The bus had stopped to pick up passengers, and Sophia Hess was among them.

Ohhh boy.

Welcome to Taylor’s civilian life, Brian. You are now about to become ammunition – there is no way Sophia won’t tell the rest of the trio if she spots Taylor with a boy. Exactly what the Harpies will do with that information if Taylor returns to school someday, I don’t know, but it can’t be good.

And that’s after whatever might happen right here on this bus.

Her sleeveless polo top was long, extending down to her waist, and clung tight to a slender body with curves and a chest I’d never have.  The tennis skirt she was wearing was only barely long enough to be decent.  More than one set of eyes turned her way as she boarded the bus, Brian’s among them.

It’s natural for people’s eyes to be drawn towards anyone boarding the bus simply because they’re moving and new to the scene, but this feels… stronger than that, if that makes sense. And Brian’s eyes specifically being among them is bad, not because he might be attracted to Sophia, but because it’ll be a hard blow to an already self-conscious Taylor if she thinks he might be.

Also, props to Wildbow for the reminder of Taylor’s self-image issues showing up right before this development. It makes for a pretty good transition.

Now where were we… Ah, right, I left us off on a cliffhanger as to what sight felt like a bucket of cold water for Taylor.

Let’s see what horrors await her, shall we?

On that artificial cliffhanger, I think I’m going to leave off this session for the night and go grab something to eat. We’ll find out what Taylor just saw next time.

Which will be… Wednesday, I guess. See you then!

(Chrono link for part 1 of chapter 7.5)

I wasn’t the sort of girl Brian would be attracted to.  I knew that.

I don’t think you know shit about that, Taylor. This just looks like your lack of self-confidence speaking, which has been known to repeatedly make you unfavorably compare yourself to every other girl and ignore the idea that maybe, just maybe, guys look for more than just appearance.

I could settle for just his presence and friendship.  I could enjoy it if there happened to be casual body contact between us, even if it was a bit pervy.

Heh.

Our brief conversation had let me relax and start to enjoy the possibility of an evening in Brian’s company, but what I saw next was a bucket of cold water in the face.

Hopefully not literally.

Actually, what am I saying. Whatever this is is probably worse than a literal bucket of cold water.

…hm. Besides options like Empire mooks causing havoc in the streets, there’s also the possibility that they just arrived outside the apartment and Aisha is there. That would be very fitting for the cold water analogy, what with the associations between cold water and something ruining the sexual mood.

Granted, Empire mooks causing havoc in the streets would probably do that too.