"Hi, honey, I'm home!"

I dropped my bag on the floor and stepped out of my shoes. By the time I retrieved it again, Lily had emerged from the kitchen. Her cinnamon braid was longer than I recalled. Her brown eyes didn't seem as bright as I remembered, but her smile was wide.

"Ava! You dork! This is your home, not mine."

"Oh! Yes! So it is," I said, as she wrapped me in a huge platonic hug. I lived a few miles away, in a student apartment, but my parents' home would always feel like mine. They and my brother had taken a trip to include the holiday weekend, leaving a key for Lily. She'd arrived on an early-morning flight, while a friend had given me a ride after a Saturday meeting.

"I unpacked in your room," Lily said. "I assume that's the plan."

"Yeah, of course," I agreed. "It would make more sense to borrow David's room, but you know, you're a girl, and you'd leave cooties."

"I'd be more worried about him leaving crusty sheets."

"Eww! Eww, eww, eww. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"If they weren't crusty on arrival, you can be sure they would be soon if he comes back knowing a girl slept in his bed."

I dropped my bag again and covered my ears. "Eww! Eww!" I repeated. "That's my brother!"

"Just sayin'."

"Well, just don't!" I griped. "Anyway, we've shared often enough before. And with the rest of the family on vacation, we won't have to be quiet. Dad specifically told me where not to look for the extra wine he totally didn't buy for us before leaving."

"A very understanding man, your dad," Lily said. "I don't turn twenty-one for a couple of months yet."

I scowled. "Six for me. It was inconsiderate of Chloe and Ian to schedule the party for this year."

"I'm sure not wanting the party to turn into a drunken blowout was part of their motivation," Lily said. "Now go unpack. I already made coffee. I'll bring you some."

"Make yourself at home, why don't you?" I snarked, taking my bag again.

"Already did," Lily sang brightly.

 

We'd known about the party since before the start of the semester. And, to be fair, Ian and Chloe had known they were destined to be together for over three years at this point, so not waiting another year for their engagement party was understandable, even if they were on the young side for marriage. The wedding wouldn't happen until after they'd both graduated.

Chloe, Lily and I had been best friends since eighth grade. Ian hadn't joined the group until later, and we'd all vied for his attention, causing our share of group drama, but somehow we always managed to fix the situation, and by eleventh grade it was clear that he only had eyes for Chloe. Lily and I commiserated our loss with wine that I'd sneaked into my room when she stayed over.

The door opened. Lily stood in the entrance with two mugs of coffee held in one hand so she could operate the doorknob.

"You ever heard of knocking?" I complained. "I could have been standing around naked in here."

"You ever heard about changing in the bathroom when you have guests?" Lily countered.

"Fair," I said, taking one of the coffees. I took a sip. "God, I love you," I said.

"I know, I know. Now finish unpacking," she instructed.

Lily had taken the last of the space in my closet, but I hadn't brought any clothes that needed to hang, just tee shirts and other folded clothes and my pajamas. I could find a top and skirt to wear tonight in the clothes I'd left behind.

"If I take a shower, will you comb out my hair?" Lily asked.

I smiled at her. "Like old times. You go first?"

Her smile for me seemed a little fixed. "Sure," she said. Her own folded clothes were still in her suitcase. She found a tank top, underwear and shorts and headed into the bathroom I shared with my brother. I realized I should have checked for trash he'd left around, but I was sure Mom would have made a quick pass through the bathroom before leaving. I knocked on the bathroom door before I heard the water run. "Would you like me to find a drawer for your other clothes?" I yelled.

"Sure," she said. "Thanks."

After a long shower she left the bathroom, her long hair in a towel, wearing her tank and shorts. She dug her comb out of her case, then sat at my old school desk.

"Be right back," I said, then took my turn in the shower. I brushed out my short, dark brown hair before leaving, then dragged a chair up behind Lily's and took the comb out of her hand. This was a task we'd often shared.

"I think I've taken care of most of the knots, but be careful," she said.

"Of course, Lily," I said. I leaned forward and sniffed her neck, catching the edge of her smile as I did. "You smell so good. Like every party we went to. Like sitting outside the ice cream shop with sugar cones." I named the perfume she used back in the day.

"That's the one," she said. "I still haven't found one I like better. I'm glad you remember it."

There was only a small mirror on my desk. I moved to where she could see me in it, took another lungful of her familiar scent, then gave her a concerned smile. "So what's going on, Lil?" I asked, as I slowly worked the comb through her hair. "You seem a little down."

I saw her reflection wince. "Let's not talk about it," she said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "You know I want to be here for you."

"You always are, Ava," she said, "and I do want to talk, but not before the party. I don't want to get upset and be a downer for Chloe and Ian. They deserve better than that."

"Later, then?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Maybe with a glass of that wine that isn't for us." A moment later, she added, "Let's just say boyfriend trouble."

"Ah. Very recent?"

"Recent, but let's talk about it later." she insisted.

"Okay," I said, curious now. She'd never seemed to have a problem getting or keeping boyfriends, while I'd never really had a problem finding one, but I'd always been indifferent to keeping them, and tended to dump them very soon.

"It feels so good having you work on my hair," Lily said. "I'd almost forgotten what it was like."

"Me too," I agreed. "I don't have anyone like you at college."

"There is no one like me, Ava," she said. I had to agree.

Eventually she was happy with her damp, silky hair. She began to separate it to braid. I interrupted her to take over the job. She chuckled. "Sorry, I forgot I didn't have to do this part. I've gotten good at it."

"Of course you have, but what are friends for?" I asked.

 

After I'd dried my hair, I spread the clothes I'd chosen on my bed. I'd selected a black drape neck crop top, which had wide-spaced rear laces, the back being open but for them. I placed my long burgundy skirt against the top, deciding it would work. The open-back top really demanded a backless bra, but I had a black bra with narrow straps which were sufficiently close to matching the laces that I thought would be okay. I took them into the bathroom to change, while Lily worked on her face. Her makeup was much more subtle than it used to be in high school, and her features and figure had filled out from those of my gawky teenaged best friend, most especially within the tank top. My friend had become a truly beautiful woman.

After changing, I checked that the back straps were even and that the bra straps really didn't look out of place before returning, holding the laces closed at the base. "Will you fasten me up?" I asked Lily.

She nodded, smiling at me, and I turned away to give her access. She made the loops as large as she could without risking them pulling out completely.

When she dressed in her pink wrap dress, which had a short skirt within a knee-length sheer sheath, I did a double-take.

"Ian's going to see you and decide he made the wrong call in our friend group."

Lily's cheeks colored. "That's nice of you to say, but A, he's not that shallow, and B, Chloe's going to look fine, since she's the one getting engaged." She eyed my outfit. "And I think you turned out okay, too."

"Well, thanks," I said. "I'm glad you do."

 

Lily was right. Chloe looked radiant, her dark skin and chocolate eyes beautifully contrasting her ivory dress, her long, tight curls radiating out over her shoulders, and I was sure that neither Lily nor I distracted her new fiancé from her for a moment. Ian's hair was a gingery red, and he still had a few freckles, but either he'd lost a few or was hiding them behind his red-brown beard. If he'd grown the beard to mask his freckles, that was disappointing, because I'd always found them attractive.

The couple's parents served sparkling apple juice and "adult sparkling grape juice" - champagne. They'd limited the champagne to two glasses per person, and none to drivers. Fortunately, Dad had also told me to use his Uber account, so neither of us was driving. In his speech, Ian promised that all of their friends would be able to drink legally at the wedding.

There were others from our school year, part of our greater friend group, if not our best friend quartet, and neither Lily nor I had any shortage of men to dance with. Ian interrupted one of these dances, which surprised me, until I saw Chloe doing the same with Lily. They dragged the two of us off into a corner, where Ian presented me with a fancy-looking card, Chloe giving a similar card to Lily.

Mine asked me to do Ian the honor of being his best woman. Lily's must have asked her to be Chloe's maid of honor, because she immediately beamed at me before turning back to Chloe. "Is it a destination wedding?" I asked Ian. "Because I'd absolutely love to, but I won't have much of a budget by then."

They assured us that it would be local, and we agreed with hugs. Ian paused the party to make the announcement.

 

Lily and I were in high spirits when we Ubered back to my place. I didn't want to bring up her melancholy over her boyfriend troubles, but we had wine and time, and I wanted to support her. So I found the bottles that Dad had definitively not left for us, opened one, and took it to my room with a pair of glasses. Lily was already tossing pillows against the wall so that we could sit side-by-side on the bed, as we used to when we were solving all of the world's problems.

Most of which - as now, apparently - were due to boys.

The glasses were small, but I filled them high. Climbing up onto the bed, I handed Lily a glass, taking the other for myself. She leaned against me. Shades of dozens - hundreds? - of times we'd rested on our pillow wall just like this. I chuckled.

"What's funny?" Lily asked.

"I was just thinking. About half of the time we were in problem solving mode it was because of Ian and Chloe. Now we're here for them, and they're not our problem."

Lily's head tilted to the left, her hair brushing mine. Her braid was over her left shoulder, trapped between us. "Yeah, I was very surprised that they want us to lead their wedding party. And very happy."

"They probably didn't think they could have one of us without the other," I suggested. "Although we could have been co-maids-of-honor. It's such a nice touch that Ian wants one of us on his side. I think it means I have to plan his bachelor party?"

"Strippers?" Lily asked. I couldn't really see her face, as close as I was to her, but I was sure her eyebrows were raised. Her tone implied it.

"If that's what they want," I said. "But if it is, I will stomp any guy who thinks he can cheat on his SO. Boys will be boys will not work since I'm not a boy. Maybe that was Ian's thinking."

"I can see that," Lily said. "'Take no shit Ava'."

"That's my new name, is it?" I took a long sip of my wine.

"Could be," Lily said. "We're both going to have work to do."

"We'll have to stay in touch," I said. "Not like that's hard for us. You're going to have to do all the dress shopping with Chloe."

"And you'll have to help with the groomsmen's outfit choice, and your own. Maybe that's why Ian picked you."

"That's possible," I said. I took another long sip of my drink, leaving only about a third in the glass. I didn't feel like I had a buzz, but I was at the pre-buzz stage where the world was airy and bright. I set the glass down, and, as I'd done so many times before, lifted Lily's braid from between us and began methodically to pick it out. "Now tell me what's going on with you?"

Her tone sounded like she was grimacing. "Can we talk about you first?" she asked. "I promise we can get to my troubles, but once we start I don't think we'll go back. Are you still with Chase?"

"Oh, God," I said. "I'm surprised you even remember his name. That was a year ago. I dated Colin for a couple of weeks, then Seth, but they're both months in the past now."

She chuckled. "The speed you get bored with them is a perpetual surprise," she said. "I'm pretty sure you haven't mentioned either."

I had a couple of inches of braid unfastened now. "Probably because I didn't think they were worth mentioning," I said. "I feel like the downside of dating is more than the upside. If there's a guy out there who isn't more trouble than he's worth, then he's already taken. And from now on, if a guy tries to stick his tongue down my throat, it's an instant and permanent ban from any access to my body."

"I know, right?" said Lily. "I hate that. I used to chalk it up to enthusiasm, but I think lack of self-awareness is a better call."

"Right," I said. Releasing Lily's braid, I picked up my glass, drained it, then poured myself more wine. I held the bottle out to her. Her glass was almost empty, so I refreshed it. "So that's my news, at least as it involves romance, which means you can't postpone your story any longer."

Lily sighed and sipped her wine. I set my glass down and returned to working on her hair.

"You know I was dating Adrian, right?"

I nodded. She either felt the movement or caught it out of the corner of her eye.

"We were together all of last year. I thought it was getting serious. After summer he changed. We fought all the time. He said there was nothing wrong, he'd just had a few bad days. Except it was one after another. Finally I stole his phone. I knew what his passcode would be, so I snooped. Invasion of privacy, I know, but if he was going to keep lying to me, and I knew he was, I didn't care."

She took another drink of her wine. After a moment, she continued. "He was trading messages over summer with my old roomie, Amy. Nudes. After he was done screaming at me for going through his phone, he tried to tell me nothing physical happened." She grimaced. "I challenged that, because why nudes if there was nothing going on? So he 'admitted'" - Lily made airquotes, almost spilling her wine - "that, well, they'd made out one time, but not gone all the way, and Amy had sent the nudes to show him what he'd missed by not getting her naked. They were drunk, and making out isn't really cheating, he said."

"Fuck yes, it's cheating," I said. "Even if it's only emotional and he didn't kiss her or get his hand up her shirt, it's still cheating. And honestly, you know as well as I do that he fucked her. You don't have a chat history like that without getting physical."

"Right," Lily agreed. "Neither of them would admit to it, but I couldn't stay with him, so I dumped him about six weeks ago. Since then he's been telling everyone I'm cray cray, and at the same time texting me to get back together and to tell me I'll never find anyone better than him."

Without touching my glass, this time, I reached for the bottle and added to Lily's. "That fucker," I said. "Want me to come to town and beat him up?"

Lily laughed. "I don't think that would help," she said. "I think I'd be able to beat him up just as well as you, if it came to it."

"Yeah, but we could work together," I said. "Or I could bring you candy in jail. Or cigarettes, for currency?"

Lily laughed again. "I love you, dork," she said. She drank more of her wine, then handed me the glass. "Keep that safe for me," she said.

"Of course," I replied, setting her glass down, then taking another sip of mine before returning it to my nightstand.

Lily turned a little to face me, lifting a knee over mine. Her forehead rested against the side of my head. This blocked access to her braid, but I was close to done with it, so I tugged it out behind her, then finished unfastening it. Using the fingers of both hands, I spread it out behind her, over both shoulders, kissing her forehead. Then I slipped my right hand around her back to hold her close.

"I thought telling you would make me depressed," Lily said. "Now it feels good for getting it off my chest."

I sniggered. When she looked up to see what I was finding amusing, I made a show of looking down her neckline. "I can tell," I said. "You have very little on your chest."

"Perv!" Lily yelped. "I can't believe you said that!" She was grinning, but her cheeks had flushed slightly.

"Of course you can," I retorted.

She gave a mock sigh. "Yeah, you're right. I absolutely believe you would say that." She moved closer, snuggling against my neck. I relaxed, allowing her to get as close as she wanted. "I miss you," she murmured.

"I miss you too," I said.

"I mean I really miss you," she said, her words thrumming against my neck. "I wish we'd gone to college together. I wish we could have been roommates. I want to be what we were to each other in high school."

Reaching around with the fingers of my left hand, I caught her freed hair and drew it forward over my face, while my right hand caressed her neck. "I wish we could have that, too," I said.

She wriggled a little closer. Her lips touched my neck, tracing up to my jawbone and down to my shoulder. Her scent reminded me of all of those times we'd snuggled together, but I didn't recall that my heart had started racing before now.

Lily's right hand stole around me, fingers sliding over the narrow strip of exposed midriff to rest under my top above my waist.

My first thought had been that this was a brief affectionate hug, but when she still held her pose after a minute or two, I realized she wanted to prolong the closeness.

She'd been with - Adrian, wasn't it? - for over a year, and she probably had been starved for human contact otherwise. I'd offered her a shoulder to cry on. Literal shoulder, not literal crying, but I figured she'd done plenty of that, too.

Awkwardly, I moved my left hand to her shoulder, tangling it in her hair as I drew her against me. She rested her head on my shoulder, her lips leaving my neck, which was a slight relief, given the way they were making me tingle. My voice sounded perfectly steady when I asked, "But how are you feeling? You've told me this Adrian is a cheating ass, and I understand that must have felt like shit, but how are you handling it?"

"Better than I was," Lily said. "I spiralled, I guess. I even thought about taking him back. If he hadn't been so dismissive, I might've. I just didn't want to be alone, with all my work piling up, but I caught up, and I know I'm better without him. I just feel like there's nothing left beside work. And looking forward to coming back here on vacation."

"Coming back to see me?" I asked, cheekily. Her parents had moved away after she'd started college, but most of her friends were still here.

Lily didn't answer. "That glass you were saving for me?" she asked. "Was there any wine left in it?"

"Some," I said, "and there's about a third left in the bottle. I can get another bottle if we want it."

Her head shook against me, her loose hair slipping through the fingers of both of my hands. "I don't want to get wasted, but this buzz feels just about right."

"Okay," I said.

I reached out for the wine bottle, then started to raise my right arm, which was still around Lily's back.

"Nuh-uh," she said. "You can manage one-handed."

"That won't be easy," I griped. "The angle's all wrong."

"You'll figure it out," she crooned.

I rolled my eyes and picked up the bottle, half-filling her glass left-handed and giving myself a little more, leaving a small amount left in the bottle. Less than one glass, I'd guess. Setting it down, I picked up Lily's glass and held it out to her.

She turned to look up at me. "I can't take it," she said. "You'll have to tip the glass toward me."

"I can't do that," I said. "I'll pour it all over your dress. You have to take it."

"My hands are stuck," she said. "Just be careful."

I rolled my eyes again, then lifted the glass to her lips, tilting it very carefully. When the wine was almost at the rim, Lily slurped to avoid spilling. That made both of us giggle, and I straightened the glass before trying again.

Eventually, she'd managed to drink half of the glass without spilling any on her dress or her boobs, which were squashed against me as she drank. I put her glass back down on the nightstand and drank from my own.

Lily giggled. "Drinking like that made my head spin."

"What's with the sudden clinginess?" I asked as I placed my glass beside Lily's.

There was a small grin on her face as her eyes held mine. "I'm not being clingy," she said. "I'm just never letting you go again. I'll never let you out of my sight. You're mine, forever and ever!"

"That's going to be awkward," I said.

"Mmm," she said in agreement. "But necessary."

Smiling, I moved my free hand back to her shoulder. Lily slipped a little further over my outstretched legs and pressed her face back against my neck. I couldn't comfortably keep my right arm around her, so I let it drift down her back. "You're a dork," I said, as she kissed my neck again, once, before relaxing against me.

"You should know," she retorted. "So, will you wear a tux?"

The topic change threw me. It took me a moment to understand the context. "Oh, umm. I don't know. I was planning to Google my responsibilities tomorrow. Do you think I'll be wearing a tux?"

"I have no idea," Lily said, "but you'd look good in anything. I'd love to see you in a tux, but you'd look fine in a gown. You looked great today."

"So did you, though I think this new clingy attitude is making your dress look disheveled now."

"Don't care," Lily said.

Since the left side of the dress was trapped against me, the wrap was threatening to slip open further than she would be comfortable with. I was fairly sure she wasn't wearing a bra under it, and though we'd seen each other in very little clothing often enough, cuddled together like this, the sight felt too intimate. I tugged on the top of the wrap to even up the quite low fabric overlap.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm undisheveling your top," I said. "Is that a word? If I'm making it not-dis-sheveled, does that mean I'm sheveling it?"

"Are you staring at my tits again, perv?" Lily asked.

"I'm trying to avoid staring at your tits, perv," I said.

"That's hard for you, is it?"

"At this angle? A little bit," I said.

Lily's right hand finally left my waist. She trailed her fingers up my arm, then over the straps at my shoulder. She touched the left side of my face as she raised her lips and kissed my right cheek.

I could hear a trace of huskiness in my voice as I asked, "More clinginess?"

"Just being affectionate," Lily said. She trailed her fingers back down my arm and kissed her way back down my neck, before leaning forward, her chest pressed against mine as she turned her face to allow her to press her lips to the nape of my neck. "Is that okay with you?"

Without waiting for an answer, she worked at my nape with her lips and tongue, making a growling noise.

Trying not to shiver, I said, "You've never been affectionate like this before. Did you have too much wine?"

She paused her activity to say, "Maybe not enough." After a moment, she added, "No, just right, I think. In vino veritas."

"I don't know what's gotten into you," I said, as she kissed her way back to the junction of my neck and shoulder.

"Being around you drives away thoughts of my lying cheating asshole ex. I just feel moved to do this!" she said, her lips against my ear. I couldn't completely suppress the shiver that caused. "I can't believe I've never done it before."

"Why would you?" I asked.

"Because it feels good to be close to you. Don't you think so?"

"You're tickling me," I said. It wasn't true, but I didn't want to admit exactly what the touch of her lips was doing.

"When I've tickled you before, you fight me," Lily said. I winced, expecting her to demonstrate, but she didn't. "So maybe this tickling isn't so bad?"

"It's not as bad as regular tickling, no," I admitted.

Lily seemed to treat that as a ringing endorsement. She pressed her lips to the base of my neck, parting them and tonguing my neck for maybe a full minute. Somewhere within that time the tingling I was feeling seemed to flow out into my chest and made my breath catch. When she finally eased off, I was trying hard not to let her notice how heavily I was breathing.

"I think you liked that," Lily said, then kissed her way up to my jawbone.

"Why do you think that?" I asked, striving to keep my voice neutral.

She didn't answer me for several seconds. When she'd dragged her teeth against the underside of my jaw for a few seconds, she finally moved back.

"Because of the way you're touching me?" she said, with a mischievous grin.

I hadn't realized until that moment that I was drawing circles against her lower back with the fingers of my right hand.

"Oh. Umm, well, we touch a lot, don't we? Because we're close."

"Yeah, we are," she agreed. She touched the left side of my face, as she planted another kiss on my cheek. "I like that about us."

"Yeah, me too," I answered. What she was doing was making me feel even closer to her. I liked it. I just wasn't certain that I should be liking it as much as I was.

This time, Lily didn't release my cheek immediately. Her fingers against my face held me in place as she kissed along my cheek, stopping when she reached the corner of my mouth. She drew back to give me another impudent grin, then pressed her lips back to the corner of my mouth, leaving them there for a few seconds before drawing back and repeating the almost-kiss. My chest tightened, and my heart skipped.

Lily saved me from deciding whether I needed to respond or to draw back from her by climbing off my lap. She swiveled around to lean back against the pillows, taking my right hand in her left, perhaps to avoid appearing to reject me after backing away. "Time for my wine, waiter!" she yelled, imperiously, waving her free hand over her head.

I added a little more wine to her glass and handed it to her. "Your wish is my command," I said. When she'd taken it, I picked up my own. Lily wriggled closer, our arms squeezed together.

"Why don't we finish the wine, then get ready for bed?" I suggested.

Lily pouted. "I was enjoying teasing you!"

"I can tell you were," I agreed, "but it feels silly with you in the dress and me in my long skirt. Did you bring pajamas? Or do you need to borrow a tee shirt?"

"I brought my PJs," she said. She drank the rest of her wine, then handed me her empty glass. "There will be an extra-large tip if you can squeeze more wine from the bottle, miss!"

"How large is that?" I asked, dividing the last of the bottle between our glasses.

"Twice your usual tip!" Lily said, accepting the glass back.

I laughed. "Twice zero isn't larger than zero. I'm gonna change in the bathroom, so you can hang your dress up directly," I said. Standing, I picked up my wine and carried it around the bed. "Unfasten me first." I could do it, but it would be easier if she did.

Lily rested her wine on the nightstand. "Step back a bit," she instructed. When I did, she tugged on the ends of the laces, parting them.

I had reached around to catch the laces, but she ignored my waiting fingers. She quickly unthreaded the laces from their widely-spaced eyes. The top slid free, until I trapped it with my hand that still held my wine. "Lily!" I yelped.

"You're fine," she said, tartly. "You're wearing a bra." Which was true enough.

Then she grabbed my hips, holding me in place, while she leaned forward and began to nibble at my waist. Her teeth and tongue on my waist had the opposite effect from the cold shower I probably needed after her earlier teasing. My thighs tensed and my breath caught. I tried to move forward, but she held me tighter, and continued to tongue my skin until I finally groaned, "Lily?"

"I'm sorry," she said as she released me. "I couldn't resist."

"Jerk," I said.

With no free hands I couldn't get my pajamas, so I set my glass aside and hung my top where I'd found it.

While it was true that I was wearing a bra, so I hadn't ended up topless, said bra was intended to take up as little space as possible while providing nipple obscurity and a minimum of support. So it had very narrow triangle cups, and the narrow straps did nothing to hide the fact that it looked like the tiniest of black bikini tops.

And Lily was staring at me, with a surprised, almost awed expression that made me think she hadn't really known what the bra would look like, or that I'd grown at least a cup size since our last sleepover.

"Now who's staring, perv?" I asked her, as I drew out my pajamas from my drawer.

She blinked, then said, "Sorry! Wasn't meaning to!" with a nervous chuckle. That she hadn't tried to turn the name calling back on me made me think she really had spaced out for a moment. I was feeling both amused and a little smug. I added panties to my collection, picked up my wine and headed to the bathroom.

 

When I was done, I knocked on the door. "See, this is what you're supposed to do," I yelled through the door. "Knock, in case your friend is still naked."

"I am!" she called back.

"Okay, I'm coming out!"

"No!" Lily squeaked as I turned the handle.

"Don't worry," I said. "I've only opened the door a half inch so I don't have to keep shouting. Did you find everything?"

"Yeah, I remembered the wrong drawer," Lily said. "I'm getting dressed now." A moment later, she said, "Okay, you can come in."

Pushing the door open all the way, I found her buttoning up a silky-looking medium-sleeved pajama shirt, in pale blue, already wearing matching blue shorts. "Those are nice," I commented.

"Yeah, I got them when I was with Adrian," she said. "He always said he liked my cute pajamas. From the photos, I guess that Amy slept naked."

"There's nothing wrong with sleeping naked, unless it's with someone else's boyfriend," I said.

"Yours are cute, too," Lily said.

My set was a pink tank with floral decorations, with capri-length plain pink drawstring pants, both made with soft cotton.

"Thanks," I said. "I wouldn't wear them at home with family around, but they're super soft."

"Why wouldn't you wear them?" Lily asked.

"The neckline is a little low to be around teenage boys," I said. "Especially if it's my brother."

"So you're wearing it for meeeeee!" Lily sang. "And you called me a perv. Clearly you want me to look."

"I want to be comfortable," I said.

Lily swallowed the last of her wine. I still held my empty glass, so I took hers and picked up the bottle. "Mom has one of those carbon dioxinator bottles. Carbon... umm, carbonator, I mean. Would you like a glass of fizzy water?"

"Sure," Lily said. "I'll come with you."

She led the way through the bedroom door, swerving too carefully as she avoided the wall beyond.

"Are you drunk?" I asked.

"Not drunk," Lily answered, "but very nicely buzzed. I think it's wearing off."

"Probably not, since you just finished another glass."

"Oh, right, but it was a small one," she said. "Where's the light switch?"

"Left."

The light came on. I dropped the bottle in the recycle bin, and left the glasses beside the kitchen sink. Then I took one of the plastic bottles Mom had already prepared and poured us two glasses of fizzy water. I turned to hand Lily one. Her gaze immediately flicked up to meet my eyes, and her expression looked guilty. She didn't comment about it, so neither did I.

"Thanks."

"Welcome. You go first, I'll get the lights."

 

In the bedroom, we demolished the wall of pillows and arranged them conventionally.

"Don't turn the lights off, yet," said Lily. "I'm not ready to sleep."

"That's fine," I said. "Changing into pajamas wasn't because I need to sleep, I just wanted to get out of the skirt."

"Same," said Lily.

"Same? Why did you want me to get out of my skirt?"

"I didn't!" Lily yelped. "I mean, I wanted to get out of my dress, too! You're twisting what I say!" She curled toward me and laid her head on my shoulder. Then she lifted herself up, took my hand which was trapped between us, and lifted it so that she could nestle against my shoulder, my arm around her back.

"This feels so very familiar," she said.

"Especially since your scent is the same as always," I agreed.

"Yeah, though I used your soap, so I probably smell a little different."

"Maybe, but since I use the same soap, I probably don't notice that part," I said.

"I think it's true for you, too, though I don't recognize your products. When I was teasing you earlier, I felt like I'd done that a thousand times before, but I haven't."

"Yeah, I think I'd have remembered if you had," I said. "You were making me tingle. I don't think I'd forget that."

"Tingle?" Lily's eyes opened wide. "You said tickle!"

"Shit," I said. "I'm tipsy, and you're distracting me, being so close. I meant tickle, obviously."

Lily's smile grew wider. "Not obvious at all. And why would I be distracting you? I think you're still saying more than you intended, dork."

"Why would making me tingle be a problem anyway?"

"Because teasing you makes me tingle too," she said. She rotated her head a little further, then planted a very wet, very kinetic kiss just outside the thin strap of my tank. "And as for distractions..."

I had to twist my head to see what she meant, finding her eyes firmly fixed on my neckline.

"Oh, my God," I said, "You're hopeless."

"I'm going to even the playing field," Lily said. She giggled briefly as she rolled back to open the top two buttons of her silky blue shirt. "Is that equiv... equivalent?" Her eyes flicked over to my top. She frowned, then popped one more button open. "Now you can't complain."

"I wasn't complaining," I said, as she settled back down to my shoulder. "And maybe I think staring down my best friend's shirt is creepy."

"No, you don't," she said. "I saw you."

Sighing, I ran my hand over her back. "I think you're drunk," I said.

"I'm just happy," Lily countered. "Yeah, I'm tipsy, but I know what I'm doing, and I'm happy that I can spend the weekend with you, Ava. This is where I'm meant to be. Maybe that's why it feels so familiar to tease you, because it's just so right. Didn't it feel like that to you?"

I thought back to the way she'd made me feel when she used her teeth and tongue on my neck and shoulders. "I liked it," I said at last. "I don't know that I'd say it felt right. If it had been anyone other than you, I would have found it annoying." Then I frowned. "What is it?"

Lily's face was resting on her shoulder, but her lips had widened into a roguish smile. "As soon as you mentioned liking it, you started to touch my back, just like before. So I know it's true."

Dammit, she was absolutely right. I was drawing circles on the back of her silky top.

Lily leaned further toward me, to nuzzle her face against my shoulder. Her right arm moved around my waist, her lips parted against the skin of my shoulder. As she brought her tongue into play, her right foot moved over my legs. and she squeezed my waist.

I knew that my neck could be sensitive. I'd had guys kiss me there during foreplay, but I hadn't realized that the sensitivity extended to my shoulder. The electric thrill of Lily's mouth was stronger than earlier, and seemed to be stirring feelings in other parts of my body. My heart was thumping within my chest.

"Is this okay?" Lily asked, softly.

I didn't trust myself to speak normally, so I just grunted, "Mm-hmm."

Her lips and tongue meandered over my shoulders and around my neck. When she stretched to work on the far shoulder, she slid further onto me. I became very aware of her right breast pressing into mine. I tried to stop drawing patterns on her back, but I felt the need to touch her, and lowering my hands to the bed made my upper arms itch with idleness, so I slipped my fingers inside the hem of her top and circled them over the smooth skin of her back.

In all the comments about her being clingy or liking the closeness or whatever, I hadn't been able to admit the truth: that she was turning me on. She knew that, right? It was deliberate, right?

What if she didn't know? I didn't think Lily was any more drunk than I was, but I probably wasn't in a position to consider all the ram... ram... to think of what might happen. Especially now that Lily was nibbling my neck again, making it hard to do words. So she probably wasn't thinking too clearly, either.

"Lily?" The word cracked so badly with vocal fry that I'm not sure it was understandable, but since there was no one else I could be talking to, she was able to figure it out.

"Hmm?"

"I'm getting very, umm..."

After several seconds, Lily prompted, "Very umm?"

"Horny," I whispered.

"Oh! You are?" She imitated my whisper, which made it harder to discern her tone, but I thought she sounded amused. "Is that a problem?" she asked, no longer whispering.

"Umm, I guess not," I said. "But we're both drunk, and I wanted to be sure you knew."

"I'm not drunk," Lily insisted. "I'm just losing my, uhh, innie..."

"Inhibitions?" I suggested.

"That. Yes. Like this," she said, drawing back before touching her lips to the corner of my mouth, just as she'd done earlier. She drew back, smirking at me, then repeated the touch. I could feel a pulsing between my legs with the beat of my racing heart. The not-quite kisses moved inward, each pressed briefly to my upper lip.

"Look at me," Lily ordered.

I turned my face toward her. "Why?"

"So that the angle is better," she said, then pressed her closed lips to my upper lip. She let them linger in place, then drew back, before pressing them back, in a slightly different position. Each time she touched her mouth to my lip, her breast pushed against mine. It seemed that she must be able to feel my heartbeat.

Her lips parted slightly. They lightly pinched my lip instead of just touching it. She did this several times, unfazed by my lack of response. But her persistence felt like a promise, and I relaxed my lips, allowing her to tug on my upper lip and raise it a fraction.

She still kept her touches light and brief, but the tension in my chest was pushing me to reciprocate. After a few of the gentle nips I closed my lower lip on hers.

She recognized my surrender instantly, and each contact began to take longer, dragging my upper lip further between hers. My heart thumped within my chest, as both of her hands moved to my upper arms, keeping me close to her.

Then her parted lips approached mine again, but this time I felt her tongue press against my upper lip. Extending my tongue to meet it wasn't even a conscious act. It just felt inevitable. I could feel her rapid breathing against my face, attesting to the effect this was having on her.

As light as the shared kisses were, I felt my arousal ramping up. When Lily tilted her head to deepen the kisses, I moved my hands to her waist. Pressing more of her leg between mine, she shifted her body further onto me. I managed to hold back a moan, but I wasn't sure how long I could do that.

Lily drew back. Her pupils were wide. She parted her lips again, her tongue just behind her lips. As she moved close, I opened my mouth to welcome her, brushing her tongue with mine. She groaned, then wriggled against me, her body molding itself to mine. As the kiss deepened further, my hands roamed her back, her skin warm, dry and inviting.

My nipples swelled within the soft tank, and I felt an urge to slide my fingers around her body to discover whether Lily's were the same, but I held back, while my nipples' sensitivity grew as she repositioned her mouth against mine, tangling our tongues again and again.

Eventually she lifted her face from mine. "Okay, wow," she rasped, between heavy breaths. "That was more intense than I'd imagined."

"You've been imagining this?" I asked. My voice ground down into an alto range, but the question felt more serious than I'd intended after the words escaped me.

"Sometimes," Lily admitted, "but I don't want to talk right now. Unless you think I should stop? You're drunk, too."

Shaking my head, I said, "I'm not. And I don't." Her hair was falling down into my face, and I blew away a strand that tickled my chin as I moved my head.

"You don't..." Lily frowned. "Don't want me to do this?"

"Don't think you should stop," I replied.

"Oh. Oh, okay, that's good." She smiled, and something in her eyes made a surge of feeling shoot from my chest to between my legs. I sensed that she was done seeking my approval for what she wanted to do.

She reached for my hands, her body seeming to fit even more closely to mine as her arms no longer gave her any support. Taking my hands in hers, she stretched my arms out to the side, threading her fingers into mine. Then her lips descended back onto mine.

This time, she took my lower lip between hers, sucking it into her mouth and playing with it. Her lips around mine were so soft; warm and moist as they nipped and tugged, constantly in motion, sometimes trapping my lip for her tongue to explore.

I'd kissed guys before, and enjoyed it, to a point - that point usually being when they decided I wanted to swallow their tongue - but I'd never felt lips this soft, warm, and utterly seductive as Lily's. I wanted to reciprocate, but anything I could do might interfere with her artistry, so I squeezed her fingers to let her know that her actions were having an effect.

Lily's teeth closed over my lip. I yelped at the sharp pain. At least I tried to. The sound emerged as a gasp, my thighs tensing as my hips pushed my body up into hers, and I had to will myself to relax. My panties were damp, sliding against my pussy as my body shifted slightly.

I wondered if she suspected how wet I'd become. Then the thought occurred to me: was she wet for me? She must be. The demanding nature of her teasing surely meant that she was as turned on as I was.

Untangling my fingers from Lily's, I lowered my hands to her butt. It was small and muscular, firm against my fingers as I squeezed. I used my hold to lift her, her lips still pinching my lower lip. I forced her mouth apart with my own, fitting mine to hers, my tongue jousting with hers. She pressed her face into mine, making small eager sounds into the kiss.

Shifting her against me had spiked a new wave of desire within me. I relaxed my hold, then lifted her again, her body moving between my legs, my slick panties sliding without friction against my sex.

Kneading her butt was thrilling, but I wanted to touch her skin, so I moved my hands to her back, lifting her shirt. I slid my hands up her sides, my thumbs against her ribcage, feeling the ridges of bone and muscle, and then a place where the rib was less defined within a softer surface. With a gasp, I retreated rapidly to rest my fingers on her waist.

She backed away. Reading my mind or my expression she smirked at me. "Find something interesting?" she asked.

Yes, it was interesting. No, it wasn't surprising - or shouldn't have been. It was also quivering against me. I couldn't answer.

Lily lowered herself, her lips finding my throat, then moving lower. Her whole body glided against me as her mouth reached my collar bones. As she slid down, my hands moved up, but I didn't let them reach as high as they had.

Her lips descended from my collar bone. "Oh, look, you have something interesting, too," she said, before her lips caressed the slope of my breast.

"Of course I do, idiot," I forced out unsteadily.

Lily's lips were closed, but they remained soft and warm as she circled her face, brushing them against my skin. She must have been able to feel my rapid pulse, until she parted her lips, kissing all the way down to my cami's neckline, where the extra padding would have made it harder to detect.

Her eyes moved to mine, if not for permission then at least to be sure I didn't object, before fingers against my belly tugged the cotton down, revealing an already-swollen nipple. I thought she was going to kiss it, but instead she lightly closed her teeth on it. I gasped as arousal flooded into me.

Lily lowered her mouth again, but this time her lips closed softly, and her tongue began to swirl. I groaned. My nipple swelled further, feeling tight and sensitive under her tongue. Every touch made me want to press myself against her.

She released my breast, and eased herself higher. Her thigh rested between mine. Pushing my head to the side, she nibbled my ear. "Did you like that?" she whispered.

"Yeah."

"I want to kiss you again," she said.

"Yes, please," I said.

Our mouths crashed together, our tongues meeting and exploring. Maybe I could understand those misguided boys who were aggressive with their tongues, because I wanted hers deep in my mouth. Why was the feel of her tongue against mine so electrifying? And why did every want that her kiss satisfied leave me needing more?

I had to touch her. I had to caress her back. I had to squeeze her waist. Most of all, I needed to reach for what I'd avoided just moments ago. I drew my hands up her ribs and over her breasts, which yielded to my fingers. The soft moan Lily made when I squeezed them was the single most erotic sound I'd ever heard. I had never enjoyed a guy pawing at me the way Lily was so wantonly reacting to my touch. She bit my tongue, then held my hips and rolled her body against mine.

Lily's breasts felt incredible. I'd never felt the need to touch another girl's breasts before, although I admit that I'd sometimes been intrigued by their appearance, but now it felt so natural to desire these pliant mounds, and to feel my friend making passionate sounds into my mouth as I squeezed them.

I wanted to see them, too. With reluctance, I released them, then eased my fingers between us to begin unbuttoning Lily's pajama top. When she realized what I was doing, she lifted herself far enough for me to finish the work.

The top drifted open, revealing perfect creamy skin with pale pink nipples. They seemed longer and narrower than mine, each a little more than a handful, as I'd already found.

"You like my tits?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I do."

"Take your shirt off," she ordered. "I want to feel yours against mine."

"Yeah," I breathed. "You, too."

She slipped the shirt off her shoulders, her eyes never leaving my chest as I pulled my cami over my head, widening as I revealed my rounded breasts, nipples darker than hers.

"I like your tits, too," Lily murmured, as she gently touched a hard nipple.

My heart skipped as she lowered herself onto me, and I felt the soft, insistent pressure of bare skin on mine. We kissed again, slower, each learning how to make the other moan with pleasure. I ran my nails up Lily's back, while her fingers stroked my side. We shifted angles to our kiss frequently, and depending on our position, sometimes I could see the press of her breasts to mine, flattening or finding a quivering shape as her chest rose. I could feel them, too, but seeing how they moved while feeling the way they compressed mine was doubly sensual.

Her fingers dug into my short hair as she held my head, pushing our mouths together, and I caressed her back, the ache between my legs causing me to part my thighs further, so that hers nestled between them, the light touch against my sex both delighting and frustrating me.

Our kiss seemed to reach a plateau. We were both breathless, each making occasional sounds of pleasure, especially when our bodies shifted against each other. The feelings the kiss inspired were intense and growing, but I was sure I could keep them contained. I could kiss her all night long. My buzz had mostly faded, but I was intoxicated with her closeness.

Even so, I drew back. "Lily?"

She released my head and lifted herself onto her elbows before speaking. "Yeah, Ava?"

The view between our bodies distracted me for a moment. When I looked up into her eyes, they were glowing with mischief. She knew exactly what I'd been looking at.

"What are we doing?" I asked, sounding plaintive to my ears.

"I'm making out with my best friend," Lily said. "Doesn't everyone do that?"

"I don't know. I never have before. Have you?"

"Since you're my best friend, you know the answer to that," she said. "But people do it all the time. I think it's our turn."

"I, umm," I began, glancing down between us again. "I think this is more than making out."

"I hope it is," Lily said, "because I really want to make you come."

A shiver passed through me at the words. Lily gave me a concerned look, wondering perhaps if the idea revolted me, when it had actually thrilled me.

With some trepidation, I asked, "If we do... that... will we still be able to be friends?"

"Well, yeah," she said. "You'll always be my bestie. You know that."

I did. She was oversimplifying, of course, but I thought she was right. If we regretted this in the morning, we'd eventually be able to work through our problems. And I was desperate to make her come, too. "Do you, uh, know what you're doing?"

"Not a clue," Lily said, brightly, "but did cucumbers and condoms prepare us for sex with guys?"

"God, no," I said, with a chuckle, "but my first time was a disaster. I don't want to disappoint you."

"If that happens, we can try again," Lily said. "After all, it won't be messy, and we don't have to panic about pregnancy. I figure I already know how to touch myself. How different can it be if I touch you?"

I groaned. "Oh, God. You're making me so wet," I said. Which I'd certainly never said to anyone before. I'd never been this wet. "But it's my turn to kiss your tits."

"Okay," Lily said. She was clearly trying for indifference, but she dragged the word out a little too long, and her voice caught at the end.

She must not have been expecting me to toss her off me so forcefully. She made an "oof" sound as she landed on her back. Immediately I rolled to my side and fastened my lips on her right breast. I may never have even kissed a girl before Lily, but I'd been the recipient of attempts at foreplay with varied results. Once in a while, even an unsatisfying fuck can hit high points along the way. I knew what I liked to have done to me, and what I should avoid.

So I licked Lily's right nipple, then drew my teeth over her areola, before biting her nipple through my lips. Holding it firmly, I tugged and stretched it, fascinated by the tight quivering of her breast, and even more by the sounds of need that she made.

When she started to writhe, I slid my hand down over her belly, then further, over the front of her pale blue shorts, closing my palm over her sex. Tightening my grip, I began to rock my hand.

Lily's nipple had seemed firm when I had started to toy with it, but it had become harder and seemed even more sensitive. She might have said she wanted to make me come, but as far as I could tell, she'd lost focus on everything around her, with nothing in her mind but rocking her hips against my hand. Which was fine with me, since she didn't distract me from concentrating on her breasts.

Soon, she had given herself over completely to rolling her hips and arching her back. I wondered if it made a difference that I was the one bringing these feelings to her, or whether this was how she was with her boyfriends, too. Lucky guys, if so.

When I switched to Lily's other breast, her hands wrapped around my head, part stroking my scalp and part pinning me in place. Which was fine with me, I had no intention of moving. I drew my hand back from her shorts, felt for the drawstring, then tugged on it until it parted.

The shorts became looser as I slipped my fingers inside them. Lily's panties were soaked. I pushed them aside, coating my fingers with the abundant wetness as I stroked her slit. She was moaning constantly now. I curled a finger into her and circled it around. Her pussy seemed to pull me in. It was warm and lithe around my finger. I felt it twitch, Lily gasping at the same moment.

My thumb moved higher, against uneven moist surfaces. Was that her clit? It seemed to protrude slightly further than mine, and maybe felt a little firmer. Though it could have been that when I touched mine I mostly noticed my body's reaction. When I stroked my thumb up and down, Lily cried out, so apparently I'd hit the bullseye.

Lily writhed harder as I shook my hand against her. "Fuck!" she groaned. "Fuck, Ava! Yes, fuck, just like that!"

Raising my head from her breast I stared at her flushed face and near black eyes. Suddenly she gripped my head and dragged me higher. I managed to avoid losing contact with her sex, and when she slammed her mouth against mine, I rubbed harder, feeling the moist heat flutter around my finger.

Then she was coming, her pussy clamping my finger as she shook. She didn't break the kiss, but made desperate sounds into it, muffled cries of passion that seemed to originate from deep inside her.

Oh, my God, I'd made my best friend climax. My beautiful, smart, wonderful friend, whose body I'd never lusted for before, but did now, was coming apart under my fingers. And though I hadn't come, this was so, so much better than any sex I'd had before.

Lily broke the kiss at last, then gently moved my hand away from her pussy. "Fuck," she breathed again. Her entire face relaxed into a huge smile. "I thought I was going to make you come."

"You still can," I said.

"Good," said Lily. "After I catch my breath." She reached for her glass of water, curling forward to gulp some before setting the glass down and stretching out on her back. "Fuck, Ava, that was special."

"I still don't know what I'm doing," I said.

Lily laughed. She seemed to be regaining her energy. "If I didn't know you so well, I'd call bullshit. No one has ever made my tits feel so good. Maybe you can teach me."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," I said, "and if you want to take your time practising, I won't mind at all."

She giggled. "Neither will I! Now, on your back!"

Lily didn't wait for me to move, instead rolling me onto my back and immediately moving to my breasts. Taking the left one in both hands, she kneaded it, digging her thumbs in, rubbing her face lightly against my swollen nipple, which sent a jolt of arousal through me. Then she moved one hand to my right breast, squeezing it in a rhythm, while her other hand and mouth continued to explore the left.

My areolae had swollen, too, making both breasts seem a little more pointy than usual. Lily grinned at me. "You have pretty titties."

"Uh, thank you?"

"I'm going to change your nickname. Pretty Titty Ava. Much better than Take No Prisoners Ava or whatever we decided."

"I think it was Take No Shit," I said.

"Right, that. When Mom asks me what I'm doing for the weekend, I'll tell her I'm going to see Pretty Titty Ava."

"You will not!"

"I might, too!" She smirked at me, then parted her lips and began to bounce her mouth up and down on my nipple. My stomach twitched. She looked up again. "Mmm, you like that."

"I like everything you're doing to me, Lily," I said.

"Hmm." She released both breasts as she sat up. "Hold that thought." Taking her glass, she swirled her tongue in the water, then set the glass down and began to lick. I squirmed at the cold. "Oh, I like that," she said.

Like a kid with a new toy, she took great pleasure in seeing what else she could do with a cold tongue, licking both nipples, my navel, and my neck, dunking her tongue in the icy water each time.. I don't know if the chill really made a difference, or if it was just the places she licked, but I was soon panting with need.

She picked up the glass again. I wasn't really paying attention. I was just aching to feel her. She lowered her face to my left breast, and suddenly there was icy water running over my breast and down my stomach. "Fuck!" I yelped.

"Fuck!" Lily agreed. "Shit. That wasn't supposed to happen." She glanced down at my belly, seeing the puddle, then lowered her face and slurped water up.

"The sheet's wet!" I whined. "What were you doing? And what are you doing now?"

She'd hooked her fingers into my pajama pants and was pulling them down. "Making sure they don't get wet!" she replied, with a wicked smile."

"Too late for that, I think," I muttered, as Lily pulled my panties down with the pants.

I was naked, lying on the bed, still chilled, but over the shock, and the cold was lessening, especially when Lily began licking every damp place on my body. "So are you going to tell me what happened?"

She looked up from licking the sides of my breasts. "I thought it would be fun to hold the fizzy water against your nipple, but when I tried to suck it in, all the water spilled out."

"You can be so dumb," I said.

Lily laughed. "I know, but I got your pants off!" She reached out to push my legs down, then stroked my slit. "And cleanup is fun!" Her finger trailed over my swollen labia as her mouth closed on my throat.

"For me, too," I groaned, "but take your pants off too. unless you want me to wrestle you for them."

Lily released my pussy for long enough to tug her shorts and panties off. When her hand returned, it caressed my labia, then fumbled until it began caressing my clit.

Her mouth all over my body had aroused me so much that her finger on my clit immediately made my thighs tense, and my hips begin to rock into her. "Oh, God," I said, "I don't think I've ever been this horny, Lily."

She did something - added a finger? her thumb maybe to pinch my clit? - and the sensation suddenly intensified. When her face moved back to my left breast, she suckled firmly, and I couldn't help myself. My back arched, and I was suddenly coming, hard.

My senses slowly recovered, and I found Lily staring up at me, a soft smile on her face. Her long, lustrous, reddish hair was in complete disarray, some against my stomach, looking bedraggled, some clearly knotted, some draped over her eyes.

"God, you're beautiful," I said. "How did I ever not know that you're the sexiest girl on the planet?"

"Because you're an unobservant dork," she said. "I always knew you were."

"You did?" I didn't hide my surprise at hearing her thoughts. "And we can't both be."

"Mmhmm," Lily said. She had rolled away from my body, onto her back, and had tilted her head back to look at me upside down. It was an enticing look, especially with her fully nude body on display. "Of course we can be in each other's eyes." She lifted her knees, then pushed herself upward on the bed, wincing at the damp sheet. When she was alongside me, she rolled toward me, wrapping an arm around my belly. "Maybe you hadn't noticed before because you've never really thought about girls' bodies being attractive."

"Maybe," I said. "You have?"

"Not until I got to college, and by then dating boys felt natural," she said. "I think I'm bi, or maybe pan, but that would be a big conversation, since everyone knows I've only had boyfriends. Maybe I should have tried girls, too."

"Maybe you should have," I said. "Maybe I should have, too."

I rolled her onto her back. "Hey, this sheet is wet," she said.

"And whose fault is that?" I retorted as I positioned myself over her. "Now that the orgasms are out of the way, I want to kiss you." She'd been the one in charge when we'd kissed earlier. I'd loved the feel of her body against mine. Now I wanted to experience being on top, and I didn't give her the chance to object.

Soon we were kissing, and I could see in her eyes how exciting she found the experience. Her hands roamed all over, while mine mostly smoothed and tugged on her hair. I was still every bit as horny as I had been before we'd made each other come, and the feel of her body between my legs was intense. I wriggled against her, then pushed a leg between hers so that my pussy rode the top of her thigh.

I felt Lily take my hands, threading her fingers into mine, and my heart melted. I was feeling the hard muscles of her thigh against me, and pressed a little harder. She was moving, her leg sliding slowly against my labia. Then her other leg curled around me. She moaned into the kiss, and I shoved my own leg against her, feeling her wetness against my skin.

We both began to pant. I realized I might be able to come again. Did I know that could happen? Maybe? It wasn't something I'd thought about. Did I expect it to happen? Not a chance. But now we were grinding together so hard, occasionally breaking a kiss to take in extra air, but always reconnecting, because we needed intimacy almost as much as breathing.

Lily released my hands. I lifted myself onto my elbows, still bending forward to keep our lips together, but using my position to smash my sex harder against her thigh. Our breasts slapped together. Then she broke the kiss to yell, "Ava!" as her body started to quake. She wrapped her arms around me, hugging my body against hers as she came.

Her eyes were soft as she looked up at me, her breathing beginning to slow. "Can you come?" she finally whispered.

"I think so," I said.

"Lift up a little," Lily said. When I realized what she wanted, I raised my hips so she could fit a hand between us, one finger against my clit. Then she rubbed as I thrust against her leg, and soon I stiffened, then shattered.

"Wow," I breathed. I lay atop her, our lips meeting occasionally.

"I agree," Lily said.

"I think I need to sleep," I said, "but hunting down my pajamas seems like far too much effort."

"Mmm, you did say there was nothing wrong with sleeping naked," Lily said. "And sleeping naked with you seems like a bonus." So I rolled off her and tugged up the sheet.

 

I had some epically sexy dreams that night. Even so, waking to bare boobs before my eyes was a surprise.

Lily must have felt my movement, because her eyes opened, and for a moment, she seemed as startled as I'd been. She scrambled for the sheet, then let it lie. "Morning," she said. "We really fucked, didn't we?"

"We really fucked," I agreed. "How do you feel about that now you're sober?"

"That it was three years too late?" Lily said. "I sobered up quickly enough last night. I knew what I was doing. I'm worried that you might have some regrets. I did push you into it."

"No regrets," I said. "It was incredible. Why do you say too late?"

"'Cause I'm thinking my friend crush on you was never quite a friend crush, Ava," Lily said. "Even if I didn't really know it."

"You think you had a crush on me?" I took a second to process that. "So what do we do now?" I asked. "Do we stop? You still feel like you're my best friend, but I really, really want to get naked with you again."

"Ava, dear, we already are naked," Lily said.

"I mean, I want to keep getting naked with you. I want to kiss you and suck on your delicious tits and touch you until you scream my name again."

"I did that, didn't I?" Lily said, her face flushing.

"You did. Do you want to get a shower and come back to bed?"

"I'd like to add food in there somewhere."

"Okay, then let's share my parents' shower, which is huge, get some cereal and then get naked," I said. "Maybe we can get lunch after we've worn each other out."

 

Three orgasms each later - my God, was it always like this with a girl? - one in the shower and two in my bed, we left the house for a nearby diner. Halfway through the meal, Lily, frowning at me, asked why I was scrolling on my phone instead of talking to her.

"Well, it was just an idea I had," I said. "I'm doing useful research! I'm not ignoring you!"

"What are you researching?" Lily asked.

I felt my face warming. Glancing around the room, I ensured there was no one close enough to see my phone, and no sign of wait staff. I turned the phone face down and passed it to her. She turned it face up and her eyes widened.

"A beginner's guide to lesbian sex?" she said.

"Shh!" I waved my hand at her, though she really hadn't been loud. I was attracting more attention with my gestures. "I told you, I have no idea what I'm doing."

Lily laughed. Not one of her tipsy giggles. She passed the phone back to me.

"I love you, dork," she said. "You're so diligent." She suddenly glanced away, as if realizing what she'd just said, and not wanting to bring my attention to it. Yeah, if our relationship was changing, maybe we'd need to be careful with our banter. I took it for an automatic response, and determined to ignore it, for now. "Are you going to show me what you've discovered?"

"I have a lot more to learn," I said, "but reading this with you sitting right there is making me uncomfortable. Shall we get boxes to take the rest of the food home?"

 

Which is how we came to be back home in the middle of the afternoon, looking a little awkwardly at each other. Each time we'd had sex it had happened organically, while we'd been fooling around, even if Lily had been trying to encourage us to get to that point. Now here we were, fully clothed, but with every intention of fucking. How do we get from A to B?

I led Lily into the kitchen, then poured us both some of Mom's fizzy water. "Can I trust you with this?" I asked.

"Ass," she said, taking the glass from me.

In the bedroom, we set our glasses down, then Lily tugged me close and lightly brushed her lips over mine.

"What did you mean that you were uncomfortable reading in my presence?" she asked.

"Well, I was reading about... things," I said, "then imagining doing them. With you. It was making me horny."

"Are you going to tell me about... things?" she asked, mimicking me.

Shaking my head, I said, "No. I'm going to do them. I won't spoil the surprise." I reached out to lift her crop tee. "And I guess we start with this."

Lily freed her arms from the top, then raised it higher, working her braid through. While she did, I took off my shirt, leaving us standing in our bras and outdoor shorts. We kissed, my arousal igniting, and she sank onto the bed with me. Soon I had her shorts unfastened, and pulled them down, leaving her in bra and panties. She returned the favor, then I gripped her waist and rolled her onto me, still kissing her slowly.

Kissing Lily was only partly about desire. It was also about our history. I'd never been closer to anyone than I had been to Lily, and now we had a new way to express that. She'd said she had crushed on me for years, and though I didn't think I'd felt that way before now, I wanted to give her something to make up for all that time. So I didn't want to move too quickly, though my arousal built steadily while our lips were locked and our hands caressed bare skin.

Eventually, I hauled her body higher, so that I could kiss her neck and shoulder. I inched her bra strap over her shoulder and down her arm, lowering my lips to the edge of her breast as I peeled the cup away from her, kissing the upper surface without uncovering it completely, until I unclasped her bra and dragged the strap down her arm. Then I suckled and lightly bit her nipple, her moans showing that she'd also moved from affection into deep arousal.

Rolling us both over, I pulled off her bra and dropped it over the side of the bed, kneading and kissing both nipples, Lily's breathing becoming increasingly heavy and full of soft sounds. I teased her nipples until a single brush of my tongue brought a strangled cry from her throat. Then I moved down the bed, pulling off her panties and studying her pussy. Short cropped fur glistened with arousal. I moistened a finger against her slit, then slid it around, caressing her swelling lips and her clit as she moaned.

I moved further down the bed, lifting her legs to kiss her calves, dragging my teeth over the back of her knees, raising each leg higher to play with the underside of her thighs. When I parted her legs to plant kisses on her inner thighs, her groans were heavy with need.

Eventually I kissed all the way to the top of her thighs again, then tongued the crease of her sex, feeling short hair brush my lips as I followed my tongue with a series of kisses along the crease of her thigh. I heard her chant my name occasionally, "Oh, Ava!" or "God, yes, Ava!"

Parting her lips with my thumbs, I licked the inside of her slit. Her taste was nothing I could have imagined. If excitement could have been turned into a flavor, that would be it. She was tangy and sweet and I needed more. I thought from what I'd read that I'd be able to slip my tongue deeply into her, but either I was poking my tongue in at the wrong angle, or she was just too tight. Or maybe I needed tongue-strengthening exercises. Not that it mattered, everywhere I licked made Lily moan.

I nipped at her swollen labia, then traversed each side with my tongue, barely touching her clit. She cried out softly, again calling my name. Her breasts were upright, nipples swollen so much that I wondered if they hurt.

Moving my tongue higher, I gently lapped at her clit, while beginning to push two fingers into her. Her sex was tight around them, but they slid inside easily, and I curled them forward and began to stroke as I licked her clit with rapid flicks of my tongue. Lily's moans were constant, and she kept saying my name, but it was as if she'd lost the will to think of any other words, so it was just, "Ava! Ava! Ava!"

I didn't try to rush. I was pretty sure I was doing this right, and each moment was driving Lily higher, so I didn't yield to the temptation to lick her faster or harder, and possibly spoil her experience.

Suddenly it felt like she'd crossed a threshold. Some of her words returned. "Oh! Ava! I'm gonna come! Ava! You're gonna make me come so hard..."

Her hips rose from the bed, then her sex clamped my fingers. Her hands had fisted in the sheet, and her breasts rippled as each wave of her climax made her shudder. I held my fingers in place, still tracing her clit with my tongue, until she relaxed onto the bed. I could still feel spasms occasionally shaking her body as I withdrew my fingers and tongue.

 

Lily held my hand as I lay back down beside her, and somehow the touch of her fingers in mine gave me as warm a wave of affection as feeling her come apart under my tongue.

"You learned that from a web page?" she asked. I think she was going for amusement, but she was so spent that it almost sounded like a sigh.

"Well, yeah, kinda," I said. "I mean, I know what eating a girl out is, I've even had a couple of guys try, but their guesswork wasn't great, and I didn't want to subject you to that. The page I found said going down on a girl can be the best sex there is, and gave a few pointers."

"That lesbians for dummies page?"

"Something like that," I said.

"It's right," Lily said. "It was the best."

"It's less than twenty-four hours since we first got naked with each other," I said. "I think it's too early to say best. I think we can make it better."

"Best so far, then," she said, "and imagining doing that to you is making me horny again."

I squeezed her hand. I wanted that, too, but there was more that I had to say.

"Hey, Lily?"

"Hmm?"

"Maybe it should have been called lesbianism for dorks, because I think I might be."

"Oh, there's no question you're a dork," Lily said.

"No," I said. "I mean... I think I might be gay. I've never, ever, ever had the want, the need to be with someone like I have been with you. And I know that part of it is because it's you, and I'm probably in love with you, but it's also because you're a girl, and I think I've just been doing what I expected to do. I think if I'd been with girls for the last three years instead of crappy boyfriends I'd be at a different place in my life."

"Okay, wait," Lily said. "Yeah, okay, I can see that. I understand that you might not be the straight girl you've always thought, but burying the lede, much? You're probably in love with me?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "I've always loved you as a friend. Now I'm suddenly crazy attracted to you, What else do I call it? Is that wrong?"

"Not by me," Lily said. "Like I said last night, I've been at least borderline crushing on you for years. I've always said, 'Love you, dork,' because you know I mean friend love. When I slipped up earlier I realized I had to stop saying that, because it's suddenly so much heavier."

"Well, I'm sorry that falling in love with me is so heavy," I said. "I hate to be a burden."

Lily turned sharply toward me, concern in her eyes. I saw the moment she realized I was teasing.

"Agh! You dork!" she said.

"Say it," I demanded.

"Dork!"

"Say it!"

Lily sighed. "Love you, dork."

"Love you too, bestie," I said. "I love you, Lily."

 

The look Lily gave me when I brought our morning coffee through was one I'd never seen before. There had always been warmth in her eyes, but now there was a mix of affection, desire, and - dare I believe it? - love. She'd arranged our wall of pillows while I was in the kitchen. Now she waited for me, her sweet breasts on full display, naked but for a sheet pulled up to her knees.

I set her coffee down on her nightstand, then took a sip of mine before putting it down and sitting beside her, our arms touching. This is how we'd always solved the world's problems, though prior to this, they'd usually been about boys, and we'd been fully clothed.

Last night had been something else. After our mutual confessions, Lily wasted no time in going down on me. She took her time, and I was crying her name with need when she finally led me into the most delicious, most intense climax I'd ever reached.

After that we'd spent most of the night discovering each other's bodies. I lost count of the number of times she made me come. Each seemed to flow into the next. This morning I felt a well-earned and not entirely unpleasant soreness. My muscles seemed to tingle with remembered arousal, and my chest felt a joyful need for Lily that might never be satisfied.

Lily's hand slipped into mine. It made a warm feeling settle into my chest.

"So, Lily?" I began. "Are we girlfriends now?"

"We can be," she said, "but we still can't really be together for two years. Should we wait until then?"

"We could do long-distance?"

"That can be hard," she said. She frowned, clearly considering something. I picked up my coffee and took a sip.

"There's a girl I know at school," Lily said eventually. "She and her boyfriend are in a long-term long-distance relationship that seems to work for them. Until they can be together, they're not going to be exclusive. She hooks up at college; he uses a casual app. They tell each other everything. That's a rule. Another is casual only, except with each other."

"Are you saying we should see other people?" My instant dislike of the idea was automatic, not reasoned, and I tried to ignore it, at least for now.

"Maybe it's worth thinking about?" Lily replied. "We don't have to be celibate. You can explore your sexuality. So could I, I guess. We don't need to rely on 'Sexing up girls for dummies' sites for our learning. And of course we get to see each other when we can."

"I'm going to have to think about that," I said. "Thinking about you with someone else feels wrong, but I'm not jealous of your past boyfriends, and it's true that I haven't started to come to terms with being attracted to girls. I wouldn't want to lead you on for two years and then discover I get bored with girls as quickly as I do with guys."

A thought occurred to me, and I felt a mischievous grin form on my lips.

Lily caught it immediately. "What's that look for?"

"If I sleep with other girls," I said, "I could see myself discovering something totally hot in bed and getting extra turned on thinking about doing it to you."

Narrowing her eyes, Lily said, "So you'd get extra horny with your hookup because you'd be thinking about me?"

"Well, she deserves a reward, right?"

Her face darkened for a moment, then cleared as she snorted a laugh. "God, you're such a dork."

I smiled. "I'll think about it, but as long as we have some us time, I think we could make it work."

Lily drank from her coffee cup, returned it to the nightstand and turned around to sit in my lap. "Since I need to leave in a few hours, let's do something about that us time."