Ostracism Pt. 01

Truth be told, Danny had no claim on her, and she had no claim on him; she was completely single, and if Brandon wanted to spend time with her, well, why not? After all, Danny had his chances to make a move on her, and hadn't. The expression, 'You snooze, you lose,' came to her mind, and Danny had snoozed.

Still, there was that nagging thought that Brandon was out of her league that kept coming back to her. He should be dating some 5'10 blue-eyed blonde, with perfect teeth and a perfect wardrobe. Mary Margaret wanted to just plain ask Brandon why he'd asked her, when the campus was full of better-looking girls, but no, no way did she have the nerve to ask something like that.

It turned out that Hibachi Express was crowded, and there were no tables to be had, but Brandon had warned her that might be the case. He'd mentioned eating on the steps leading up to the second-floor apartments before, but she suggested a decent, empty park bench right across the street, off the sidewalk leading up to Memorial Hall. Brandon liked that suggestion, so, dodging cars back across South Limestone - even though there was a pedestrian crosswalk and light right at the intersection - they scurried up to the park bench to eat, and talk.

And holy cow, he was more than just good looking, she thought. He was from Manchester, just a county away from her hometown of Corbin, and he had these brown eyes she could just get lost in. Just a year older than her, at 21, he still had a 'mature' voice, one which simply commanded attention. This guy ought to be on television.

To top it all off, he was interesting. He could talk, with knowledge and confidence, about every topic they discussed, though somehow, some way, it was difficult to remember much of what they talked about. Brandon was a keeper, she thought, at least if he wanted to be.

"So, where are you staying? You have an apartment, or do you live in the dorms?" he asked her.

"Oh, I'm over in Blanding Tower 1," she said, "sixth floor."

"OK, that's cool I guess. I've got an apartment on High Street, right near Rose. Would I be pushing too hard if I said I'd love to cook dinner for you some time?" Sweet Lord Jesus, he'd just asked her out!

"Well, what's sometime? I eat in the dorm complex cafeteria, meal card, you know."

"I haven't got anything decent for supper tonight, so I need time to shop. Maybe later this week?"

Mary Margaret hesitated for a second or two. He hadn't really asked her out, he had asked her in, as into his apartment. He was so good looking, he probably did this all the time, just to get in girls' pants, and it almost surely worked for him. Heck, she was a 'good girl,' who didn't 'put out' on the first date, but she thought that if she was alone with this hunk, that first date rule she had might be honored in the breach!

"How about Friday? I'm kind of swamped with homework and projects, and I need to get that stuff done, work on it every night, so the weekend would be smarter for me." Mary Margaret was playing it safe, she thought, but then realized that she had, without conscious thought, pulled off her librarian glasses, playing with them in her right hand, so Brandon could see her eyes better. She had blue eyes, well, kind of a cross between blue and grey, and she thought they looked pretty, even though she hadn't worn any eye makeup today.

"Can I see your phone for a second?" he asked her. That question startled her for a second, but she handed it over to him. Brandon quickly punched his own number into her contacts list, and then called his own cell to pick up her number. Oh my God, she thought, he really is serious about this!

"We'll plan on Friday then," he said to her, "and I'll promise you a good meal and a clean apartment. Then, we can do something after supper, if you'd like."

Mary Margaret was elated; Brandon had just said that they could do something away from his apartment after they ate, and that meant she wouldn't be stuck inside, alone with him, in case he was just trying to put another notch in his bedpost. "Sure," she answered, "that'd be cool." Cool? She never talked like that!

"Listen, it's almost one, and I've got a class to run to. But I'll see you in class, and on Friday, OK?" Then, without waiting for an answer, Brandon took her glasses from her hand, and put them back on her. "I like the glasses. You really rock that look," he said, before giving her a quick, totally unexpected light kiss. With that, he stood up and left, heading down the sidewalk that passed Memorial Hall.

Mary Margaret just sat there, watching him walk away. His insulated vest barely came down to the top of his jeans, and that meant she could check out his butt - and it was a damned fine butt! - as he walked away. Unlike a lot of guys around UK, he wore his shirt tucked in, and he had a belt wide enough that it just fit the belt loops to help define his hips.

It took her a second, but she finally realized that if she stared any harder at him, she'd be drooling all over herself, in public! And that kiss, so brief, just barely there, and it turned her on just so much, leaving her wanting more.

But then there was Danny. What the heck was she thinking about? She'd told Danny that she was just a friend, that she wasn't looking for a boyfriend, and really she wasn't, at least not when she said it. But those few days with Danny at her parents' house, and she wasn't so sure about that anymore. If Danny had just made a move, just given her some clue that he was interested in her as more than a friend, but no, he hadn't done that, and almost seemed to be going out of his way not to do that.

Mary Margaret had her own one o'clock class, one she almost daydreamed out of her consciousness, and she'd better get a move on! It was over in the Whitehall Classroom Building, and that was several minutes away. She wound up being the last one there, a couple minutes after one, but it was a big, auditorium style classroom, on the first floor, and she was able to scoot into a seat in the back row without her tardiness being too noticeable.

She might as well have skipped class, for all of the good the lecture did her. She'd gotten out her notebook, but her notes were just a few words or two, nothing that would make any sense at all when she read through them to study for finals.

Was she somehow cheating on Danny by agreeing to a date with Brandon? Wait, where the heck did that come from? Danny wasn't her boyfriend, and she didn't somehow 'owe' him anything. He hadn't asked her out or anything, hadn't made the first hint of a move.

"You OK?"

Huh? Danny was asking her, over their regular cafeteria supper, how she felt. Mary Margaret had been kind of lost in space, daydreaming her way through supper. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about some stuff I've got to get done before class tomorrow." That was a lie, but still, even though she wasn't somehow cheating on a guy who wasn't her boyfriend, she didn't want to tell him about Brandon. It might hurt his feelings, she thought.

Still, it was easy enough to slip into their routine of dinner, and then heading for the library to knock out homework. Danny thought that she looked a bit preoccupied, but he was scared to rock the boat, now that she'd already said once that everything was OK.

Monday evening passed, and so did Tuesday, before Mary Margaret had her next class with Brandon. He was just as nice to her this time as he'd been on Monday, and she decided, what the heck, she was going to return the favor, asking him out to lunch, her treat. They only had the one hour break before their next classes, so they needed to stay somewhat close, and picked Han Woo Ri, the Korean restaurant in the Sqecial Media building. It was a bit of a walk, and Jimmy Johns and McDonald's were right there, but Brandon seemed to like oriental food, so that's where they went.

It turned out to be kind of a wolf-it-down meal, because Brandon's next class was in the old Journalism building, and that was a fair distance away; the Whitehall building for her next class was closer. Still, they had a few minutes to chat, and Brandon made sure that there wasn't anything in particular she couldn't eat, so that he could fix the right supper for her on Friday. Things were light-hearted enough, and that made it a bit easier for Mary Margaret to think clearly, something she hadn't been doing the first time they were together.

Still, thinking more clearly didn't give her the nerve to ask him why he's asked her out, or if he had another girlfriend. He was just too good looking not to have had a girlfriend, but maybe he'd just broken up with someone. He had gotten a haircut since Monday which he commented on.

"Oh, I had to. I've got ROTC on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and my hair was getting longer than regulation."

"Oh, so if I saw you then, I'd get to check you out in a uniform?" Holy cow, that was a bold line for her! She'd thought it, and next thing she knew, she just said it out loud. Still, it must've been the right thing to say, because Brandon got a huge smile on his face. Didn't he know that girls were always checking him out, she thought, managing to keep that one to herself.

But, their one hour break was flying past, and they had to head out to their one o'clock classes. They both had back packs for their notebooks and laptops, and if they were walking back at a hurried pace, he still surprised Mary Margaret when, after they crossed Limestone, he took her hand.

She was practically seeing stars! This was so simple, just like that quick kiss on Monday, but it was as though Brandon knew exactly what to do to keep her hanging on for more. And it didn't hurt her feelings any when she noticed a couple of girls obviously wondering how she'd managed to snag such a cute boyfriend.

When they got to the Whitehall Classroom Building, where her next class was, he did it again, giving her that briefest of kisses before heading off toward his own class. She'd really just met him, but Mary Margaret wanted to run after him and tackle him right on the lawn outside, she was so turned on. She managed to restrain herself. How the heck was she going to stick to the no-sex-on-the-first-date rule she had when he knew so well how to turn her on?

But one thing she noticed: all of a sudden, she wasn't wondering if Danny was ever going to make a romantic move toward her.

Did that bother her? She had to ponder that for a while, when she decided that no, it didn't bother her. Danny had had his chance, and he'd passed it up. Yeah, he'd have more chances, but Mary Margaret wasn't sure that he'd ever take one.

"Hey, MM, looks like Rich and I are going to be out all night, if you and your boyfriend want to use the room." That was Sarah, Mary Margaret's roommate.

"What? I don't have a boyfriend, Sarah."

"Really? What about that guy you've started hanging around, whatshisname, the guy who made that porno."

"He's not my boyfriend, he was just lonely, is all, and I didn't think it was right for everybody to be shunning him like they were."

"Girl, you took him home to meet your folks for Thanksgiving. That sounds awful boyfriendy to me."

"It's not like that; he didn't have anyplace to go for the holidays is all."

"Yeah, sure, you just keep telling yourself that. Anyway, bye, I'll see you tomorrow."

Mary Margaret's mind was whirling! Danny wasn't her boyfriend, hadn't made the first move toward something like that. He had told her, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn't gay, but it was also true that he had no other female friends. If he wanted a girlfriend - and what straight college boy didn't? - he should have given her some clue by now.

And now, there was Brandon. Really, she barely knew him, but she did have a date with him for Friday, and he was hot, hot, hot! He turned her on in ways Danny never had. Well, maybe it was time to take advantage of Sarah being gone to see just what Danny was really thinking.

Supper that evening was pretty much the same as always. She had noticed that, slowly, the tables next to Danny's were getting taken. Not all at once, mind you, but a few of them. Since she had started being his friend, it was as though the ostracism he'd been getting from everyone else was fading out. Danny had told her how his roommate had backed off a bit on the aversion.

"Listen, Danny, my roommate is going to be out all night, if you want to get our stuff done there instead of the library," she suggested.

"Isn't that going to cause you problems? I mean, it's one thing for us to eat together and study in the library, but people are going to talk if I'm spending time in your dorm room."

"I'm not worried about it, so you don't need to be. C'mon up, around 7:30, room 632, right above yours."

Danny was trying to process this. This was a qualitative change, and yeah, he liked her, but he didn't want to subject her to the ostracism he'd been getting; that just wouldn't be right. But an invitatio9n to her room, with the statement that her roommate was going to be gone until morning . . . .

He knocked on her door two minutes early. Overthinking things, he didn't want to be late, but Danny thought if he was too early, it might look weird.

Mary Margaret answered the door, looking different than he usually saw her. It was December, and normally she was dressed for the cold end-of-fall winds and depressing cold. This time, she was in some kind of thin white sweatpants and a red, wide necked t-shirt, the kind which kept coming off one shoulder. A shiny black bra strap was visible on the bared shoulder. Holy crap, she looked cute!

Was she making a move on him? Damn, how could he know? The dorm room was warm, so it wasn't like she was underdressed, she was just comfortable and casual. There was no way to infer from her lighter outfit that she was behaving any differently toward him.

The tower had wifi, so Danny's laptop hooked up easily, with no special connections being needed. When they worked in the library, they were both at the tables, no big deal, but this evening Mary Margaret was sitting cross-legged on her bed while Danny was using the chair and desk. Man, she looked good!

Oh, she wasn't a skinny-mini, the way so many college girls were, but she certainly wasn't overweight, either. She looked solid, and kind of strong. Sitting the way she was had her sweatpants pulled tightly against her legs, almost as tightly as if she had been wearing yoga pants, and they just barely came down below her knees as she was sitting.

More, she was barefoot, and if not quite a fetish for him, Danny very much liked girls who wore skimpy shoes, or none. Spring was always a fun time for him, when the girls broke out their flip-flops after months of heavy shoes and boots, and fall dreary, as those sandals slowly disappeared. Her toenails were painted, a frosty white, which would have caught his attention even more in the summer, though her pale winter skin tone didn't make nearly as much of a contrast now.

Man, it was hard to concentrate! Whatever Mary Margaret was doing, it was completely casual. She wasn't flirting with him in the slightest, but it didn't matter: he was a total wreck mentally.

Still, there was Danny's resolution that he wasn't going to subject this wonderful girl to the indignities of being the fag whore's girlfriend. He just couldn't do that to her.

And then it got worse for Danny: Mary Margaret got up to look for something, and when she was bent over, the sweatpants tightened across her butt. Through the white sweatpants, he could tell that she was wearing a black thong. That wrecked him worse than the bare feet!

What the Hell was going on? She was teasing him unmercifully with her looks, but not a bit with her demeanor; she wasn't flirting, and she wasn't behaving any differently than she had been in the library.

Mary Margaret was wondering what was happening herself. It was no accident that she was showing a bit more skin than usual; she'd planned it that way, to see if Danny would show any interest. She'd carefully painted her nails and shaved her legs just a few hours ago, and she knew that her black thong would show through the white sweatpants. She couldn't have made it more obvious if she'd been there in her nightgown! And Danny wasn't making even the first hint of a move, wasn't showing any interest at all. She'd thought that he was checking out her legs, but wasn't sure.

It was her weight, damn it! She wasn't a size one or three, the way so many of the other girls were. She was kind of in between a seven and a nine, and while those weren't huge sizes, being just 5'2 still made her look stocky. Why else wouldn't Danny be making some kind of move?

Studying wasn't doing her the least bit of good, because she just wasn't concentrating. Maybe Danny was just too shy, and she needed to make some sort of move to push things along.

But no, Hell no, she'd given him enough of a hint by her dress, and if he couldn't man up and do something himself, either he really wasn't interested, or he wasn't worth having. And Brandon was interested.

Or at least he had asked her out. Just what he was interested in was an unanswered question. That he was interested in sex went without saying: every guy was interested in sex. Mary Margaret just didn't know if that was the only reason he asked her out, and she was still worried that he was out of her league.

Damn it, this wasn't feminist, wasn't liberated woman at all, but she knew what she needed to do: she needed to make Danny jealous! And, after all, she did need to tell him that they couldn't get together on Friday, so letting him know that she had a date, well that wasn't really playing the make-him-jealous card, was it?

Question is, should she do that tonight, or wait until Thursday? Friday was disrespectfully late, so it had to be tonight or tomorrow. Heck, no sense doing today what you can put off until tomorrow, right?

Mary Margaret was pretty nervous about asking her roommate this one. "Hey, Sarah, look, do you have any condoms around here?"

"What? You? I thought this Danny guy wasn't your boyfriend, or did things get hot and heavy last night?" Sarah was grinning broadly.

"No, no, but I've kind of got a date tomorrow night."

"You mean not with Danny? I thought you had a 'no-sex-on-the-first-date rule'?"

"Well, I keep telling myself that, but this guy, Brandon, who asked me over to his apartment for dinner, oh my gosh, he's just really good looking, and charming as all get out, and I keep thinking about it, and I'm just not sure I can resist if he tries to go that way."

"So, what did you tell Danny?"

"I haven't told him anything, not yet, but I guess that I have to tell him this evening that we can't study together tomorrow."

"That should be fun. But anyway, I don't have any. I'm on the pill, so Greg and I don't use rubbers. I know that you can get some over at Student Health, though. Still, shouldn't this Brandon guy have some?"

"Guys should, yeah, but I don't know that he does, and I want to be protected just in case. I mean, I'm not likely to get pregnant, 'cause my period should start in just a couple days, but he's so good looking that I can't imagine he hasn't had a bunch of girlfriends in the past."

"Is he really that good looking, or are you just horny?" Sarah was getting nosy.

"Well, both, I guess. Thing is, I've only been with a couple of guys, and they weren't all that great, you know? I mean, Brandon just plain looks sexy, looks like the kind of man who could really show a girl a good time, but I guess you never know, do you? He could be a good looking dud. But I don't want to cancel this date, and I don't know how to tell Danny."

"Has Danny made any moves at all like he'd like to be more than study partners?"