Finding Myself at USF Ch. 5

I finished rinsing off, and I reached out of the shower for the towel I had left on the rack from this morning. Drawing in it to me, I dried off quickly and then wrapped the towel around myself before stepping out of the shower. I fell odd at doing so, suddenly modest in front of my best friend who had seen me a zillion times in the nude.

"Yvette, are you going to continue you story?" I asked

"When you're ready to go. Hurry up! And, here, I want you to eat this..."

...and with that, she drew out a banana and handed it to me. I looked at it carefully and then suddenly I got a vision, an intense daydream. Of fucking it, shoving it deep inside me, Him watching me closely as I did it for Him -- perhaps because He insisted, or perhaps because I wanted to tease Him by doing it. Or both... and then I visibly trembled with the naughtiness of it. I suddenly realized that Yvette was watching me closely.

"Karri, the A/C must be set to cold -- you were shivering. Now please eat the banana for me while I go change the setting on the air conditioner." She rose and strolled out towards the living room.

Suddenly I felt suspicious. Why was it so important that I eat the damn banana? I started examining it for signs of tampering (as if I could tell!), then my suspicion made me ask her about it, trying to keep my voice from breaking as my perverted vision seized me again.

"Why is it so important that I eat this banana?" I kind of yelled out to the other room.

"Because you've been drinking and it will replace the potassium, keeping you from getting a headache and a hangover later."

She smiled wide as she strolled back in, and continued, "It's odd the number of things you learn in a big college that have an impact on your every day life."

Satisfied, I peeled the banana and ate it. Yvette had picked up a brush and was brushing my hair out... just like we used to when we were younger. It was reassuring and I let the naughty thoughts slip away as I suddenly felt real happy to be here, back with my friend. God, I had missed her while she was away! While I was away, I reminded myself.

I finished the banana and set the peel on the bathroom sink. Among other things, I still needed trash cans for my bathroom and bedroom. I checked myself in the mirror as Yvette walked over to my closet and picked out a pair of loose shorts and a zippered blouse out for me to wear. My make-up was pretty much all gone, except for a little bit that remained at the corner of my eyes, which I wiped away with a bit of toilet paper... something else I still needed to get -- thank God that Yvette had some I could borrow when I arrived.

"Yve, should I do my make-up again?"

"Get your ass in here and get dressed. We need to go before it gets too late in the day. Anyway, with your skin, you know you don't need any make-up. Maybe some sun, but... Now get in here... We have a mission now, one given to us for our sins -- shopping!"

We both giggled at the old joke. I walked in and grabbed the clothes, and was about to go back in the bathroom to change when I realized how silly I was being. I hung the towel on the bathroom door and grabbed a pair of panties from the dresser, the ones that were on top, not really caring which ones I chose. I snuggled them up my hips and then put on the shorts and blouse. A pair of sandals later, I was ready to go.

"Ready, mission control."

"Roger. Let's do it."

We both smiled and arm in arm passed back out of the apartment. I was feeling good and happy and just plain alive!

"Yvette, I forgot my purse. Hang on second."

"No you didn't. It's still in the car."

"Oh... yeah." I blushed again, thinking of what happened when we forget them in the Greenery.

As we climbed in, she started the engine up and smiled at me.

"Karri, I've been wanting to take you shopping here since I heard that you had decided on USF. Clothes first or food or the rest? The rest first. Hang on..."

"So, what about the rest of the tale -- did you ever meet Him? How long ago is this all taking place?" I tried not to sound to anxious, but I knew I had failed.

"Um... Not so fast... you have no patience!"

She knew she had me hook, line and sinker with the story. I was entranced by the whole tale (as if that wasn't obvious already). I sat back and tried to act disinterested. My curious eyes betrayed me!

"Ok, I'll continue... I had thrown everything back into the hamper and had headed back to the apartment to read through the other messages I had forwarded to myself. I grabbed another shower, getting the California potato chips off me."

I interrupted. "Yve, what are California potato chips?"

She laughed. "It's an expression for men's cum when it dries... especially on something like vinyl, where it can flake off -- those flakes are called 'California potato chips' around here. I guess there's a whole bunch of words that you'll get used to when you've been here for a while."

I thought about it and started laughing really hard, imagining collecting a bunch in a pringles can. She continued. "his/His cum had dried on my skin by the time I got home, so I showered to get it off.

"In the shower, I decided not to compromise myself by going back to Derrick's again; that I would simply get up the nerve to write Him."

My heart sank. Yvette was the type who would be able to bring herself to do something like that. I wouldn't have the nerve to write to a stranger -- what could I possibly say to explain how I knew anything about him?

We pulled into the parking lot at Target and she handed me my purse, and then she grabbed her purse out of the backseat. We walked into the store and she grabbed a shopping cart and guided me towards household goods towards the back of the store.

"Having gotten the California potato chips off," we both giggled at this, "I sat down and reread what I had already read again. It was obvious that He would represent something different than anyone I had known before. I tried to get up the nerve to write, but after 15 minutes of trying to start the letter, I gave up and started to read another of the messages."

I grabbed a small trash can for the bathroom, and a bigger one for the bedroom. The one for the bathroom was really cute, steel wires meshed in a modern art-deco arrangement; the big one just a typical tall kitchen garbage can. Yvette took them and put them both in the cart, then with her hand at the small of my back, guided me forward.

"The next message was just as charming as the last, and I melted in my chair. I decided to stop and search for anything I could find out about Him beyond what He had written Andreas, beyond what was in His home page. I tried google and dogpile, but I couldn't tell which hits were about Him and which were about other cyberpoets. I spent the rest of the day delving down into whatever I could find and trying to build a profile of this mystery man, almost as if I were an operative working for an intelligence agency. But we'll go into that later... now it's time to devote our attention to shopping."

I huffed. I wanted more... always greedy once my mind got set on something, I wanted more. We continued about the store, picking up and examining everything from pans to pillows. By the time we left, we had gotten a floor lamp, a desk lamp, some plates and glasses, a frying pan, a pot, some silverware, an alarm-clock radio, a cheap telephone, a wall clock, four towels and two wash clothes.

Yvette had insisted that she knew the perfect place to get the sheets and comforter, and another for the perfect shower curtain -- not to bother looking here for them... After all, this was our mission, and missions are important work that require just the right amount of attention to detail.

We rang out, loaded the car and headed off to another store I had never heard of, Fine Linens. Maybe they were unique to the southeast. Yvette showed me directly to the damsk sheets...

"What are damsk sheets?" I asked.

"The best sleep you can ever get in a hot climate... or anywhere for that matter. Ever want to feel what a princess sleeps on? This is it, Karri... This is the only place I've found with 400 thread-count damsk sheets."

"Thread count?" My eyebrows arched inquisitively.

"Oh, the number of threads used in each square inch -- the more threads, the finer the weave. Generic department stores carry 150 to 230 thread-count sheets. Places like Linens & Things carry up to 320 count, which is very nice and used by the swanky rich folks in town. But this place carries 400 count, fit for kings and royalty. It's normally impossible to find anymore, and I really think that they are selling old stock that was made fifty to eighty years ago and hidden somewhere like a buried treasure..."

I felt repulsed. "Fifty year old sheets?"

"They're still brand new, and I don't know of any place that still makes 400 count damsk sheets anymore, so they could easily be 50 years old. Hell, some of mine are older than that -- handed down from my great grandmother when she died. Then I stumbled across this place and sent great grandma's to my mother. Among other things, you can virtually boil these, which means no stains and they just get softer with each washing. But you should iron them when you wash them," Yvette explained.

"Sheets that I have to iron? What century are you living in, Yvette?"

"Here, feel this. Imagine being swathed in this fabric, in pure white, when you wake, clean, soft, impeccable. Have I ever steered you wrong, Caroline?"

I knew as soon as I touched them I had to have them. She was right. Visions of being a princess floated in my head and I realized that I would never want to get out of bed again... Then I imagined sex in these sheets and the floodgates opened again. I was wet and heady, and I knew it.

"Yvette, I will leave this to you, since you obviously know so much about it," I said, trying to cover up the sudden head rush of thoughts that were overwhelming me.

Yvette selected four sheets, four pillow cases and two comforter covers, plus two huge (huge!) feather pillows and a very light down comforter that was as light as the proverbial feather.

"Do these need to be washed before use?" Yvette asked the matron who obviously owned the small store.

"The damsk sheets and cases are already freshly washed and pressed... We take care of that regularly. You might want to throw the pillows and comforter into a dryer for a few minutes on medium-high just to freshen them up," the matron responded, wrapping up the purchases and ringing us out.

If I hadn't been so taken with my thoughts, I would have fainted dead away when I handed my credit card over -- the total was outrageous, bordering on the ridiculous. As it was, I would notice later and get very mad at myself for letting her talk me into it... and then forgive her while luxuriating in this heavenly experience that was now my bed.

By the time we got to our next stop, dusk was coming on quickly. We entered the Pier One close-out store, where we obtained a short end-tabled to use as a night stand, and something akin to an old pirate chest with a secret bottom drawer to put at the foot of the bed. My mind was still afloat with the ideas of being a princess on a bed of royalty waiting for my prince to come and take me -- not take me away, but take me, in the most blatantly carnal of ways. As we drove home, Yvette pointed out the time...

"Sorry, Karri, clothes shopping will have to wait for tomorrow."

"I have orientation tomorrow, Yvette."

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's not like it used to be, where they actually showed you around campus. What time is your orientation?"

"I have to be at the Marshall Events Center at 11:15 am, but I have to pay for orientation first at the orientation office, where ever that is. I'm allowed to bring a guest, want to hang with me?" I was happy to be around Yvette again, like old times.

"I'll tell you what -- I'll take you over to campus tomorrow morning, get you to the orientation office and then to the auditorium, and then I'll duck out and catch back up with you when the orientation lectures are over. Let me make a call and try to reset some plans."

She fished out her cell phone and obviously speed-dialed. She spoke quietly, but with some urgency.

"Hey, needed to inform you of a mandatory change of plans on my end. 11:35 at the UC would work. Let me know. [unintelligible]."

She hung up. I looked at her.

"It should be fine, Caroline. No worries..."

I shrugged. "Yvette, you don't have to change you plans because of lil' old me."

"Stop that Karri. I know what it means to get lost like a cog in the wheels here. The school is huge and imposing and there are so many stupid run-arounds and rules and loopholes. Say, what did you put on your application as your native language?"

"Huh?"

"What did you put on your application as your native language?"

"English, of course. Why, Yvette?"

"We'll have to get that changed. I think you grew up speaking something else at home, oh, Mongolian now. Or Hungarian."

I felt puzzled. This was ruining my revere. "What the hell are you babbling about?"

"Well, if you claim your native language isn't English, then you can take the Test of English as a Foreign Language -- TOEFL for short -- instead of taking a mandatory two semesters of a foreign language. Two and half hours of a fairly straight-forward English test verses a year of some language. It's one of those loopholes I was talking about."

She smiled wide. And I got it. Damn... I'm glad I have a friend like her... loopholes...

We pulled into the complex again, and carried the stuff upstairs in three trips. Yvette threw the comforter in the dryer for five minutes, while I started unpacking everything. She sent me out to get the comforter and throw the pillows into the dryer when her cell phone rang. I looked at her, curious, but she just flashed her eyes towards the door and the dryer. I understood and walked with the pillows.

When I walked back in, I heard the very tail end of the conversation.

"...appreciates it greatly."

I was confused again. That sounded third-person to me, which means that she must have been saying that I appreciated something greatly. What was it that I appreciated greatly? Maybe her help.

She hung up and looked at me, smiling. "I don't know about you, but a day of shopping sure has left me famished, but also tired. What do you say we order a pizza and then hit the sack early?"

I heard my stomach grumble at the thought of food and it wiped my confusion away temporarily. Not living at home any more meant not having dinner ready automatically each night. "That sounds great."

Yvette called for pizza while I set-up the alarm clock, setting the time. When she got off the phone, she showed me how to properly cover the pillows and comforter, a feat that sounds simpler than it was. Together we covered the bed in those luxurious sheets. I lay down on the bed and wished that we hadn't ordered pizza, that I could simply ask Yvette to leave and go back to my princess fantasy... in private.

We spent the next half hour arranging and then rearranging things, until everything fit perfectly. I was quite pleased with what we got, although I realized that what I really needed...

"Say, Yvette, what this room really needs is a love seat -- a couch would be too big -- or perhaps one of those one-armed chaise thingees, like the old French homes had..."

She scanned the room real quickly and then nodded in agreement. "I know where we can get the love seat cheaply, but I'm not sure about a proper chaise lounge. And you need a ceiling fan, too. They'll have to wait for a couple days anyway... groceries and clothes first. I feel bad that we didn't get you at least another outfit for tomorrow."

"Yvette, I have clothes! It's not like I showed up here naked and bare."

She smiled at that comment, almost knowingly. A knock on the door turned out to be the pizza man, but then again, I had no reason to believe that it would be anyone else, right? It's not like HE would simply show up at my door, uninvited, unexpected, and sweep me away... Well, a girl can have fantasies right?

We ate like a couple of ravenous wolves at first, quenching our hungers, and then I told her of more of the friends and schoolmates we had had at home -- what perils and adventures had happened to them, mostly gossip and second hand tales, but it was a nice conversation and helped keep my fantasies at bay for the moment.

After most of the pizza was gone, Yvette stood up.

"You know Karri, I feel bad leaving you all alone here, but I really need to get some sleep. If you want, you can come crash on my couch... I don't think my roommates will hassle you too much, although they can be rather loud when they get home if they've been out partying."

I knew that I wanted to be alone but didn't want to be too obvious. "You go ahead, I need to get to sleep too, and I'm not giving up my first chance to sleep in this heavenly bed."

We both giggled, then hugged and she went back to her place. I made sure I locked the door behind her.

I got undressed and then set about finding some stations on the alarm clock's radio. I found just what I wanted -- something elegant and almost ethereal playing on a weak station, turned it down a bit, and then sank into my bed...

I let the fantasy wash over me again, in full strength... HE was there, my prince, and as my fingers roamed, my skin felt the cool smoothness of the sheets... God, I was so wet. I couldn't recall ever being that stimulated all day... I gave into my needs, my desires and somewhere in between the lust and the night, I fell asleep. And like it had been for Yvette, He was there, holding me to Him.

To be Continued...