"You'd be surprised how open-minded Elizabeth is about sex."

So that was what this was all about. Stephanie wasn’t worried about me, she was worried she had ruined her relationship with her sweet and innocent best friend. I met Stephanie’s eyes—

“No. Not at all. And I think you’d be surprised about how open-minded Elizabeth is about sex. I think everyone would be. She’s not the little girl people think she is. I mean, come on, she actually got herself off in front of the rest of you.”

Stephanie dismissed my comment, “That doesn’t count. She doesn’t have to reach outside her comfort zone around other girls. But she’s terrified of boys, Ian. Elizabeth has never even let a boy feel her boobs.”

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to.”

Stephanie sighed, “If she wanted to, then it would have happened. It’s not really that difficult when you’ve got a pair like these. You walk up to any boy in the world and say, ‘Hey, feel my boobs.’ Done.”

“Come on Stephanie, that’s not the point. Elizabeth is gonna take things at her own pace, but she doesn’t expect you to do the same. She cares more for you than she cares about anything else in the world. She has since you were both babies. You being a tiny bit more sexually experienced than her is not gonna ruin that.”

Stephanie nodded, knowing I was right. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She apologized for treating me strangely the past few days, but I was so relieved to learn she didn’t hate me I had already forgiven her.

We walked the rest of the way home in much better spirits, finally discussing what had happened. Yes, she really had an orgasm that night. No, she wasn’t jealous about my afternoon jerking off beside Amy. And, most importantly, yes she wanted to keep experimenting with me. That more or less made my year.

We talked about what had felt the best, and what we might like to try in the future. We both agreed that we would have to stop fooling around if either of us got into a relationship, but for now we were both single and there seemed no real harm in it. We would be fuck-buddies that never actually fucked.

We reached her front door, I waved hello to Stephanie’s mom, and then headed home on cloud nine.

The day got better from there. My mom mentioned that she and my dad had to head out of town for a last minute work thing, and I would have the house to myself all weekend. Visions of a 48-hour non-stop make-out session with Stephanie flashed through my mind, and I immediately called her to convey the good news:

“We can be alone together for two whole days!”