"Alright, you know the drill. Hands behind your back please." Rolling her eyes, Callie Torres looked at the man in the cop hat before obliging. It's not like she wanted to refuse the man.
If she refused, Callie surely would hear about it later. It just wasn't something she necessarily wanted to deal with on her first Friday night of the school year out with sorority sisters. Add onto the fact that it was her senior year, and — yeah, no — she didn't want to face the firing squad.
"Callie freaking Torres!" A voice yelled from across the room, barely audible above the pulsing music. That body of whom the voice belonged sauntered over, a playful smile stretching over his face. "I like a girl handcuffed. Makes things interesting."
Callie groaned. "Mark, you're a perv. And, sir, please don't cuff me to him." But as much as she wanted to say that with complete malice, the dark haired woman displayed a small smile of her own before reaching over and giving her best friend a big hug.
"So, am I going to cuff you or not...?" The cop asked. Callie chuckled and held out her left hand, nudging Mark to produce his right. Within seconds, the cop ziptied the two friends' hands together. "Now, you know the only way to get released is by each of you finishing your 40 ounce. Got it?"
Saluting the cop, Callie reached over and grabbed two of the monstrous 40 ounce beers, gingerly handing one to Mark before lifting hers up in the air. "Cheers to the last handcuff mixer of our college careers. May we never remember tonight."
With that, the two pals clinked their drinks and took a long swig. The handcuff mixer was always Callie's sorority's first of the year. They paired up with the Sig Ep brothers, and the social chairs matched up most of the new members together. It was fun, except when you had to pee and then somehow had to maneuver pulling down your pants and peeing while being cuffed together with a person of the opposite sex.
Or — in Callie's case — it was all fun and games until Mark wanted to flirt and dance with every hot new member of her sorority. While she wanted to be mad, she really couldn't. It was Mark, her best friend, and this is standard Mark Sloan behavior. While he flirted, Callie focused on chugging her beer. The sooner she finished, the sooner she was free of the zip tie and could go back to her off-campus house.
"Now, ladies, see I might be handcuffed with this loser," Mark pointed his thumb in Callie's direction, prompting Callie to smack him with the side of her hand that held the beer. "But, I promise, when I'm free from her, I will gladly handcuff myself to both you."
"Alexa, Natalie, do not listen to this manwhore," Callie chuckled. "Now, cheers bitches." Everyone shoved their drinks in the air and proceeded to finish off the rest of their Colt 45s. As they placed their empty bottles on the counter, the "cop" for the evening grabbed his pair of scissors and cut them free.
"Freedom!" They all screamed. Callie loved the innocence of the new members, all mostly freshmen who were experiencing their first ever social, a social with — gasp — college boys. But thinking about all the sweaty, horny frat boys in the room made Callie wanted to fake vomit.
And that's because Callie Torres, well, she was pretty gay. But pretty gay and still in the closet. Only one of her sorority sisters knew she was a lesbian, and that was Jordan. A couple of her teammates from her lacrosse team knew, but she kept things under wrap for the most part. It wasn't that she was ashamed per se. It's just that she was still coming to terms with it. Callie knew that she knew deep down since high school that she was gay. But she still pursued things with guys for her first three years of college.
It wasn't until she joined her university's lacrosse team that she came to terms with why she never felt anything with men. It wasn't bad but she just never felt particularly aroused or excited by the male specimen.
And so, here she was, not even half a year after admitting to herself that she was gay, wanting to fake throw up at the thought of all these Sig Ep men trying to get her to dance all up on them. By principle, the only guy she would dance with would be Mark.
"Someone's deep in thought," a voice whispered in her ear. "It looks like you're pained to see these guys checking you out."
A hand shot out, with it an introduction. "I'm Anna. I just joined." The redhead gave her a big smile. "And, well, I know this might be personal, but are you gay?"
Callie's eyes widened because what? How did she know? Looking down at herself, Callie mused that she didn't exactly scream lesbian. She figured most people wouldn't ever really guess that about her. Not that lesbians had to look a certain way. And — dammit Callie, stop being distracted and talk to the girl.
Way to be suspicious, Calliope, the Latina mentally scolded herself.
"Umm..." Callie started to say, fumbling over her words and feeling a blush creep up.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. You're obviously not, and that was really personal. But I just, well, I'm gay. I thought how cool would it be to have another sister be gay, too. There's not many of us," Anna chuckled nervously. "Not us — as in me and you — but us as in..."
Callie stopped Anna's ramblings, "I am. Gay, that is. But only one other girl in the sorority knows so if you could just keep that to yourself, that'd be really great."
Really, Callie had no idea what prompted her to tell this virtual stranger, albeit now one of her sorority sisters, this huge secret about her. Callie bit her lip and concluded that the reason was two-fold. One, she wasn't the best of liars and it didn't hurt to confide in someone who also was like her. And, two, she drank way too much alcohol too fast. A deadly combination, she said to her inner self.
"Oh," Anna said, her eyes roaming up and down, taking in the brunette appraisingly. "Yeah, I mean, of course I won't say anything. That's really private and I guess...well, thank you? For trusting me. That stuff is really hard."
Callie nodded before pointing back in Mark's direction. "I'm going to go back and dance. Um, so, yeah." Silently cursing herself, she fumbled with her phone before giving Anna a quick wave and joining the throng of people on the small dance floor — if you could call the living room floor that.
"Torres, she's hot," Mark said, his eyes wide with hunger for the redhead. Callie was about to open her mouth and tell her best friend that he had no shot because the new member did not bat for his team. But she thought better of it because it would be amusing to watch him try to seduce Anna.
"And single apparently," Callie lied — well, she didn't technically lie because she had no idea if Anna was single or not. She just wanted to watch Mark fail.
"You don't say," Mark raised his eyebrows. "I'll be back." After watching Mark walk away, Callie sighed and called it a night. Grabbing her coat and thanking her sorority's social chair, she started the trek back to her house.
It was a perfect late summer night — just warm enough to not need a jacket. There was a slight breeze and Callie let it wash over her while she was in deep thought.
Great. Now someone else knows and I'm not ready for the world to know that I strongly prefer women to men. What if Anna tells another new member? And then that new member tells someone else?
Oh god, what did I do?!
Pulling out her phone as she panicked, Callie opened up her Facebook app. Without really thinking about it, she searched "Anna" and up popped an Anna Davis that had 27 mutual friends. She clicked on the profile and recognized the redhead from tonight right away from the profile picture. The girl was in her sorority, so she wasn't sure why exactly she had butterflies in her stomach as she hit the friend request button.
Then, again, without thinking about it, Callie pulled up Facebook messenger and began to craft a message to Anna. It was just to make sure she wouldn't spill the beans. At least, that's what Callie told herself. It wasn't because, as Mark so delicately put it, she was hot. Nope, not all. And definitely not because she was hot and gay.
Because Callie couldn't be crushing on a freshman. No less a freshman and new member in her sorority. God, that was like incest or something. But, as Callie put the finishing touches on her message, she couldn't help but smile.
Hey... the message began.
I just wanted to make sure that you kinda keep what I told you between us. It's just, it's all new to me and I'm not sure I want the whole world to know yet. Thanks!
She hit send. Satisfied and not freaking out as much, Callie felt a weight lifted off her shoulder as she opened the back door to her house. She shared it with six other girls. But only two of them — Callie and her roommate Cristina — lived downstairs. Entering her room, void of her roomie who was out drinking, she plopped down onto her bed, turned on the TV and pulled up Netflix.
As she watched, her phone went off and her heart fluttered a tiny bit when she saw a message from Anna.
Homie, I am so sorry for calling you out like that. It was pretty rude of me, and, so of course, I won't say anything. I know what it's like. So if you ever needed someone to talk, I'm here.
And just like that, something shifted in Callie.
A Year and a Half Later...
"That is a gay jacket, Cal," Maddie told her. "Like, come on." Looking down at her tan jacket, Callie sighed once more.
"It is not! The only reason you are saying that is because I'm gay and I'm wearing it!" Callie retorted, standing her ground. It was a cute jacket. And if anyone else wore it who wasn't gay, everyone would have a different opinion.
Anna saddled up next to her. "Uh, babe, it makes you look extra gay. Hate to break it to you."
Dramatically, Callie left the dorm room and stormed back to Anna's room. After graduating last May, she thought it'd be weird to be back in the sorority house. She felt like an imposter or one of "those" alum who never left. But everyone knew now that she was dating Anna, so they didn't care as much. It just made sense.
They'd been dating for about 15 months officially. It'd been a transformative time in her life. She came out to her sorority sisters and her friends from home. She even mustered up the courage to tell her mom and sister. Her father, well...that's a different story.
Once she arrived back in Anna's room, she picked a different jacket, checking herself out in the mirror. They were all going out tonight, something Callie didn't particularly enjoy but enjoyed doing it with Anna. It would be fun, she mused. Just have fun.
Because she knew her girlfriend and sorority sisters were having fun. She could her the music and laughter coming from Maddie's room down the hall. Shaking her head because college, Callie reentered the room to the group of girls playing Kings. "I'm in," Callie spoke loudly, sitting down right next to Anna before picking up a card that revealed a number 8.
"8-date," squealed Natalie. "Who do you pick?" For a second, Callie contemplated Anna, but she wasn't sure she wanted to aid the redhead into drinking more because that meant that, one, Anna would be too drunk for sex later and, two, Callie would have to take care of her drunk self.
"Hmmm," Callie thought. "I'm going to go with Maddie." The basically black haired sophomore shook her head and gave her a mean mug.
"This is because I called your jacket gay, isn't it?" Maddie remarked, bringing her cup to her mouth. Callie just smirked in response before following suit with her own drink.
After a few more rounds, the crew grew restless and began to meander around the room. Callie had finished her drink and went to pour another at the same time that Maddie, who was visibly drunker than at the start of the game, went to pour a shot of tequila.
"Easy there, tiger," Callie told her friend. "This is the pre-game, remember?"
"Hey, have I ever told you that my older sister is your age and also gay?" Maddie said as she took her shot, grimacing through the after taste. Callie, surprised, shook her head no. "Yeah, her name is Arizona — don't ask — and she's my half-sister. But we grew up together so it's not really like I think of her that way. We just have different dads. None of them stayed in the picture." Pausing, Maddie raised her eyebrows excitedly. "I have a feeling you two would be good friends! She doesn't have many gay friends and she's moving back to this area after graduation." Maddie paused. "Here, let me give you her number!"
And with that, Maddie snatched Callie's phone and inputtedher sister's cell. "All done!"
Right at the same time, Anna and the rest of the girls started to put on their jackets and announced that it was time to leave. Callie did the same, leaving her drink in the room before they escaped into the cold night.
Hi everyone! Let me know what you think. I haven't put pen to paper — metaphorically — in a while.
Just a heads up. It'll be a slow start for our favorite couple but I promise that it's going to happen in due time. Stick with me!
- BuffRadio