My relationship with Brittney was a whirlwind from the moment we started dating, but I had no idea the extent of havoc that that whirlwind would wreak in just a couple short months.
Brittney wasn't the wildest person I'd met, but she hung out in a pretty rowdy circle. We were a couple years removed from college life, but the spirit lived on in her friend group, especially with the guys.
From the stories Brittney would tell me about their escapades, they were a group that liked pranks and dares that probably went further than I'd personally be comfortable with, but she seemed like she was game for anything thrown at her and took things in stride.
I knew her friends were important to her and were around in her life for a while before I popped in, and I really wanted her to like me, so I decided to suck it up and go along with the situation. Brittney was a really kind, smart, funny woman, and I genuinely wanted the chance for things to keep progressing.
On our second date, before we'd slept together yet, she laughed relaying a recent story about the guys in the group getting into a pantsing fight, adding that she'd been pantsed by members of the group her fair share in the past.
A lot of thoughts started going through my mind. Her friends - well, I'll be honest, her guy friends - had seen her without pants on, and I hadn't even seen that at that point. I quickly imagined what kind of underwear she normally wore, and what she could be wearing right now. Sexy, cheeky panties? Had these guys even seen her ass in a thong?
I also wondered how far the pantsings in this battle royale had gone. Did she just see these mens' bulges in underwear? Did she see cocks swinging around unhindered? Did she like it?!
Mind you, I knew I was projecting a bit by the end there. Still, I couldn't say I wasn't at least a little insecure about her being around stripped guys, even if the context was non-sexual. In the same vein, it didn't settle my worries when she said they'd play strip games like poker or beer pong every so often.
It wasn't until a couple weeks into dating that I began to get an idea of the makeup of this friend group, or began to be able to recognize specific names of friends. The gang was a good split of women and men, but one person stuck out to me in particular.
Brittney said something about her friend Jake and added that he had a crush on her. She said it quickly in passing, not dwelling on it either because she didn't think it was a big deal, or didn't want me to think it was. Still, the name seared into my mind in that instant, and every time she mentioned Jake afterward the same thoughts popped into my head.
Did Jake still want to get with her? How many of the stories she was telling me without naming names actually involved Jake? Did he care that she was dating me? I started paranoid speculation any time she mentioned anything that involved this friend group.
Brittney had hung out with them for drinks at one of their houses the next Friday night, and things had gotten a little wild. She texted me periodically through the night to tell me excitedly (and a little embarrassedly) about the night's events.
When she told me someone had given her a wedgie, and that she wished she hadn't been wearing a thong that night. Had it been Jake who'd done the deed? Was it an excuse to stick his hands down the back of her pants? I didn't like the idea of this hanger-on with his hands around the straps of my girlfriend's skimpy panties.
And later in the night, when she said she'd been dared to make out with her friend Samantha - had Jake been the one to do it, because he thought it'd be hot? I didn't really mind this, after all, a dare's a dare, but I didn't want a man with a crush on Brittney to be getting her to do it so he could get turned on, and to a smaller degree, I wish I'd been there to see it as well.
There was one haunting text from Brittney that really struck fear into me, though. Near the end of the night, as she was taking a cab home, she texted me to let me know that she had told her friends all about me, and they were all excited to meet me.
"The guys want to give you a hazing to welcome you to the group!"
"What kind of hazing?" I nervously texted back.
"Jake said he wants them to strip you and make you wear women's underwear LOL." The colour drained from my face.