A sudden thudding of the stairs outside my room and a rush of air as the door was flung open caused us to be dragged out of our stupor.
"Let the drinking begin!" Rachel announced as she barrelled into the room, a litre bottle of Malibu in hand and a glassy eyed gaze not the only clues to suggest she'd already started. Luckily for us she was just about past the point of judging the atmosphere of a room - Sophie and I were still close enough to feel each other's nipples against each other, after sharing a moment of unusual intimacy to say the least. Our blank faces quickly replaced with sheepish embarrassment were lost on Rachel, as we crashed back down to reality after the heady, lustful atmosphere that Sophie and I had just experienced.
"Er... Sorry?" Was all I could muster as I felt my face flush involuntarily as it always does in these sorts of situations - an unfortunate habit which contributed to people generally viewing me as an innocent character, although the desire driven girl of just a moment ago suggested the opposite.
"Pre-drinks!? Drinking games!" Slurred Rach as my mind came back to me and I registered that the usual lot must have arrived and been playing drinking games downstairs while Sophie and I were lost in our own world.
Rach had lived with me and Sophie in our first year of university, the three of us had become good friends and Rach's amiable liveliness was in full force right now as she grinned at us, excited for a rare night out with us all together. I'm not much of a drinker and so don't often tag along with the frequent nights out of the other two girls, which made them both all the more excited when I did fancy it.
"Come down and join in already, you're falling behind!" Rach was obviously getting well stuck in with the games as usual and wanting us to join her in the carefree, jolly state she'd drunk herself into,
"Not a bad idea" I thought as she bound out of the room with Sophie close behind.
I followed and began to think about what Sophie had just proposed to me; 'I want to have sex with you and George,' my heart beat out of my chest as I remembered the feeling of her breath on my neck and the sheer level of sexual desire she had worked up in me, and in such a short time. I could still feel how wet I'd become, but I was also confused; I didn't know whether to feel embarrassed about the effect she had clearly had on me (I had no illusions about how badly I had hid my eagerness) or been flattered about Sophie's secret fantasy. She must find me attractive, which was somehow more flattering coming from another woman.
As I thought more, the gravity of the situation began to dawn on me, had I really just agreed to a threesome with my best friend and my boyfriend? It began to sound more and more ridiculous as I thought about it, and I began to doubt my interpretation of the moment we had just shared. Had she been caught up in the moment and said it by accident? Had I been caught up in the moment and got the wrong end of the stick? Was I even sure Sophie was flirting with me or had I imagined that in the period of single minded longing she had reduced me to?
I was shaken from my thoughts as I found myself walking into the living room, a wall of music and smell of alcohol hitting me. I had thoroughly confused myself, and came back to the real world once again when Rachel began putting a drunk in my hand, still with a big grin plastered on her face.
"Drink up little one!" she slurred.
I felt a smile spread across my face as her mood radiated off her and decided this wasn't the time to be thinking hard, I gulped down the vodka and coke, noticing how strong she had mixed it, a 'subtle' attempt at getting me drunk and loosened up. Not that I minded, I was thoroughly in the mood for a drinking game now.
I looked around our small lounge to get my bearings back as Rach walked away, the room was a mess with empty bottles everywhere and the table dragged out into the middle of the room with everyone gathered round, absorbed in the drinking game, a wide bowl full of a dubious looking cocktail in the middle. All my housemates were playing along and a couple more friends, there was a bit of a gender imbalance with 5 guys and only 3 girls, shown by the rowdy cheer that went up as Joe bounced a coin into the bowl in the middle and pointed at Rachel. She made a big show of jokingly complaining that didn't last long, which made me think she'd probably been nominated to drink by most who had managed to bounce the coin into the bowl and that she was actually quite enjoying it. She threw her head back, pouring the contents of the bowl into her mouth as the game chant began, challenging her to finish before the chant was over. She finished gulping down the last of what was a pretty large amount of alcohol, pouring some of her own Malibu back in the bowl before slamming it back down in the middle of table, triumphant, as the cheering began again.
I joined the throng, eager to kick back and have some fun, although I still didn't know what game they were playing so I took a place in the circle on the opposite side of the current go to give me some time to figure out the rules. I saw Sophie was positioned almost opposite me, and I once again wondered what had happened earlier. She seemed absorbed in the game and oblivious to my gaze and I took a few more big swigs of my drink, taking my mind off it and beginning to relax more as the effects of the alcohol set in. Jake was up next and poured some of his beer into the bowl, picking up the coin and getting ready for his shot. He lined himself up and bounced the coin off the table but missed the bowl. It soon got round to Sophie's go and as she began, another big roar went up from the considerably more drunk players around us. Sophie looked as confused as I did as everyone began signalling for her to drink.
"What?! Why?" She shouted with half mock indignation and half genuine confusion.
"Can't tell you that, you're supposed to figure out the rules yourself!" Piped in her boyfriend, Ben. "The rules are you can't tell anyone the rules, you have to learn by playing, which unlucky for you most of us already have!"
"Oh dear," I thought, realising the game wasn't as simple as I first thought. I hadn't noticed Sophie do anything different to Rach or Jake, but I guess that was the point in the game, there were little things you had to pick up on to avoid doing, otherwise you'd end up drinking a lot.
Sophie picked up the bowl, lucky to have only had a few contribute to the drink, she finished off the bowl with ease, only to put it back down and have another cheer go up with shouts of:
"Finish your drink!"