Chapter 144
Avery
When new friends-or roommates-offered something to each other, it was tough to make the first move. Nobody wanted to be the first person to ask for a favor, whether it was a weed gummy or a scantron sheet. As a wise man of twenty-one years, I had learned that you built trust by first trusting other people. If you indebted yourself to them, then they would feel comfortable asking for a favor later. It all snowballed from there.
Because of this, I wanted to take Leslie up on her offer of a scantron sheet. Those were the sheets with bubbles you had to fill in with a number two pencil. I had two tests this week, and students were required to bring their own scantrons. The book store where they were sold was way on the other side of campus, so borrowing some from Leslie would save me some time and hassle. And it would make her more comfortable if she ever asked me for a favor.
Her bedroom door was closed, though. I poked my head into Riley’s room and asked if she was busy.
“I just talked to her a few minutes ago,” he replied. “She should still be awake. She said she needed to study.”
I closed his door and then knocked on Leslie’s. There was no answer, and everything in the room was silent, although the light appeared to be on. I waited a few more seconds, then knocked harder.
“I’m… come in!” she called. There was a strange tension to her voice, like she was lifting something heavy. But she did say come in, so I turned the knob and opened the door.
Leslie wasn’t lifting something heavy. She was in bed, under the covers, with a textbook in her lap and her phone held in her hand. Except her eyes were closed shut, and she was kind of stretching underneath the covers… When her eyes opened, she recoiled in surprise. Her phone flew from her hands, bounced off the edge of the bed, and landed at my feet with the screen facing up.
Now, I was a healthy young man. I had seen my fair share of porn, and recognized it instantly even though the screen was small way down by my feet. There was one woman, a busty blonde, surrounded on all sides by dudes. She was currently being double-penetrated-that is to say, fucked in the pussy and the ass at the same time. My brain absorbed all of this information in approximately a tenth of a second.
And then the audio removed all doubt.
What was a guy supposed to do in this situation? I sure as hell didn’t know. So I mumbled, “Sorry!” before closing the door and practically running down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“What’s gotten into you?” Harper asked. He was sitting in the recliner in the kitchen, and must have had a front row seat to my escape. I hadn’t even noticed him.
“Nothing. Just, uh… weed paranoia,” I replied. Harper seemed to buy that excuse, because he shook his head and returned to focusing on the textbook in his lap.
I got a beer out of the fridge and stared off in thought.
I just caught Leslie masturbating.
To porn.
Masturbating to gangbang porn.
I wondered why she invited me into her room. She could have said a thousand things when I knocked, but she said come in. But it must have been an accident, because she did not expect to see me standing in the doorway.
Also, how many women watched that kind of porn? I thought only guys liked that kind of thing. I always pictured women watching emotional, sensual porn. Not a fucking gangbang where there are so many bodies that it’s tough to tell where one person ends and another begins.
My mind raced. Leslie was into Riley. They almost hooked up at the party before classes started, before they realized they were roommates. And she knew that I almost hit on her, but lost at rock, paper, scissors. Hell, she even made a joke about not minding that I made my smoothies shirtless.
Is she one of those girls? Like Jess?
Once the thought was in my head, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I had thought our ex-girlfriend was unique. The kind of woman you only found once in a lifetime. But here was a bunch of evidence that Leslie might have the same sexual appetites…
Leslie stayed in her room for an hour before coming downstairs. When she saw me on the couch, she visibly flinched. Not a good sign.
“I was just coming downstairs to get a beer,” she said.
“Cool,” I replied. Harper frowned at her, then at me.
She was behind me, so I couldn’t see anything, but I heard the fridge door open, then close. A beer hissed open. Leslie sighed after taking a long sip.
“Hey,” she said casually. “Can I ask you for a favor, Avery?”
“Sure.”
I got up and followed her back into my room. I could feel Harper’s eyes on my back. When we were both inside, I softly closed the door.
“Listen,” I said, beginning my apology.
“What were you doing?” she demanded, arms crossed over her chest.
“I was going to ask you for a scantron. I have a test tomorrow.”
“No, I mean-why did you walk in on me!”
I blinked at her. “You said come in.”
“No I didn’t!” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. Her face was turning bright red. “I said… coming. As in, I’m coming to the door.”
“Oh. Well, it sounded like you said come in.”
“That’s not what I said.”
I could tell this was a major fuck-up on my part. She was a new roommate, a woman living with three men, and I had totally violated her privacy. If the roles were reversed, and someone walked in on me jacking off, I would probably die of embarrassment. I needed to fix this.
“It’s no big deal,” I told her. “Everyone does… what you were doing.”
“Avery…”
I couldn’t stop my mouth from flapping. “I totally watch porn sometimes, and I know Riley does. Harper tries to act like he’s better than that, but I’ve definitely heard him through the wall before. And if it’s the kind of porn you’re embarrassed about, we’ve got you beat. The three of us used to date a girl, Jess, who was into-”
“Avery,” she snapped. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t even want to think about it. So can we please just pretend like it never happened, and go back to being roommates?”
“Forget about what?” I asked, grinning. “See, I’m pretending like I don’t remember, because you said to act like it never even happened.”
“I get it.” She pursed her lips. “I’ll go get that scantron for you.”
“Forget about it. I’ll get it from you in the morning.”
“Okay.”
We stood there awkwardly. I found myself thinking, man, she’s hot. She was dolled up the night we met her at the party, but now? To me, nothing beat a cute girl in a shirt and sweatpants. Casual. That’s who she really was, and I liked what I saw.
“So…” Leslie said. “Can I get some gummies?”
“For sure,” I said, reaching under the bed to get my stash. “I don’t blame you for wanting to get a little stoned.”
“It’s just an excuse for why I needed to come in here,” she replied blandly. “So Harper doesn’t get weird about it.”
“An excuse. Sure.” I winked, then handed her a little baggy with three gummies inside.
In spite of everything, she laughed. “Thanks.” She walked out of my room, then called over her shoulder, “Thanks for the gummies,” for Harper’s benefit.
At least I made her laugh, I thought.
My own edible was starting to kick in about this time. I went to the kitchen and rummaged around for snacks in the pantry. Harper said goodnight and retired to his room. Then Riley came downstairs.
“Psst,” I said, waving him over. “Come here.”
“I don’t care how good you think those Doritos taste,” he said. “It’s only because you’re high.”
“Naw, dude, I’m not high. Okay, I am a little bit. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” I lowered my voice. “I caught Leslie watching porn.”
Riley gave a start. “Seriously?”This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - ©.
I caught him up on the situation upstairs, and the embarrassment after.
“Okay,” Riley said. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because she was watching gangbang porn. She totally wants multiple dicks. Inside of, and adjacent to, her.”
Riley snorted. “You don’t know that. People watch porn all the time without wanting to actually do what’s in the videos. I watch videos of people having sex in public, like in dressing rooms and stuff, but I would never be bold enough to do that for real.”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “But what if she does want to do that?”
“Who cares?”
“I care, because she might be like Jess.”
A dark expression came over Riley’s face. His blue eyes swung toward the hallway, then he said, “If Harper knew we were discussing this…”
“He’d be into it!” I insisted. “He says he doesn’t want another situation like Jess, but-”
“Drop it,” he snapped. “She’s been our roommate for two weeks. Maybe get to know her before you start fantasizing about the three of us tripleteaming her.” He shook his head. “Jesus.”
I cocked my head at him. “Have you hooked up with her?”
He flinched. “What? Leslie? Of course not. We made out at the party, but that’s it.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you asking?”
I shrugged. “Just curious.”
I carried my bag of Doritos back into my room and spent the night wondering if he was hiding something.