In high school, it was easy enough to blow off talk about dating, the friends I had back then didn’t talk about it much so it was irrelevant, but Alicia and Caroline weren’t like that. They were the first friends I’d made in college, and I didn’t want them to change their minds about me.
They kept talking, and I realized I’d just shot myself in the foot.
“Then why don’t you try it?” Alicia suggested, her lips parted with the thrill of a new game to play.
“Yeah! I would totally do it, but I’m still seeing Brad,” Caroline continued. “You’re not seeing anyone right now, right? Try it out, and tell us who the guy is!”
I opened my mouth, but I had no words.
There’s absolutely no way I could do something like that!
That was what I wanted to say, a bold refusal, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. What if they thought I was lying? What if they stopped talking to me?
Lucky for me, the professor entered the room right then and walked to his podium.
“All right, everyone!” He said, his middle-aged voice loud through the speakers. “I know I was late, but we still have a class today, so all of you, please get seated.”
There was a scramble as everyone still outside or hanging around the room moved to occupy the seats. The conversation was cut short before I could answer but I knew they wouldn’t let it go, though. They would pick right back up where we left off and I was nervous throughout the rest of the class.
As soon as class was over, I wanted to rush out, but Caroline, right beside me, grabbed onto my arm so I wouldn’t run off.
“We’re not done talking yet,” she said with arched eyebrows.
Alicia, seated in the row ahead of us, turned back to stare at the two of us as if to make sure no one ran away.
I cried a little inside, but the three of us left the room together. It was almost lunch, so we slowly made our way to the cafeteria.
“Are you going to give it a try?” Alicia asked.
I pursed my lips and tried to play dumb. “What do you mean?”
Caroline rolled her eyes. “You know. What we were talking about before. The sext me line, are you gonna do it or not?”
I floundered. “Can’t Alicia do it? She’s not seeing anyone right now, either, right?”
Good job, I thought, mentally patting myself on the back.
Alicia smirked. “I’m seeing someone now. A guy asked me out, and we’re going out tonight. I’ll tell you guys how it goes, but this leaves you as the only one you know?”
I bit down on my lip. I wanted to get out of this. Having sex with a stranger wasn’t how I thought my first time would go.
They saw my hesitation and shared a glance between themselves. Then Alicia reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. I watched as she tapped on the screen, then held it out to me. On the screen was a number she’d saved to her phone under ‘sext me.’
“I dare you to text the number,” Alicia said, and smirked at me.
I stared at the number for a long time. They were just a few digits, but they held so much weight, I thought my heart was about to stop. We stood still outside where just anyone could walk by. If someone found out what we were doing and started rumors…
“Sure,” I said, in an attempt to sound unconcerned. I grabbed her phone and pulled my own out. “It’s not that big a deal. It’s a guy from the school, right? Then he won't try anything funny.”
“It should be safe enough,” Alivia said. “I don’t know the who, but he is part of the school. Hell, it could even be one of the professors or staff from the school, you know?”
She and Caroline started to laugh, but the idea made me feel even worse about the whole idea.
It he’s a student though, it’ll be fine, right?
I copied the number into my phone and saved it. I hesitated, though, wondering if I could use my number for this.
“Should I text this number?” I asked hesitantly. “I mean, what if it’s not safe and it’s a scam or something? The guy can find me again.”
They shared a glance, but they’d stopped giggling at least. I started to feel tentatively hopeful, then Alicia’s expression lit up like she had an idea.
“Try it on Twitter,” she offered.
I was a bit unsure, would someone be crazy enough to create a Twitter handle for something like this? Anyway, this was something I could erase and put behind me if things went south. I posted a tweet with the hashtag sext me.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait long before I got a DM, a private message.