Mariah considers.

Mariah spluttered. How could Samantha even ask her a question like that? Who did she think she was talking to? "W-what?!" Mariah said, looking away from her friend's face. "No! Don't be ridiculous! And you shouldn't be acting like this, either! I know you, Sam, this isn't what you're like!" She couldn't keep herself from shaking, a combination of anger and anxiety that she felt deep in her bones.

Samantha leaned in close to her friend. "That's what you think," she said. "How do you know that this isn't what I'm like? All the time?" She was smiling like the Cheshire Cat and going a little red in the face. It was hot out on the dock, even at night, and the drunkenness wasn't doing her complexion any favors, either.

Mariah felt heat rising to her cheeks. She still wasn't looking Samantha in the eye. "Come on, Samantha, don't talk like that..." Slowly, Mariah realized that she was staring at Samantha's naked body. It was curvy with broad hips, and covered in freckles from top to bottom. With a faint horror, Mariah realized that Samantha had trimmed her pubic hair into a tiny little triangle. The Samantha she had known back in their college days would never have shaved her pubes. Maybe good old 'Sam,' the only one that Mariah had ever been able to count on to behave herself, really had changed. How had she not noticed?

Apparently, Mariah's best friend was no longer willing to share everything with her anymore. Had she been to rigid, too pushy? Was it her fault that Samantha was acting like this?

And even if it was her fault, was that such a bad thing?

Samantha looked carefree and content. Even a little bit mischevious as she looked into Mariah's eyes. There was something in those eyes that Mariah felt like she had been chasing for years now, and that she had never really been able to get a hold of: a sense of liberating spontenaiety. Samantha hadn't planned to go streaking on the deck, but here she was, and she was loving it. Here on the cruise ship, there were no real consequences for getting caught, either. Maybe Samantha actually was onto something.

"Come on," Samantha prodded. She was close enough now that Mariah could feel the heat flowing off of her old friend's skin, like a radiator. She was positively glowing. A little part of Mariah wanted to feel like she was glowing, too.

"You know you want this," Samantha whispered in her ear. Her naked body was almost touching Mariah's clothed one in a way that would have normally made Mariah recoil with shock and disgust. But neither of them moved an inch from where they were standing, almost nestled together. "The two of us can have lots of fun together, I promise."