Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
“I think we both know you don’t have too high standards for who you let do that.”
“Big standards more than high standards,” he teased. “And that bulge in his pants… Must be nice to look at in class. Don’t act like you haven’t noticed.” He glanced at me, clearly awaiting an admission.
“What? You expecting me to deny it? I wonder if he realizes how big it looks in those khakis he wears, or if he can even do anything about it.”
“I don’t think there’s really a way to hide that kind of dong, unless he wants to sneak it between his legs.”
“Not exactly something a teacher needs to be strutting around with, on top of that pretty face.” Fuck. That had spit right out of my mouth.
“So you think he’s hot too?”
“I’m not blind.”
“So you’d totally fuck Mr. Warner, if you could.”
“Stop.”
“You’d fuck Mr. Warner. Admit it.”
“I would never fuck some teach.”
“Teach? Are you suddenly going to high school in the seventies?”
“Must’ve picked it up from Tex, but I like it. It fits him.”
“Well, I’d let him fuck me,” Ben said. “No shame in that.” He laughed as he took another thick glop of ice cream into his mouth.
“Oh, too big. Too big.” He could hardly enunciate because of how stuffed his mouth was.
“Not even going to touch that one.” And at my remark, he spit out the ice cream onto my chest. “Oh fuck!” I exclaimed as the cold stung my flesh.
Over the next week, I settled into my usual routine. I ran deliveries for a few apps, did my schoolwork to get by, and met up with Ben to cheer him up as much as I could through his grieving process.
I slid beside Taryn at the lunch table before Ben joined us. Taryn was eating a stack of mashed potatoes she’d packed in her lunch. “I can’t tell if it’s little Timmy yet or if I’m trying to eat for this and my next life.”
Ben laughed, and I knew it was mostly because Taryn was intending to name her kid, guy or girl, Timmy.
“It’s cute that you think you didn’t always eat like this,” I said, and Taryn busted into a laugh.
“You fucking ass. You’re a terrible father.”
Another inside joke.
Despite having messed around with Taryn a few times, we all knew who the father was. Still, the rest of the school had made up their minds that it was me, partly contributing to this bad-boy image I seemed to have earned. Or at least, never proven wrong.
Ben glanced around. “You guys gotta be careful joking around like that. It doesn’t take much to get a rumor started around here.”
“Man, I don’t feel like if I start calling you a top, it’s gonna dissuade anyone from that ass.”
He practically howled with Taryn, making me pretty fucking proud of my tease. Although, really, I hoped he got my point too. I didn’t give a shit what anyone in this dumb school thought about me.
“Besides,” I added. “You’re the co-host of the school news. We basically make PR at this school.”
“Um…excuse me,” he said, “I’m busy reporting big, important 5A topics, not run-of-the-mill gossip. Thanks for paying attention to my important updates. I’ll remember you when I’m big time on CNN.”
My reference led to Ben giving us the latest class news—various self-created dramas that kept his peers and himself busy, apparently.
When I finished eating, I got out my homework for James’s class and reread my responses. It was the first real assignment he’d given us on our reading of Paradise Lost, a poem he admitted was a bit premature this early in the semester, but he was racing through the bards and Chaucer to get us to his personal favorites—Shakespeare and the Romantics.
I would have been lying if I said I hadn’t reread my answers a few times. I didn’t usually try too hard with this stuff, but I’d found myself enjoying his questions.
“Is that for Mr. Warner’s class?” Ben asked.
“Shut it. It’s my next period. I’m proofing it.” He and Taryn eyed each other, and I knew what they were thinking. “My British Lit teach is actually kinda cool, and his questions didn’t feel like he just wanted to see if we’d read the chapters. I just…I don’t know, liked my answers. He’ll probably check it off and move on, but…whatever.”
I doubted he would even care as much as I had, but I’d gotten sort of lost in my answers. Even though it was about Paradise Lost, it was about more than that too. And there was something nice about knowing he wouldn’t ever know why.
After lunch, I headed on to fourth period.
Mr. Warner hadn’t treated me any differently than any of the other kids in class since that first awkward moment we’d had. Didn’t so much as look at me any differently, or notice me when I was looking at him a little too long.