This Is Our Story
Chapter Two
Since the moment Conner had seen that academic decathlon picture change, he’d been beside himself with the need to talk to Miss C about the This Is Our Story program. Questions, considerations, implications… It was the most exciting development in yearbook since he’d first picked up the craft.
That had been before he realized that he had body-swapped the nobody girl crushing on him with one of the hottest girls in school.
So instead, when Miss C asked him at the start of class if he’d had a chance to try it out yet, Conner avoided eye contact and mumbled a made-up excuse. He felt bad about it—and not just because he wanted to know more. He was lying to Miss C, one of the people he respected most in the world. Or at least, evading the truth, and about something darned important. This had huge implications. After all, even if everyone who knew Hailey looked at her and saw nothing different, what about strangers? What about things like genetic predispositions, immunizations, blood type… Conner being the over-thinker that he was, he’d missed his entire government class lecture while caught up in imagining a scenario where Hailey’s little brother needed a kidney someday, and when he got Hayleigh’s instead of Hailey’s, it killed him.
He tried to tell himself that was why he felt already felt guilty, but deep down, that wasn’t it. The fact that he was already subconsciously planning on taking advantage of Hailey had a lot more to do with it.
Miss C, however, didn’t seem to skip a beat, and told him not to worry, that she’d be running a tutorial for everybody tomorrow. Today was a work day, and so after a quick check-in with the staff, Conner dispatched them to go do what needed doing. He found himself looking long after Heather. Could he turn Hailey into that? Not that she was hotter, per se, just that he’d had his eye on her for so long. And if nobody even knew or cared, would it be so bad to…
No. He didn’t know what he was messing with yet, and he wasn’t about to go risking any further weirdness until he better knew what he was doing. It almost literally pained him to sign in the school laptop with TIOS on it, knowing it was that much longer he’d have to wait to explore deeper. Doubly so as Miss C wanted his help working with the freshmen today, showing them how to use some of the camera settings and shadowing while they got a few shots done. So by the time the school day ended, he didn’t even had a chance to open the program.
He saw Hailey in the distance down the hall as she made her way to her bus; she waved enthusiastically before turning away, her smile practically visible through the back of her head. His whole drive home, he barely heard Owen’s punk rock blaring out of the speakers. He was just picturing himself and Hailey—this new, incredible Hailey—on their date. Conner’s first ever date date, not counting school dances, which were basically just hanging out with friends in fancy clothes. Then, he’d gone with friends of friends who needed a date, and then most of their group just swapped dance partners willy nilly, heedless of who was officially whose. Tonight, it would be just him and a single girl, one who no doubt had high expectations.
Needless to say, by the time he dropped off Owen and pulled up in his own driveway, Conner was terrified.
Both his mother and stepsister were home, the former as usual and the latter as day one of her fall break from college. Without even meaning to be melodramatic, Conner made it no farther than the living room before falling face first on the couch in dread. What had he done? He had no idea how to talk to girls. Not romantically, anyway. What was one supposed to talk about? Or was one supposed to talk? If not, then what to do? He couldn’t just sit there… looking at her. She was too damn beautiful. He could feel his tongue drying up (apparently to allow sweat to flow to his palms) even now in his own house just thinking about it.
Actually sitting face to face with one of the premier goddesses of Northside High might kill him.
“Hi there, sweetie. Rough day?” came the concerned voice of his mother.
“Unghahaduh,” came his incomprehensible reply into the throw pillow.
He could hear a gasp from the only woman on earth who could’ve understood him. “Conner, you have a date!” She squealed in delight, then fell on top of him, tickling him until he finally broke into giggles.
“Mom! Quit it!”
She at last relented, though by that time Angelica had joined them. “Did I hear that right? Goner’s gone and got himself a date?”
“Don’t call me that, Angelica,” Conner said, laughter retreating under the condescending smirk of his pretty stepsister. She’d probably never had trouble getting a date in her life. “And yes, I do have a date. So what?”
“We-he-hell, don’t get your skimpy little panties in a knot, I was just popping by to make sure I’d heard the good news right.”
“Angelica…” his mother warned.
“Sorry, Shannon,” came the patently insincere reply.
“So,” asked his mother, sitting beside him on the sofa, “who’s the lucky girl?”
“Hailey McManus.”
She broke out in grins. “Oh good! You’ve talked so much about her, and she sounds like such a nice girl. Did you ask her or did she ask you? Girls do that nowadays, you know.”
“Yeah, we even drive our own cars and vote, when we’re not too cranking out babies,” said Angelica. Conner’s mother chuckled and rolled her eyes, unflappable as ever.
“I asked her. I guess I figured I may as well take your advice.”
“Smart boy. So what are you two going to do tonight?”
“I’m not too sure yet. I sort of asked without having a plan.”
She rolled her eyes in that adoringly motherly way of hers. “My Conner. He has his future planned out in ten-minute blocks through graduate school, but doesn’t know where he’s taking his young lady tonight. Well, if you want my advice—”
“Yes please!”
“—you’ll take her out to eat somewhere nice, but not too nice. You don’t want to over-do it on a first date, but don’t take her to that, ugh, hole in the wall you kids are always going to.”
“The Bean Bag Cafe?”
“Ew, yes. That place is just dirty. Take her someplace nice, like TGI Fridays. Not the east side one, the one downtown. Then you can take her to the movies, and let her pick, understand? No Super-Hero-Man vs. The Garbage Monsters, or whatever it is they put out for boys like you and Owen. And you offer to pay for everything. In fact, let me get my purse…” She shuffled off to find it.
Angelica, to his surprise, replaced his mother on the opposite end of the couch. “OK, so, do you actually like this girl? Want to get anywhere with her?” she asked in a muted tone.
“Um, yeah, I guess,” Conner answered, cheeks coloring.
“OK, so ignore most of that. I mean, dinner is fine, but… good lord not TGI Fridays. Take her to Il Parata—that Italian slash seafood place. You know it?” He nodded. “Good. Don’t order anything greasy or too garlicky. You don’t want digestive issues, and you don’t want kissing you to be a chore if you get that far. Let her look over the menu, and order something she sounded interested in but didn’t order so you can be Johnny Gentleman and let her try some.”
“Wow, that’s good.”
“That’s actually obvious, but you’re new at this. Then after, don’t go to a movie. You know what you can’t do at a movie? Get her bra off. You’re lucky if you can even make out comfortably, wedged into two seats side by side, and if you haven’t fucked it up by that point, it’ll just mean two hours where you can’t talk, you can’t do anything to each other. It’s fucking edging bullshit is what it is.”
Conner had long known his sister was not a fan of going to the theater; at last he began to understand why. Sort of.
“So where do I take her?”
“You go up to Makeout Point.”
Conner blinked. “Makeout Point? Where’s…?”
“I was kidding, moron. God you’re hopeless. No, you read the room. Probably dinner isn’t gonna be enough to loosen her panties, so find a place you can hang out.” She named off a few local places: a pool hall, coffee house, and a bookstore with a nice little cafe in it. “And if she’s not into those, you know, you can go the ‘trust me’ route and take her anyway. Then just don’t fuck things up, and she’ll feel like you’re Mr. Smooth Operator, surprising and take-charge.”
“OK. So… what then?”
She rolled her eyes. “What, you want me on bluetooth the whole date?”
“No, I mean, like… what if things are going… well?”
She made a face. “OK, I am not doing the birds and bees with you. Just don’t be a dick and rush things, and equally important, don’t be a pussy and let it peter out. And… here.” Conner watched in shock as his stepsister opened a drawer in the end table, rooting around under pens and nail files and loose bandaids and breath mints and AA batteries, until finally coming up with a small square package.
“Is this a…?!” He cut himself short as his mother strode back into the living room, hiding the condom under his leg in a flash.
“Now here’s forty dollars for dinner, and… is fifteen enough for a movie?”
“I think he’s got everything he needs Shannon,” Angelica answered. She gave her stepbrother a wink.
At six o’clock sharp, Conner pulled up at Hailey’s house. It was a modest-sized house in a modest neighborhood, yet he couldn’t help but smile at the brightly painted “McWelcome to the McManus Home!” near the front door. From previous interactions, he knew a few things about Hailey’s home life. That she had a little brother who had some health issues, that she was raised by a single mom after her dad walked out on them when she was six, that her mother was a florist whose business had gone under when a national chain opened up in town, and now she worked there for way less money. Like everything else about Hailey, her family life was pretty normal, but still somehow pretty sad.
“You can do this. Remember, she’s Hailey, not Hayleigh,” he said, once more repeating in his head Hailey not Hayleigh. It wasn’t doing much. Hailey had never made him nervous in his life. Hayleigh had been doing things to his mind—and other parts—since he’d hit puberty. One was the stuff of idle annoyances, one was the stuff of sweaty fantasies. And now, no matter how much he told himself this was the former, his eyes were only going to confirm the latter.
There was no escaping it. Girls that hot were simply terrifying.
He could do this. He’d been over the plan in his head a hundred times since talking to Angelica. Il Pirata, no garlic no grease, share something she likes, go hang out, insist, don’t rush don’t puss out. Simplicity itself. With his heart in his throat, the editor-in-chief made his way up the front walk and knocked on the door.
“Conner!” Hailey squealed as she opened it almost immediately. Conner swallowed nervously at the sight of this redheaded goddess. She even had green eyes, he realized. He’d never noticed her eyes before. And she was wearing a little red dress that… wow. It wasn’t skimpy, or flashy, or especially revealing. It was a simple testament to the reality that a girl like this simply made anything look tantalizing. She could’ve opened the door in a sweat suit and made him realize how sexy sweat suits could be, in the right light. Though the red dress didn’t hurt.
“Hi, Hailey. Um, wow, you look… really nice.” He tugged at his suddenly strangling shirt collar.
Her cheeks colored. “Oh, stop. I look… bleh. But you, you look so… handsome!”
Conner was simply glad he’d dressed up enough that he’d look about right alongside that dress. “So, are you ready? Not that you don’t look, you know, ready.”
Her smile evaporated, replaced by a panicked expression. “OK, let me just say I am SO. SORRY. But, um, I might not be able to go out. I only found out like ten minutes ago. My mom called and she has to work late tonight because… well nevermind why, but it means I have to stay home and watch my brother.”
As much as he was relieved to get out of all this pressure, just looking at her made him appreciate what a shame this really was. “Oh. Yeah, that’s too bad.”
Suddenly Hailey snatched his forearm in her hands. “But… I dunno, I guess I was thinking, like, if you wanted to hang out here? My brother just sits in his room playing his games all the time, and he’ll probably be asleep soon, and we could, like, hang out?”
Conner processed it, the gears of his mind turning like they’d been lubricated with molasses instead of grease. So instead of a public dinner and forced awkward socialization in order to get her to want to be alone with him, she was proposing…
“That sounds great,” he said.
“Really? I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Like, I’m sure you have way better things to do than babysit Doug with me.” Still, she didn’t let go of his arm.
“Really. I’d love to. Your mom won’t mind?”
“Mom would never even believe I have a boy over.” She giggled, then it cut off as she realized how pathetic it must have sounded. Only a step behind how his own mom would react if he’d brought her home, believing but giddy with the novelty of it. Hailey ushered her date inside, instructing him to take his shoes off at the door. From there it was into the living room.
“So, you wanna, like, watch something? We have Netflix.” Both of them felt the heat bloom in their cheeks as the phrase “Netflix and chill” reverberated in their heads.
“That’d be cool, sure.”
Hailey ran to the kitchen to get drinks, telling Conner to pick out whatever he liked. When she returned, he was waiting for her, nothing selected. “Why don’t you pick? I don’t wanna make you watch some dude movie.”
“I don’t care. I’ll watch anything you want. It doesn’t matter. I like everything. Whatever you want.”
At those words—whatever you want—from that face, he could feel the blood running back out of his cheeks and trickling somewhere else altogether. Conner tried not to think about it—or her—as he scrolled down and selected a semi-recent comedy. When Hailey reiterated she was fine with it, he hit play, then sit back and let his date, alone with this girl in that body, commence.
Had a time-lapse camera recorded their viewing experience, it would have revealed an entire hour of two teenagers sitting side by side, not quite touching, movements mostly confined to blinking and, in Conner’s case, scratching an itch on his shoulder for a few seconds. He wanted so badly to turn to her and say something charming, if only to have an excuse to look at her, but he couldn’t come up with anything. Hailey was just as quiet. She sat with her legs crossed at the ankles, hands in her lap, staring at the screen and laughing as appropriate to show she was enjoying herself.
When he heard a sound outside, Conner’s head turned to look out the window just long enough to make him realize that, from this angle, he had a decent vantage point down the neckline of her dress. He could even just barely make out the color of her bra. Black. That was hot. Though with those breasts, what color wouldn’t be? His eyes betrayed him, time and again glancing over, sneaking peek after peek. He knew it was wrong to look, rude and crass and shallow, but then again, it would be almost as rude to the entire male sex not to look. Owen would never forgive him—at least, not if he saw the Hailey Conner was seeing.
Then she caught him.
“Conner? Were you looking at my boobs?”
His heart was suddenly pounding so loud he couldn’t even hear his own stammering voice. “N-no! No, I was just, um, glancing over, and…”
Hailey laughed. “It’s OK. I don’t mind. It’s, um, kind of sweet, actually.”
Sweet? Was she crazy? He was surreptitiously ogling her, and she thought it was sweet? He’d been raised to think he deserved to be slapped in the face for such behavior. His mom and stepdad didn’t so much as hold hands in front of their children, for crying out loud. “I, um, I know I shouldn’t…”
“Seriously! It’s OK. Actually, do you wanna…” She stopped, then suddenly sprang up and darted down the hallway. She opened a door with catlike stealth, then closed it a moment later just as noiselessly. Then she was running back the hall and was sitting back where she’d been as if she’d never gone.
“Uh…” Conner managed.
“Sorry, I was making sure Doug is asleep, and is he ever. So anyway, do you, like, wanna see ’em? I don’t mind, if you want. I mean, I totally get if you don’t and everything. But since you were, you know, looking, I thought…”
He nearly lost it then and there. It wasn’t just the offer, but the tone in which she offered it. So hopeful. Like she was offering not because she wanted to show off her rack, but because she was desperate to please him. Something deeply submissive that, in return, touched on that some part of his brain that had texted her to dress sexy for him. A primitive, confident inner voice.
When he handed it control of his outer voice, it said, “Show me.”
Hailey nervously bit her lip—her plump, pink, glossy lip—as she lowered the shoulder straps down her arms. One agonizing centimeter at a time, the tops of her breasts were revealed to him, until soon, only her bra was in his way. Still, it was better than he ever would have imagined. And since asking her out this afternoon, he’d been imagining it nearly nonstop.
“Holy… Hailey, you’re so… they’re…”
Her eyes widened in what looked like panic. “I’m sorry. I know. I’ll cover up. I’m sorry. Oh god. I can’t believe I…”
Conner had to act quickly to stop her from pulling the top of her dress back up. “Hailey, let me finish. What I was going to say was, they’re incredible.”
She froze, and by degrees began to show signs she was understanding his meaning. “You… you like them?”
“They’re incredible.”
She giggled, lowering her hands and thrusting them towards him. “You said that already.”
“It bears repeating,” said Conner, who had abandoned any pretense of eye contact by now.
“Um, thanks. Do… do you want to touch them? Because you can. I mean, I want you to. Touch them, that is. If you want.”
Conner didn’t need to be told twice. His hands were cupping Hailey’s bra-encased breasts in the next instant, and the satisfied look on her face mostly subdued the nervousness that slammed home the next moment. He’d never gotten to second base before, and with Hailey he’d leapt right past first. She sat there, perfectly content to let her crush fondle her to his heart’s content.
“I can… you know. If you want,” she said softly.
“Take your bra off?”
He’d meant it as a question, not trusting reality to gift him so. Hailey had heard exclamation point rather than question mark, and looked only too flattered by his interest. She was already undoing the clasp, and then…
There they were. Hayleigh McKnight’s tits, superimposed on Hailey McManus’s personality. “Tits” wasn’t even a term Conner used in his own head generally, but ones this perfect deserved it. He wasn’t a total saint; he’d seen enough breasts on the internet to know they came in all shapes and sizes, and there was no guarantee that simply because she had a pretty face, she would also have great boobs, how he’d long imagined them.
They weren’t how he imagined them, however. They were better. They were tits.
Perfect, sumptuous tits.
They sat a bit lower than he’d thought, largely because they were also just a bit smaller. Hayleigh was fond of wearing shirts that showed ample cleavage, and so he’d always assumed they were huge. Now he realized (with a glance at the discarded bra) that they were a C cup, but her bra choice accentuated them. God bless that bra. They also showed that she evidently tanned wearing a bikini, because two pale triangles were pointing at him from the newly revealed skin. Not how he would’ve designed them, but so what. Those nipples… dark brown, and tinier than any he’d ever seen, an inch across, if that.
Then his mouth was on them. Hailey laughed delightedly. “Oh, Conner! I never would’ve thought you’d be so… oh…” She trailed off as he sucked a nipple into his mouth, lashing it with his tongue.
This went on for some time; he couldn’t have guessed how much, because there simply wasn’t an upper limit to how much time he wanted to spend groping and sucking on Hailey’s rack. He licked and sucked, fondled and squeezed, finally tossing Hailey on her back so he could climb on top of her and feast.
Then, all of the sudden, she shoved him to the floor. By the time he could look up in wonderment, her dress had already been pulled up to cover herself.
“Hailey…?”
But she wasn’t even looking at him when she spoke. “Hey, buddy. What’re you doing out of bed?”
“I was thirsty,” came a child’s voice from the hallway.
Hailey tugged the straps of her dress on her shoulders and jumped up. “Well you just go back to bed, and I’ll bring you a glass of juice. OK?”
Conner took to his feet, where he could now see the boy standing in the hallway. He was much too young to guess what had been going on, but he certainly was staring with a lot of curiosity. As Hailey hustled to the kitchen, Conner ventured a wave, but the boy, Doug, stood there until his sister returned with a cup of juice and ushered him back down the hall.
He could hear her talking, but couldn’t make out words. It gave him a moment for his thinking brain to emerge again. What had come over him? That had definitely not been the comportment of a gentleman. Only… wasn’t that why he’d so eagerly absorbed Angelica’s advice? He’d just had what were essentially Hayleigh McKnight’s tits in his mouth! How could that be wrong?
But then why did he feel so conflicted?
Then Hailey was coming back. “I am so sorry about that! He should be good for the night, now. I told him we were doing some boring grown-up stuff, so he’ll avoid coming out here. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“Oh no, no, you did what you had to do. I can take it. Look, I was thinking maybe I should go. Your brother’s home, and having your mom walk in on us…” he laughed awkwardly.
“No! Oh no, no, please don’t go! I didn’t mean to bust up your, um, game, or whatever! Look, here, do you wanna suck on my boobs some more?”
This time, rather than merely lower the shoulder straps, she unzipped the back and let the thing fall all the way to the floor. She stood there in nothing but her underwear, a pair of silken black panties that had a bit of a sheen in the living room’s soft lamp light. Even with those tits facing him again, Conner couldn’t help but marvel at the rest of her—flat tummy, freshly shaved legs, noticeable thigh gap.
His date, however, wasn’t stopping to be admired. How could she, when in her mind she was still frumpy, unappealing Hefty Hailey? She pressed her body up against Conner’s, moving his hands to back to her chest as she starting kissing along his neck. “Stay,” she pleaded. “If you want, I could, like, go down on you, maybe? If you wanted. I really want to. Nobody’s ever let me before, but I know I can make you feel so good. Just stay. Please.”
Even as his cock turned to molten steel, his heart melted for her. This poor girl. It no longer mattered if it was taking advantage of her to stay. It was clear now that leaving would hurt her far more. (A quiet inner voice tried to remind him he could find a gentlemanly way to insist politely, but if it were really all that sincere, it wouldn’t be speaking in a whisper.) Plus, as she eased him back down onto her sofa and started undoing his belt, he couldn’t have denied himself this if he’d wanted to. He let her undo his pants and helped her lower them to his ankles. His cock hit the open air, jutting upward like a rocket ready for launch.
“Oh, wow!” Hailey exclaimed. “It’s so big! I had no idea you were so…”
Conner didn’t know if she was genuinely impressed or merely flattering him, but both possibilities were equally hot in his book. “Glad you like it, because you’re about to get to know it a whole lot better.” Was that too cheesy? It sounded like something Owen would say. Whatever. She didn’t seem to object. If anything, she seemed even more excited by his faux confidence.
“I can’t wait. Are you sure this is OK? I mean, you can just close your eyes and imagine whoever, that’s fine with me.”
Conner winced in pity. “Hailey. Listen to me. I asked you out because I like you. I think you’re beautiful. No, I take that back. I don’t think you’re beautiful; you are beautiful. If my eyes close, it’s only because you’re doing a good job, and I’ll still be picturing you, right where you are, exactly as you are right now. Understand?”
Hailey stared at him with a blank face, and for a moment he wondered if she was so unused to compliments that she was about to reject them. Instead, she suddenly lunged forward, taking him into her mouth all the way on the first go. She didn’t seem to intend to suck his cock; the girl clearly meant to devour it.
“Oh, Hailey,” he moaned. Or was it Hayleigh he was moaning for? Oh, screw it. With this gorgeous girl on her knees, blowing him like his spunk was her favorite dessert, he was beyond quandaries. He locked eyes with Hailey, admiring the joyous sparkle in those emerald orbs as she performed both his and her first blowjob. Conner ran his hand through her soft auburn hair, and in response she deep-throated him until he thought she might pass out.
His inexperience caused him not to warn her when he started getting close, a moment that came all too soon. Her inexperience, however, caused her to to cough up Conner’s cum in an awkward fit as she nearly inhaled it. Instead, Hailey fell back on her butt, his jizz dribbling out of her mouth and down onto her bare tits. When she was able to stop coughing, her eyes widened in embarrassment.
“Oh my gosh, I am SO sorry! I meant to swallow. I was going to, I swear! Look, I’m no prude, see?” She dragged one manicured nail through a blob of cum on her left breast and sucked it into her mouth. Her theatrical enjoyment was so over the top he wanted to laugh, except… she was slurping up his cum to prove how much she liked sucking his cock. It would be funny if it wasn’t so damnably sexy.
Conner placed his hands on her arms and pulled her back to her knees. “Hailey, leave it. You look hot like that.”
She grinned. “Really?”
“Really. I’ve never seen anything hotter.”
She threw herself at him lips first.
Conner reached out his hands and rested them on her shoulders, holding her firmly at arm’s length. When he did it, he couldn’t even have said why. Was he squeamish about kissing her right after she’d gone down on him? Or afraid of her boobs rubbing his fluids on him? Or was it that his fantasies of Hayleigh McKnight had never involved something as romantic as a kiss?
And like that, she started crying. It wasn’t sobbing, just silent tears running down her cheeks and wetting those dimples. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I would’ve gotten you all, you know, spermy or whatever. And you don’t want to kiss someone who’s got it on their breath, I get it,” she mumbled through her sniffles.
Conner didn’t know what to say, so he seized upon her reasoning. “Yeah, sorry—not that I don’t want to! You’re so amazing, and I… sorry, I guess I over-reacted. Come here, OK? Come here.” She let him help her back onto the couch, her body language making it obvious she felt uncomfortable sitting there covered in more spunk than clothes. He wiped away her tears with his thumbs, which seemed to cheer her up somewhat even as if smudged her running eyeliner across her face. “Why don’t we, um, get dressed. And you know, clean up if you want.”
She nodded, picking up her dress and hustling down to the bathroom. Conner didn’t miss the opportunity to watch her ass in those panties. How had he gotten so lucky? A few minutes later, she returned, back in her dress. She’d cleaned up her face, and was smiling shyly.
“You’re still here!” she said, looking pleasantly surprised, sitting as far from him as possible on her couch.
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I’m glad. But actually, um, my mom’s coming home any minute, so I think maybe we should call it quits here. And… I know I made our first date super awkward. I understand if you don’t wanna see me any more.”
He paused. “Wait, you think… that I had a bad time?”
She looked down at her lap. “Didn’t you? I mean, I totally threw myself at you like some kind of… slut, or something.”
“If that was you being slutty, sign me up for about a hundred more dates like that.”
A ghost of a smile teased at the edges of her lips. “You’re just being nice. You’re always nice to me, Conner. That’s why I, um, you know. Like you.”
Conner slid closer, then tilted her chin up until she was looking at him. “I like you too, Hailey. Really. You’re sweet, and beautiful, and—”
“Stop saying that! You don’t have to pretend just to be a nice guy. It’s OK.”
Conner almost laughed. The idea that a girl so insanely attractive would think someone was lying to her to be polite… it was too absurd. What did she see when she looked in the mirror now? Did she see the old Hailey? Or did she see the real thing but her mind simply couldn’t accept it?
Or was he the one hallucinating? There was a sobering thought.
“Well I tell you what. Why don’t we agree to go out again sometime—sometime soon—and I’ll try to convince you again how much you turn me on.”
Her smile crept back onto her face. “You’re sure?”
“Very sure.” So very, very sure. “Unless you wanna go again now, in which case—”
The front door opened, and in a flash the two were sitting a Leave-It-To-Beaver-appropriate distance apart. Hailey’s mom came in, looking equal parts weary from her day and surprised to see a young man sitting with her daughter in her living room. Conner immediately saw the resemblance. (Not that it was there any more, thanks to TIOS.) He was on his feet before she even closed the door behind her. “Hello, Ms. McManus. Hailey and I were just, um, watching Netflix. You have a lovely home.”
She looked surprised to see a boy in her house, and doubly so to see him next to her daughter. “Well hello there, young man. You must be Conner. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Mom!” Hailey exclaimed. “He was helping me keep an eye on Doug. And he was just leaving, before you could embarrass me to death.”
Her mom laughed. “Well I hope I’ll see you again, Conner.”
“Likewise, Ms. McManus.”
Hailey slipped on a pair of heels—he couldn’t wait to see what those did to her ass—and walked him out to his car. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
On impulse, Conner slipped a hand up the back of her dress and pinched her right on the butt. In the abstract, Conner preferred women with a little more meat on their bones, but Hailey was threatening to convert him to the Church of Keeping It Tight.
She squeaked in surprise, but came out giggling. “Tomorrow,” he said, sliding into his car. She stood there watching him as he drove off, and part of him realized that he’d left Hayleigh McKnight’s drooling pussy in his wake. He felt a surge of confidence like he’d never known before in his life.
His mom was waiting up for him when he got home. “Well? How did it go, handsome?”
Conner grinned. “It went really well. Her mom had to work, so we just hung out at her place and watched a movie. It was nice.”
“Aaaaaand?” his mom pressed.
“And… what?”
“I don’t need full details. But did you at least kiss her?”
Conner paused, his mind flashing back to that divine experience. But as he thought it over… “Um, no. Actually we didn’t. Maybe next time.”
“So there’s gonna be a next time? Yay!” she kissed his forehead, then left him alone.
As Conner made his way to bed, he relived the evening over and over again. Images that were burned into his memory, he hoped, forever. He didn’t know where things were going with Hailey, but there was one thing for sure.
He had to make sure nobody undid his edit to the yearbook.