𝔽₳𝜯Ǝ

Strike Three.!!

I composed myself and tucked the notes in my back pocket before turning around to face my fellows. From the looks on their faces, I had just done the impossible. Moon landing.

Oh yeah. Rock Star nerd status.

My best friend, Kevin, gave me a subtle "low-five" and then demanded the story, which I gave to him - minus the kiss - I didn't want that getting out.

"Dude!" after I was done, "Holy shit, dude!" he exclaimed in awe.

"Yeah," I said sagely.

"No wonder Jeremy has been looking like he wants to put you in a brick wall lately," he said.

I shrugged with feigned casualness, "Jeremy can suck it up. Chloe and I are just friends."

Truth be told I was scared shit-less of Jeremy. Like, seriously afraid to go into. they might find me alone in there.

"Still man, watch yourself. He's the scary jealous type," my friend said.

Like I didn't know that.

I shrugged again.

So that was the first term. I was a god among the downtrodden. The miracle man who had somehow transcended his social status and been accepted into the upper echelons of popular society. I was James Bond. And oh yeah, did it go to my head.

I took my friends- my old friends- for granted. I spent every moment I could with the girls. I hung out with them at school, and by the second term, after school as well. I didn't notice that by the end of my sophomore year, only Kevin still hung out with me. I didn't notice. Not then. Not yet.

I was getting invited to parties. I was accepted by high society. Part of it at least. Chloe had ditched Jeremy, and that had been a month of running scared for me. Word was he blamed me and thought I was hooking up with Chloe in his place (I wish.). I had to duck the entire wrestling team in the halls. No easy feat; let me assure you. Soon though, she was dating Dave Hart, the junior starting varsity half-back, and the pressure came off me.

Pretty soon, the year had come to a close.

Then another, much like the previous.

By then I was a permanent part of the gang. By the end of our junior year I only barely talked with Kevin anymore; I'd even heard he'd gotten a girlfriend. One of the Asian girls in the 4.0 club. Good for him.

I was still in the 4.0 club too. Only four of us remained. Kevin, his girlfriend, her brother, and myself. When the end of the junior year rolled around I was in a four-way tie for the best GPA for our school. But I still didn't care, not yet. I was Chloe's friend. That was all that really mattered to me.

As it turned out, Chloe and I had the same birthday: August twenty-first. This year we'd both be turning eighteen. All of the other girls had already turned eighteen, so we were the last. They- the girls I mean- were planning quite the batch.

It was simultaneously to celebrate Chloe and I "getting legal" as they joked and start our senior year off with a bang. Alison's parents had a huge beach house, and they had permitted the place to be used for the party in question. I have no idea why, or how she'd managed it, but we were going to have a three-story house right on the beach for what the girls called "The Party of the Century".

A bit platitude I know, but hey, it wasn't my idea.

A couple of days before the party, we were at the house putting up decorations, and as usual, the girls were teasing me.

I don't mean verbally, though that too. I mean teasing me. Flirting. Flashes of skin, pouting to get me to do stuff with implied promises everyone knew would never happen. I was the token guy. I was so firmly friend-zoned by these hotties I wasn't even in the same country as the boyfriend field. I think Becky even thought I was gay. In other words, I was safe for them to be flirty, teasing, and even a little bit mean to. I didn't mind, most of the time. Really I was still crushing on Chloe hard enough to make diamonds out of carbon, and who minds a bit of flirting with four of the hottest girls in school?

The only time I did mind really was when they brought up my single status.

See, they all had boyfriends. Most of them had had more than one during the course of our friendship. Jenna had had close to half a dozen, maybe more. She was pretty outgoing and not afraid to bring the flirt to the guy she had her eye on. Also crazy hot, but whatever. Point is, I was the only one in the gang who hadn't had so much as a movie date, ever.

Chloe remained the farthest I'd ever gotten with a girl. That one kiss, and countless "friend hugs". The girls constantly pushed me to ask girls out.

Look, it's not like I hadn't tried. Sure I had an undying flame for Chloe, but I had actually been interested in other girls if only to get some kind of experience. The problem though was complicated. Four-fold really. Yeah. The problem was Chloe, Jenna, Becky, and Alison.

You can't be friends with four examples of divine hotness on earth and then ask out a girl of lesser mortal status. She says no. She's either afraid it's a trick, or that you're settling, or that she's going to be a beard for your rumored homosexuality. I'd tried a few times. Okay, three.

The first was right before the end of my sophomore year. Sophia Williams. She was cute, in a sophomore girl kind of way. She was smart; I'd met her in my Advanced English class actually. And she was single. I guess when you're halfway cute and spend your days surrounded by guys that aren't sure which end of a girl is up, but they're threatened by your intelligence to the point where they have to compete more fiercely with you than each other, you don't get asked out a lot. At least that was the impression I'd gotten by her startled expression when I asked her, stammering if she'd like to get coffee sometime.

"Er... I thought you were going out with Chloe Woods?" she said.

I blushed. "Ah, no, Chloe and I are just friends." Despite whatever else I might wish. Hell, it was Chloe who'd urged me to ask Sophia for coffee in the first place.

"Ah," was all she said, probably able to figure out the rest on her own. Settling then. "No thanks Jake; see you in class tomorrow."

Strike One.!!

Next had been Emma Brown from my AP U.S. History course. She was a grade higher than I. I'd made the mistake of not noticing she was not, in fact, single.

Strike Two.!!

Most recently had been at Junior Prom. I'd actually gotten Amber Smith to agree to go with me; we had our picture was taken and everything. But once we showed up, and I was showered with hugs and cheek kisses from my friends, who were, honestly, twice as hot as Amber could ever hope to be, and that was all she wrote. I'd ended up driving Amber home early with her in tears and me being about the most uncomfortable I'd ever been in my young life.

Strike Three.!!