[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 96 & 97. (Patreon)

Chapter 96: Women, right?

At a simple glance, Thomas seemed to be doing quite alright. I knew he had other friends to talk to. Maybe it wasn’t necessary that I came here, but it was good to see him doing a bit better.

“I just… wanted to see how you were doing,” I told Thomas.

Ben grimaced. “Did you just find out?” he asked me.

“Nah, he’s the first one I told,” Thomas said.

“What? And you don’t trust us?” Kevin asked, mockingly looking hurt.

“No. You would’ve told everyone the moment you found out. Actually, you sent the message to the basketball team chat, Kevin, and I hadn’t even told you yet.”

Kevin raised his arms, not even trying to deflect the blame. “I just thought the guys should know. You wouldn’t want them making inappropriate comments, right?”

“I suppose.” Thomas sighed and shot me an easy smile. “Anyway. I’m doing well, Oliver. Better than yesterday. Sorry for that, actually, but thanks for being there. It meant a lot.”

“What? Did you guys hit up a strip club or something?” Ben jokingly asked.

“Whaaaat? And you didn’t invite us!?” Kevin asked.

“We didn’t go to a fucking strip club.” Thomas shook his head with some frustration. “We went to the park, did some free shots at the half courts, poor Oliver had to listen to me vent for about an hour.”

I chuckled. “It’s fine. I still don’t know how you didn’t miss a single one, though.”

“Right!?” Kevin suddenly said, looking at me. “It’s WEIRD! I swear this guy made a pact with the devil. He doesn’t miss free shots.”

“Nah, that’s Oliver,” Thomas said, grinning teasingly. “He’s the one who sold his soul in exchange for some crazy benefits.”

I tensed up and my cheeks flushed. “Come on, Thomas…” I moaned in complaint.

“Ooooh, I know what he’s talking about,” Ben grinned as well. “We were there at Thomas’ birthday party. You’re the one who went to the second floor with Sarah, Grace and Milana, right?”

“Crap, that’s right!” Kevin exclaimed, then started to speak in hushed tones. “Come on, man! Give us some details. What happened in there?”

“Don’t tell them crap, Oliver,” Thomas said. “Not if you want to keep your privacy.”

“Then why did you have to bring it up?” I asked, frustrated.

Thomas laughed. “Sorry. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. It really does feel like you made a pact with a devil, though.”

“...I can’t deny it, but I don’t remember doing anything like that.”

“Wait, so there’s really something going on there?” Kevin asked, eyebrows raised. “I was just joking.”

“...” I pursed my lips and swallowed to try to ease the lump in my throat. A part of me wanted to vent, but I also wasn’t going to reveal anything. Not to people I had only just met. Still… “It’s… strange. I barely understand what’s happening. Sometimes I don’t know if they’re sending signals or just being friendly. I don’t know if I’m reading too much into something or if they just do it because it’s normal for them. It’s a little frustrating at times.”

“Ugh, I get you!” Kevin groaned and patted my shoulder, his hand heavy with sympathy. It took me by surprise. “Girls don’t understand how hard it is to understand what they mean! They look at you with pretty eyes and a charming smile, so you start thinking she’s into you but don’t want to assume anything. It’s just a look, it can’t mean that much. Months go by, you finally dare to ask her out and she tells you she was sending signals all the time. And I’m like ‘HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!?’”

“Worst is that it’s always on us to ask them out, right?” Ben agreed with a heartfelt nod. “They send their ‘signals’ and we’re supposed to be the ones to act, and they blame us if we don’t. It’s not like it’s gonna hurt my pride if a girl asks me out first.”

“Huh? I’ve been asked out by girls before,” Thomas said, surprised by his friends’ comments.

Both shoved him by the shoulders.

“Shut up, you,” Kevin told him. “You’re attractive, popular, sociable… You don’t understand the struggles of us lesser men.”

“H-Hey…” I started, but didn’t know what to say. I mean, was it okay to say that to the guy whose girlfriend for six months had just broken up with him?

Thomas, however, simply shrugged. “Sounds to me like you’re lacking some confidence. Actually, you know what?” He stood up straight and pointed his arm and a finger to the door. “It’s been two months. Go and ask Lena out on a date right now, Kevin.”

“W-What? N-Now?” Kevin asked with a horrified face.

Lena… Lena… Ah! The slightly chubby girl from my class who was friends with Amanda and Mark. “I think she’s still in my classroom,” I said. “In fact, let me check.”

I went for my phone and sent a quick text to Mila, asking her if she knew where Lena was.

-Mila: Hm? What do you need her for? Anyway, she’s still here in the classroom.

“Yeah, Mila says she’s still there,” I confirmed.

Thomas and Ben gave me a thumbs up each. “Nice,” they said.

“W-Wait. I can’t just go and ask her!”

“Sure you can,” Thomas said. “You guys have been friendly for two months. It won’t be weird to ask her out on a date. Look, I just got dumped, Kevin. It’ll really cheer me up if you get a date with the girl you like.”

“And if she says no?”

“Then I’ll have someone to suffer with me. So go.” He gave Kevin a hard pat on the back.

Kevin hid his face in his hands and let out a loud groan. But when he lifted his head, his eyes looked resolute. “Alright! I’m doing it! I’m doing it!”

Kevin stormed out of the classroom. Thomas tapped my shoulder and urged me to go with him and Ben to follow their friend and spy on him. We ran after Kevin but kept our distance.

The tall guy called out to Lena from outside the classroom. She came out to meet him with a casual approach. And here’s the most incredible thing. I barely knew Kevin, but from what I remembered from my brief time as the basketball team manager and in my short interaction with him just now, I could tell he was a sociable guy. Maybe not a social butterfly like Thomas, but an outgoing guy who wasn’t scared to say what he thought. And yet this guy was now a nervous mess in front of the girl he liked. He was a little jittery, he was moving his arms and hands more than he was before, he was talking faster, too, though we were too far to hear what he was saying. Safe to say, he wasn’t himself.

Then we saw Lena looking surprised. She covered her mouth with one hand, and Kevin’s expression nearly turned from nervous to horrified. But then Lena smiled at him, said something we didn’t hear and nodded. They exchanged some more words before they waved goodbye. Lena went back into the classroom and Kevin walked directly towards us.

Once he was close enough, Kevin couldn’t hold his own smirk anymore and ran up to Thomas, hugging the guy and jumping for joy with him.

“She said, yes, dude! She said YES! We’re going out this Saturday!”

“I told you! I fucking TOLD YOU!” Thomas laughed and jumped along with Kevin, giving his friend hard pats on the back. Ben cheered with them as well, and even I couldn’t help but feel excited with them.

This guy had taken a chance, nervous as he was, and it paid off. How could I not be happy for him when I could relate so hard?

************

Chapter 97: Plans.

“Holy crap, thanks for pushing me into it,” Kevin said, still laughing from excitement and euphoria. Then he turned to me. “You too, Oliver. Jesus Christ! I can’t believe that just happened!”

Me? What the hell did I do?

The bell signaling the end of the first recess rained on our parade. Still, I accomplished my task and more. Thomas looked fine, and I didn’t think he was faking it. I could totally believe he was the type to feel better if his friends were doing well. I mean, it took only a glance to see how damn happy he was that Kevin got a date with his crush.

“See you later, Oliver,” he told me, offering a fistbump which I met (with no delay this time). “Thanks for coming to check up on me. I have practice today, but we can go for burgers tomorrow if you want.”

“Sounds good.”

“Hey,” Ben spoke up and patted my shoulder. “Nice talking to you, Oliver. We need to hang out more.”

“Same, dude,” Kevin said. “I said you saved Thomas’ ass that one time, but you really saved the whole team. I don’t think I ever thanked you for that.”

I saw the lightbulb turning on inside Thomas’ head. “Then buy him a burger tomorrow. You don’t mind if they come with us, right, Oliver?”

Huh? Hanging out with Thomas, Kevin and Ben? That… made me nervous, but more than that, it made me excited. “S-Sure. It was g-great talking to you guys, too.”

“Then I’m buying you and Thomas a burger tomorrow,” Kevin said, utterly incapable of doing anything but smile.

“Awesome,” Ben grinned. “See you around, man!”

We parted ways there in the hallway. They went to their classroom, I went to mine. And before I could go in, someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned around to see Sarah smirking.

“I saw that,” she said.

“Saw what?”

“You talking to Kevin and Ben just now.” She gave my shoulder a playful punch. “Nice job, Oliver,” she sang. “And you say you can’t talk to people.”

…

That had been far from ideal, I knew. I didn’t actually speak much and had stuttered quite a bit, but… It was infinitely better than I could’ve done before.

“A week ago I couldn’t have done even that,” I told her. “Thanks, Sarah.”

“I wish I could take the whole credit, but I think Mila and Grace have gotten you out of your shell more than I have. I need to step up my game.”

We went into the classroom together. “No, you’ve helped me a lot, too.”

“Good to hear. What were you talking about, anyway?”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Mila ran up to us, excitement written all over her face. “Kevin just came here and asked Lena out on a date!” she said. She then looked at me. “Is that why you asked where she was?”

I nodded. “I’ll tell you later.”

The teacher was coming in. Storytime would have to wait.

***

And it waited. Until lunch time.

Once more, the girls and I went to the old music room with our lunch boxes, got some tables together and ate there. As we did, I told them what had happened during the first recess, omitting the part where we spoke about the… intricacies of starting a romantic relationship.

“Some things just work out, don’t they?” Grace said, cheerful. “Lena had been wondering if Kevin actually liked her or not. Poor thing suffered every time she saw him talking to another girl. Turns out he was into her all along.”

“It’s too soon to tell, but they’re starting on the right foot,” Sarah said. “As for me, I’m more proud of our dear Oliver here.” She grinned teasingly. “Look at you, making new friends already.”

I chuckled nervously. “I wouldn’t say ‘friends’. We barely know each other.”

“They’re cool guys. We’ve partied with them,” Grace said. “They’re some of the few people that know how to drink. I don’t mean they can hold their liquor, but that they know to stop when they’re hitting their limit.”

“Ben is a boxer, too, so he needs to be extra careful with his diet and alcohol intake. Yeah, cool guys,” Sarah added. She then frowned and poked my forehead. “And just for good measure, no, Grace and I didn’t sleep with either of them.”

I flinched. “I wasn’t thinking that!”

“Just in case you started wondering.”

Mila sighed and shook her head. “Anyway… Do you guys have plans for today? I don’t, so we could do something after school.”

“...The guys invited me to eat, but that’s tomorrow,” I said. Look at me, having plans. “I can do something today.”

“Dammit, I’m busy,” Grace sighed. “I’m meeting my mom today. She wants to go shopping with me.” Oh, right. Divorced parents. “Don’t stop on my account, though.

“Alright, I’m game,” Sarah said. “What do you propose, Mila? Since you’re the one asking.”

Mila’s cheeks reddened, but her eyes remained firm and her lips curled into a mischievous smile. “I was thinking of another trip to a certain hotel…”

W-What? All of a sudden, just like that?

“Nooooo!” Grace moaned and hid her face on the table. “Why when I’m busy?”

“I’m up for it,” Sarah agreed with a smirk. “After all, I didn’t get any this morning and I have to reward Oliver for his progress.”

I blushed deeply.

“Reward him, she says,” Mila rolled her eyes. Then, a bit more bashful, she asked me, “But what do you say, Oliver? If it’s too out of the blue, we can go another day.”

I coughed once to clear my throat and rolled my eyes away from them. “I mean… Sure, why not? I don’t have anything better to do.”

The three girls burst into laughter and Sarah beside me gave me a playful shove. But really, what did they expect me to say? Still, there was one thing that bothered me.

“Are you really okay with this, Grace?” I asked.

She chuckled. “Yeah, I am. Just joking here. But if you make it up to me another day, I’ll be very happy.”

“I promise.”

Grace smiled at me, and seeing that made me even sadder that she wouldn’t come with us. I think she noticed, too.

“Seriously, go,” she said, laughing. “Yeah, it sucks that I can’t join you, but I don’t want you guys to miss out on some fun just because I can’t go. Besides, we still don’t know if love hotels allow four people in a room.”

“We’ll ask, then,” Sarah said. She raised her arms and stretched languidly. “God, I always feel so lazy after lunch.”

We finished eating and continued talking. I took the opportunity to ask mom if it was okay that I went home a little later, and she said yes.