This story takes place during the winter of 1975-6 in New York City. Six months earlier I finally moved away from my parents’ house in the suburbs, presumably to be closer to school, but in reality to get away from them and start my own life. Being on my own meant I could meet and get to know people of different cultural and racial backgrounds. It also meant I was free of my folks’ interference with respect to girls. I’d had a couple of girlfriends before moving out, but we always had to sneak around in order to fool around. Now I didn’t need to!
The girl in this story is named Annie. She and I attended the same university and were majoring in the same subject. Because of this we were in a few of the same classes. At the end of the day we rode the same subway home, except my stop was several stations before hers’. I lived in the East Village and Annie lived in Brooklyn, not too far from the bridge. Sometimes she’d stop by my place on her way home or I’d go to hers, but we always ended up working on a class assignment or just talking. I never really considered our relationship would move much beyond that and I don’t think she did either. Annie was seeing someone and so was I. You could say Annie and I were like a close brother and sister.
The fall semester was coming to an end and after exams we would have 3 weeks of free time. My girlfriend and most of my other friends were spending the break with their families or on a beach in the sunny South. I planned to go home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and again for New Year’s Day, but had no clue what I’d do with the rest of the time. One day between Christmas and New Year’s Annie called. I thought she had plans to be away that week, but she said they fell through. She asked if I was busy and, if not, could we spend the day hanging out. I certainly wasn’t busy and invited her over. About 45 minutes later Annie was at my door and we ended up walking north toward Central Park. The day was cold and gloomy, but neither of us cared. We were happy to be in each other’s company. Along the way we stopped a few times for coffee to help stay warm. We strolled through the park and told each other about our hopes and dreams. We’d never been quite that intimate in our past chats, but on that day it seemed to be the natural thing to do.
On the way back, we walked down Broadway. At that time, Broadway had a number of peepshows and XXX movie theaters intermingled with “legitimate” theaters. The place had not yet been Disneyfied. We’d had a long day and Annie said her legs hurt. But instead of heading for the nearest subway station she suggested we stop in one of the theaters and see a skin flick. She was curious to know what it was like, but too afraid to go in by herself. I was surprised but thought, “Why not?” I’d seen a few of those movies and they always provided jerk off fantasies at night. Some even had a decent story to go along with the sex!