The classroom emptied slowly, the way classrooms do at the end of a school day when everyone has somewhere better to be. Chairs scraping, bags zipping, voices trailing off down the hallway. I stayed exactly where I was and counted the seconds. I had gotten used to doing that...you know, just sitting still and waiting until the room was clear before I moved. It was easier than walking out in the middle of them and giving anyone a reason to start something fresh.
When the last set of footsteps disappeared and the noise finally died down, I let out a slow breath.
"I don't know what is worse." I muttered to myself, staring down at my lap. "Getting a boner in front of the class, or that the most hoo-rah hetero quarterback we've got gave it to me in just a mere dream."
Neither answer was doing anything good for my dignity.
I reached into my bag and pulled out a wipe, then went to work on the stain Max had left on my trousers. It didn't come out clean as the stuff had already settled into the fabric and there was still a faint sticky feeling no matter how many times I went over the same spot. But I got it to a manageable enough state that I could walk out of the building without it being the headline. That was the best I was going to get.
I gathered my things, swung my bag over my shoulder, and pushed the chair in. Detention was still waiting for me somewhere down the hall and I needed to think through exactly how I was going to handle that without it turning into something bigger. The principal didn't need Ms. Presto's version of today reaching her desk before mine did. I was student body president and I had worked too hard and too long to let one bad afternoon become the thing that defined how people in this school saw me.
I crossed the classroom and stepped out into the hallway.
I had taken maybe two steps when a hand shot out from the corner beside the door and grabbed my chest.
"Your ass is mine!"
"What!" It came out loud and sharp before I could catch it, and my whole body locked up on instinct.
Then I saw who it was.
'Sean.' Of course it was Sean.
He had his palm flat against my chest and his eyes were already on mine, steady and deliberate, like he had been standing in that exact spot waiting for me specifically. Before I could get a single word together again, he pressed his other hand over my mouth, cutting off whatever I was about to say. Then he grabbed my bag off my shoulder, pulled me back through the classroom door...with my back going in first and tossed the bag somewhere near the wall. And then, he slammed the door shut behind us.
He let go of me, pushing me slightly in and I staggered back a step, catching myself against the edge of a desk. I straightened up and found my footing but my heart was going faster than I was willing to admit.
"Sean, what exactly are you doing?" I blurted.
He stood right in front of me with his arms loose at his sides, looking like he had all the time in the world. That smirk was already on his face - the one that meant he thought he had something on me and wanted me to know it.
"You thought you could hide it." He said it slowly, like he was enjoying the weight of each word. "But I caught you."
I knew exactly what he was pointing to. There was no version of playing dumb that was going to work here and we both understood that.
I held his gaze and said nothing. My brain was already running through options, pulling apart angles, trying to find the one response that would shut this down cleanly without giving him anything new to work with. Because that was the thing about Sean, which was the moment you handed him a reaction, he ran with it every single time.
The classroom was empty and the door was closed. Again, from the way he was standing, relaxed and unbothered with zero intention of letting me leave here till he was done with whatever this was all about, it was very clear that he was not unlocking that door until he got what he came for.
Honestly, I wasn't ready for this conversation. Not today...at least, not after everything that had already played out in the last few hours. I had survived the boner, survived Max's little stunt, survived detention being handed to me for something I didn't start and now I was standing in an empty classroom after school with the one person I least wanted to be alone with, who was looking at me like he already knew things I hadn't said out loud.
The best I could do was find something solid to stand on before he got there first.