"What in the hell is taking so damn long?" Jay yelled up the stairs to his roommate Steve. Jay had been ready for an hour now and was still waiting on his roommate who seemed to be late for everything they did. It was Friday night and like every other weekend, the two of them had plans to meet other friends down town for a couple of drinks before seeing where the night took them. For the most part, however, Jay always seemed to find himself bored by midnight and wanting to go home due to lack of interest in the other's absurd fascination with the local dance club. He couldn't imagine this night turning out any other way.
"Give me 10 minutes, why don't you fix yourself a stiff mixer and try to get the crabs out of your pants before we head out!" Steven hollered back.
"Ya see, I would, but to get crabs, I'd need to be getting some," he replied under his breath while making his way to the liquor cabinet to make himself a Jack-n-Coke.
He and Steve were great friends since high school, but Jay had a always been a bit envious of the way Steve seemed to be able to pick up a woman at will. It's not that Jay didn't have much of a sexual life, because point of fact he did. He was very attractive standing 5'11", 160 lbs, with sandy blonde hair, brown eyes, and an athletically toned body. However, he wasn't the type to be found in a weight room multiple days out of the week. Jay and Steve were former hockey and soccer players from high school and spent countless hours on local soccer fields during the summer and local outdoor ice rinks during the winter competing against one another. However, while Jay outplayed Steve on the sporting fields, Steve always seemed to outplay Jay with the opposite sex. This was mainly due to Steve's fearlessness with the opposite sex. He would do anything from making a fool out of himself to using corny pick up lines to get what he wanted. Jay, on the other hand, was much more conservative with the way he presented himself to the ladies. He was almost embarrassed by the way some guys, even ones he didn't know, tried to pick up women. He also was a bit shy when it came to meeting new people, which put a bit of a damper on his flirtation. He was one who would rather meet someone through mutual friends and try to develop a friendship before a relationship, be it physical or not. But he was not going to argue with a one nighter if he new they both were looking for the same thing.
A half hour later, and three quarters of a way through his second drink Steve finally made his way down the stairs and into the living room where Jay was patiently waiting. Steve was wearing a pair of khaki's and a button down shirt, a bit dressier than Jay who was in his usual blue jeans and polo shirt. Jay didn't see the reason to get any dressier knowing that the night would end up with them at the local night club where there was no need for such class. Steve made his way into the kitchen while Jay followed. Retrieving a glass and the bottle of Jack Daniels, Steve poured himself a shot, toasted to an eventful night ahead, and they both slammed their drinks. The two headed out to Jay's car and took off for the bars.
Jay lit up a cigarette, something he only did when he drank, but something he did too often when he drank. "So what's the plan for tonight?"
"Well, we're supposed to meet Kyle, Leah, and Jackie, at 11 but you never know exactly when they'll show up," Steve said with a snicker. It was common knowledge to them that Kyle and Leah were an item, even if they didn't say so. Jackie was Leah's roommate of two years. They had met in the dorms and had become quick friends. Jackie always felt like a third wheel with Kyle and Leah, and only seemed to come out with the other two as long as there would be others out with them.
The two guys arrived at their usual pub, parked the car around the corner and made their way inside. It was unusually quiet for being 10:30 with only close to 25 people in the whole place. They ordered a couple of drinks and made their way to one of the booths across from the bar where they could see if their friends entered the bar. After several cocktails and their friends not showing up, they picked up their jackets and headed down the road to another of their favorite watering holes.
This was a more up-tempo place where most of the underage freshman class came to drink without being harassed by a bouncer at the door. Upon entering, Jay noticed there seemed to be a large volume of ladies floating around. They fought their way up to the bar and caught the eye of the bartender who wasn't a close friend but of their acquaintance. He told them there had been two groups for 21st birthday parties come in within the past twenty minutes and from what he had heard, one more on the way. Steve ordered two shots of tequila, which he knew Jay hated. They slammed the two and Steve announced he was off to mingle. Jay just smiled and ordered himself a Rum-n-Coke.
After another hour and two Rum-n-Coke's, Jay decided to go find Steve and see if he was ready to leave. The third birthday group had arrived twenty minutes beforehand and the bar was packed. Jay squeezed through one group of conservationists after another trying to find his buddy.
He finally spotted him amongst a group of girls, 'typical Steve,' he thought as he approached.
"Jaaayyyy!" Steve yelled as Jay walked up to the group "What's going on buddy? Where have you been?"
"Exactly where you left me a hour ago," Jay laughed, clearly seeing that Steve was drunk and enjoying his company.
Steve introduced his new friends as Kathryn, Mark, Jody, and Kerri. Steve told Jay to pull up a seat, motioning with his eyes to sit next to Kerri. Mark and Kathryn were a couple of 6 years and it was obvious Steve and Jody were becoming quick friends by how close they were sitting next to each other. 'Another one bites the dust,' Jay thought with a smile. Everybody stood up and moved down a chair to fit Jay into the table. As Kerri got up, Jay couldn't help but notice how attractive she was. She stood at 5'6" probably weighing no more than 120 lbs, with shoulder length brown hair, hazel eyes, and a body that took his breath away. She was wearing a black spaghetti strapped tank top and white pants that seemed to hug the small curves of her hips. As she tried to shuffle down a seat she caught her foot on the chair and started to stumble. Jay reached out an arm quicker than he even thought possible and caught her by the arm before she tumbled over. She steadied herself on his arm, Jay could smell an intoxicating fragrance and the aroma of beer as she looked him in the eye and thanked him.
"I guess someone's had a couple too many tonight," she joked while sitting herself back down.
"Nah, could have happened to anyone," Jay replied as he sat down next to her.
The two made small talk for a while where Jay learned that Kerri, Kathryn, and Mark were there for one of the 21st birthdays. It happened to be Kerri and Kathryn's roommate, Maria, who had just come of drinking age but had gone home around 11:30 to entertain out of town friends who had come for her birthday. Steve ordered the whole table a round of tequila shots. There were some groans from Mark and Kathryn but Jay kept his to himself. When the waitress arrived with the drinks, Mark suggested that they should be taken as body shots. There seemed to be no argument from anyone else. Mark and Kathryn took theirs quickly while Steve and Jody took their time licking the salt off of each other's neck and sharing one lime between each other's lips. When it was finally Jay and Kerri's turn, it seemed to Jay that they were the center of attention at the table. Kerri flicked her hair to the side and Jay leaned over and licked a spot right below her ear and applied the salt. He then moved his own head to the side so she could do the same. As Kerri moved her head into Jay's neck, he again smelled her heavenly perfume. She slowly ran her tongue below his jaw line and applied some salt. They raised their shots and Jay made a toast, "to new friends," he said with a smile. "To new friends," Kerri returned the smile with glitter in her eye Jay had seen a couple of times earlier. They each leaned in and slowly licked the salt off of each other's necks and downed their shots, followed by their respective limes. While discarding their limes, Jay and Kerri caught eyes and leaned in exchanging a sweet kiss. The other four cheered at what they saw and called for another round.
Bar time came soon enough and the six decided to go back to Kathryn and Kerri's for an after bar that they thought would be in full swing since their roommate had gone home early. So Steve and Jody piled into the back seat of Jay's car as Kerri slid into the passenger seat. Mark and Kathryn jumped into another and followed Jay. They arrived at the three-bedroom house to find that there was a party, but had ended by the time they had gotten there. The place was trashed with beer bottles and cigarette butts all over the floor. It looked as though it had been a good time while it had lasted. Mark and Kathryn decided that they were going to head back to Mark's for the night since Maria's out of town guests had decided to crash in Kathryn's room. This left the mess up to Jay, Kerri, Steve, and Jody.
They turned on some music, cracked a couple beers, and got to work. Kerri got busy running up and down the stairs with handfuls of empty bottles while Jay decided to start on the cigarette butts all over the kitchen floor. Steve and Jody went to the living room to start cleaning up. Jay couldn't help but keep his eyes locked on Kerri as she disappeared and reappeared from the stairwell. He didn't know what was up with the two of them, they had snuggled up rather closely at the bar but since they got home, it didn't seem like he was even on her mind. He started to think this would be like any other night where he went home alone while Steve had his fun.
It had only been about ten minutes since they had started when Steve came in and with a smile that Jay knew so well. "Hey man, can I take your car to take Jody... home?"
"What the hell am I supposed to do?" Jay asked a bit anxiously. He knew that Steve and Jody were off to explore their new friendship but he wasn't sure he was in for the same exploration, which could leave him in a bad spot with no car to head home in. In the end he gave in though, he always gives in. Steve told him to give him a call on his cell phone if he really... really needed a ride. Jody ran up the stairs where Kerri was still picking up some garbage and ran back down and out the door with Steve, who gave Jay a mischievous smile as he closed the door.