To me, she's Crimson, but her parents and just about everyone else called her Carilyn Aymes Reynolds, and she is my best friend. We spent our lives together from birth to 12th grade year until the summer before we went to college. She loves art and would always create realist renditions of places and people in crimson, which is why I gave her the nickname. We were each others' first kiss and I loved her... sometimes I would wonder if my feelings were more romantic than the platonic feelings we were supposed to have for the other.. but even thinking about dating her felt wrong; she was like my sister and I didn't want to soil our relationship with...a relationship of intense cuddling... passionate sex... and spending our lives together... and... okay... maybe I did love her romantically, but I know for a fact that she never thought of me the way I did about her.
We were both born on August 16, 1997 in Dover, New Hampshire. She was born first at the ungodly hour of 2:35 in the morning, while I took my time and popped out at 11:59pm. In time it would seem as if us being born at these times were signs of our personalities. It felt like she was always ahead of me, with homework assignments, breaking out of our social awkward stage (I'm still in mine), and even finding love... I can't imagine that it was hard for her to find the person of her dreams either, she's beautiful. She has long kinky black hair, big brown eyes, her skin is the color of a milk chocolate Hershey's kiss, and her lips are plump and soft. If I was an artist, she'd be my muse, she's gorgeous. I'm taller than her, me being 5'7 and her being 5 feet even. She's always been the most attractive out of the both of us, with her abundance of curves and doe eyes. I've always been on the skinnier side of the spectrum, with a little bit of bust and I guess an ass? But nothing could compare to Crimson.. how I loved to cuddle with her when she would come over for Friday night movies... Now we're separated by over 400 miles... and a heart that's no longer available to me.
I come from a long line of Washington and Lee University alumni. I didn't care where I went to college as long as I went somewhere, and having tons of memorabilia around the house made it pretty easy to decide where to send in my college application. Thankfully for my family's ties with the school, since I only had a 3.6 GPA and no extracurricular activities to add to my application, I got accepted to the school of my parents' dream. I didn't really think about where Crimson would be going... I mean, I always knew she wanted to go to college, and her 4.0 GPA meant that she could have gone anywhere. I guess I assumed that she and I would just do everything together as we always had. It caught me by surprise when she came over to my house, burst through the door and started screaming and jumping up and down, all the while holding an acceptance letter for Bard College in her hand. That's when I realized that 12th grade was the end of our duo... at least for a little while. She promised that we would Skype and everything and we would visit each other during breaks. I gave her the best smile I could, but inside I was dying. My best friend was leaving me.. the love of my life was slipping through my grasp.. but I loved her enough to pretend like this wasn't something that was shattering my heart. I'm her best friend first and foremost, and I'm happy for her. She was ecstatic when I showed her my acceptance letter, it was my turn to do the same.
Because our classes didn't start until August 30th, Crimson and I were able to have one more birthday party together. Once it was clear that we were glued to each others' hip at the young age of 6, our parents decided that we could celebrate our birthdays together. It's been a tradition for the last 13 years now for us to plan a party together whether it be a slumber party or a Blue's Clues theme or even a weekend trip to a different city. This year, we decided to have a small get together, me and my two dads and she with her dad. We went out to Chile's and laughed and enjoyed the little time we had left together as a mix-matched family.When dinner was done and everything paid for, I got into the car with Crimson and her dad. This was going to be our last slumber party...but we agreed not to cry. We promised each other that this wasn't the end of our best friendship, and that this slumber party would be like the small celebrations that happen on a port before a cruise ship sails out onto open sea. We chose her house because her dad works during the evenings and she's an only child unlike my dads who work 9-5 and my baby brother who's a bit of a crybaby (he is two, so I guess that should be expected). We planned for the evening to be filled with make-up tutorials, gorging ourselves in sweet treats that Crimson had hidden from her dad, and then watching Netflix until we passed out. It was going to be brilliant! The evening didn't exactly end like that though.
Mr. Reynolds didn't have a lot of time in between going out to eat and getting to work on time. In reality, after we paid for the meal, he- as gently as anyone could who only had an hour to get to work and needed 30 minutes to drive there- urged us into the car and sped off down the road towards their house. Once we reached their driveway, he lovingly kicked us out of the car, kissing our foreheads as we jumped out, and then made an illegal U-turn to get him out of the neighborhood and towards his job, which he only had 40 minutes to get to. Crimson looked at me, through back her head and laughed. This wasn't unusual for her dad to do, to pick us up last minute, drop us off closer to the sidewalk than to the house, and then drive off.
"That was the best way to start the night!" she exclaimed all the while grabbing my hand and leading me towards the door.
Walking into Crimson's house, the same familiar sense of ease washed over me that it had for so many years. The Reynolds were a little messy, but for the most part, everything was clean. The house, although nearly 15 years old, still smelled new. There were no stains on the walls from baby food being flung, the smell of baby powder wasn't in the air, and there was always the silent whir coming from above, promising that the A/C was still going strong. We took off our shoes in the foyer and headed up the steps to Crimson's room. I loved her room. Her dad had given her creative liberty over the furniture and the paint on the walls, so she decided to adorns her bedroom with antique furniture and paint the walls herself, covering them in a tranquil blue and sea foam green, with little mermaids and fish being expertly drawn all over. Her bed was big enough for a king and his harem, or better yet, a Crimson and her Paint brush. The brush being me with my tall stature, flat hair and straw blond hair color. I've always been a little self-conscious about it, which is why Crimson decided to have our night be full of makeup tutorials, so I would be able to 'doll myself up' while at college and realize when the guys all fawn on me that I've always been a hot babe.. or something like that.
Crimson picked up her computer and placed it on the bed, a prompt I had long learned meant that I should lay next to her and watch whatever video she was about to put on. Knowing her, she already had the makeup ready and a couple of towels to put on her bed sheets so we could paint our faces worry and interruption-free. We started watching videos at around 6:30 and didn't stop until nearly 10. By the time we finished, we looked GOOD. We looked bar ready, all we were missing was a sexy outfit.
"My dearest of all dear friends," Crimson began, a sly smile creeping across her face, "since we already look the part, why not 'walk the walk'?"
"Walk the wal..?" before I could finish my statement, she was already passing me a cup of something that looked like apple juice but smelled like hospital. "Wait, Crim, is this alcohol?" I asked, in honest surprise. We had never discussed drinking before. I knew her dad had a small assortment of liquor and wine, but I thought we weren't going to steal any. It had never crossed my mind and I assumed that it hadn't crossed hers.
"Don't worry, I already got my dad's permission. I convinced him that it would be best to let us try it out now than to wait until college where everyone else probably already knows their limits and then we get hammered and then.. things happen... then 9 months later pop out a kid and possibly ruin our educational careers. So bottoms up, girlfriend!" and with that, she downed whatever she put in her cup like it was the apple juice that it looked like. She then looked at me expectantly. In turn, I looked down at my drink, slightly terrified.
"Babe, just try it." She pleaded. "My dad said that it's safe as long as we don't go anywhere after we've started... I mean we never go anywhere.. but still! It's not as bad as you think it is." And with that, she gave me an adorable puppy dog pout, one that I have never been able to get over, since the very first time she used it. I looked down again at my drink. If I had called my dads, right then and there, they would have given me a big N.O. and told me that if I even put my thoughts on drinking, they would take me home. This would have been my only chance to try anything like this. I closed my eyes, put the cup to my lips and downed that sucker. It tasted awful.
"EWWWW!" I yelled, holding my throat as whatever I just tried, burned my esophagus like the dickins! Crimson just looked at me and laughed. She grabbed my cup and poured more of that accursed fluid in it and passed it back to me. I looked at her in horror.
"It'll taste better after a few more cups, I promise." she said, holding her hand to her heart. I don't know why I listened to her, no I knew why: Crimson wanted me to do it with her, so I wanted to do what would make her happy. Her laugh made me happy, and after drinking several more drinks with her, her laughter was everywhere. It was beautiful, she was beautiful.
I drunkingly pulled myself closer to her, our faces touched. She was still laughing, I wanted her laughter inside me too. I put my lips against hers, and then she got quiet, really quiet. I pulled away.
"Crim, I'm sorry I don't know what came over.." and then she grabbed my body and put it against hers, I could feel the warmth coming off her skin, her breasts rising and falling, her being radiating. And then she kissed me back. It wasn't a soft kiss like the one we shared in 6th grade when we were playing truth or dare, no. This was a real kiss, a real kiss. I grabbed her around her waist, sliding slowly down to her glorious heart-shaped ass. She grabbed my hands and slid them inside her jeans and started to kiss harder; I was melting inside. She pulled up my shirt and my bra, bearing my chest for her to feel, for me to feel her- and then she pulled away. What I saw next, I could only say was God granting me my one true wish. She slowly pulled up her shirt, exposing her beautiful brown breasts, covered slightly in brown freckles. She had large tear-shaped areolas, dark brown and the same shade as her nipples. It was a lot to take in, she was a lot to take in, I wanted to envelope her.
I pushed my body against hers, putting my knee in between her legs, smothering myself in her abundance. I wanted more, I needed more. I started to unzip her shorts, pulling them off ever so gently. She wasn't wearing anything underneath. Her vagina was exposed, everything was exposed. I stripped the last bits of clothing from her body and pulled her into me, savoring her nudity from head to toe. I pulled her legs apart, putting her flower out in the open. She made I sound, and I quickly looked up, hoping that I didn't hurt her. Instead, I saw her biting her lip in anticipation. I took that as a hint to put my mouth where it had longed to go for so long. For the next few hours, all that could be heard through the house were blissful moans.