Let's Experiment

“Hey, Jenni, are you ready to go?” I call as I pound on my best friend’s door, trying to be heard over Lady Gaga’s “LoveGame,” which is blasting from inside.
“Not yet, Mom!” she yells back before opening the door. “Goddammit, Bree, why do your boobs always have to look so fantastic? Come in, I guess. It’s just me and John.” I step nervously into her dorm room, half afraid that the mess on her floor will eat me and half afraid that John will be missing vital articles of clothing--a legitimate fear, given that he’s Jenni’s other best friend and part-time makeout buddy.
“Britnee! Thank God you’ve arrived! I’m dying for lack of someone sane to talk to,” John greets me. Fortunately, he’s fully clothed, which for him means ripped jeans that cannot stay on his hips, revealing three inches of plaid boxers between his waistband and the hem of his plain white teeshirt. In contrast, Jenni and I are both wearing tight, sleek, short dresses that show off our bodies, strappy heels, and a fair amount of jewelry.
“Since when do I qualify as sane?” I ask John, tossing my curly blonde hair over my shoulder.
“Yeah, John, I’m curious about that, too. Bree’s crazier than you are, and that’s saying something,” Jenni laughs as she applies mascara to her long lashes.
“You don’t need to make those big brown eyes any more alluring,” I tell her.
“Shut it. You get a rack like a pair of melons, I get to make my face as alluring as I please. Not like it’ll matter. All the guys at this party will care about are your tits.”
“Jealous much?”
“Yeah, of them for getting to handle them.” We both laugh; Jenni and I make lesbian jokes all the time, and most of our friends wonder if we’re actually joking. We’re practically attached at the hip.
“If you two get it on tonight, you’d better take video of it so that I can watch later,” John remarks, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“You and every other guy on campus,” Jenni snorts. “Or every guy who watches lesbian videos on YouTube, or porn sites. I mean, really, we’d be the hottest lesbian couple ever.” She has a point. She’s a beautiful Italian girl with a great tan, a model’s physique, and a magnificent crown of thick, wavy, black hair. I’m much paler than she is, but it works for me, with my blonde hair and blue eyes.
“Hell yeah we would. You ready to go, babe?” I ask as Jenni spritzes herself with perfume.
“Eh, I suppose. John, take us to this frat party of yours.”
“As you wish, milady,” John bows with a fake British accent. He leads the way out of the room, out of the dorms, and down a few brick-paved streets. The last one we turn onto is bumping with a sick rap beat that seems to be emanating from the house at the end, the one with John’s fraternity’s letters proudly emblazoned above the door. This same establishment is full of girls dressed like Jenni and me and guys dressed much more casually. I don’t understand why guys can’t dress up for these things like we do, but it doesn’t matter now. John pulls us through the door and the front room, where a couple of his frat brothers are playing DJ, and into the kitchen, where he pours us shots of vodka.We take them like champions; we’ve definitely done this before. One shot won’t do much to either of us anymore, which is good, because I don’t want to get wasted tonight. I’ve heard too many stories about girls who blacked out at frat parties and ended up pregnant or losing their virginity to someone they didn’t know. Jenni knows my fears, but she’s more fearless than I am. I’m worried about her. I don’t want her to get hurt.
Still, a party is a party. John takes us upstairs and introduces us to some of his brothers. Most of them are pretty cute, but Jenni was right; they seem to have this inability to make eye contact with me because my chest is so distracting. I love my boobs, but at the same time, they attract a little too much attention. If I can ever find a guy who can actually make eye contact with me instead of staring at my chest, I think I’ll have to marry him on the spot because I’ll never find another one like him.
I return to the dance party downstairs, finding that a better option than the awkward small talk upstairs. I’m never without a partner. One guy for one song, another guy for the next, and so on. It’s easier that way. If you spend too long with one, he’ll get attached, and that’s really not what I’m after. A couple of them try to make out with me and I submit for a little while, but neither of them are very good and I move on quickly.
Then I see Jenni coming down the stairs. There’s just something about the way she looks in the strobe light that makes me pause, makes me want to stare. I shake it off after a second or two. What can I be thinking? She’s my best friend, and besides, I’m straight...right? She sees me in the crowd and pushes her way over to me.
“You wanna get some air?” she yells to me over the music. I nod and follow her out. That crowd was getting stale. We force our way into the back yard, where there are only a few random couples making out and the danger of being peed on from above. She drags me to a back corner, away from most of it.
“What’s the matter? This is usually your scene all over the place,” I ask quietly. She makes a face.
“One too many of those guys came on to me. They’re really forward, like touching me everywhere and trying to get me into one of the bedrooms and stuff, and quite frankly, I’m not that drunk or even interested. I just came out to dance, meet people, and have a good time, not to end up on Teen Mom or Girls Gone Wild,” she grumbles. I laugh.
“They were doing the same thing to me.”
“Yeah, I figured. Honestly I’m surprised you made it out alive. The way those guys upstairs were ogling your--”
“I know. It’s so annoying. You can have them, if you want.”
“Honey, I couldn’t pull those girls off and you know it. They wouldn’t fit on my chest.” We both laugh. Her frame is a little narrower than mine, but not that much. A drunk guy stumbles out the back door, crashes into a trash can, and pukes on his shoes, making us laugh even harder. Then our eyes meet, and our laughter quickly dies. Jenni breaks the moment first, turning her gaze towards the hazy stars overhead as she leans casually against the fence. I mimic her pose.
“Have you ever thought that maybe a boyfriend’s not what you’re after?” she inquires pensively.
“What, you mean, like, wanting random hookups instead? No,” I respond, confused.
“No. I think I want a relationship, but...I don’t know. Guys just haven’t seemed that appealing lately, even the hot ones.”
“So you want a girlfriend?” She shrugs.
“I don’t know. I think I’d have to at least kiss a girl first, to find out.”
“I thought you made out with every girl except me at that last party we went to.”
“That’s different. I was trashed. And none of them really meant anything to me, you know? None of them really stuck out.” I nod thoughtfully, wondering where she’s going with this. She suddenly shifts her weight back to her feet and turns to me. “Bree...would you mind if I kissed you?” My mind goes blank.
“Go for it,” I find myself saying as I shift to look at her. She steps closer to me, eyes locked on mine. Our chests almost touch and both of us are hesitating, uncertain of how to proceed. Unlike Jenni, I’ve never kissed a girl before. Her fingers touch my chin, pulling my lips towards hers.
At first it’s strange, even as my eyes flutter closed and my lips move against hers. Neither one of us is really sure what we’re doing. But then her arms wrap around my shoulders, pulling me closer to her. Mine find themselves around her waist. Our chests press together and I’m...enjoying it. I like having her lips on mine. I like being this close to her.
“Holy shit, I knew this would happen! Craig, get me your video camera NOW!” John yells from a window upstairs. Jenni and I break apart and glare at him.
“I think we need a better place for this, don’t you?” she asks pointedly.
“I couldn’t agree more. Mine or yours?”
“Your room is closer.” That decided, we walk home, ignoring Jake’s pleas to come back and “make love for the camera.” I unlock the door to my residence hall and lead the way to my room on the second floor. As soon as we’re inside Jenni presses me against the door and crushes my lips with hers. She has to be plastered. But she’s not. Her mouth tastes like cherry sprite. All evidence of even the shot from earlier is gone.
“Let me know if this is too weird for you,” she whispers against my lips before starting to kiss down my neck. I sigh involuntarily. How can this feel so good?! I moan when she hits my sweet spot and then pull her mouth back to mine, wanting to return the favor. I kiss her neck and she moans, too, before starting to rub my breasts.
“I’ve always...wanted...to touch them,” she breathes, making me chuckle between kisses, getting dangerously close to her cleavage.
“You’re welcome,” I reply before biting down gently, making her moan louder.
“You never told me you liked it rough, Bree.” She pulls my face off her neck and leads me over to my own bed.
“When would that have come up?” She shrugs before lying down and pulling me down next to each other.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter now. Cuddle with me.”
“Of course.” I wrap my arms around her, and everything feels incredibly right, especially when she embraces me, too.
“So what does this mean for us?” she asks after several minutes of silence in my dark dorm room. My roommate left for the weekend, meaning there’s no chance of us being disturbed, unless it’s by John and his porno-filming crew.
“I don’t know. What do you want it to mean?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to ruin our friendship. What if things didn’t work out?”
“It’d be hard. I don’t want to lose you, either.”
“Could we be friends with benefits, do you think?”
“That could work, for now.” We remain comfortably silent for a while longer, listening to the drunk people outside and the really bad piano player in the lobby. “Are you a lesbian?”
“No. I still like boys, I think. I can still find them attractive. John and I were making out for a bit before you came up tonight. But I think I’m bi. What about you?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never even considered the idea of anything other than straight until now. My parents would kill me if they knew.”
“So for now you’re bicurious, and don’t let them find out. College is a time of experimentation, right?” I grin and kiss her briefly.
“That’s what we’ve been told.”
“So let’s experiment.” And she kisses me again.