Breathing 101

Author's note:This story was written for the 2026 Literotica 750 Word Challenge. Below are what Microsoft Word insists are exactly 750 words. Enjoy (:

~~~

~~~

I didn't know how to breathe.

Petrified, I fiddled with the bowling shoes, convincing myself I wasn't about to suffocate.

This is what you wanted. Come on. You can make it through this.

I tried to take slow breaths, to trick my runaway heart into believing I was calm, that everyonewasn'tlooking at me, that no one noticed how awkward or out of place I so obviously was in this crowd -- that I was definitelynotabout to spontaneously combust.

Next to me, Sarah observed with a sympathetic half-smile. Her green eyes were always so sharp -- except for me. Sometimes teasing, but for me they were always soft. Always kind.

When she'd started letting me bum rides home, I couldn't understand why. She was so effortlessly gorgeous, so bitingly funny, so easily able to hang out with stoners, and preps, and athletes, and to go bowling with adults from her after-school job at the telemarketing place.

Why the hell did she ever let me tag along?

"You doing okay?" she asked so only I could hear, gently smoothing the creased flannel pasted to my back by sweat.

"Yeah!" I nodded as convincingly as I could, willing a smile, inch by inch. "Let's...let's bowl!"

Amused? Concerned? I couldn't tell, but her gaze lingered, unconvinced, before she got up from the bench.

"Oh shoot, I left the right socks at home!" she announced abruptly, tugging at my arm to follow. "Why don't y'all play one without us?"

Her coworkers acted like they thought nothing of it, like they couldn't see through her nonsensical fib, like they didn't know her weird little friend with the stupid haircut was making her flake out.

The crisp evening air should have been the antidote to the stifling atmosphere inside.

Why am I even doing this. What did I think was going to happen? Is she even into girls? And even if she was...

I didn't need to finish the thought to know how it ended. It ended how it always ended.

"Hey, it's okay, you know. No big deal." As we pulled out of the parking lot, Sarah glanced at me with a nonchalance that almost made me believe her. "Really."

"I'm...I'm sorry. I just..." I wasn't going to break down. Not here, not now. "Sarah...umm...thank you."

"You were kinda freaking out, huh." No judgment hung from her words.

I nodded, expecting to tense up again. But when it was just the two of us in her car, the country music she inexplicably loved softly playing on the radio, so much of that tension and anxiety just seemed...far away. I looked forward to every ride home.

Then you got greedy. Why did you think you could actually hang out withSarah?God you're stupid.

Mercifully, she interrupted my thoughts.

"You know how you know it's country music?"

Huh? I shrugged, puzzled.

"You can snap to it."

She winked -- an invitation -- and demonstrated, snapping her fingers to the unhurried, drawling beat that sounded just like every other country song to me.

Can't you snap to literally every song?

But I snapped too, bobbing to the same slow, steady rhythm her eyes seemed to dance to in the mesmerizing quiet. Those green eyes finally did what I'd been unable to, slowing my heart to a pace that didn't threaten any land speed records. And under the warm, passing glow of streetlights, her relaxed smile spread to me.

When the song ended, our snapping didn't, and Sarah let out a self-conscious laugh. It wasn't sing-songy, or a girlish giggle. It was goofy. Stupid. Unfakeable. And nothing made me smile more.

Our grins lasted all the way to my house.

"S-sorry again," I mumbled when we arrived.

Those welcoming green eyes were pretending they saw someone in her passenger seat other than a pathetic loser, a weird nerd, a quiet, pitiful annoyance who ruined her night. She didn't have to be so kind, so patient.

But she always was.

"Hey, Georgia, wait."

Before I knew what was happening, her cool, slender fingers wrapped around my hand.

"Maybe...maybe we can try again sometime?" Her eyes flicked up to mine -- no teases, just soft. Just kind. "Just the two of us."

I blinked.

Sarah was holding my hand.

If I never smiled again, that was okay. This smile, in this moment, with Sarah -- no others could ever dream of measuring up.

"I'd...I'd really like that."

Sarah grinned back, squeezing my hand.

And somewhere deep inside, I finally remembered how to breathe.