The Boys (Katie route)

I lined myself up with the center of the table and took aim at the sole remaining cup. Just as I threw, Emily tried to distract me by yelling, "PENIS!" It almost worked - my throw drifted to the right slightly - but it hit the rim of the cup and dropped right in with a little splash. I shouted, "Let's go!" and gave my roommate a big high-five. Emily just muttered, "Ah, fuck" while Katie grabbed the cup and polished off the beer. My roommate and I walked around the table and offered up fist bumps. I was trying to play the wager a little cool, but my roommate was way too keen. He yelled, "Now you guys have to kiss us! Haha, sucks for you!" For the first time, Katie looked a tiny bit uncomfortable with the energy he was giving off. It wasn't surprising - he had always been a little bit abrasive. I tried to diffuse the situation and said, "Dude, chill! It was just a silly bet." Emily sighed and said, "No, a bet is a bet." I knew she wasn't my roommate's biggest fan, but she gave me a look as if to say that she was going to be the ultimate wing-man and take a bullet for me. Emily suddenly grabbed my roommates face (a little more aggressively than he expected) and planted a kiss right on his lips. He looked completely shocked and had the audacity to complain, "Oh man! That was too fast, I didn't even get to enjoy it! I want a real kiss!" Emily smacked him on the shoulder and said, "Shut up, the bet is paid." Then she turned to Katie and said, "You can kiss John, but they're my friends, so I'll do it if you want."

Katie didn't hesitate. She stepped towards me and said, "No, that's OK, not fair to make you do both." Katie was way shorter than me, so she had to get up on her tippy-toes and motioned for me to bend down a little. I expect a quick peck like Emily had given my roommate, but I was surprised when she gave me a gentle, soft kiss on the lips. I returned the kiss but didn't let it linger any longer than she wanted to. Katie pulled away and I did the same. We stood there, slightly awkwardly, while my roommate chimed in again. "See?? That's a kiss. Come on Emily, you can do better!" Emily got frustrated and said, "Jesus, fine. Here." She gave him a slower kiss and then said, "Let's go get some beers for everyone." As they walked away, Katie and I shook our heads. I said, "I'm sorry about him, I know his energy is a bit over the top, but he's just having fun." Katie said, "No, that's OK. I get it. You saw how my friend was earlier, so it's all good." I asked Katie if she wanted to hang with us while her roommate finished doing...whatever she was doing. Katie said, "Yeah, I could have another drink, I'll follow you, I don't know this frat house that well."

I led Katie to the bar, resting my hand gently between her shoulder blades to guide her without being too touchy. We grabbed a couple of beers and found a quiet corner of the room. We talked about our majors, where we grew up, and the other classic ice-breaker questions you discuss with everyone in college. The conversation flowed effortlessly, which was really nice. Katie offered to get another round, so we went back to the bar. The kid serving was clearly overwhelmed, so it took him a while to get to us. When he finally did, he said, "I'm so sorry guys, we just ran out of beer. We have more kegs coming in, like, 15 minutes, or I can get you some liquor."

I looked at Katie and asked if she wanted to wait or get a harder drink. She said, "Well, I don't want to switch to liquor after this much beer, so yeah, let's wait." We walked away from the bar, but the corner we'd been standing in earlier was now occupied by two people making out and ignoring everything else. I laughed and said, "Well, clearly they have more important use for that space than we did." Katie responded, "Well, yeah, look at them, they obviously can't do that anywhere else."

I said, "For sure. My favorite place to make out is the common room of a dirty old frat house."

Katie said, "Yeah, 100%. I wouldn't ever want to go back to someone else's place to mess around."

There had to be some truth to that joke, right?