Mutual Benefits Ch. 04 – First Time – by BashfulScribe

“No, I haven’t,” I replied feebly, half in fear, half in anguish. I was so upset by this whole situation I could cry.

“That’s not what I’ve been hearing, little man,” he warned me, leaning down to get close to my face. “We don’t want any problems between us, so why are Taylor’s friends coming to me telling me you’re making her upset?”

There was a crowd gathering around us. Eyes on me. Yeah, that’s what I needed right now. In the moment, I realized trying to intricately explain myself to a jock was going to confuse him, and confusion would lead to anger. Anger leads to the Dark Side, or something like that.

I took a breath. “Taylor’s friends are trying to start some shit because they don’t like that Taylor is choosing to hang around me more than them. Did you speak to Taylor or just her friends?”

A bunch of reactions splashed across Bryce’s face. He was clearly not expecting this. “I spoke to Crystal,” he told me. “You tryna tell me there’s some shit going on? Because I’ll put a fuckin’ dent in your head if you’re lying.” He gave me a serious look, not even a threatening one, as if we were rival capos discussing a turf deal or something.

I had to play the game though. “Hell yeah I’m saying that! Talk to Taylor. It’s not my word against Crystal’s, it’s ‘whatever Taylor says goes.’ Taylor and I are friends. Study buddies. Her friends are jealous.” I got close to Bryce’s ear. “You know how girls are.”

Bryce actually cracked a smile at that. “You’re a funny guy, you know that?”

I shrugged. “I got nothing else going for me, I may as well be.” I looked around. The tension was dissipating, so the crowd was thinning. Thank God.

He still grabbed my shirt. “You’re not off my shit list,” he warned. “I’m gonna talk to Taylor right fuckin’ now and if she says anything – and I mean anything – about you, you’re gonna wish you never met her.”

“I help her do math homework,” I replied exasperatedly. I wanted to argue further, but I didn’t have the strength for it. Bryce seemed to be satisfied with me, and let my shirt go. He stomped his way down the hallway (although his body was so wide and built that stomping was likely the only way he could move) and that was the last I saw of him.

As soon as he left, I reverted back to my shy never-look-people-in-the-eyes self, and stayed that way until after school, when I was going back to my locker to drop some stuff off.

“Quinn!”

That was a familiar voice. Taylor. I turned around to see her approaching me, an apologetic look on her face.

“Quinn, I am so sorry for how Bryce talked to you today. Whatever he did, I’m so sorry. He sees me as his, like, younger sister and stuff, so he gets really protective over me.”

“Uh, yeah. I can tell,” I mumbled as I turned back to my locker.

“I just wanted to let you know I explained everything and he’s totally cool with you now,” she reported to me.

I turned back from my locker. “So did I, but he still grabbed my shirt and yanked me up.” I grabbed my own shirt to demonstrate.

Taylor made a pained face. “Quinn, I’m so sorry. Some people just-”

“It’s not even Bryce I’m annoyed at,” I pointed out.

Taylor stopped mid-sentence and gave me a weird look. “Did any of the other guys grab you too?”

“No,” I clarified. “Bryce only approached me after Crystal dragged me outside and made me explain to her why Morgan was being silent about me. And she didn’t seem happy with my answer.”

Taylor looked away guiltily but didn’t say anything.

“And you and I know why Morgan probably isn’t my biggest fan right now,” I continued.

Taylor turned back and gave me a pitying smile. “Quinn, she feels bad. She doesn’t hate you.”

“Well that’s not what Crystal took from it, and it was either her or Lexi that blabbed to Bryce,” I explained. “Why did they even do that? How many times am I being brought up in your friend group that Crystal even notices?”

Taylor eyed the ground for a second and seemed to mull something over in her head. “Have you got work tonight?” she finally asked.

“Um, no…”

“Cool, pack your stuff up and we can go somewhere and talk about it,” Taylor smiled sweetly. “I don’t think here is, like, the best place.”

I almost didn’t want to, but on the one hand, I wanted this shit over and done with, and on another hand, to be frank… the most popular girl in school was asking me to hang out with her. Not even to go study, but to hang out. She even had an expectant smile on her cute little chipmunk face. There was no way in hell I was going to pass this up.

“Sure, alright,” I replied awkwardly, turning around to gather my stuff. Taylor just waited patiently until I was finished, then gave me a smile with raised eyebrows as we walked off towards her car.

On the way there, we passed several people, including Bryce. Given what Taylor said, I expected him to say something, or even give a kind of guilty smile and a wave. But all the while we walked down the hallway together, all he did was just stare me down. He didn’t even have a menacing face, just a… blank one.

Taylor and I got in the car and silently drove off. We were on the road for about a minute before she piped up.

“Bryce is a really sweet guy,” she began.

“Yeah, I can tell,” I bitterly replied.

“He just thought you were a creep or making me uncomfortable or something,” she defended him.

“And I wasn’t, so where does that leave me?” I asked exasperatedly. “The guy approached me at my own locker today, and he grabbed my shirt!”

Taylor laughed sympathetically. “Yeah, you told me,” she gingerly replied.

“I just don’t get why your friend group can’t see why we can’t just be study buddies, nothing more. They think there’s something else going on, and then they start all this drama…”

“Well, I mean… Quinn… first of all, there is something else going on…” she pointed out.

I stared at her for a few seconds. “Well, yeah, but they don’t know that! They just think that because Morgan’s upset or whatever-”

“Actually, yeah, second of all, you upset Morgan,” Taylor interrupted, this time with some heat.

I gave her a weird look. “You were on my side when she got all… drunk and weird,” I defended myself. “I let her know my boundaries and she-”

“Yeah, sure, but I saw the text you sent her – that was just uncalled for,” Taylor replied.

I sighed. “Look, she approached me first and scolded me about not seeing things from other peoples’ perspectives, back before anything ever happened. She was being a hypocrite and I think I was justified in calling her out.”

Taylor shrugged. “Just saying. This whole thing happened because you sent her that text.”

“So what, I’m not allowed to stand up for myself, or show emotions, or be human?”

“No, you are! Like, you absolutely are!”

“Then…” I pressed.

With her free hand, she gestured outwards. “This is what happens when you do.”

I looked puzzled but said nothing. So… this was just high school drama? What I did was starting high school drama? It was this level of petty? And more importantly, I caused it?

Before I knew it, Taylor had stopped. I looked up to see some kind of posh brick building. Starbucks. I looked at Taylor and grinned. “If you’re allowed to think I take kung fu, am I allowed to tease you about this stereotype?”

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