Chapter 5: Out Of The Closet




     "Refills!" screams Debi Lewis poking me in the back with two large steins. 

"Jesus, were you in the closet?" I blurt after stumbling into the keg.

"That door is to our half of the suite," she laughs nodding to the back of the room and calling "Hey Josie, come meet the bartender!"

"Hi" waves a shy girl in a stunning tube top slipping a tanned arm around Deb Lew's belly, her sunkissed locks spilling over her roommate's shoulder.



     This was my first encounter with gay intimacy, and it was stunning indeed. Homosexuality may have been more open in New York or Richmond just before the AIDS pandemic, but it wasn't yet safe to come out in the Virginia countryside. The relative privacy of dorm rooms was another story.

     Social anxiety is a fickle friend. A group of strangers can set off panic, but a single interpersonal contact can counteract the crowd. My night was saved right fast by the openness of FM's suite mates sharing their sensuality.



     "Hey google-eyes, what about our beers?" laughs Deb Lew, interrupting my pansexual reverie.

"Anything for you two," I recover, suddenly aware of being alone with them since the hallway party had mostly moved to the second floor.

"So where's your sweetheart?" she asks, deciphering my dilemma in an intuitive leap.

"Out socializing, I guess," I pivot, realizing I'd been left holding her spout.

"You're not the first with her," she soothes, touching her hot palm to the center of my chest before twirling away.





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