Mixer

Again, thanks for all the wonderful feedback and for your patience in waiting on this tale's conclusion. I may revisit some of these characters in the future, but not in this story arc. Enjoy!

*

Five months later...

"I can't believe it's a month into the new semester and we're only just now finding time to hang out," Sassy said. She had to almost yell into Mary's ear to be heard over the party's thumping sound system.

Mary shrugged indifferently and took another long pull on her drink. "Yeah, I suppose," she finally said. "You've been too busy with Carlos, of course."

Sassy sensed her old friend's jealous streak flaring up. Over the summer, Sassy hadn't missed spending time with Mary at all. The cruel stunt that Mary had pulled at the last Mixer party, setting up Sarah in a borderline incestuous situation with her brother, had revealed the full extent of her petty, vile nature. Sassy found that she could hardly stand her any longer, but she maintained a pleasant façade for the sake of civility.

"A relationship for which I have only you to thank," Sassy said, trying to mollify Mary. "If you hadn't set us up in the Mixer last spring..."

Mary only gave a half smile at the gratitude.

"Speaking of last spring's Mixer," Mary said, "I haven't seen that bitch Sarah or her brother around here tonight."

For Mary's benefit, Sassy surveyed the throng of people dancing and drinking. She recognized more of the people this time around, having gotten to know many of Carlos's friends over the summer. But she knew full well that Mary wouldn't see either of the siblings. Not yet, anyway.

"You really think either of them would show their faces here, after what you did to them at the last one?"

"No, I suppose not," Mary said with her first genuine smile of the night. "The humiliation would be too much."

Sassy led the way back to the kitchen to get another couple drinks. From experience, she knew that Mary tended to get wild, even slutty, when she'd had a lot to drink. For tonight to go as planned, that disposition would be beneficial.

"Tell you what," Sassy said, leaning in to Mary's ear just to be heard over the music. "I owe you one for setting me up with Carlos. He and I are both working a shift pulling names for the Mixer, starting at midnight. I'll ask him to hook you up with some hot guy."

Mary considered it a moment before giving Sassy a dirty look. "No way. Carlos and Bryce are friends. If Carlos knows what happened last time, he'll probably hook me up with some smelly, sweaty, nasty dweeb."

Oh shit, Sassy thought, watching the entire plan start to unravel.

"If he knew about what happened," Sassy said. "And I don't think he ever found out. Besides, I don't have to tell him it's you on the other side. I'll just tell him to hook up one of my friends with a cute guy. I have Carlos so wrapped around my little finger, he'll be more than happy to do anything I ask."

Mary grumbled and drained most of her new drink.

"Relax," Sassy said. "Worst that happens, you get a little felt up. Best, you don't go home alone tonight and maybe even get lucky like I did with Carlos."

Mary rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. I just want to make sure I've got a few drinks in me first."

Inwardly, Sassy heaved a sigh of relief. She hated lying to an old friend, but in her own mind Mary was no longer a friend. And if tonight worked out, Mary would certainly share the sentiment.

*****

"30 min. Plan on." Kate read the text message and then stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

"Who was that?" Mike said. He leaned across the table, knocking over an empty beer glass in the process.

"Just some friends at a wild party," she said, leaning back into her bench. She made eye contact with a couple of her other friends in the crowded booth. Each returned a look of sympathy. It had taken only a few minutes of clubbing together for Mike to prove to everyone in the group that he was a putz of the highest degree. He'd latched his attention on her, probably because she was the one who'd invited him along.

"Wild party, eh?" Mike said. "Dude, I could tell you about some wild fucking parties. Like this one I got so shit-faced drunk at...we were jumping naked into their pool from the second floor balcony. Dude, it was totally crazy."

One of Kate's friends across the table mouthed the words, "Did he just 'dude' you?"

Kate half rolled her eyes in agreement. She only pretended to listen to Mike drone on about the other amazingly stupid shit he'd done at any of a number of parties.

Over the summer, Kate's best friend Sarah revealed the full extent of the events that had happened at the Mixer party. Kate was stunned at the audacity of Mary's unjustified vengeance upon Sarah for "stealing" a boyfriend. The only good thing to come of it was that Sarah said she and her brother had worked things out and were actually a little closer than they had been before making out with one another in the darkness of the Mixer.

Sarah had then revealed the beginnings of a plot for revenge of their own upon Mary. Kate was the kind of person who would do anything for a friend. Her own role in the revenge plot, however, had left her with some guilty reservations. She'd been asked to involve someone who had no direct connection to the events of last spring.

Tonight, however, looking across the table at Mike, all of those qualms vanished. If ever there was a more disgusting, arrogant asshole, she hadn't met him.

"Anyone else want to go check out this party?" she said, interrupting one of Mike's stories to everyone else's relief. "These guys threw one hell of a party last spring. They've set up some little rooms in the basement that they call the Mixer. They pull names from a hat and hook up random guys and girls for a little make out session. It's set up so you never see who you're hooked up with...all in the dark."

"Killer!" Mike said. "I wonder what lucky girl will get the full Mike-treatment tonight? Maybe one of you ladies, if you're lucky enough."

All three girls sitting at the table tried not to openly groan. The other guys at the table even gave him a little shit over that comment. In the end, though, everyone agreed to head over to the party.

Mike insisted on walking next to Kate, sharing tales of his athletic achievements, sexual prowess, and stupid drunks. She quietly took it in stride, knowing that she was working toward a good cause. Truly, Mary and Mike Dunham were cut from the same cloth, in more ways than one.

*****

Sassy and Mary went downstairs together, both with drinks in hand. At the bottom of the stairs was a short hallway and a couple closed doors. Both doors were adorned with garish Christmas lights and signs indicating which was the men's side of the Mixer and which was the women's.

"I'd better wait a couple rounds before I pull your name, just to keep the other girls from calling foul," Sassy said, practically yelling in Mary's ear. These rooms were located directly underneath the sound system, and the thumping bass literally rattled the rooms. Mary nodded in agreement.

The women's side was crowded with over a dozen partiers waiting for their names to be pulled from the hat. The bed and most other furnishings had been removed from the room just to accommodate the needs of the Mixer. The guys who lived in this house had also removed one of the walls between the makeshift basement bedrooms. In its place hung a series of heavy blankets that created two small, dark rooms accessible from both the men's and women's sides.

"Jen and Darla, you're up next!" yelled out the girl who was currently holding the hat.

Sassy made introductions and then assumed control of the hat for her two-hour shift. Both Sassy and Mary scribbled their names on cards and dropped them into the hat.

"I'd better message Carlos," Sassy said in Mary's ear. "Having him start looking for a good one for ya!"

Mary nodded. "He'd better find me a good one," she said. "I'm starting to feel in the mood."

Sassy typed on her cell phone: "In the Mixer. All clear." The number she sent it to, however, was not Carlos's.

*****

Kate read the message and snapped her phone shut. The house party was only a block away, so they'd almost arrived too early. At least the plan hadn't crashed and burned yet.

Mike was droning on still, some story involving a couple cheerleaders and a bass-fishing boat. She didn't want to know and only nodded once in a while so he'd think she was listening.

Much to her relief, Mike's story telling had to end at the door to the party. The music was so loud that it was difficult to hear anyone who wasn't within a foot, and Kate was able to keep at least that distance from him by weaving through the throng. She looked back at Mike and mouthed the word "drinks." He nodded and followed back to the kitchen.

After a few minutes' wait to get drinks, Kate dared to lean in close to Mike.

"I think I'm gonna head downstairs and put my name in to the Mixer," she said. "You coming?"

"For a chance to boink you in a dark room, absolutely," he said back with a dumb grin.

She merely smiled and headed off for the basement with him in tow. Knowing that someone like him was waiting on the men's side would be enough to frighten her from ever putting her name into the Mixer hat again. Luckily, she knew there was no chance of hooking up with him.

"Have fun!" she yelled at him when they reached their respective Mixer waiting rooms. He gave her a lusty wink and then headed in to the men's side. Kate removed her hand from the women's side, heaved a sigh, and started back up the stairs while typing another quick text message.

*****

Sassy read the message and then shot off another quick one of her own. She glanced over at Mary, who was chatting with a few acquaintances. Sassy was pleased to see Mary smiling and talking with wild gesticulations. Yeah, she's had just enough to drink, she thought to herself.

*****

Carlos felt the phone is his pocket vibrate. He glanced down at the screen while a newcomer to the room scribbled down his name on a card.

"Package delivered. Call round after next."

The guy handed Carlos the card and he read the name before dropping it strategically on the top of the pile in the hat. "Nice to meet you Mike," Carlos says, offering a handshake. "If you're lucky, you won't have to wait too long to get called."

"Hope not," Mike said. "Sweet idea you guys have here. Get a little anonymous pussy."

"Maybe not quite as anonymous as you think," Carlos said under his breath as Mike looked for a spot to wait in the crowded room.

*****

"Mary, you're up!" Sassy yelled across the room. It didn't take much effort to stack the names in the hat.

"Carlos got me a good one, I hope?" Mary said.

"That's what he said," Sassy said. "Give him hell!"

"Boy won't be able to see straight when I'm done with him," she said with a wicked grin.

Two girls emerged from behind the curtains, each looking slightly disheveled, flushed, and smiling broadly. Sassy pulled back the corner of the curtain to the Mixer room closest to the outer wall and held it open for her old friend. From here on, matters were out of her hands.

*****

"Showtime!" Bryce said from his seat at Carlos's desk, locked away in a bedroom upstairs above the party.

"It's about time," Sarah said, looking over his shoulder at the computer monitor. A grainy green and black image sat in the middle of the screen. Though the quality was poor, it was good enough to discern that the figure moving into the screen was definitely Mary.

"Looks like the recording is going just fine," Bryce said. "Now all we need is the rest of our cast."

"Speaking of..." Sarah said. She leaned closer to the screen, her cheek almost touching that of her brother.

Mary's brother Mike had just moved into the field of view. Both were moving with arms outstretched. In the Mixer, it was pitch dark, so moving by sense of touch was the only way to go. When the two made contact, they quickly embraced and wasted no time in starting to kiss.

"Bingo!" Bryce said, looking back at his sister with a big grin. "You are a genius."

"You guys did most of the set up work," she said. "All I had to do was sign out a camera." Sarah was a Zoology major and had been able to sign out a night-vision camera from the department under the premise of doing some night observation work for one of her labs. Still, it had been her idea and she was rather proud of it.

The camera angle was high, looking down upon them from a corner of the small curtained off area. In the unfinished ceiling of the basement, the guys had been able to mount it in the support beams.

"Wow, look at those two go at it," Bryce said. Sarah noted that his eyes were glued to the screen. Personally, she found their performance to be rather distasteful.

Mary and Mike had quickly escalated their make out session. What started as sloppy kissing had moved to Mike's hands lifting up her tank top and groping her breasts. Mary, meanwhile, appeared to be trying to pull down his pants.

"Yeah, she's a slut," Sarah said. "I always figured it, but geez. Look at that! Less than three minutes in and she's already on her knees sucking him off."

"That doesn't make you a slut too, does it?" Bryce said.

"What?" She felt her face begin to flush. No matter how much they rationalized the events of that night last spring, she still found it difficult to reconcile every now and then.

"I mean, you gave me a blowjob while we were in the Mixer," he said. His grin told Sarah that he was just leading her on. "So if BJ's for strangers means you're a slut..."

Sarah slapped him gently on the back of the head. "I waited at least seven minutes before I went that far," she said. "And besides, we were more...tasteful. Classier."

"Well that's okay then," Bryce said, turning back to the show.

"Okay, now see that? That's the distinction between being passionate and being slutty."

On the screen, they could see that Mary had only blown her mystery partner in the Mixer just enough to get him ready. She dropped her own pants and panties and bent over, allowing Mike to take her from behind. Sarah felt a bit of vindication, knowing she could separate her own actions from the behavior being displayed by Mary.

"Ah, all clear now," Bryce said. "That's definitely slutty. Skanky, even. I'm mean, look at that. They're each screwing a complete stranger and not even using protection."

He turned back to her, placing a hand over the one she had resting on his shoulder. "Don't worry," he said. "I've never considered you to be anything of the sort. You're a sweet, passionate, and assertive lover."

"Right," she said, rolling her eyes. "Like you know enough about my sex life to draw those conclusions." Still, she was flattered by his comments.

"Okay, true, my experience with you has been admittedly limited," he said. "But still, I stand by everything I said based on that brief encounter."

Sarah was glad that she was able to get along with Bryce after so narrowly averting outright incestuous intercourse with him. Their relationship could have turned disastrous. Instead, they had achieved a relaxed openness more common with good friends than siblings. Five months had passed since that night in the Mixer and later in his apartment - the blowjob, the touching, the kissing, and...yeah, even the few seconds during which his cock had been in her pussy before his roommate had unexpectedly returned.

She knew that by society's norms, she should feel guilty about what they had done together that night, especially after learning with whom they'd been making out in the darkness of the Mixer. She should also feel guilty over the subsequent fantasies she'd had all summer about Bryce, wondering what it would have been like had his roommate not returned. Would they have had sex again? How messed up could things have gotten?

In the light of the morning after the Mixer, by unspoken mutual agreement, they let the matter drop. Sarah felt no guilt and no regrets. She relived what happened, fantasized about what didn't, and was comfortable trying to leave it at that. Or had been.

"Thanks for being so sweet," she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek and pat on the shoulder.

*****

Carlos's phone vibrated again, about halfway through Mary and Mike's ten minutes in the Mixer.

"We are next. Same side as our friends."

Carlos's eyes bugged out at Sassy's message. He was all for a quick romp with his girlfriend. They'd been having great sex for months, after all. But this suggestion made him a little nervous. He knew all about the night vision camera in the little room, and he wasn't sure he felt comfortable performing for Bryce and Sarah.

Ever since their first screw in his truck just outside the spring's Mixer party, Sassy had been pushing Carlos to try riskier things in their sex life. They'd done it in parks, swimming pools, movie theaters, restaurants, and other such places. At first, the risk of being caught made him extremely nervous. He found that it did heighten the excitement, however, so he played along. On the couple occasions when they knew they were being watched, Sassy had turned into an insatiable wild creature.

But that had all been with complete strangers. Sassy was asking him to perform before one of his friends. He had to go in, though, because letting another guy in with his girl simply wasn't an option. And once he was alone in the dark with her, he had no chance of controlling the situation.

"That girl is going to get me into serious trouble someday," he muttered to himself, smiling at the possibilities.

*****

Bryce clicked on the stop button once Mary and Mike had finished their copulation and left the Mixer. He was surprised that they'd gone so far. A few of the Mixer couples that evening had gone as far as brief oral sex, but for the most part it was limited to heavy petting and kissing. Much as he enjoyed watching a little porn, taping Mary and Mark hadn't done much for him. He figured it had to do with his severe dislike for Mary and the fact that this was being taped for revenge. And as far as revenge went, it was a smashing success.

He was about to start burning the recorded segment onto a couple blank CD's, but Sarah grabbed his arm. She was reading a message on her cell phone.

"Hang on," she said. "Hit the record button."

"Okay," Bryce said, clicking on record. "What's going on?"

"I'm not certain, but I think we're about to get a show."

Bryce looked at Sarah for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. She just pointed back at the grainy green and black display.

Another girl had just entered, followed moments later by a tall man. It was something about the man's posture that finally made it click.

"Holy crap," he blurted. "That's Carlos and Sassy!"

"How sweet of them," Sarah said from behind him. She rested her chin on his shoulder and gripped his arms.

"Sassy must have put Carlos up to this," Bryce said, watching as Sassy peeled off her t-shirt. A sheer bra was snapped off a moment later, allowing her breasts to swing free. "Carlos told me that she had something of an exhibitionist streak to her."

"You could say that," Sarah said, her eyes glued to the screen. "Pretty nice tits, eh? A lot bigger than mine. I suppose you boys like them that way."

Bryce was a little surprised at his sister's commentary. He couldn't quite tell if she was teasing or not.

"They're decent, I guess," Bryce said. "But I prefer them a little bit smaller. Less sag. Every guy has his own personal tastes."

"You like them smaller, huh? How would you rate mine?"

Bryce was worried about the way this conversation was going, though he was reasonably sure that she was just teasing him now. "Honestly, I think your breasts are just about perfect," he said. He meant it, too. His mind flashed back to images of that silky top, plastered to her breasts from the cold rain of the storm. Because of the darkness in the Mixer and his apartment afterward, he'd never had a good view of them bare, but it didn't take much imagination to fill in the details.