March 2022 Story - College Gas 101 (Chapter 4) (Patreon)

Emilia collected her breath after tryouts ended. She felt good about herself for once. She wasn’t winded; to her it was just a warmup. She could go on for hours if she had to. They put her and the others through warmups, basic drills, and then a brief scrimmage. She not only excelled physically but she made sure to be noticed by being the loudest person on the field, hustling her teammates and telling them to pass. Emilia noticed Rita lagging behind, but she was surprisingly still able to catch the ball.

Julie passed by Emilia. She lifted her sunglasses to reveal her dark blue eyes. She seemed impressed. Since Emilia was more relaxed now, she was able to give Julie the up-down. She had an amazing figure – not fat but not slim either. Her legs looked powerful – so toned and muscular. Even though she was wearing sweat shorts and a t-shirt, she rocked it with style, not having broken a sweat either. Something about her reminded Emilia of classic stereotypical femme fatales, like Jessica Rabbit or something. A tingle went down Emilia’s spine when Julie said, “Nice.”

Damn,Emilia thought, she’s fucking hot.

“Hey,” Rita breathed. Emilia turned to see Rita’s face beet red. She was fighting to take a breath and heaved and bent down to lean on her thighs. “H-how…do you think…you did?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I just. Need. A minute.”

The coach blew her whistle, and everyone stood at attention.

“Alright, girls. When I call out your name, come here. If you don’t hear your name, you know what that means.”

Emilia’s stomach knotted with butterflies the second she started calling out names.

“I’m sure you made it,” Rita said. “Me? I bet you I didn’t make it.”

“RITA ROSSI.”

Rita appeared blank. She blinked twice at Emilia. “Oh shit. I made it.”

Emilia was more nervous now, watching Rita hustle to where Nora and Julie stood. She waited through the names – a second one, a third one…. Emilia closed her eyes and gripped her fingers.

At the last second, Nora shouted, “EMILIA BANKOWSKI.”

She was the last one called.

Emilia almost cried out in joy. Rita smiled at her and waved her over.

Nora put down her clipboard and said, “Alright, girls. Welcome to the team. Practice is every Wednesday. We have a workout schedule for you that Julie here is handing out. We have--”

Coach Nora’s words went through one ear and out the other. Emilia was bubbling with excitement. It had been a long time since she felt this good about herself. She realized that she had completely let go of all her misgivings about her body when she was playing. When she played sports, she was one with the game and she embraced the full force of her body. She looked around at all the other girls on her team, all big and strong and fat. She blushed looking at all their legs and manly stances.

She looked down at the ground before anyone could notice her staring.

She was going to like it here.

#

Emilia was excited to tell Zack that she got into the rugby team. He didn’t answer his phone, so she left him a bubbling voicemail, telling him all about the drills they had her do and about Rita and about Melissa and coach Nora and the captain Julie. She spoke so much that the voicemail cut off, so she called again just to leave another voicemail.

Her friends on the group chat congratulated her. She wanted to tell them how she felt about Zack not responding to her, but she weighed whether or not she should. Eventually, it bothered her and she considered them her friends after all, so she expressed how she felt.

He’s gonna be a lawyer, Emilia. He’s probably very busy, Sonam said.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Kim said. Besides, you don’t want to be clingy.

“Clingy,” Emilia said to herself. “Right.”

All her ex-boyfriends broke up with her because of that word. It showed up a lot.

“Gotta be myself,” she said.

#

“I’m telling you,” Rita said during dinner, “I made the cut by just a hair’s breadth. They probably took pity on me. OR, they need some kind of quota. Like a designated bad player to shake things up a bit.”

She and Rita were ravenous, to the point where even Melissa stared at them as they dug into three plates’ worth of food.

Across the cafeteria, Julie walked towards them. Melissa noticed first since she was facing her direction. The two other girls turned around with their mouths full.

“Hey there,” Julie said. Emilia was still stricken by her looks. You would never guess that she played rugby. She was so much more feminine than anyone else on the team, wearing an expensive-looking blouse and designer jeans that made her ass look astounding. Emilia noticed all the boys turning around and grinning at her butt.

“You girls did really good today. Nice work. Looking forward to being on the team with you. I don’t think I really introduced myself. I’m Julie Bliss. I’m the senior captain. I just wanna let you know that tomorrow night is our first party. Come to McConoughey at 9 PM. I’ll go down and get ya.” She waved them off with a polite, dainty little wave. “See ya.” Then she strutted off.

Emilia and Rita looked at each other processing this.

“Holy shit,” Rita said, “a party? I’ve never been invited to a party before!”

“I’m surprised we’re already invited. We didn’t do anything yet,” Emilia said.

But Melissa grimaced. She said, “Yooo, you know what that means right?”

Emilia and Rita weren’t sure. They shrugged.

“Every sports team does some kind of crazy initiation,” Melissa said. When Emilia and Rita still looked at her blankly, Melissa practically shouted, “You mean you don’t know? They make freshmen do stupid shit all the time.”

“You mean like…” Rita was hesitant, afraid, “like hazing? Oh my God. Are we going to get hazed?”

“I don’t know! Maybe?”

Emilia wasn’t nervous for the same reasons that Rita was. She was nervous because she did in fact like to party and drink, but Zack made her feel guilty for it though. She was worried Zack would somehow find out about her getting drunk in college even if she didn’t post anything about it or tell anyone else about it.

The first time Emilia ever got drunk was at Kim’s graduation party. Kim’s liquor cabinet wasn’t a cabinet, it was a fucking walk-in closet. Her parents were able to control the temperature of the room so it would always be chilled. They had entire walls with shelves filled with wine and beer.

Emilia was the last of her friends to experience getting drunk. Kim, Michelle, Alessa, and Sonam had gotten drunk at their prom. Emilia really wanted to join in with them. She saw it as a sort of “ritual” that high school students did before going to college. She didn’t want to make a habit of course, but it was a very human desire to simply join in on what everyone else was doing. Zack pulled her away during prom and said, “We can have fun just being ourselves.” It was a nice sentiment, but Zack’s idea of fun was not hers.

So, when Kim invited just the girls over to her house for her graduation party, Emilia was really excited because she could finally experience getting drunk for the first time. She did not think that Corona tasted so strong and that having an entire case of 6 beers would do anything to her. She was dead wrong. She was so burpy she could hardly talk. Her vision swirled and she kept seeing things in three no matter how hard she squinted. It was scary at first, but Emilia found a strange enjoyment in not being able to function and belching out loud.

The morning after did a number on her stomach. Emilia quickly realized that beer, cheap beer at least, didn’t sit well with her. She annoyed Sonam with her explosive farts. The two of them shared a bed in the guest room. The second she woke up she had felt so full of gas that she could hardly sit up. Sonam was snoring asleep, so Emilia didn’t think she would wake up if she farted.

Dead-wrong. Emilia blew ass like at trumpet. Sonam woke up with a startle and cried out, “EWWWW! EMILIA! WHAT THE FUCK? GO TO THE BATHROOM FOR THAT!”

Even in the bathroom Emilia’s explosions could be heard through the closed door, just like that one time with Zack. Sonam cried out, “YOU FART LIKE A MAN! I CAN STILL HEAR YOU! YOU ARE SO GROSS!”

Of course, Sonam told Zack everything about how fucked up Emilia was that night. Sonam said how Emilia was the only person so drunk that she couldn’t stand up straight, that she slurred everything she said and found everything funny. Emilia actually remembered everything. She didn’t black out, but Sonam made it sound like she did. Zack couldn’t have been less enthusiastic about it. He called her up and sounded like a self-help seminar. He didn’t exactly scold her but told her how dangerous it was and how she could have fun without alcohol. After she explained everything from her point of view, how Sonam made it sound worse than it really was because it was her first time, he said:

“I didn’t think you like that kind of stuff.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what all the normies do.”

“Normies?”

“Yeah. The sheeple. You know.”

So he thought her friends were “normies”? What did that mean? Were they “less than” in his eyes? She didn’t want to argue though. She hated arguing and avoided it at all costs. She just had to please him, and she said, “I won’t do it often. I promise.”
 “You’re better than that anyway.”

Rita had been talking to Emilia without her realizing it.

“Emilia? What are we gonna do?”

Emilia sighed. “It’ll be okay. If it gets too crazy or weird, we just leave.”

Melissa shook her head. “I dunno, man. If you bail, you might get kicked out of the team.”
 Rita nearly shouted, “WHAT? Just because we won’t drink?”

“It works differently in other colleges. I have no idea if they’re assholes here or just silly. Some teams kick you out, others just don’t talk to you and give you the cold shoulder if you don’t participate in their initiation rituals.”

Emilia was as nervous as Rita, but before she could say anything, Rita put a hand on Emilia’s shoulder and said, “I think we’ll be alright. They all loved her out there. They wouldn’t want to lose this talent. Right?”

“Heh, yeah,” Emilia said, awkwardly laughing.

#

Many of the dorm halls were named after legendary figures in the school administration, or rich alumni who gave back to the school. McConoughey was the most recent addition to the campus, so it was stocked with high-tech TVs, lavish furniture, and spacious suites all throughout the dorm hall. It was meant for the upperclassmen to stay there. Freshmen often tried to get in or sneak in, only to be denied at the front door. A residence assistant always sat at the front desk of each dorm hall and checked the people who walked in. The badges that students got only worked for their respective dorms, so if a student seemed to sneak in, the RA would double-check that they really belonged there.

McConoughey was packed with students loitering outside the next night, being that it was a Friday night after all. Emilia and Rita waited nervously near the boisterous group of students. Emilia watched really drunk unruly guys shouting nonsense and putting their arms around their girlfriends, kissing them messily. She wished Zack were here with her. He would have liked the skirt she bought for that night. She knew she needed something new to wear for her first college party, but all her old clothes felt wrong for the occasion. Rita gladly took her shopping downtown and helped her choose something. The skirt was white with black stripes and also came with a matching cute black top. She loved looks that “appeared innocent” but were subtly sexy. Throughout high school, she wore a lot of PINK brand clothing, and jock-related clothes. She knew she had to step up her game and wear actual clothes eventually.

Even though Rita was way more fashionable than her, she was also a bit lazy and chose the same yellow dress she had on earlier. Even so, she of course made some eyes turn at her.

“I’m so fucking nervous I could shit my pants right now,” Rita said. She rubbed her hands. “It’s also getting colder. It usually isn’t this cold in September. What the fuck?”

“That’s New Jersey for you.”

Rita was from Virginia, so she had a lot to learn about the state.

Julie finally appeared. She moved through the crowd with her striking blond hair that she had let down. Once again, Emilia was breath taken by the way she looked. She wore a tight-fitting blue dress that accented her figure, and walked in high-heels. Emilia also took notice of her toned legs once again. They just truck out all the time. She had an intrusive thought of what it felt like to play-wrestle with them, and have Julie wrap her legs around her face and--

“Hey girls,” Julie said. “You ready?”

They nodded. Julie led them through the front entrance. The RA looked up from the book he was reading but Julie said casually, “They’re with me, Bill,” and he nodded.

They went up the elevator, and the silence inside was extremely awkward. Rita seemed fidgety and kept adjusting her stance. Emilia gave her a look but Rita ignored her.

Emilia kept eying Julie’s ass. It wasn’t as big as Melissa, but still prominent.

“By the way,” Julie suddenly said, cutting the silence, “if public safety ever comes in the building, Bill will let me know. He’s cool. So you’d have a lot of time to leave before they check the dorms.”
 Public safety was known to check dorms if there was reason to suspect underage drinking. It was like a SWAT team conducting raids. This seemed to put Rita on edge. Her eyes widened and she looked to Emilia for help, but Emilia just responded with wide eyes too.

Once they reached the fourth floor, Julie led them down a squeaky-clean white hallway to a corner dorm overlooking the campus. The music was so loud that they could feel the vibrations thumping from it. Lady Gaga was playing. The closer they got, the louder it felt, and it intimidated Emilia. It was like reaching the peak of a roller coaster and realizing just how big the drop was right before falling.

“Okay,” Julie said, “here is--”

“Uh excuse me,” Rita blurted, “sorry, um. I really need to go to the bathroom. Is there a common room here with a bathroom? Sorry. I really need to go like right now. I drank a lot of water. Haha. You know. Just wanted to pre-hydrate. Not that—I mean—hah.”

Julie didn’t seem fazed at all by Rita’s nervousness. She said, “Yeah sure. Go down the way we came, past the common area, and there’s a bathroom.”
 “Okay. Thanks! And Emilia you need to go too, right?”

“Uhhhhhh.”

Rita glared at her, trying to tell her something. She said, “You said you needed to go to, right? Yeah?”

Emilia picked up on it. “Yeah. I do. Be right back!”

Julie smiled. “Just knock on the door when you get back.”

Once Julie left, Rita pulled Emilia’s arm and went around the corner of the hallway. She looked like she was hyperventilating.

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod,” Rita kept saying. She couldn’t focus on Emilia and kept touching her face and patting her chest.

“Hey, hey, “Emilia said, “it’s okay.”
 “Remember when I said I was so nervous that I could shit? I think I need to shit.”

“Then go to the bathroom!” Emilia tried hard not to laugh.

“But maybe it’s just a fart.”

“Never trust a fart!”

Just then, a loud and long PRRRRRrrrrrrrRRRRRRRtttTTTT! sounded.

Rita finally stopped freaking out. She put a hand on the wall and sighed. “Okay. Oh my God. That felt so much better. Whew. I’m so sorry. Wait. I’m not done yet. I spoke too soon.”

Rita gripped her stomach and farted again. The elevator dinged and two guys stepped out in the middle of her farting. Rita turned around and yelled, “Oh my God! I’m so sorry! So sorry!”

Emilia smacked her forehead and hid her face.

The two guys didn’t say anything, but passed by giving them a couple of weird looks before turning the corner.

Emilia was wrought with laughter and embarrassment.

“They hate us now,” Rita said. “What if they’re going to the rugby suite? I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s our first college party. I’m nervous too!”

“You are? I thought you said you went to these before.”
 “No! I didn’t! I went to Aparty. Like one. Before college.”

“Well, I never went to ANY parties. I never went to prom. I never went out with a guy. I don’t know any of this shit. What if we fucking die? You know how many kids die from hazing each year? I looked it up. It’s--”

“Rita, Rita.” Emilia placed both hands on her shoulders. “We’ll be okay. Look at me. We can do this together. Let’s watch each other’s drinks. I even brought a marker to write our names on our drinks. See? I know they use solo cups all the time.”

“Oh, oh. Okay. Nice. That’s a good idea.”
 “Yeah. We might get drunk, okay? But we’ll be okay. Melissa has our back too. We can always call her.”

Rita nodded. “Yeah.”

“We’ll be okay.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Got it.”

Emilia nodded. “Then let’s do this.”

They held each other’s hand instinctively as they walked back down the hallway towards suite 405 – the rugby suite. Rita shook her hand off as Emilia knocked. Julie opened it, and they stepped into their first college party.