Amy and Sherah cuddling up with the movie listings.

Over Ellen's shoulder, you can see two girls sitting on the window ledge to one side of Ellen's corner dorm room. Their heads are together, cheek to cheek, and they're looking down at an open sheet of folded newsprint -- a movie theater schedule. The near girl is dark-haired with a boyish figure, her bare legs swinging over black leather high-tops. Her hair is very short on the sides with a mop of wavy locks on top. She's wearing a black tank top and beat-up denim shorts cut off high on her legs. She's holding the schedule with one arm wrapped round her friend, a freckled redhead with long wavy hair.

The redhead is wearing a cropped half-tee showing off her cute navel and tight, low-riding jeans faded to softness. Her left hand is on the sunny windowsill, something pinched between her fingers. Under the bottom of the newsprint, you see her right hand is all the way inside her friend's cut-off shorts.

With Lenny Kravitz singing from the stereo and their eyes down on the movie schedule, they don't notice you at first. Ellen nods absently toward the two girls and puts her small purse down on her bedside table.

The dark-haired girl looks up, startled, and nudges her redheaded friend, who looks up and sees you and Ellen. She flips her left hand backward out the open window and pulls it back to rest on her jeans. Her right hand slides slowly out from the dark-haired girl's brief cut-offs. She reaches over and turns down the stereo. "Hi Ellen," she says. "This the guy who's been after you for five years?"

"Hi Amy, yes, this is my friend from back in high school," Ellen says. "Be nice, he's a good guy."

Amy stands and steps up to you. "Good to meet you," she says, giving you a big smile. "Does it pay well, being a good guy?" she teases. "Or are you just in it for the chicks?" She holds out her hand, and you reach out automatically to shake it. She has a firm grip, but her fingers are a little moist.

The dark-haired girl has her eyes on you, looking a little suspicious. She's wearing a silver pendant on a chain, resting on her skin above the low-cut neck of her tank top. It looks like a droopy-petaled little flower, maybe an orchid or iris or something. Her figure may not be all that special, but her face has an intense look that draws your attention. She's nice looking, but her dark brows keep her from being merely pretty.

Amy tosses her head toward the windowsill. "Sherah. We're in chick history together."

Sherah frowns a little and purses her lips. "Amy?" she asks, sounding a little annoyed.

"Hey, beats dick history, which is everything else," Amy says.

Sherah laughs. She walks up and stands next to Amy.

"What are you up to tonight?" Ellen asks.

"Going to the movies with Sherah," Amy says. "We're meeting Xena and Gabrielle from class, and we're gonna get beers at the Oak after with some folks."

"Amy!" Sherah says, "Ana and Margaret don't even watch Xena."

"They're dead ringers," Amy says. "What are you-all gonna do tonight?" she asks, tilting her head to include you and Ellen.

"Well, Marcie said she was going to kick it at the Lagoon with Lynn and Shelly and some girls and asked if we wanted to come. I said I'd introduce him to some of the girls, so I thought he might like to see them let their hair down," Ellen says.

"Heck with that, Mac," Amy says to you. "Silly bitches will be drunk off their asses, they'll step on your feet, and won't even remember you in the morning." She runs her hands through her long, wavy hair.

Ellen looks a little miffed at Amy. She puts a hand on her hip and starts to say something.

You break in, "What's this movie you're going to see?"

"It's a good one to meet girls at," Amy says, "if that's why you're up here at Widley."

"Land of ivy," Ellen chimes in. Must be some sort of school chant.

Sherah smirks like she knows another line, and it's naughty.

"If you can make it through the movie, you get to hang out with the uber-cool girls after," Amy says. She takes the schedule from Sherah and folds it to the current day. The college art theater is playing an independent feature tonight -- "Sweet Sweet Blood," about lesbian vampires who avenge battered women.

Sherah watches your face. "Dare you to come," she says, giving you that intense look.

"He's a good guy," Amy says. "He wouldn't want to see something like that, would he? Besides," she says, looking at you, "don't you want to go somewhere and help Ellen show off her new dress? Ellen, how about the Alhambra?"

Your face feels a little warm. You'd love to help Ellen show off her dress. Or take it off.

"I'd have to find him a jacket and tie," Ellen says. "I don't know, though." She looks at you. "I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea from spending all that money to show off my dress," she says.

"Hey sport," Amy asks you, "what do you think you want to do tonight?" She looks at her Swiss Army watch. "'Course you got about six hours to think about it," she says. "Let's grab lunch and show you around Widley," she says. The idea of being a tour guide seems to have caught her imagination.

Sherah shrugs. She seems to want to go wherever Amy's going.

Ellen looks at you. "What do you think?"