Chapter 3

I was attending a large state university some one hundred and eighty-five miles away from home. As a freshman I would be living in a dorm on campus, but with several thousand other freshmen on campus, things wouldn’t be any different for me. If anything, I was slightly older than many of them and had already been away from home by myself for three or four weeks on a couple of occasions.

My parents drove me over to the campus but returned home as soon as I had moved my things into the dorm. My roommate hadn’t arrived when they left but she did show up in less than a half hour while I was still unpacking. When she walked into the room I immediately felt we would probably get along. I don’t know why, but I just felt that way. I really didn’t know anything about her and had nothing to actually base an opinion on, but somehow I was sure we would get along.

As it turned out my first guess was correct. In the weeks ahead we soon became pretty good friends as well as roommates. Diane was about my height - five foot seven - and built about the same. I’m fairly slim but not really skinny or anything. The biggest difference someone would notice seeing the two of us together was that, although we both wore our hair about the same shoulder length, I’m blonde and she has dark brown hair. She also had brown eyes while mine are blue.

I found we also had something else in common. She was from Escanaba, also on the shore of Lake Michigan but in the Upper Peninsula. A lot of people when first going to college run into trouble with their roommates, but Diane and I never had that problem. We had different majors - hers was Business while I wanted to work towards a degree in biology. For freshman year, however, this didn’t make a lot of difference. We still had several of the same classes, although not the same sections except for one English class. We soon found that we enjoyed a lot of the same outdoor activities. We both liked hiking and camping, swimming and cross country skiing, among other things. We also found that while our tastes in music didn’t exactly match, they weren’t entirely different.

Our room was on the fourth floor of the dorm and our dorm was near the edge of a large woods which stretched to the river which ran through campus. The view out of our window was mostly the woods and after the first three or four weeks the leaves began to change, giving us a fantastic landscape to look out at. We did miss living on the lake but at least there was the river. The first really cool morning in mid September we woke up and looked out to see a thick layer of fog. Not as thick as it often was along the big lake but enough that sounds were muted and the outlines of trees, walks, and the dorm itself were smoothed and feathered. I had climbed out of my bunk and was just standing at the window, looking out, when Diane came up beside me and said, “I love foggy mornings like this.”

Startled, I turned to her and said, “You too? I’ve always loved the fog.”

This led us to start talking about our previous experiences with fog. Not all of them by any means. I mean I didn’t mention the things Eric and I had done in the fog. She had also played hiding games, both as a younger kid and later as a teenager. She even mentioned once camping with her boyfriend when the fog came in and covered everything.

This led us to discussing boyfriends a bit. Both of us had had fairly steady boyfriends while in high school but didn’t expect to continue with them now that we had come to college. I told her how Eric and I had always known that it would be a temporary thing with us, but that it hadn’t bothered either of us, She said she and Mike - her boyfriend - had felt much the same way.

By this time we had taken to each other quite well and the conversation came around to a little more personal level. To make the story short, she let me know that she and Mike had slept together and I admitted that Eric had relieved me of my own virginity. Neither of us expected to join the “drink and fuck” hook-up groups we had heard about, but neither were we planning on totally abstaining, After all, we had both found the activity completely enjoyable, to say the least.

Neither of us had known anyone on campus when we came but by this time we had each been out a couple of times with someone from one of our classes. Nothing much had happened on these dates except some hand holding and one or two good night kisses. The dorm was sponsoring a mixer the next weekend and we both decided to attend. We did and while it was mostly just a lot of really loud music - or what passed for music - we did each meet a couple of men and before another three weeks had passed we were being asked out most weekends.

Most of my dates, at least, were only a one time event or maybe two, The main problem seemed to be that most of the men wanted to get high on alcohol and I don’t drink at all except an occasional glass of wine with a nice meal. I like to remember the fun in my life. Anyway, there were still some fun dates, but no one that really turned me on or anything. I think Diane may have slept with a date once, but I’m not sure. I just know she wasn’t doing that every weekend or anything,

But by the third week of October I was beginning to be a bit frustrated. I mean I had discovered just how wonderful sex could be with Eric and now I hadn’t been able to duplicate that feeling for two months. I did manage to relieve some pressure with my fingers, but that wasn’t the same. Even now I smile to myself when I think that. Definitely not the same at all.

I had dated Rod three or four times. He was a junior, but we got on well together, enjoyed the same movies and so on, and had found that some necking was quite agreeable. That Friday night we went to a movie and for something to eat afterwards and then we walked around the huge campus and, like many other couples, disappeared into the shadows for some heavy necking. There was some mutual feeling and by the time he took me back to the dorm I was so wound up I was sure I’d never get to sleep unless I relieved some of the pent up pressure. It was after midnight and Diane wasn’t back yet but that wasn’t too unusual. I got into bed and managed to bring myself off twice until I was feeling somewhat relaxed when she came into the room.

I could see her face in the light coming in the window from outside and she looked rather dreamily happy and relaxed. “Good time?” I casually asked.

“Very good,” she responded. “I haven’t felt this good for a long time.”

“Oh? Something special?”

“You might say that. Oh, Kristen, I’ve missed things a lot since Mike and I have been apart. Well, to be quite honest, I finally got laid tonight. God, I’ve missed that.”

I can’t say I wasn’t a little jealous. Not really badly jealous or anything, but I had missed it also. “This guy something really special, then?” I asked.

“Not really long term serious, but he did certainly rub the itch, so to speak. Maybe I should say he definitely rubbed me the right way.”

We both laughed and I asked, “Do I know him?”

“You’ve met him, I think. Kevin. He ate dinner with us one day last week.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember him.” He was, in fact, fairly good looking. Not a real extrovert but not totally shy or anything.

“Look, Kristen, I just needed the sex. I’m not deeply in love with him or anything.” Then she sort of smiled and added, “But I won’t say that would be impossible. We’ll just see what develops. In the mean time I’m sure we’ll be able to find things to do.” This was followed with a small laugh to which I added my own.

“I’ll just bet you will.” I sighed and said, “I could use someone like that, too, I think.”

“What about Rod?” she asked.

I stopped and considered for a few seconds. “Well, he’s come closer than anyone else I’ve met. He is definitely hot and we seem to get along OK.”

“But?”

I smiled. “But, I’m just sure I want to go that far with him. I don’t even know why or just what doesn’t feel right, but I’m somehow not sure about him. Oh, well, I’ll see what happens.”

Some three weeks later I found out what the “But” was. It happened mostly by accident. I had been out with Rod several more times. We had still engaged in nothing more than some serious kissing and a little mutual hand roaming but I was seriously considering sleeping with him. Each time I returned to my room after one of our dates I was more and more frustrated. Seeing Diane with that relaxed, satisfied look on her face didn’t help an awful lot, either.

Then one Friday we were out in the shadows going at it hot and heavy when his hand found its way inside my shirt. He cupped my breast tightly and I moaned in response and held him more tightly.

He moved his mouth near my ear and whispered, “Kristen, I want you. You are so, so hot and all I can think about is having you naked in my bed. I want you. Completely. My roommate has gone home this weekend. Let’s go back to my place.”

The way I was feeling right then, I was just about to tell him yes. But my practical side raised its head and instead, a little breathlessly, I answered, “I think I might like that, but Rod I need to know something first. Have you had a blood test? I mean I have to be sure. I can show you mine and I’m clear.”

He pinched my nipple slightly and continued to squeeze my breast. His other hand cupped my ass and pulled me against him so that I definitely felt his rigid rod between us. “I’m clean. I don’t want to wait. Come on, let’s go now.”

I pushed back slightly. “No. I need to be sure.”

Breathing rapidly and sounding a little irritated, he got out, “I can show you the slip from the clinic. Let’s go over to my place.”

Something made me want to stay clear of his apartment until I was sure. “Tomorrow, then. Show me the slip first and then maybe we can go to your place.”

I think I was as frustrated as he was but something made me want to wait. It’s a good thing I did.

I got back to the dorm that night and was engaged in a hot good-night kiss when a girl from one of my classes walked by. When we broke from the kiss and I went inside the dorm I found, to my surprise, she was waiting for me. “Hi, you’re Kristen aren’t you?” I nodded. “I’m in your 117 class. I’m Karen Black.”

“Hi. I’ve seen you there. You live in this dorm, too?”

“Yep, but that isn’t what I wanted to speak with you about. Look, this may be none of my business and if so just tell me to flake off. That was Rod Thomas I saw you with, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

Then it all spilled out. “I work at the clinic. Just at the reception desk, but a couple of the regular nurses were talking, discussing a girl who had just left. To make it short, she had come in and found she had an STD. Not a real bad one or anything, but she couldn’t understand how she had contracted it. She’d only had one contact and he had shown her the results of a blood test he had taken just two weeks before. She’d even had a copy of it with her. The doctor had checked and found that the test had been done all right, but nearly two years, not two weeks before. It had had the date altered. Then the doctor remembered another girl and checked the records to find an identical test slip, date also altered, from six months ago.”

I looked at her, waiting to see exactly what she was getting at. Then she said, “The tests were for Rod Thomas.”

I felt as though I had been struck in the stomach. “Are you sure it’s the same Rod Thomas?”

“Definitely! The doctor even contacted the state health office, but unless it had been AIDS or something else pretty serious, they didn’t have the time to follow up. Look, I saw you with Rod. I don’t know how much you two have done but I just thought you should know.” Then she added, “Look. I know I shouldn’t have said anything at all, but I can’t stand the thought of a guy lying and giving a girl something that could have been prevented. I’ve already gone this far and if the clinic found out, they’d probably fire me, but I’ve already done this much. When I go to work in the morning, if you’d like, I’ll get a copy of his original test. That way if he shows you something you can see if it’s the same. I’ll be back here by noon.”