I have to set your expectations. This is part one of a two-part story.
I’ve just written it on the train. It’s not been proofed or revised. So please accept it could be better written.
The other fact is that part one makes no mention of glasses. I promise part two is all about glasses, so you wait for that or read part one.
You have been warned!
Rav was the kind of person that the phrase, “lights up a room” was made for. Gregarious, but modest; funny, but kind; humble and generous. Above all though, Rav was gorgeous.
Embarking upon a new term in her first year at university, Rav had made several friends and she was enjoying the experience of living away from her family. She loved her family dearly but being brought up in a traditional Indian household brought its own challenges. The foremost of which was the fact that, on completion of her degree, it was expected that Rav would marry a good Indian boy, who her parents had agreed, together with his, was the perfect match.
Rav was studying medicine at University, but her prime interest was embracing a western way of life. She wanted to extract everything she could from the time she’d spend as herself. The only time, it was planned, that would be her own in her life. This explained why, whenever there was a social outing, Rav was at the centre of things.
Her beauty attracted a lot of attention, but so far Rav hadn’t so much as kissed a boy, not from a lack of effort on the part of the male population of the University and surrounding city.
It was another late night, or rather early morning, and Rav and her friends had returned to their accommodation exhausted, but elated, from dancing and drinking.
The girls sat in the lounge, recounting the evening’s main talking points. Attrition accounted for two of her housemates who had peeled away during the evening to spend the night in other student’s houses somewhere else in the city. As time drew on, and looming morning lectures dictated, the group in the lounge thinned until all that was left was Rav and Katie – a friend of the group who didn’t actually live at the house – but often slept on the sofa when the mood took her.
Katie was forthright and passionate about most things. She was involved in a number of political organisations at the University and Rav wondered how she ever got any of her actual coursework done.
Rav was readying herself to get up and head to her room when Katie asked her a question that arrested her progress. “Rav, you don’t like guys, do you?”.
“What do you mean Katie?! Of course, I like guys.” Was Rav’s instinctive response. Katie laughed, “You would say that, but I’ve seen the way you look at men, and I’ve seen the way you look at women and, take it from someone who knows, you’d love to test your feelings about other girls, wouldn’t you?”
Rav sat, shocked at the nerve of Katie to make such a deep and intrusive claim over her own feelings. She should have been angry, but she wasn’t, she was aroused.
“What are you trying to say Katie? Are you trying to come on to me?”
Katie got up from her armchair, stepped across to the sofa where Rav was anchored by a mix of incredulity and interest. She stood in front of Rav and bent forward, placing her hand on top of Rav’s.
An involuntary and barely discernible movement of Rav’s fingers was matched by Katie’s own and they slowly clasped hands whilst Katie gently straddled Rav’s lap. Katie let go of Rav’s hand and moved her attention to Rav’s mesmerised face.
Rav’s first kiss was a very passionate affair. The chemistry between the two girls was intoxicating and following an escalation of feelings they spent an energetic and passionate night together in Rav’s single bed.
In the morning the housemates were shocked and delighted, in equal measure, to see their two friends emerge from Rav’s room – hair tussled, mascara smudged, but with a shared elation written across their faces.
Over the rest of the term people became accustomed to seeing Rav and Katie together. It was apparent to everyone that this was something important to both girls and everyone was happy to see two people so obviously in love.
“Katie, I’m going to miss you so much at Easter” Rav purred as she examined the nape of her girlfriend’s neck. “We can hook up, can’t we?” yawned Katie as she embraced the tingling sensation running down her spine that Rav was orchestrating. Her state of blissful slumber was ruined by Rav jumping up.
“That’s the thing you don’t seem to get Katie. We can’t meet up, we can’t see each other. If my family found out about us, about me, it would be the end of everything!”
“I understand Rav, I do. But, what are you saying – that we pretend we’re not gay? That our love doesn’t matter?! You need to speak to your parents – get them to understand. If they love you, they’ll accept you.”
Rav couldn’t expect her white, middle class, girlfriend to understand centuries of Indian culture, so she controlled her impatience with Katie and simply stated. “Let’s get to summer and see then. I can’t talk about this now.”
The Easter break passed and the girls managed to stay in touch via What’s App. Phone sex, Rav discovered, could be both extremely gratifying and private. She spent most of the holiday studying – her parents didn’t ask about boys – they didn’t expect Rav to be focusing on anything but work at University, so why ask?
During the summer term Rav and Katie became closer and closer. They spent more and more time alone together and were completely smitten with one another.
“Let’s go to Cinderella’s tonight Rav” Katie suggested whilst they lay on Rav’s bed, each reading some research from their respective courses. “We can’t!” explaimed Rav. “If my parents found out I’d gone there it would be the end of us – I can’t risk that.”
Katie sighed. She was determined to get Rav to embrace who she was, to hell with her parents, they’d never know anyway. She left the room and returned with a couple of drinks. “If Cinderella won’t go to the ball, the ball will have to come to Cinderella.”
One thing lead to another and quite quickly the girls were slightly drunk. Emboldened by the alcohol Katie talked Rav into going out. As the night wore on the girls became more outgoing until they fell out of a bar and stumbled towards the renowned lesbian bar, Cinderellas.
“Come on, let’s go in!” Shouted Katie. Rav, barriers completely down, acquiesced and soon the girls found themselves in the middle of a decadent party where everyone seemed to be having the best night of their lives.
The sun was coming up as the girls left the club. Ben, a course mate of Rav’s was walking along the street returning from his own adventures. He saw the girls kissing and instantly recognised Rav, who he’d fancied since the moment he’d clasped eyes on her. He snuck behind an industrial-sized bin outside a closing kebab shop and took a number of photos and a video – after all what’s hotter than two really hot girls getting it on, was the excuse he was telling himself.
The following day Ben uploaded his video to the internet, to share with other desperate boys, who could only dream of participating in the videos they watched, rather than embrace life and all its raw rejections and rewards. The video soon caught attention and the view number rocketed.
PART 2
…tomorrow, I hope.