He used one hand to pull down his pants and boxers. She saw him, really saw him, and had a moment of pure terror before he crushed his lips over hers, tongue battling hers in a fierce dance of desire. She felt him guide his cock inside her. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but the small, sharp pain was over within a moment or two. She began to buck her hips up to meet his thrusts. She’d never done this before, but instinctively she knew what to do. Some primal need in her made her cry out and claw at his back as he drove himself into her. When he leaned in close, she could smell the lingering scent of his aftershave. He thrust harder and faster, Vanessa meeting him each time, their flesh joining together before being drawn apart. She was keenly aware of each moment he was apart from her. She felt the tension building within Mark, within her, something she’d never felt before. He moved in and out of her as rolling waves of passion pushed all thoughts from her mind, breaking down the walls to her heart. She came. Hard. She bit down on his shoulder as he quickly came too.

No longer a virgin, was her first thought, as the realization of what they’d just done dawned on her. Was she good? With a groan, Mark rolled off her, making the breath leave her body where his weight had flattened her into the mattress. She was a woman now, but what the hell was she going to say to Maggie? She struggled to sit up. Mark was pulling his pants back up, fastening them at his waist. She searched for her underwear, quickly pulling them over her legs.

‘Will you tell her?’ Vanessa asked Mark.

His eyes caught the moonlight, glinting until he turned away from her. ‘Sure, baby. Tomorrow.’

Vanessa was buoyed by the thought. She would lose a friend, a best friend, because of her actions, but she would gain Mark.

Mark hadn’t told Maggie the next day as he’d promised he would. She saw them as they kissed in the hallways, Mark tenderly touching Maggie’s face the way he’d touched hers the night before. He refused to look at Vanessa. Ignored her. Acted like she didn’t even exist. Maggie, in her love bubble, didn’t notice the shift in dynamics between the two of them nor the looks of pain on her best friend’s face. Vanessa had given up her virginity in the back of a van to a boy that had lied to her. He had never planned to dump Maggie; he’d just wanted to get laid. To fuck. It made her sick to her stomach to think of how easily she had been manipulated.