My feet crunch through the snow as I make my way to the mall down the street. Three inches of powder surprised me when I woke up, not knowing the storm was blowing in over the weekend. With Eric out of town, I don’t have access to a car for the three-mile walk from campus. If I hadn’t run out of conditioner so quickly, I wouldn’t need to don my winter coat in autumn and brave the falling snow.
I blame you for encouraging me to masturbate in the showers because you do. As we know, conditioner makes a great lubricant.
With my head down to block my face from the wind and snow, I hear someone call my name. Squinting up, I see a blue Subaru Outback Sport drive past me with an arm waving out the window. I don’t recognize the person bundled up and hanging out the window, but the car and I have met before. It’s your car. The one you ‘rode’ that night in the parking lot.
The brake lights flash on and the car slows to a stop against the curb. As I catch up, the passenger who’d been waving for my attention hops out and switches to the back seat. The car pulls forward for a second before lurching to a stop. The hazards flash, and the cars that had slowed behind your car start to pass.
When I reach the car, your roommate grins widely at me from the back seat and waves me in. In the driver’s seat, you are staring straight ahead, red-faced, and stern. I hesitate and your roommate rolls down her back window.
“Need a ride?” She beams at me as if she’s the one I’ve been falling in love with. “We’re headed to the mall. We can drop you off there or on the way if it helps.”
I look to you for confirmation, since it is your car, and you are the one driving. You refuse to look at me, and though you’re wearing gloves, I can see you strangling the steering wheel.
“I’m headed to the mall as well. Would it really be okay?” Your roommate tries to assure me, but I ignore her and keep my eyes locked on you. You give me a furtive glance and look away quickly, turning even brighter. With a quick nod, you admit me and I slip into the front passenger seat beside you.
You click off the hazards and join traffic toward the mall only a half mile ahead. Locking your eyes on the road ahead, you turn up the radio and brace your arms against the wheel. Silence would suit me just the same, but I’m fine not talking.
I can feel your roommate’s eyes on the back of my neck, but ignore the itch to say something. Everyone refrains from speech until we reach the parking lot.
“Seriously? Nothing?” asks your roommate from the back seat. “I didn’t freeze my tits off out the window for you two to ignore each other.”
I glance at you from the corner of my eye and catch you taking a slow breath. It’s so cute how shy you are in person, yet so bold when you have technology between us. I take a breath to thank you, but you interrupt me with a squeak as we pull into a parking spot.
“One hour.”
I turn to you and see your roommate do the same. Without another word, you turn off the car and step out. Before your roommate and I can get out, you’re already walking toward the doors. As soon as we close our car doors, you lock the car with a beep and disappear inside.
The store I get my body wash and hair products from is just inside the mall through the store you entered. I stuff my hands in my pockets and stomp through the slush. A few steps from the car, an arm slips through mine without slowing me down.
“She’s shy around you, but she really likes you.” Your roommate walks with me, arm in arm as if we were a couple. I try to pull my arm out of my pocket and release myself, but she clamps her mittened hands around my biceps.
“Don’t be that way. I might slip.” She looks up at me in mock hurt. So close to her now, I’ve never realized how large her eyes are. It could be her ample makeup, but she is quite pretty.
“To the door.” I offer, and she nods complacently.
Once there, she releases me with a lightning-fast peck on the cheek and spritzes off into the lingerie section of the department store. I stand dazed for a minute and touch my cheek. That’s the first time I’ve been kissed in any way since my mom and grandmothers.
I wipe my cheek off with the back of my hand and weave my way through the maze of stands and aisles to the mall. I pass two stores before I reach my destination. I grab my conditioner and an extra stick of deodorant from the stand by the counter and checkout in under five minutes.
An hour? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do for that long. I could start walking back now that I have what I need. I’d probably reach campus before you even left.
I look around the mall and decide to take a stroll for a bit before waiting in the food court. As I take my lap past all the stores, I stop to check an anime display in the window of Hot Topic. I always find it interesting that anime gets a following that warrants merchandise, especially here in the United States.
As I turn to the Spencer’s directly across the walkway, I spot you and your roommate leaving. You’re blushing as you listen to what she is telling you while she holds up her shopping bag. When you see me, you freeze and turn crimson. Not knowing what the problem is, your roommate turns to you and then follows your gaze. Surprisingly, she blushes too, whispers in your ear, and struts away with a quick wave at me.
We stand rooted to the floor, watching one another. I decide to take the lead and approach you. I see your shoulders rise and fall as you take a breath and step forward to meet me. As I raise my hand and open my mouth, you hesitate and then turn after your roommate. Standing with my hand raised, I watch you dash to catch up with her near the escalator.
A bit disgruntled, I meander to the food court and check the time obsessively. Bouncing my knee in agitation, and snatch my phone from the table and pull up our chat.
‘Sorry if things are still too awkward between us.
I can walk home.’
I set my phone down, not expecting a quick response, determined to let it sit for five minutes before I check again and decide if I’m walking home.
My phone buzzes before a minute has passed. Seizing my phone like an addict suffering from withdrawals, I swipe my lock screen away and whip my finger over the glass like a wand.
‘No, you don’t have to walk home.
Please stay.’
‘Okay. It’s just that I’m already done shopping and we still have a lot of time before you planned to leave.’
‘We won’t be much longer.
I’m sorry. Teary eyes’
‘It’s fine.
I won’t go.
I’m waiting in the food court, so just let me know when you are ready.’
There’s a pause for a while, but I keep my phone open in my hand. While I browse the internet, you send me a message a few minutes later.
‘Want to get back at her for the last time? Devil smile’
‘What do you have in mind? Devil smile’
‘Well, first, can you guess what she bought at Spencer’s? Wink’
‘Do you mean… Eggplant?’
‘Wink’
Then a video call comes in.
‘I can’t! I’m sitting in the middle of the food court!’
…
‘It’s fine. No one will be able to tell what we are watching.’
Really?! With you, I’m not so sure.
‘Trust me. Sunglasses’
I accept the call and just hold the phone closer to myself. I mute my mic and lower my volume as much as I can.
From what I can see, you’re sitting on a bench outside the fitting rooms of some store, but you’re filming what I assume are your roommate’s feet under a door. Since I’m sitting in the mall, I feel extra self-conscious about such a video, but to your credit, you’re not holding your phone under the door to film her, you’re sitting across the hall and filming what anyone passing by could see under the door since the door doesn’t go to the floor.
‘She excused herself once she found some lingerie she liked and left me in the middle of the store.
I’m not interested in the style of things they sell here, but still wanted to wait for her. So now I’m waiting outside her fitting room.
But I didn’t expect her to start this.’
Your messages pop up over the video as we watch her feet spread wide and her toes curl. I assume there is a bench inside the fitting room on which she is resting, based on the angle of her legs and feet. I know she couldn’t be standing.
‘Oh my god, can you hear her???’
I listen carefully, but my volume is down, and the food court is noisy. I don’t dare raise the volume in case someone else hears.
“Ah.” I do hear a quiet gasp, though perhaps it wasn’t so quiet there. Her feet raise onto their toes and her legs convulse as she spasms in orgasm. I see squirt rain in a streak across the fitting room floor and begin to pool against the far wall where she shot.
‘Do you see that?’
You zoom in on the squirt, forcing me to hold the phone closer and shift in my seat to ease the pressure on my swollen cock.
‘Oh my god, she is such a horny slut.
She couldn’t even wait to get back to the dorm to use her new toy.’
We watch her feet as she dresses herself and comes out of the dressing room. You’re right outside the door when she opens it and you brush past her shocked face to show me the mirror she’s soaked.
“Aren’t you going to clean that up?”
“Shh, let’s get out of here.” She grabs your arm, and the video becomes shaky as she drags you through the store.
“What about the lingerie you took in there?” you ask as you leave the store. I’m not sure why you are still filming. Either you forgot or you want me to catch this conversation.
“I saved what I wanted and left it in the room. Now let’s find your boyfriend and go in case someone finds that mess, checks the security camera, and comes looking for me.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
Her face is bright crimson as she looks back past you and then sees your phone for the first time.
“Did you record me?” She asks, slightly upset, but there’s a smile as she fights back. Maybe she’s glad you watched or wants to watch herself.
“Yes, and say hi to him. We both enjoyed the show.”
Other than when her dildo fell off the desk in front of me, I’ve never seen her blush so brightly. For someone even bolder than you, and she is on another plane of boldness, I’m surprised she is embarrassed after what she watched me do.
You switch the camera to your face. “See you in a bit.” Then you cut the call off.
I look up and see her marching toward me, still dragging you behind. “Since you already know, let’s get going quickly.”
She grabs my wrist and yanks me to my feet. Together, we follow her through the department store and out into the snow. Here she pulls me forward and wraps her arm around mine like before and steps cautiously into the slush.
“Ah.” You scoff incredulously, whip your arm from her grip, and march around to my other side, mirroring her hold on me.
While I’m in the middle, you two fight for the lead and drag me toward your car. You unlock the vehicle as we approach and pull all of us to your side. We pause beside the driver’s door and you look up at me, blushing, and wait.
I grab your door and hold it open for you. You smile sheepishly and slip into the driver’s seat. After closing your door, your roommate pulls my arm. “My turn, Prince Charming.”
After I let her in on her side and take my own seat, you blast the heat and reverse us out of the spot. As we weave through the parking lot, the air in the car seems to hum with unspoken words and mild sexual tension.
Once on the road back to campus, your roommate pipes up. “Well, I guess we’ve all taken our turn putting on a show for each other now, haven’t we?” For the rest of the car ride, we all blush and take furtive glances at one another. Cursing under your breath, you turn on the defroster to get rid of the fog covering every window in the car.
What have I gotten mixed up in?
