Ren
The sugary sweetness mingles with the peppery pop of carbonated bubbles in my mouth as I take a last sip of the Pepsi I'm sharing with Gio. I pass it to him, and he tips it back over his lips, downing the rest as I pry my homework out of my crammed bag. It's the last Wednesday in January, and as usual, we are about to start our schoolwork out on the football field.
"Hey, babe?" he says, breaking the silence just as I'm getting into it.
"Yeah?" I reply, still engaged in what I'm working on.
"Are you gonna go to your dance class at the Community Center after school today?"
I put my pencil down and glance up at him. "Yes."
"What time does it start?" a smirk starting to bow the edge of his mouth.
I cock my head to the side and narrow my eyes. "Um, 3:30... why?"
He laughs low and traces a G on my leg. "Um, do they let people come watch?"
My eyes go wide as I see where he's going with this. A tangle of poorly wired nerves spark and crackle in my stomach as I imagine him watching me dance, and it raises my body temperature by several uncomfortable degrees.
Crap. Why do I feel so freaked by that?
Honestly, I had imagined him there watching me last class. But that was in my head—this would be for real. A bead of sweat tickles my armpit as it slides down.
"Um, I'm not sure..." my voice trembles just slightly, giving my uncertainty away.
He ducks his head closer to me and smiles reassuringly, his eyes glimmering hopefully. "I'd love to come see you... Eddie and some guys are meeting there to skate the basketball court. You could also finally see me skate..." He scratches his neck and looks down. "I mean, if you have time, after."
Oh! So I'd get to see him, too.
Well, that changes things! He'd look so hot skating. I've fantasized about watching him for years. The idea of getting to see him skateboard suddenly overshadows my nervousness.
"Okay! I'd love to come watch you! But where's your skateboard?"
"In my locker," he says matter-of-factly, then, more suggestively, "What do you wear for dance class?" He eyes my current clothes, tugging at the hem of my pants. "Not these jeans, right?"
I smirk "No. I have special dance clothes."
"Looking forward to seeing it," he grins.
♡♡♡
After school, we stop by his locker to grab his board, which is pretty thrashed—the deck is all chipped. The wood bottom has three black stripes going tip to tail with some sort of unrecognizable image in the center and is completely marred with deep scratches.
While he grabs it with one hand and heaves out another book he'll need with the other, my eyes go wide as they land on the sketch I drew for him of the girl with long dark hair taped to the inside before he slams his locker door.
The drive to the Community Center is short, just down the hill from school, and there's about half an hour to kill until it starts. Sure enough, I find Hannah sitting on the bench by the front door, doing some school reading. I tell Gio to go ahead, and I'll meet him at the basketball court in a second.
"Hi Hannah, want to have some 'light entertainment' before class starts?" I smile.
She looks up, confused. "What?"
"Come with me," I nod, and she follows me around to the side, where the boys are already skating. We sit down on the parking lot curb to watch.
The boys are practicing all kinds of tricks: ollies, jumps, and flips, as well as grinding or board sliding the ramp railings and benches. Gio looks so deliciously hot in his black backwards hat, plaid shirt over a white tee, and light baggy jeans, focusing. He's doing kickflips: smashing the tail down to make the board jump and kicking the side with his toe to make the deck flip around, then landing back on top—he makes it look so effortless.
He smiles at me, then pushes off and skates around the small basketball court, doing a nolie and then a quick grind on the bench, landing back down on the pavement and swinging around on his back wheels 360. He stops perfectly in my direction, and I give him two thumbs up. The grin he produces for me is nearly a mile wide, pride in his skills radiating off him, and my heart swells with how cute he is.
Eddie skates past him and tries to jump, and board slide a stair railing but fails and crashes backward into the grassy hill. Hannah and I laugh out loud, quite entertained, while Eddie gets back up, sheepishly brushing the grass from his pants.
Gio jumps down the stairs and skates over to where we're sitting. I stand and tug on his hat.
"You were awesome! That was hella sick."
"Thanks, babe," color slightly tinging his cheeks. "Wanna try?" He pushes his board towards me with his foot.
"Um... I don't know."
I messed around a bit on Ryder's board last year, but it's been a long time.
"Come on," he persists. "I'll hold your hand. You ever even been on a skateboard?"
My lips purse. "No, I have."
His eyes twinkle back at me in a dare. "Then show me."
"Fine," I say, taking the board with my foot.
Shit. What I have I got myself into.
I push off and wobble a bit, push again, and then stand on the board, gliding into the parking lot. It slows to a stop, and I rotate it on the back wheels in three small, ungraceful, 90-degree turns, nearly falling backwards off the board. I steady myself, then push off again, with a little more confidence, back to him.
His eyebrows shoot up. "Wow, pretty good," he says graciously.
"I'm totally not good," I laugh, giving his chest a little push. "Maybe you could teach me to be better another time," handing the board back to him.
He takes it and steps closer to me, fixing me with a serious expression, "I'd love to. But you look hot on it, regardless." His eyes and voice drop lower, "I like watchin' you skate on my board."
His arm wraps around my lower back, pulling me tighter against him, and he captures my lips in a kiss.
"A-hem!"
Gio breaks the kiss to look at Hannah. "Time for class?"
"Hate to interrupt, but yeah." Hannah stands and brushes off her jeans. "Come on, Ren, we better go in and get changed. Class is going to start soon."
"I'll come in a bit," he smiles, giving me a wink, and my stomach jumps.
After giving me a quick peck on the cheek, he pushes off back towards the basketball court. I watch him glide across the parking lot and hop the curb as I walk into the building. Hannah and I duck into the bathrooms to change.
I pull on my tight-fitting dance tank with a built-in bra and slide my arms through my grey hoodie sweatshirt, then get ready to step into my long boot-cut jazz dance pants from last year and my suede One Star shoes I bought just for this class—all black.
"Soooo," Hannah asks me from the next stall over. "How's being his girlfriend going?"
"Good," I pause, coming out of my stall the same time she does. "Really good, actually." I bite my lip thinking about it. "I'm helping him catch up, just like you suggested. Three times a week at lunch, then study hall and at his house too. "
Hannah goes over to the mirror and puts her hair up in a ponytail. "You study over at his house?"
"Yeah, twice a week," I say, tying my shoe.
She laughs. "Yeah, right! I'm sure you get lots of studying done there."
"We do! After..."
She catches my eyes in the mirror. "Have you guys had sex?"
I look down. "No. Not yet."
Not like I haven't been thinking about it, and I've been wondering lately if Gio has been, too.
He hasn't pressured me to like Ryder had or even asked about it yet. My mind flashes to what his sister said about him having girls in his room before and what his sex history is. I push the uncomfortable thought aside.
I like what we're doing for now. It feels like enough. Sex with Ryder hadn't been that much fun anyway, or let's just say he enjoyed it way more than I ever did.
"Sex is overrated," I mumble.
"I wouldn't know," Hannah reveals, brushing a loose strand over her ear.
The class isn't big, and Hannah and I take our spots in the second row. I throw my hoodie off, and it slides to the edge near my water bottle. We start with a warm-up dance, covering some basic movements, then move on to learn the rest of a routine to 'Feel So Good' by Mase. We started it last week, so today, we will finish learning the last six eight-counts and review the movements to the chorus.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Gio and Eddie come in as we are almost done re-learning the chorus, and they take a seat on some brown folding chairs in the corner. I snap my eyes back to the instructor as my heart rate doubles.
When we have reviewed the whole thing, which has some sexy drops, chest pops, and body rolls, we practice it straight through three times, which will last through the entirety of the song.
At the first chorus: "Bad, bad, bad, bad boy, you make me feel so goooood," we suddenly bend deep at the knees on the word "make", dropping to the floor, my ass nearly an inch from the ground.
I hear Eddie yell, "Woo!" and whip my head to the side, feeling an enormous rush as I see Gio's mouth practically agape as I slowly rise, pulling my hand up my leg. I steal a few more glances during the song, getting braver, acting it up more, and each time, he looks more wide-eyed than before, making me smile harder.
When we have finished the cool down and class is over, Hannah mentions the upcoming musical audition in two days.
"Do you have your monologue ready?"
"Almost. Don't remind me," I shake my hands out by my sides. "God, I'm so nervous about that."
She rubs my shoulder in a nurturing way that instantly calms my nerves. "You'll do great." Her eyes then dart to the corner. "Anyways, I'll let you get back to Gio. I'll see you in class before the audition after school Friday, okay?"
"Okay. See you Friday."
We hug goodbye, and I walk to where Gio is still sitting now alone, Eddie has apparently gone back outside to skate.
He grabs his board, stands as I approach, and gives me a one-armed side hug, his eyes widening at me again. "You were... wow! So good!"
"Thanks," I say, heat spreading over my whole body.
"That was even hotter than watching you skate! Especially because of these sick clothes. You look hella tight!" He takes a step back to survey me. "Damn. Can you just wear this and a ponytail, like, all the time?"
"Haha."
"I'm not kidding," he deadpans.
He puts his hand on me, pulling our hips together, and I can feel him becoming more aroused. His lips are just inches from mine, his head tilts more to the side, and his eyes lower. I close my eyes, too, waiting for him to kiss me—but he doesn't. I open them again to realize... he's looking down my tank.
"Stop. Bad boy." And I kiss him to make him.
We walk back out to the side of the building. The sun is getting low, sending long shadows over the parking lot darkening the basketball court.
He suddenly thrusts his board in my hands and sits on the curb, implying he wants to watch me skate again. I roll my eyes but put the board down and push off, doing a wide circle in the parking lot, feeling much more coordinated this time. As I navigate back to him, he stands back up, and I hand him his board back.
"Satisfied?" I say, sexily glowering at him.
"For now. I can teach you a few tricks," he smirks, grabbing my ass. "You look so good!"
"I want to watch you now."
"If it pleases you," and he winks.
I sit and watch him skate a bit more, showing off more slides, flips, and grinds. Then, I see him lining up to try the same railing slide as Eddie. And I tense.
He gets up easily enough and is almost down, but his board catches the angle change, and it shoots out from under his feet. He barely saves himself from taking the railing right in the groin, catching the fall into the bar with his hands, but crashes hard sideways onto the sidewalk.
I run over to him. "Are you okay?" He bounces up quickly and brushes himself off.
"I'm fine. It happens," he mutters, grabbing his board off the ground.
He walks away from me over to the curb, and I follow, sitting down beside him. He is inspecting his elbow, that's slightly scuffed up and bleeding. He'll get a few bruises from that, but I also think it bruised his ego more.
The sun sinks below the hills, pinking up the sky. The shadows dissolve, objects grow dim, and the breeze picks up.
"It's getting dark. You don't have to stay if you don't want to. Jeremy will give Eddie and me a ride home soon."
I don't feel like leaving him yet, but now I feel chilly—my slightly sweaty tank is now cold and damp against my skin. I begin to think about how a nice hot shower will be to warm me back up, but I wish I could take him with me.
"Yeah, okay. But are you sure you don't want to come to my house and take a shower with me?" I say casually, just to provoke him. I giggle.
Why do I love to tease him so much?
"What?! YES!? I mean, what, like, seriously?" I can see his brain exploding with the thought of it.
"No, of course not—I'm kidding!" I laugh. "At least, I'm joking about having one with you tonight...." arousing even myself with the thought of it.
"Fuck, don't say things like that!" he groans. "Now I'm not gonna be able to stop thinking about it." He's now looking at me like he can see right through my clothes. I try to get him to look into my eyes, but he's transfixed.
"Gio!" I say, snapping my fingers in front of his face. "Snap out of it."
"Hmm?" He smiles wryly. "Sorry, got lost in a daydream," and we both laugh.
He leans in and hugs me tight, burying his face in my neck. I wrap my arm around his back, watching the sky change color again. I feel his tongue on my collarbone, his hand moving up my stomach to my breast, his thumb brushing against my already hard nipple, sending heat between my thighs.
"Your skin tastes salty. I like it," he whispers.
I close my eyes and let him grope me for a minute, enjoying this particular fleeting moment in the dimming light, the only sounds, our breathing, and the occasional clack of a skateboard.
Finally, I push him back. "Okay. I gotta go, babe. Meet me in front of the school at the end of lunch tomorrow?"
"Yeah, okay," he sighs, still wanting.
I lean over again and whisper in his ear. "We'll do the shower another time, okay?"
Then I cup my hand around his neck and pull his lips hard to mine, giving him one hell of a hot, passionate kiss. It catches him off guard. I can feel him tense for a second—usually, he's the one who leads the attack. But he quickly melts into it, and I relish one more moment of just the sound of our lips and the clacks of boards hitting pavement.
••• A/N •••
Thank you for reading!
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That was bad of Ren to tease him like that, right?
Thank you so much for reading this far!!!
Buckle up, though; the story is about to go into 4th gear!