Katherine sat on her full sized bed reading a novel she had picked up earlier that week. It was a lazy Saturday night in the townhome she and her roommates rented. They were just a couple of years out of college and still feeling out the working world, and this was the first place she and her roommates had lived since graduating. Many Saturdays they were out at a bar together, with their boyfriends, or some combination of the two. They enjoyed getting out and dancing and being a little crazy, though each held a kernel of hope in the back of their minds that their boyfriends might ask them to settle down sometime soon. Katherine Thomas and Stephanie Hill were best friends, having met their freshman year in college. They had lived down the hall from each other in their dorm, then had lived together ever since. Their junior year they moved off campus and picked up two roommates, one of whom, Danielle Santiago, also lived with them now.
Katherine was sitting on top of the comforter her mother had bought for her when the girls first moved off campus before their junior year. It was late summer and they didn't like to blast the AC, so it was comfortable reading without being under the blankets. She sat propped up against the headboard in a white t shirt she had picked up doing a 10k and pair of purple cotton running shorts. They were a little too short for her comfort to wear in public these days. Though she would not have thought twice to show off her taut running legs just a few years ago, she now just wore them as sleeping shorts. Katherine giggled quietly to herself as she leafed through the pages of the book. It billed itself as a thriller about a lawyer who is assigned a shady businessman as her client, but of course it was just trash. As if it were a real mystery- otherwise there would be no point of it being in the trashy section of the bookstore- the lawyer remains apprehensive about his innocence yet nonetheless eventually succumbs to the charms and seductive efforts of her sleazy client. One of the receptionists in the dental office where Katherine worked as a hygienist suggested it to her. It was actually not horribly written and there was some plot, so she didn't feel totally self conscious about buying it. And of course, it was spicy enough to reward the readers who suffered the embarrassment of standing in a checkout line while holding it. Katherine was in the midst of reading a particularly gratuitous love scene, in which the businessman first makes love to the lawyer in the back of her SUV, when she heard arguing from down the hallway.
Oh, shit.
Katherine thought to herself. She had just started to enjoy the simmering warmth building inside of her and tingling between her thighs, when the sound of Stephanie yelling into the phone broke her concentration. Katherine exhaled loudly as she leaned back against her headboard and sighed. "Here we go again." She muttered and rolled her eyes before putting the book down. She closed her eyes and listened for a few minutes, hoping the yelling would stop on its own. Hoping that for once, Stephanie would not melt down over her loser boyfriend.
I've had it Tony, just stay out all night for all the fuck I care!
How can you keep doing this and expect me not to get pissed off?!
So who are you trying to fuck tonight Tony?!
You're out getting drunk all the time with your friends, when can we have a night together?!
Tony Franco was Stephanie's boyfriend and by all accounts, a first rate jackass. He was nearly a decade older than them, but less mature. He was loud, cocky and obnoxious. Fate had blessed him with good genes and made him tall from a young age. Not having to suffer the indignity of getting his ass kicked in anything guys cared about, he felt no reason to quit being a general prick to those who wandered into his social circle. So, he of course treated Stephanie like an expendable plaything. Tony and Stephanie had met at a sports bar earlier in the year and now had been dating for 6 drama filled months. One week things would be blissful and Stephanie would be walking around on cloud 9. The next week they would alternate screaming at one another and then freezing the other one out. Tony admitted to cheating on Stephanie just once. That was with his ex-girlfriend just a few weeks into the relationship, but Katherine strongly suspected he'd done it several more times. He was always leering at other women when they were all out at bars together, and Stephanie complained about the random texts he'd get at all hours. Tony weakly shrugged these off as work related or just from "a friend." Stephanie was not strong enough to force the issue, and Tony's smug attitude when he treated her poorly made Katherine seethe.
Tony ran his own general contracting business and did well for himself, which was one of the reasons Stephanie was attracted to him. He made some serious money and was not shy about spending it. During the good weeks he'd take her out to elegant dinners and buy her all kinds of gifts- dresses, jewelry and of course, expensive lingerie that bordered on useless except for the five minutes the man could hold out before tearing it off. Katherine and Stephanie nearly laughed themselves into hysterics after Stephanie tried on a particularly garish blood red number with sequins and garters. Stephanie looked like she belonged in a wild west cabaret, and had no qualms letting Katherine watch as she put it on and have a laugh with her. Stephanie was shorter than Katherine, and just a little heavy set, so anything that tight she felt made her look ridiculous. But of course Tony adored her large tits and round ass, both of which were accentuated by his choice in undergarments for her. After all the laughter the girls had about it during the day, Tony nonetheless had come home and fucked Stephanie senseless that night. Katherine knew this not just because Stephanie always told her the most heroic details of her sex life, Katherine heard her friend moaning like a banshee down the hall that night from her bedroom. Tony drove a pretty nice car other than his work truck, a used BMW 5 series that he kept in good condition. He rented a very nice apartment closer into the city, which Stephanie rarely saw. This was a major source of suspicion for Katherine and Danielle, and it drove Stephanie crazy.
Of all Tony's numerous faults and foibles, laziness was not one of them. He was up early and out the door each morning if he spent the previous night at their place. He had an incredible motor and his metabolism had so far managed to stave off the beginnings of middle age. Perhaps his job allowed him to sweat off the booze and partying, but he also was vain enough to exercise religiously. If he wasn't out at a bar with his friends, Tony would regularly come to their place stinking and sweaty after work or after the gym. He would tease all the girls by taking his nasty workout shirts off and trying to rub their faces in it. Beneath the stink and hairy chest, Tony had a physique that while they would never admit it, Katherine and Danielle admired.
Katherine listened to her roommate wear herself out arguing with that ape of a man for a good 10 minutes. She heard Stephanie finally hang up and then the subsequent crying.
Here we go again.
Katherine huffed. She pulled herself out of bed, leaving behind her sexual frustration and left her bedroom. She walked the 15 feet or so to the end of the hall, turned right and knocked softly at Stephanie's door.
"Hey kiddo. You okay? What's going on? What happened?" She called softly through the door, as if she didn't already know. As if this wasn't the 6th or 7th time they were going to have this conversation. It tried Katherine's patience immeasurably. Here they were grown women on their own, yet Stephanie constantly made relationship decisions like they were teenagers. It wore her out having to be a sounding board, but she loved her friend dearly and wanted her to be happy, so she always listened. Stephanie replied, crying,
"Fucking Tony!" she sniffled. "I've had it with him, he never has time for me!" she cried.
"Can I come in?" Katherine asked softly, waiting a few moments for Stephanie to settle down.
"Yeah, sure I guess." Her roommate answered. Katherine turned the handle and pushed the bedroom door open. It creaked slightly and revealed Stephanie lying face down in a pillow on her bed. She was situated backwards, with her feet near the headboard, and her phone had been tossed to other side of the room. Amazingly, it was still in one piece. Stephanie had broken two cell phones already in the short time she had been dating Tony. Katherine walked in and sat at the edge of the bed and gently put her hand Stephanie's upper back and rubbed softly.
"Another fight huh?" she asked, trying to sound sincere.
"How'd you guess?" Stephanie replied flatly with a hint of sarcasm. "God, you guys must think I'm a fucking moron. I mean, how many times have we had this conversation?" Katherine let out a laugh at this,
"7, I think." Katherine grinned down at her roommate. This made Stephanie laugh, and in mock anger, flipped over and declared,
"Geez, why don't you just be a bitch about it!" Stephanie laughed and shook her head. "Wow. I know, I know. You're right. You're alllllwayyyys right. I'm so stupid- I know." Stephanie lamented.
Well, at least she knows she's being a pain in the ass!