Ch 1: The Request
Looking back, it all started on a Friday night.
For me, Friday nights are usually spent one of two ways, either I'm on my couch watching a movie or playing video games or I'm out on a date with some girl I met on some dating app. For the time being, I was taking a break from dating. The reason being that my dating life consists of me messaging a pretty girl on some dating app with some god awful name. If communications with said girl went well, we would meet up for dinner or maybe drinks at a bar. We would talk, giving each other the run down about ourselves, our jobs, hobbies, maybe a few jokes here and there. This would go on for a few weeks before one of us loses interest and communications drop off.
Rinse and repeat.
Most of my friends were in relationships and thus most of their weekends were spent with their significant others. We hung out, but being the third wheel definitely sucked.
Thus a combination of burn out from the dating world and continuously being the third wheel in meet ups with friends ended up with me opting to spend the last few Friday nights on my couch playing video games. There were a few games that I had put on the backburner that I've been meaning to get to, so I relished in the opportunity to dust off my Playstation and lose myself in virtual reality.
It all started on one particular Friday night, after a particularly hellish week at work. I was on my living room couch playing a particularly punishing game when my roommate, Judy Chan, came in looking particularly upset. Judy and I had been friends for the better part of ten years. Having met during our sophomore year in some required University writing class, we connected instantly. Especially since Judy was new to the country, having come over from China to study abroad and I was the only one in the class fluent in Mandarin, her native dialect. We started hanging out from time to time, nothing too serious, though our respective friend groups did possess a few mutual friends here and there. After graduation, Judy decided to attend grad school while I looked for work. Coincidentally, both Judy's grad school of choice and my job were in the same city. As a result, Judy and I found ourselves living together.
In that time, we had definitely gotten a lot closer. Cooking together, sharing meals, watching movies, all of the things that friends and roommates do. Of course, that didn't stop my friends or family from trying to convince me that I should date Judy. Judy was pretty and truth be told, the thought had crossed my mind, but the timing just wasn't there. Judy was busy working on her doctorate, while I was too busy with work. She must have felt the same because the both of us had dated other people since moving in together. Me having dated way more than her.
Sometimes, I wondered whether I should pull the trigger and just date Judy.
"Hey." I said to her, my eyes not leaving the screen. My video game demanded all of my attention, I was currently fighting a boss and getting pummeled.
"Hey yourself." Judy said plopping down on the couch next to me. "What're you playing?
"Raiders of the Inferno" I asked casually
"Cool," she replied. She was dressed pretty nice tonight. A light blue jean jacket, a grey and black stripped blouse, over a conservative grey skirt, as always, her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail. She had done her make up too, her pretty face was radiant with a pink blush so subtle that it was practically invisible.
I gave her a quick once over before returning to my game. "You look nice tonight, date?"
Judy nodded. "Yeah" she said, her voice distant and thinking. "Did you hear about Jack and Jane?"
I shook my head.
"They finally hooked up. Happened last week." She said.
"About time." I said, Jack and Jane were two of my oldest friends. Though the two insisted that their relationship was platonic, there was always that spark of chemistry between them. Not only that, but a lot of the things that they did also made them seem more like a couple than just friends. It seemed inevitable to everybody in my small circle of friends, that those two would end up together.
About time indeed.
"How was your date?" I asked casually. Judy had been seeing some software engineer she had met online for the past few weeks. Though I had yet to meet him, the guys seemed cool from everything she had told me about him.
"We kind of broke things off." Judy said, she laid her head back on the couch, and scooted closer to me. And suddenly I could feel the warmth of her body radiating towards me.
"Sorry to hear." I replied, I didn't take my eyes off my game. The boss fight was intense and took up most of my attention. Judy had known me long enough to know that I can get really engrossed in a video game, but still be capable of carrying out a conversation. "What happened?"
"He said that he didn't feel attracted to me." Judy said, "Said he doesn't want to date someone he's not attracted to. Can't really come back from that one."
"That's a pretty fucked up thing to say." I replied. Judy wasn't an Instagram model, but she was definitely pretty in a cutesy sort of way. She wore clothes that most would consider to be conservative, long skirts that ended midway down her shins, sweaters and cardigans usually in light colors like pink, yellow or baby blue. She normally wore glasses and kept her hair tied up into a long ponytail or bun. She had a sense of style that most people would definitely agree was definitely anything but sexy. "You're beautiful."
I could practically hear Judy blush next to me.
"Thanks" she said quietly. She shuffled nervously in her seat.
"You doing ok? Anything I can do to make you feel better?" I asked, my fingers were flurry on the video game buttons. The boss I was fighting, a massive demon with an even bigger hammer, was definitely difficult.
"Yeah, there actually is."
"What is it?"
"I want you to teach me how to be a slut." Judy said, she placed a hand on my bicep, running her thumb up and down the curve of the muscle.
"Sure, just let me finish beating this boss first." I said, too engrossed in the intensity of the video game that had captured my attention. I blinked and turned to her. "Wait, what did you say?"
"I want you to teach me how to be a slut," Judy repeated.
The sounds of a game over could be heard as my character was slaughtered by the boss. I ignored them and turned off my Playstation. This took precedent.
"Ok, just so we're on the same page." I said putting my controller down onto the coffee table we had bought when we moved in. "What exactly do you mean."
Judy shrugged, causing her hair to tussle as she did so. "I just want to learn how to be more sexually adventurous."
