When Taylor got home, she, Morgan and I all walked inside to find the same situation I saw the night prior – the same cleanliness to the house, her mom sitting in the exact same seat, probably doing the exact same thing for all I knew. We quickly filed into the basement.
Credit where it was due, Taylor was clearly a pragmatic person. Morgan went off to some other room in the basement, but Taylor pulled out her book and immediately resumed the lesson, albeit while eating a chicken nugget. I bashfully pulled out my food and began to eat too, making sure to never speak with my mouth full.
Eventually, Morgan returned, carrying a bottle of vodka. She gestured the bottle towards Taylor and smiled slightly.
Taylor grinned. “Morgannnn, I’m still doing my lesson,” she whined. “If I start now it’s gonna take forever. Just hold off for like, what, one hour?” She looked towards me.
I wasn’t even fazed. “Yeah, about an hour, tops.”
Morgan rolled her eyes. “I’m starting without you,” she replied in a sing-song voice that I hadn’t heard Morgan use before. She took a generous swig of her Coke and started to replace the empty space in her cup with vodka. Afterwards, she eyed me. “I assume you don’t…”
Drinking. Another thing I had never done, and it sounded like a terrible idea to start now of all times. “Yeah, better not,” I agreed. Morgan nodded and set the bottle aside, trying to swish the contents of her cup around without letting any spill. It was clear that, to Taylor, this was commonplace. I did my best to return to the lesson.
I was glad she had the foresight to wait on the drinking. After about twenty-five minutes, we had made more progress than we thought, so we elected to take a five-minute break. I had neglected my food so I turned back to it to eat. Taylor rolled over to Morgan and sat next to her, both of their backs on the wall, Taylor’s head cutely moving down to Morgan’s shoulder.
Morgan took full advantage of Taylor’s new availability. “Oh my god, Taylor, look at this.” She shoved her phone in Taylor’s face. I wouldn’t have called her drunk, but it was clear she was less stiff than usual.
“What?” Taylor grabbed the phone and looked intently at it. “What is it?”
“Just trust me, check it out,” Morgan replied emphatically.
A few seconds passed before Taylor’s free hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God, Morgan!”
“Right?!” Morgan enthusiastically replied. “Ugh! It’s seriously like every fucking time. Like, fuck, get a life!” She shook her head and took another drink. “He’s so fucking clueless. Like, he – oh my god, I have to tell you this – I…” She paused, looking over at me, seemingly remembering I was in the room.
It took a lot of energy to prevent me from rolling my eyes. I still sighed, practically reading her mind. “I’ve probably heard worse. Go ahead.”
“Thanks,” she replied, turning back to Taylor. “So, like, I let him finger me last week, and he had no fucking idea what he was doing. No fucking idea! You’d think he was trying to start a fucking fire between my legs. Just up and down, no rhythm, no fucking – just no fucking – ugh!”
“Oh my God, I know!” Taylor replied enthusiastically. “Don’t even get me started on boobs.”
“Yes!” Morgan agreed. “I didn’t even let Jerrad touch my boobs. He doesn’t fuckin’ deserve to! After what he did to my poor vagina I am not down to see him squeeze my boobs until it hurts and think I’m gonna cum from that.”
“Mine have been so sensitive lately,” Taylor commented, nudging one of hers.
That was my limit. I dunno how many guys had fantasies like this, but I felt too awkward to let this continue and coughed loudly.
Morgan lazily turned her head towards me. “Listen, Quinn. It may not have happened yet but you’re going to need to please some girl someday yourself too. You should be taking notes about what we’re saying!”
It may not have affected Morgan but the spell was definitely broken for Taylor. She turned a light pink and looked down at the floor. “Uh, morgan, if we’re making him uncomfortable we should probably stop.”
“Well, he didn’t say he was uncomfortable. Are you uncomfortable, Quinn?” Morgan tested me.
“Well, I, uh…” I couldn’t say it.
“See? He’s probably just turned on or something. He’s probably not used to, you know, the way we talk.” Morgan turned to me and gave me a humorous ‘fuck yeah’ smile. “We own it!”
“Morgan, seriously…” Taylor protested.
“Seriously?” Morgan asked Taylor in turn. “Look, Quinn, whatever. You’re a virgin, we get it, but we should be allowed to talk about what we want, okay? Just because you’ve never seen a pair of boobs doesn’t mean we can’t talk about ours.”
Taylor was red by this point. “Morgan, I’m getting uncomfortable talking about this in front of Quinn. Can we stop?”
Morgan sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fiiiine. But as soon as the lesson ends and Quinn leaves we’re talking about this.”
I clicked my tongue. “Tell you what Taylor, it sounds like this is important to Morgan. Why don’t you just drive me home now?”
“No, no, it’s okay, we only have a bit to go,” Taylor protested.
“Well, I’d… still like to go home now please. If that’s okay.”
There was silence for a few seconds. “Yeah, it’s okay,” Taylor said quietly, standing up. “Let’s go. I’ll be back in a few minutes, Morgan.”
Morgan clearly didn’t know what to say, so she defaulted to staring at her phone and shirking any responsibility for the situation. Taylor and I got our things together and quickly left, getting in her car, putting up the top of the car, and driving off without so much as a word.
“Sorry,” Taylor eventually said after most of the drive was done. “Morgan’s a good person, but sometimes she gets passionate about what she, like, says and…”
“It’s fine. I just… too much, you know? Too much,” I reasoned.
“Of course,” she accepted graciously. “Thanks for not bringing up… the, uh…”
“There was nothing to bring up,” I interrupted her. “Whatever you’re thinking of never happened. I was just uncomfortable because, y’know, she started… being unfair.” I chose my words carefully again.
Taylor smiled. “Yeah,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. Eventually, we arrived at my place. “I, uh… yeah, sorry again.”
I felt another surge of adrenaline bolt through me for whatever reason. “If it’s hard to fit me into your regular lifestyle, that’s okay, I’ll accept that. I don’t want you to feel as though I have to work with your friends and if I don’t it’s your fault. I mean, this is just tutoring. Right?”
Taylor’s bashful smile faded. “Just tutoring?”
I sighed. “Okay, maybe this is the other side of the different worlds thing. I’m phrasing things wrong. I appreciate you and like you, I just assume that once this tutoring is over we’ll drift away from each other.”
Taylor was now definitely scowling. “That’s really unfair to think of people like that.”
I lowered my eyelids in a rare show of defiance. “Morgan used my lack of sexual experience to shame me for feeling uncomfortable.”
Taylor still looked mildly angry, but didn’t say a word. “Yeah, she did,” she finally mumbled. “But what does that have to do with drifting away?”