I let her wallow for about half a minute before deciding to interject. “You know, you still get most of the formulas. It’s not like the final is just going to be questions like that. Even now you’re still looking at a pass here.”
“Oh my God, Quinn, no,” she protested. “I’m a fucking idiot. I’m going to forget, like, all of the formulas as soon as the paper is in front of me. I need to know all of them if I want to have, like, any kind of chance at all.”
I guess I could understand that. “Well then, we’ll pick it up after you have a moment to yourself,” I offered.
Taylor sighed to herself and brought up her phone. “I feel, like, really underprepared. Can we do more studying on Sun-… no, shit, I’m busy Sunday… Saturday?”
I winced. “Actually, sorry, I’m kind of busy on Saturday.”
“Yeah, really funny. I’m being serious.”
“So am I.”
Taylor looked up from her phone. “Wait, what? Really? What’s going on, is it a work thing?”
How much was I able to disclose here? It would have been really cool to brag to the most popular girl that I had a date and she would have to wait for me, but that would have likely been the worst thing to do in that situation.
“I have a date on Saturday.”
Teenage hormones and the desire to brag won me over.
“A… a date?!” Taylor asked, half in anger, half in shock. “Wait, what? You’re having dates now? When were you going to tell me?”
“You didn’t tell me when you were going on dates with Joel,” I argued back.
“That’s different!”
“Yeah, I guess it is, aren’t you his girlfriend now? Why was I the one that had to convince you that we shouldn’t begin this studying session by fooling around with each other?”
“Oh my God, Quinn, I can’t have this convers-” She stopped herself mid-sentence. “Wait. I never said to you that Joel and I were boyfriend and girlfriend now. Did he tell you that?”
“No,” I admitted, instantly wishing I lied.
“…So what, this is just, like, your own intuition?” she asked.
I can’t imagine me implicating Milo, or even putting a possible spotlight on him, would do any good for this conversation now, so I just shrugged. “I heard through the grapevine you went on a second date with him and that things were getting serious. Passing by, hearing conversations, stuff like that.”
“So what, you’re trusting what you overheard in the main hallway and taking it as, like, the truth?” she asked. “You could just ask me instead.
“Okay, fine, are you and Joel officially a couple?”
“No, we’re not!” she protested. At this point, either she or Milo was a liar. They both clearly had their potential reasons to lie, and I had to figure out who.
But I wasn’t going to figure it out today. “Okay, I’ll believe you. I’m just nervous fooling around when there’s the possibility of, y’know, cheating on the table.”
“And does the person you’re about to date know that you’re doing this with me?” Taylor challenged me.
“No, but that’s because I know that you don’t want me talking about anything to anyone about us,” I answered promptly.
“Well, yeah, but I’m not blabbing about us to anyone either,” Taylor countered.
“Not using my name, sure, but I know you’ve been bragging to your friends about having a boy you can contr-”
Oops. There was no way I could take that back. It was out. Taylor’s cute little chipmunk face was now twisted into a scowl, and her eyes were staring daggers into mine. Immediately, they softened. “Okay. I’m sorry.”
That was such a relief. “I don’t mind, I’m just confused. I thought you didn’t want the fact we slept together getting out.”
Taylor sighed and looked around the room. She held up a finger as if to wordlessly say, ‘one second,’ and walked to some other part of the basement, eventually coming back with some kind of alcoholic drink.
She popped it open, and looked at me slyly. “If you want to do something later, I’ll tell ya while I’m sober, I consent,” she told me with a dry smile, as if we were sharing a joke.
“Wait, hold on, halt,” I frantically said before she put it to her lips. “How am I going to get home later?”
“Oh, mom can give you a ride. She knows I drink sometimes. It’s no biggie.” She took a swig. “Okay, so, yeah, on some level, like, yeah, I don’t want it getting out. The big people this can never reach are your brother and Mrs. Li, for obvious reasons.”
I nodded in agreement.
“I think, out of everyone, my friend group knowing would be the least… bad.” She took another drink. “They know me. They wouldn’t judge me too hard. I’ve done worse.” She offered me the bottle out of courtesy, knowing my answer would be no, before taking another drink. “But clearly, you already know that. Was it this mysterious ‘grapevine’ too, or is it one of them?”
“If, hypothetically, it was one of them, would I have to say which one?” I asked.
Taylor grinned. “You’re making this too easy for me, Quinn,” she told me. “No, you don’t. Okay, so one of them blabbed to you, so I guess they put the pieces together. So I guess they all put the pieces together.”
Except Morgan, right? I gotta imagine Taylor’s best friend wouldn’t ask me out knowing I was still doing stuff with her, right?
“Can I ask about Joel?” I inquired. “Would it be bad if he knew?”
“Yeah, you had to ask about him, didn’t you?” Taylor mumbled, practically to herself, then took another generous swig. “I dunno. Probably? Quinn, I told you half the story before. You wanna know what high school is?”
I nodded.
“I think every single boy I’ve been with has cheated on me. Every damn one.”
I took in that information. “So… it makes you not trust boys?”
“Well, yeah, obviously, but like, it made me… realize I can do whatever. If Joel is cheating on me, all I do by cheating on him is lose the fuckin’ high ground.” She took a sip and thought to herself. “And, like, it’s not like I was gonna use it anyways. I confront him, he makes a big thing about his parents divorcing or what-the fuck-ever excuse it is with this boy, he makes me cry, I stay by his side.”
“So it’s an open secret in high schools? Cheating?” I asked.
“Never heard the term before, but, like, probably,” she replied. “I didn’t get to choose this shit, but like, if every boy is gonna do this to me, it feels nice that I can at least be allowed to do the same shit.”
“An equally oppressive system is still equal to both sides,” I mused. “It would be better if he wasn’t, y’know, cheating at all…”
Taylor took her lips off the drink. “Wow, insightful, Quinn. Never fucking thought of that. My problems are solved.”
“Yeah, point taken.”
“So, are you mad at me?” she asked.
I didn’t answer immediately. “I don’t think I am,” I replied slowly.
She sighed. “Good. So, me and Joel are like… open. And if any drama shit hits the fan, you can just pin it on me, sound good?”
“Well, I’m not afraid of consequences as much as I just don’t want to hurt you… or him…” I mumbled.
“Him? What did he ever do for you?”
“I don’t think anyone needs to do anything for me to make me want to not hurt them,” I replied.
“Well, then you can decide right here and now, are you going to want to continue doing this with me, or do you want to go home right now?” she asked.