“Wow, we really lucked out with this place,” said Vivian Hannity. She was talking about the apartment they had just rented on Sedgwick Avenue.

Her new roommate, Miranda Grossman – or just Mandy – replied, “I’ll say, I especially like this view looking out at the reservoir. How about we celebrate by smoking a doobie?”

“It’s a bit early in the day for that, isn’t it?”

“Naw, you’re just fooled because of the time of the year and how light it still is out there. If it was February you wouldn’t have a second thought about it.” It was indeed mid-July, and the daylight lingered until after 8:00 PM.

Mandy didn’t wait for a response. She got up to go to her bedroom to get the smoking materials. That Vivian is always a bit on the cautious side, she thought.

When she came back to the living room she said, “Go easy on this stuff, it’s pretty potent.” The two of them sat side-by-side on the sofa so they could reach the ashtray on the coffee table. At that moment The Traffic song “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” was playing on their stereo system.

Vivian asked, “Do you think drugs were involved in the making of this song?”

Mandy laughed, “In 1971? I’d say that drugs were involved in the making of the whole album.”

“I mean, what is this song even about?”

“Ask Steve Winwood, although he probably doesn’t remember.”

Vivian knew she was taking them out of context, but the lyrics, the percentage you’re paying is too high-priced, while you’re living beyond all your means, reminded her of her roommate. It was really a rather straightforward issue of paying the rent on the apartment.

Both young women had just graduated from Lehman College, part of the city university system, as members of the class of 1977. However, only Vivian was paying her share of the rent entirely from her own efforts. During the final semester, she had put some real effort into finding a job and had landed a full-time position at a publishing company in Manhattan.

Mandy, on the other hand, had mostly goofed off during the last year and she now mostly did some temp job gigs, if she bothered at all. Somehow she had talked her parents into helping her pay her expenses.

I guess we just have different temperaments, Vivian thought. Yet she noted that her friend still had money to spend on pot and even, once in a while, cocaine, which wasn’t cheap. She didn’t quite resent her friend, but she felt there was something not quite right about the situation. I wouldn’t dare ask my parents for rent money. To top it off, they had a two-bedroom apartment which allowed Mandy to have her own room.

She’s lucky she’s not sleeping on a cot in some living room.

Mandy, meanwhile, was calmly gazing out at the Jerome Park Reservoir to the east as the sun went down behind their building. After smoking some of the joint, she said, “Maybe we’ve had just enough pot for the moment,” and she giggled. “I mean, I can still talk and hold a conversation!” Then she ventured an architectural opinion, “Those buildings over there, Tracey Towers; they sure are ugly.” Those were recently built, tall twin gray apartment buildings.

Mandy said, “Our building is so much nicer than those two.”

“Yeah, if you like mock Tudor.” That was a popular style during the 1920s when their building had been constructed. “I guess they were trying to attract people from the Lower East Side who wanted to live like lords of the manor.”

Vivian had heard that opinion before when they had been hunting for apartments about a month earlier. Instead, she referred back to Tracey Towers. “I wonder what it is like to live thirty-stories up.”

“I don’t know, our five here seems like more than enough.”

The drug in Mandy’s system was putting her into a contemplative mood. “It’s kind of funny, we can see Lehman from here too.” Their alma mater was also on the far side of the reservoir, about a mile to the southeast of where they were sitting. That inspired her to bring up a topic that had been on her mind in the ten days since they had moved in together.

Mandy said, “It’s notable how meager our romantic lives were during our senior year.” Actually, those had been nonexistent. Mandy had broken up with her last boyfriend the previous autumn; Vivian hadn’t had anybody since the summer of ‘76.

“Well, as you approach graduation people start thinking beyond school. Campus affairs don’t seem as important then.”

Mandy scoffed at her. “No, two hot chicks such as ourselves should be able to land somebody. Could I ask you a personal question?”

They had been friends – best friends actually – since they had met in their sophomore years. It seemed that they had always shared everything about each other. “Sure, of course, go ahead.”

Now Mandy asked about had been on her mind for several days. “Vivian, have you ever wanted to kiss a girl? In fact, have you ever done it?”

Vivian considered herself to be pretty bold now, but before going to Lehman she had always attended Catholic schools. Even though she had lapsed in her religion, she had once said, when you’ve been raised as a Catholic, some of it always sticks with you.

At that point, some of that old training came back to her, but she was stoned enough to answer truthfully. “Yes, I have done it before, with this girl I knew at school, this Cathy Morrow. That was more than five years ago, now. We had an affair going for our entire junior year together.”

Even when sober, which she wasn’t at this point, Mandy was usually quite blunt. “Have you ever considered more than kissing?”

Vivian had indeed done a lot more with Cathy, but for some reason she was reluctant to admit it, “And what would that be?”

Mandy was prepared for that. “You know. To be explicit about it, have you ever masturbated thinking of another female? I’ll make it easier for you. I admit that I have, a number of times.”

“Okay, I’ll admit this, I actually did a lot more than fantasize about that girl. I actually did sexual things with her quite often. That was quite a while ago now.”

Mandy said, “Please, I have to hear about this.”

Vivian hesitated for a moment. She had attended an all-girls Catholic High School, the Mount St. Ursula Academy, and she remembered the intense crushes she had on other girls in her freshman and sophomore years. Then with Cathy it went beyond mere emotions.

She decided to describe more. “Look, Mandy, I just told you - I had an affair going with this Cathy girl for our entire junior year.”

Mandy pretended to be shocked but she was actually delighted to hear this. “Wow, you had a wild side that I never would have guessed at. What did you do with this Cathy chick?”

“You know, the usual things.” She put her hands in the air and wiggled her fingers. Then she made a pouting gesture with her mouth and made kissing motions with it.

Mandy laughed, “So you have gone all the way to pussy-licking!”

“All right, I did. Many times in fact. We couldn’t keep our hands – or our tongues – off of each other.”

“I can’t believe that you’ve never told me about any of this.”

“Let me tell you about what goes on in some of these schools, or at least that one.” She took a moment to get her thoughts together. These episodes had always been one of her innermost secrets.

“There was a kind of tradition at the school. A lot of the girls would swear ‘dirty-girl’ panties under their school uniforms.”

“What were those?”

“Just about anything that wasn’t regulation underpants, which were supposed to be white and of an ample cut. Lacey ones, thongs, anything that made us feel like our sexuality hadn’t been completely crushed.”

She went on, “Sometimes girls would show off their naughty knickers to me, and I would want to put my hands and then my mouth inside the other girl’s underpants.”

“Good for you! It showed that you still had some spirit.”

“It gets weirder, because the nuns got involved too. They would hold random ‘panty-checks,’ and if we were caught while wearing naughty underwear, we would be paddled or spanked, usually on our bare behinds. When I got caught myself, more than once, despite the pain, I became aroused and my pussy would become wet. Later, at home, I would masturbate while imagining the punishment I had received that day.”

Miranda was amused, “I’m not surprised to hear all this. The more they tried to repress you all, the more perverse you all became.”

“Yep, you see why I had a problem with the Church. There are some strange things under all of that piousness.”

“But it was this Cathy person who instigated all of this.”

“But I had a lot of fun with her, she made me feel alive.” She hesitated for a moment. “We had sex together as often as we could. Sometimes we would go to this isolated place in Bronx Park.”

Later, at Lehman College, a public institution, there were plenty of guys around, and Vivian’s Sapphic side had become dormant. She said, “I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a lesbian, however.”

“That’s irrelevant. What did Kinsey say? That most of us are bisexual; it’s just a matter of degree.” Then she got to the main point she had been thinking about for several days. “You see, sweetie, just because we don’t have men in our lives right now doesn’t mean we have to forgo some passion. We just have to be flexible in terms of gender.”

Even though she could guess the answer, Vivian said, “And who would we do this with?”

Mandy laughed, “That should be obvious. With each other!” She was sitting on Vivian’s left side, between her and the window, and she took the other girl’s hand in her own. “Haven’t we known each other for three years now?”

“Yes, but we’ve never approached each other.” Vivian had another question to which she knew the likely answer. “And when and where should we do this?”

“You know that one too. Right here and right now. I mean, why delay it? Besides, pot always makes me horny. After smoking it, I always want to either screw or beat off.”

Wow, she doesn’t mince words! Nevertheless, she said, “It does the same thing for me too.”

“Great, and we have this lovely summer evening, which is perfect for – well, some warm-weather lovemaking.”

They were still holding hands; Mandy noted that her friend seemed comfortable with this affectionate touch. For a few moments, they sat quietly and assessed one another.

Miranda was a tall, well-built girl with dark-blonde hair that came down just below her chin. That was a little on the short side for that era. Tonight she was wearing a halter top, light-weight cotton trousers, and sandals.

Vivian was shorter and thinner, and her blonde hair was longer and lighter than Mandy’s. She had on a short-sleeved white blouse that was buttoned in the front, a denim skirt, and her own sandals.

She said, “Mandy, I admit that I have had fantasies about you.”

“So then, we’re even! It’s too bad I didn’t know you back in high school; we could have had a good time together.”

“But you’re Jewish; you could never have gone there.”

“It’s fun to think about anyway. I would be one of those bad outside girls you were warned about. We could chase guys and girls too, namely those repressed classmates of yours.”

Vivian said, “So you’re chasing me right now?”

“That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Look, you can tell me if anything I’m doing makes you uncomfortable, okay?”

“Maybe we should close the Venetian blinds first?”

The street was five stories down, and there were no buildings across the way from theirs. Nevertheless, Mandy understood that it was a psychological thing, and she closed the blinds as requested.

Vivian asked, “You did imply that you’ve never been involved with another woman.”

“I didn’t just imply it – well, I guess I didn’t actually make it explicit. Viv, would you be my first? I’d be very pleased if you were.”

When she sat down again, without saying anything, she put her arms around her friend and Vivian did the same to her. They had briefly hugged before, but this time they held each other longer and more tightly than before. After a couple of minutes of this, Mandy backed off and tried to interpret the other woman’s expression.

Mandy escalated things by gently rubbing her friend’s face; then she kissed her fully on the lips. That went well, so they kissed more. They moved their lips over each other’s faces, including the eyelids, and Mandy put her tongue into one of Vivian’s ears.

Vivian said, “Oh my.”

“So you like our little make-out session?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“Well, you’re in luck, because I like it too!”

After more kissing, Vivian said, “I want to do more, I want to do some of those things I did years ago.”

“You Catholic girls are pretty fast. What would you like to do next?”

A bit of shyness came over her, “I’m not really sure.”

“Thank of what you would do with a guy. We could play with each other’s boobs. Well, guys don’t have boobs per se, but both of us do.”

“Yes, I remember doing that with Cathy.”

“And where did you get away with that?

“Initially, in that wooded part of Bronx Park I mentioned, beyond 204th Street.”

Since she was taking the assertive role, Mandy reached forward and unbuttoned Vivian’s blouse. Then her hands went back and unbuckled her bra. Vivian noted that while some guys fumbled around with unhooking a bra, her friend had no trouble doing that simple act.

Vivian heard her friend say, “Just as I expected, they’re nice and perky.” Her bared breasts were small but they jutted out. Mandy put her mouth around each nipple in turn and sucked on them. She held the other girl around the waist to steady her. In a few moments Vivian was moaning in pleasure.

“That feels so good, don’t stop.”

She did stop long enough to say, “I know, your nips are stiffening very nicely. What do they call this in that stupid baseball analogy, second base?”

Vivian had heard that before, but she couldn’t think straight, “I don’t know, something like that.”

“No big surprise, but in a couple of minutes it’s going to be my turn.” When that came, she undid her halter top and let her breasts fall out. They were bigger and rounder than Vivian’s, but not by an excessive amount.

“Come on baby, you know exactly what to do with these.” For several minutes, the two women fondled and kissed each other’s tits. They also put their warm hands on other parts of their upper bodies. Outside, the sun had just set and dusk was coming on.

Eventually, Mandy said, “You know sweetie, you look a little flushed or something. Maybe we should take a break. Would you like a soda?”

“That would be great. Mandy, this is all delightful. You seem to know exactly the right ways to touch me.”

“That goes with my theory that only another woman truly understands a woman’s body and what it needs. Was that true of Cathy too?”

“Oh, yes, definitely.”