"Haha! Hey, Will!"
She leaned in briefly as she and boy exchanged a quick hug before pulling back and taking a sip from her cup. Swallowing the cool liquid, she raised an eyebrow.
"We just got here. You been here long?"
'Will' smiled and nodded back.
"Yeah about an hour probably. Definitely poppin' now but you didn't miss much."
Rachel smiled and took another sip. She knew Will from their Freshman Calculus class. In fact, he sat right behind her. The nickname he'd given her ("Squeaks") came from the fact that her chair was hopelessly wobbly and squeaky. It was how he'd broken the ice and spoken to her the first time.
He was cute and pretty funny, although Rachel didn't really interact with him much outside of class. He'd dropped a few flirty comments here and there and hinted at them hanging out once, but Rachel had kind of brushed it off. It was interesting because he was exactly the type of boy who, had it been a year prior, could've probably talked her into a "bathroom stall study session" without much effort. But he hadn't made anywhere near such an explicit suggestion and Rachel had been so singularly-focused on Josh that nothing had come of their classroom chats and encounters.
And such a singular focus was again taking hold as Rachel stood in the kitchen. She chatted idly with Will but her eyes darted every so often past him and around the room. She hadn't seen Josh yet and she
had
seen a handful of boys who comprised his usual crew. She was sure he was there. But where?
She tingled gently and shook her head as she felt a touch of shame over allowing him to occupy so much of her thought. The whole point of pulling back a bit had been to even the scales more. She knew he was totally into her but having him feel a little of that same thirst would be a good thing. She'd made herself too accessible lately. She was becoming that girl that she swore she'd never be the first time she'd met him.
"...in the hot tub later?"
Rachel blinked her eyes and refocused on Will as she realized she'd tuning in and out during the conversation. She'd missed most of what he'd just said.
"Huh? Sorry, I didn't hear."
Will smiled and took a sip from his cup letting his eyes drop every so subtly to Rachel's dress as he did. As much as he hated calculus, it was fast becoming his favorite subject due solely to the tri-weekly treat that was getting to check Rachel out from close distance for a full hour. He felt his jeans tighten a bit as his gaze traced downward over the soft line of her cleavage. She'd shown up for class a few times in generously-cut tops but nothing like what she was wearing now. Her tits were incredible. He could only image what they looked like uncovered.
Following the thought, he quickly re-met her gaze and repeated his questions.
"I said, you getting in the hot tub later? Cause you should."
Rachel grinned and raised an eyebrow at him as she took in the playfulness on his face. She always wondered if boys knew how unsubtle they were being with their quick glances to her boobs during conversation. Like, did they think they were pulling off some sort of slick, undetectable work and that girls couldn't easily follow when their eyes dropped and flicked around as if by accident? Not that it bothered her; Rachel certainly wasn't one to eschew attention. She'd just always thought it silly if boys actually didn't know that girls could always tell.
Glancing reflexively out of the kitchen window towards the hot tub, Rachel shrugged her shoulders and scrunched her face.
"I don't know. Probably not."
She paused and purposefully adjusted a strap on her shoulder.
"I didn't bring my bathing suit."
Will grinned and licked his lips as another surge snuck through his gut.
"Yeah, no one did. That's kinda the point."
He winked and swallowed hard as Rachel smiled back playfully in return. He was sure that she was just playing along with his flirting but he'd never seen the specific look in her eyes he was getting now.
Rachel, indeed, was enjoying herself, but her response had actually been pretty faithful to her thoughts. She hadn't come to the party with any intention to strip down and get wet. She giggled to herself at her own little pun. Any such a description of her night would need to involve the boy she'd been hoping to see...
Smirking and brushing the thought away, she shrugged coyly at her hopeful classmate.
"Well, we'll see. Maybe later depending on how long we stay."
Will nodded and smiled back. After a few final pleasantries, Rachel excused herself from the conversation and turned back to her friends. In short order, the girls were giggling and gossiping and pointing out cute boys in the crowd. They'd only been college students for a month or so but the school wasn't that big. They knew plenty of people already and plenty of people knew them.
As she was wont to do, Rebecca had already graced a few boys with her affections. Her (innocent) jealousy over Rachel and Josh's relationship combined with her unexpected and still strangely-stirring event with Kevin had certainly primed the pump for the beginning of her college career. She was anything but a shy girl and she'd had no problem going up to boys who'd caught her eye and making her intentions known. She'd had some great sex with a hot guy she'd met the very first weekend the fall semester had started. And she'd had a handful of other rounds of fun with subsequent suitors since.
It had actually been a bit odd to contrast her behavior in that arena to Rachel's. While Rebecca hadn't been going buck wild, Rachel's monogamy had certainly changed the dynamic of the girls' standard routine. It didn't bother Rebecca at all; outside of a few taunts here and there, she certainly supported her best friend's apparent newly-turned leaf since she knew better than anyone how easily Rachel could find herself in trouble. But it was still a little weird to behold. For as long as she'd known Rachel, she'd been the very definition of a free spirit (even when such freedom had become twisted and dark).
She'd asked Rachel a few times what her plan was with Josh. She knew Rachel was no idiot and had to clearly understand how a boy like that operated. Rachel had brushed her off each time and swore that she certainly wasn't looking for things to become serious or exclusive with her handsome beau. She was just happy with how it had been going and she saw no reason to deviate from such an enjoyable path.
Rebecca had suspected that Rachel's answers were, if not white lies, perhaps a bit incomplete. It wasn't unreasonable for Rachel to want more from Josh and Rebecca had tried to impress that point upon her. She didn't have to feel weird or guilty about wanting him to be her official boyfriend or something to that end. Rebecca wondered if perhaps Rachel had been one way for so long that she didn't know how (or worse, didn't feel like she deserved) to be something else. She just wanted her best friend to be happy.
Regardless of these mini-mysteries, such a sense of happiness did not appear to be infringed upon in any way. Just because the girls weren't swapping stories of random hookups each week, it didn't mean that they weren't enjoying the shit out of their young college careers. Field hockey had been a blast and a perfect extension of their experience in high school. And while they weren't official roommates, they were practically inseparable outside of the times they had different classes or when Rachel was with Josh.
The night progressed in just such a carefree manner. The girls made their way through the party, chatting with different groups of people and letting the warmth of their buzzes grow. At some point Rebecca splintered off to get a little cozier with a cute boy who had approached and taken an interest in her. Rachel had giggled to herself as she'd watched her friend slip away to a more secluded part of the room and work her own brand of powerful charm. Rebecca could be every bit as captivating as Rachel could when she turned the dial up. Her style was different but there weren't too many boys whom she could not melt with her searing sexuality.
Rachel and Olivia hung out together for a while longer but as the minutes and hours slipped away, Rachel's ability to continue to ignore the boy whom she'd came to see began to weaken severely. She didn't want to abandon her plan to be coy, but it had been hours since she'd gotten there and she was starting to get miffed at his apparent absence. She'd checked her phone several times hoping to see another inquiring message, but none had appeared. She certainly was
not
going to be the one who caved there but she really did want to find him. Deciding that some harmless recon wouldn't betray her intentions, she took a full sip from her cup and alerted Liv that she needed to locate a bathroom. Receiving a friendly nod in return, she turned on her heel and began her stealthy search for the object of her desires.
