"No, not at first. I didn't even think about the sex side of it at first. I just wanted to touch those other girls. Touch their skin. Run my hands over their breasts and feel their nipples. Put my fingers between their legs and feel if their hair down there was as soft as mine. Not to start anything sexual, but just to feel them. It's hard to explain, but do you know what I mean?"
"I – think so…"
"It was just wanting to make contact with them, I guess. To just touch them and say, 'Feel me, too. We're both beautiful, so why don't we enjoy each other's body?'. Like that."
June couldn't help smiling. The girl's declaration of her own beauty had come so naturally, so innocently as a simple statement of fact, that she couldn't be faulted in the least for vanity. It was the truth. She was beautiful. Almost breathtakingly so, June thought; especially with the sunlight streaming through the window behind her like that and sending off sparks of brightness from the blonde of her curly hair. The light formed a sort of halo around her head, making her face seem even more angelic.
"Why are you smiling at me?" she asked. "Am I making a fool of myself?"
"No, of course not," June insisted. "I was just thinking how easily you said you're beautiful and how nice it was that you didn't sound like you were in love with yourself when you said it. It's true, of course, but a lot of beautiful girls spoil their looks by their vanity."
"Do you really think I'm beautiful, June?" she murmured.
"Yes, I do."
"I think you're beautiful, too. You're the most beautiful girl in the whole camp."
Even as the words were coming from Mimsy's lips, June could see the danger lights starting to flash bright red in her mind. It seemed her suspicions of a few minutes ago were coming true. The girl was going to force her into a situation where she had to make a choice. And yet, even knowing this, she couldn't bring herself to end the conversation at that point and divert the matter entirely. She was flattered that the girl found her as attractive as she found Mimsy herself. Flattered and, she had to admit, sexually excited at the thought that she could have the girl in bed if she wanted her.
"When I was in school," Mimsy continued, "there was an older girl in the senior class who looked so much like you. I always thought she was so beautiful. She was the one I wanted most to touch, but I never had the nerve to even speak to her. I used to watch her when we had gym class together and when she undressed I used to get such strong feelings inside my stomach that it almost made me throw up. I realized after a while that it was because I-I wanted her. I mean, I wanted to do to her what Roxanne did to me the other night. I wanted to make love to her with my mouth."
"But you never did?"
"No! Of course not!" Mimsy laughed. "I wouldn't have dared even suggest it! I was so naive that I thought I'd invented such a thing all by myself! I thought that nobody else in the world had ever thought of such a thing but me! A while later, after that girl had graduated and it was too late to do anything, I found out that there were lots of women who did just what I dreamed of doing. I even found out there were some lesbians right in school. Not just the kids, I mean, but even two of the teachers."
"Did you ever do anything with any of those girls – or the teachers?" June asked.
"Lord, no!" she exclaimed. "But it wasn't because I was afraid or didn't know what I wanted to do. A couple of them even asked me straight out if I wanted to have some fun with them. There was a little club of girls who used to get together for what they called 'slumber parties', but they were really sex orgies. All five or six of them would get into one bed and do everything to each other all at the same time."
Once again, June felt tingles of sexual excitement run through her as the vision took shape in her mind of a bed full of pretty, young, teenaged girls all using their mouths on each other. She could almost hear the groans and sighs and creaking of springs and smacking of lips on breasts and tongues between parted thighs. She puffed restlessly on her cigarette as she felt her own sexual hungers growing uncontrollably within herself. It was all she could do now to keep from reaching out and putting her hands on Mimsy's body. Touching her all over, in the way the girl herself had just explained she wanted to do with those others. June understood all too well what Mimsy was saying, for she shared exactly the same emotions even at that moment.
"You never went to any of those 'slumber parties' did you?"
"No!" Mimsy giggled. "I heard plenty about them from the girls who did, though. I guess they were trying to get me excited by telling me all the details of what they did, so the next time they had one I'd join them. But I never did. They didn't turn me on. They were like Roxanne; not my type. I don't think I'd have minded half so much what happened the other night, June," she murmured, "if it had been you instead of Roxanne."
June gulped hard and turned her head away, "Mimsy, what a thing to say."
"It's true, though. I wouldn't have minded at all. I think it would have been – wonderful."
"Stop. Please," June whispered.
"Why?" the girl asked softly. "Is it wrong for me to tell you how much I feel for you?"
She took a deep breath first, then shook her head slowly from side to side. "No, it's not wrong."
"Then why don't you want me to say anything more?"
"Because if you do," June whispered, "I won't be able to control myself any longer. I'm having a hard enough time of it right now."
"Oh, June!" the girl exclaimed. "Do you mean you feel the same way? About me?" Her eyes eagerly searched June's face for an answer and found it in the two tiny tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. "Oh, it's wonderful! June! I can't believe it's true!"
Before she knew what was happening, June found herself holding the girl in her arms, with Mimsy's embrace squeezing her so tightly it made her gasp for breath. She held herself back as long as she could, then gave in to the needs that were tearing her insides apart.
"Darling! Oh, my precious darling!" she cried, clinging as tightly to the girl as she was being held in return. "My angel! My wonderful, beautiful, blonde angel!"
"If I'm that to you, then you're the same thing to me," Mimsy insisted. Her hands moved slowly up and down June's blouse, feeling the warmth and slight dampness of her flesh through the thin cloth. "I love touching you like this," she purred. "It feels so wonderful just holding you and having you hold me back. I've never felt so close to anyone in all my life."
In the depths of herself, in that part of her where judgment and better sense lay, June knew she was getting into water over her head. It was turning out to be more serious than she'd feared, but she could not stop herself now. There was no turning back. Not with that beautiful young creature already in her arms, begging to be loved.
"Kiss me," she whispered. "Please, Mimsy? Kiss me before I burst out crying."
Instantly the girl's lips were pressing flush to hers. The softness of them was almost painful to June as she rubbed her mouth against Mimsy's and coaxed those pretty pink lips to part for her tongue. When they came slowly open and her tongue rushed inside, she was startled by the passionate fury of the girl's own tongue as it answered and returned the kiss.
"Love you… love you… love you," Mimsy sobbed over and over again, her words thick and almost incomprehensible through the emotion choking her throat. Her hand moved slowly around June's body and dropped lightly onto her lap. For a second it seemed they dared not move any further or grow any bolder until a signal was given that it would be all right. Knowing exactly what she was doing – and why – June gave her that signal by dropping her own hand into Mimsy's lap and cupping her fingers flush with the warm seat of her shorts.
"Oh, yes! Yes, June!" the girl sighed happily. "Touch me there! I want you to! And I want to touch you there, too, but not with your clothes on. I want us to be naked together on your bed. I… I… June…?"