Chapter One
(Saturday 12th October 2002)
What's that saying about the best laid plans? Katie wondered. Well, I'm obviously neither a mouse nor a man, but I guess tonight it's all gone awry.
Lying there alone in her bed, she chuckled. It was after four in the morning, her big birthday bash was over and she should have been knocking out zeds for England. But she couldn't sleep. And it wasn't a short-term sort of a thing. Oh no, she felt as if she'd never be tired ever again.
Maybe it was those plans of hers. As hostess with the mostest she had intended to stay sober and in control. She had also intended to stay chaste (for a change!) and to thoroughly tidy up after all of her guests had gone.
To quote Meat Loaf, "Two out of three ain't bad".
Staying sober had been surprisingly easy. Katie had limited herself to one small glass of wine an hour and kept it at that. She had also restricted herself to "birthday kisses" and no more, heroically turning down quite a few bawdy propositions. But, as for the thorough tidying up . . .
Her guests had started to drift away around two o'clock, mostly in pairs and with bawdy intentions. Or rather the majority of her guests had started to drift away. A handful of stragglers were still downstairs in her lounge even now.
Like at least eight of them.
She blamed that on her housemates. They'd both spent most of the evening in their rooms with newly acquired boyfriends, only re-emerging when most of the partying had been done. Predictably, they'd seen no reason to call it a day just because folk were going home, not when there were mountains of booze still waiting to be consumed.
Just as predictably the new boyfriends had volunteered to stay and help them empty all of those cans and bottles. So too had another four or five diehards.
That was Katie's Saturday morning lined up: vacuuming a few grubby, sticky carpets and washing out hundreds of glasses, skirting drunken oafs as she did so.
Katie wasn't really bothered about the aftermath. Her party had gone very well; there hadn't been any fights, fallouts or overdoses and everyone present had enjoyed themselves. What did a bit of cleaning up matter following a major success like that?
Right now she only wished she'd had a bit more to drink and accepted a bawdy proposition or two.
No, she wished she'd accepted Heather's bawdy proposition.
Shit fire and save matches, Heather had propositioned her!
Sighing, Katie wondered what had come over them in so public a situation.
They were girls for goodness sake; what had come over them!
More to the point, what had come over her?
Heather was notoriously "well on the lezzie side of bi". She'd turned up with kisses for everyone in sight and nobody but nobody denied her, straight or not, male or female.
Well, she'd given a few of the guys a peck but focused mainly on the gals. Hadn't she just! She must have necked with every girl present, and generously at that.
She'd been just as generous with her invitations. Leastways she had been with Katie.
Yes, with a dozen men hotly breathing down her neck.
And Katie had been equally generous with her advice.
'Go for it with Dwayne,' she'd suggested, picking up on another girl's matchmaking.
'I'd rather go for it with you,' the black-haired beauty had replied smoothly, making the invitation with those amazing emerald green eyes of hers.
Tempted as she was, recalling her plans, Katie had politely declined.
And then what had she done? She had only gone and set up a date with the most rapacious lesbian on campus.
If not the most rapacious lesbian in the universe!
That was scary but the speed with which she'd reacted was scarier still. She'd nearly taken Heather's hand off. Anyone would think she'd been bi-curious for ages.
Katie sighed once more. If she was being totally honest she had been bi-curious for ages. She'd been hiding it, though, even from herself. She had only ever shared her most secret thoughts with her trusty right hand. Speaking of which . . .
She gently rubbed her groin and, not for the first time alone in that bed, pictured the one female she'd ever let in to her fantasies.
If her reputation was anything to go by, Heather really was rapacious. She was also stunning to look at. And she was fun to be with, even as a mere, common-or-garden boozing buddy. But there was a sense of danger about her and, in Katie's most secret imagination, a sense of the unknown.
Covertly watching girl-on-girl videos was a thrill but Hev did it for real, didn't she? Hev didn't settle for vicarious thrills, she got them first-hand.
What will she be like on a date? Katie wondered. And who was I kidding when I said we could chat if nothing else? The girl is sex on legs; how can I possibly resist her?
Everyone in the university approved of Heather Hunter. Katie firmly believed that. Females were all in awe of everything about her; lots of avowed straight girls openly admitted temptation. And, apart from a handful of conscientious gay men, all of the male student body wanted a tumble with her.
Or two or three tumbles . . .
As lucky old Dwayne was probably tumbling with her right now.
Katie smiled and kept on gently rubbing. Heather didn't do relationships; she made that clear enough. No, she played the field and had had loads of partners, although somehow she'd avoided the horrid names that other girls were tarred with. That was probably because she was relatively hard to get.
Well, she was hard to get as far as guys went. Legend had it that dozens of guys asked her out every single day but few got positive answers. Being able to be selective, she seemed to go for a handful of the most choice, most athletic men and spurned the rest.
That was why Dwayne was where he presumably was tonight, of course. Without the slightest trace of doubt, Dwayne scored high in the "choice" and "athletic" stakes.
In fact he'd scored in Katie's bed more than once.
Shame he isn't here now, she lamented. Shame they aren't both here now.
Not that I'd know what to do if they were!
Rubbing a little more vigorously, Katie mused on.