabbed mine, just to deplete what would've been my hypocrisy.

She sighed and grabbed it, and we all headed out to Nicky's car. All I could think about was Wednesday, and all I wanted to think about was Saturday.