Nearly midnight and still no sign of Kate.
Susan yawned and decided to pack it in for the evening. She shrugged off her jeans, pulled on her cross-country team t-shirt and slipped into her narrow twin bed. The sounds of the dorm filtered through the thin walls: someone closing the refrigerator just outside her door, a stereo playing death metal, two people laughing loudly as they stumbled down the hall in her direction.
She heard the door to her suite open and the laughter got a notch louder. Just like Kate to finally get back just as she was drifting off to sleep. Now she'd have to hear all the lurid details of her roommate's night out. No, Susan decided. Not this time. She turned onto her side, facing the wall, and closed her eyes. Kate could wait until morning to narrate her adventures. By then whoever Kate had met would just be another guy she'd be all gooey over for a week or two. Susan had stopped trying to remember their names.
The bedroom door opened. Kate stopped in the doorway when she noticed that the light was out.
"Oh. She's already asleep," Kate said. She stood there for a moment, evidently at a loss. "I was thinking that, well, she'd just excuse herself and go somewhere else."
"Hey, it's okay," said a deep voice, a male voice. "I'll just head back to my place. I've had a great time ..."
"You're not going anywhere," Kate said firmly. "Come on in. We can whisper. Susan'll sleep through anything."
"Are you sure?"
In response, Susan could hear the guy being dragged towards Kate's bed. Oh, hell, Susan thought. Now what am I supposed to do? I should probably say something, let them know that I'm really awake. But a moment later it was too late: she heard two bodies hitting Kate's bed, followed by a high-pitched, drunken giggle from Kate. Then it was quieter. There was some movement, announced by the old bed springs, and Susan thought she could hear lips meeting, although that could have her imagination overheating. Then a sigh from Kate.
Damn
, Susan thought. How do I get out of this one? She tried to let her mind wander, think about the chem lab that was due on Thursday. She heard a snap unfastening; then the sounds became harder to interpret – the rustling of clothing, shifting on the bed, indrawn breaths.
"You're sure she's asleep?" the guy asked.
His voice was deeply masculine, even as a whisper. Susan imagined a broad, muscular chest and dark hair. She wasn't sure why dark hair fit the voice, but it did. And he seemed to move confidently. There was nothing abrupt or crude about his motions – or was she drawing too many conclusions from a few muffled sounds? Suddenly, Susan wanted to know. Was he really as she imagined him? Tall and athletic and self-assured? Or maybe he was squat and nerdy. Or green and spherical. This was nuts. It wasn't any of her business. He'd be gone in the morning and Kate would give her the blow-by-blow, and that would be the end of it.
But it was no use. She couldn't fall asleep. Maybe just a quick peek, Susan thought. To satisfy my curiosity; to see whether I can summon the image of an entire man from a few whispered words. She hesitated for a moment, then rolled over as silently as she could. Very cautiously, she raised her eyelids a sliver. She was facing across the small room towards Kate's bed. She'd been in the dark for a while, and her eyes had adjusted – Kate and her friend were visible on the bed, though only just. They lay on their sides, the guy with his back to Susan. Kate had her arms around him and she had pushed up his shirt so that her hands caressed the bare skin of his back. The couple seemed to be kissing enthusiastically. And he did indeed have broad shoulders and dark hair, just as Susan had known he would.
Suddenly, Kate disengaged herself and pushed the guy over onto his back. She swung one leg over him until she was straddling his hips, her butt resting on his crotch. Susan was relieved to see that they both still had their jeans on. Kate giggled and worked on unbuttoning the guy's shirt. When she'd finished, she put both her hands on his chest and scraped her long fingernails along his skin. He gasped softly as she grazed his nipples. She leaned over and let her long blond hair fall across his taut stomach. Wow, Susan thought, as she watched Kate drag her hair back and forth, I wish I could do that. Susan kept her wavy chestnut hair short. She's gotten tired of her ponytail flopping up and down when she ran.
The guy let out a deep "mmm" and reached up to rub his hands along Kate's bare arms. Susan tried to make out his face, to see if she recognized him. But the only thing visible was a faint reflection from his eyes. Kate sat up and reached for the hem of her tank top.
Oh, no, thought Susan, she isn't ...
But she was. Susan shivered and opened her eyes a little wider. The sounds outside faded; now all she could hear was her own pulse hammering in her ears. Her eyelashes still blocked her view a little, giving the scene a muddled sense of unreality. Kate moved in dreamy slow motion, drawing her shirt gradually upwards. Kate was a petite girl – at least three or four inches shorter than Susan – but the rising shirt seemed to expose more buttery, tanned flesh than Susan could take in: The smooth skin of her waist came into view first, then the slightly rounded stomach, then the sheer bra, already hanging askew. Finally, Kate wiggled her torso to get the top over her shoulders. Her face disappeared for a moment as she extracted her hair. Kate threw the shirt in Susan's direction, and Susan caught her breath. But Kate didn't notice. Her eyes were on the guy, savoring his reaction as the bra slid off her shoulders.
Susan blinked. She'd seen Kate's breasts before, of course, but she'd always made a point of not staring. They were two cup sizes larger than her own (she'd checked), round and heavy, a little pendulous. Now in the diffuse light leaking in from their single window, they seemed other-worldly, almost glowing. The large nipples, stiff and puckered, rose from dark aureoles. Kate understood the effect her bare breasts were having on her captive audience perfectly. She looked down at him with a knowing smirk. He put his hands around her waist and pulled her towards him. Her breasts touched him first, her hard nipples flattening against the exposed skin of his chest. Their arms went around each other and their lips met again, more urgently this time. Kate's hair fell over both of them.
Okay, thought Susan, I've seen enough. Quite a bit more than I wanted to, actually. She turned quietly towards the wall again, and closed her eyes.
