A Gift Amongst Friends Ch. 03

As the only blonde in the group, the other girls frequently joked that Ashley was their unofficial ditz. Mandy often suspected that the jokes were not so far from the truth. Mandy got along with Ashley well enough, but it was mostly their mutual friendship with Sarah that brought the two girls together. Compared to Mandy, Ashley was more of a stereotypical undergrad—partying, fucking, and neglecting her classes.

While the girls occasionally flirted with guys at the bar, Ashley was far more likely than the others to go home with someone on any given night. Mandy didn't judge her for it—how could she, given her own behavior over the last couple of weeks? She did often wonder why Ashley was in university at all, considering that she rarely attended class. But Mandy pushed those thoughts from her mind as the girls exited from the car.

They made their way inside, ordered drinks, and scanned the crowd for their male friends.

As expected, Mike and Jacob were already there, seated in their usual corner table. Mandy's heart sank when she saw David sitting with them. Sarah grabbed her arm and playfully tugged her towards the table.

"Hey!" Mike was the first to notice the girls approaching. "What's up?"

"Why do you guys come out here if you're just going to sit in the corner?" Ashley joked as the girls sat down with their drinks.

"I don't dance until I'm drunk," Jacob explained. "I'm halfway there."

Mandy glanced over at David and noticed him looking back her way. She smiled and looked away. Oh, this is going to be a long night, she thought as she took another large sip of her rum and coke.

However, after a couple of drinks, things started to loosen up. Mandy felt progressively less awkward as the alcohol took hold, and she began talking to David as if nothing had happened. It made her happy to know that she hadn't necessarily ruined the friendship, as she had feared. He thinks it was all a big accident. I just need to show him that it wasn't a big deal.

Before long, an hour had passed. "I want to dance now!" Sarah blurted out, interrupting the conversation.

"Yes!" Ashley agreed. "Let's go!"

"You girls go ahead. I'm going to get another drink first," Jacob said as he got up from the table. Mike decided to do the same.

Mandy was feeling pretty drunk by now, and she told the girls that she would join them on the dance floor after she finished her current drink. Sarah gave her a devilish grin as she and Ashley got up, leaving only Mandy and David at the table.

The two of them sat quietly, exchanging occasional glances. The music in the club was blasting, but somehow the silence at their table was deafening. A full minute passed, but it felt like eternity. The longer you wait, the harder it will be. Do it while you're drunk. Do it now. David set down his empty glass and started to rise from his seat. Do it now, before you miss your chance!

"Hey, David?" She shouted over the music.

He gave her a friendly smile as he sat back down. "Yeah?"

Her mouth felt dry as she tried to remember how to speak. "Well... ummm, about earlier..." She noticed his eyes go wide at her mention of the night's events. She could no longer look him in the eyes, so her gaze lowered to the empty glasses on the table. "Well... I just wanted to apologize for... ummm... I guess I don't know what I'm apologizing for. I was in a hurry, and things happened really fast, and uhh... well, it was an accident."

David let out an awkward chuckle. "Oh, god, why are you apologizing? It was just an accident, like you said. If anything, I feel like I somehow did something wrong." He laughed again. He was obviously uncomfortable as he tried to find the appropriate response.

"You didn't. I'm just a klutz, and well... that was pretty embarrassing." Although she was acting, her blush was sincere. The alcohol was leaving her jumbled, but the combination of liqueur and loud music was stirring up conflicting emotions.

"It's no big deal. Let's just pretend it didn't happen." He gave her another friendly smile as he once again started to rise from his seat.

"Wait!" She grabbed his arm without thought, and quickly let go as he sat back down. Physical contact was not such a good idea after what had happened earlier. Okay, maybe I should have done this a couple of drinks ago. "There's something else... and... well... I don't really know how to say this." That was no lie. The words hung on the tip of her tongue, but they felt like a foreign language, making no sense.

He stared at her, confused. "What's up?"

Now it was her turn to chuckle nervously. "I... uhh... well, I think I might have... maybe... ummm... left some... inappropriate pictures on my memory card. By accident. The one that I lent you. And, well... have you used the camera since I gave it to you?"

David's face remained perplexed. "No, I dropped it off at home before I met with Mike. What do you mean by 'inappropriate pictures'?"

"Well... there's some pictures that I took for Keith while we were still together, and... I don't think I ever cleared the memory card since then." Mandy's friends were all familiar with her former boyfriend, Keith, and she knew that no further explanation was necessary. But I want to see the expression on his face. "There are a couple pictures of me... undressing." She knew that she should stop, but the way that his eyes lit up ignited something inside of her—something that was becoming all too familiar lately. "And...there are a few photos of me naked... and... doing things to myself."

"Woah..." Even over the loud music, Mandy could hear him.

"Yeah... so this is really, really embarrassing. I don't know for sure if the pictures are still on there... but I don't remember deleting them. Just to be safe, can you clear the memory before you use the camera? And obviously, don't look at any of the pictures! Just delete them all to be safe. Can you do that, please?" She intentionally made her plea sound desperate. After all, it was her obsession with helplessness that got her into this mess.

"Yeah, sure... no problem..." He answered far too quickly, without hesitation.

"I can trust you?"

"Of course you can!"

He's lying. Even in her intoxicated state, it was obvious. But that's what I wanted, isn't it? On the one hand, it was unsettling how easily her male friend would lie to take advantage of her. On the other hand, this was exactly what she spent her nights fantasizing about. She was incrementally shifting more and more power out of her own hands and abandoning control of the situation. Let him think he has the upper hand while I play dumb.

"Thanks David, I really appreciate it! I owe you, big time! Just make sure that you don't mention it to anybody, okay?"

"Sure, I promise." He gave her one more look as he got up from the table, but this look was different. She had revealed a whole new part of herself to him this evening—both figuratively and literally—and she knew that it could never be undone.

As he turned to meet the guys at the bar, Mandy felt like she could finally exhale. That wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. He had taken the bait, and she had maintained her appearance of innocence. He would be checking those pictures the moment he got home, she had no doubt.

She got up from her chair on shaky legs. The familiar rush of excitement was becoming as addictive as any drug. She awkwardly made her way through the crowd towards Sarah and Ashley on the dance floor.

Sarah shot her an inquisitive look, and Mandy smiled.

Ashley hardly noticed the silent exchange as she slowly inched her way towards a stranger on the dance floor.

Their male friends joined them for a while before returning to their table. It was the same routine every week: The boys were only there to be with the girls, but they didn't have much interest in dancing. Instead, the girls quickly found themselves surrounded by another group of college guys, eager to make their move on these seemingly easy targets.

The guys hung around for the rest of the night, buying the girls drinks and never straying too far. Mandy couldn't remember any of their names. She thought the one hitting on her was named Shane, but she couldn't be certain.

Before long, it was closing time and each girl was hearing similar offers.

"My roommate is gone for the weekend. You should come over and we'd have the place to ourselves."

After everything that had happened today, Mandy would have loved to go home with her suitor, but a part of her still retained control. You have class tomorrow, and you just met him, said a voice in the back of her mind.

Giving it as much thought as she could muster, she and Sarah eventually broke themselves free of the guys and hailed a cab.

"Is Ashley coming?" Mandy asked as she opened the car door.

The two girls turned back and saw Ashley walking away with several guys they had just met. "Umm... I guess not." Once upon a time, the girls would have gone after her and brought her home, but now they knew her well enough to let her make her own decisions.

Mandy and Sarah said their goodbyes to Mike, Jacob, and David, and got into the cab.

Mandy's head was spinning as the car began moving. She had completely lost track of her drink count once the boys had started buying for her.

"So?" Sarah exclaimed.

"So what?"

"What happened with David? What did you say?"

Mandy had such a good time on the dance floor that she had nearly forgotten about David. Even now, she struggled to remember the exact details of their conversation, the events clouded by a wall of mixed drinks and tequila shots. She remembered talking to him and mentioning the pictures... "I told him it was an accident."

"Has he looked at the pictures yet?" Sarah seemed to have an endless supply of questions.

"No, I don't think so." Mandy didn't like having this conversation in the back of a taxi cab. She turned to look at the driver's reflection in the rearview mirror, but his eyes were still on the road in front of him.

"What did you tell him?"

"I... uhh... I think I said that I forgot to delete them." She looked at the driver a second time, starting to wonder if maybe it had been a mistake to let Sarah in on her secret.

"I wonder if he'll believe that once he sees them."

"I don't know. I hope so." Please, Mandy thought. Please change the subject.

"I bet he'll show them to the other guys."

"No way! He wouldn't do that, would he?" Mandy had been so focused on David's reaction that she had hardly considered the risk of the photos spreading.

"I don't know... if I was a guy and I found naked pictures of you, I probably would!"

"Shh!" Mandy looked again and saw the driver looking back at her. She turned a bright shade of red, but fortunately it was too dark for him to see that.

"What?! He doesn't know you. Who cares if he hears? Actually, maybe he can help." Sarah leaned forward in her seat. "Hey," she said to the driver. "If you found naked pictures of Mandy, would you show them to your friends or would you keep them to yourself?"

Mandy was shocked. She couldn't believe that Sarah had just done that.

Several seconds of silence passed, and it seemed like the driver might be ignoring them. Finally, he responded. "Is your friend here Mandy?"

"Yeah," Sarah answered. "Let's say you received naked photos of this girl..."

"Well, that is an interesting thought. How did I receive these photos?"

"She gave them to you."

"She just gave them to me?"

"Well," Sarah looked over at Mandy's dropped jaw, then back at the driver. "She gave them to you by 'accident'." She made quotation mark gestures with her fingers as she spoke the last word.

The driver laughed at Sarah's explanation. He looked Mandy over in the mirror. "Well, I think that would be my lucky day."

"Oh, you have no idea! I've seen her naked before," Sarah explained. "You would not be disappointed! But would you share the pictures with your friends?"

Mandy wanted to curl up in her seat and die as she listened to these two talk about her as if she wasn't even there. Please drive faster. She desperately wanted this cab ride to end, but she knew that Sarah's stop was first.

Then I'll be alone with him, and that will be even worse. The thought of being alone with him actually frightened Mandy. Now he knows that I'm a slut. Will he try and take advantage of me? Her drunken mind imagined him taking her home and fucking her in her helpless state. Her heart fluttered at the thought.

"Hmm," the driver seemed to be giving this joke question some serious thought. "I think I would respect the young woman enough to keep them to myself."

"What a gentleman!" Sarah burst out laughing. "In that case, Mandy, let's give him a copy of the pictures too!"

That was as much humiliation as Mandy could bear. She began giggling uncontrollably. "Oh my god, shut up!"

She threw herself at Sarah, trying to place a hand over her mouth to silence her. Shrieks and playful cries erupted in the back seat during their ensuing struggle. In an attempt to free herself, Sarah began pinching and tickling Mandy's sides. Mandy shrieked and released Sarah's face, instead grabbing her wrists. Mandy was stronger than Sarah and had no problem pulling the attacking hands away from her sides. Sarah wriggled frantically as Mandy pushed her arms back behind her.

Mandy's mind was spinning from the alcohol, her adrenaline was pumping, and her body was pressed into Sarah's as they wrestled. It all happened so quickly and without thought. Before she had time to realize what she was doing, Mandy's lips were suddenly on her friend. Instinct took over as her mouth found its pair.

Sarah's lips parted, as if by reflex, and returned Mandy's kiss. Tongues danced as the girls' wrestling turned into an embrace. Mandy leaned closer, practically lying on top of her friend as they drunkenly made out in the back of the taxi cab.

Her friend's mouth tasted heavenly, her skin felt soft, and her warmth was inviting. The whole affair lasted no more than several seconds, but Mandy never wanted the moment to end. Thoughts of who she was and what she was doing disappeared as she focused on the sweet sensation of her drunken friend's lips.

Sarah was the first to pull away.

No, please, Mandy thought. Please come back...

"Woah, girl!" Sarah cried. "How much did you drink?"

Shaken back to reality, Mandy sprung back into her own seat. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me." She was so embarrassed that she thought she might cry. Fuck! Fuck Fuck! Why did I do that?! She's my best friend.

"It's okay, I just..." Sarah trailed off. The pause left a sickness in Mandy's stomach. Suddenly, Sarah began laughing so hard Mandy feared she might asphyxiate. "Wow...I was not expecting that!"

"I don't know what happened... I... I think I drank too much."

"Ha! I'd say."

What can I say to fix this? Mandy searched for the words or actions to undo what had just happened, but she was still at a loss as the car pulled up to Sarah's dorm.

"See you tomorrow! You better sober up before class!" Sarah said as she opened the door and stepped out onto the lit walkway. The breeze pushed her hair into her face as she turned back to Mandy and smiled.

"I will," Mandy replied meekly. "Bye."

The door slammed shut, and Mandy watched Sarah walk towards the building's entrance as the car pulled away. She brushed it off as if nothing had happened.

The knot in Mandy's stomach would not loosen. Her own dormitory was several minutes away. She looked up and saw the driver's reflection staring back at her. She felt so small. He had seen everything, she assumed. She expected him to say something, but the two of them sat in silence for the rest of the trip. Mandy stared out the window as the floating lights passed her by. The world was spinning too quickly and she took deep breaths, trying to compose herself.

Finally, the car pulled up to her building and she paid the driver.

"Can you get to your room okay?" The driver asked out the window as Mandy stumbled towards the door.

"Yes," she answered abruptly. It was a lie. "Yes, I'm fine... thanks." She was not fine and the walk was difficult, but she did not want this stranger escorting her back to her bedroom.

The car didn't move as she fumbled for her keys. Only when she got inside and closed the door behind her did she see the headlights pull away.

Finally, she thought as she waited for the elevator. I'm home safe. She still wasn't sure what had come over her in the car with Sarah, but perhaps a good night's sleep would help put it behind her. She did kiss me back, so it's not like it was entirely my fault.

The elevator door opened and Mandy stepped inside. She pressed the button for the fifth floor and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes.

She opened them again as the elevator stopped. This isn't my floor. The lounge was on the second floor, so she assumed it was merely students on their way back to their rooms.

Mandy gasped when the door opened and Andrew was there, facing her. Only a few hours ago, she had accidentally exposed herself to him. He smiled as he looked up and saw her.

Andrew stepped into the elevator along with another boy that Mandy recognized, but she did not know his name. The elevator stopped again on the third floor, and the second boy exited.

Mandy swallowed hard as the door closed and she was confined to this small space with Andrew.

Once alone, he broke the silence. "Went out tonight?"

"Yeah," Mandy muttered. She could hardly find her voice. "Went to LoRider."

"Cool. I prefer The Shady Piper, myself."

It seems like everyone does. "Yeah, Piper is good too."

Mandy felt uneasy as Andrew looked her over. She had not meant to drop her towel in front of him earlier, but she certainly had nobody to blame but herself. This is what I get for trying to tease David. Her tube top and skirt suddenly felt a little too revealing, and every inch of exposed skin made her feel more vulnerable. Mandy was starting to wish that she had dressed a little more conservatively.

Meanwhile, the motion of the elevator was not helping her balance at all. She felt like she was on a boat, swaying with each wave, while the world around her stood still. She felt like she has on a carnival ride, guessing which way was up and which way was forward.

She looked over and saw Andrew still staring back at her. He's picturing me naked right now. I know he is, because I helped him do it.

The elevator stopped and the door opened.

Mandy had barely cleared the doors when her sense of balance began to give way. Gradually, she started leaning towards the left until she had to steady herself on the wall. She hadn't been this drunk in months.

An arm suddenly appeared around her waist. Oh no, please. All that escaped her lips was an unintelligible mumble.

"Here, let me help you." She felt her own arm lifted and placed over a shoulder as she was slowly helped down the hall.

As she watched the doors passing her by, Mandy's thoughts drifted back to the earlier events of the evening. She clearly relived the experience of her towel dropping to the floor and the shock of seeing Andrew in the hall, staring at her. She remembered the look in his eyes as she had desperately tried to shield herself from his gaze. She remembered her fear and her powerlessness. She remembered the chills she had felt and the way her heart had raced.

As her weight began to slump in his grasp, her top pulled upward. The garment moved by only a couple of inches, revealing a small sliver of Mandy's midsection. She thought nothing of it until she felt Andrew's hand slip under the material to rest on her bare waist.