Chapter 34

We paid and Sarah drove us to Denise’s off-campus housing, one floor of a former tenement, now demoted to student housing. Still, not too bad, as housing goes, there was even a lock on the front door.

“I’m not sure who’s home, so there’s no guarantee that the VCR is even available. It’s always a bit of a crapshoot.”

But when we got there, we were met by silence and a dark room. “Okay, I guess they’re all out. It’s just us. Dig through the tapes in the corner, Sarah, and find it. I’m gonna make some tea.”

Sarah dutifully rummaged through the tapes until she finally pulled one from the pile and put it by the VCR beneath the TV set.

I’d found a spot on the couch across the room from it and got settled. I’d seen the movie once, and Sarah was right, it was good. I’d enjoyed it. Denise came back with a tray, tea and three cups, and a box of crackers.

“Did you find ... oh, there it is.” She fed it into the VCR and turned on the TV, then found a spot on the couch to my left. Sarah was to my right.

I was intrigued to see how the two of them immersed themselves in the story. I realized that it was different from how I watched movies. I seemed to keep myself a little on the outside, analyzing it, filing bits of it away for later review, cataloging things which didn’t work. Sarah and Denise were totally wrapped up in the lives of the characters, as if they were part of the story, too.

When his mother died, the two of them moved closer to me, perhaps looking for some protection from what they knew was coming, and when Jenny died, both of them grabbed my arms so I was immobilized, tears running down their faces. “Poor Forrest,” one of them whispered.

At some point in the middle of the tape Denise produced another joint from somewhere on her person and lit up. She passed the joint to Sarah, who offered it to me when she was done but I shook my head. The two of them finished it.

By the end of the movie, both of them had their heads on my shoulder, each holding one of my hands. I hadn’t been able to move for over an hour.

“Wow,” said Sarah, “that always knocks me flat. Great movie. Carter, you were a good guy to sit through that with us, thanks.”

“I like that movie, too. You didn’t have to twist my arm, remember?”

“Yeah, still, most guys aren’t usually into that sad a movie, even if it was eventually uplifting. So points to you.”

“Ooo, can I trade them in for valuable prizes? I could use a new toaster.”

“Um, sorry, that part of the offer’s expired. Better luck next time.”

The two of them were chatty, apparently one of the effects of the weed, and they riffed off each other non-stop. It was like watching a tennis match.

About five minutes in, the conversation shifted. Denise asks Sarah, “You ever done it with a soldier?” Completely unfazed, Sarah says, “No, not yet. You?”

“Yeah, once. Guy I knew in high school, older than me, joined the Marines after graduation. After boot camp, he came back to visit family before his first posting. We met at a party and he looked kinda hot in his dress blues. It didn’t take much convincing before we were screwing in the back seat of his parent’s car.”

“Was he as hot as you’d thought he was?”

“It was weird, it was like he felt it was the last time he was ever going to get to fuck, We’d finish, and he’d be ready to go again in a few minutes. I think we did it three times before he had to get the car back. What was your best marathon session?”

It was like they’d forgotten I was there, even though I was sitting between them.

Sarah thought for a moment. “Most of my single encounters didn’t last that long. There was one time I wound up in a room with two guys, all of us a bit drunk, and they took turns with me. I’d suck one guy while the other one fucked me. Then, after he’d get off, the other one was ready to go. I’d work on the first guy’s dick while the other one was doing me. I think both of them got off twice each. Me, it was like dick heaven, got off a bunch of times. I was a little sore by the end, though.”

“Group sex is kinda hot, in a strange, impersonal way. You ever done a group thing? Other than that threesome?”

“Only once,” Sarah replied. “It wasn’t planned. I was hanging out with my bestie and my boyfriend, and her boyfriend dropped by. He had a couple of joints and before long she and her guy were half naked on the couch, and my boyfriend was finger-fucking me.

“It didn’t take long before we were all naked and screwing. I’m not sure how it happened, but we switched boyfriends once which felt a little weird, but she didn’t seem to mind. She never referred to it ever again, so I’m not sure she was entirely okay with it. You?”

“Also only once. And it was completely unplanned, took us all by surprise. It was a party at someone’s house, her parents were out, so there was a lot of alcohol around, people making out everywhere. We were all at the same school so we were comfortable with each other, so maybe it felt natural for some of them to get naked while they did each other.

“So before we knew it there were naked couples all around the room, and then those of us who were still dressed felt a bit awkward, out of place. We didn’t want to leave, so we stripped, too. Anyway, the couples who were going at it were rolling around on the floor and soon the couples started mixing, trading partners.