The first time happened by accident.
West put his arms around my waist and kissed me. I lay back on the tiny twin bed in his box-cluttered dorm room and let him. His lips were warm and soft and, as they met mine, he brought one hand up and cradled my chin. I kept my eyes closed during the kiss – I thought that’s what you were supposed to do – but I pictured in my mind what he looked like.
I had noticed him the very first day of freshman orientation. All the girls noticed him. He was tall and well built, with sandy-coloured hair that he constantly tossed out of his eyes with an impatient flick of his head. He had a surfer’s build, lean but muscular with a rock-hard chest and unbelievably muscular arms. I could easily imagine him slicing on a long board through the turquoise waves out at Zuma Beach. But, although I’d paid careful attention to every last detail of his appearance, from the cornflower-blue sweatshirt that matched his eyes to the chequer-printed slip-on Vans he always wore, I couldn’t believe that he’d noticed me back. When we parted, I told him so.
He kissed me hard a second time, his tongue teasing mine. Then he pulled away and grinned at me, running his hand through my long red hair before kissing his way along the line of my neck.
‘How could I not notice you?’ he asked, moving lower on the bed, sliding me so that I was in the exact position he wanted. ‘Your hair is a beacon. I was mesmerised.’
He started to undo my white blouse, and I watched each motion as I was gradually revealed, button by button. When my shirt was split open, he ran his fingertips over my simple white bra, caressing me lazily through the satiny fabric.
We spent the afternoon in his dorm room, kissing and touching, and I was pleased with myself for having found a boyfriend not only in the first quarter at school, but in the very first weekend. Yet, when the word of our erotic encounter spread to the rest of the girls on the floor, I was pegged as easy. So it turned out that I’d won not an instant boyfriend, but an instant reputation.
Over a late-night discussion with my new best friends Joelle and Mia we hatched that first plan. Joelle said that people would keep talking about me until they had something else to talk about, something juicier. Something dirty.
Mia said, ‘Well, let’s give them something to talk about.’
And that’s how it all started.