After spilling a drink on herself, Gray left for the bathroom. Once she was out of earshot, the blondes who’d been ‘taking care’ of her for most of the night went in for the kill shot. The attractive pair told me three things I already knew… First, they weren’t lesbians. Second, they were willing to experiment though. And third, my (photogenic) roommate was way hotter in person than in the photos and videos I’d posted.
They ended their little list with a straightforward request that I hook them up with Gray. Although I’d consumed my fair share of alcohol throughout the night, I instantly felt stone-cold sober. Unsure how to turn them down, I nodded and said I’d see what I could do. The short walk to our bathroom felt so long.
Frowning, I annoyedly thought about how tragic it was that I only had myself to blame for this nightmarish scenario. At the start of the night, I’d stuck by Gray’s side, worried she’d feel left out or bored. But after a while, she’d caught my two aforementioned friends’ attention and they’d taken her under their wing… So, I’d stopped hovering around her and did the social butterfly-thing since I was the celebrant. Flash-forward a few hours and now here we all were in my personal version of Dante’s ‘tenth circle of hell.’
“What are you doing?” I asked a topless Gray. Despite my confusion, my eyes indulgently took in the sight of her tattoos. The many shapes, figures and colors that marked her otherwise milky skin.
“Oh, hi, birthday girl!” With just a bra partly covering her torso, she was washing her hands at the bathroom sink with shampoo. “Couldn’t find soap, so I borrowed some from the shower.”
She sounded so proud of her problem-solving skills, I didn’t have the heart to burst her bubble. I lifted the towel on the ceramic counter, revealing the ‘vanishing’ bottle of hand soap. “It’s right here.”
She laughed at herself. “I could’ve sworn I looked under there… What would I ever do without you, Cass?” She hugged me tight. Her hands were dripping wet and she smelled like alcohol, but I didn’t mind. “Enjoying your birthday? ‘Cause I am! Your friends are so fun. They’re super nice.”
I’d experienced birthday blues before. I knew how those felt. What I was feeling now? These were completely different. They were birthday greens and they were coating me in rough, dark shades of envy and jealousy. Almost three decades ago, I was born green-eyed in the literal sense, but tonight, I was also green-eyed in the figurative sense.
The door to Gray’s room was open, so I had a line of sight to her bed. My overactive imagination began torturing me, visualizing scenes I found absolutely heart-rending. Months ago, I didn’t even bat an eye whenever I heard my roommate having sex with her then-girlfriend… Now, the mere thought of her being intimate with someone, anyone left my insides in tight, tight knots. It was crazy how drastically things could change in such a short span of time.
“Well, my super nice friends just basically told me they wanna have a threesome with you.”
Unaware of how distraught I was feeling, her expression changed to a thrilled, blissful one. Starkly contrasting with how my own eyes looked, her blue orbs lit up at the idea of her partaking in a menage a trois. I wondered if, like me, she was imagining the sex scenes set in her bed. Of course she’d be down for a wild night of casual sex with two of my hottest friends… Why wouldn’t she be? She was young and single, and she’d hit it off with them. Also, her ex-girlfriend was a gorgeous blonde, so my friends were exactly her type. I glanced at the mirror and uselessly visualized my red hair changing into a flaxen color.
I was a team player. But if there was a wisp of a chance that I’d set my friends up with Gray, then it was wiped to oblivion when I saw her adorably stumbling around our bathroom in just her bra and skirt. She was the perfect combo of cute and sexy-and she was mine. No, they weren’t allowed to sleep with my roommate in my home on my birthday. Over my cold, dead, bone-white body.
“Really? Hm, well, it’s been a while since I hooked up with anyone, so I’m down.” Bleary-eyed, she grinned. “Which one?”
Her question caused me to squint at her, confused. “Uh, I said threesome, so both? How much have you had to drink tonight?”
“Right, right.” Completely ignoring my query, she just laughed again. “Thank god I’m not in charge of Scope’s accounting shit, huh?”
“Please don’t do it, Gray.”
“I won’t. Like I’ve always known math isn’t my strong suit… Don’t worry, I’m never gonna be in charge of the books. Scout’s honor.”
“Not that.” I locked eyes with her. “Don’t sleep with my friends,” I expressed clearly and slowly, leaving no room for misinterpretation. “I don’t want you to.”
“Oh.” She paused. “I won’t then. On second thought, it’s a bad idea… You’re right. Like they’re your friends, so I’ll probably run into them again and that might be awkward.” She turned to face her bedroom. “I should put on a shirt or-”
Before she got too far, I reached for her hand and pulled her back. If I couldn’t tolerate her having a no-strings-attached, one-and-done threesome, then I certainly wouldn’t be okay with her dating someone new. At least not right now. Not while my infatuation with her was still at its peak. When she was close enough for what I wanted to do, I held her face then kissed her lips. Her mouth parted slightly in surprise. I took the opportunity to search for her tongue with mine. This time, I wasn’t going to let our kiss end too soon.
Our kiss tasted like liquor, but it felt like heaven.
Once the shock wore off, she kissed me back then took over. Her warm tongue set the rough pace of our lip-lock. I’d fantasized about making out with her many times… But none of my fictional scenarios did reality justice. Like most people, I closed my eyes when I was kissing someone, but I fought the urge to do so. On the off chance that this was just a vivid, alcohol-driven lucid dream, I didn’t want everything to cease existing when my eyelids reopened.
Too soon, Gray ended our kiss. She pecked my lips one time, two times, thrice. Flashing me a smile, she pulled away from me.
“I’m sorry.” Once again, I had no idea what I was saying sorry for. Me apologizing after a kiss like that was tantamount to a person apologizing after they’d won the lottery. ‘Sorry’ was a word that indicated remorse and regret, not happiness and hallelujah.
She rolled her eyes then voiced my thoughts out loud. “Stop kissing me if you’re just going to keep apologizing after.” She covered my lips with hers before I could respond.
This time, my eyes did close… Instead of darkness though, what I saw were a wide array of unfamiliar, ethereal colors. Ones I hadn’t seen before-ones that might’ve not been discovered or named yet. She nibbled on my bottom lip. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. My forearms made an X-shape behind her. Her tongue slipped in my mouth again and she walked forward. She guided our bodies until my back was against the bathroom wall. Her left thigh wedged its way in between my legs. She sucked on my tongue and I moaned loudly. The temperature difference between the cold wall and her hot skin was making me crazier. If kissing her already drove me this mad, what was going to happen to me when we had sex? But no guts, no glory-and worst of all, no Gray.
When my fingertips touched the clip of her bra, she abruptly ended our kiss. We were both beyond winded. Each shaky breath we exhaled ghosted the other’s cheek. “Your friends.”
Well-aware of just how thin our old apartment’s walls were, I understood why she didn’t want us to go beyond kissing just yet. “I forgot about them… Your fault. I’ll go ask them to leave, one sec-”
“Cass, no, they should spend the night.”
Her last statement caused my heart to miss a beat. Maybe I hadn’t successfully averted the threesome like I thought, maybe I just upgraded it to a foursome… Before the feelings of jealousy and possessiveness took over again though, she made it clear that her intentions were innocent. She reminded me that it was an ungodly hour and my friends were ‘lit as fuck’ (her words, not mine). Which meant sending them home would’ve been courting tragedy. She offered to take the couch, so my friends could have her bed.
The points she’d made were ones I would’ve made, too, if I wasn’t so consumed by my desire for her. I’d never met anyone as gallant as she was, so her concern didn’t surprise me. When it came to ‘doing the chivalrous thing,’ it was like she was from a different era… Disappointed for myself but proud of her, I accepted that there wasn’t going to be any ‘birthday sex’ for me this year. “No, they can have my room. I’ll sleep in your bed.”
“Hm, yeah, that’s a much better plan. See? This is why you’re the one who found the soap a while ago. ‘Cass the Almighty Soap Seeker.'”
I rolled my eyes then kissed her. “I’ll update my friends and make sure they have whatever they need… You, get ready for bed. I’ll tell them you passed out, spare their feelings.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She pecked my lips once. “Happy, happy birthday again. I love you!”
“Love you more, Gray.”