By: Tommyhawk1
I got back to my room, my face bright red, my shame complete. What kind of girl goes with you to a make-out party and doesn't want to make out? God, I'd struck out... again!
It sucks being me! Honest! My father was a corporate executive, and we moved around so much I never finished a single grade in school in the same place I'd started it. My test scores had been shuffled around so much that I'd lost so many credits, and now I was a year late graduating. And worst of all, I was a nineteen-year-old virgin!
I'd always been shy around strangers, and doubly so around girls when I hit puberty. It was so much easier to just go home and watch television and pretend I was someone else, someone cool; someone with a life!
Now I was in college, on my own, and ready to live the kind of life I'd never had.
And I knew zilch about girls. Nada, zip, nothing.
I was trying. And God, how I was striking out! I was getting a reputation in college, alright! And boy, was it a lousy one! I was the guy that the girls looked at and giggled to each other about. I was the guy who had fallen into the fountain when I tried to put my arm around one girl and she shrugged it off, I was the guy who had actually tried to sing to a girl in a park. I'd thought we were alone... but we weren't. I was the guy who... ah, to hell with it.
Now I had another embarrassment to my credit. The girl had wanted to go to the party and accepted my invitation. When we got there she sent me after a cola, and when I got back another guy was in my seat, and she was kissing him. I handed her the cola and got the fuck out of there.
And now, here I was, back in my room again, ashamed and alone. Jesus, what was I going to do?
I reached under the bed and pulled out the book I had bought. It was about relationships, what women want, how to communicate, and such. I couldn't figure girls out on my own, so I was trying to read up on them. But this book was leaving out so much! How do you know when a girl is interested? How can you know when to reach in for a kiss... and when you'd better settle for holding her hand, or just sitting there without touching? The book fucking assumed you knew! And I didn't!
"Hey, Mark, you're here," my roommate said as he walked in, and I shut the book and threw my pillow over it like it had been a porno novel or something.
"Hi, Andy," I said.
"I thought you had a date?" Andy said as he bounced down onto the other bed.
I sat up, sheepishly smiling. As much as anyone ever had been, Andy was my friend. I'd only known him for a few short months, but it's a sign of my life that he was the longest friendship I'd ever had. "I thought I had a date, too," I admitted. "But I was wrong."
"What happened?"
"I was just her ticket there," I said. "The moment my back was turned another guy had her."
"Damn, that sucks," Andy said. "So you came back for a bit of inspirational reading," he said, implying that he thought I had been looking at porn.
I realized too late what Andy was doing, which was to reach under my pillow and pull out my book. I made a grab for it, but it was too late. He had it in his hand and was looking at the page, which was, unfortunately, nothing that could possibly be confused with a porn novel.
"Man, what is this?" Andy asked.
"I was trying to figure out how girls tick," I confessed. "I mean, how do you know when a girl is really interested in you?"
"This book isn't going to do that," Andy pointed out unhelpfully.
"I know that... now," I said. "It's just... we moved so much when I was young, I didn't have any of the chances to figure girls out little by little like you did. I mean, people don't act the same in France as they do in Germany and they act even differently in Hong Kong. I don't know shit about girls. Okay, I said it! I suck at dating!"
"Hey, Mark, don't sweat it," Andy said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You can't know what you don't know. Hell, that's what college is for, learning the stuff you didn't learn in high school."
"Thanks a lot," I said. "Which course teaches me how to know if a girl is interested in me?"
"Why that's Girls 101, of course," Andy teased. "All you need to know about how to make it with a girl."
"Cut it out."
But he continued, "Taught ably by one of the best professors, a Mr. Andrew Reinhardt."
That was Andy's name, so I turned and said, "Really?"
"Sure," Andy said. "Why not? I had to learn some stuff from my older sister. How to put my arm around a girl so she won't throw it off and such. I can show you some of that stuff, get you started off right."
"Well... great," I said. "God knows I need all the help I can get!"
"Class is now in session," Andy intoned. He plopped onto the bed next to me and said, "Now, you be the girl and I'll be the guy putting the make on you… the right way. Got it?"
"I got it," I said eagerly.
"Now the first thing a guy does is put his arm around the girl like this," he said wrapping his arm around me. "He doesn't grab her tits right away, he just puts his arm around her to start."
"Okay, got it," I said. Andy's arm felt kind of good there on my shoulders, but I didn't say that out loud.
"And if the girl is interested, she leans in and snuggles up some," Andy went on. "Go ahead," he said.
"Go ahead, what?"
"Snuggle into me."
"Um, okay," I said and then fit myself so my neck was in his armpit and my cheek was resting partially on his chest. "Like this?"
"Yeah, like that, that's how she'll signal it," Andy replied.
"Signal what?"
"That she's interested stupid! If she wasn't, she wouldn't lean into you. So now that you know she's into you, you can try for a kiss."
"Yeah?" I said pulling away from him and lifting my head up.
"Yeah, but you gotta start off easy and see how far she goes."
"I don't get it," I frowned.
"Let me show you," Andy said and then started moving his face towards mine.
"Dude… what are you doing?" I said leaning back.
"I'm gonna show you how to kiss a girl once you know she wants you to."
"You're gonna kiss, me? But you're a guy," I protested.
"You ever kissed a girl before?"
"Well, no, but I've seen people kiss, it doesn't look that hard. You just put your lips together and, well, kiss."
Andy laughed. "Dude, there's so much more to kissing than that. And, you can't really explain how to do it, you gotta show someone how it's done."
"But…" I started.
"Hey, most guys learn from their buddies," Andy said. "I would have been too scared to approach a girl, too, if my buddy hadn't taught me what to do first, and this is how he taught me. And, look at me now. I've kissed lots of girls and I've had sex with lots of girls, too… what have you done with girls? That's right, nothing!" he said before letting me say anything. "Nineteen and a virgin, never even kissed a girl. So, you want to change all of that?"
I nodded and Andy began to lean into me again. "Wait!" I said pulling away again. "You won't tell anyone about this, will you?"
"Dude," Andy laughed. "Do you honestly think I'm gonna go around and tell all my buddies I made out with another guy? Don't worry, this will be our secret, I promise."
I took a deep breath in. "Okay… show me what to do."