Naked Party (1)

My freshman year of college I was in a co-ed dorm. There were two girls who were roommates upstairs, who were both in a music class I was taking, about Beethoven. One of them, Marisha, emailed me one day out of the blue and said she'd been thinking about asking me to go to a film festival with her. But the festival was already over or something. We didn't go, and I ended up dating the other one.

I liked her. But then she started getting a lot of attention from other guys and wanted to have an "open" relationship. It was pretty clear that this meant she wanted to screw a muscular dude down the hall. He had a huge red beard and kept picking her up over his shoulder whenever he saw her. Anyway, seemed like a bad deal. I said we should just break up and we did.

Meanwhile, there was a rumor going around all year that one of the off-campus houses had a secret party where everyone got naked. It always sounded like bullshit to me -- like alligators in the sewer. Then one day one of my friends stopped by my room and asked me if I wanted to go. He reached into his pocket and produced a tiny paper doll with removable clothing, and a note that said each article of paper clothing was a ticket that entitled the bearer to admission. He gave me the pants and told me he didn't know who to invite. Then he gave me a sleeve and said I could bring someone if I wanted to.

Please understand I was so completely clueless that it never occurred to me for one second that inviting a girl would be sketchy. The only thing that saved me was dumb blind luck: I was sitting in the hallway with a bunch of other kids one night. We were probably drunk. And before I had the chance to say anything stupid, somebody started asking people if they would really go to the naked party if a) it existed and b) they were invited. All the guys said yes. Some girls said no, and I think the obvious gender divide might have pissed Marisha off. Or maybe she had other reasons, who knows. In any case, she was the first girl to say she would go.

"Come on!" she said "How often do you get invited to naked parties? I would feel like a coward if I said no."

"You want an invitation?" I said.

Bravado

I went to an all boys high-school where we had to wear jackets and ties everyday. I wasn't popular. Could hardly talk around girls when I saw them. I had my first kiss at 18 with a girl who I didn't think liked me all that much but was tired of not having a boyfriend. It was horrible. I think we did it because we were tired of being embarrassed about never having kissed anybody. Or, I thought that for a long time. Now I realize I had no idea how she felt. I just couldn't imagine any other reason she'd want to kiss me. That was why I broke up with her, too. It all seemed so obvious that I didn't even think to explain.

Nikki

I flew to a country where I'd once lived for a while. The airport was bright and foreign and familiar. I could never have afforded to come on my own but the whole trip was paid for -- part of a contest I'd entered. I had an nice hotel room in the middle of a giant city. I went to some meetings in the day. At night I called a girl I'd known when I'd lived there. We were English teachers together. We'd been friends then, and that was it, and I'd moved away.

I was pretty sure how it was gonna work out. We had a few drinks and she said she had to catch her train. I asked her to come stay in my room and she said no, then maybe, then yes. I got out of the shower and she was lying in one of the twin beds wearing a hotel robe and nothing else. The room had two twin beds, though, and they were like 4 feet apart. She announced she was going to sleep and asked me to turn the light out.

I remember standing over her bed looking at her in the robe. She was a foreigner, like me. Her family was Taiwanese, but she'd grown up in Australia so she spoke perfect English and had that Aussie accent. She crossed her arms. "What the fuck are you staring at, George? Are you gonna turn out the light or what? I gotta getta sleep." She always talked like that. It cracked me up. She looked great in the robe. It was a little short.

"Nice robe," I said. I went to the bathroom and put my robe on too. Then I turned out the light, and got in the other twin bed. I don't remember exactly what I said next but I can tell you I was completely not smooth. Something like:

"Hey, Nikki." (That wasn't her real name but her real name is just as unbelievable I swear.)

"Yeah, what?"

"Hey, uh, instead of going to sleep, how about we have sex?"

"Whaaaat? Serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious. I'll come over to your bed. What do you think?"

She was quiet for a second. I assumed she was thinking about it. I'm not usually like this, by the

way. I'm not like any of this. But I remember thinking whatever, she already came back to my room and got naked. Anyway, she said "we shouldn't." I said, "that sounds like you want to but you want to work something out first." Didn't take long to get it out of her: she wanted to make sure I knew it was just sex. She didn't want lead me on and break my heart, and she didn't want to have to feel guilty.

Girls always worry about me like that. I think it's really sweet.

"There's nothing to worry about," I said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"All right. Why not, right?"

I put my hand on her ankle in the dark and leaned down and kissed her for the first time. She ran her fingers up under my robe and I was hard underneath it. I lifted up her hand and laced my fingers through hers, then pressed it down on the bed behind her head. She liked that. Her body lifted upward. I untied her robe with my other hand and it fell open. There was a little soft light through the window and it made her stomach and small breasts glossy. I leaned down and kissed her body where it was exposed: first moving upward and sucking on her nipples. Then back down over her belly to her thighs, and between them.

She wasn't the kind of girl who touches you back all that much, but she liked to ride on top, and that's fine with me. She was quick to come, too, much quicker than I was. It was the first time I ever had a girl apologize for finishing early. Obviously, I hardly cared.

In the morning I woke her up with my hands on her belly and hard-on against her ass. We were both still horny. She hadn't bothered to put pants on. I remember she said, "George, are you the kind of guy who has sex in the morning?" like it was some kind of mark against my character.

"Sometimes?" I said.

"Yeah?" she said, rolling over to face me, and pressing a nipple against my chest.

"You're the one who's got to get to work."

"I think I've got a little time."

She let her legs part and slide over me while I opened another condom. Then I held her hands and she sat down on my dick and smiled and then started to breathe harder and grind against me. Her hair fell forward over her shoulders. This time we both came.

I sat in bed and watched her put on her underwear and skirt, and button up her blouse. I gave her a hug and we kissed and then she left.