Chapter One:
"So, Erica, are you meeting up with Cameron tonight?" Zarina asked. Her voice was raised above the hustle and bustle of mall-goers who walked with the flow of the crowd around the small table outside of the pretzel stand. She was seated there with her best friends Erica and Ali.
"Of course I'm meeting up with Cameron!" Erica tucked a stray strand of bleach blonde hair behind her ear then dunked a soft pretzel in nacho cheese sauce and popped it into her mouth. "I'm supposed to meet up with him tonight. We're going to have a blast!" she said with her mouth full of doughy pretzel. A glob of nacho cheese clung to the side of her plump lips and she licked it up with a flick of her tongue.
"Do you think he's a keeper?" Ali asked. She was only 18 and just graduated high school, but she had a mature and studious air about her as she pushed up her glasses and then flipped a page in the book she had open in front of her: a book about ancient Greece with photographs of artifacts and ruins across the glossy pages.
"Nah, I just want a little more sex with him then I'll move on to the next," Erica grinned.
"I don't know how you do it," Zarina said, shaking her head.
Erica scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. "Do what?"
"Have a one night stand practically every night of the week."
"I guess it's just..." Erica paused, deep in thought then leaned forward toward the other girls with a satisfied smile. "empowering, you know?" She continued, "it makes me feel so reckless and sexy."
Ali glanced up at Erica with a scoff then back to her book. "Like you need help feeling sexy," she said.
Erica was skinny, but held fat in all the right places: her large breasts were perky but soft beneath her thin crop top, petite facial features with big blue eyes drew in nearly every man she held in her gaze, not to mention the long blonde hair that fell in wavy cascades all the way down her back until it brushed against the top curve of her plump ass that was round and sculpted in her yoga pants. Ali thought her friend's bimbo aesthetic was a bit over the top, but all of it made Zarina envious beyond belief.
"That's something that I haven't felt in a long time," Zarina sighed as she caressed the rotund shape of her pregnant belly. She had been packing on the weight for nearly 9 months now and was hating her body down to the tiniest stretch mark. The pregnancy was unexpected and being only 19 years old, she knew it would hold her back from the rest of her peers, including Erica who was already in her sophomore year at the university and Ali who was about to join her. "Anthony and I haven't had intimacy in weeks. To be honest, it makes me a bit sore down there, but I'd love to feel sexy again and have him falling at my feet."
"Well," Erica sat back and stuck the last bite of her pretzel into the last bit of neon-orange nacho cheese. "You could always try anal if your pussy is getting sore."
Zarina blushed a bit as she glanced around hoping nobody heard what was just said. Everyone walking past was clutching their shopping bags and chattering, oblivious to the conversation going on at the pretzel stand table. Ali just flipped another page in her book and pretended like she wasn't listening.
"I mean, I've never tried... that," Zarina said. "Doesn't that hurt just as bad?"
"Not if you use a lot of lube. It actually feels really good," Erica replied.
"I don't know about that," Zarina whispered hesitantly. "Anthony is pretty tame when it comes to sex, he might be turned off if I even mention it."
"Oh c'mon, anal isn't even that crazy, that's like, amateur stuff."
Zarina bit her lip thoughtfully. "I suppose it would spice things up a bit."
"I guess you better get things spiced up now," Erica said and gestured to Zarina's big belly. "Here in a few days you'll be like Ali and won't be getting any."
Ali rolled her eyes at Erica's remark.
"What are you rolling your eyes at?" Erica asked. "When you finally land Derrick and start having sex with him maybe you can take a few pointers from me, too."
"She isn't going to land Derrick," Zarina interjected. "He's still with Maggie."
"For your information-" Ali slammed her book shut and pushed up her glasses again. "Derrick dm'd me on Instagram last night."
"Oh my god!" Erica exclaimed and put a hand against her generous bosom as she scooted forward to the edge of her seat.
Derrick had been one of the hottest and most popular boys in high school and all the girls had crushed on him hard, including Ali. Erica and Zarina always joked that she had a shrine built to Derrick in her closet, given how much fawning she did over him, but he had been going out with Maggie for at least two years. Maggie Hugstable: a drop-dead gorgeous bombshell who was nearly on par with Erica in the looks department. It was obvious to everyone that Ali's freckles, thick thighs, and ginger hair put her in a league well below Derrick and Maggie. She didn't have a chance in hell with him. But now? Now there was a dm on Instagram in play.
"What did he say?" Zarina asked, staring wide-eyed at Ali who flashed a gleaming smile.
"We talked for hours!" She exclaimed. "He said he looked through my pics and thought I was cute, he said his favorite class in school was history and oh my god! That's my favorite class, too! He said he's going to apply to Northwestern University, just like me!"
"That's amazing, Ali!" Erica laid a hand on Ali's shoulder. "I hope he breaks up with Maggie."
Cameron had gotten in touch with Erica on Tinder and was well aware that this meeting was just for kicks and wouldn't go any farther than that. "I'm an independent girl who aims to please! Not looking for anything serious ;)" Erica's bio read. Pictures of her beautiful face artfully primed with the trendiest makeup brands graced her profile. She had perfected the innocent eyes and pouty lip, and it was obvious from her selfies that she was taking every opportunity to show off her slim, toned body. How could Cameron resist? Sure, he had to drive an hour to meet her in the city, but she was just so damn beautiful, and she seemed to like him, too.
"I have a thing for men who are tall, dark, and handsome," she texted him as she practically drooled over his pictures. Those dark eyes of his glittered, even on the screen of her iPhone. At 6'3" with clear tan skin and a hint of stubble on his angular jaw, he was exactly Erica's type, and she knew she had to pounce.