"No more moping, you're coming with us tonight."
Cabe cringed at the sing-song voice of Melissa, his roommate's girlfriend. She was sweet, fun, smart, and impossibly friendly with everyone -- even him. Tonight, however, those were exactly the sort of traits that were most likely to set his nerves on edge.
He looked up from his laptop and found her standing in the open entrance to his dorm room, looking at him encouragingly. She was even more attractive than usual tonight, dressed in a tight Houston Texans uniform that would more likely have belonged to one of their cheerleaders for the amount of cleavage that was on display in the jersey's v-neck. Cabe did his best not to stare.
"No, really, that's okay," he said lamely. "I'm just not in the mood tonight."
"It's Saturday night and Halloween," she said, walking into the room and leaning casually against his desk. "No way we're letting you stay behind. Jason's cousin and his roommates are throwing a party at their house across campus. Come on, it'll be fun."
Cabe shook his head. Going to a party at which he knew almost no one did nothing to further motivate him into leaving the comfort of his personal exile.
"I appreciate it, really, but I don't have a costume," he said. "It's not a big deal."
"This better not be about Chrissy," Melissa said. "You two dated, what, a handful of times? That doesn't even count as a break up."
Four dates, two lunches, and one chemistry lab partnership, Cabe thought. Chrissy's rejection of him the prior weekend for another date, however, had still hit him hard. Melissa was right; it hadn't been much of a relationship. For him, however, already lacking self confidence in the area of relationships, it had been an unpleasant blow to his early college experience.
"I'm over her," he said, lacking conviction.
"Good, 'cuz there's bound to be other opportunities at the party."
"Costume." Cabe shrugged helplessly and hoped she would drop the matter.
"Costume," Melissa said, giving him a sly grin and producing from behind her back a black eye patch and a ratty red bandanna. "Pirate Cabe, scourge of Drannon Hall, wooer of wenches. Just grab a white shirt and some dark pants and you're golden. Chop chop."
As much as he wanted to decline, Melissa was one of those people who pulled everyone else along in her wake. He was helpless to refuse and, admittedly, he found that she had put at least one small chink in his wall of self-pity.
Just then, his roommate Jason, bedecked in a furry barbarian outfit complete with a plastic battle axe strapped across his back, filled the doorway. "You coming?"
"Yeah, he's coming," Melissa said, giving Cabe a wink.
* * *
Not wanting to be a third wheel Jason and Melissa, Cabe excused himself from the couple shortly after arriving at the house party. The place was packed and felt even more claustrophobic by the darkness and the awkward bulkiness of some of the Halloween costumes. He found at least a modicum of refuge in the costumed nature of the crowd, however, as it gave him a bit of anonymity. For a while, at least, he figured he could just wander around and enjoy the variety of costumes while pretending he was looking for someone.
Black lights set up around the living room brought unexpected twists to many of the costumes of those who danced to the loud, thumping music. Several girls, to Cabe's appreciation, wore rather sexy outfits, including one as a belly-dancer and another in a spandex cat suit. Disappointingly, nearly all the girls here seemed to be either attached or at least intermingling with so many other people that he couldn't discern if any was approachable. None, it seemed, were lonely wallflowers like him.
After about an hour of hanging around without seeing his friends or scarcely saying a word to another person, Cabe concluded that coming to the party had indeed been a bad idea. The way he seemed to be studiously avoided by others made him feel like his scarlet V for virginity had been brilliantly revealed to all under the black lights. He was out of his element and being smothered by people who knew cool, who moved easily through social circles, and who all undoubtedly had sex lives.
It was something Cabe had wrestled with for a year or more now - was he still a virgin because he lacked self-confidence? Or did he lack self-confidence because he was a virgin? He knew it shouldn't be a big deal -- after all, he was still only eighteen and a freshman in college. He thought he was headed toward an end to his frustrations with Chrissy before the unexpected dumping. Perhaps that had stung all the more as he was surrounded by hundreds of other freshmen who seemed to have little problem hooking up with one another.
Certain his slump would not end here, Cabe decided it was time to leave. As the crowd had grown even bigger since their arrival, he abandoned hope of actually finding Jason or Melissa to let them know he was leaving. A text message should suffice, he decided, and began to work his way toward the door.
Before he made it halfway across the room, Cabe found himself pressed face to face with a woman he had not yet seen during his people watching. She was tall, lean, and elegant, dressed in a slinky black dress that was cut obligingly low in front and high up the sides of each leg. Stiletto-heeled knee-high boots further accentuated both her imposing figure and, somehow, her graceful motion through the throng. Her face, with dark eyes and full red lips, was serene as if detached from the crude music and revelers that filled the room. The only part of her outfit that separated it as a costume from a sexy clubbing outfit were the horns -- realistic looking curled ram horns that spiraled out from the thick, wavy mass of red hair.
Cabe caught himself staring far too long. "Excuse me, sorry," he mumbled and tried to shuffle aside to clear a path for her.
The woman -- and she seemed to fit far more in that category than any of the other college girls present -- met his eyes and the corners of her ruby lips curled up in a smile. Rather than slip past him, however, she clasped one of his hands and stepped in closer until her body was pressing up against his. With a smooth flick of her hips, she had him off balance and suddenly moving in time with the beat of the music.
Cabe felt himself flush with excitement and embarrassment. This woman could have stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine and she certainly had no business being with the likes of him. Without so much as a word, she had effectively plucked him out of the party and dropped him into her private reality where the other costumed guests were little more than a blur of background. And, to his shock, she was not shy about physical contact.
Certain that she was a tease and would soon discard him en route to the next man, Cabe tried his best to just relax and go with the moment. He was a lousy dancer, but it seemed to be of little concern since she was using him more as a prop for her own seductive moves than for his ability to lead. She twirled about, her body in perpetual, hypnotic motion.
Every so often her eyes would meet his, and in those moments Cabe felt genuinely uncomfortable. There was intelligence behind those dark eyes, but it was of a predatory nature that set off warnings in the back of his mind. The animal part of his brain, however, was fully aroused by her feminine charms. He was almost certain she was much older than he or any of the other students at the party, but that sense only came from her demeanor since her body was flawless.
In a segue between songs, Cabe's mysterious dance partner slowed down long enough to take him by both hands and stare at him long and hard until he started to become very uncomfortable. Those eyes bored into his soul until he reflexively sought a way to break her hold. A trickle of cool sweat ran down his spine.
"I like your horns," he said, the first words either had uttered since they had started dancing. She blinked twice and then a smile softened her serious expression.
"Thanks," she said, her voice smooth and smoky. "And I like your eye patch."
Cabe had hoped that hearing her speak would somehow break the strange spell she seemed to weave about him, make her feel more real. Instead, it only added to the depth of her mystery. It was as if her sole purpose was to seduce and confound men.
"Uh, I'm Cabe," he said, wondering if it was even possible to engage her in small talk.
"Muriel," she said and started dancing again, effectively ending their conversation.
Muriel's movements became increasingly explicit with each song, until at last she was straddling his leg and grinding her crotch into his upper thigh. Her own leg pressed against his uncontrolled erection, and he had little doubt that she knew exactly what sort of condition he was in. Her breasts pressed into his chest while her hands grasped his hips and kept him firmly in place. Sometimes her eyes would close and her head would tilt back in private bliss, while at other times she would look him meaningfully in the eyes from mere inches away. Her lips threatened to kiss him on more than one occasion, but it was never more than a teasing promise.
Cabe wondered at how much longer his body could endure this blissfully erotic torture. Between the heat of the room and the adrenaline rush that had his body racing, he felt like he was on the brink of passing out. He needed cool air and a drink, but he couldn't bring himself to make such a suggestion to his partner.
