Jena and the Game Night

Lola's flat was already hot and a bit cramped by the time the vodka and the cards came out. Eight people somehow managed to fit themselves into the living room: Lola, three women from the psychology year including Leah, two men from the football side, an exchange student named Elias, and Jena. Rain had been tapping insistently on the windows, and the radiator had decided to make the room several degrees hotter than anyone had wanted.

Lola sat cross-legged on the sofa, holding up the cards.

"Right. Truth only. No dares. You answer honestly or refuse and drink a double. No clever escapes."

Jena, who was on the floor with her back against the sofa, smiled.

"I like that rule."

"Of course you do," Leah said.

Jena shrugged. She liked the idea of playing a game where everyone had agreed to do one thing that didn't require much thought about what could be said, what couldn't be said and what would make them sound better. Here at least in theory had agreed to take some of the effort out of it.

The first questions were harmless enough. Worst kiss. Most embarrassing message ever sent. The stupidest excuse anyone had used to get out of a date.

One of the football players claimed he had once told a girl his phone was broken because he hadn't wanted to answer her.

"Your phone wasn't broken," his friend said.

"No."

"So you lied."

"Obviously."

"That wasn't even a good lie."

"It worked."

Jena shook her head.

"That isn't the same thing."

Everyone laughed.

The cards went around the room, with the vodka making people progressively less careful. Lola who had started the evening as a confident host became increasingly willing to let the questions go wherever they wanted.

Eventually she pointed a card at Jena.

"Have you ever slept with a woman?"

"Yes."

The room became noticeably quieter.

Lola waited.

Jena took a sip of her drink.

"That's it?"

"That was the question."

"You're not going to tell us anything else?"

"You didn't ask."

Leah laughed. "You're impossible."

"No. I'm answering correctly."

That produced another round of laughter, but Jena noticed something else as well. People were looking at her differently now. Not because she had said anything particularly shocking, but because she had refused to provide the story they had expected to accompany it.

The next few rounds became slightly more personal.

Someone admitted to having kissed a friend and never mentioned it afterwards. One of the football players claimed that he could always tell when a woman was interested in him.

"How?" Jena asked.

He thought about it.

"She looks at me."

"That applies to everyone."

"Not like that."

"How does she look?"

He hesitated.

"I don't know."

"Then you can't always tell."

The room laughed again.

The other football player wasn't any more impressive. When asked what he found most attractive in women, he gave an answer so predictable that even Lola groaned.

"See?" Jena said. "That's exactly what I meant."

"What?"

"You answered what you're supposed to find attractive."

"And what am I supposed to say?"

"Something you actually notice."

He thought for a few seconds.

"Eyes."

"Better."

"Legs."

"Worse."

The laughter returned.

Elias had been quieter than the two football players, but when Lola asked him what had surprised him most about english university life, he gave an unexpectedly thoughtful answer about how much social life seemed to depend on pretending not to care about things everyone obviously cared about.

Jena looked at him.

"That was interesting."

Elias smiled.

"I'm relieved."

"You should be."

The questions continued.

Jena began asking more of them herself. She didn't interrogate anyone. She simply noticed where an answer didn't quite fit and asked the obvious question underneath it.

When Leah admitted that she had once wanted someone she shouldn't have wanted, Jena asked, "Because they were unavailable, or because wanting them would have caused trouble?"

Leah stared at her.

"You really don't let things go, do you?"

"Not when the interesting part is underneath."

That earned a smile from Leah and an uncomfortable laugh from someone else.

The room was getting hotter.

Eventually one of the football players complained about the radiator.

"What's going on with the heating?" Jena asked. "Can't you turn it down?"

Lola looked towards the radiator.

"No. The control is broken."

Jena considered this for approximately two seconds.

"Fine."

She pulled her grey T-shirt over her head, folded it once and placed it beside her.

Nobody said anything.

Jena looked around.

"What?"

"Nothing," Leah said.

"Good."

The conversation resumed.

A little later she stretched her legs out in front of her.

"Still too hot?"

"Yes."

She unfastened her jeans and stepped out of them, leaving herself in her cotton knickers.

Lola watched her.

"You really don't care, do you?"

"About being too warm?"

"About everyone staring."

Jena looked around the room.

"Are they?"

Nobody answered.

She smiled.

"Then I suppose the problem is theirs."

Lola laughed, but she looked away rather quickly.

The cards went around again.

As the evening deepened, Jena noticed that Lola was becoming increasingly interested in her. It wasn't particularly subtle anymore. Lola looked at her when she thought Jena wasn't watching, then became slightly flustered whenever their eyes met.

Jena didn't know yet whether that meant anything.

She was interested enough to find out.

The questions became more difficult.

"Someone in this room you'd sleep with," Lola read from one card. "You have to answer."

The football players immediately began making jokes.

One named someone who was not present.

"That doesn't count," Lola said.

"Then I'll drink."

His friend named another person who was also absent.

Jena laughed.

"Cowards."

"Your turn."

Jena took the card.

"I don't think that's how the game works."

"Why not?"

"Because if you ask a question you wouldn't answer yourself, you're not very convincing."

The football player drank.

Jena smiled.

Eventually the card reached Lola.

She was noticeably drunk now, although not incapable of understanding what was happening.

Lola read the question aloud, then looked at Jena.

"If you could choose anyone here?"

There was a pause.

Jena waited.

Lola laughed nervously.

"This is a horrible question."

"That's why it's a good one."

Lola looked around the room, then back at Jena.

"You."

The room went silent.

Lola's face reddened.

Jena didn't look surprised.

"Okay."

"That's all you're saying?"

"You answered."

Someone laughed nervously.

Lola took another drink.

"And I'd want a man there."

That produced a different silence.

One of the football players immediately raised his hand.

"I volunteer."

The other laughed.

"Of course you do."

Elias said nothing.

Lola looked embarrassed now, as though she had only just realised how much she had said.

Jena looked at her.

"You don't have to do anything about it."

"I know."

"Good."

Lola smiled weakly.

"But I think I want to."

Jena looked across the room.

Elias met her eyes.

For the first time that evening, there was something unmistakable in his expression.

Jena understood.

She looked back at Lola.

"You're sure?"

Lola nodded.

Jena stood.

The movement itself seemed to settle the question.

"Come on, then."

Elias got up as well.

The three of them left the room while the others immediately began talking too loudly about completely unrelated things.

Lola's spare room was smaller and cooler. She closed the door and leaned against it for a second, as if the act of shutting out the living room had made the decision real. The vodka had loosened her, but it had not erased the nervousness. She looked at Jena and then at Elias, waiting for someone else to move first.

Jena let her kickers go and took a step towards Lola.

Jena did not rush her. She stepped closer, close enough that Lola could have stepped back if she wanted to, and asked once more, quietly.

"Still yes?"

Lola's answer was a breath more than a word. "Yes."

Jena kissed her. It started careful - testing the shape of Lola's mouth, the way she responded - then deepened when Lola's hands came up to Jena's waist and stayed there. The kiss tasted of vodka and residual lipstick. Jena kept it unhurried, giving Lola time to decide how much of herself she wanted to offer. When Lola's tongue met hers with more certainty, Jena's hands slid under the hem of Lola's top and lifted it. Lola raised her arms without being asked. The top came off. The bra followed a moment later. Lola's breasts were fuller than Jena's, soft under her palms. Jena brushed her thumbs across the nipples and felt them tighten. Lola made a small sound into the kiss.

Elias remained a few steps away, watching, waiting. Jena glanced at him over Lola's shoulder.

"You can come closer," she said. "She wants you here."

He did. His hands settled lightly on Lola's hips from behind while Jena continued kissing her. Lola shivered at the dual contact. Elias's mouth found the side of her neck. Jena felt the way Lola's body responded - leaning back into him, then forward into Jena again - and adjusted accordingly. She guided Lola toward the bed. The three of them moved without much talking, only the occasional soft confirmation when someone shifted or reached.

Lola lay back. Jena knelt beside her and took her time. She kissed the line of Lola's throat, the upper curves of her breasts, then drew one nipple into her mouth and sucked gently while her hand stroked the other. Lola's breathing changed. Her fingers threaded into Jena's hair. Jena moved lower, trailing her mouth down the soft plane of Lola's stomach, then hooked her fingers into the waistband of Lola's trousers and underwear and looked up.

Lola lifted her hips. The fabric came away. Jena settled between her thighs and used her mouth with the same attentive focus she brought to most things that interested her - slow at first, learning what made Lola's breath catch, then firmer when Lola's hips began to rise to meet her. She kept one hand on Lola's thigh, feeling the tension build and ease. Elias undressed while he watched. When he was ready he knelt behind Jena, hands warm on her waist, and waited until she reached back and guided him. He pushed into her in one steady movement. The dual sensation - Lola under her mouth, Elias filling her - made Jena's own breath roughen. She did not stop what she was doing. She simply pushed back against him in quiet encouragement and kept her attention on Lola.

They found a rhythm. Elias moved inside Jena with deep, measured strokes while she stayed focused between Lola's legs. Lola's hands stayed in Jena's hair, sometimes tightening, sometimes stroking. When Lola's thighs began to tremble, Jena did not change pace; she simply stayed exactly where she was until Lola came with a broken, surprised sound, her body arching, then sinking back into the mattress.

Jena lifted her head, breathing harder. She looked at Elias.

"I want to face her."

He withdrew. Jena shifted, straddled Lola's hips, and leaned down to kiss her again - slower this time, tasting the residual salt of her own mouth on Lola's lips. Elias moved behind her once more. Jena reached back, guided him, and sank onto him while she kept kissing Lola. The angle was different, deeper. She rolled her hips in steady, searching movements, one hand braced beside Lola's head, the other stroking Lola's breast. Lola's hands explored her in return - sides, small breasts, the place where Elias moved inside her. The three of them were close enough that every shift of weight and breath was shared.

Jena came first, forehead pressed to Lola's, a low open sound while her body tightened around Elias. She kept moving through it, slower, until he followed with a rough breath against her shoulder and his hands firm on her hips. Lola stayed beneath them, flushed and open-eyed, one hand still resting between Jena's legs as if reluctant to break the contact.

They remained tangled for a short while after, the room quiet except for cooling breath. No one reached for clothes immediately. Lola laughed once, soft and a little disbelieving.

"I really said that out loud, didn't I?"

Jena brushed a strand of hair from Lola's face. "You did. And you meant it."

" Yeah." Lola's voice was quieter. "I did."

Elias said almost nothing. He simply stayed close, one hand resting lightly on Jena's back, the other near Lola's, as if the three of them were still deciding when the moment would fully end.

Eventually Jena sat up, found her knickers, and stepped into them. The others dressed more slowly. The residual heat of the encounter still sat under their skin when they opened the door and walked back toward the sound of the living room.

When they eventually returned to the living room, Jena was wearing again her cotton knickers. The conversation stopped for just long enough for everyone to notice.

Jena sat down in her usual place.

Leah handed her a glass of water.

"Well?"

Jena took a drink.

"It was good."

Lola laughed from behind her.

"That is such a Jena answer."

"What did you expect?"

"Something more informative."

"You asked if it was good."

The room laughed.

One of the football players looked at Elias.

"And?"

Elias smiled.

"I'm not getting involved."Coward."

" Possibly."

Jena picked up another card.

"Whose turn?"

The game resumed.

It was different now, though nobody needed to say so. The questions still produced laughter, embarrassment and occasional revelations, but everyone was more conscious of what could happen when somebody answered honestly.

Jena remained exactly as she had been before. She answered when asked. She asked questions when she was curious. When people wanted more information than she had offered, she let them remain curious.

Lola sat closer to her than before.

Neither commented on it.

Eventually the vodka ran low and the rain weakened against the windows. People began collecting coats and phones, making the usual promises to organise another night soon and then forgetting who had volunteered to do it.

Jena pulled her jeans back on and retrieved her T-shirt.

At the door, Lola caught her arm.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

Lola smiled.

"For not making it weird."

Jena considered that.

"You were the one who said it."

"I know."

"And you meant it."

"Yes."

"Then what's weird?"

Lola laughed.

"Goodnight, Jena."

"Goodnight."

Jena stepped outside.

The rain had almost stopped. The pavement shone beneath the streetlights, and the cool air felt good after the overheated flat.

She walked home slowly.

The evening had turned out differently from what she had expected, although that wasn't unusual. Lola had surprised her. Elias had been interesting. The game itself had been even better than she'd hoped.

Tomorrow, people would probably have their own versions of what had happened. Some would make it sound more calculated than it had been. Others would probably make it sound more scandalous.

Jena knew better.

Lola had drunk too much and said something she might otherwise have kept to herself. Jena had been interested. Elias had been willing. Nobody had needed to pretend.

That was all.

She reached her door, unlocked it and went inside, still faintly amused by how complicated people could make things that had seemed remarkably simple once someone finally told the truth.