It was a golden but cool fall day freshman year as I emerged from a stone academic building on the main green of Maybury College. The leaves were beginning to change and a scattering of them already littered the grass. With my jacket unzipped and my books tucked under my arm, I headed out on one of the sidewalks that haphazardly crisscrossed the open space. As I reached the other side of the green on the way back to my room, I saw a familiar face emerge from the side door of the science building.
Madeleine waved when she saw me just as she was about to turn down the path to the dorms. Maddy would have fit in with my friends in high school and we had instantly identified as kindred spirits during orientation. We were both massive fans of high fantasy books and movies. I had a large circle of band nerds, theater kids, and other geeks to hang out with in high school, but I was aware of a stigma to being different to 'popular' kids. I quickly found that college was different. There was more freedom and space to choose your own path and less pressure to conform, even at a small college like Maybury. People like Maddy and me were free to be ourselves and people who didn't like what we like left us alone.
Maddy was a total cutie, if you like girls who are a little nerdy, and I sure do. She was shorter than me with chin-length brown hair with flipped ends and pink highlights. Through the warm days of early fall, I never saw her wear anything other than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. On this chilly late-fall day, she wore an unbuttoned light flannel over the t-shirt. Lately, she sported a tiny pink nose stud. I wondered what her parents would think of that when she went home for fall break.
She waited for me to catch up and we walked together toward the dorm. "What are you up to tonight?" she asked.
I shrugged. "Nothing yet, but TGIF I guess, right?"
"You can say that again."
"If I had to sit through another lecture before the weekend, I'd drop."
"Let's do something fun," she suggested. "Can't sit by yourself on a Friday at college, right?"
"Sure Maddy, did you want to look for a party to go to or something?"
She shrugged. "Not really. I think I'd like to keep it low-key. It was a rough week."
"Movie night?"
"Perfect," she agreed. "Your room?"
"Sure." I was lucky to have a single room, whereas Maddy had a roommate who did not share our taste in movies. Freshmen lived on the fourth floor under the eaves of our dorm. I had a tiny little room with a sharply slanting ceiling that I was pretty sure used to be a closet. If they could have stuck two of us in there to live, I am sure they would have. As it was, I barely had enough space for one. The campus was gorgeous and historic, but historic buildings usually have quirks like little closet-sized rooms under the roof.
"What are we going to watch?" she asked.
"I might have a movie you would like. Think Lord of the Rings, but grittier."
"Like Game of Thrones?"
"Maybe not that gritty. Well, at least not with the crappy ending."
"Ugh, if only we had the last books! I bet they would have a better ending," she complained.
"Dream on. Never gonna happen."
"Ugh, seriously." Maddy rolled her eyes. "But I trust your taste in movies."
"I appreciate that."
"You haven't been wrong yet."
"No time like the present."
"I doubt it," she said with a smile. I smiled back as we walked through the front door of the building. She turned to head into the other wing, but she called back over her shoulder. "Nine?"
"Sounds good. I'll make popcorn." Maddy walked through the fire door to her wing with a last wave.
I watched her go before heading up the stairwell to the freshman floor in my wing. I sighed as I walked up the stairs. I was crushing on Maddy, but I hadn't worked up the nerve to tell her how I felt yet. Soon, I promised myself. Soon.
After dinner in the D-hall, I popped the popcorn in the microwave in the hall outside my room. With no plans to go out for the rest of the night, I put on some gym shorts, a t-shirt, and my Maybury College hoodie. When Maddy knocked on the door, I had just finished hooking my laptop up to my desk monitor and speakers to play the movie.
Maddy had also changed into comfortable clothes for movie night. She was still wearing her soft cotton t-shirt, but she had slipped into a pair of black yoga pants and slippers. She kicked the slippers off by the door, dropped her phone on the table, and made herself comfortable on the bed. My room didn't have any kind of couch or comfortable chairs. It barely had room for the bed and desk at the foot of it. We usually watched movies sitting propped up on pillows against the headboard of the bed with our feet stretched out comfortably. The movie played on my computer monitor on the desk in front of us.
Maddy had brought two cold Cokes from the vending machine. Freshmen weren't allowed to have beer or other alcohol in their rooms, and we were only eighteen, so I always hid a small flask of rum in the bottom of my desk. I poured the Cokes into plastic cups and added a splash of the liquor to make us some dorm-room rum and Cokes. We clicked the plastic cups together in a toast and I switched off the overhead light. The only light in the dark room came from the movie and the crack of light under the door from the bright hall.
The movie started off well. As I expected, Maddy was really enjoying it. It had been some years since I had seen it myself and I had forgotten enough of the movie to be interested in the plot. We munched the popcorn in the bowl between us. We chatted a bit back and forth about the movie, but mostly we just relaxed and watched.
About thirty minutes in, I recalled that the movie was progressing toward a fairly graphic sex scene. I glanced nervously over at Maddy. I had been the one to suggest this movie, so she might think I deliberately wanted to show this to her. I nervously cleared my throat, and the sound was loud in my head.
I hadn't really remembered that this movie had this scene. I was conscious even of my own breathing as I tried to display no reaction as things heated up on the screen in front of us. Maddy had been munching on some of the popcorn, but I noticed that she didn't reach for another bite. Like me, she was sitting completely still. I didn't know her well enough yet to have any idea about what she would think about fairly explicit sexual content.
I was already feeling uncomfortable and trying desperately to conceal it, but then my body betrayed my efforts to appear nonchalant. I felt the first stirrings of arousal in my cock. It twitched ever so slightly in my shorts, and I felt it swelling in response to the hot scene on the screen. I tried to think of something else, but I couldn't look away from the screen without being very conspicuous. With a mixture of horror and excitement, I felt my cock swelling to its fully erect state. With a glance, I could see that my arousal was very obvious in my gym shorts. Reclining on the bed with our legs in front of us as we were, Maddy needed only to look ever so slightly away from the screen, and she couldn't fail to see it. The room was dark, but the glare of the screen lit up the bed where we were sitting.
I heard her clear her throat, perhaps in a nervous way, much like I had moments ago. With a surge of adrenaline, I saw her reach her hand toward the popcorn bowl again. I think she might have thought that eating the popcorn would give her something to do to cover her nervousness. Or maybe I only imagined that she was also uncomfortable, and I was the only one who felt awkward. I really don't know. Either way, I held my breath. Maddy turned to look where she was reaching, and her hand froze in air. Her mouth was hanging open in surprise. With a sickening feeling, I followed her gaze. She was obviously staring at my erection.
"Woah," she said, in almost a whisper.
