Stay in and Research

You decide to pop open the laptop and do a little bit of research on stopping time. After searching and clicking around for a while, it's pretty clear that there isn't any actual research on the topic. At least nothing legitimate. You find one site that seems kind of promising until it devolves into a paranoid conspiracy about government agents stopping time to eliminate the weasel population. A knock at the door interrupts your very productive work, so you get up to see who it is.

"That'll be $32.50," is the greeting you get when you open the door. A pizza delivery guy from the local chain near campus is standing there.

"Uhh I didn't order any pizza," you reply in confusion.

"That's us!" a voice shouts from behind the pizza guy. The door across the hall has opened up and one of your neighbors is standing there, cash in hand. You've never actually talked to her, but from overhearing things in the halls, you know her name is Ellen. She's a leggy brunette and is on the cheerleading team with her roommate, Anna. "Sorry about that!" she says to you over the shoulder of the pizza guy who has turned around to complete the transaction.

"Oh no problem," you say sheepishly.

"Have a good night!" she says before she returns to the room where you can hear other girls giggling before she shuts the door.

You return to your computer, but really are making zero progress at learning anything. Anything that looks somewhat serious on the topic basically says it's not possible or that it would rip holes in space and time or whatever. You do happen to stumble across a couple of interesting adult sites with some videos of models who pretend to be time stopped while some guy does all sorts of things to them. It's very reminiscent of your experience earlier in the day, except they go a lot farther in the videos. Another knock at the door breaks your attention. Did they order more food?

Opening the door this time it's Ellen standing there.

"Hi!" she excitedly greets you. "You're a guy, right?" uhhh "Do you have any poker chips?" she continues without waiting for a response.

"Well, uh... yeah. I have a set."

"Great! He has some!" she shouts back over her shoulder. You don't know her at all, but you are suspecting there has been a little bit of **** at this pizza party across the hall. "Hey can we borrow them?"

"Umm sure. Just give me a sec," you say. You walk back to your bedroom and grab the metal case of poker chips from your bookshelf. Coming back into the living room your eyes go wide as Ellen has let herself into your room and is standing next to your open laptop which still has one of the porn sites open. The image is frozen on a girl who is reaching up to put a book back on a library shelf while a guy has hiked up her skirt and pulled down her panties. Ellen's eyes are on you though and she doesn't seem to have actually looked at the screen. You approach from the side of the couch that takes her attention away from the computer. "Here you go." You hand her the case.

"Thanks so much!" she excitedly takes them and skips back across the hall to her room and you breathe a sigh of relief as you close the door. You also close down the browser, not really feeling like you were getting anything accomplished. You start thinking about firing up a video game when there is yet another knock at the door.

"Hi it's me again!" a familiar face is waiting for you. "Do you know how to play poker?"

"Yes...?"

"Great! Do you think you could teach us?"

"Uhhh maybe. I guess so."

"You're amazing!" she grabs you and gives you a tight hug that catches you completely off guard. "Come on!" she grabs your wrist and starts dragging you across the hall.

"Wait I have to grab my keys and phone," and stopwatch... you say.

"Oh ok! Well come on over when you're ready. And don't take too long with your porn," she winks at you and your face has never gone bright red so fast. She leans in and loudly whispers in your ear, "Don't worry, I'm into freaky shit too." And then she skips back into her room, leaving the door open this time. You gather your things, slipping the watch, which now is back at a full charge, into your pocket. You take a deep breath and hope the blush has drained from your face as you exit your room and enter the girls' room across the hall.

"Thank you so much for helping!" Ellen ushers you in and closes the door behind you. "Help yourself to some pizza and beer if you want!" She leads you to the dining room table area where two other girls are sitting. "Sarah, Liz, this is...John? From across the hall!" You nod in greeting. Sarah is a petite girl with dark blonde hair and Liz has deeply tanned olive-brown skin and dark hair. You don't recognize either of them from any of your classes and you would definitely remember girls on this scale of hotness.

"Yay you found us a teacher!" Liz shouts, raising her beer in a salute to you. "We are so going to dominate at the Texas Grab Em tournament next week!"

"Yeah!" Sarah shouts, raising her beer too.

"Do you mean Texas Hold Em?" you ask.

"Oh right that's the name," Liz says and they all start giggling. "Grab. Hold. Same thing."

"How many beers have you had, hon?" Ellen asks.

"Not enough! Beer me!" Liz says, tossing her empty in the recycling bin. Ellen slides a fresh can across the table and throws one to you too. You nearly drop it, but catch it on the bobble to save face. "So Sensei, teach us the ways of the Grab Em."

"Hold Em!" both of the other girls correct her before another outburst of giggling.

You take a seat at the table across from Sarah. Liz is on your right and Ellen takes the seat to your left. You go over the rules to the game and much to your surprise they seem to grasp the concepts. Sarah remains mostly quiet while Liz is clearly the rambunctious one in the group and Ellen is just excited about everything. Once everyone seems comfortable with the rules, you portion out chips and get ready to deal out a hand.

"Wait!" Ellen stops you. "We have to play for something!"

"Yeah!" the other girls shout.

"Well usually we just play for a few bucks buy in."

"Laaame," Liz groans. "The invite said Strip Grab em. I say go big or go home, ladies."

"Uhh what?" you nervously ask.

"Oh yeah it's a strip poker tournament!" Ellen ignores you. "We gotta practice for that too! So every time you lose a hand you have to take something off!"

"Yeah!" Liz responds. Looking across the table, Sarah seems to be the only one with an ounce of hesitation. Suddenly you find yourself wishing you had worn more layers. Scanning around the table, all the ladies are similarly dressed in various tank tops and short shorts.

"But what about the chips?" Sarah asks.

"Fuck the chips!" Liz pushes her pile of chips into the middle of the table. "We don't need em."

"Sorry, John!" Ellen apologizes. "I guess we didn't need the chips! But we still need a teacher! Those guys from Theta Kappa Gamma Alpha Epsilon aren't going to pull a fast one on us!"

"Yeah! Deal em up, Sensei!"

"Wait that's not going to work," you stop them. "Every hand there's only one winner and three losers. If we're going to do this, we should still have chips and when you run out of chips, you can buy back in with an item of clothing."

"Genius! Where'd you find this guy, Ell?"

The group settles on 50 in chips as the starting amount and each buy in gets you another 50. After re-portioning out all the chips, you take a deep breath and deal the first hand.

Your first hand is the 8 and Jack of clubs. As everyone antes up, you find yourself wondering what hands everyone else has. After all, there's a lot at stake. Of course, you could use the watch and check. You could guarantee that you never lost a hand. But is it worth it?