Nick finally emerged from his car after contemplating whether he even felt like being at school today. Part of him just wanted to curl up in bed and hope all of his problems would go away. Life would’ve been much easier if he had remained a virgin.

There would be no complicated relationship that he desperately wanted but was afraid to lose, no constant sexual desire, no contracting chlamydia and his relationships wouldn’t be as damaged as they are now. From Mitch, to his mother, to Danny; Nick was having a hard time getting along with anyone these days.

Was this all related to his unyielding sexual cravings? Nick wasn’t sure but he hoped Danny’s mother’s therapist could help him figure it out. That is, if Danny’s offer to help was still on the table.

He couldn’t believe that Danny felt like he was in love with Lizzy. It wasn’t like Danny to have those sorts of feelings, Nick thought. His friend was all about fucking as many girls as possible and having a good time doing it.

But maybe Nick didn’t know his best friend as well as he thought he did. He knew Danny’s home life wasn’t the best. He remembered occasionally going over to Danny’s house a few nights a week for dinner in middle school when his mother had to work late. This was before Mrs. Morgan morphed into a major crack addict.

Even then, the situation was tense at the dinner table. Mr. Morgan constantly yelled at Danny for every little thing he did wrong. Why weren’t you named captain of the football team? I dated much better looking girls in middle school, yada, yada, yada. Mrs. Morgan just stared into space half of the time and didn’t bother to tell her husband to stop berating their son.

Eventually, Nick stopped going to Danny’s for dinner and only went there to hang out, since his parents gave him the creeps. Nick started to understand why Danny felt lonely and unloved at home. Maybe he really felt strongly about Lizzy and it would make him happy to be in a relationship with her. But how would Mitch feel? Nick didn’t want his friends to be mad at each other again.

Rather than continuing to play amateur psychiatrist, Nick entered the school for another tough day. His mood was brightened when he saw a text on his phone from Stacy.

Stacy: Hey, how are you feeling this morning babe?

Nick: I feel a lot better after last night. Ha ha.

Stacy: I bet you do  Just wait until this weekend, I might have other surprises in store.

Nick’s heart leapt in his chest. Would Stacy really give in and have sex with him after the homecoming dance? He could only hope.

**
Danny was beyond pissed at what happened in the car on his ride to school this morning. How could Nick not see how selfish he was being by keeping his affliction with chlamydia to himself?

Not only did he likely pass it on to Tiffany but if he was getting sexually active with Stacy again, he could infect her as well before the antibiotics had enough time to kick in.

Then, Nick had the nerve to tell Danny that he was selfish for feeling affection for Lizzy. Yeah, Danny realized it wasn’t ideal since Mitch would surely be pissed at him if he ended up dating Lizzy or kept hooking up with her, but Danny had an answer for that. He was going to remind Mitch to ask out Lucille Hemingway, who had agreed to go with Mitch to the homecoming dance after some convincing by Danny.

Danny wasn’t sure if Mitch would like Lucille, but she was cute enough that he knew Mitch would at least find her attractive. If he was quick enough, he could catch Mitch by his locker before he went to class. Sure enough, there he was.

“Hey, Mitch, what’s up?” Danny asked.

“Not much. Just read a really good book about how our country is fucked.”

“Wow, you really are a nerd you know that? Have you asked Lucy to homecoming yet?”

“Lucy who?” Mitch asked.

“Damnit. Don’t you remember talking about this the other day? Lucy Hemingway.”

“Hemingway? Like Ernest Hemingway?”

“No, you fucking nerd. Lucy Hemingway. I’m pretty sure there’s no relation.”

“Oh her? Yeah, she’s pretty cute. What did you tell her about me again?”

“Nothing much. Just that you’re a nice guy and you’d really like to talk to her but haven’t worked up the nerve yet.”

“Damn, Danny, that’s going to make me sound lame.”

“Relax, just go with it. She told me she would go out with you as long as you asked. Besides, you don’t want to be the only person in our friend group without a date to homecoming do you?”

“No, I guess you’re right. I’ll ask her today,” Mitch said. “So who are you going with? I don’t think you ever said.”

Mitch was always the clever and observant one of their friend group. Danny avoided the question of who he was going to the dance with each time one of his friends asked. The only answer he gave was his fuck buddy, Michelle Jenner. He hadn’t told anyone that he actually planned to ask Lizzy Watkins to be his homecoming date and that he would go with her group of friends to the dance to avoid looking suspicious until the dance arrived. At that point, though, the cat would be let out of the bag.

“I’m bringing Michelle Jenner. You know her, right?”

“Oh yeah, I guess so. You seem to do a lot of stuff with her. Is she a girlfriend?”

“Nope, just friends with benefits,” Danny said. “We need to find you one of those.”

“You never know. Maybe this Lucy can be one.”

“Go get her, tiger.”

**

A few hours had passed since Danny told him to ask out the girl that agreed to be his homecoming date. Mitch was feeling nervous at the prospect of asking a girl out, especially since he didn’t know her.

Mitch realized he had never asked a girl out in his life. When he and Lizzy started dating, it was a natural evolution of their near lifelong friendship. There was no formal process of him asking her on a date or to become his girlfriend. It just kind of happened.

He knew he could find the girl on the way to lunch since he was pretty sure he saw her and her friends walking to the lunchroom at the same time he arrived there from his class.

Before he knew it, the bell signaling the lunch hour rang. A lump formed in Mitch’s throat as he got up to leave the classroom.

With a brisk pace, Mitch darted from his history class and down the maze of halls to the lunchroom. Maybe if he walked fast enough, he wouldn’t have to ask Lucy out and he could just say he forgot and spend the night of the homecoming dance depressed and lonely in his room.

Mitch nearly jumped out of his sandals when Jake walked up alongside of him.

“You’re going to ask that girl out, right?”

“Where did you come from? How did you know about that?”

“Who do you think?” Jake asked.

“Trent,” the friends said simultaneously. Apparently Danny told Trent about Mitch’s homecoming date situation and wanted Trent to spread the word to his other friends so Mitch actually followed through and asked the girl out.

“There she is,” Jake said. “Look, she’s really cute. She’s begging to be asked out. Don’t come to the lunch table unless you ask her.”

Jake walked off to the lunchroom to get a head start on finding lunch. Mitch swallowed hard and walked towards the other end of the hallway where Lucy was gathered with her friends.

Lucy was a very attractive girl. Mitch didn’t really know her too much since she was a year younger but she was on the gymnastics team, just like Lizzy. He always thought she was pretty cute but didn’t think of her in a sexual way since he was dating Lizzy at the time.

Just the memory of Lizzy in her tight blue spandex uniform made Mitch realize all he would be missing at homecoming this year. No more grinding against her fat ass. No more sneaking off to the fishing lagoon to have sex after the dance was over. It was enough to send him into a depressive state and nearly walk past Lucy without saying a word.

But deep down he knew he would have to move on from Lizzy at some point and now was as good of a time as any to do so. He noticed Lucy’s gaze was directly on him. Mitch initially looked away shyly, before squaring his gaze on her.

Lucy’s friends quickly dispersed as Mitch walked towards her, perhaps figuring he was there to ask her out. Mitch swore he heard them giggling as they walked away.

“Hey Lucy, I’m Mitch,” Mitch said, offering his hand for Lucy to shake.

Lucy reached out her small hand and shook Mitch’s. Mitch noticed how easily her hand fit inside of his own. It was as if he was Shaquille O’Neal and he was shaking a baby’s hand.

“Hi Mitch. Are you the mysterious man that Danny Morgan said would ask me to homecoming?” Lucy asked.

“Well, that Danny is a character. You can never really trust him,” Mitch joked nervously. “But yes, I was planning on asking you to homecoming as my date. That is, if you accept. I don’t want to force you to go with me by any means.”

He saw Lucy hesitate and shift her weight to her right leg as she crossed it over her left in a standing position. She was clearly going to make him work for this.

“Hmm, you don’t sound too enthusiastic about this. I was going to just go with my friends and I guess that option is still on the table.”

“No, believe me, Lucy, I’m very enthusiastic.”

He certainly didn’t feel enthusiastic. Still, he realized he’d better get enthusiastic really quick. He didn’t want to return to the lunch table having failed in his mission to ask Lucy out.

“I know we don’t know each other really well. But you’re a really cute girl and I’ve heard great things about you.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Shit. She called him on it. Mitch really didn’t know anything about this girl at all. The least Danny could’ve done to help him was find out some more about this girl.

Suddenly, as if blessed with divine intervention, Mitch remembered a conversation he had with Lizzy last year during gymnastics season. Lizzy complained that she didn’t have enough friends on the gymnastics team. Mitch asked her if any of the girls had anything in common with her.

It took him a while to withdraw any information from Lizzy but he eventually managed to get her to reveal information about one girl, a mysterious sophomore at the time named Lucy Hemingway. She had a strange obsession with eating a paleo diet. Mitch remembered Lizzy started eating paleo to maintain her excellent figure.