Ash pulled her gym shirt over her head and winced at the stench. She had two sets of gym clothes so she could always have a fresh pair, but she’d forgotten to grab the clean pair on her way out that morning. It was fortunate elective gym class was in the free-weight room, and that place always smelled like sour assholes. She’d probably be safe one more day in the same shirt.
A sardonic tone caught her attention. “Cute top. I just love frills.” Gwen ran her fingers along the blouse that Sam’s mom gave her. “I think I’ve seen my mom in this same shirt. ‘Course, that was in a picture of when she was in high school in like the ‘90s.”
Laughter followed Gwen’s words, and anger coursed through Ash, and, if she was honest, a little shame. Because Gwen was right. The top was cute, but it was a little dated. The garment either came from the thrift shop or from Alice’s own closet. Both sources were known for their outdated fashion, and Ash was familiar with the selections from both. Before she left over ten years ago, Ash’s mom used to take her thrift shopping every week. After her mom left, Ash continued to go, but it was Ms. Dyer who took her. Ms. Dyer, herself recently divorced, wanted to keep the tradition alive for the young girl.
Ash snatched the shirt away from Gwen and tossed it in her locker. As always, Gwen was dressed in the latest fashion. Even her workout gear was name-brand.
Ash wasn’t poor. Her dad wasn’t the city attorney like Gwen’s, but he made a great living as one of the few plumbers in town. If Ash wanted to, she could wear the same brands, and Gwen knew it. One reason she didn’t was that Ms. Dyer loved buying her clothes. Moms like to go shopping with their daughters, and Alice knew Ash wasn’t able to do that anymore. Alice had Sam to shop with, but it wasn’t the same buying clothes for a boy, especially one like Sam who was happy to buy the same flannel in three different colors. If Ash only wore name brands, then either Ms. Dyer would feel bad about not being able to afford them or, worse yet, she’d spend more money than she should trying to give Ash that mother-daughter experience she was missing out on.
The other reason Ash didn’t dress like Gwen was that it was basic as fuck and Ash had class.
Her gaze took in the entourage of girls arrayed behind Gwen. Most days she counted them as friends, Gwen included. But this was high school, and high school girls were shitty to each other. Ash was self-aware enough to lump herself in with that shitty group, so she didn’t think too poorly of her friends.
To the degree that their parents’ income and/or doting allowed, the other girls’ fashion matched Gwen’s. Name brands, perfect hair, stylish makeup. Dressed more for a posh photo shoot than for exercise. In fact, in five minutes when the bell rang, the gym would basically transform into a photo studio.
Gym wasn’t a mandatory class for seniors, so elective gym attracted a certain type of senior. Rich kids, popular kids, athletes—but not all athletes, just the stars and the hot ones.
Ash closed her locker and turned to face the posse. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t get the memo that today was Dress Like Basic Bitch Barbie.”
Gasps and laughter met her words in equal measure. Gwen and Amber—for all intents Gwen’s shadow—pursed their lips like they’d smelled something rank. Apparently, today wasn’t just the standard locker room banter. They were pissed. Ash let it go and headed to the gym, hoping Gwen would let it go, too.
The free-weight room was in a smaller building next to the gymnasium. It had a low roof and no walkway, paved or otherwise, so during the rainy season, the trek to first period was treacherous. The door was usually propped open, allowing the morning air to both defrost the perpetually cold building and drive out the worst of the stench. Ash and the group of girls were the last to arrive.
Even if they arrived after the bell it wouldn’t matter much to Ms. Pattinson. In terms of style, appearance, and personality, the elderly gym teacher had more in common with a catcher’s mitt than a human. She should have retired before Ash’s dad got to high school, but she was perpetual like the black mold that infested the library every winter. She was so old, rumor had it she was in the inaugural class when the school opened in 1874.
Apparently, Mrs. Pattinson used to teach a proper subject, but Ash only knew her as the gym teacher and softball coach. She’d taught Ash’s class sex ed when they were freshmen, but when the ancient spinster told the class premarital sex would pave their way to damnation and torment, the district replaced her with someone more…current. Now the aging teacher’s presence cursed the Phys Ed department. In the morning, you’d find her in the gym's corner, perched under a yellow flood light like an old iguana.
Mirrors lined the walls, and strength training equipment filled most of the space. Bench presses, leg presses…other types of presses. Ash had no clue what most of them did. Cardio equipment lined the other side of the gym, added a few years ago to encourage more female students to enroll in the class. Ellipticals, stair masters, and treadmills galore. Sexist, perhaps, but it worked. That was where the girls spent most of their time. To be fair, some girls also used the heavier equipment. The beefier cheerleaders who formed the base of the pyramids, for example. Ash used the leg press occasionally, but mostly, she and the others stuck to the cardio machines.
After all, it was easier to talk and check out the guys from that vantage point. Aside from working off her daily McMuffin, that was the primary reason she enrolled in the class.
Ash climbed onto an elliptical, fingers punching in her preferred settings without conscious thought. All hopes of Gwen letting bygones be bygones evaporated a moment later.
“I mean, where did you even find that top? Please tell me your mom bought it for you because I seriously thought you had better taste than that.”
Ash’s blood pressure rose, and it wasn’t because of the warmup cycle on the elliptical.
“Oh, that’s right,” Gwen continued, though her tone did little to convince anyone that whatever epiphany she had was genuine, “your mom ran off with the mailman.” This garnered fewer laughs than Gwen was hoping for but still enough for her to continue.
Ash pumped her legs and cranked on the handles of the elliptical, trying to drown out the sound of Gwen’s voice.
“I wonder why anyone would do that, run off with the mailman. Do you think he had a big package?”
Ash ground the elliptical to a stop. “What’s your problem, Gwen? Listen, I’m sorry if what I said earlier upset you, but bringing my mom into it is really fucked up.”
Amber sniggered, but Ash ignored her. Something in Gwen’s eyes shifted, and her smile faltered. “Woah, Ash—I didn’t mean…” she said, but she mumbled it so no one else could hear. It was the closest to an apology she was going to get.
“Just forget it, okay?” Ash started the elliptical again, but her heart wasn’t in it anymore.
The expression Amber shot her made it clear she wasn’t ready to give it up, but Gwen jerked her head, and for the next few minutes, it was quiet on the girl’s side of the weight room. Flashes from cell phone cameras started strobing, brightening the room like paparazzi had descended on Elsbury High. Now that the Instagramati had worked up a slight glaze—enough to give their skin a beautiful glow, but not enough to make them sweaty and gross—students took a break for their morning selfies.
#CleanLiving
#NaturalGlow
#PainIsWeaknessLeavingTheBody
Hashtag, BasicBitchLife, Ash thought shaking her head as her fellow seniors put themselves in more and more unnatural poses to get the best shot.
The digital masturbation wasn’t exclusive to the girls. Just as many of the guys had cell phones in hand. Of course, most of them claimed they were using the pics to check their form…even though every vertical square inch of the gym was reflective for just that purpose.
“Speaking of big packages,” Gwen said in a whisper designed for all the girls to hear.
Ash took a deep breath and prepared herself to get suspended that day. It had been a year since she’d been in a fight at school. She promised her dad and Ms. Dyer she wouldn’t do it again, but there was only so much shit she was willing to take.
“Have you guys seen Konstantin?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ash let out her breath, grateful today wasn’t the day she broke Gwen’s nose. She’d just done her nails, so it would have really sucked.
Gwen motioned for the girls to gather around. Ash rolled her eyes. Normally, she was game for gossip, but not so much that day. But she didn’t want to start up with Gwen again, so she powered off the elliptical and circled around the gossip queen with the others.
Mrs. Pattinson chose that moment to rouse herself from hibernation. “You should be sweating, ladies.”
“Just taking a hydration break, Mrs. Pattinson,” Gwen called, but the teacher had already returned to stasis, eyes closed. Gwen lowered her voice. “Have you all seen the new exchange student, Konstantin?”
Dumb question, Ash thought. Elsbury High wasn’t so big that you could miss a new student. Besides that, Konstantin, the new exchange student from Russia, was massive. He was one of the tallest guys at the school, and his shoulders were as broad as a tree. She was pretty sure he had to duck to get through doorways. He’d enrolled in Elsbury High in January and wore shorts and T-shirts even when snow blanketed the town.
And he was sooo hairy. Like, teen wolf hairy. His beard was as thick as Principal Mancini’s.
“I heard the rugby team calls him the Red Bear,” one girl said, and they all giggled.
“I get the bear part, but why red?” Amber asked.
It’s a good thing she’s pretty, Ash thought.
“Because he’s from Russia. Duh,” Lisa Herrington answered. Lisa was the smartest girl in school. If Randy Masters’s family hadn’t donated so much to the district to all but buy him valedictorian, she’d be it. She had to settle for salutatorian, and she was bitter about it. Justifiably so, but at least with the title came a full-ride scholarship to Brown, courtesy of Masters Investment Banking, of course.
“Oh, right.” But it was clear Amber had no idea how that answered her question.
Gwen recaptured everyone’s attention. “Well, his muscles and beard aren’t the only thing about him that’s big.” Another round of giggles met her words.
“What do you mean?” Lisa asked.
Gwen and Amber shared a glance.
“Let’s just say that Amber and I gave Konstantin a warm Elsbury welcome.”
“You didn’t,” Ash couldn’t help herself.
Elsbury welcome was what they called hooking up in the old locker room. No one remembered the origins of the moniker, but supposedly, it started when the head Elsbury cheerleader hooked up with the Dunwich quarterback during a homecoming game way back in the day.
Now, it was a term used for anyone hooking up on campus, though most often in the old locker room. Since the new gymnasium was built, the ramshackle old building had been the perfect place for students to slink off. Or toke up, sleep, or basically anything else they wanted to do outside of the watchful gaze of Assistant Principal Sykes.
Gwen nodded, and beside her, Amber followed suit. “It wasn’t planned or anything. I was flirting with Konstantin, and one thing led to another. But before I could give him the tour of the old locker room, he invited Amber. Throuples are much more common in Russia, so it wasn’t weird or anything.”
Ash and Lisa Herrington shared a skeptical glance, but they kept their mouths shut.
“How was it?” someone asked.
“Let’s just say that there was plenty of him to go around.”
“Oh my god, how did that even work with both of you?”
“Oh my god, how big was it?”
“Oh my god, was it hairy, too?”
The questions came rapid fire.
“Oh my god,” Ash said, exasperated by all the giggling, “who cares how big he is?”
The giggles and questions died down.
“Well, of course you would say that.” Gwen’s head and shoulders swayed like she’d just delivered a devastating burn.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Obvy, because Randy is packing a Vienna sausage.”
Ash’s mouth shut with an audible snap, and Gwen looked triumphant. Ash wondered if all of this had been a setup just for that one zinger. Had Gwen and Amber even hooked up with Konstantin?
I wouldn’t put it past her, the conniving bitch.
Ash wasn’t going to rise to the bait, but before she could return to the elliptical, Amber pointed and laughed. “Just look!”
Ash and everyone else followed the path of her gesture. There were more bench presses than anything over there like biceps and shoulders were the only muscles guys cared about, and every bench was occupied. Once upon a time, the cardio machines faced the walls. But, in a stroke of genius, last year the senior girls flipped them around. They told Mrs. Pattinson facing the mirrors while running was disorienting, but the real reason was they didn’t like the idea of the guys ogling them behind their backs.
Also, this way it was easier for the girls to ogle the guys. The gym was a target-rich environment for selfies and hotties. Looking across the gym at the guys, Ash was reminded of this. While the guys certainly took their opportunities for photo ops, they approached the gym much more seriously than the girls. The girls did actually exercise…just away from prying eyes. Who wanted to get sweaty and gross where people could see?
Sweaty, bulging muscles met Ash’s gaze. The faces the guys made while lifting were hilarious, and the grunting was obnoxious, but she approved of everything else going on over there. The girls’ favorite part was when the guys descended on the treadmills. Thin, synthetic athletic shorts, a quick pace, and jouncing cocks.
What wasn’t to love?
Right now, the bulk of them were on their backs, heads facing away, so the girls could creep on the fellas without fear of being caught.
And right in the middle of the row of heaving bodies was Randy. Her boyfriend. Randall D. Masters IV.
When her eyes fell on him, a familiar tingle shot through her. They’d been dating since the start of senior year. The longest relationship either of them had ever had. Randy was handsome. Beyond handsome. He was beautiful. Perfect hair, perfect smile, perfect skin. And his body…
Memories of last night flitted through her mind. Randy’s hands on her. His hard body pressed against hers. His tongue in her mouth, on her breasts…
Ash shuddered again and hoped no one noticed.
Last night was the closest they had come to having sex. She knew Randy wanted it. He pressed his excitement against her almost every chance he got. Truthfully, she wanted it, too, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready for it. They’d done other things. Lots of things. A blush crept up her face at the memories.
Slow and steady wasn’t her normal operating speed. She was more of a do-now-and-think-never kind of gal. But taking that final step with Randy was something she couldn’t take back, so rather than flying headstrong into a terrible decision—her father’s words—she was taking the time to make sure it was what she really wanted.
Still…staring at Randy as he grunted and heaved that bar up and down, his body straining and his abs and pecs taut with effort…it was hard to remember why she kept saying no.
“See what I mean?” The sneer was evident in Gwen’s voice. The question knocked Ash out of her reverie. It took an embarrassing amount of time for her to remember what they’d been talking about.
Oh yeah, that’s right.
Her boyfriend’s tiny penis.
Randy had the face, the hair, and the stature. The body of a Greek god. Unfortunately, like most statues of Greek gods, Randy was…well…
From this vantage it couldn’t be clearer how Randy stacked up against the other guys. The thin material of their gym shorts, plus their positions, left little to the imagination. Randy’s bulge looked like one of those mushrooms from the Mario games that gave you an extra life.
Beside Randy, as if fate had set him there for a lurid Venn Diagram, was Konstantin. The bulge in the exchange student’s shorts was so large it was almost comical.
When Ash turned back, Gwen was smirking.
“See what I mean? The car, the hair, the abs. Gosh, Ash, it’s almost like Randy is compensating for something.”
Laughter erupted from the girls, loud enough it caught the attention of the guys across the room. Embarrassment twanged through her. Partly for herself, but mostly for Randy. He could be a jerk, but he didn’t deserve to be mocked for something he had no control over.
Erika Andres chimed in. “In English class, when we were doing our family trees, Mr. Pinkett made us look up the meaning of our names. Konstantin means ‘firm.’” Her smile took to her ears as a blush blossomed on her cheeks.
Gwen and Amber laughed along with the rest of them. Gwen leaned in and whispered so they could all hear it. “Actually, it wasn’t that hard. It was big, but soft like a…” Gwen trailed off, at a loss for a comparison.
“An overripe zucchini,” Amber supplied triumphantly, then wilted when everyone’s eyes turned to her. “What? Haven’t you ever held an overripe zucchini? They’re super floppy.”
A long silence descended on the group.
“Sure,” Gwen continued, shaking her head at Amber, “like an overripe zucchini. But still, it hit allll the right spots.”
Mrs. Pattinson roused and barked at them to get back to work. Ash spent the rest of the period on a machine apart from the others. Her mind whirled back to freshman year sex ed—after Mrs. Pattinson was replaced by someone who’d been sexually active sometime in the past century.
Does size really matter?
The G-spot was only an inch or so deep, so was anything past that really…necessary? Ash wondered, not for the first time, what sex with Randy would be like. Would sex with him be as good as sex with someone like Konstantin? Who knew, maybe Ash was one of those women who couldn’t climax from penetration, so it wouldn’t matter how Randy measured up.
After all, Randy was good with his tongue…
The ringing bell drew her attention back to Randy. She watched him as he racked the barbell and wiped sweat from the bench. He caught her staring at him and smirked. Pointing at himself then her, he pantomimed thrusting his hips, his eyebrows bouncing with each thrust. He jerked his head over his shoulder, toward the old locker room only a stone’s throw away.
She blushed at being caught checking him out, but she sent him a reproachful glare. He laughed and joined his friends on their return to the locker room. The smile slipped from her face as she noticed Randy cozying up to a couple girls. She knew Randy was only playing, showing off for his friends, but she wondered how long he’d wait for her to be ready for sex. He was one of the most popular guys in school. She wasn’t naïve. She knew he’d had sex before, and she appreciated how patient he had been with her.
But how long will he wait for me?
She wasn’t ready, but she didn’t want to lose him either.
Am I just being stupid?
They had done so much other stuff together maybe going that last bit wasn’t such a big deal.
Ash trudged along the muddy path toward the gym and watched Randy in the distance. As usual, he was the center of attention. Guys and girls, sucked toward him like he had a gravitational pull, hung on his every word.
The knot in her stomach tightened.