"Sure, I'll try anything twice."
It used to be a cheeky motto she would quote in high school and college when asked to experiment with new, sometimes illicit, often sexually explicit ventures. But she quickly realized how thrilling it was to actually abide by this ideology, to live fully and experience every sensation imaginable while she was still a young and impressionable adult.
Having always been a fan of horror and thriller films and realizing that this genre had a surprisingly dampening effect between her legs, she knew early on that the quickest way to pique her arousal was via her intellect and getting her adrenaline pumping. Her curiosity toward the unknown, her deepest desires to understand those untapped parts of the human psyche, led her to seek out answers to these unasked questions as a young adult.
She studied Psychology as an undergraduate at the state university. After meeting, and often sleeping with, one of her closest classmates, she was immediately accepted by his friends and quickly became the only female housemate in their group of debaucherous young co-eds.
One housemate in particular always scared her, ever so slightly. She was embarassed to admit this to her boyfriend or their other housemates, but she couldn't quite explain why the hairs on the back of her neck stood up when he looked at her. It was as if he was seeing not only her, but through her, into her, almost as if he was reading her thoughts.
He shared the basement room that she and her boyfriend had occuppied for the past semester. He minded his business, she minded hers, but she was always a bit on edge in his presence.
Admittedly, it may have had to do with the way he would uninhibetedly steal glances at her across the room as she rode his roommate to explosive orgasms, or as she would saunter across the room, dripping wet, barely covered by her towel after stepping out of the shower. She enjoyed the attention, but she could never quite explain why his cold stare elicited a fear response in her core.
It may have also had something to do with the syringes scattered around his side of the shared room. Or the unmarked packages that would mysteriously show up from Silk Road. The burnt spoons, the residual white powder.
He was in deep, and she knew it. They all knew it.
He always expressed an interest in her studies, engaging her in long, thoughtful conversations about the Psychology textbooks he would catch her studying. He asked her questions and was actually interested in her answers and opinions. But their relationship was very superficial. She knew nothing about him or his past, and she certainly was never comfortable bringing up her concerns for his health and his obvious struggles with substance abuse.
When the group moved into their new shared townhome a year later, she was more at ease now that he safely occupied his own room upstairs and she shared a room with her boyfriend on the main level. She no longer worried about feigning humility or masking her lustful cries while in the throes of passion with her lover.
And truthfully? Sometimes she missed it. She really missed it.
A knock at her and her boyfriend's bedroom door interrupted a study session one lazy Saturday afternoon. Her boyfriend had headphones on while completing his computer programming assignment, so she hurriedly set aside her Abnormal Psychology textbook and laptop, clicking 'save' on the rough draft of a term paper examining similarities between psychosis, substance abuse, and reports of demonic possession.
She cinched the tie around the waist of her satin bathrobe and opened the bedroom door. It was him.
She stepped into the hallway so they didn't further disturb her boyfriend, who was still agonizingly pounding away at his keyboard to finish his assignment.
"Do you two have any plans tonight?" he asked, nodding toward the closed bedroom door.
"No, we're just studying. Nothing tonight though, why?" she asked him.
"I have something I want you to do with me," he paused. "Both of you, of course."
He pulled a tiny two-inch by three-inch zip locked bag full of a whitish powder out of his pocket and held it up. She was speechless.
"Oh, no, that's okay. We're not really into that..." she stammered. "I mean, it's okay that you are, but uh..."
He laughed, the smile that spread across his face in stark jutaposition against his cold, glassy stare and otherwise cool demeanor. She couldn't help but feel that he was laughing at her expense, at her naivety. She hugged her robe tighter to her bare skin.
"No, it's not H. I'm talking about Molly." When she didn't respond, he continued, "MDMA? It's sort of like Ecstasy. I got a big shipment in and it's way more fun to use in a group instead of testing it out by myself."
"Wait... A big shipment? What are you talking about?" she was confused. "Since when is this some sort of trap house?"
His eyes narrowed as he laughed that chilling laugh of his. "Didn't you ever wonder how we can afford to live here when none of the guys have jobs? Or why you've never once seen a utility bill? I take care of it. Don't tell me now that you're questioning how I take care of it. What's that saying, don't look a gift drug dealer in the mouth... Something like that."
A lot of things suddenly became clearer, as though a lens had shifted and her perspective was finally focused. She always thought her boyfriend took care of their share of expenses since his family came from a lot of money and hers had next to nothing. It was a bit humiliating that she never realized what was really going on. Of course, they all sat around smoking pot to relax and they shared a housemate's prescription for Adderall to help them focus in class, but then a lot of college kids did those things.
But selling? That was a little different. A lot different. That scared her. But it's funny the effect that fear had on her body...
She loosened her grip on the dark blue satin robe and it slipped down her shoulder, exposing her collar bone, then a tattooed shoulder blade, then the curve of her breast peaking out the top. His gaze didn't miss a thing, and he raised an eyebrow as he brazenly stared at her body.
"Yeah. Sure," she slowly replied. "We're in. What the hell, I'll try anything twice."
******
"Whatever you do, don't exhale when you lean over or you'll blow it off the table. Line your nose up to the line of powder, pinch off the other nostril, and breathe it all in."
He held her hair back as she leaned forward. His touch was lighter, more gentle than she had expected. She shivered.
As she breathed the substance in, she didn't expect the immediate burning sensation. Her eyes teared up and she held her breath until the worst of it subsided. She swept her long, curled hair over her shoulder, straightened out the neon crop top she had dressed in, and joined her boyfriend, the other housemates, and their friends around the coffee table.
A few bong hits later, and the mellow, calming euphoria from the weed melted into something more intense. Her whole body was electrified with a pulsating current unlike any other. She looked around and could tell her friends were starting to feel the subtle change as well. Her pupils dilated and she felt a warm glow radiating through her extremities. She realized she was involuntarily smiling from ear to ear.
She stood up and walked, no, glided over to the window. The cool glass felt like frosted steel beneath her hand. Every move she made felt like she was floating on water, weightless, malleable.
It was incredible. Indescribable.
Her eyes began to play tricks on her. The vertical blinds covering the sliding glass balcony door looked like they were pulsing to the rhythm of the electronic music thumping through the stereo system. Her skin looked (and felt) like it was glowing. She had never been more fascinated by anything than the sight of her own hand in front of her face in that moment. She looked at each of her friends' faces closely and felt an all-consuming warmth, a joy that she had never experienced before. Everyone was smiling. Laughing. Dancing. Moving.
She had never felt more alive.
She grabbed her boyfriend's hand and wordlessly led him to their room. He didn't argue. The only lights that were on in their little den were some blacklights and a lava lamp. Everything looked like it had been painted with the Lo-Fi Instagram filter -- brighter colors, more definition, almost to the point where nothing looked real.
Without saying a word, she wiggled out of the form-fitting black skater skirt that hugged her delicious curves and flared at all the right places. She pulled the neon crop top up and over her full, pert beasts. Every nerve ending in her body was hypersensitive, and her nipples stood at attention begging to be devoured.
Her boyfriend, speechless, started for the door to close it behind them.
"NO," she cautioned. "Leave it open."
She pushed him backward onto the bed, straddled his lap, and pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it aside. She ran her long nails down his bare chest, and he shivered at her touch, elliciting a tinkling, bell-like giggle from her soft, smiling lips. The simplest caress was intensified by a thousand. She was already insatiable on a typical day, so he could barely imagine what she had in store for him tonight.
He laid back on the bed and felt that he was swimming in a satiny pool of warm blankets and downy pillows. His body was weightless and it felt like he was rolling on an endless black sea that was swallowing him up.
She took this opportunity to unbuckle his jeans and slide them past his narrow hips. He closed his eyes, letting the intensity of the moment wash over him. Although she was barely touching him, the slight pressure on his hips and thighs felt like she was performing some type of deep tissue massage.