Aaliyah was the popular one. She hung out with all the cool kids, she was good at sports, and her teachers adored her—some of them too much. It was her personality that did it, that separated her from her shy, introverted nerd of a sister. There was no other explanation for it; they were identical twins. By the time they were seventeen, the void between them had grown so wide that Keisha was afraid if she ever tried to cr...

Five days later I find myself in a supermarket. What more do I need? It feels like I have forgotten something. I hate that feeling when being in the supermarket. Kind of knowing that I must have forgotten something, but not being sure. I hate to use grocery lists. Having a grocery list makes me feel too much like a grandma. Well, looking at my cart, I've collected a lot of stuff. I should have everything. At least all the...

Whatever Morgan and I had planned to do that night, it was thrown away. Swiftly, it was replaced with the both of us gathered around Morgan’s phone, FaceTiming with a blubbering, panicked Taylor. “I don’t know what he’s going to do,” Taylor cried over the phone. “I’m such a fucking wreck.” “We’ll get through this. Being as calm as you can will help you so much,” Morgan instructed in her stern tone she took when she was ta...

We decided to skip the photo lab after class. It was just too hot, and the idea of a dip in the lake sounded good. Claudia, Christoph, and I met up by the shore. He with his bike, me with my proudest possession, an old Mercedes. Just another guy who had a driving license before ever having a girlfriend. Claudia rode with me. We were the three photo geeks in class who gave old Mr Gruber the feeling that the world was still...

"Not quite the Orient Express," I think as I gaze out onto the busy platform. Instead of truffles and filet mignon, I see the railway staff loading sandwiches, poutine and donuts. I had arrived early to secure a window seat, but this is not air travel, so the carriage is hardly full. Glancing at the tablet next to me, it looks like I will be rereading Dune Messiah, seeing as the movie has put me in a spicy mood. Just as t...

It took me a few minutes after Morgan rushed out to even think of doing something other than sitting there. Eventually, I had stood up, wondering if I should search for them like Morgan was doing for Taylor. And yet, another part of me realized – or at least thought – that that could have been a very dangerous idea. Eventually, I uneasily walked out of the hallway and decided to go to my next class early. I didn’t see eit...

I thought I made a lot of progress when it comes to being able to talk to people and talking with confidence and speaking in full sentences. There was no bigger reality check for me than having to ask Taylor’s mom for a ride home that night. Credit where it’s due, she did her best to make conversation with me, but of course, any question was met with me staring at the floor and responding in as few words as possible. I di...

Whatever it was that Milo had to tell me, he clearly felt as awkward as I did discussing it in the middle of a hallway, even though the halls were mostly empty by this point. Class was about to start, and I wasn’t one for skipping, but curiosity won over me. Before long, we were back in our little elevator hallway, with him looking from wall to wall, thinking about where he’d begin with this.  “I’m not normally one for dr...

It definitely wasn’t just wishful thinking, nor a coincidence – Taylor and I were seeing each other more and more. We went from seeing each other once a week and maybe doing something sexually at the end of the study session, to seeing each other once every two days or so, with at least half of our time spent with our tongues busy working on one another. “Mmmh,” Taylor moaned as she engulfed my cock with her mouth for the...

Kathryn and I walk out of the bathroom into the bedroom, still naked from our post-shower sex. I find my clothes while she digs into a drawer and puts on fresh panties and a bra. She steps into a pair of pants and rummages through her closet for a shirt while I dress in my pants and the shirt she lent me last night. I had her figured for a boxed-macaroni and pop-tart kind of girl, but after last night's dinner and this mo...

Mother could hold a grudge. “What are you gonna tell Taylor?” Kevin asked as we walked together towards the front doors of the school. “You’re gonna need to think of a good way to put it. Saying, ‘Hey Taylor, sorry, can’t study with you this week, my mommy grounded me’ isn’t gonna do wonders for your sex life with her.” I shook my head. “Can you stop saying that, please?” I asked him with an annoyed voice. “Especially in...

“What do you want from Taylor?” It wasn’t a question I was expecting. I stared at Crystal for a second before sighing. “Look, Morgan already gave me the whole spiel, so I’d appreciate it if we could-” “Oh, I know,” Crystal replied firmly, folding her arms in front of her chest. “She told me when she did. But now if I ever bring you up even in passing, she just looks at the floor and says nothing.” That was a lot to proces...

The test was pretty simple. Not only did I know the subject matter pretty well, I had hours of practice teaching someone else about it, so it wasn’t a shock to see the “100%” on my page. Mrs. Li gave me a congratulatory smile as she gave me the test, and it was clear from the quiet groans that my score wasn’t exactly common in the class. That said, I was still nervous. As Li walked around the room handing out tests, I sta...

Taylor sighed in resignation. “Can we go back to factorials?” she asked, her voice strained. She wasn’t understanding permutations at all. We were hitting a bit of a roadblock - while we hit it off well in our first week, all things considered, there was a factor in our arrangement we hadn’t considered: I may have known the math, but I did not have the communication skills to teach them. “Well, we have n and we have r, so...

I would have traded anything in the world for another life, one where I wasn’t known by everyone as nothing but a nerd. People kept telling me there were going to be all these benefits later on in life - “think of how easily you’ll get a job,” “you’ll get to be the boss of all those people that bullied you,” “you’ll be set for life.” What the hell kind of life was I set for? They say that high school shapes you and these...