The House Share
ONE
I wasn't anything like Donnie or her friends. They were hot girls, and fully aware of it. They all loved a night out. Donnie especially was a party animal, and she made no secret of her extracurricular activities when the music stopped.
I was the absolute opposite. Studious. Christ, I read economics and watched the Discovery Channel. The idea of Love Island and The X Factor was abhorrent to me.
As for girls in general, they were kind of a mystery to me. I'd had the odd date but never turned it into anything serious. Not even a second date in most cases. I knew it was my own fault. I lacked the courage to press home any hint of them wanting more. Even a goodnight kiss was something I couldn't do as I just could not read the signals and lived in fear of rejection.
Amazingly, I wasn't a virgin. That was lost to a friend of my Mum. Twice my age, married, and drunk. Since then. Nothing.
I'd reached the dizzying age of twenty-one being the nerd in the corner with a book and a Star Wars DVD collection. Adult life bemused me. It was something I remember as a child thinking it impossible to cope with. Getting a job, marriage and children all seemed far too complicated to my eight-year-old self struggling through school lessons. As an adult, I'd managed one out of three. One more than I'd expected wasn't bad I reasoned.
Leaving school at eighteen meant a job in a supermarket stacking shelves. It'd provided money and promised career advancement. A promise that'd fallen by the wayside as surely as my attempts to woo the cute little blonde on Stock Control. I found out just prior to leaving that the shift manager was knocking her off as his bit on the side. He was married with kids and a bit of a lothario by all accounts. But still seen as a better option than me.
Six months ago I found another job. A call centre on the edge of town fielding queries and orders for an internet provider and mobile phone company. It came with the added bonus that I got time off from my uni studies.
As for girls there. There were a good few, but only Donnie had taken an interest in me. Around my age, but so far out of my league as to be stratospheric. And yet somehow we had struck up an unlikely friendship.
Friendship was as far as it went though. We chatted, lunched together along with her two friends, and teamed up on social club events. I took the teasing about being a virgin in good humour and occasionally I managed to score a few points back. What there never was, was a hint of interest in me beyond friends. With the raging need of youth to go forth and multiply it was painful when I saw her leering at other people and telling me of her adventures on clubbing nights. It hurt. But I accepted it.
My first day after training had been daunting. Talking to customers in a shop was one thing. Actively fielding calls or even worse, cold calling to persuade them into upgrading contracts was stomach-churning.
Amongst all of my worries, catching my first sight of Donnie had been a bright spot. I remember being struck by her hair the most. Ash blonde locks that just reached her shoulder, but with a layered chunky look which made it appear messy and styled all at once. Perfectly imperfect bedhead hair.
I think Donnie had seen that nervousness and threw me the occasional smile through the first few hours to encourage me. By late morning she was in full flow with her act, sitting on my desk telling me how to calm my nerves as we took a coffee break. The main thing I remember was her crossed legs right in front of my face with a skirt that only made it halfway to her knees.
"Think about something nice." She said.
I was. Her legs.
"Have a little fantasy running in your head. One where you're the hero."
"Ha. I can be Luke Skywalker."
"Mmm.
Perhaps something a little more adult where you get the girl, but she doesn't turn out to be your sister.
Incest is frowned upon in this galaxy.
You got a girlfriend?"
That was a bit forward, but great. A spark of interest, I hoped.
"No. In between."
In between one lonesome shag and old age erectile dysfunction.
"Mmm.
You should meet my friends. Not that you'll be dating them. They bat for the other side. That's them, over there."
She pointed out a darker-haired girl, with good-sized tits and a waif with freckles sporting richly coloured, wavy red hair. Both pretty.
"Becca's the brunette and Haley's the ginge. Don't let the red dye fool you.
I think you'll like them.
Come and have lunch with us."
"Okay. I'd like that."
I would. Donnie was hot as fuck. I knew exactly what fantasy was going to calm me before my next calls.
Lunch was a walk along the road to a little bakery and coffee shop. Hot sausage roll and a latte while looking out over the canal.
The two girls were nice. Into each other, but that didn't stop my eyes looking.
"We share a flat in the Lakes Development. Expensive and small." Haley told me.
"We're looking for somewhere bigger." Donnie added.
"Not that I'm there a lot. Work and clubbing. So many boys in the world. So little time."
I hoped I was being assessed as one of them. I soon learnt that like everyone else she didn't view me like that at all. So as the weeks went on we settled into a comfortable friendship which I accepted, if reluctantly.
Perhaps if I was braver, I'd tell her I fancied her and things might be different. But that was just something I couldn't do. Never could. I always hoped girls would make their thoughts clear, or make the first move instead of expecting me to interpret signals that might as well have been an alien language to me. Never happened.
We did do a few nights out as a group for drinks. Once we went for a meal and a club. One night I got to dance with each of them. Skimpy outfits and a bit of body contact, Becca butt rubbing my groin, me with my hands on Haley's hips, and a big hug at the end. Very nice for a sexually frustrated young man.
Donnie was the one who stayed aloof on the dance floor, but I got a lot of teasing from her away from it. She seemed very keen to test my tastes, pointing out various girls she thought I should go chat to.
"What about that one?" She shouted over the deafening music.
I saw a blonde in a short dress. She wasn't small.
"Too fat."
"Yeah, but massive tits. Fat girls always have massive tits. Bet you'd love a tit wank."
"Donnie." I exclaimed in horror.
"Okay. Not a titty guy.
The brunette behind her?
You're not getting your cock between her tits but nice legs. Can't beat having a nice pair of legs wrapped around your neck. Ask Haley."
"Better."
She was slim, similar to Donnie. But she was right about the tits. There weren't any.
Donnie leaned closer and I smelt her perfume. So much of our attraction is in scent. Not the splashed-on kind. The natural pheromones and body odours we all have. It's there all the time, even when it's disguised by citrus fragrance. It was having its effect now.
"So tell me. Who's the most fanciable girl here?
Which hot young thing would you like to sink your cock balls deep into?"
I was so grateful the other two came back right then and ended that conversation before I had to make a choice between potentially insulting Donnie by choosing someone over her or looking like a creep by telling the truth. A no-win situation.
So that was it. We were friends. Work colleagues. Occasional clubbing partners. Never lovers. I was happy with that, I suppose. At least I had people to socialise with and perhaps I might get an insight into the mysteries of the female brain that'd help me elsewhere.
What I didn't expect was that they saw me as such a good friend. Perhaps it was because I was classed as safe. Not a good thing to be considered at twenty-one. But when Donnie picked me from everyone else at the call centre as a possible flatmate for her and the others I was quite taken aback.