NIGHT OF THE TOGAS
Two virgins and a one-night stand
Ron Ehrs
Roman Weekend was one of the biggest party weekends each fall at State. The football team had an out-of-conference game against a team that didn't really matter, so most students stayed on campus. It came in the middle of October, two weeks before Halloween, when some students indulged in costumes that took a lot of effort.
The defining feature of Roman Weekend was the Toga Party hosted by the Delta Zeds, following in the tradition of the Toga Party in the movie "Animal House." The Delta Zeds were an independent fraternity. Originally, no one expected them to survive, but their annual Toga Party and its accompanying scandals had legitimized them as a campus player. Now they were even expanding to chapters in some other schools in the region.
As opposed to the potentially elaborate costumes some students came up with for Halloween -- or the many "slutty" nurse, nun, schoolteacher, etc., outfits on sale at local stores -- all that was needed for this party was a standard white bedsheet.
It was my junior year. I had never gone to Toga Party before, but I figured I might as well try it out. I wasn't dating anyone, and it was pretty much a big deal for the whole campus.
I had a white sheet, but I had no idea how to turn it into any semblance of a toga. Fortunately, videos on YouTube offered step-by-step instructions. The starting point was tying two corners of the sheet into a knot, and then draping the rest of it around your body with various twists and tucks. Originally, I thought I would probably wear a pair of boxers and use them to hold up some of the sheet, but eventually, I got it to work on its own. I debated with myself about whether I should wear boxers anyway, but finally decided that if I was going to do this, I might as well go whole Roman -- or maybe whole commando -- even if it felt slightly weird.
* * *
It had taken me a while to get my toga sorted out, so I didn't make it to the party until nearly 8 PM. By then, the party had overflowed the frat house and the front and back lawns were filled with students drinking and dancing. I got a cup of beer from one of the kegs out in the front yard. There was no point in trying to get into the building, it was already completely packed.
I stood there, watching the people dancing, and looking to see if there were any good-looking girls available. Not that I was all that good at meeting girls in situations like that (or actually, in pretty much any situation), but being here at the party was better than sitting alone in my room.
There were plenty of girls around, and it was early enough in the evening that they weren't all paired off yet. Some of the girls seem to have come up with some very short togas, which certainly helped show off their legs. But as I looked around, I saw that the togas these girls were wearing all seemed to have the same sorority logo embroidered on them. After all, why bother trying to figure out how to wrap a bedsheet when you're in a rich sorority and can have them custom-made?
Then another girl caught my eye. She had long blonde hair and a nice body (as much as you can tell such things when they're wrapped in a bedsheet). The biggest thing was she had these deep blue eyes that seemed to sparkle like diamonds, and she had an amazing smile as well. Definitely out of my league.
I couldn't help watching her, staring at her. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I saw her look my way and notice me staring. I tried to look away, and pretend I had just been casually glancing around, but then I saw her coming directly towards me. "Hi," she said. "I'm Teri. Want to dance?"
* * *
Look, I'm not that bad looking, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, fairly tall, in good shape (I run a lot), and I do pretty well in my classes. But I'm definitely not one of those guys who walks into a party and thinks all the hot girls belong to him as part of his droit du seigneur. In terms of my confidence with women, I guess you could say I punch below my weight.
So here's this woman I had been staring at, but would never have dared to approach. And the thing is, when she asked me to dance, she had moved in close to me. Like we all have this social distance thing where we have a standard distance that we maintain between ourselves and someone else we're talking to -- maybe it's room to defend ourselves? Or run from danger?
Anyhow, she was definitely inside that zone. There was no getting away. Not that I wanted to, at least not exactly. Still, I was intimidated. The band was playing a fast song, typical shake-your-booty music. I was an okay dancer, I guess, but I wasn't somebody with fancy moves who knew all the latest stuff. But she was definitely good. More like mesmerizing. And even though her toga covered a lot more than I was happy with, she was doing wonderful things with her body and I was more than happy to watch.
When that song ended, the band segued into another fast song with another round of shake-your-booty music. I was dancing, but mainly I was just looking, still amazed that she had bothered coming up to me at all.
The next song was a slow song. I thought maybe she might just wander off looking for someone else to slow dance with, but she didn't. She came right up to me and put her arms around my neck. I put my arms around her waist, and she pressed herself up against me.
Now I had gotten into this situation in the past, but normally this was what happened near the end of the evening. And she was not the kind of girl this would normally happen with for me, ever.
She had her head against my chest, and then I saw her looking up at me, waiting for me to do something. I leaned my head down to her face and began to kiss her. She responded quickly, and suddenly her tongue was running across my lips and then into my mouth and playing with my tongue. I responded, and when I put my tongue into her mouth, she began to suck me in. I almost wondered if I was going to disappear and never be heard from again. But that would definitely be okay, it would definitely be worth it.
I had made out with plenty of girls before, but I had never experienced anything like this. It was somehow like kissing a cloud, like kissing the cosmos, it was transcendent, and feeling her amazing body pressing up against me at the same time made me wonder if I had died and gone to my final best reward. We kept kissing through the entire length of the song.
When the song ended, Teri looked at me. "Jeff, you're an amazing kisser. Have you ever thought of going pro?"
I kind of laughed. "I must've been inspired by you. You are absolutely amazing."
The band's next song was another fast number.
Teri looked at me. "Where do you live?" she asked.
"Uh... I have a room over the frat house. It's on the other side of the quad."
"Would you like us to go there?" she said. "I know it's only a little after nine, but I don't see any reason to hang around and watch everyone else get drunk, do you?"
My mind was not processing any of this. This totally hot girl asking me to take her to my room after one slow dance? This made absolutely no sense. This was not the world I lived in, not the universe I lived in.
Still, wouldn't it be rude to refuse? My sense of protocol was lying on the floor, smashed to pieces.
"Um sure, that sounds fine. Good idea."
