Chapter 1

Stacey awoke about two hours before dawn. All the frustration of the earlier night had disappeared and she found she could finally think clearly. She turned over and gazed at the young man sleeping by her side. "Oh, Stacey," she thought, "What were you thinking of? He was so embarrassed already, why did you have to stomp on him and turn embarrassment into misery? Especially by stomping on his male ego? How would you like it, Stacey, if your vagina couldn't self lubricate, and he started demeaning your femininity over the issue? He's such a sweet guy; shy but so sweet, I still can't believe I'm the first girl he's ever dated. Why was I so cruel? It's only his love for me that that has kept him in my bed tonight... I must give him a sincere apology as soon as he's awake, before Lin gets back..." Stacey began to drift back to sleep. "Randolph, who would have ever thought I'd be thinking of marrying someone named Randolph? Randy's a cute name, though..."

Stacey was in her second year of a five-year nursing program. In her high school years and first year at college, she had only casual dating relationships. But last September, she met Randy, a third year engineering student in a mixer at nearby Boston University, and over the next six months the two became a close couple. About a month ago, Stacey's roommate Lin made the kind offer to sleep Friday nights with a friend down the dorm hall. This would give the couple some time for intimacy, and Stacey gratefully accepted. The time Stacey and Randy had used to explore their dreams and personalities had been very sweet, but the time they had used to explore their sexuality had been a disaster. Stacey and especially Randy were novices regarding sex, and they were quite uncertain about how to proceed.

Lin had been Stacey's roommate for close to two years now, and she was Stacey's closest friend. Lin was also majoring in nursing, in her third year now, a year ahead of Stacey. Stacey looked up to Lin as her big sister, even though Lin was 2" shorter than Stacey's 5'9", and they were both very supportive of each other. Stacey had never met anyone with such a wiry body as Lin's, and she secretly wished she could be so athletic.

Stacey had grown up in Massachusetts. Lin grew up in several states, living as a child first in Texas and then in California, and spending her high school years in a boarding school called the Colorado Rocky Mountain High. She fell in love with the mountains and the skiing, and during her senior year she found she had the skill and the stamina needed to join the Colorado State ski patrol. During a search and rescue mission in a brutal winter storm, her individual grit and determination had become the key difference for success in finding a group of lost climbers. Afterwards, the veteran patrol leader had paid her the ultimate compliment of calling her mountain tough.

Lin's history was a riches-to-rags story. Her parents' business collapsed along with the dot-com bubble just as she was about to enter her college years. She rose to the occasion, dedicating her time to becoming a top student while balancing a package of student loans, scholarships, and part-time jobs that would see her through to her R.N. and Masters degrees. She had had a couple of intimate relationships in her high school years, but felt she didn't have the time for such things since she had come to Boston.

Lin was coming down the dorm hall early Saturday morning with her sleeping bag in hand, knowing Stacey always awoke with the dawn light, and expecting Stacey and Randy to be out getting breakfast. Lin walked into the room with her thoughts on her schedule for the day, and was very surprised to see Stacey and Randy still sleeping in Stacey's bed, both naked except for a sheet that was only partially covering them. "Oh, cute penis!" thought Lin, and she considered quietly slipping back out of the room, but since they were all such close friends, she decided to tease them a bit. She loudly slammed the door, and said with a bright smile, "So, both you sleepyheads exhausted from a great last night?" right into the startled faces of Stacey and Randy.

Her friends' reactions were totally unexpected. Randy nervously said, "Oh, yes..." and then looked uncertain and turned to Stacey to see if he had said the right thing, completely oblivious to his genitals being on clear display for Lin. Stacey also looked very worried, looking back and forth between Randy and Lin and at a complete loss for words for what to say. Part of Lin's surprise was that she knew that Stacey was almost as modest as Randy, and here she was displaying her breasts to both Randy and Lin and totally ignoring the issue.

Lin dropped her sleeping bag and sat down quietly in a desk chair close to Stacey's bed. "Something's obviously worrying both of you. I'm sorry for teasing you. What's up? Can I help?"

Stacey spoke up first, "Randy, before I say anything else, I want to apologize for what I said last night. My cruelty was totally inexcusable. Please forgive me."

"Oh, Stacey, I love you so. Of course I forgive you YIKES!" said Randy, as he whipped the sheet to cover his genitals. Lin waited patiently; wondering if the two love birds would ever tell her what was going on. Stacey just sat quietly, giving Randy a loving smile, and Randy realized she was letting it be his decision about what to say to Lin.