Tara was the only girl in a family of eight. She had always been small in stature but attacked life with fierce determination and a quiet wisdom. Her balance was amazing considering all of the testosterone around her. She was about 5' even with long black wavy hair, an olive complexion, and green eyes that seemed to stare into your soul. At 26, she was poised to graduate with a degree in early childhood education. And that, is where it all began to fall apart.

Her parents had finally found out about Kara, her girlfriend. Tara's parents were very religious and never understood her desire to be with other women. Of course, they also didn't really acknowledge that her grandfather had molested her at age 6 and that she never has been able to trust men since then.

But, Kara was not only her lover; she was her best friend.

"So Tara, what do you want to do today?" Kara asked.

"Hmm... let me think," she playfully put her finger to her lips and licked the tip of her finger. "I think I could come up with one or two things."

"Oh really? And, just what do you have in mind?" Kara asked as she slowly walked toward Tara and then grabbed her and pulled her close for a deep kiss. Their tongues danced together to the music of love that they had taught each other so well.

"Oh Kara, I love spending time with you! I wish it could always be this way," Tara said with a slight hint of sadness to her voice.

"Honey, let's not think of tomorrow. Let's only think of today and we'll take it one day at a time," Kara said softly and buried her face in Tara's hair and breathed in the sweet jasmine scent.

At that moment, they heard the front door open downstairs and knew that one of their roommates were home.

"Tara! Kara! Are you here? Hello!?!" Michelle called from downstairs. She figured that they were upstairs, but didn't want to deal with the awkwardness of having to interrupt them if they were otherwise occupied. Although, sometimes she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be with them, with both of them at the same time. She could just imagine...

"Hi Chelle!" Tara said with her usual cheerfulness.

"Hey, what's up? Are you guys doing anything special? It is a holiday break, you know."

"Umm... well, we were just talking about that upstairs but hadn't really made any decisions. Why? Do you have any plans yet?" Kara asked with a gleam in her eyes. It always scared Michelle when Kara looked at her that way. She just didn't seem to ever get a good read out of Kara.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe we could get some vodka, because I know it's your favorite Tara," Chelle said with a wink, "and maybe have a little house party. We could either invite people or just the three of us. And, maybe we could order out some Chinese? What do you guys think?"

"I think it sounds great! But, let's just make it the three of us for tonight. I'm not really in the mood to be around a bunch of people tonight," Kara said.

"Sounds good to me. I'll get the vodka if you guys want to get the food and a movie if you want."

And with that, the girls all went to get what they needed to have a fun holiday night. After all, if you have to spend Christmas stuck on campus, you may as well have fun!

Two hours later, they were all laughing and having a good time. The vodka was flowing and Tara had convinced them all to do shots while playing Euchre. It was harder to play Euchre with only three people, but they managed. It wasn't long after they started that Michelle was absolutely drunk. She didn't drink vodka very much, but the other two girls were always drinking and had to drink a lot more before they even felt tipsy.

After a few games of Euchre, Kara talked them into playing strip poker. At first, Michelle was pretty reluctant, but with all of the alcohol in her it didn't take long to win her over. "Besides," she thought, "these are my two best friends. I'm sure that we've all seen each other before."

"Two pair!" Tara yelled some time later. "Beat that!" she said as she started to fall over. Kara was quick to push her back up though.

"Hmm... I think that four aces beats your two pair and probably whatever you have Chelle," Kara stated as she laid her cards down for them to see.