text: [Themes: love & dating]
  
  As she starts to nuzzle your neck you gently push her back. "Stephanie do you really want to do this."
  
  "Yeah, I mean your really cute." She smiles
  
  Resist it Web, Bitch resist it.
  
  You try to think of reasons not to go through with it. You think to yourself that maybe she has herpes, or maybe she'll make fun of your size. You didn't want to take the chance.
  
  "Stephanie I'm not going to lie, your really hot, but i can't." You say as you put your forehead against hers.
  
  "Don't be such a white knight, Web." Stephanie laughs touching your midsection.
  
  Don't you fucking dare Web.
  
  "I'm serious, Stephanie no, i ain't like that." you say moving you hand.
  
  It's until a few seconds later that you understand what you just said. You start to prepare for the slap you'll get from your remark but you just hear her laugh to herself.
  
  "OK Web, want to watch a movie, stay for awhile." She says as she starts to take out DVDs.
  
  You feel relived your honesty didn't get you kicked out of her house. You end up staying until the setting of the sun when you decide your parents are going to start to wonder why you aren't yet. As you leave however Stephanie gives you another kiss at the front door.
  
  "Let me have at least that Web." She gives you a final hug and closes the door leaving you stupidly smiling.
  
  The next day you come to lunch with everyone else inside and take a seat in a corner alone. If you were starting to gain friends you also had to change your habits.
  
  Some part of you thought that Stephanie wouldn't come to your table and go somewhere else but as you saw her wave and walk over you were relived. You saw some stares from the other guys she used to hangout with as they saw you as her new friend. But you honestly didn't care if she would stay with you.
  
  "You want to go out and do something after school, like go to a movie or the park near here." Stephanie suggested as she sat down. "I could go to the -."
  
  "No, No let's go to the mall, I want to see if those clothes I wanted are on sale, maybe a I can get a cute pink sweater, it's starting to get cold."
  
  You just nodded agreeing to whatever change she made with a small smile on your face as she looked lost at the day she wanted to plan. As the school day ended you contacted your parents than you were going to go out with friends for the day and that you would be back late. You then realized how you two would get to the mall. You didn't want to tell your parents to take you and you also didn't want to walk the whole way back especially if you were going on buy something. But it seemed as if Stephanie was already leading you to the school parking lot as you followed confused.
  
  That's when you two strop in front of a scooter. You almost laughed thinking there was no way she was going to drive this as a 15 year old.
  
  "No one ever suspects anything, everyone thinks I'm 16 on the road. " Stephanie explains taking a helmet from her backpack
  
  Your still baffled at what she's saying. But as she gets on you automatically get behind her.
  
  "We'll take the back streets since you don't have a helmet." Stephanie say as she drives out of the parking lot.
  
  once you're inside the mall Stephanie starts taking you around the stores looking for any new clothes that we're being supplied. You start to think how similar she was to all of the popular girls at school. It's sad knowing if she had never did the things that put her on the spot she would have had friends to hang out with. You also saw how excited she was about everything wanting you to enjoy your stay with her and show off all the things she bought like a kindergartner showing their parents what they did in class.
  
  "Is there anywhere you want to go Web, I feel like I'm dragging you to all the boring girly shops." Stephanie says hugging your arm as you carry shopping bags in the other.
  
  "I don't really go to the mall, what kind I stores do you think I would like." You say quickly turning the question to her favor.
  
  "I guess I'll have to take you to all of them to find your favorite." She sticks out her tongue as she takes your hand and starts to lead you to another store.
  
  By the end of the day you had searched the entire mall with Stephanie guiding you the entire way. It might not have been the most exciting or romantic place to go to but as long as you cracked jokes about the clothes to make her smile or going to the small arcade inside you felt happy and satisfied as if you had done everything when there was still do much more to do. You never want it to end.
  
  But as you two we're driving you received a text message from your phone. You were surprised as that honestly never happens. You shift a hand from her waist to your pocket as you check who it's from and see it to be your old friend Henry. The message says he's at a party at his friend Jerry's house with a lot of people from our grade. You know everyone always goes to Jerry's parties as his parents are barely home and his house is close to everyone else's to walk to. You tell Stephanie about the message as she asks about it
  
  "I don't mind going if you come with me." Stephanie says as she comes to a stop between the roads leading to her house and Jerry's party.
  
  You have the choice of going to a party where you and Stephanie would have a blast along with starting to socialize with everyone from your grade and finally start to break out of your shell. Or should you call it a night and do something at Stephanie's house.
  
  > go on to Stephanies
  Parties didn't appeal to you like most people, a night with Stephanie seemed more appealing to you.
  
  "let's just head to your house, feel like the party is going to be lame." You say as Stephanie starts towards her house.
  
  like last time Stephanie decides to watch a movie with you which doesn't bother you at all. It's not until after the movie is over however that things start to heat up.
  
  "Come on Web, I want to try on the things I bought." Stephanie giggles as she pulls you with a surprising amount of strength off the couch and drags you up the stairs.
  
  She pushes you down on her bed along with dumping out all the clothes she bought next to you. You notice a mixture of shorts and bras along with some shirts. She pushes them around a bit before picking a bra from the pile. You think that she'll go to her bathroom to change but as soon as she stands in front of you with her seductive smile you know better than to think that. She starts taking off her shirt and throws it on your head as soon as she's finished. You keep the shirt on your head not wanting to see what happens next with the fear of becoming excited.
  
  But you then feel her sit on your lap as she ties the shirt around your eyes causing all your other senses to become sensitive. You realize your plan backfired as her simple movements cause you to become aroused.
  
  "Maybe you should try on a shirt, or a sweater." You suggest as you hear a laugh from her.
  
  You already knew what was going to go down and pulled off the make shift blindfold and pushed her down on her bed and got on top of her seeing a surprised reaction on her face. You held your desires in this long, now you couldn't hold back even though you don't know if any of the guys she slept with had STD's
  
  The next day
  
  You wake with rays of sunlight hitting your face from the closed curtain. It must have been a wild night as Stephanie is on the floor in a weird position. You get dressed and place her on her end before opening her bedroom door.
  
  "Have you finally woken up Stephanie?"
  
  Without thinking you close the door and step away from it
  
  Shit, Shit, Shit
  
  You didn't want your first time with someone to be the first time you get caught. You were sure this had happened with other guys that slept with Stephanie but you didn't want to see how her parents reacted to these kind of situations.You tried walking Stephanie up but whatever you did to her last night had knocked her out. You went for Stephanie's window and yanked it open suddenly realizing she was on the second floor of her house. A small part of the roof was below the window but it wa slanted and covered in tiles. You decided to go ahead and go through with it knowing that facing Stephanie's parents would be ten times worse than whatever injuries you may get trying to get down.
  
  You slowly make your way onto the small roof and dangle your feet off seeing if you can make it I the ground. Your not to far from the ground but if you land wrong you'll fuck up your leg. You bend your knees and let go of the roof touching the ground. Your leg has a small sharp pain but nothing to serious. You laugh thinking how you just escaped a house but then realize one of the neighbors see what you just had done as she was watering her plants and suddenly runs back inside her house.
  
  You start to jog away knowing she may call the cops but then feel the sharp pain in your foot suddenly intensify as you suddenly stop. You start to panic realizing you are stuck in the middle of the street and look over to see the woman talking on the phone trying to peak at you from her porch.
  
  Oh hell no
  
  You start to jump on one foot as you slowly attempt to escape the scene. You weren't going to be taken in.
  
  20 minutes later
  
  "So you sprained your ankle while climbing down your girlfriends house?" The officer seemed to be holding back a grin as you sat down on the curb of Stephanie's house. At first the officer didn't seem to believe you with the exaggerated story the woman wa telling of you trying to rob the home but when Stephanie called out to you from her window with a wave but then hiding back inside when seeing the officer your story seemed more believable with the woman heading back to her house with a scoff. You then begged the officer to not question Stephanie's parents knowing what was bound to happen.
  
  "Son if I weren't holding back a laugh from your story I would have questioned your girlfriends parents, but I'll leave you with a warning to not pull these kinds of stunts again, understood?"
  
  You nod your head rapidly thanking the heavens for such a cool officer. He even gives you a ride back to your house as your sprained ankle got the best of you causing you to become immobile. Your mom looked surprised seeing you being escorted by an officer when she opened the door.Your mom looked surprised more than anything when she saw that you were being escorted by an officer.
  
  "I found out son here in need of a ride after falling off a tree, I can dispatch an ambulance if needed."
  
  "I think he'll be fine with an ice pack, thank you for bringing him home officer."
  
  The man nodded and gave you a quick wink before heading back to his squad car. You felt your phone ring as you lay down on your bed letting your foot rest.
  
  "Are you in jail, I saw him take you away!" Stephanie sounded scared to death
  
  "Yep there holding me until my parents come, they may need you and your parents to." You lie smirking
  
  That makes Stephanie panic even more. you were going to keep this up as you could as punishment for her ditching you with the officer. But you were glad with her concern. You think of all the fun you two will have while your together. Thing a have changed for the better for you. this was your heaven.
  
  > Epilogue
  "Why should we join the friend club" Stephanie asks as you two walk towards the classroom where the club is holding its first meeting.
  
  "Why shouldn't we?" You ask jokingly giving her a kiss on the cheek.
  
  "You know what I mean, i bet this club is going to be filled with the dweebs that tried getting sex out of me last year."
  
  "Come on you overreacting, if you feel uncomfortable in there then well leave and I wont bring it up again, but let's at least give it a shot." You plead.
  
  Stephanie looks at you for a moment before sighing and finally giving in.
  
  "What the hell, let's go inside." She says looking slightly annoyed at you.
  
  The room is filled with about eight people, all watching a movie being played on the classroom projector, most aren't watching it though, most of them are talking to each other, but there were a few kids who didn't want to leave their comfort zone and were sitting alone watching the movie, occasionally looking at the others. it's what you would expect of the club.
  
  You recognize one of the people sitting alone as the shy girl in your math class that talked to you from time to time, mainly to borrow your pencil. You nudge at Stephanie towards the direction of her and head over.
  
  The girl see's the two of you approaching and seems to panic as her eyes start to dart around, but you pull up a chair and sit across from her.
  
  "Ey Zoey, so is this club all the hype people say it is." You say to her with a smile.
  
  Zoey doesn't speak for a moment, before clearing her throat and returning your smile with her own.
  
  "I guess so, the movie's kind of boring though, there's no snacks ethier."
  
  "Well the actor playing the main character sucks, that new one with him rocks though, you've seen it yet?"
  
  As the conversation grows, Zoey seems to get more comfortable until finally she's full of life, even getting Stephanie to chime in.
  
  The experience you went through in middle school changed you, some may say that you overreacted about it and that being alone isn't all that bad. The truth is though, it was and you wouldn't even wish it on your worst enemy.
  
  Although it was depressing, it taught you a life lesson, to actually talk to people who your unsure off, and find out who they are directly, instead of assumptions, that's why even after all you've been through, you wouldn't take it back.
  
  It's something that's stuck with you, and like everyone else, you had to learn how to adapt.
  
  Strangers to Friends ending