Ok - the usual disclaimers and warnings: This is a work of fiction and all characters in the story are completely made up. Any resemblance to any person alive or dead is purely coincidental. All of the characters are figments of my over-active imagination, but, if they WERE real, they'd be over the age of consent. This work is my own, private work and subject to copyright protection.
Enjoy!
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I'm not a lesbian. Lesbians are those chunky, butchy women with short hair who go around in boy clothes and have lots of tattoos and piercings. That's not me. I'm not gay. Just because I discovered that I like something doesn't make me one of "them."
A few years ago, my friend, Michele, got married. We've known each other since college. There was a group of four of us that continued to hang out after we graduated, but Michele and I were probably the closest. Even though she moved to another city for her job, we still kept in touch. We messaged and texted and called each other pretty regularly, and whenever one of us had a free weekend, we make plans to see each other.
Or, at least we did. Then, she got married. I was in the wedding party and it was a fabulous time, but after the wedding was over, she was Mrs. Baxter and I was still single and living in another city. We still called and texted, but not as frequently. I was moved to a new position at my job (you know the story -- a lot more work and no more pay), and then my mom got sick and, I dunno...I just got busier... and I suppose she got busy, too.
It wasn't like I ditched her; I really didn't have much time for any social life at all. The truth was, I was sort of losing touch with the whole group. Meanwhile, I had gone on a couple of dates with a few guys, but I couldn't even make a commitment to any of them. I had slipped into a boring routine -- work, gym, eat sleep, visit mom, repeat.
A year had gone by since I'd seen her at her wedding when she called me out of the blue. She had a high school reunion coming up and she would be coming into town for the weekend. Could I put her up at my apartment? I asked if Steve would be coming, too, but she told me that, no, he had to work and, besides, it's not like she wanted him to meet any of her old boyfriends. So, of course I said, "Sure, I'd love to see you."
She arrived Thursday evening. Friday evening, there was some sort of happy hour event for her class and then the main reunion was Saturday night. We went out for dinner at a local Mexican place and chatted over margaritas. She and Steve were doing fine. They were saving up to buy a house. No, no plans for kids yet. The company where Steve worked was going through downsizing, though, so they were waiting to see what happened with that before they did anything major. Of course, I didn't really have much to add. Her life sounded dreadfully boring, but it was downright thrilling in comparison to mine.
I had to work on Friday so we packed it in early. Friday night, she had her happy hour thing so I ordered takeout and stayed home with Netflix. She got in late and crashed almost immediately. Saturday, we went to a local winery for a bit and had some lunch before she went off to her reunion. She didn't get home until almost 4 am and she stumbled in loudly. I had given her my bedroom and I was crashing on the sofa, which, incidentally, is where she crashed trying to take her shoes off. I was awakened, but really groggy and out of it. She thought it was hilarious and was giggling like an idiot.
She tried to steady herself using me for leverage, but we both rolled off onto the floor. She landed on top of me with her face inches from mine. For a moment, we said nothing. Then she burst out giggling again. "Ok, ok," I said, trying to shift out from under her but caught in the blanket. "You're drunk."
"I am," she agreed. "Are you drunk?"
"No. I am sleeping. Like a normal person," I replied.
"You should be drunk," she suggested.
"You're squishing me," I said, ignoring her. She always got silly when she drank too much and acknowledging it only made her act sillier.
"You're squishy!" she proclaimed. "Squsihy little Katy! Squish squish squish." She mashed her body into mine.
"Ok, stop," I protested. "You're hurting me."
She frowned. Our faces were still inches apart and her breath reeked of stale booze. I wrinkled my nose. A different expression came over her face. "You're so pretty," she said. "Did I ever tell you that?"
"Someone needs to go get into bed," I said, trying once more to free myself. Then, without warning, she leaned forward and kissed me full on the lips. It was a big smooch that was over in an instant. I froze. "What was that?" I asked.
"This?" she said, and then kissed me again. This time, softer and she lingered a little longer.
"Yes, that. What are you doing?"
"You're so pretty," she repeated. "Why don't you have a boyfriend?"
"Michele," I said, "You're really drunk and you are going to feel really embarrassed tomorrow morning." Then she kissed me again. I was about to push her away. Except... except that this time, it felt nice. I suddenly realized that no one had kissed me in a very long time. She was out of her gourd and had no idea what she was doing and this was probably going to make things very, very awkward, but damn, she was a good kisser. This thought went through my head as I realized that her tongue had worked its way into my mouth and I was shocked at how amazing it felt. It was like I had never kissed anyone before. Ok, I thought, it's just kissing. If I had to be woken up in the middle of the night, I guess this wasn't so bad. I can enjoy some kissing.
We made out for a while. Then she stopped and pulled away. "Are we doing a bad thing?" she asked, her eyes darting around my face.
I put my hand gently on her cheek. "No, Michele, it's not a bad thing. But we need to stop and you need to get some sleep."