Emma grabbed Jay’s hand as they walked together. She gently squeezed it. She leaned a little closer towards him, letting her shoulder brush against his. She clutched his hand tighter. Emma’s actions were a little overt. Jay was afraid it might give some wrong signals, especially since he looked a little boyish. He don’t want there to be rumors of Emma being a lesbian, and neither does he want to appear like one himself. Jay pulled back a little, slightly increasing the space between them.
“Em, remember that I’m not supposed to be Jay right now.”
“What do you mean?” she replied.
“Do you usually hold hands with your girlfriends?”
“No, usually we don’t.”
“Treat me like a friend. I think it’s better you do that while we’re out in public..”
“Oh.” Emma softly released her grip. “I see. You don’t want to hold hands.” She pulled her hand back.
“It’s not that I don’t want to. People might get the wrong idea, and-.”
Suddenly they heard a voice call out for Emma.
“Hey Emma!” A deep voice called out.
They both turned around and spotted a broad muscular man. It was Terry, a teammate of Jay’s. Emma waved back, meanwhile Jay acted nonchalant, making sure it didn’t appear like he recognized Terry.
Terry walked up to Emma and spoke to her.
“I see Jay is not with you. He’s probably busy with paperwork now, right?”
“No, he’s n- No, I mean yes. Yes.” Emma fumbled with her words as she caught her slip up.
Until a couple of weeks ago Jay and Terry had been on good terms. Two weeks ago Terry discovered that Jay hooked up with Brianna Miller, never mind that Brianna had already broken up with Terry beforehand.
“That Jay.” Terry sighed. “Football and student government. I have no idea how he has time for both. I guess he has to cut time somewhere. I can’t imagine he spends much time with you, right?”
“No, er.” Emma hesitated. She glanced towards Jay. Terry noticed Jay. He immediately began to stare. His eyes narrowed a little.
“Emma can you introduce me to your friend?”
“Uh, sure.” Emma thought really hard for a moment, and then she spoke again. “Um, Terry this is uh, Jaya, and Jaya, this is Terry.”
What kind of name is Jaya? Really? Was there no better name Emma could think of?
“It’s nice to meet you Jaya.” Terry smiled.” That’s a unique name, where is it from?”
“It’s Greek.” Jay lied.
“I see. It’s a pretty name, but Jaya, I haven’t seen you around here before. Is this your first year, or are coming as a guest. Maybe visiting a friend, or…a family member perhaps?”
Jay got what Terry was hinting at. Terry was probably thinking that he was his Jay’s sister or something due to the resemblance.
“Maybe.” Jay replied. He left it ambiguous. While part of him thought it could be fun to pretend to be his own sister or cousin, he also didn’t want people to think he had family members who didn’t exist. That could bite him in the ass later down the line. As a future politician, he didn’t want any conspiracies about his lineage.
“You’re pretty muscular for a girl.” Terry commented.
“What if I am? Are you scared of a girl that can kick your ass?” Jay jokingly punched the air in front of him.
“I’m not scared. I didn’t mean it that way. I think it’s hot.” Terry grinned.
Jay giggled at the blunt compliment. Terry was flirting with him. He was completely fooled. Though Terry had to do much better than that. For now, Jay wanted to play along. The situation itself was hilarious. And also, he was growing it a little hard. for some reason this was turning him on.
“You’re not bad yourself.” Jay replied
It was true. Terry was pretty good looking. He had comparable muscles to the normal Jay, but with wider and slightly shorter build. Jay didn’t really understand why Terry was that miffed about the Brianna-situation. As Jay thought back about her, he couldn’t remember her being all that special. Physically at least, Terry was probably the more attractive person of the two.
Meanwhile Emma trailed behind as the third wheel. She watched Jay and Terry talk. It seemed like they were having fun, especially Jay. He was constantly laughing and smiling. This looked very much like flirting. She felt really awkward watching this.
It continued a little longer until Jay and Terry waved goodbye. Jay then turned back to Emma.
“Terry invited us to a party.” Jay announced. ”I figured we could go.”
“Are you sure? Are you planning on staying like this until the party?” Emma asked him.
“Yeah. Terry invited Jaya and Emma, so Jaya and Emma should come. Of course I can enter any party I want, but it’s the perfect opportunity to play around.”
Emma was growing more worried.
“It looked like you were flirting with him.”
“Oh, you’re worried about that? Psh. There’s no way I’d flirt with him for real. I’m just messing with him. Did you see how much he was into me? He had no clue.” Jay laughed
“That’s kind of funny.” she half-smiled.
Emma did in fact not find it funny. Not even a little bit funny.