Chapter 3

"Yeah, but I've got this huge area under my one-piece suit of yucky white. Sure would have liked to wear a bikini, but they wouldn't let me."

"Meet anybody? Have a nice summer romance?"

"You mean, did I get lucky?"

"Well, yeah."

"One of the other lifeguards came on to me 'n' asked me out, but I don't know. He was a little, uh, a little off, you know, a little weird. After I turned him down, he was snarly and rude to me. Glad I did."

"So, nothing, huh?"

"I hung out with a guy I knew from high school a few times. We made out a few times and I would have gone a little further 'cause I was getting pretty horny. It had been a few months since Trevor and, well, you know."

"Why didn't you?"

"He let slip he was seeing someone at college. He was cheating on her! I told him what I thought about him as I kicked his ass to the curb. Right as I thought I'd have some fun, I ended up having to take care of myself the entire summer."

Shelly found herself secretly pleased, but also a little guilty when Gina asked about Shelly's summer.

"Had a good time. Worked hard. We had a great crew and took care of over a hundred miles of trails in the wilderness."

"Yeah, I tried to reach you a few times, but you were never available."

"Got no bars on the phone for days on end. And no bars to meet anybody at."

"So, didn't get together with anybody?"

"Well, there was this one gal who approached me near the end. Seems she's still in the closet and from a small town and a conservative family. She'd never even been with a girl."

"And now she has? You're a smooth operator!"

"No, it wasn't like that. She was nervous, had never even kissed a girl, and wanted to explore things a little."

"And?"

"Well, I taught her how to kiss and a little more, maybe, but nothing big. Main thing I did was to make sure she was safe and knew what to do once she decided to come out."

"Well, did you teach her about what makes you happy?" Gina teased.

"No, I didn't. This was more about her. Besides, I didn't want to get emotionally tied up with her."

"Why not?"

"She lives too far away and besides, I want to keep my options open."

"Oooh, somebody's gonna be on the prowl!"

A few days later, the two showed up at the intramural soccer meeting. There were enough students to have seven teams and like before, the two played together on the same team. Games were on Saturday, and by mid-November each team would have played all the other teams.

For Shelly, the game was the highlight of the week. After spending days studying and trying to get decent grades, an hour and a half of running, passing the ball and occasionally scoring was a great way to deal with pent-up frustrations and worries.

As before, Gina and Shelly were paired up as forwards and they became known as the Devil Duo by the opposing teams. Together, they scored one or two goals nearly every game and the team ended up winning most of their games. The season ended when the weather turned nasty in November and everyone got together for a large party at the student union. There was plenty of food, a DJ played some tunes for dancing and though alcohol was technically prohibited, a few snuck in some vodka to spike their drinks.

Shelly, who took it easy with any alcohol, was approached by an obviously tipsy woman from another team.

"Care to dance?"

Shelly nodded and joined Whitney on the dance floor. They danced to a few fast tunes and when the DJ put on a slow tune, they danced arm in arm.

"You're gay, aren't you?" asked Whitney.

"Uh-hmm."

"What's it like, I mean, being with a girl?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, uh, do you, uh, what do you do, you know, for sex?"

The question irritated Shelly a little. "Well, what's it like being with a guy?"

"That's easy. You usually go down on him, get him off so he has some staying power for the real thing, you know, for when you fuck."

"And that's it?"

"Pretty much."

"He go down on you?"

"Nah. Most guys won't."

"That's so wrong."

"Yeah, but it's pretty common. So, tell me, what do you do?"

For the second time in the year, Shelly found herself in a teaching role to another woman. First, there was Britt and now Whitney, who seemed more bicurious than anything else. And it was frustrating, because Shelly wanted a fun, loving relationship and not merely a mentorship. But, she admitted to herself, she would be more than glad to mentor one particular woman, a woman who, unfortunately, continued to go out with guys.

"Well, we do a lot with fingers, you know, kinda like fucking motions, rubbing the bean. We do oral and also use toys."

"Sounds like a lot more variety."

"I guess. I wouldn't know for sure."

"Could you, uh, could you maybe show me what you do?"

"Look, I'm lesbian. I date women who are also lesbian. I am not into playing with straight chicks."

"Why not. A pussy's a pussy."

"What about the emotional part, you know, getting into someone, even loving them. If I spend my time playing with bicurious LUGs, I would probably get hurt. No thanks."

"What's a LUG?"

"Lesbian until graduation. They kinda piss me off. They waltz on the wild side, enjoy being with a girl and then dump her and go back to men when they're done with college. That can be truly mean."

"So, no one-nighters for you?"

"Honestly, no. Tried it and didn't like it."

"Well, thanks for the info, anyway."

Later, when Shelly sat with Gina, she asked, "Who was the tall gal you were dancing with?"

"Someone named Whitney. Played on the Geek Squad. Remember her?"

"No, not really. Sure seemed to be into you."

"Bicurious. I told her 'No, thanks' and sent her packing."

"We need to get you a decent date and soon."

"Yeah, I guess. What about you?"

"Nobody here I'm interested in. I think I'll head back early and catch some Zs."

"You and me both. Let's get outta here."

Both finished their fall semester of their sophomore year unattached. They studied together a few times before their finals, and promised each other they'd find someone after the holidays.

Gina got lucky first. She met a guy in one of her new classes who seemed to be a decent catch. Andy, a computer nerd, was taking microbiology for his science requirement. He sat next to Gina and soon they were talking about themselves, school and their majors. On the second day in the class, he asked her out. Once she accepted, she texted Shelly.

met a guy, got a date

lucky you I'm still looking

you will find someone I am sure

Gina had a good time with Andy and was pleased to see he didn't try to get her into bed on the first date. Indeed, he seemed a bit shy and when he dropped her off by her dorm, she had to stretch up to kiss him on the cheek before he turned away. After a few more dates, they were playing tonsil hockey. He pulled the ultimate surprise on Valentine's Day when he invited her out for a nice dinner and then drove her to a decent hotel.

"Andy," she giggled, "Just what are we doing here?"

"I thought we might want to get to know each other a little more, but without worrying about roommates."

"Only a little bit more?"

"Well…maybe a lot more."

"Good, I'm good with a lot more. C'mon, let's get the room."

When she gleefully told Shelly about it, Shelly congratulated her, but privately experienced a few pangs of jealousy. 'But you can't have her and she doesn't want you,' she berated herself before making a promise to get out there and find someone for herself.

It proved to be ridiculously easy. Shelly decided to go to the LGBTQ+ Club, something she had avoided previously, believing the club was all about politics and protests. As it turned out, a large number of the members were like Shelly; wanting to meet others like themselves in a safe and nonthreatening environment. Since she was new to the organization, she was asked to tell everyone a little about herself.

"Hi. Uh, my name is Shelly and I'm a sophomore majoring in biology with the crazy idea of going into vet med. I'm a lesbian out to my family and they've been very supportive."

"Hi, Shelly," everyone intoned before the club president started talking about the agenda for the evening.

After the meeting, a rather butch woman approached her.

"Shelly, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm River. Care to grab a coffee some morning with me?"

"Yeah, sure. Tuesday and Thursday classes are early for me, so how about Wednesday?"

"Great. Student union, say eight?"

"Yeah, let's. See you then."

River turned out to be a very nice woman who, in spite of her outward appearances, did not try to dominate Shelly. The coffee date was repeated a few more times before River asked Shelly out for a 'real' date.

"What do you mean by real?"

"You know, dinner and a movie or something like that."

"Sure, sounds fun."

And it was. For the first time since the previous spring, Shelly was involved with another woman and they quickly became intimate. Shelly liked taking control at times and equally enjoyed letting River run the show. And though the sex was exciting and fun, when Shelly looked at herself in the mirror, she had to admit there wasn't the level of closeness to River she had hoped for.

During the Spring term, Shelly and Gina played again in the three-v.-three soccer league in the gym two afternoons a week. As before, the games were short but intense. Playing in the warmth of the gym left many of the players totally drenched in sweat and anxious for a quick shower.

Shelly and Gina had seen each other naked on more than one occasion, and even though she was involved with another woman, Shelly had to force herself not to stare at the beautiful Gina. Her breasts were perfect in every way, and this was another female talking, and Gina's tush was full enough to grab ahold of and never let go. But Shelly could never do such a thing. She had always sworn to herself she would never come on to a straight woman and besides, Gina was too good of a friend to ever try to seduce.

Once the shower was done, the two headed back to their dorm for dinner and studying. On their way, they discussed, or rather Gina discussed three-v.-three strategy while Shelly simply nodded in agreement, her mind totally somewhere else.

The two frequently spent at least one weekend night away from their dorm rooms, Shelly with River and Gina with Andy. It was right before finals when things fell apart for Gina. One evening on her way home from the science library, she saw Andy walking towards a remote dorm with a tiny blonde girl under his arm. He kept looking around himself like he was afraid of being caught.

'The fucker,' thought the stunned Gina as she watched him. But within seconds, the surprise turned to anger. She ran silently up behind the two and as she was right behind them, she let go with a profanity laced accusation.

"So, Andy, who's your little bitch, huh?"

"Hey, I'm not a bitch, alright?"

"Maybe not, but you're walking with a fuckin' cheater, right Andy? Come on, Shitface, why don't you introduce us, huh?"

"Uh, look, Gina," stammered Andy before she tore into him even more.

"Trying to make an excuse, you fucker, aren't you?"

"Andy, who is this?"

"Uh, look, Gina, I've been meaning to tell you it's over for a few weeks, but the time was never right and…"

"How about last Saturday? You could have not taken me to the movie. You could have not gone down on me. You could have not fucked me, but you did. You could have told me then, but no! You were too interested in getting those inadequate little rocks of yours off one final time.

"Listen, Girl, whoever you are, he's a cheater and between us girls, we gotta stick together. You can have him, but if I was you, I'd leave his sorry ass right here and go to your room and be thankful you met me."

"Look, Gina…"

"Don't 'look Gina' to me, you pathetic piece of shit with the tiniest dick I've ever seen, I vote you off the island and we'll see if she does, too."

"Your name's Gina, right? And you're saying you've been with him as recently as last weekend?"

"Yeah, for months, but he's free as a bird now."

"Andy, if half of what Gina says is true, then I want nothing to do with you. So, you can fuck off, for all I care. Come on, Gina, you need a drink."

"Hey, it's not like that…"

"Yes, it is, Shitface. You played with fire and now you're burned. And good luck getting any dates next fall. We're gonna tell everyone we meet and I'm thinking I'll put it on Collegebook. Once your story gets out there, no one will ever look at you again." Gina grabbed the blonde's elbow and led her away from the sputtering Andy.

The blonde, who introduced herself as Pauline, apologized for 'taking' Gina's boyfriend and invited her for a drink.

"I'd like to say it's nice meeting you, but somehow it doesn't sound right. And you didn't 'take' him, he cheated. No matter what, some wine sounds great."

After they commiserated while killing a bottle of wine, Gina got up to leave, but wobbled a little as she stood.

"Hey," whispered Pauline, "You can stay the night here."

"No, that's not fair to you. You were thinking you were gonna get lucky and you end up with me in your, uh, where am I supposed to sleep, anyway?"

"We'll snuggle up here in my bed."

"This single bed? Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Me? No way. Remember, I was planning on some time with Andy soon."

"Yeah, that's right. But you could be bi."

"Could be, but I'm not. Come on. Leave the undies on and let's sleep. I'm super tired and more than a little tipsy."

"OK, but as long as you promise no funny business."

When Gina told Shelly the next day all about Andy and Pauline, she joked, "You would have liked being there. We were spoons all night and she's kinda cute."