Before they had all met, Heather had gotten together with Liz at a local coffee place and explained her concerns regarding Alice. She told Liz about how Alice had come to grips with her sexuality, her time down on the ranch, her issues dealing with a conservative family, and she also discussed what had happened with Jamie. This of course pissed Liz off a bit. Then Heather went into Alice’s “trust therapy,” and how she was concerned that a girl with as big a heart as Alice was looking to give that heart unconditionally to someone. Heather just wanted to make sure whomever her friend gave her heart to deserved to have it. Liz understood her friend’s concern and promised not to rush Alice into anything. The new girl found it strange that the young woman was a bit reluctant to talk to her since Liz could feel Alice’s eyes on her almost the entire night. As the evening progressed, she spent some time trying to get the shy girl to open up by talking about a mutual passion, such as horror films. Between the two of them, they could remember everyone killed, in which order and with what implement in all three of the major slasher legacies (Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street). There was a new monster flick that had opened that weekend, and Liz casually asked if Alice might want to cut out of the gathering a bit early to go watch it. Alice accepted the offer.
‘So,’ thought Liz, ‘does this constitute a date? Hell with it. Let’s just go watch the movie.’ Liz wandered down and whispered their plans into Heather’s ear and gripped her shoulder’s friend as they shared an unspoken trust; nothing bad was going to happen to Alice.
Alice’s heart was going a mile a minute. The older girl captivated her, but she was still a bit nervous around her. She was going to try and play it cool for the moment. Even though she seemed nice enough and Heather seemed to trust her, Alice very badly wanted to avoid another ‘Jamie’ incident. Her desire to take things slow was seriously tested as she slid onto the back of Liz’s motorcycle and put the spare helmet on. She found herself with her arms wrapped around that taut waist and with her crotch pressed up against Liz’s butt. She took a deep breath and held on for dear life, in more ways than one.
The movie turned out to be an absolute bomb. The two of them got out of the film at about midnight and spent another two hours at an all-night restaurant mocking it, and just about any other bad film either of them had seen. Liz finally got to see Alice just let go and laugh. There was something almost magical about her when she laughed.
Finally, it was so late that they needed to go. Alice said that she needed to go home. She badly wanted to add “with you” to the end of the phrase. Unbeknownst to her, Liz kind of wanted to hear that. But for that night, Alice got dropped off at her dorm and Elizabeth Price went home alone.
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Early February . . .
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The remainder of the month of January had been hectic. Once school was in session, all the girls were running all over the place. Alice, Heather and Laurie were all working part-time, and most of their hours came on the weekend. Liz discovered that being a teaching assistant and a research assistant in graduate school was much harder than she would have guessed at an undergraduate. Combined with band-practice, the girls were running themselves ragged. They started playing a few businesses, such as coffee bars and clubs, and were starting to develop a small following around campus. The pooled their resources and reserved some studio time for a couple of evenings in February to record a demo CD of some of their songs to sell/distribute wherever they played. They had named their group after its origin and after one of their songs; “Lost In Texas.” Alice was frantically writing new songs, though she was distracted somewhat by her . . . odd . . . relationship with Liz.
Ever since that first movie, the two girls had gone to the local cinema once a week, and chatted for hours afterward, and they talked on the phone often. Liz would come by O’Malley’s on the weekends to visit and sometimes they would grab lunch or dinner during the week. Liz actually got Alice interested in hockey, and the two would periodically get together and watch a game. But nothing seemed to be materializing past basic friendship. And it wasn’t for lack of interest. Alice savored every moment she spent with the fascinating girl, particularly when she got to wrap her arms around that beautiful waist when riding on Liz’s motorcycle.
Liz picked up on these signs, but she was waiting for Alice to make some sort of move that indicated she wanted something more. She still carried Heather’s concerns in her head, and wanted the younger girl to make it clear what she wanted. But every time, she asked if Alice was ready to go home, and every evening Alice said “yes.”
Heather was concerned too. She saw Alice in the morning when they woke up and sometimes in the evening before going to bed, as well as at work and band practice. But that was it. They used to hang out all the time, now she barely saw her friend. She wasn’t missing classes or anything, though Heather couldn’t keep track of her constantly. The three girls only had one class that they were all in together, there were a couple of classes with two of them but the rest of the time each girl was working on her electives. Heather wanted to see how things were going with Liz, but she never had the opportunity to ask. She debating calling Liz, who she saw from time to time, but she was hesitant to interfere in whatever it was going on. She had to let Alice grow up. But she missed her friend. Luckily she had Laurie to confide in. Her girlfriend tried to get her to relax and trust Alice’s judgement. Then the kissing had started, and Heather didn’t worry about much after that.
So Heather was a little surprised when she got a call from Liz asking her to drop by her friend’s office between classes. Heather had trouble finding the place seeing as she had never been in the Electrical Engineering building in her life. She finally found Liz buried up to her eyeballs in student papers and homework, and she looked mildly annoyed.
“Hey,” Liz said, noticing Heather standing in the doorway to her single-occupancy office. “Okay, building advanced aircraft is fucking easy compared to dealing with these kids,” she muttered, grabbing a pile of papers that had been heavily marked with a red pen off of her visitor’s chair. “Could you close the door?”
Heather closed the door behind her and sat down. “What’s up?”
Liz developed a wry smile. “It’s strange. I introduced you to sex, and now I need your advice on women.”
Heather became concerned. “Something going wrong with Alice?”
“Nothing is going on at all!” Liz practically shouted, then got her voice back under control. “I’ve tried being patient and not rushing anything. And she definitely seems interested, but I can’t get her to make a move. I thought she might have told you something.”
“Liz, she’s been with you almost all of her spare time. I haven’t had a conversation with her that lasted more than five minutes in a couple of weeks. She’s . . . She seems to be obsessed with you. She doesn’t even talk to me anymore. Or Laurie . . .”
“But mostly you,” said Liz. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fuck with your friendship but . . .”
“Don’t apologize. I spent a lot of time hoping she might find someone, so it would be kind of selfish for me to be mad that she has a life outside of me and Laurie.” Heather looked into Liz’s eyes. “Is she getting her homework done and everything? She used to do it at the dorm . . .”
“She’s doing fine with her schoolwork. She does her work while I do my grading and my homework. God, I hate homework. If I thought her schoolwork was suffering, I would’ve let you know.”
“You’re a good person,” Heather said with a grin, “though you cheat when you fight.”
“Look who’s talking, you little biter!”
“Anyway, I have know idea what’s going on in her head. I’ve thought about it and you are SO her type.”
Liz looked interested. “How so? I was under the impression that everyone she had been with so far was kind of different.”
“Sort of, but not entirely. Maybe it was the WAY they were with her. Look at Michelle, a powerful, larger-than-life type woman who almost literally swept her off her feet and took her virginity in almost every way. Then there was Jane and Freddie. Freddie is just a hottie, but Jane has a presence about her, and the three of them pretty much descended on her like a pack of wolves from what Alice told me. And then there was Jamie,” Heather almost spat.
“One of these days, you’re going to have to tell me what you did that apparently scared that bitch so much.”
“I simply explained the rules to her,” Heather said shortly. “Anyway, Jamie by all accounts had a very powerful personality which she just used for all the wrong reasons. Even when Laurie and I . . . well, you know . . . we just kind of had our way with her and hoped she didn’t object.” Heather sat back in her chair with a look on her face that indicated she had just had an epiphany. The same look was on Liz’s face.
“So it might have been better if I had just done things my way?” Liz asked, somewhat perplexed.
“I don’t think so,” said Heather after a moment. “She might very well have given herself to you, but . . .”
“But it might have been for the wrong reasons,” finished Liz with a sigh. “When did this all get complicated?”
“I wish I knew. I’m in love with someone I used to hate, and she’s in a sorority at that.”
Liz smiled. “Using the “L” word a little liberally, aren’t we?”
“No. Because I mean it. And speaking of Laurie, are you going to be able to make it to her party next week?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. But still . . . ice skating?”