Author's note: This story contains some anti-gay slurs. This is not meant to insult anyone, but they are necessary for the telling of this tale. I hope that the reader can see past any offense he might take, and understand why they are integral to the story.
*****
Mary Margaret had gotten a full tray for dinner. Chicken and dumplings were a special treat at the cafeteria, the perfect comfort food for this raw, cold day. Mashed potatoes, green beans and a piece of apple pie made up the rest of her plate, though she thought that pumpkin pie would have been more appropriate for the season.
She'd beaten Danny down to the cafeteria, something that was a bit unusual. Without him there, and his dour agnosticism, she made the Sign of the Cross, and said Grace, "Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen."
Still, she wondered if she was being a bit hypocritical, praying to the Lord when she had been considering sleeping with Brandon. He was just so good-looking, and charming, and polite. She knew that he wanted to sleep with her - what college guy
doesn't
have sex on his mind? - and that she'd pretty much teased him outrageously last Friday night, but they hadn't had sex yet, and he wasn't being stupid pushy.
And he'd called her his
girlfriend!
He'd been happy enough with how far they'd gotten, and how far they hadn't gotten, and wasn't doing what so many college guys would have done, dumped her when she hadn't 'put out' already.
Then there was Danny. What college guy doesn't have sex on his mind? Well, so far, Danny didn't seem to have, or at least didn't seem interested in her as a girlfriend. Mary Margaret was disappointed that Danny didn't seem interested, and if she'd been happy when Brandon had said that he wanted her to be his girlfriend, she was also feeling guilty because she wanted Danny to say something, do something.
Then Danny showed up at the table, smiling at her. That was nice, because he just didn't smile much, period. With the repercussions of that awful porno in his past, and how closed off and defensive he'd gotten, she was lucky to have gotten any smiles out of him, so maybe she was finally breaking through his hard shell.
Danny's tray was the opposite of hers: he hadn't loaded up at all, had really too little food on it. He'd finally started putting back on some of the weight he'd lost, but he was still too skinny.
They talked about nothing important, until finally Danny screwed up enough nerve to ask what was on his mind. "Listen, Mary Margaret, my roommate is going to be out all night? Want to do our study session in my room instead of the library? It'll save us the walk in that nasty wind out there."
For a second, she was stunned. Was this the move that he'd waited so long to make? Still, she'd tried the exact same thing a week ago, and dressed casually sexy for it, and it went exactly nowhere. "Sure," she managed to get out, having had a couple of seconds grace in which to swallow her food and think about what she'd been asked. "That'll be a nice change."
There was more talk about nothing, and finally they headed back upstairs. "I've got to take care of something, and then I'll be right down," she told him. "See ya!"
Well, she certainly seemed cheerful enough, Danny thought. He wasn't sure of what she had to 'take care of,' but no sense worrying about it. This would either go well, of just be studying.
What did Mary Margaret have to take care of? All day in her fuggs - fake Uggs - she was sure that her feet didn't smell good, and she wanted to take a quick shower. Was Danny actually making a move? There was no way to tell, no way to know until she got to his room, but she was going to be ready if he did. A quick shower, and yup, better shave her legs; she hadn't for a couple of days. No need for make-up, since it was obvious that she had showered, and who puts on make-up just before bed? She wanted to look fresh and clean, but not over-eager. She brushed her teeth and Scoped, got to be kissably ready.
Clothes? She thought about the white sweatpants she'd worn the other night, but those hadn't worked. Well, they weren't going to be outside, and the dorm was plenty warm, so she pulled out a pair of black yoga pants, and guys just love yoga pants. A black thong underneath those, and she was perfectly sexy.
Except for her weight.
What a downer. Mary Margaret wasn't fat, but being somewhere in the size 7 to 9 range, and as short as she was, she looked kind of stocky. Everything was in the right place, but she wasn't typical college girl skinny. But there was nothing she could do about that now.
She had a nice black bra, one that matched her thong, so that was an easy choice, and then a loose shirt over that, to sort of look sexy but still not be too blatant with her figure. She'd just wear her flip flops and,
crap!
her nail polish could use some attention. No time for that now, Danny would just have to like her as she was, or not. She grabbed her laptop, and the books she needed and headed downstairs; Danny's dorm room was directly under hers. It was only a minute later that she was knocking on his door.
Mary Margaret knocking on Danny's door did not go unnoticed; a couple of guys, including one she knew to be a real asshole - he was the one who first yelled that she'd better make sure Danny got an AIDS test before he fucked her - and there were some snide comments made, though not loud enough that she couldn't pretend not to have heard them.
Danny certainly liked what he saw when he opened the door. The oversized flannel shirt was an interesting top over the black yoga pants, a modest top to be sure, but the bare calves and feet were certainly nice in this cold early December. He had to hesitate a second, just to make sure that he didn't stammer when he said, "Hi," and invited her in.
With exams coming up, they had to buckle down and get to work. With completely different majors, they didn't have any of the same, or even similar classes, but that didn't matter: they got work done, and it somehow didn't seem quite as much of a chore with each other around.
Then she wound up sitting the same way she had when they had studied in her dorm room, cross-legged on his bed. That tensed the muscles in her calves, and really showed off how nice her legs were. Oh, they weren't long and lean, the way every college guy dreams about, but shapely and smooth, with what looked like really soft skin. Danny thought that she'd caught him looking for a second, but Mary Margaret didn't say anything. He did think that he caught her smiling at that.
