It was just after seven and the late winter sky was darkening. It was nice to have more daylight by this time of year, if only it would warm up a little!
I walked up to the door of the side split house and rang the doorbell. I heard footsteps and then the door opened revealing Jayne smiling. I smiled back at the lovely girl and entered the front hall.
"How long did it take you to walk?" she asked.
"Only about 15 minutes, but boy, it's still pretty cold for almost April."
"Did you bring it with you?"
I passed her the brown paper bag and she took its contents, a bottle of Captain Morgan, and placed it on the front hall table.
Jayne and I are both finishing 1st year at university, so we are 19, but because the drinking age is 21, you have to have a friend or older brother or sister if you want to get alcohol. I looked at Jayne; a tall slim classically pretty blonde with blue eyes, shoulder length hair and long legs. She is slightly taller than I am but nevertheless, if certain little bids are telling the truth, interested in me.
"Put your coat in the closet and I'll put this in the kitchen," she said, "we're going to sit in the den; go down the stairs and turn left, first door on your right."
I went down the half flight and entered the room.
"Hi," a voice said.
It was Kathy, Jayne's younger sister who was just finishing high school and just had her 18th birthday.
"Hi Kathy; I didn't expect you to be home on a Saturday night; no date?"
"No, so Jayne said I could hang out with you two for a while and chaperone since my parents are away; is that OK?"
Her teasing tone of voice suggested that clearly she was aware of Jayne's interest in me!
"Sure," I said.
Kathy is shorter than her sister with green-grey eyes, a pretty upturned nose and medium brown hair that falls part way down her back. She has a more average build for a teen-aged girl and therefore more of a figure than Jayne.
"Hey guys," we heard from the kitchen, "come up here and help make the drinks."
The den it turned out had its own set of connecting stairs to the kitchen which we climbed with Kathy leading. I admired Kathy as I followed her, she was pretty cute!
"What do we mix with this?" Jayne asked.
"Rum and Coke is what most people have for their first real drink," I said.
"OK," she replied, "I'll try one; I've only had wine before this."
"Kathy?" I asked.
"Yes please."
Something told me that this wouldn't be Kathy's first "real" drink; as I knew from our friends that she had gone to quite a few parties and had a number of boys dating her on and off.
"I'd better measure the drinks; do you have a shot glass?"
Jayne went into the dining room and returned with one while Kathy opened a cupboard to show me where the soft drinks were kept. I carefully measured three weak rum and Cokes and we returned to the den and began to talk.
Naturally, with three very inexperienced drinkers, some giggling and laughing soon erupted, even though the amount of alcohol consumed was not yet very large.
As the talk became more playful, I noticed the electricity in the den. I sensed that both these girls liked me and found me attractive and were therefore flirting with me. Although I have had some girlfriends, my sexual experience is pretty pathetic; amounting to touching a bare breast during a session of heavy kissing and then being told by my now ex-girlfriend to stop.
The first drinks were pretty well gone so we decided to have seconds. Jayne, ever the sensible one, said we had better bring some food as she knew you shouldn't drink on an empty stomach.
When we returned with new drinks and some chips and fruit the conversation started up anew.
"Did you know that Debbie really likes Scott?" Kathy said.
Debbie was a mutual friend, a petite redhead, in the same year as Kathy, but a little older; I played sports with her brothers.
"I suspected as much because at their party she was always trying to sit beside him. Does he like her?" I said.
"Don't know."
The three of us had recently been at a party given by Debbie's older brothers.
"Now promise you won't tell anyone," Kathy said in a conspiratorial tone, "but she says she's going to invite him over to her house and then play strip poker with him".
Jayne and I both laughed loudly.
"Big talk!" I said, "And you believed her?"
"No way!" exclaimed Jayne, "She wouldn't have the nerve to even ask him over much less play strip poker!"
More laughter!
Suddenly Kathy turned to me and slyly asked, "Have you ever played?"
"Kathy!" Jayne was clearly surprised by this bold question.
"No, no, its OK, I can answer."
"A few years ago when I was about 17 up at the cottage there was this girl I knew from a few cottages down, Ann, who tried to start a game in the sleeping cabin."
"Ann explained all the proper strip poker rules to us and we dealt some hands but pretty soon everyone but Ann pretty much chickened out."
"If the others had continued I don't know whether I would have gone on; I was really nervous because Ann was only 14. If her parents found out we would have been in a lot of trouble."
"Maybe I shouldn't have worried, I haven't seen her since then but I hear she is pretty wild."
"Proper rules for strip poker," Kathy laughed, "what did she do, look them up in Hoyles?"
"No, she said her older brother Billy explained them to her one night; according to her he has played in a game that went all the way."
"So what are they?" asked Jayne.
