“I know. They’d written the meanest stuff.”
“Like what?” Bec asked.
“Just that one was a bad dancer, and one stank. And—that one had, y’know, more pubes than the others.”
“That is so not a game for three people,” Holly said.
“But were the comments true?” asked Bec.
“Yeah. I told them they weren’t, just to shut them up. But, seriously, they were all kind of true. Like one of them was a crap dancer. And the other one reeked of curry. And this girl, Dylan, she had a super hairy vag.”
“What, were you all sitting around staring at each other’s vaginas?” Nathan asked.
“No, Elise looked at it really quickly. Just to stop her freaking out.”
“Oh my God, what a perv,” Holly said.
“She couldn’t help it. The girl just flashed her in the bathroom.”
“Sounds like the worst,” Holly said. “I knew it would suck when I heard you were going.”
“I don’t know.” Jenni shrugged. “I mean, the horses were cute.”
“That’s just ’cause you like having a big dude between your legs,” Bec said.
“My horse was a girl!”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Nathan said.
The girls rolled their eyes and laughed.
“So, get this,” Bec said. “We have so much to tell you.”
“It’s crazy,” said Holly.
“Hey, is there any more SoCo?” Jenni asked Nathan.
“Yeah, definitely.” He put his guitar down and took her glass. The girls watched him leave the room.
“Do you want us to go?” Holly whispered.
“I think he might have a girlfriend,” Bec said.
“I’m good,” Jenni said. “You should stay. I’m just waiting for Lise.”
“That could take a long time,” Holly said. “Trust me. Like, a really long time.”
—
Zach rolled on top of Elise. He grabbed her ass. He pulled her dress up and put his hand inside her underwear. “Oh God,” he said, “you’re so wet already.” He stuck his fingers inside her.
She touched his body under his T-shirt. His skin was warm and his back was a little sweaty. He smelled like boy’s deodorant, which she liked. She struggled with his belt until he pulled his hand away from her, knelt on the bed, and undid it himself. She unbuttoned his jeans. He took his T-shirt off and pulled his jeans and boxer briefs down. Elise tilted her head and put her mouth on him.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “That’s so good. Oh my God. You look so sexy. Look at me.” She looked up at him. She tried to get all of him down her throat. “Yeah,” he said, “holy shit, you’re so good at that.” She gagged a bit. She pulled back and used her hand. “Yeah,” he said. “Now lick my balls. Oh my God, yeah.”
When it seemed like he was about to come, he pulled away and told her to get on her hands and knees. She did. He knelt behind her. She thought they were about to have sex, but instead he leaned over and licked her up and down. “Holy shit,” she said. He licked her ass. “Holy fuck.” He took his face away and stuck a finger inside her. Then he eased that finger into her asshole. “Holy fuuuck,” she moaned.
“You like that?” Zach said.
“Um—”
“I’m pretending you like it,” he said.
“So am I,” said Elise.
They both laughed.
She gasped when he pulled his finger out. “Do you think they can hear us downstairs?”
“I doubt it, but I can put music on.” He stood and went over to his computer. Elise looked at his ass. Then she tried not to look at his ass. She knew what the music was going to be before he pressed PLAY.
“The latest Kanye?”
“Yeah,” he said. “How’d you know?”
“It’s, like, the hookup album of the year.”
“Such a good one,” he said.
Nicki Minaj was faking a British accent through the intro when Zach came back to the bed. Elise was sitting up with her legs against her chest, hugging her knees. He leaned over and kissed her. He pulled her by the ankles until she was lying flat. He got on top of her. As soon as he was inside her, she started to moan. He had his head bent over her face. “Fuck, your pussy’s so fucking wet,” he said.
By the beginning of “Gorgeous,” Zach was kneeling in front of her, holding her legs. “I love watching those tits bounce,” he said. “Yeah, hold them like that. Oh my God, that’s so hot.”
By the time they got to “Power,” he had rolled onto his back and put her on top of him. “Grind down on me,” he said. Elise didn’t really know what that meant. “Grind down on it, find your spot.” She was moving her hips back and forth and it felt good, but she couldn’t find anything that felt like a spot. “Come for me,” Zach said. “Come for me. Come for me. Come for me.” He probably said it twenty times, but she couldn’t do it.
He got on top again. He put his elbows next to her head and leaned down close to her. His chest was rubbing against her nipples. He kissed her, then whispered into her ear, “Come for me, baby. Come all over that big dick.”
He was all the way inside her and barely moving at all when she came.
“Good girl,” he said. He pushed her hair off her face. “Good girl,” he said. “That’s my good girl. Turn around.”
Her legs were shaky but she managed to get back on her hands and knees. She wrapped her fingers around the metal bed frame. “Yeah,” Zach said, “hold on to that bed frame.”
Elise laughed.
“What?” he said.
“Nothing. I just feel like if I scratched my ear, you’d be like, Yeah, scratch that ear.”
“No, I wouldn’t. What’s that s’posed to mean?”
“Nothing,” Elise said.
“I don’t know what that means.”
She turned her head and watched him drip saliva from his mouth all over himself. Then he spat on his fingers and wiped it on her.
“I wanna do it hard,” he said. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah.”
He fucked her hard. “Oh yeah,” Elise said. He smacked her ass. “Shit. Shit shit. Shit.”
“Yeah,” he said. He grabbed a bunch of her hair and yanked her head back. “You like that?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yeah, you take that cock.”
Elise moaned.
“Does that feel good?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me how it feels.”
“It feels—good.”
“Yeah?” he said. “What else?”
“It feels, like, really good and big.”
Zach put a hand on her lower back and pushed down. “Arch your back for me,” he said. “Yeah, be sexy. Shake your ass. Yeah, shake your ass for me. My God, that’s so hot. I wanna fuck your ass.”
Elise didn’t say anything.
“Can I fuck your ass?”
“No,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever done that with anyone?”
“No.”
“Has Jenni?”
“I dunno.”
“Are you sure you don’t wanna try?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. I want to so bad.”
He leaned over her. She could feel his belly and chest against her back. He used one hand to touch her clit. And then he put his other hand around her throat and squeezed.
“Fuck.”
“Is this okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s just hard to breathe.”
“Oh my God, I’m gonna come,” he said. “Where do you want my come?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “On my back?”
“I wanna come on your tits,” he said, “or maybe in your mouth.” He let go of her, raised himself up, and held on to her waist. “Okay,” he said a minute later. “Okay, I’m gonna come. I’m gonna come in your mouth.”
He pulled out of her and she turned around fast and leaned
down. “Here it comes,” he said. She looked up at him. He had his eyes closed. He was gritting his teeth. He came and exhaled and then he opened his eyes and looked down at her. She still had her mouth open.
“Oh God,” he said.
She closed her mouth and swallowed.
“Oops.” He used the sides of two fingers to scoop some off her cheek. Then he fed it to her. “Yeah,” he said, “you love my come.”
—
By the time they were lying back on Zach’s pillow together, “Blame Game” was playing.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Zach said.
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.” He lifted the sheets and looked at her body. “You’re so hot.”
“Thanks.”
“How does it feel right now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Vaginally, emotionally, whatever.”
“Fine.”
“You should go to the toilet.”
“What?” Elise laughed.
“I don’t know. It’s good for girls to go straight after. It stops you from getting an infection or something.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay, I’ll be here.” He kissed her. “You’re lucky I’m kissing you. Most guys don’t let girls kiss them after they came in their mouth.”
“That’s not true,” Elise said.
“Yes, it is.”
“It’s definitely not true.”
“Huh,” said Zach. “I guess guys are fags, then.”
Elise stood up, found her coat, wrapped it around herself, and went to the bathroom. She came back just as Chris Rock was doing his monologue at the end of the song. She dropped her coat on the floor and got back into bed. Zach put his arms around her.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“I’m kind of over this part of the song,” she said.
“What? You’re crazy. It’s hilarious. Chris Rock’s the best.”
“Yeah, it’s funny. But I wish it was its own skit track, so you could skip over it if you want to. I like it. I just don’t wanna hear it every time I listen to the song.”
“Yeah,” Zach said. “Actually, you’re right. That probably would have been better.”
—
Jenni was asleep on the couch in front of How to Train Your Dragon when they came downstairs. Nathan was on the other end of the couch, watching the movie. The house was cleaner now. The floors looked vacuumed and there were two full rubbish bags sitting next to the front door.
“Whoa,” Zach said.
“I did it all,” Nathan said. “This one just turned on the TV and fell asleep.”
“I offered to help,” Jenni said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
“Jen, are you ready to go?” Elise asked.
“I thought you were Elise,” Nathan said.
“What time is it?” Jenni asked.
“Time to go,” Elise said. “If you’re ready.”
—
“Nothing really happened,” Jenni told her when they were out in the street. “We kissed for a second but he has a girlfriend.”
“What, like a serious one?”
“I guess so. He said he felt bad doing anything with anyone else.”
“Crazy.”
They crossed the street and turned onto the main road. “How was it with Zach this time?” Jenni said. “Your hair’s all wavy.”
“It was okay,” Elise said. “He’s a talker.”
“Did he give you a bath? Holly told me he gave her a bath.”
“No. Seriously?”
“Yeah, he came in her hair, then he put her in the bath and washed it off.”
“No, nothing like that. It was pretty vanill.” Elise stopped walking. “Which way do we go? I’m disorientated.”
“We got off the bus up there, so we should cross and catch it going that way.”
“Hey, girls,” a group of guys called from a passing car. “Where’s the party?”
Jenni and Elise put their arms around each other. “Not telling,” Jenni called out.
“Ohhh,” the guys yelled and the driver honked as they drove away.
The girls dropped their arms. “I don’t think it was that way. Because, look, we came from there and we walked past that corner store.”
“Oh yeah. So we take it from here.”
They went over to the bus stop; Jenni sat down and Elise looked at the timetable. “Twenty-five minutes,” she said. “I hate catching the bus on weekends.”
“So annoying,” Jenni said. “Should we just taxi it?”
They stood on the curb and looked for cabs. They tried to hail one that came toward them, even though its lights weren’t on and it was obviously taken. Eventually, an empty one passed on the other side of the road, but the driver either didn’t see them or didn’t want to do a U-turn, and he just kept going.
“Maybe we should walk?” Jenni said. “It’s not that far.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
They started walking, but then Elise decided to call home.
“What’s wrong?” her mum asked when Elise said hi.
“Nothing. We’re ready to go home but the bus isn’t coming for ages and we can’t get a taxi.”
“Do you want me to come pick you up?”
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” her mum said. “What’s the address?”
—
Elise and Jenni stood on the sidewalk and waited. Elise crossed her arms over her chest and stomped up and down on the spot to keep warm. She looked down at her shoes and said she wanted new heels. White ones or aqua, or even hot pink, for summer. Jenni said Holly was going shopping in the city the next day and they could join. Then they talked about going to Frankston that weekend because Bec was kind of going out with a surfer who lived there, and there was going to be a bonfire on the beach unless it rained. Jenni had seen pictures of Bec and the guy on Holly’s phone, and they looked really into each other and he was hot. In the photos, at least.
They discussed what else they could do in the holidays. They tried to work out if they had one or two weeks left. They were glad someone had made a movie of Persepolis so they wouldn’t have to read a whole book before they wrote their essays. They wondered why there weren’t more Iranian supermodels or movie stars, and thought it was sad but would hopefully happen soon. Then they talked about who the hottest celebrities of all time were, and they debated whether they’d rather look like Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian. They loved Kim because she was beautiful and her body was really curvy but totally in proportion and she had a good sense of humor and didn’t take herself too seriously, and they loved Beyoncé because she was completely stunning and her body was perfect and her songs were unique, and you could tell she was the nicest person, and she was always really sweet to her fans. Also, she had a song out with a crazy video in which she did an awesome African tribal army dance. The girls agreed they would watch it later on, when they got home. They were both relieved when Elise’s mum pulled up on the other side of the road and waved at them. Jenni had to pee and Elise was hungry.
Amelia couldn’t finish her book, so she decided to have a baby. She got pregnant with a gay friend, and waited six weeks to make sure it was actually happening. Then she emailed her agent. It’s going to take me longer than expected, she wrote, even though it had already taken longer than expected and her last email, with the subject line Any day now…, had been sent four months ago. It’s early still and I probably shouldn’t say anything but—I can’t help it. I’m pregnant.
Her agent, the father of teenage twins, could hardly tell her off for wanting to procreate, but he did express some surprise. Amelia was only twenty-two, after all, and she had never—in conversation or in her writing—mentioned an interest in children. Of course, he wrote before signing off, your mind must be on other matters at this exciting moment. Take your time finishing the book. Amelia smiled at that last line. She turned off her computer for the first
time in months, and felt a deep sense of relief and calm—a feeling she hadn’t imagined she’d experience until the book was done.
She pictured his phone call to the editor and the editor’s conversation with the sales team. No longer could they market her as the wunderkind blogger-turned-author fresh out of college. Now she would be this other thing, this uncategorizable shunner of the New York code. While her peers were all busy getting drunk and high, and sleeping their way through three of the five boroughs, Amelia would be at home, sterilizing bottles and feeling sleepy—or whatever it was new mothers did. In any case, she would have good reason not to write. It was a great plan, she thought. Soon morning sickness would kick in and lay her out for hours at a time, her essay collection left unfinished on her computer, and she helpless to do anything about it.
—
“You won’t get morning sickness,” her mother said. It was Saturday morning and Amelia was at brunch at her parents’ place on the Upper East Side. “I never had it. Auntie Annie never had it. Your grandma never had it. We don’t get it. We also don’t show till late. Like, five months or so. You’ve got a while to go.”
They were sitting in the living room, eating bagels and drinking coffee. All four of Amelia’s sisters were there, too, on the couch, the armchair, and the floor, and their dad was at the table with the newspaper. While everyone else was still gulping back the news, Amelia’s mother was dealing with the shock the way she dealt with every uncomfortable emotional experience: with a take-charge attitude. “You’ll need to look at your insurance plan,” she said. “See what birth options are covered.”
“I’m sorry, Mom, but how are you okay with this?” Georgia asked.
“You know she should get it taken care of,” Celine said. “Just tell her to take care of it.”
“I don’t want it taken care of,” Amelia told them. “I want this. It’s planned parenthood.”
“It’s fine to want a baby,” her father said. “You’ve always said you would one day. But is now the time?”
“I think so. I don’t have much else going on. I’m between things.”
“You’re between college and the rest of your life,” Jane said. “That’s not the right time.”
“We don’t do this,” said Georgia. “Seriously. It’s just not done.”
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