Try Me (Extracurricular Activities #2)

by Neve Wilder

Mark Farrow, the boy I’d crushed on before I even knew what a crush was. The first guy I’d ever jacked off to. The first guy I’d ever wanted to kiss. The first guy who’d ever touched me exactly the fucking way I’d wanted to be touched. The only guy I could never have.

“So if it’s so easy to get laid, why are you complaining about not getting laid?” I asked. “Because I have standards.” “But you also eat chocolate Pop-Tarts.” “Quit throwing my completely inane logic back in my face.”

I don’t need something formal. Do you?” I considered, then shook my head. “Nah. And after the election, my dad will probably be so focused on other things it won’t matter. Then we’ll graduate and…” I blew out a long breath, because I didn’t know what happened after that, and I was carefully warding against looking too far into the future. I wanted Chet Pynchon, and I was with him right now. Everything else would get sorted as we went.

“I would’ve let you in anytime.” I met the dark pools of his eyes, the confession soft. “I always will. I don’t know that I’d ever be able not to.”

We’d been swoops and dives and potholes for most of the time I’d known him. But for this moment right now, it felt like open road between us, and it was my heart that was moving at breakneck speed.

Because the truth was, nothing else felt as good as Mark Farrow. I wasn’t sure anything else ever could.

Dad pushed off the couch and gave my shoulder one of those impersonal squeezes he handed out frequently, meant to make a person feel like they were part of the team. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, son, I know it.” What I actually heard was “fall in line.”