Innocence Realized Ch 01

I am innocent.

My life has been speckled with the wisdom of experience, the bitterness of sorrow, the sweet joy of happiness. My parents did their best to instill in me a knowledge of the world; a knowing of what was to come and why it happened. Yet through all of this I have retained an innocent outlook on the world; a faith in my fellows around me which remains with me still. Despite the shock of the daily rigors the world faces I still maintain the views I had as a child.

I am innocent.

I thought I had experienced everything. My parents said I was well-rounded. But I could never have prepared myself for the experience that entered my life in the nineteenth year of my life.

I had just finished my senior year in high school and was starting my new life as a college student in Ontario, Canada. A beautiful, budding young woman with a strange outlook on the world, thrust into the situations of college. Being a native of Texas, people were always amazed to hear my voice; clean, crisp and without a single hint of the usual Texas drawl. More amazing still was how a blond, blue-eyed young woman that looked like she took prom queen every year was so innocent about the workings of general society.

Attention to studies came first, even after the attempted propositions of many attractive young men. Life passed me by as I worked hard at my studies and eventually came to the end of my freshman year, when I met my new roommate for the next year.

Cherise came into my life at the end of a particularly uneventful freshman year. The tousle-haired, green-eyed freshman met me at the front desk of the campus dorm rooms, needing guidance to her new room. We met purely by accident as I was just picking up my mail before I headed to my room.

"You look lost, may I help you?" I asked, giving her a kind smile.

"Um...I'm supposed to go to my new room, but...I can't go through the main door because I don't have a security key yet," came a tentative reply.

I smiled again and gave this shy, young woman a reassuring look.

"Oh, don't worry, Garry just stepped out for a moment to grab something to drink. He'll be back shortly. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Maryland...I chose to come here because I wanted to go to new places and see new things while I studied..."

"Aaaw, that's wonderful," I replied with a smile. "You don't sound like you're from Maryland, you don't have much of the natural accent."

Blushes framed her cheeks as she lowered her head and murmured, "Everyone says that. I've never had an accent for as long as I can remember."

"Well, welcome to Ontario. Here comes Garry now."

I stepped aside and began looking through my mail as the young woman and Garry talked to each other. She checked in, signed a couple of papers and was handed a new security card, room key and slip of paper with her dorm room number on it.

I turned back to her as I heard her say thank you and smiled.

"All sorted out?" I asked.

"Yes, thank you," she replied as she looked at her new card and room number.

"What floor are you on?" I asked, heading towards the security door.

"Um...floor 4..."

"Oh cool, I'm on floor 4 too! We can ride up together."

We called the elevator and made minor chit chat all the way up to the fourth floor. As we departed the elevator we both turned down the hall together and walked. I was so wrapped up in a minor story about the campus that I almost missed my door. If the young woman with me hadn't stopped at the door I would have.

"Oh, this is my room," I said, smiling at her.

"Really?" she smiled, "It's my room too."

We both looked at the slip of paper she held in her hand and sure enough, it read 464, my room number.

"Well, I'll be," I said. "I guess I've got a new roommate. I'm Vita."

"Cherise. But you can call me Cheri."

* * * * * * * * *

Over the next several weeks we got to know each other. We learned that we both enjoyed many of the same things and we both shared the same outlook on life. We both marveled at how innocent the other seemed and laughed at jokes that no one else understood. Our most common topics of discussion were ones that others avoided and we discussed openly. For months we spent our lives together, studying, discussing and getting to know each other.

But one of the things we never discussed were relationships. It never came up and we never talked about it, until Cheri asked one night as we both lay down to bed.

"Hey Vita?"

"Mmm...?"

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

"No, not really..."

"Why not?"

"I guess I just never really had the time I suppose..." I replied, turning on my side to look at the dark lump of Cheri under her covers. "What about you?"

"No...I haven't really had time either..."

"Well, what kind of guys do you like...?"

"...I never really thought about it..." said Cheri with a strange tone in her quiet voice. "What about you?"

"I guess I never really thought about it either," I said, my mind mulling over her strange tone. "I guess someone like me...someone that has the same ideas and feelings about the world that I do..."

I heard a slight rustling as Cheri climbed out of bed, long, pale legs crossing the moonlight splashing through our window as she settled at the side of my bed, her long legs folded beneath her.

"Someone like me...?" she breathed softly, her face resting on her folded arms as she leaned against my bed.

I looked her in the eyes and blinked several times, unknowing of what to say as I had never been in a situation like this before. Cheri had just turned 19 years old, and I was 20 at the beginning of our new semester. We were both very attractive young women. Both of us had soft, smooth skin, vibrant with the joy of life. I knew that we had both been raised in areas with specific thoughts on the feelings we both must have been feeling at that moment.

"Yes...someone like you..." I murmured, my cheeks flushing bright red in response to my words. The thoughts had never once entered my head, but the words spilled from my lips with no effort whatsoever.

My words were met with a flush of Cheri's cheeks, her lips curling slightly upwards into a small, childlike smile. "Oh...I think I would look for someone like you too Vita..."

"Really...?" I asked, shyly looking down. My cheeks flushed red and my body crackled with sensations I had never felt before. Never had I had such a conversation with any of my friends at home and never had I experienced the sensations now freely flowing through my body.

"Definitely..." came Cheri's response. I pulled one hand out from my covers and gently took hers in mine, just wishing for the contact of her fingers.

What overtook both of bodies in that moment surprised us both and embedded itself into our memories for the rest of our lives.

Ripples of pleasure ripped through both of our bodies simultaneously and our muscles quivered for minutes. Electricity leapt between our fingertips and spread throughout our limbs, spreading a hot warmth from out stomachs to the rest of our bodies. Whimpers and gasps from the other young woman sent continuing ripples through our limbs until we finally collapsed against my bed and gasped for breath.

We rested on my bed for several minutes before finally catching our breath and looking into each other's eyes. We both knew we had shared something incredibly, but neither of us knew what it was then. We shared another glance into each others eyes, then Cheri went back to her bed on quivering legs and I turned over and looked at my shaking fingers, both of us wondering what had just happened.

Little did we know that we had discovered only the tip of a relationship that would last for many years to come.

To be continued...