So High School

Chapter Six

Matteo

Holy fuck I won the lottery. The hottest girl in school, no in my life, is sleeping in my room.

I watch her run up to Evelyn and Gia, slinging her arms around their shoulders and launching herself straight into their conversation.

Us guys lag behind, and Leo comes up and slaps me on the back, "Yo man, you better hope Wright doesn't find out about this." I look around at all of them nodding and frown.
"He can go fuck himself honestly. He's always been way too possessive of her. I'm surprised she didn't break up with him sooner."
James speaks up, "Yeah but she's like in love with him or something. Have you not seen her moping around all the time lately?"
She doesn't mope when she's with me.
"If I were her I'd enjoy the freedom. Besides, nothing's even going on."
"Oh sure," they all reply, not a single one buying my excuse.
"Sure," I say, then speed up to join the group of girls at the front, knowing they will all follow me and drop the subject.

Truth is, I'm not really sure what to think about Taylor. Girls have never really meant much to me- I've had girlfriends of course, but they've always been shallow attraction and I ended up breaking up with them because they seemed a lot more interested than me and I felt bad.
So I don't know what to think about Taylor. Is it just some deeper running attraction because she's the hottest girl I've ever seen? The prettiest, the most beautiful?

I distract myself by talking to Zoe and Maya as we make our way around the camp. As I predicted, the boys followed me up, and now we're moving in sort of one line, but with little groups along- it's hard to hang out all together when there are fourteen of us. When I see Ziah talking to Taylor, I try to ignore the feeling in my stomach. They're just friends (I assume), and why does it even matter to me?

Our group takes the long route around, walking past and checking out what this place has. We plan our table for meals- a large table furthest from the spot we pick up the food. The place around is dotted with a number of obstacle courses, and other team building activities, I guess.  There's a gate on one of the sides, the path covered by trees and plants growing out alongside it.

We reach the creek running through the camp out the back, and it doesn't take much convincing from any of us to get in. We go back to the cabins to change, and as I'm climbing up the stairs, Taylor approaches and follows me to our room without a word.

I watch her pull out a bikini from her suitcase, the top a patterned blue thing, and the bottom plain white. There are strings everywhere. She heads for the bathroom to change, and I change into my board shorts quickly. The boys are all leaving when I come out, but she's nowhere with them.
"Is Taylor already gone?" I whisper to Leo.
He shakes his head, "Still in the bathroom."
"Okay I'm going to wait for her."
He shakes his head, smirking, and takes off with the rest of them.

I wait in the lounge, staring at the group heading towards the creek when I hear the bathroom door creaking open. Her face sticks out from behind the door, one hand behind her head, the other grabbing the bikini top, which I can now see is mainly white with dark blue floral patterns. 

"Oh Matteo, good," she says when she sees me, "Do you think you could help me tie up my top?"
"Sure," I say, moving over to her as she opens the door wider. I take the strings from her, making her jump when my fingers brush hers. 
"It's just like a shoelace right?"
"Yep..." she pauses, "You've never tied a girl's bikini before?"
I frown, which I think she catches in the corner of the bathroom mirror. "Why would I have?"
"No reason," she replies, "Can you double knot it? I don't want it coming undone."
I nod and follow through, stepping away when I'm done.

As we head down to the the creek, following the laughter and shouts of our friends, I get curious.
"Taylor why did you think I'd tied a girl's bikini before?"
"Um, well you know," she laughs nervously, and I shake my head. "Well it's just you're like the captain of the soccer team, the hottest guy in school- I'm kind of surprised that... please tell me you know what I mean?"
I do. Seriously though!?
"Jesus Taylor, I'm not a fucking hoe! I've never had  sex with anyone! The furthest I've been is kissing!"
She looks taken aback by my outburst, and I'm surprised too.
"Hey, but who said I'm the hottest guy in school? Taylor?" I ask, in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"No one," she says, "Especially not this hoe."
She stalks off, diving straight into the creek without a glance back.