Once everyone had finished their meals, Cait picked up the tab. She looked at Jade expectantly.
"You're coming with us, aren't you?"
"Uhh..." Jade looked around at Mallow and Hale. They looked pretty buff. He didn't want to get beat up. "...Sure, I guess. At least I won't be abandoned by my date this time." Jade thought about Ash's rather extreme reaction. That girl has anger issues. Maybe this was a good thing.
"So, what do you do?" Cait asked, wanting to know a little more about his new "conquest".
"I'm a high school cheerleader," Jade explained. "Cheerleading pretty much runs my life."
"You certainly have the body for it, honey," Cait complimented. "You're prettier than a lot of college cheerleaders I've seen," she continued.
"Oh? Have you seen many of them?"
"When you're a quarterback for SSU, almost certainly." Jade had heard Sapphire State had a decent football team, mostly from hearing girls whisper a bit about it at school.
"Didn't you make the playoffs or something this year?"
"Yeah, we did. Won the Big Sky and made it to the semifinals," she explained proudly as she got behind the wheel of her older sedan. Jade took the front right seat, with Mallow and Hale in the back.
"Aha. I don't keep up that much with sports. In fact, that girl Ash you fought? She kept checking the hockey score through my date, which is kind of annoying."
"Well, of course! A good girl keeps up with sports and knows when to focus on that beautiful boy, if you know what I mean."
Jade turned his attention to Cait's friends. "So I take it you go to college with her?" Both Mallow and Hale nodded. "What are you studying?"
"My major is electrical engineering," Mallow replied.
"And I'm studying to be an accountant," Hale chimed in.
"How did you all meet each other?" Jade wondered.
"Well, I had moved here from Texas for my scholarship. I met Mallow my freshman year in one of my classes, and then she knew Hale from high school around here. That's how we all got together," Cait explained as she made a turn. A few minutes later, Cait parked the car in the lot of an apartment complex.
"So what do you study?"
"Communications, usually," Cait explained as she opened the door to her apartment. It was a bit of a culture shock for Jade, who'd grown up a neat freak; the room seemed a little dirty and dingy, the furniture was off center, and there were still dirty dishes on the rack in the kitchen. The living room was dominated by a big leather couch facing a large TV set. In one corner was an old record player with several vinyl platters sitting on top of it; a printer took up a table in the back corner. The room was primarily decorated in old band posters and Sapphire State football ads. Not much thought went into this, Jade thought to himself. He was still taking in the space when Cait said something again.
"But tonight, Jade, I want to study you." With the approving grins of Mallow and Hale to back her up, Cait walked up to Jade. "What's a cute boy good for if not his body?" Jade, unsure what Cait was wanting, stood there for a moment.
"Aren't you gonna take that off?" Jade then realized that Cait was asking him to take off his top. He nervously looked around, but he realized that the girls around him were leaving him no choice. He took off his dress and found himself in just his underwear — unfortunately, his sexiest pair of underwear. Mallow whistled as she saw Jade in just his bra and panties.
"Hey good lookin'," Cait smiled at Jade.
Jade and Cait sat on the sofa while Mallow and Hale played on the PlayStation. After a few moments of watching them go at it in NBA 2K, Cait yawned and stretched out her arms, eventually resting one on Jade's shoulder.
"You're lucky that hothead abandoned you," Cait said softly. "You deserve better than that. What did she even think she was doing?" she sighed in disgust. "That's not how a girl should act to a boy. A good girl makes a boy feel special," she added, slowly working her hands down toward Jade's chest.
"Well, I must admit, checking hockey scores doesn't do that."
"No, not at all," Cait sighed. As Cait worked Jade over, he turned to look at her. She was hot. Her friends were hot. (Though her apartment was not.) Perhaps... The idea came to Jade slowly as Cait softly massaged his breasts. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise?
At 11:00, Cait turned to Jade and asked him a question.
"Hey, if you don't mind... Would you like to spend the night here?"
Jade looked around nervously. He worried from the experience he'd had that things could go sour fast. He did not want to end up in a pickle — or with part of him in Cait's body.
After several hours of being with Cait and her friends, he felt the pressure. He looked around nervously, trying to figure out what to say.
At that moment, Hale walked up to Jade and whispered something in his ear. You don't have to if you don't want to. Cait's my friend, but I disagree with her here. Those words gave Jade the courage to do something else.
"Can..." He took a deep breath. "Can I call a taxi and leave here?"
Cait sighed in resignation and looked at Hale with a hint of frustration. She looked at Mallow, who nodded. "Alright then," she grumbled. "But I want you to take my number and text me in the morning," she added. She went to grab a paper and write her number on it as Jade put his clothes back on in the bathroom and summoned an Uber. He emerged fully dressed. Cait handed him a scrap of paper with her number on it.
"Thanks for the good time," she said, smiling toward her new boyfriend.
"It was nice meeting all of you," Jade added, looking more toward Mallow and Hale. He was surprised when Cait moved in one last time and planted a kiss on his cheek. The car pulled up in front of the apartment. "Bye!"
"Bye," Cait waved back, both sad to see him leave and happy that she might just have found a boyfriend.
