Fall 2007
Megan called from the kitchen which snapped Sharon’s attention away from the mirror. “Come on! The party’s almost started, you can’t stay in there much longer,“ Megan cooed impatiently.
They agreed to keep their costumes secret until the last minute with a single stipulation that if they picked the same one, they would take double the shots for the night. Sharon played along knowing the odds were miniscule that they had ever even seen the same movie before. Unfortunately for Sharon, Megan miraculously finished getting in costume an hour and a half ago which left her to wander the house as Sharon finished up in the bathroom until now. It had been two years since they met, but she was still uncertain if Megan was always early from extreme planning and or just pure luck, but it left her in awe. The world seemed to be on Megan’s wavelength bending in preparation for her will. When she needed a test delayed, the professor would call in sick. Every dress will be on sale whether she grabbed it from the clearance rack or not. How could Sharon not be drawn to such an existence.
Two steps out of the bathroom and Megan squealed, “Look at you!” Somehow inches away and already out of guesses. “I wanna say sexy elf but I know you’re about to give me a little ted talk, ” Megan conceded after just two glances.
“Well she may be sexy, but she’s not an elf. I’m Princess Zelda,” Sharon announced to a black stare before she tried to continue, “from the video game the Legend of… “
Megan derailed her monologue immediately, “Well, I know you’re gonna have your pick of handsome plumbers.”
A moment of decoupling the lost reference eventually led Sharon to correct her, “You’re thinking of Princess Peach, I’m Princess Zelda. I think the character you’re thinking of is Link, who I’m not actually sure if he has an occupation besides… you’re not following me, are you?”
“You’re Princess Zelda, and you’re gonna find your uhm, Link?” Megan attempted to reassure her, but thought she misheard something.
“Well I hope you find your, well I don’t remember the character’s name but you know he was played by Steve Buscemi, right?” In a tit for tat Sharon stumbled from a once confident answer to an awkward question.
Megan gave her a jest in return, “I thought you loved indie films? I’m Deb and I’m waiting for my clueless Dynamite to finally get the hint,” gesturing to her sideways ponytail and pink polo.
“Well ya I watch… I… I thought you were Johansson from Ghostworld,” Sharon attempted to defend her fumbled guess with even more references that would go over Megan’s head once again. “I don’t know, I guess I thought since you liked Black Widow that you would have seen more of her past work… I guess I probably haven’t seen that movie, yet,” Sharon pivoted to feigning ignorance once she caught her inner thoughts spill out.
“You really should, I thought someone like you would…“ Megan explained through as long as she could. An alarm on her phone blared from her pocket.
Sharon finally interrupted her, “Are you gonna get that?”
Megan waved it off, “It's just my alarm for the party. No big deal.”
For a minute the two of them slowly synchronized their building excitement in silence before in unison whispered into a yell, “It’s time for our first house party!”
The two danced in the hallway for a moment before looking around to see an empty house. “No one ever shows up on time anyways,” Megan reassured them, before they got back to dancing in silence.
Over the course of the next hour, Megan was right as their friends and their acquaintances steadily arrived more and more until they no longer knew everyone in their place. Luckily for Sharon, Megan knew how to spread the word using the business majors knowing as only a few engineering and pre-med students would even show up. Unlike the first party Megan threw in her dorm, she wanted the whole school to be there. They were Juniors now, and no longer needed to hide their endeavors from the RA. For Megan this was the start of a new normal but for Sharon this was about nostalgia. When they would be the last two after Megan’s parties, the two would end up chatting till dawn.
As dusk set in, Sharon tried her best to mingle but she had been deep in the labs all semester. No one wanted to talk about servo motors or PLA’s. Megan on the other hand seemed to have a wealth of social topics to chat about as if she didn’t spend all of her time on biochem homework. By the “Halfway” point she could tell that Sharon was floundering. Sharon stood in the kitchen by the fridge awkwardly chatting with people about their beverage choice as if she was a pollster before being dragged by the arm backwards into Megan’s room.
“Hey how’s it going out there?” Megan asked as if she hadn’t just kidnapped her roommate.
Sharon scratched her head while trying to quantify her enjoyment, “Well I mean people seem to really like the Rolling Rocks…“
“Have you seen the econ major dressed as Link?” Megan jumped to the point after rolling her eyes at the poll results. Again, Sharon attempted to quantify the whole night in her head in search of a response. “He’s in the living room leaning against the recliner and he’s super cute and before you say you couldn’t possibly talk to him because you have nothing in common, you both like, “ Megan took a second to check her phone in the middle of her monologue, “Legend of Zelda, He’s Link and you’re Zelda! So I’m going to set this up and you can’t talk me out of this.”
Before she could catch up to her, Megan was in the middle living room standing on the coffee table. “For all those that are interested, we’re gonna start a game of spin the bottle. All those not interested can head to the porch and smoke or whatever,” She explained to the crowd of costumes before directing people either out the front door or into the soon to be circle.
“Hey, doesn’t that seem a bit childish? I mean do we even have a bottle?” Sharon tried to reason before being handed a bottle from a girl in a Princess Leia costume with the simple instructions, “chug.”
When Sharon finished sipping through her social obligation, the two of them were the last two standing at the center of an oblong circle. All eyes on them, Sharon's face sweltered bright red with sweat starting to dilute her makeup. Megan on the other hand was putting the finishing touches on her brilliant plan. She gives a glance to Leia with a parting of hands to make a spot for her and her clueless roommate and Leia was happy to oblige.
Megan grabbed the bottle from Sharon, gave the bottle a swish, slammed the remains, and set forth the rules, “Alright, I know you all probably know the rules but let’s just make sure everyone is on the same page. We’ll pass the bottle clockwise. The person spinning asks the chosen person truth or dare. 5 no 10 shot penalty for chickening out. Nothing illegal, and seven minutes is the minimum but keep in mind we only have so many rooms so if you want to canoodle find a… another room that’s not like here. Okay? cool.”
The crowd settled down and Megan handed Leia the bottle to start the game, giving her thanks, “It was cool of you to make some room for us, good luck.”
Over the course of the game people squirmed over obvious truths and willingly attempted stunts far above their sobriety. There were at least thirty people playing which led to some tough calls on bottle placement but left everyone entertained nonetheless. Sharon was too distracted to notice why everyone laughed at certain quips. She needed to find Link so she could find out what Megan was getting her into, but an hour and twenty spins later she still couldn’t find him. The chatter outside let her assume that Megan’s plan failed and that this Link must have gone outside to smoke. Bullet dodge she reassured herself.
“Oh we got the party girl herself! By the way, love your Napoleon Dynamite costume,” the guy next to Sharon gave Megan a compliment before asking her, "So what will it be, Truth or Dare?”.
After a second of thought, Megan let out a quiet but provocative answer, “Dare.”
Sharon finally noticed the person sitting next to her in a green Legolas Costume grinning on one side of his face and barely hanging in on the other and he gave a more reserved dare than she imagined, “I dare you to give me the number of the hottest girl in the room, in your opinion.” Instinctually Legolas handed his phone across Sharon over to Megan and in no time at all took it back. “I’m gonna give you a quick call to make sure I didn’t get a fake number or anything,” he announced to just her and then there was a ring and then another to the whole room before Megan held up a ringing phone.
Megan declined the call with a stipulation that was followed with a few oo’s from the audience, “Call me tomorrow and then and only then we can get some drinks.”
In the next second Sharon’s trance was broken with a nudge and wink from Megan as she was handed the bottle as if she could possibly follow that performance. Because she had to, Sharon leaned all the way other to the middle instead of just shuffling forward and spun the bottle with barely enough force to complete one rotation. She had chalked up whatever could happen next as nothing compared to the hottest thing she had seen all year.
With another nudge Megan had to inform her that the show was not over, “Looks like someone’s lucky day is already here.” Megan traced a line from the top of the bottle straight over to Legolas with the widest grin and gave her the most unsettling encouragement in a whisper in her left ear, “Come on, you’ve got this. Your Link is right there. Just ask him.”
“Truth or Dare?” Sharon announced to the bottle in the middle of the room.
Without hesitation Legolas replied with the same cheap grin, “Dare.”
The room was on edge with anticipation waiting for Sharon to reply. With a pat on the shoulder, Megan told Sharon to get a move on. She didn’t have the courage to tell him so she took him by the hand across the room and back to her room without saying a word. Only a moment after her door shut did the game continue but Sharon was never interested in that game. Her eyes finally set sight on the first guy she had ever brought back to her closet of a room. Usually they never impressed her enough to reveal her depressingly small room. Despite her best efforts to brighten it up there always seemed to be tools strewn about crowding what floor space she had.
Legolas tried his best to step around a wrench set but tripped onto the bed as she stood and watched. A single “Ope,” was muttered but no apology. Sharon was still thinking through all the possibilities for the situation because she was unsure how to approach such a sudden situation. She tried to turn the lights off but he quickly slammed into a shelf and onto the floor. After a second, she flicked the lights back on to see his shirt covering his head while still on the floor. Finally she helped him up from her mess but left his shirt half on. Something about it felt less intimidating than the complete stranger she dragged back here barely a minute ago.
“Hey, I know my abs must be nice to look at but can you help me?” he patiently asked with a muffled request through his shirt.
“Sorry, uhm… “ Sharon snapped out of her paralysis but pondered, “What would Megan do?” She began to act out the first thing she could think of and pulled him close and began running her tongue along the ridge of his nipple.
As she expected he gave a light protest, “Hey, so not to downplay the effort or anything but my arms are starting to fall asleep so can you… “
“Ya but this is my dare, “ She asserted with some confidence to her own surprise.
After being taken aback by the assertion he countered in a simple attempt to gain some comfort, “You never gave me a dare?”
“I claimed you and you followed along,” she whispered back through his shirt and into his ear. While running her hands down his back she began to ramble a bit before spinning him around, “Well at least for 7 minutes because those are rules but you know, you can always resend your consent, yeah know?”
He failed again to wiggle out of his shirt by himself while replying, “Sorry I just didn’t expect this. No offense.”
“None… taken, “ she assured before pushing him into her bed back first only for him to roll out given the continued restraints on his arms. She leaned down to apologize and finally remove his shirt, “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I always wanted to try that but you know, your arms… “
The second his head was free, he leaned in to interrupt her with a kiss that didn’t seem to end until minutes later when they finally made it onto her bed together. She had felt his bulge against her thighs for sometime now but led her hand down there to affirm her suspicions. His moan in reaction was met with a tussle as Sharon attempted to roll over him to get to her dresser only for her to fall to the floor this time. He could only assume what was to come but it felt off.
She displayed the condom she spent all this effort to retrieve and asked what she assumed was a rhetorical question at this point, “You ready?” but proceeded a longer silence than she would have ever expected, leading her to plead, “Come on, I know you’re ready. Has this not been fun so far?”
“Who is it?” he inquired back.
Sharon was lost so she quickly inquired, “Who is what?”
He sat up ready to get to the bottom of his suspicions and asserted, “The guy you’re using me to get to.”
“There’s no guy,” She confidently hit back, but then further defended herself, “Also I’m not using you, this was consensual right?”
“No, it was but this feels like you’re just trying to get a result. No offense but you stumbled over everything, but now that we’re finally here you just want to get it over with?” He laid out for her as he ran his hands through his hair. Before she could pick apart his argument he took a stab at the culprit, “It’s Sarah isn’t it?”
Her face scrunched and now completely lost retorted, “Who the heck is Sarah?”
With a light chuckle he tried to explain, “The girl I was sitting next to before Megan butted in. I had been chatting her up all night and then Megan comes in with spin the bottle. She came on strong but then you came on even stronger and you know I can’t tell a lady no. Yeah know?”
“No I don’t know! So you wanted to screw so what’s up?” Sharon asked, simply ignoring most of his ramblings.
He threw his hands up and exclaimed, “I thought you wanted to.”
“Well I do, so let's go,” she answered, exhausted by this feeling driven distraction.
His held out arm stopped her from reaching him so he could tell her, “See this feels like this is more about you and nothing about me.”
“I thought you were… “ she trailed off before outright calling him a whore.
“See, you’ve just reduced me. I’m the horny dude you can just sleep with when you want,” he accused her rightfully so.
She now defensively held her arms crossed in front of her and again asked, “So do you want to or not?”
“Well… “ he trailed off.
“Well what? Am I wrong?” she insisted.
“Look I do like sex and you’re a fine looking girl but… “ He started to explain.
Sharon was fed up and wanted an answer more than anything and so she mocked him, “But?”
“But… look you know usually it starts with a mutual interest and… uhm… well, it's just not as good,” He said tiptoeing to his conclusion.
“We haven’t even finished yet! How would you even know,” Sharon yelled now that she was at her limit with this whole topic.
After a deep breath he continued to explain himself, “Hey now, it's okay. Look I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but you know it's about us both wanting each other. Well I mean sometimes it's not but you know at that point both parties need to be understanding and in agreement. Look I’m just saying I agreed, thinking you were into me. Those were my expectations but you were clearly after sex and not me for whatever reason and I just wanted to know the reason and then maybe we could have continued both on the same page. Yeah know?”
Sharon grabbed her pillow and dropped to her knees. With her head buried in her pillow she let out a muffled scream and then laid down on the floor for a few minutes, letting the air out of the room. He patted the side of her bed offering a fig leaf. She accepted and crawled back into her bed but they continued to lay in silence now with his arm around her shoulder.
For almost three minutes, he didn’t move an inch before she let slip a nagging thought, “Aren’t you going to leave now?”
Finally he shifted a bit but simply for his comfort before he replied, “I still want to help, even if I don’t…“
“No you should go before I start… I don’t want you to see me like this, “ She insisted while dragging her finger across her upper lip as she held back as much as she could.
As a reflex he started to pet her hair and apologized, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so nosy. It's probably been long enough now.” He slowly got up and put his shirt back on before asking for her phone.
“Why would you need that?” She asked as calmly as she could as snot began running past her mouth.
Again he gestured for her to hand it over, assuring her, “So you can call me tomorrow and tell me how you’re doing. I hate to leave you like this but you clearly just need some space.” She handed it over before reaching for a tissue. While handing it back he let her know with a grin, “I think we can make the right one come around.”
She nodded, returning the grin before blowing her nose and then he was gone, presumably back at it. After sulking for longer than she thought, the sound of the party still raged. All she could do was either continue to sulk or go back out there because sleeping was out of the question. Having gotten stuck with an unlovable feeling for hours, she wanted a distraction. As well as she could, she cleaned up her makeup with what she had in her room and made a beeline through the kitchen to the bathroom to finish the job. Luckily only a few strangers were in the kitchen drinking the night away and conversing as best they could at this point.
The bathroom door was closed so she knocked to hear a startled indiscernible yelp so she leaned against the wall dreading any interactions that may happen. All she wanted was to put this whole party behind her, but here she was with a smudgy face and little patience, waiting for her own bathroom. By this time in the night most attendees had settled into their corners. The excitement of the night had finally died and people were leaving when their groups lost interest instead of finding a new group. Standing in a line of one left her wondering where Megan had ended up. It seemed like she spent the whole night helping her for nothing.
“Sharon! I was looking for you all night,” Her friend announced as they left the bathroom after what felt like too long for just using the bathroom. She wasn’t quite sure what his costume was yet.
“Uhm… can I get in there?” She replied.
Her friend blinked a few times. He stared blankly through her and put his hand on her shoulder to continue before drifting off, “Where have you been? I was so surprised to get a party invite from someone like Sharon. I mean Sharon? Wow… “
She finally noticed his bloodshot eyes, leading her to finally get his Big Lebowski costume. With that moment of clarity she shifted gears, “Oh you know me, I’ve been a secret party animal this whole time.” Reciprocating his friendliness she put her hand on his shoulder and began to rotate the two of them while continuing with her diversion, “Say have you seen Megan? I mean she’s the real architect of this party.”
“Oh ya when I came in from the porch she was chatting up this smoking hot chick in a Princess Leia cosplay but I haven’t seen her since.”
After a hundred and eighty degree rotation, she was finally at the bathroom door so she thanked him before quickly shutting the door behind her, confident he hadn’t noticed a thing. The relief she desired came after cleaning up but left as soon as she left the bathroom. The party had died down and she was slowly left alone. The remaining guests were either about to pass out and or get a room, so she decided to start cleaning a little early. She marveled at the mess and the tales it told. Wizard staffs of varying lengths littered the kitchen, a skunky smell hung in the dim porch light, and a pair of panties covered the bottle she held hours ago like a flag for lost virgins.
By 3am Sharon was the only one left. The only thing left to do was to take out the trash, but all she could think about was the door at the other end of the kitchen. Megan’s door had been closed since she came back out and all she could picture was her with Princess Leia. She told herself that she was going to leave the trash for Megan to take out because it was only fair and in doing so finally collapsed in her bed now no longer distracted by a bustling party but by a roommate she wanted to know.
They agreed to keep their costumes secret until the last minute with a single stipulation that if they picked the same one, they would take double the shots for the night. Sharon played along knowing the odds were miniscule that they had ever even seen the same movie before. Unfortunately for Sharon, Megan miraculously finished getting in costume an hour and a half ago which left her to wander the house as Sharon finished up in the bathroom until now. It had been two years since they met, but she was still uncertain if Megan was always early from extreme planning and or just pure luck, but it left her in awe. The world seemed to be on Megan’s wavelength bending in preparation for her will. When she needed a test delayed, the professor would call in sick. Every dress will be on sale whether she grabbed it from the clearance rack or not. How could Sharon not be drawn to such an existence.
Two steps out of the bathroom and Megan squealed, “Look at you!” Somehow inches away and already out of guesses. “I wanna say sexy elf but I know you’re about to give me a little ted talk, ” Megan conceded after just two glances.
“Well she may be sexy, but she’s not an elf. I’m Princess Zelda,” Sharon announced to a black stare before she tried to continue, “from the video game the Legend of… “
Megan derailed her monologue immediately, “Well, I know you’re gonna have your pick of handsome plumbers.”
A moment of decoupling the lost reference eventually led Sharon to correct her, “You’re thinking of Princess Peach, I’m Princess Zelda. I think the character you’re thinking of is Link, who I’m not actually sure if he has an occupation besides… you’re not following me, are you?”
“You’re Princess Zelda, and you’re gonna find your uhm, Link?” Megan attempted to reassure her, but thought she misheard something.
“Well I hope you find your, well I don’t remember the character’s name but you know he was played by Steve Buscemi, right?” In a tit for tat Sharon stumbled from a once confident answer to an awkward question.
Megan gave her a jest in return, “I thought you loved indie films? I’m Deb and I’m waiting for my clueless Dynamite to finally get the hint,” gesturing to her sideways ponytail and pink polo.
“Well ya I watch… I… I thought you were Johansson from Ghostworld,” Sharon attempted to defend her fumbled guess with even more references that would go over Megan’s head once again. “I don’t know, I guess I thought since you liked Black Widow that you would have seen more of her past work… I guess I probably haven’t seen that movie, yet,” Sharon pivoted to feigning ignorance once she caught her inner thoughts spill out.
“You really should, I thought someone like you would…“ Megan explained through as long as she could. An alarm on her phone blared from her pocket.
Sharon finally interrupted her, “Are you gonna get that?”
Megan waved it off, “It's just my alarm for the party. No big deal.”
For a minute the two of them slowly synchronized their building excitement in silence before in unison whispered into a yell, “It’s time for our first house party!”
The two danced in the hallway for a moment before looking around to see an empty house. “No one ever shows up on time anyways,” Megan reassured them, before they got back to dancing in silence.
Over the course of the next hour, Megan was right as their friends and their acquaintances steadily arrived more and more until they no longer knew everyone in their place. Luckily for Sharon, Megan knew how to spread the word using the business majors knowing as only a few engineering and pre-med students would even show up. Unlike the first party Megan threw in her dorm, she wanted the whole school to be there. They were Juniors now, and no longer needed to hide their endeavors from the RA. For Megan this was the start of a new normal but for Sharon this was about nostalgia. When they would be the last two after Megan’s parties, the two would end up chatting till dawn.
As dusk set in, Sharon tried her best to mingle but she had been deep in the labs all semester. No one wanted to talk about servo motors or PLA’s. Megan on the other hand seemed to have a wealth of social topics to chat about as if she didn’t spend all of her time on biochem homework. By the “Halfway” point she could tell that Sharon was floundering. Sharon stood in the kitchen by the fridge awkwardly chatting with people about their beverage choice as if she was a pollster before being dragged by the arm backwards into Megan’s room.
“Hey how’s it going out there?” Megan asked as if she hadn’t just kidnapped her roommate.
Sharon scratched her head while trying to quantify her enjoyment, “Well I mean people seem to really like the Rolling Rocks…“
“Have you seen the econ major dressed as Link?” Megan jumped to the point after rolling her eyes at the poll results. Again, Sharon attempted to quantify the whole night in her head in search of a response. “He’s in the living room leaning against the recliner and he’s super cute and before you say you couldn’t possibly talk to him because you have nothing in common, you both like, “ Megan took a second to check her phone in the middle of her monologue, “Legend of Zelda, He’s Link and you’re Zelda! So I’m going to set this up and you can’t talk me out of this.”
Before she could catch up to her, Megan was in the middle living room standing on the coffee table. “For all those that are interested, we’re gonna start a game of spin the bottle. All those not interested can head to the porch and smoke or whatever,” She explained to the crowd of costumes before directing people either out the front door or into the soon to be circle.
“Hey, doesn’t that seem a bit childish? I mean do we even have a bottle?” Sharon tried to reason before being handed a bottle from a girl in a Princess Leia costume with the simple instructions, “chug.”
When Sharon finished sipping through her social obligation, the two of them were the last two standing at the center of an oblong circle. All eyes on them, Sharon's face sweltered bright red with sweat starting to dilute her makeup. Megan on the other hand was putting the finishing touches on her brilliant plan. She gives a glance to Leia with a parting of hands to make a spot for her and her clueless roommate and Leia was happy to oblige.
Megan grabbed the bottle from Sharon, gave the bottle a swish, slammed the remains, and set forth the rules, “Alright, I know you all probably know the rules but let’s just make sure everyone is on the same page. We’ll pass the bottle clockwise. The person spinning asks the chosen person truth or dare. 5 no 10 shot penalty for chickening out. Nothing illegal, and seven minutes is the minimum but keep in mind we only have so many rooms so if you want to canoodle find a… another room that’s not like here. Okay? cool.”
The crowd settled down and Megan handed Leia the bottle to start the game, giving her thanks, “It was cool of you to make some room for us, good luck.”
Over the course of the game people squirmed over obvious truths and willingly attempted stunts far above their sobriety. There were at least thirty people playing which led to some tough calls on bottle placement but left everyone entertained nonetheless. Sharon was too distracted to notice why everyone laughed at certain quips. She needed to find Link so she could find out what Megan was getting her into, but an hour and twenty spins later she still couldn’t find him. The chatter outside let her assume that Megan’s plan failed and that this Link must have gone outside to smoke. Bullet dodge she reassured herself.
“Oh we got the party girl herself! By the way, love your Napoleon Dynamite costume,” the guy next to Sharon gave Megan a compliment before asking her, "So what will it be, Truth or Dare?”.
After a second of thought, Megan let out a quiet but provocative answer, “Dare.”
Sharon finally noticed the person sitting next to her in a green Legolas Costume grinning on one side of his face and barely hanging in on the other and he gave a more reserved dare than she imagined, “I dare you to give me the number of the hottest girl in the room, in your opinion.” Instinctually Legolas handed his phone across Sharon over to Megan and in no time at all took it back. “I’m gonna give you a quick call to make sure I didn’t get a fake number or anything,” he announced to just her and then there was a ring and then another to the whole room before Megan held up a ringing phone.
Megan declined the call with a stipulation that was followed with a few oo’s from the audience, “Call me tomorrow and then and only then we can get some drinks.”
In the next second Sharon’s trance was broken with a nudge and wink from Megan as she was handed the bottle as if she could possibly follow that performance. Because she had to, Sharon leaned all the way other to the middle instead of just shuffling forward and spun the bottle with barely enough force to complete one rotation. She had chalked up whatever could happen next as nothing compared to the hottest thing she had seen all year.
With another nudge Megan had to inform her that the show was not over, “Looks like someone’s lucky day is already here.” Megan traced a line from the top of the bottle straight over to Legolas with the widest grin and gave her the most unsettling encouragement in a whisper in her left ear, “Come on, you’ve got this. Your Link is right there. Just ask him.”
“Truth or Dare?” Sharon announced to the bottle in the middle of the room.
Without hesitation Legolas replied with the same cheap grin, “Dare.”
The room was on edge with anticipation waiting for Sharon to reply. With a pat on the shoulder, Megan told Sharon to get a move on. She didn’t have the courage to tell him so she took him by the hand across the room and back to her room without saying a word. Only a moment after her door shut did the game continue but Sharon was never interested in that game. Her eyes finally set sight on the first guy she had ever brought back to her closet of a room. Usually they never impressed her enough to reveal her depressingly small room. Despite her best efforts to brighten it up there always seemed to be tools strewn about crowding what floor space she had.
Legolas tried his best to step around a wrench set but tripped onto the bed as she stood and watched. A single “Ope,” was muttered but no apology. Sharon was still thinking through all the possibilities for the situation because she was unsure how to approach such a sudden situation. She tried to turn the lights off but he quickly slammed into a shelf and onto the floor. After a second, she flicked the lights back on to see his shirt covering his head while still on the floor. Finally she helped him up from her mess but left his shirt half on. Something about it felt less intimidating than the complete stranger she dragged back here barely a minute ago.
“Hey, I know my abs must be nice to look at but can you help me?” he patiently asked with a muffled request through his shirt.
“Sorry, uhm… “ Sharon snapped out of her paralysis but pondered, “What would Megan do?” She began to act out the first thing she could think of and pulled him close and began running her tongue along the ridge of his nipple.
As she expected he gave a light protest, “Hey, so not to downplay the effort or anything but my arms are starting to fall asleep so can you… “
“Ya but this is my dare, “ She asserted with some confidence to her own surprise.
After being taken aback by the assertion he countered in a simple attempt to gain some comfort, “You never gave me a dare?”
“I claimed you and you followed along,” she whispered back through his shirt and into his ear. While running her hands down his back she began to ramble a bit before spinning him around, “Well at least for 7 minutes because those are rules but you know, you can always resend your consent, yeah know?”
He failed again to wiggle out of his shirt by himself while replying, “Sorry I just didn’t expect this. No offense.”
“None… taken, “ she assured before pushing him into her bed back first only for him to roll out given the continued restraints on his arms. She leaned down to apologize and finally remove his shirt, “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I always wanted to try that but you know, your arms… “
The second his head was free, he leaned in to interrupt her with a kiss that didn’t seem to end until minutes later when they finally made it onto her bed together. She had felt his bulge against her thighs for sometime now but led her hand down there to affirm her suspicions. His moan in reaction was met with a tussle as Sharon attempted to roll over him to get to her dresser only for her to fall to the floor this time. He could only assume what was to come but it felt off.
She displayed the condom she spent all this effort to retrieve and asked what she assumed was a rhetorical question at this point, “You ready?” but proceeded a longer silence than she would have ever expected, leading her to plead, “Come on, I know you’re ready. Has this not been fun so far?”
“Who is it?” he inquired back.
Sharon was lost so she quickly inquired, “Who is what?”
He sat up ready to get to the bottom of his suspicions and asserted, “The guy you’re using me to get to.”
“There’s no guy,” She confidently hit back, but then further defended herself, “Also I’m not using you, this was consensual right?”
“No, it was but this feels like you’re just trying to get a result. No offense but you stumbled over everything, but now that we’re finally here you just want to get it over with?” He laid out for her as he ran his hands through his hair. Before she could pick apart his argument he took a stab at the culprit, “It’s Sarah isn’t it?”
Her face scrunched and now completely lost retorted, “Who the heck is Sarah?”
With a light chuckle he tried to explain, “The girl I was sitting next to before Megan butted in. I had been chatting her up all night and then Megan comes in with spin the bottle. She came on strong but then you came on even stronger and you know I can’t tell a lady no. Yeah know?”
“No I don’t know! So you wanted to screw so what’s up?” Sharon asked, simply ignoring most of his ramblings.
He threw his hands up and exclaimed, “I thought you wanted to.”
“Well I do, so let's go,” she answered, exhausted by this feeling driven distraction.
His held out arm stopped her from reaching him so he could tell her, “See this feels like this is more about you and nothing about me.”
“I thought you were… “ she trailed off before outright calling him a whore.
“See, you’ve just reduced me. I’m the horny dude you can just sleep with when you want,” he accused her rightfully so.
She now defensively held her arms crossed in front of her and again asked, “So do you want to or not?”
“Well… “ he trailed off.
“Well what? Am I wrong?” she insisted.
“Look I do like sex and you’re a fine looking girl but… “ He started to explain.
Sharon was fed up and wanted an answer more than anything and so she mocked him, “But?”
“But… look you know usually it starts with a mutual interest and… uhm… well, it's just not as good,” He said tiptoeing to his conclusion.
“We haven’t even finished yet! How would you even know,” Sharon yelled now that she was at her limit with this whole topic.
After a deep breath he continued to explain himself, “Hey now, it's okay. Look I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but you know it's about us both wanting each other. Well I mean sometimes it's not but you know at that point both parties need to be understanding and in agreement. Look I’m just saying I agreed, thinking you were into me. Those were my expectations but you were clearly after sex and not me for whatever reason and I just wanted to know the reason and then maybe we could have continued both on the same page. Yeah know?”
Sharon grabbed her pillow and dropped to her knees. With her head buried in her pillow she let out a muffled scream and then laid down on the floor for a few minutes, letting the air out of the room. He patted the side of her bed offering a fig leaf. She accepted and crawled back into her bed but they continued to lay in silence now with his arm around her shoulder.
For almost three minutes, he didn’t move an inch before she let slip a nagging thought, “Aren’t you going to leave now?”
Finally he shifted a bit but simply for his comfort before he replied, “I still want to help, even if I don’t…“
“No you should go before I start… I don’t want you to see me like this, “ She insisted while dragging her finger across her upper lip as she held back as much as she could.
As a reflex he started to pet her hair and apologized, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so nosy. It's probably been long enough now.” He slowly got up and put his shirt back on before asking for her phone.
“Why would you need that?” She asked as calmly as she could as snot began running past her mouth.
Again he gestured for her to hand it over, assuring her, “So you can call me tomorrow and tell me how you’re doing. I hate to leave you like this but you clearly just need some space.” She handed it over before reaching for a tissue. While handing it back he let her know with a grin, “I think we can make the right one come around.”
She nodded, returning the grin before blowing her nose and then he was gone, presumably back at it. After sulking for longer than she thought, the sound of the party still raged. All she could do was either continue to sulk or go back out there because sleeping was out of the question. Having gotten stuck with an unlovable feeling for hours, she wanted a distraction. As well as she could, she cleaned up her makeup with what she had in her room and made a beeline through the kitchen to the bathroom to finish the job. Luckily only a few strangers were in the kitchen drinking the night away and conversing as best they could at this point.
The bathroom door was closed so she knocked to hear a startled indiscernible yelp so she leaned against the wall dreading any interactions that may happen. All she wanted was to put this whole party behind her, but here she was with a smudgy face and little patience, waiting for her own bathroom. By this time in the night most attendees had settled into their corners. The excitement of the night had finally died and people were leaving when their groups lost interest instead of finding a new group. Standing in a line of one left her wondering where Megan had ended up. It seemed like she spent the whole night helping her for nothing.
“Sharon! I was looking for you all night,” Her friend announced as they left the bathroom after what felt like too long for just using the bathroom. She wasn’t quite sure what his costume was yet.
“Uhm… can I get in there?” She replied.
Her friend blinked a few times. He stared blankly through her and put his hand on her shoulder to continue before drifting off, “Where have you been? I was so surprised to get a party invite from someone like Sharon. I mean Sharon? Wow… “
She finally noticed his bloodshot eyes, leading her to finally get his Big Lebowski costume. With that moment of clarity she shifted gears, “Oh you know me, I’ve been a secret party animal this whole time.” Reciprocating his friendliness she put her hand on his shoulder and began to rotate the two of them while continuing with her diversion, “Say have you seen Megan? I mean she’s the real architect of this party.”
“Oh ya when I came in from the porch she was chatting up this smoking hot chick in a Princess Leia cosplay but I haven’t seen her since.”
After a hundred and eighty degree rotation, she was finally at the bathroom door so she thanked him before quickly shutting the door behind her, confident he hadn’t noticed a thing. The relief she desired came after cleaning up but left as soon as she left the bathroom. The party had died down and she was slowly left alone. The remaining guests were either about to pass out and or get a room, so she decided to start cleaning a little early. She marveled at the mess and the tales it told. Wizard staffs of varying lengths littered the kitchen, a skunky smell hung in the dim porch light, and a pair of panties covered the bottle she held hours ago like a flag for lost virgins.
By 3am Sharon was the only one left. The only thing left to do was to take out the trash, but all she could think about was the door at the other end of the kitchen. Megan’s door had been closed since she came back out and all she could picture was her with Princess Leia. She told herself that she was going to leave the trash for Megan to take out because it was only fair and in doing so finally collapsed in her bed now no longer distracted by a bustling party but by a roommate she wanted to know.