9.
Samantha stood in the bathroom yet again, swaying, intoxicated and off-balance. With fumbling and uncoordinated hands, she reached out for the box, the box full of little blue and pink pills, peering at it blearily.
What was she doing? What was she thinking?
Spring Break. That's what she'd been thinking of. Spring Break, Spring Break, Spring Break...
Why though, why so frequently these days? It wasn't like her. She'd always been more than happy to pretend none of it had ever happened. And truthfully, she hardly ever thought of it at all, at least on a conscious level, except very occasionally. Mostly when she was out with Janet and getting really drunk, kind of like tonight...
Kind of like that night, so many years ago...
Their junior year of college, Spring Break in Mexico. Janet and Samantha had met in class as freshmen and hit it off immediately. People had started calling them twins early on, not just because they looked like each other, with their similar height and build and blue eyes, differentiated mostly by their hair color, but also because they did just about everything together.
Since they had a lot of the same classes, they studied together. They ate all of their meals together. In their free time, they partied together. That first year, the two of them made the decision together to pledge for the same sorority. Moving into the house the following year, they'd become roommates for the first time, and had remained so ever since. And the next year after that, they'd taken their first trip together, along with their sorority sisters, for Spring Break.
And it had been so, so much fun. Unlike Janet, who grew up in the city and had big dreams of settling in the quiet suburbs, Samantha had come from a small town. It had been the first time she'd ever left the country and she'd needed to get a passport to even take the trip.
How new and exciting everything had been..! There were tons of people their age from other schools, from all different places, and it was one big non-stop party on the beach. There had been a huge stage erected right on the sand, where they had live bands playing and other entertainment, and contests for prizes. The sorority had made loose plans to go sight-seeing and explore the town, but with all of the fun and excitement going on everyday just steps away from the hotel, out there on the oceanfront, somehow the group never got around to it...
Samantha felt like a celebrity. Every day, she and Janet and their sisters were the center of attention. There was a steady, unending stream of guys hitting on them all, and some of them did get lucky, though most were more than happy just to be able to hang out with some attractive girls and buy them drinks.
The week passed in a blur of alcohol and dancing and snoozing on the beach, until the final night before they were to fly back home. Samantha and Janet, sad their vacation was coming to a close, were determined to make the most of the day, starting early and drinking hard.
It was only because she was so trashed that Samantha ever would have gotten up the courage to go up on the stage late that evening, when the MC called for all of the pretty girls to get up there for a contest. She protested anyway, but in the end, she'd allowed Janet to haul her up to the stage along with a few of their other friends.
It was, of course, a wet t-shirt contest for no less than a thousand dollars, which was incredible as the prizes up until then had mostly consisted of cheap souvenirs or bottles of tequila. Samantha was again glad to be drunk, as she'd otherwise have been completely mortified, but as it was, she had a blast up there. In the two months leading up to the trip, she and Janet had hit the gym everyday in preparation, and despite her reservedness, she knew she looked good. She knew they both did.
Being on the beach, naturally it turned into a bikini contest. Dancing up on the stage, screaming as buckets of cold water were splashed on her, Samantha stripped off her sodden white shirt, to the hoots and hollers of the crowd below.
As the MC pointed to each of them, asking for votes by way of cheers from the crowd, one by one girls were asked to leave the stage, even some of her sorority sisters. Somehow, Janet managed to avoid the cuts as well, dancing and laughing beside her, until finally, amazingly, it was only the two of them and one other girl left onstage.
Samantha looked over hazily at their competition and was immediately outraged -- it was so unfair! While she and Janet were both well endowed, neither of them had a gigantic fake rack.
What a complete tramp
, she had thought.
What kind of a 20-year old gets a boob job?!
Her own opinion didn't count, though. When the MC pointed to the plastic bimbo, the crowd roared its approval loudly. And then he was pointing at Samantha, and she was disappointed but unsurprised to hear a much less enthusiastic reaction. And she knew that in a moment she'd be called off the stage.
Oh, well
, she thought. Maybe Janet would still win, though probably not. It had still been a fun way to close out the trip, anyway...
But just then, a hand took hers, intertwining fingers and pulling her around to the side, not roughly but not gently, and then Janet was there, her face close, blue eyes luminous, a devious smile on her face. She leaned in and kissed Samantha hard, mouth open, tongue probing.
The crowd instantly exploded, going wild.
