(Untitled)

[floozyfacade]

It's only a few weeks into the school term and, if Olive were sensible, she'd be studying. Today's a light day, meaning she has plenty of time to do so, if she just buckles down, and it's not like she isn't a focused, disciplined student when she wants to be. Even without these grades contributing to the college applications she won't be writing

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[hasnobullets]

The beach tends to play havoc on my senses. The constantly shifting ground that I can't ever hope to memorize. The crash of the waves that drowns out the ambient noise I use to get around, wiping the soundscape clear with each pass. But the smell and taste of the air make up for any minor disorientation, even if it means I'm nearly on top of who I recognize as one of my students (and Eduardo Saverin's girlfriend) before I realize anyone else is there.

"What will only end in tears, Miss Penderghast?"

[floozyfacade]

Though they're far from any classroom, Olive immediately sits up, hit by a sudden wash of gratitude that, if any of her teachers had to find her, it's the blind one. It's not like everyone seeing each other in their swimsuits is possible to escape here, but it's still weird when it's a teacher, even more so when she knows he's friends with Eduardo.

"Uh, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, Mr. Murdock," she says, shaking her head. "They are, you know, it's the love story of our - my generation and now they're broken up and it's just... sad, is what it is. But I guess that's old news."

[hasnobullets]

"You're lying," I say easily. I can't hear her heartbeat, of course, can't confirm it with my usual brand of evidence, but I'm a liar by trade, and I recognize it in others.

"Unless you think love stories are particularly disgusting." I pause, then remind her, "You said ew."

[floozyfacade]

"Well, that really depends on the love story," Olive says wryly, since that much is true. "Yeah, no, you got me. I found a copy of Cosmo and thought it'd be hilarious, but mostly it's just kind of disturbing. I mean, not that I'm, you know, all prudish or anything, but I am really sure that some of this can't be good for your health."

She really would prefer not to share the details, but since she's a fairly bad liar for someone who's told such big ones and he caught her anyway, there's no reason not to admit to that much.

[little_moons]

"You lookin' for tips?" I say, dropping down into the sand next to her. Mom used to pick up back issues of Cosmo, left over at the store she worked at, and they were always good for a laugh. Still, flipping through the pages, Wendy and me always reacted with more eye rolls than scandalized shrieks of disgust.

There's really no reason to be so fuckin' desperate and try so goddamn hard to please your man. Guys are fuckin' simple. No offense to women or anything, but they're the ones that oughta come with an instruction manual.

"You can read all you want, but practice is always more fun."

[floozyfacade]

Olive snorts, shaking her head. "No, more like looking for a laugh," she says, "but that was before I started reading. Some of these looks like they could land a guy in traction. I'm not sure damaging his, uh, 'package,' as this says, is the sexy move that he's secretly really hoping for."

She's entirely in favor of the notion that practice makes perfect, and he's right that it's a hell of a lot more fun. She's pretty sure, though, that going to the dentist would be more fun than some of this.

[little_moons]

"Not unless you've caught yourself a guy that likes for you to hurt him a little," I say with a smirk, leaning back on my hands, legs stretched out in front of me in the sand.

"God, my mom used to read all that shit. Cheap romance novels, too. The fuckin' euphemisms are always the worst. Nobody's gonna get off on you callin' their dick a member."

[floozyfacade]

Olive ducks her head, laughing. "Jesus," she says, "I never even understood that one. Member of what, the Dick Club? Or God, his manhood. What's wrong with calling a thing what it is? Although at least they're good for the entertainment value." The more ridiculous they are, the harder she laughs, the less she understands why anyone thinks they're hot. But that never kept her and Rhi from reading the more salacious sections aloud to each other.

[bothgodown]

"What can?" Miranda asks utterly comfortable in asking that which might satisfy her curiosity of Olive. There are few people that she trusts so implicitly to tell her the truth and not judge her for it.

Sliding up to Olive, she peers at the cover of the magazine. The combination of words on the front cover suggests that this is certainly not the sort of magazine that she has ever read. "Oh dear."

[floozyfacade]

"That about sums it up," Olive says, nodding. "Oh, dear." Things like this are a commonplace sight both back home and on the bookshelf, but Miranda's never had to pass by them again and again in the supermarket. Still, sex is just a fact of life, no matter how much Cosmo seems to think she needs to have obtained an A in gymnastics to attempt it. "And various sexual... tricks... advocated by this publication, that's what. They seem to think there are things that are, like, sexy or fun or something, when they really look, um... painful, actually. I'm really sure you're not actually supposed to do that to a guy."

[bothgodown]

Her eyes are wide as she takes this in. Sex does seem to have a rather commonplace way about it in this modern world. People seem discontent to keep it solely behind closed doors. While she can appreciate that there is some good that can come from knowing about it, she cannot think that such a preoccupation can be good for getting things done.

"Oh goodness." Miranda tilts her head to peer at the pages Olive is looking at, letting out a tiny gasp in surprise. "That would not be enjoyable, at least not that I should think it should be. Oh goodness."

[floozyfacade]

"Well, it's not all like this," Olive says hurriedly. Though she's unashamed of her sex life - it's a perfectly normal, healthy, enjoyable part of life, after all - she rarely opts to talk about it. Even if things hadn't gone the way they did back home, she wouldn't really be inclined to share. For all her openness, some things she prefers to keep private.

That said, with this here for Miranda to peruse and her being - oddly enough to her way of thinking, since it was never true before - the more experienced one here, it seems important to be clear. She doesn't know if Miranda's ever had sex before, although she knows her options were seriously limited before the island, but she does know she doesn't want her thinking Cosmo's the end all be all of modern sex. "I mean, this is just a crazy magazine pandering to women with low self-esteem who think turning themselves into trick ponies will help them keep their boyfriends. Not that there aren't, you know, a wide variety of things you can do, just... as awkward as it can be, it's also

[lucked]

"God, I'm afraid to ask," Claire says as soon as she hears the familiar voice, stepping closer and waiting for Olive to get over whatever she's seen in her magazine. The reaction's enough to send her spiralling into a mix of morbid curiosity and trepidation alike, but she'd like to think that if Olive really did see something so worthy of a cringe, that the redhead would have more sense than to continue leaving it open and propped against her lap for anyone to read over her shoulder. "I mean, not that I'm a fan of tears in the first place, but tears mingled with disgust, that's something else altogether."

Placing her own textbooks down, wrapped in a waxen burlap bag, Claire sinks to her knees and rests her chin lightly on Olive's shoulder, reading only a few words before her cheeks flush a deep red and she shakes her head, dipping until her forehead rests against Olive's shoulder instead.

"Why did I just do that? Seriously. Why?"

[floozyfacade]

"Because we're gluttons for punishment," Olive says dryly. "And not the Cosmo kind." There's a certain fascination with all this she can't help, though, and she's not sure if it's the possibility she might stumble on something worthwhile somewhere in here or just that it's comforting to know that even people who are, she has to assume, fairly experienced at sex are also apparently pretty bad at it. Not that she thinks she is or anything, but still, it's oddly supportive.

"Some of it's actually really funny. And not all of it is horrible or even risks maiming for you and your sexual partner of choice."

[lucked]

"Maybe the writers at Cosmo are secret trolls trying to sell copies of their magazines to people with similar senses of humor. Or people who aren't getting any, trying to teach them a lesson about turning to a magazine instead of, I don't know, asking their significant other what they like?" Claire suggests, though her nose remains wrinkled, the back of her hand pressed to the bridge in an effort to wipe away any remaining pictures that the descriptions have painted in her head. If there's any saving grace she gets to enjoy now, Claire thinks, it's the fact that she hasn't seen nearly enough bare skin to conjure up an image remotely accurate.

But still. Sometimes, one doesn't have to see it fully to cringe.

"Though, hey, at least it's comforting to know that reading this stuff makes you cringe as much as I do. Now if anyone suggests bending like a New York pretzel, I can say that I have it on good authority that it'd be a bad idea."

[floozyfacade]

"Yeah, or you could not," Olive snaps, easing to the side to take her shoulder out from under Claire's chin, the reaction more forceful, more instinctive, than she would allow if she'd given herself even a moment to think about it. Claire's one of her best friends here, after all, and there's no reason to be snitty with her over an idle comment, a joke. It's not like Olive doesn't say a bunch of shit she doesn't remotely mean half the time, and just because Rhi took all that to heart doesn't mean Claire would ever be guilty of the same, especially now Olive's not putting in the effort to flaunt anything. She just has to school herself to choke back the instantaneous sense of guilt, the voice that tells her no one would comment on her sexuality if she wouldn't parade it around at all. That magazines like this are considered socially acceptable and that sexual activity before marriage isn't just fine but the norm here on the island don't seem to matter in those first moments of gut reaction. It's just easier to tell herself still that