At University there had always been the three of us, a trio of girls who were rapidly closing in on their twenties and turning into women, and who hung around together. Ruth, petite and red haired, was the giggly and adventurous one, Dinah was the willowy blonde that any group needs to help pull the boys, and Dawn - that's me - was the mousy one, the bog standard, general issue female who doesn't stand out in any way, but makes up the numbers.
We were almost never apart, whether we were out clubbing or drinking, at gigs, raves or festivals, attending lectures, and even occasionally studying in the library, we'd always be together. We even went on multiple dates together to make sure that our boyfriends of the moment only got as far with us as we were prepared let them. In short we were known to be inseparable because we were seen doing everything together.
But there was one activity which we indulged in that we took care nobody saw us doing together. I'm not sure how that started, although I guess alcohol must have had something to do with it, but about once or twice a week we'd all get together in one of our rooms and have what we called our private fun time. If we were all in the right mood, and that was pretty often, someone would suggest that it might be playtime and then we would undress and either watch each other masturbate or help each other masturbate, or even use the vibrator that Ruth had bought on each other. The main aim, besides collapsing into embarrassed giggles, was to make each other come as hard and as often as possible.
Now I must be clear that we were not really attracted to our own sex at all and everything we did was without any romantic overtones. To understand you have to remember that we were all subject to raging youthful hormones and unaccustomed freedoms at that time, and so we found it easy to be horny around each other. Fun time was our way of alleviating that horniness. So rather than being secret lesbians we were more like secret exhibitionists, if there can be such a thing, and our purpose was simply to have fun in each other's presence, you know, fooling around sexy fun. We didn't kiss, or make love, or anything like that, we just made each other orgasm, and then laughed at the noises we each made and the faces we pulled. The only time when any of us got even slightly more involved was once when Ruth went down on me, just, or so she said, to see what it was like. I must admit that I enjoyed it and I came really hard, but I don't think she thought much of it because it was never mentioned again.
Of course all too soon the time came when we left the university and went our separate ways, although we vowed to stay friends and keep in touch. And so we did at first, at least to an extent. We even met up a few times at and had a 'fun time' together, but soon serious boyfriends and careers, and then marriages and children, all got in the way. In the end Dinah's husband, Jed, landed a plum job with an Australian touring car race team and they emigrated. After that contact naturally tailed off to just phone calls and Christmas cards.
Now time had passed and we were all creeping up on thirty, and we were about to meet for the first time in years. This had come about because Dinah had come home for a visit, intent on catching up with friends and family, and she had suggested that the three of us got together one more time before she left to go back down under. She'd asked if she could stay over with one of us so that we could be just like we had been 'in the old days.' Both Ruth and I had a good idea what she had meant by 'the old days', but hey, why not? My place was the chosen venue because I was the one without a husband and/or kids to get in the way.
I'd once had a husband, but he'd gone off with another woman and I haven't stopped celebrating since. He had about as much fun and adventure in him as a Trappist monk, the miserable little git. But I hadn't realised that when I married him of course.
Dinah was the first to arrive, looking as beautiful as ever in a powder blue two piece over a dazzling white blouse. How can anyone have twin boys and still look that trim? I haven't had any kids, but my figure is nothing like as good as it was, or I don't think so anyway, and my summer dress looked positively dowdy against her outfit.
I'd hardly had time to take her overnight bag from her hand when the doorbell rang again and Ruth stood there grinning like the famous Cheshire cat. We hadn't met for a couple of years and she'd put on a little weight since last I saw her, but she still looked prettier than she had any right to look in tight black slacks and a sweat shirt. We all hugged and kissed cheeks and then settled down to empty a couple of wine bottles, myself and Ruth sitting side by side on the sofa and Dinah in the big armchair opposite.
Of course Ruth and I wanted all the details of the Jed's job, not that we understood much of what we heard, and of what Dinah's home was like, how she'd coped with the numerous and unfamiliar Aussie snakes and spiders, and so on and so on. We 'oohed' and 'aahed' at what we considered the appropriate moments, gave her our genuine congratulations and tried to hide the broad green stripes that had developed down each of our backs.
Then we brought each other up to date with the more mundane bits of news, like how well the kids were doing at school, how good our newest gadgets were, how Ruth's family was settling in to her own new house, how the new diet fad was working and so on, and then we sort of ran out of steam and sat fidgeting and mutely looking at each other.
The truth was really that we'd not so much run out of steam as run out excuses to avoid the other, unspoken, reason for our get together. We all understood about that, but none of us had the guts to bring it up just in case we were wrong. All we needed was someone with the courage to actually say something, and each of us hoped it would be someone else. In the end it was Ruth who said the magic words.
'I think it's playtime, don't you?'
Of course we did, we were all feeling as randy as hell just at the thought, but we'd all hidden it just in case nobody else was. Now we all looked at each other with an innocent expression as if we'd never thought anything of the kind, and then we disintegrated into giggles when it was clear that we all had.
We pulled ourselves together and Ruth asked the customary question. 'How far?'
When, years before, we had first started having our fun times, we had always decided first how far we wanted to undress, but as we inevitably decided on stripping completely it just became a way of confirming everyone's consent, and "how far" essentially translated as "are we all cool with this?" To which there had developed a time-honoured reply.
'All the way.' Dinah and I chorused, pretty much in unison.
There was an excited expectancy in the way we all undressed. The quick nervous movements and shallow breaths all betrayed how we felt, even though we deliberately tried not to look at each other. We were all extremely anxious that this 'fun time' should be a good one, but we were very unsure how it would work after so long. In the end our collective nerve failed and we all just took our clothes off and then sat back in our seats to look expectantly at each other, each of us once again wanting someone else to make the first move.
'Your boobs have grown.' Ruth told Dinah, trying to break the lengthening silence without committing herself to anything.
Dinah cupped her breasts and jiggled them. 'I guess it's a legacy of two kids, along with my stretch marks.'
If she hadn't have mentioned them I don't think anyone would have noticed the marks, but her previously flawless belly did now bear the marks of motherhood. Not that it made her any less good-looking.
Then I noticed something different about Ruth. Her normally wild and curly red bush was completely gone. 'You've shaved.' I told her, as if she didn't know.
'Yes.' She agreed with a smile. 'Dale wanted me to. He said he got fed up with flossing his teeth every time he went down on me.'
Dinah leaned forward to get a better look. 'Let me see.'
