My Hot Pretend Girlfriend

I put some music on and started to get dressed myself. I put on my crisp wing-collared shirt and black pants. Through a bit of trial and error I even managed to work out how the cummerbund worked, but the bowtie defeated me. Why on earth didn't I get one of the ready tied ones? I was about to give in and find one of the guys in the dorm to help me when Holly got back from the shower. I admired her for having the confidence to walk back through a dorm full of complete strangers wrapped in only a towel. If any of the guys had run into her they would have got a real visual treat

"Are you having a bit of trouble there?" she said, after spending ten seconds watching me fail to tie my bowtie.

"A little," I admitted

"Here, let me sort that out for you," she said, walking over and starting to expertly tie the fabric. "There really should be a Freshman 101 course that teaches you how to do this kind of stuff," she added, laughing.

It felt strange having my nearly-naked cousin standing there right in front of me doing up my tie. She was a couple of inches shorter than me and I could smell the scent of the shampoo she must have used on her hair. It smelled a little of citrus and a little of coconut, pleasant but subtle. The top of her breasts were clearly visible above the line of the towel and they moved up and down slowly and rhythmically as she breathed. I tried not to look.

"There," she stepped back and gave me a critical view.

I picked up my dinner jacket and put it on, wanting to give her the full look. "What do you think?"

"Well, well, don't you look handsome tonight," she said, in a mock-flirty voice. "Now why don't you go off and join your friends, I think everyone is starting to gather in the rec room."

"Oh don't worry about that, they'll probably just be drinking and stuff, we don't have to leave for ages yet."

"Yes, but I need to um... you know, get dressed and stuff," said Holly, indicating her towel. "And, well, I know you're my boyfriend for the night, but I still don't think I want you to see me naked." She winked to let me know she was just teasing.

I imagined her naked for a moment, thinking about how amazing she would look. Then I realized I had left a longer than acceptable silence. "Oh yes, of course," I said, thoroughly embarrassed. "Take all the time you need, I'll go and join the others."

As I walked along the corridor and down the stairs to the recreation room I heard a cheer go up. I wasn't sure what the others were doing, but it sounded like they were in very high spirits. As I entered the room everybody looked at me and there was another cheer. I now understood the 'game'. About half the guys and girls (it was mostly guys) in the room were in their evening wear, the other half were still not dressed. The cheers were for whenever someone succeeded in getting ready, maybe as a subtle hint to the stragglers to get their asses in gear.

"Yo Shrinkwrap, have a beer man!" said Kenny, the dorms unofficial illicit alcohol supplier. Kenny tossed me a beer and as he did so another cheer went up as Rekesh entered the room in his tuxedo.

"So what's going on?" I said to Kenny after thanking him for the beer.

"Not much, we're waiting for everyone to get changed. Most of the guys are nearly ready but none of the girls are yet. As he said this, Kenny glared at the sofa where Stacey and Ellen were sitting, still wearing dressing gowns.

"Okay, we're going, sheesh!" said Stacey, and the two of them walked off in a huff towards their rooms. Two people immediately stole their seats in what was becoming quite a crowded room.

I tried to relax as I drank a couple of beers and chatted with the other guys as more and more people got ready and were greeted with a cheer. Eventually a couple of the girls started to emerge in their eveningwear too and they got even louder cheers. They had all really made an effort, and I must admit some of them looked fantastic. Even the girls that looked plain, homely or tomboyish most of the time looked much better once they put on a bit of make-up and a nice dress. Every time someone came in, I looked round anxiously to see if it was Holly, but she was yet to emerge. It was nearly an hour since I left her in the room and it seemed almost everyone else was ready. Was there a problem? Should I go back to see?

"What's up Stevie, are you waiting on a date or something?" said Rekesh, clearly picking up on my anxiety.

"Um yeah, something like that," I admitted.

"I never knew you had a date, why didn't you tell me?"

Rekesh was one of the few people in the dorm I really liked. We had been friends from practically the day I moved in and he was one of the only people that never jumped on the bandwagon when everyone else was teasing me non-stop about the fake girlfriend thing.

"Well I didn't really want to bring it up as... you know"

"So who is she, where did you meet?

I was about to answer when Jay gate-crashed our conversation. "What's this, Shrinkwrap has a date?" he said, loudly. A number of people turned their heads.

"Apparently so," replied Rekesh.

"You've got to be kidding me, where the hell did you find a girl crazy or desperate enough to come to the party with you?" said Jay, starting to play up to the crowd. "So where is she then?"

"She's over here!" I looked up hurriedly expecting to see Holly, but instead I saw Ethan, another of my regular tormentors indicating a patch of thin air. "It seems she's imaginary just like the last one. Hi there Shrinkwrap's date, pleased to meet you. We never got to meet his last imaginary girlfriend, so glad you could make it tonight." He pretended to shake hands with the imaginary person in front of him.

Most of the people in the room now were now laughing at Ethan and he was grinning broadly, happy to be the centre of attention. Part of me wanted to just leave the room, while part of me wanted to smack Ethan and Jay in their stupid faces (not that I was much of a fighter). But I knew that this time it was different and that I held all the aces. If Jay and Ethan wanted to dig a big hole for themselves then I was going to help them do it.

"So where's your date for tonight Ethan?" I said. Usually I retreated and went into my shell when I was being teased, but this time I was confident and smiling in the face of adversity, which seemed to throw Ethan a bit.

"I don't have one," he said. "Much rather keep my options open, you know, get the pick of the girls once we get there." A couple of the girls in the room sniggered at this point, which made Ethan uncomfortable. He looked unsure of himself, maybe starting to realise that I probably wouldn't make up a date at this point if I didn't actually have one.

Jay tried to come to his rescue. "Well I'd much rather go to the party with no date than an imaginary one. Or worse yet an ugly one," he said.

"Yeah dude," said Ethan, visibly relieved at the help. "If Shrinkwrap has managed to get a date she must be some kind of troglodyte."

"So I'm guessing you don't have a date either Jay?" I said

"Who the hell are you to..." Jay began, but he stopped. He realized that he didn't have everybody's attention any more. Nearly everybody was looking up towards the entrance of the room.

I looked around, but I didn't really need to. I knew of only one person here tonight who could grab an entire room's attention without even saying anything. Holly looked stunning. Her long brown hair, usually either in a ponytail or hanging free down her back, had been blow-dried to hang seductively over her left shoulder. I'm not sure what she had done with her make-up, but her lips were pink and enticing and her eyes dark and mysterious. She wore a maroon strapless dress that stopped just above the knee, showing plenty of her long, athletic legs. At the top the dress was subtle rather than slutty, showing just a hint of cleavage, but shaped to show the full contours of her breasts. They were not huge, maybe a C cup, but they looked larger on her otherwise athletic frame. I remembered my promise to Holly and briefly wondered how much the dress had cost me. Quite a bit, I concluded, but boy was it worth it!

"Hey everyone," she said, in a relaxed and innocent tone. "Is Steven here?"

There was a silence that probably lasted a few seconds, but it seemed more like minutes. Even though I had rehearsed how this moment might go over and over in my head I was somehow lost for words. Everyone turned to look at me and eventually I managed to smile and wave at Holly.

"Ah, there you are!" said Holly. She walked over to me and gave me a loving, lingering kiss on the lips. "Sorry I was so long babe, I lost track of time a bit."

"No problem," I said, trying to sound like this was in some way 'normal' and I wasn't struggling to breathe. "It was worth the wait, you look amazing. Wouldn't you say Jay?"

This was cruel, but I couldn't help it. Jay was still standing there in front of me from where he had been ripping into me just seconds ago. As soon as he saw Holly his jaw had almost hit the floor and he had done nothing since except stand there, staring. A space had cleared around him and suddenly he looked like a very lonely figure. His eyes opened wide and he just nodded. I looked around and saw that most of the men in the room were transfixed on Holly, while some of the girls were whispering to each other. It was a magical moment. Even though I had been imagining it since the minute Holly suggested coming, it had surpassed all expectation. I was hoping to get a few 'attaboys' and maybe some apologies from the people who had not believed I had a girlfriend, but what I got was so much more. I may have been a figure of fun in the dorm for most of the last trimester, but right here, right now, every guy in the room wished they were me.

"Damn!" said a voice from a sofa at the far end of the room. The gargantuan frame of Dale, the football player, stood up and walked over to me, a huge smile on his face. "I think I just have to shake you by the hand Stevie!"

This was the tension-breaker that everyone needed. I laughed and shook Dale's enormous hand and introduced him to Holly. Elsewhere in the room everybody started talking amongst themselves again and some kind of normality reasserted itself. Over the next half an hour I introduced Holly to damn near everybody in the dorm, guys and girls alike. A few made jokes to Holly about the fact that most people hadn't believed she existed and, while Holly was distracted, several guys quietly apologized to me. Meanwhile, Jay and Ethan sat in the corner, on their own, just drinking and not saying much. That sight on its own was worth more to me than anything Holly could have spent on a dress.

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the party and we all filed out of the dorm and down to the waiting taxis. Holly and I walked slowly, hand-in-hand, quietly whispering to each other, very much like new, loved-up couples do (which of course was the idea). As I felt the eyes of everybody else on us, I tried to savor every moment, conscious that I might never feel this good again. This was going to be a real night to remember.

_______

I won't bore you with the details of everything that happened at the party. There were several hundred students there and it's fair to say that most of them had a good time. There was music, dancing, silly games and a lot of people got drunk (some excessively so). Some lucky individuals hooked up with someone new for the first time and no doubt several of them woke up in strange beds the following morning, with either a huge smile or a look of horror on their face. It was always going to be tough for the party to live up to the expectations that a lot of us freshmen had, but for the most part it succeeded.

And how did I fare? Well, it's no exaggeration to say that Holly was absolutely fantastic. She played the role of my girlfriend flawlessly; looking at me, talking to (and about) me and touching me exactly as if we were a couple in love. She was so convincing that several times I was almost taken in myself and I had to remind myself that it was all make-believe and she was only my cousin. But not only was she a great actress, she was also so much fun. I had never been out with Holly before (well, not without our parents around at a 'family' event anyway) and I had no idea how charismatic she was. She had all my friends completely captivated by her personality. She made jokes with the guys, she gossiped with the girls, she traded insults with the jocks and she subtly flirted with the shy guys. I lost count of the number of times someone came up to me and told me excitedly how amazing Holly was and how lucky I was to have a girl like that. Guys that had looked down on me all year suddenly seemed to want to be my best friend. It was almost as if I was feeding off Holly's incredible charisma simply by association.

And it wasn't just guys either, girls were treating me differently too. Some, which I had always known strictly as friends, suddenly started flirting with me. Girls that rarely spoke to me much were coming over and striking up conversations. Even girls I had never met before seemed to be randomly finding excuses to talk to me. At one point a girl on my course who I sometimes chatted to in class implied very suggestively that it was a shame I had a girlfriend. Damn, I would have to remember that!

"What the hell is going on Holly?" I asked, when I finally managed to get my cousin alone for a few minutes.

"What do you mean hun?" she said, smiling.

"Well, maybe you don't know this, but all these girls coming up and talking to me; flirting with me. it's not normal!"

"Well that's good right? You said you had trouble meeting girls."

"Yes but, what did you do? Did you spread a rumor that I have an enormous cock or something?"

"No, I didn't say anything like that," said Holly, laughing. "It's probably just that..."

"What?"

"Do you know what social proof is?"

"Yes, of course. I mean wait, no I don't. What is it?"

"Um, it's a psychology thing," said Holly. "You know like on the Discovery Channel when you have the pride of lions or something and... no wait that's not what I mean. It's more like when there's some new band and they're struggling, but then they get a big break and... no, that's not really it either,"

"What are you talking about Holly?"

"I don't really know how to explain it," she admitted. "But girls tend to like guys that other girls seem to like. It's some crazy subconscious competitive... thing. We see a guy and may not really give him a second look, but then we see that same guy with another girl and suddenly he seems more attractive."

"So I'm suddenly more attractive to girls because I'm with you?"

"Basically yes"

"That's stupid," I said. "Why would girls be attracted to guys who already have girlfriends? Shouldn't they be attracted to guys that are actually available?"

"Yes they should," she admitted. "That's not the way it works, don't ask me why."

I understood what she was saying more than I let on. I had often heard guys complain that as soon as they got a girlfriend they suddenly got opportunities for sex with other girls that they never had before. At the time I assumed they were just imagining it, but in light of what Holly had just said it sort of made sense. Girls were seeing me with Holly and, maybe for the first time, were seeing me as a potential partner rather than just some guy. Of course, the minor detail that Holly had left out in her modesty was that the fact that she was incredibly attractive, an alpha female I guess, made the effect even stronger. Girls were looking at us subliminally thinking "wow, if that extremely hot girl finds Steven attractive then maybe I should too!" Or something like that anyway.

As we returned to the hustle and bustle of the party I wondered if I could use any of this to my advantage. The absurdity was that, if this theory was correct, the very thing that was attracting these girls to me was the very thing that meant I couldn't do anything about it. I had a girlfriend, or at least from everybody else's perspective I did. Why were women so complicated! Maybe some of my new-found sexual magnetism would roll over to next year, once Holly and I had 'broken up'. I really hoped so.

By now it was after 2am and the party was starting to reach its climax. Although a few people had left (as a result of being too tired, too drunk, or 'getting lucky') most people were sticking it out and the dance floor was packed. Holly was dancing with a few of the girls from the dorm, but I had declined to join them. I didn't really like dancing and was terrible at it; I had absolutely no rhythm at all. Right now, I seemed to be more popular than I ever thought possible and I didn't want to ruin that by putting in a D-minus performance on the dance floor. Instead I sat at a table, chilling with some of my new-found friends, and sipped on a beer. This would be my last one, I thought. I was starting to get quite drunk and I didn't want to do something to make an ass of myself. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Holly smiling at me.

"Are you sure we can't get you on the dance floor honey?"

I smiled back and shook my head. Holly put her arm around my shoulder and sat down on my lap. Wow, she was really playing her role well! I played my part too, putting my arm around her waist. The feel of her perfectly formed waist under her dress, combined with the scent of the perfume on her neck made me start to have thoughts totally inappropriate to have about my cousin. I wondered how far she would be willing to take this. She seemed perfectly comfortable with any amount of 'cuddling' and other forms of non-sexual touching and there had been that wonderful kiss in the rec room earlier. Not a proper 'making out' kiss, but certainly not the kind of kiss you gave 'just a friend' either. I would love to get another kiss like that from her later if I could only find a pretext.

So far I had completely followed Holly's lead with regards to what was appropriate and permissible but, probably fuelled by a bit of alcohol-induced courage, I decided to push the boundary a little bit. With one arm still around her waist, I put my other hand on the bottom of her thigh, just above the knee, underneath the hem of her dress. Initially I felt her flinch ever so slightly, but she didn't object or make any effort to move my hand. Her skin was warm, soft and smooth. It was extremely tempting to stroke her leg and maybe move my hand up her thigh slightly, but I forced myself to behave.

She's your cousin Steven, not your actual girlfriend, don't ruin everything!

We sat like that for a while, chatting with the others at the table. I could see some of the guys looking at my hands, one around Holly's waist and the other on her thigh, with much jealousy. I wondered what they would give to be sitting in my position now. Slowly the music changed. What had been up-beat dance music was being phased out and replaced by more mellow tunes. Gradually the energetic groups of guys and girls on the dance floor started to leave, and were replaced with couples slow-dancing together.

"Come on, let's dance," said Holly suddenly.

"I told you I really don't want to dance," I protested.

"Seriously Steven, if you don't come and dance with me right now, I'm going to dance with..." she looked up at my friends, as if deciding which one she wanted to take onto the dance floor. None of them said anything, but some of them looked up at her longingly, silently begging her to pick them.

"Okay, okay, I'll go!" I said.

I don't think she really would have slow-danced with one of my friends, she was probably just kidding. But I agreed to dance partly because she really seemed to want to and I didn't want to disappoint her, but also because there was a part of me that really wanted to dance with her too. The part of my brain that saw Holly as my objectively hot, but completely platonic cousin was slowly being taken over by another part that I didn't want to acknowledge. The part that wanted to touch her, feel her, caress her, kiss her. I allowed her to take my hand and I followed her in a trance-like state. As we got to the dance floor, the song that was playing finished and was replaced a proper, genuine slow-dance -- Bed of Roses by Bon Jovi. Incredibly cheesy and not my kind of music at all but, I had to admit, a great song for those trying to seduce a girl. I'm not trying to seduce a girl! I reminded myself.