Chapter 2: Ta Da

While Andy was driving her back to the chapter house, Marilyn switched her mind from the recent past, pleasant as that had been, to the immediate future. She caught Judy as she was going into Sunday dinner. They stepped aside.

“Look, I want to warn the other pledges against this guy. Would you be willing to tell them in a group what happened?”

“Yeah. Most of them know, already.”

“After chapter meeting, then.” They had dinner and went to a rather dull chapter meeting. She warned Merrillie to call on her at the end.

“Will the pledges and Natalie stay after?” she announced when called upon. “It won’t be long.” They stayed. Natalie was a little puzzled, but willing to go along with her little sister. The pledges were used by now to having their time taken without warning. When the door was closed again, she reminded them that they were still under chapter-meeting confidentiality rules. “Judy, will you tell us what happened to you last night.”

“My date groped me in the crotch.”

“That’s takes care of your embarrassment, but it hardly gives your sisters sufficient warning. Who was this guy? name and description?” So, Judy told his name again and gave the best description she could. “Look,” Marilyn continued, “this joker has two counts against him. If he groped Judy, he’s likely to try the same on you. Second, he wronged your sister. On both counts, if he ever asks you for a dance, decline.”

“He’s a Gamma,” Natalie pointed out. “We’re not going to have another house date with Gamma after this. So, you only have to look out at the university dances. Remember this later on, though. He’s a guy you might meet elsewhere on campus and ask you for a date.”

Later she talked with Natalie alone. “We’re damn-well not going to have another house date with Gamma,” Natalie said. “Maybe never again, after you broadcast this. Couldn’t you have checked this with me before you went public?”

“Do you really want a creep like that preying on our pledges?”

“Really, no. It’s just that I’d have liked to be consulted.”

Marilyn said, “Well, she came to me. Sisters stand by sisters.”

Later, she thought about what she’d said. The other sororities were rivals, but she was used to cooperating with them -- the other VPs, at least. And this creep was more than an unpleasant date; he was a menace. She wrote the VPs of the other sororities a warning about him to be passed on to any pledge assigned to him as a house date. When the envelopes were ready to be mailed in the morning, she sought out Judy. The best place they could get privacy was the kitchen, two flights down from Judy’s room or not.

“Thanks for doing that. I know it must have been painful, but your sisters deserve the warning.”

“Well, I’m not as scared as I was yesterday. I just felt so helpless.”

“You probably should have gone to one of the faculty chaperones at the dance, but that’s my thoughts after sleeping on it. I should have gone to them, too, but all I thought about was getting you away from the guy you feared. Really, you looked awfully scared.”

Judy said, “Yeah. I was. I’m sorry about the way I treated your guy...”

“Andy. Well, he wasn’t insulted. He could tell you were scared, and not of him in particular.” At least, she hoped that was true. They hadn’t spoken about Judy afterwards at all. “Y’know, I think that -- out of all the times he’s driven me to the house -- that’s the only time he hasn’t walked me to the door.”

“He ever done that to you? I mean...”

“Look. There’s no place that creep put his hands on you that Andy hasn’t put his hands on me -- just not at a dance. Maybe when the dance books say his hand should be on my waist, it’s really a little lower, but that’s all. In private though, the difference isn’t what the guy does, but the permission he has. And on a first date? Andy gave me a closed-mouth kiss on our first date. He only surprised me once. He picked me up to kiss me. I expected the kiss, but not to be lifted off the ground. Even then, he might not have known it would be a surprise. If a guy puts his hands in your armpits, do you expect him to lift you up? Anyway, aside from that, he always moved slowly enough so I could stop him, and that’s what a decent guy does. You figure you don’t want to go there, don’t want to go there with him, even that it’s too early in your relationship, you stop him. Nobody loses.”

“When Bill put his hand on my boob, I pulled it off.”

“Yeah,” Marilyn said. “You can do that, but then it’s already done. You, at least, lose. Smart guys move slower. You going to be okay?”

“Yeah. I feel better today.”

“Well, you have sisters on your side. We might work you like a team of mules, but we’re your sisters already. Sisters stick together.” On that they parted. She mailed the letters Monday. She thought the matter was over, and she had more to do with the chapter, Andy, and classes. Then a summons came to go before the all-Greek council. Gamma Nu had accused her of slander. Merrillie went as her advocate and they took Judy with them as a witness.

For the purpose of an accusation like this, the council consisted of representatives of four fraternities, representatives of four sororities, the dean of men, and the dean of women. The president of Gamma Nu opened up.

“This is totally irresponsible.” He passed around copies of the letter. “Somebody reports that she didn’t like how Bill behaved. Instead of trying to find out what happened, instead of telling the girl to grow up and act like a college student, Marilyn Grant passed on the complaint to all the sororities on campus. And it was a totally bogus complaint.”

“Well, now,” asked the dean of men. “What did happen?”

“I’ll let Bill Gregory tell you. Bill?”

“She’s a little cock tease.”

“That’s another accusation,” said the dean of women, “and one we don’t judge. The question is, did you put your hand on her groin?”

“Only after she pulled my hand toward it. What was I supposed to do?”

“I didn’t...” Judy said.

“Let’s hear from you in a minute,” the dean of men said. “Is that all you have to say for now?” he asked Bill.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“If there’s something else, you can speak later. Well, young lady, what’s your version of what happened?”

“He grabbed my boob first. I pulled him off, and he went directly to my crotch.”

“Just a minute,” said the dean of women. “Let me get clear what the two of you agree on. Mr. Gregory, did you have your hand on her breast earlier?”

“Yes ma’am, but that’s not what the letter...”

“Very well. And did she pull it away, pull it down, perhaps.”

“She certainly pulled it down, she moved it more than halfway to her crotch herself.”

“All right. We know what happened. We know there were different interpretations of what it meant. Is there anything more that anyone has to say? Anything relevant?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Merrillie said. “I’d like to point out that the letter is no longer in question. Marilyn said that a pledge reported that Bill groped her. Judy confirms that; indeed, Bill Gregory confirms that he groped her. All Marilyn wrote is what Judy said.”

“She wrote more than that,” the president of Gamma said, “she suggested that any pledges be warned about him before future house dates.”

“All right,” said the dean of men, “we have the letter before us. Please go into the other room.” So, instead of the jury being sequestered, the opposite sides were sequestered -- together in a less-than-friendly group. Marilyn tried to shield Judy from that Bill guy, but he seemed to be more interested in darting malevolent looks than putting his hands on her. It was only ten minutes, although it seemed much longer, before they were called back in.

“We,” the dean of men said, “are going to issue two warnings. First, to Zeta Gamma Tau. There are appropriate procedures for making complaints, and a letter of this sort isn’t one of them. If any officer of Zeta in the coming year breaks procedures seriously -- we aren’t talking about misspelling something or using the wrong form, we mean seriously -- we’ll require that that officer be replaced. As for libel or slander, there is no grounds for that accusation. Perhaps it is the part of generosity to find out both sides of a question before reporting one side, but not doing so is not an offense. How far the clear understanding of the other side of this would have mitigated the letter, we can’t tell. For the warning to Gamma Nu, I’ll call upon my colleague, Dean Benjamin.” He sat and the dean of women rose.

“Gamma Nu has clearly not informed its pledges of common courtesy in dating. It will hold sessions in which it lays that out. It may invite actives to participate. If there is any doubt in your minds about the rules of common courtesy, and it seems to me, at least, that there is a great deal of doubt, the four sorority representatives here are willing to produce a paper laying the rules out. If we sustain one more complaint of inappropriate fondling or similar behavior from any member, active or pledge, of Gamma Nu in the next twelve months, the fraternity will be suspended from all inter-Greek activities for the next year. This will specifically include the next rush.”

At the next executive-committee meeting, Merrillie laid it out.

“Okay, be careful how you operate. Marilyn really went over the line. There are procedures, as they pointed out. On the other hand, Gamma Nu was really spanked. They’re held responsible for the behavior of their members, and we know how often frat boys misbehave. Being barred from Greek week would mean a tremendous loss of prestige; being barred from rush is nearly a death sentence.”

“And,” said Dorothy, “they are livid about us -- not only Marilyn, about the whole chapter.” Dorothy had a Gamma-Nu boyfriend.

“Well,” said Natalie, “you always hear that ‘sisters aren’t like brothers.’ They had a pledge who got in trouble, and they backed him. They can’t all be so stupid that they think he’d behaved sensibly, but they were brothers and they backed him. Well, Marilyn had a sister, and she backed her. I’ll echo that she has -- we all have -- to be careful about procedures. But I’m not going to complain that one of my sisters backs up her sisters that way.”

She went back to the tried-and-true paths of being a chapter VP. She had been chastised but was little abashed. Classes were going okay. Because of her double major, she was taking nothing but English and Education this quarter. She mostly spent Saturdays with Andy, but this Saturday was during her period. Anyway, she had three church-worthy dresses here and three at Andy’s.

She’d followed her trick from last year of assigning the best singers among the pledges to help some of the worst singers, and that had her working them hard without wasting all her time with them. She’d scheduled a rehearsal of the entire group for Friday night, but Natalie had pulled a surprise scavenger hunt. She’d done her homework in that period, and by Saturday night she was almost caught up. Her mind had also turned to mush.

The rest were out on a house date, but she’d begged off. Well, Andy deserved something for his patience. She wasn’t going to sleep with him, but he’d used his mouth on her many times, and she’d never reciprocated. She dressed warmly. It was September 25, and cold. Andy would come get her if she asked, but she wanted to surprise him. She walked to the apartment, and the downstairs door was unlocked. When, she wondered, did they lock it?

She snuck up to Andy’s door and tried the knob. It was locked. The guy had been a Chicagoan through his 16th year, after all. She unlocked the door and went in. He got up from the table, flustered.

“Marilyn!” Well, she hadn’t surprised him with another girl. She had, instead, surprised him deep in his studies. For the first time, the place looked a mess. For some reason clothes were piled on the unmade bed; his coat was on the back of the chair; he was in stocking feet with a five-o’clock shadow; there was a pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

“Ta da.” She took off her coat and dropped it over his. She remembered to shut the door. “Ta da.” She took off her scarf and dropped it on the coat. Andy just looked at her. With similar announcements, she stripped off the warm sweater and the sweatshirt. “Ta da, da, DA!” she stripped off her bra and dropped it on the pile of clothes on the chair. It immediately slipped to the floor, but you couldn’t have everything.

Andy managed to close his mouth. She caught his hands as he came towards her. She pulled them up around her neck -- it was a little struggle, they tried to go lower on her body. She lifted her face for a kiss. This much, at least, he was willing to cooperate in, but it was a little bristly around the edges. During the kiss, she unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans. When she pushed the jeans and underwear down, he gasped. She knelt.

He was already erect. The taste was a little bitterer than she’d expected, but she went on. When he was as far into her mouth as she could get him without choking, she put her right hand around the base of his cock while her left felt for his ball sack. He was breathing hard, and he put one hand on her head.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said without pushing her away. Yes, she did, even though the taste was getting more and more bitter. She drew back with her lips tight around his shaft. She licked all around the head and pressed forwards until he started her gag reflex. The second time she licked a circle around his head, he shouted, “Marilyn.” His come was salty rather than bitter, but it wasn’t anything you’d want to taste.

As soon as he was done, she ran to the bathroom and spit it into the sink. As she rushed past him into the kitchen for a glass, he was still struggling to get his belt buckled. She spent some time in the bathroom rinsing out her mouth.

“You don’t taste all that good, you know,” she said.

“Sorry about that. Next month I won’t force you like I did this one.”

“Okay, it was my idea. I wasn’t saying it wasn’t. It’s just that you don’t taste as good as I’d expected.” Actually, he hadn’t tasted at all pleasant. On the other hand, she’d wanted that experience. She’d had that experience. She would take a pass next time.

Aside from the taste, it had been fun to take him by surprise. And his last remark had been healthy, too. Last year at this time, his apology would have been real, not sarcastic. Even though it was her decision, he would have said that he was sorry, like he’d said about the thunderstorm. She could remember worrying that he was taking her for granted. Well, now he actually was, at least a little. She’d moved enough clothes into his closet that he realized that he would see her next time, just like he said. And, still, without the fear in his voice, he was a nice guy. Wait a minute; he hadn’t said “next time.”