The Loft Game: Kermit

I laughed with her. "Do you? With one of the other guys?"

She glanced over at me. "No. I mean, this is my second year playing, and I'm not saying it's never happened but pretty close to never. It can get weird."

"What do you mean?"

"The other games make things complicated. For me, at least. They—" She shrugged.

After a moment, I decided to ask even though I wasn't supposed to. I knew and she knew I knew. "About those other games ..."

She glanced over at me and didn't respond for a second. Finally, she sighed. "I broke a rule saying anything about those games. I wouldn't've if you hadn't overheard me talking about them, but the horse was kinda out of the barn. Plus, I've only been at this a little over a year and haven't dealt with bringing someone in. I kinda panicked."

"You didn't seem panicked."

She gave a half-smile. "My poker face ... act ... whatever. I was tense, believe me. Even driving you here tonight." That surprised me. "What if you didn't work out? That'd be on me."

She paused while navigating a right on red. "I'd feel guilty if I kept talking to you about the other games. They exist, but everyone starts in the greens. To weed out the quitters and creeps. Let's leave it at that. Okay?" She glanced over at me.

"Okay." Not really okay, but I understood.

"If it's any consolation, you seem the type to get an invite someday."

It was.

"Anyway, I'm glad you didn't say anything back there when Megan shut that conversation down. I didn't tell anyone that you overheard. It would make them a bit uneasy and ... well ... thanks."

"No problem. I told you I'd never mention it."

As we pulled up in front of my dorm, I asked, "You want to come in?"

"Nah, I got somewhere to be."

I looked closely at her face and saw a small smirk appear. I started to say something, but she cut me off. "All things in due time, Chips. Get to know people and them to know you."

I grimaced. "I guess Hannah's already decided."

She laughed outright at that. "No. She's tough on every newcomer at the beginning. She figures, if they're gonna fold, make 'em fold early. God! My first night with her ... you don't want to know!"

"What?"

She shook her head. "Some other time; I have to scoot. Don't worry about it. She liked that you stood your ground, and that stunt you tried about Owen's undies was funny. She might give you some more grief the first time you show some skin but, nah, you're fine. Josh is in for a harder time of it than you, trust me. I gotta go." With that, she took off.

The next morning, about eleven o'clock, there was a knock at my door. I opened it to see Emily standing there.

"Hey."

I stepped back and let her in. She dropped her book bag on my bed and flopped beside it, dragging out a water bottle.

"Just came by to let you know you're in."

"I didn't realize that it was an interview."

She scrunched her face up in a frown. "Of course it was. If they thought you were an asshole, I'd be saying something like, 'Hey, Chips, I'm sorry but it just didn't click.' But not a bad word was said. So, what about you? You in?"

"Yeah."

"Great! Friday at seven every week school's in session. You should probably drive yourself next time since they'll let you in without me now."

"Because you have somewhere to be after?" I teased.

She smiled but her tone was serious. "Hey look, I'm not gonna talk about that. You already know more than you should. So now I'm going to be a good girl and keep my mouth shut. Okay? And not a word to Josh about it. New people get told if and when everyone thinks it'll work."

"I promised, Emily. I won't say a word."

"Cool. I knew there was a reason I liked you. Other than Jersey, of course." She bounced up. "Hey, do you have any munchies? I kinda skipped breakfast."

I raised my eyebrows and silently pointed to the four family-sized bags of Ruffles sitting beside the fridge. "Whoa!" she exclaimed.

"I'm addicted. Have been since I was in middle school. Hence the nickname."

We tore open a bag and had chips with onion dip for breakfast, well, second breakfast for me. In between bites, I found out she had just declared as a biology major and, in return, told her I was undecided so far but probably finance. "I've got till next year to figure it out."

She gave me minimal demographics about the people last night, telling me I should ask them more directly. I was the only freshman so far, though Megan had someone she thought might be okay.

"Oh, and Hannah does not have it in for you," she added. "I asked her point-blank and she said, quote, 'Tell her next week I'm gonna find out if the panties are as cute as the bra,' unquote. That's Hannah-speak for, 'I like her.'" She giggled.

"So, what did she do to you?" Emily squirmed and didn't answer. "Come on. Tell me."

"Well, I wasn't as fortunate at you my first time. I ended up topless. And the hand just before that happened, there was this guy from South Africa, Tyler—he's graduated now—he was kind of hot. Anyway, that last hand he got down to his briefs, which were kinda tight and what he had to show was pretty obvious. Maybe he wasn't entirely relaxed if you know what I mean."

I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, my bra comes off and—I swear to God it was a combination of nerves and that the room seemed a little cool—but my nipples were standing straight out. Hannah takes one look and says, "Damn, newbie! If Tyler's got your tatas doing that, are we going to find a swamp when your panties come off?'"

"Oh my God!"

"She did. I swear she did."

"What did you do?"

"Inside I died of embarrassment. Outside I said, 'How do you know it was him?' and stared right at her. She had lost her shirt."

"You did not!"

She grinned and nodded. I didn't say anything, and she turned that grin on me. "And now you're wondering which team I bat for, aren't you?"

I started to deny it, but what the hell. "A little."

"Relax, Jersey. Your virtue's safe. I like guys. I had one very, very minor experimentation in high school, and that convinced me without a doubt."

"What did Hannah do then?"

"She stared at me like forever. Finally, she said, 'I call bullshit, Em. It was Tyler or one of these other specimens of hunkitude.' And she never called me newbie again." She rapped me on the shoulder. "You handled it the right way yesterday, raising her that one hand and then standing up to her on that bet." She stood. "Thanks for the chips, Chips. I gotta go. See you Friday. Wear sexy undies!"

I showed up a few minutes early. Megan answered my knock and let me in. She and Hannah were the only two there so far.

"Ready to get naked, Chips?" Hannah called.

"Actually, I was planning on seeing some more dick tonight." That set off a gale of laughter, broken only by the sound of a key in the lock and Owen coming in.

It was the same group of people as last time plus another guy, Carter. That unbalanced things and I wondered what they would do, but Owen just looked around the room. "Anyone care?" I was surprised that he included me in the question, but his eyes waited on me until I shook my head no.

I guess once you're in, you're in.

Without having to spend time on introductions and rules and little talks, the game was underway substantially earlier. It also featured skin a little earlier. Megan seriously misjudged Mike, figuring him for a bluff when she was holding both aces and queens. When it was all over, his straight cost her both her shirt and her pants in a single hand. Then, the drip, drip of the ante took her bra.

Boobs don't particularly do it for me, so I found myself enjoying the expressions on the guys' faces when she bared. She had a nice little set and they appreciated it. Of course, there were some comments which she took with aplomb, including a few suggestions that she just drop her panties and get it over with. Carter's speculation on how a motorboat would feel caused a flicker in Mike's direction and then a humorous, "You'll never know."

I noticed that her nipples were as hard as rocks, despite her nonchalance.

I wondered if she'd be the loser, but the tide turned against the guys for a while and she got a little breathing room. Emily was building up a nice stack. Hannah and I were holding steady. Thomas and Carter were down to underwear, as was Josh again. Hannah was eyeing him with a grin, and I wondered what she was thinking.

I met Megan's eyes and mouthed, "Looks like I will be seeing some more ..." She grinned.

And the gods laughed.

I lost a few chips when my pair of queens were beaten by a pair of aces. I lost a couple more when two pair were beaten by a flush. All of a sudden, I was sitting there with seven white chips and three red ones. I tried to act cool, but I knew every guy sitting there, and probably every woman, knew my chip count. I pushed in my ante of two and prayed. Nope.

It didn't matter that there's the internet and these guys had all seen a million breasts on it. Nor, given the Loft Game, that they'd seen several in person. Since they were not-bad-looking and seemed nice, they'd probably had their hands on a few.

It doesn't matter. When they're your breasts and four guys are not only staring, they're staring with complete and total permission to do so and to be turned on by it, it's embarrassment with a capital E and that rhymes with G and that stands for "Gulp!" ... sorry, Harold Hill.

"First time, Chips," Owen said. It didn't sound mean, just acknowledging a fact.

I walked back and turned to face the table. I popped the hooks and caught the bra in place with my hand. Then I let it fall and felt my breasts swing loose. I tried not to meet anyone's eyes, staring at the cards on the table instead. I stood there for what I was sure was longer than anyone else, determined not to be the weakest link.

"Fuckin' A, Chips," Carter said in approval.

"Yeah," chimed in Thomas.

"Goddam! They're—" said Josh. I saw glances at him from the other guys. "—great," he finished.

Mike looked up at my face and smiled. "I admit we wondered a tiny bit how much was bra and how much was girl. Looks pretty much all girl to me. Very nice." He turned back to the table and picked up the deck to start shuffling.

Hannah, predictably, said, "Wiggle 'em a little and distract these guys. Come on. One little shimmy." I stuck my tongue out at her, which brought a snort of laughter.

"Pee break," Megan announced and hopped up.

I noticed that the guys kept sneaking peeks, but I figured that's why we were here. I also figured that I was the new girl in town and that had an attraction all its own. I forced myself not to cover up. Part of play fair, I thought.

Emily stood up and walked around behind me. She leaned in and whispered in my ear. "Surprised at how nice the guys are being?" I nodded. "It's your first time you've shown skin, and they're trying to make it easier for you. I told you, play by the same rules and you get a few props down the road from the guys." She chuckled. "Next time your bra comes off you're fair game though."

I took stock of the situation. I was in real danger of losing. Josh was at four chips and Carter was at five, but both were only anteing one, unlike me. Megan still had her buffer against losing her bottoms. It looked like it was me or one of the two guys.

A pair of nines on the deal was good. I wondered if they'd be lucky for me again. I felt less good about it when Josh bet two in first position. I knew he was feeling the need for chips, but was it a bluff or a real hand? Emily dropped chips in, but Hannah and Carter folded. I sat there, trying to figure out what to do. Finally, with a mental sigh of, Whatever! I pushed two in.

History didn't repeat; I didn't get a third nine. Josh pushed his last chip in. Emily matched it and both turned to me.

"You're out next hand if you don't," Josh taunted. I didn't bother to respond to the obvious. I had no idea about what they held: I knew the rules of poker, but I had no skill yet at reading people's faces. So I went with my gut ... and I wasn't feeling the nines.

Before she laid her cards down, Emily said to me, "If I beat him, he's out. If he beats me, you're almost certainly gonna lose. And I'm not sitting on a sure hand." She didn't need to explain; everyone understood the facts. She was just ratcheting up the tension.

"A newbie's going down," Hannah crowed to general amusement at the double entendre.

I shrugged.

Emily looked over at Josh. "Ready? One, two, three ..." They both dropped their cards. She had tens; he had nines. He groaned. "Out of curiosity, what did you have?" she asked me. I flipped my cards. "Nines also! But he had a better kicker. You picked the right play, Chips.

"As for you," she turned to Josh, "let's see some willie."

He stood very slowly, not a happy camper.

"Hey, Josh, don't look so down," Hannah said kindly. "I mean, come on. You got to see Megan's boobs and Chips's. Both are pretty great, huh? I mean, just look at Chips's right now"—his gaze went involuntarily to my chest—"those are like, I don't know, manna from heaven to a guy, right?

"You know, one of these days, she's probably gonna try Girl's Hat and lose"—I was?—"and then you're gonna get to feel those puppies pressed right up against your chest."

All of a sudden, I was pretty sure that Hannah wasn't speaking kindly.

"Or mine." His gaze swung in Pavlovian response to her chest, still encased in a shirt. She arched subtly. Her voice dropped a note or two, seductive and husky and oh so slow. "I always play with a hat and I lose sometimes ... rarely, but every once in a while. And, trust me, Josh babe, when I kiss a guy, it's tongue down your throat, tits flattened against your chest, and pelvis grinding until your—oh, there it is." Every girl in the room could see the shift in his underwear. Hannah snickered.

"You heard Emily. Let's see whatcha got." His face flaming, he pulled the briefs down, his penis springing free to bob. There were catcalls from the girls, me included. He turned redder but the semi-erection didn't subside. If anything, it grew slightly firmer.

"Niiice, Josh. Definitely looking good." There was a world of suggestion in Emily's tone. "Spin."

He shuffled through a turn. "Now go thank Kim and Andrew. And, Josh, I promise you, Kim loves looking at a guy who's a little excited."

"She's gonna be mentally licking her lips," Hannah put in. "Make sure you think about her doing that. And think about the lipstick she always wears and how that red would look if it rubbed off along—" That caused another twitch, to every girl's renewed amusement.

As Josh headed for the door, Owen sighed. "You two are bitches. Pure and simple. Especially you, Campbell," he said, faking a glare at Hannah.

She giggled. "If he comes back after tonight, I'll lay off him a little. You know that."

The discomfiture on Josh's face, coupled with the knowledge that I'd helped put it there, was a fire in my gut.

Later that night I thought, God, I wish I had a boyfriend right now! I clicked on another video and reached for the vibrator again.

I made it through four games—three exhilarating evenings of some nice male bod on display for my enjoyment and one of Megan baring all to loud calls of "It's about time" and "Finally!" from the guys.

Tits and shaved kitty didn't do it for me, but I got my charge watching the surreptitious squirms of adjustment from the guys, and from imagining possible scenes from later when they had some privacy. Four nights of lying alone in bed, glad my roommate wasn't around and that the dorm had solid walls, picturing guys also lying alone in bed and ...

Four games before my luck ran out and my lack of experience brought on the inevitable.

As I started to stand, Hannah said, "Wait! Don't get up."

She turned to Josh. "I'm not busting your balls. I just have a simple bet for you."

"What?"

I was wondering about this myself. I fully expected Hannah to do something to make me more self-conscious and she couldn't tease me into an erection like she had Josh.

"It ain't au natural; we'd have seen it poking out the edges. So, standard bikini line, a triangle, landing strip, or bare?"

Yep. There it was. I felt the color inch its way down from my face.

"Does she or doesn't she? I mean, she can't exactly play at little girl with those tits, but maybe she's considerate and doesn't want a guy getting too much caught in his teeth."

Holy Christ!

Of course, every guy's eyes went to the aforementioned tits as they laughed. Hannah gave me a wicked grin.

Josh was trying to bore a sightline through the table just with the power of his gaze. I'm sure he was remembering what things had looked like when my jeans had come off, but the purple panties were chosen because they were completely opaque and had too much lace overlay to show texture.

He repeated the objection I'd made. "Not good odds." Hannah shrugged. "What're the stakes?"

"Two pieces of clothing, private in the back room."

Josh had already lost socks, hat, and shirt, so Hannah was basically saying, "You strip for me." The little tic of expression on his face said he realized that. But the glance downward from her face told everyone he was aware of the fact that she had lost the same pieces of clothing. She was betting going topless. She smirked; she knew the conflict that was going through his mind.

"Bad odds," he repeated. "You lose and I get a kiss also. The kind like if you lost."

Grins spread around the table, well, except for Hannah. And me: I was busy not-hyperventilating. Finally, she nodded. "Dea— Wait! Did you two already bang? Do you know the answer?"

"Nope."

"Maybe you will. She's probably starting to drip from all the attention she's getting right now." Of course every eye swiveled back to me.

Oh my fucking God! I hate her!

Hannah contemplated him for a long moment. Then a slow, evil grin and a nod. "Kiss no matter who wins. I'm so gonna get a reaction from you. Deal?"

"Deal. Bikini line."

I'd like to have felt a little satisfaction at Hannah losing, but I was too focused on my impending fate. All I could do was nod and say, "He wins."

"Fuck!" shouted Hannah. "Fuck!"

Most eyes were on her, but Owen was sitting next to me and I caught his quiet word to Josh. "Remember."

Remember what?

But I couldn't pursue that train of thought.

I stood and stepped back from the table. I slid fingers into the waistband and then paused a moment. I'm sure I was scarlet at this point. I've been naked with guys before, obviously. But knowing that five sets of male eyes—clothed male eyes—were drinking in my body was sending tremors through me. I gritted my teeth, figuratively and literally, and slid my underwear down, raising each foot, in turn, to step out.

"Can I get your number, Chips?" Mike asked. Since Megan kept smiling and didn't even glance his way, I figured that was just tease. The rest of the guys made noises of appreciation as their eyes traveled up and down my body.

"Remember I said I was straight, Jersey? I'm rethinking that," Emily contributed.

"Ooh!" Hannah turned to her. "Does she munch carpet?" That brought a fresh round of laughter from the others and a wave of mortification through me.

Owen gave it a few seconds, during which the guys took it easy on me, but the women didn't. Then his hand went up, forefinger out as he made a little twirling motion. "Arms up. Give us a little performance." I raised my arms and turned a slow pirouette. "Okay, door's there," he said, pointing at the far entrance.

Trying to ignore the fact that I knew—because I'd done it—that every set of eyes was staring at the sway of my ass, I walked over and opened it. Stepping out, I found two pairs of flip flops precisely arranged on the top step: one set giant, the other clearly for girls. I slid them on and made the trip. I could feel my nipples crinkling into little diamond points at the fall chill, and I shivered.