Just Friends

2 | Burning Our Bras

CHAPTER 2

BURNING OUR BRAS

Did I hear that right?

"Your sex drive? That's what we're discussing?" I say, pulling my hand away from where I've been trapping hers underneath it. The contact almost feels too intimate and sexual now that her sex drive has entered the conversation.

"Yeah." Alice refuses to look shy about this, and is meeting my eyes, while I'm finding it hard to keep looking into hers. "You're always hooking up with people, so you're obviously able to maintain a healthy sex drive. And it's too weird to talk to Aiden about since he's with Emma."

She shudders visibly with the thought.

Whereas I feel like crying to the heavens. Why me?

I clear my throat uncertainly. "So, uh, how exactly can I help?"

"Jeez, Eli, not like that." She looks flabbergasted, and glances away to search for another pink marshmallow again. A smile quirks my face as I watch her do this. I don't know what she's got against the white ones. 

"I would never suggest something like that," she tells me quickly before shoving a pink marshmallow into her mouth.

"So, you want advice then?" I hedge, rubbing the back of my neck. "Isn't this something you're better off asking your girl friends about?"

"No," she grumbles, "it's because of them that I'm in this rut in the first place. I'm the first one who broke, and I can't tell them, or I might put them off their game."

I flash her a horrified look. Whatever this game is it does not sound like my version of fun.

"Explain," I urge her as I begin making our prawn pasta for dinner.

And so the whole sordid story spills out. How one of her friends had recently been cheated on by her long-time boyfriend and had made their group swear a pact to not sleep with anyone else for a month.

"A vendetta against men?" I raise my eyebrows at her and turn from where I'm stirring the pasta. "What are you – thirteen?"

"I know," Alice groans, her head in her hands. "It sounds like some cheesy teen movie with candles and stuff – in actuality, this was over a few bottles of champagne." She lifts her head, and smiles at me in chagrin. "Believe it or not, it felt like a good idea at the time. I felt like we were starting a movement – like burning our bras or something?"

"Or like celibacy?" I snicker, as I heat the oil, garlic and chilli in a saucepan.

Alice moans in delight. "God, that smells amazing, almost orgasmic."

"Is everything almost orgasmic now that you're not getting any?" I say with a wry smile, trying to ignore the rush of lust that Alice's moan triggered in me, and the weird image of us together. I can see myself thrusting between her legs and her fingernails raking down my back. I try to shake the image from my mind and nod for her to continue. I don't know how I'm going to survive this conversation.

Alice continues her story, and to my horror it gets worse. Apparently, someone else in the group decided that it was best to torture everyone by making them agree not to orgasm for a month.

I interrupt her now. "So not just men? But giving yourself pleasure too?"

Alice nods, looking like she's in pain before she continues.

The thought of Alice getting herself off, makes me shift back around to face the stove to hide evidence of my arousal.

"Of course, I broke within twenty-five days," she informs me matter-of-factly. "You know when Jackson asked for my number?"