63 comments/ 180963 views/ 147 favorites My Hot Pretend Girlfriend By: SevenSquared Reader Warning! - This is quite a long story and it is a while before there is any sex. If you enjoy reading a few pages of plot and character development before the 'action' starts, then this story might be for you. If, on the other hand, you prefer more instant gratification, then I won't be offended if you click 'Back' and find another story that has a faster pace. _______ It was a beautiful June day and I was really glad that I had made the trip back from college for the weekend. My uncle had invited the whole family over for a barbecue and drinks around his pool and we couldn't have been luckier with the weather. I lay there in my sunglasses and trunks, sipping on a slushy while I watched my younger brother and some of my cousins messing around in the pool. Every now and then one of them would bomb into the water and I would get slightly splashed, I would pretend to be annoyed and they would laugh. It was a really relaxing afternoon, spending time with the family. As fun as it was watching them play around and tease each other, and as much as I was enjoying the sun and drinks, there was something else I was here to do. Something important enough to me that it was worth making the five hour drive back to my home town for just two days. It was all to do with my oldest cousin, Holly. I watched her in the pool, sometimes joining in the general play with the younger ones, while other times going off to swim lengths on her own. She was on the swim team at college, which was hardly surprising given how effortlessly her athletic body cut through the water. I watched her swim over towards the side of the pool, right where my lounger was stationed. "Are you not coming in Steven?" she asked, smiling. "No way, I'm enjoying the sun too much!" I replied "Okay, well I'm going to grab a drink, maybe I'll drag you in later," she said playfully. Holly put her hands on the side of the pool to pull herself out and I realized that this was my chance. I grabbed my phone and quickly opened the camera. As Holly lifted herself out of the water I managed to zoom in and get her in focus, making sure that the picture encompassed everything. I wanted it to show her pretty face, her long, dark, wet hair and also her small blue bikini top showing off her lovely tits. It was tricky to get it all in one shot with so little time, but I just about managed it. Then I received an unexpected bonus. Just as I took the photo, she looked up and smiled at me again -- a beautiful, natural smile. Perfect, this would be the best one so far! "What are you doing on your phone?" Holly asked inquisitively, as she picked up a towel and started drying herself off. "Nothing much, just sending a text to one of my buddies," I replied, trying to act as cool as possible, while surreptitiously putting my phone back on the table next to me. "Oh okay," she said, looking a little confused. "I was sure I heard the camera go off that's all, I figured you must have taken a picture." "No, although if you had fallen back in it would have been tempting," I said, hoping the fairly lame joke would side-track the conversation. Holly didn't respond. She stood there for a couple of seconds, drying herself, looking at me with a kind of half-smile then, before I could react, she darted forward and grabbed my phone from the table. "I don't believe you, let's see what you've been photographing!" she said, nimbly skipping away from the sun lounger to avoid my desperate grasp. I jumped up and tried to grab my phone from her, but Holly had already anticipated that move and had put some distance between the two of us while she tried to view my pictures. Shit, why hadn't I kept hold of the phone, or better yet locked it? I sincerely hoped that she wouldn't be able to work out how to open my photo gallery. If she had trouble, I could offer to 'help' and maybe do some speedy deleting. But as I approached, I saw her face turn from a playful smile to a sort of puzzled frown and I knew she had found the photo. I tried not to panic. It's okay, I could still lie my way out of this, it was just a picture of her getting out of the pool. Family take pictures of each other all the time right? "That's a good picture," she said, giving it a critical view. This phone must have a neat camera on it. "Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It's a Samsung Galaxy S, it has a five megapixel camera. Pass it over, I'll show you what else it can do." As well as trying to change the subject, I desperately wanted the camera back. I didn't want her to see what else was on there. "So why did you lie about it?" said Holly, sounding suspicious and serious all of a sudden. She had a point, I should have just showed her the picture when she asked, rather than make out I was sending an SMS, but it's easy to be clever with hindsight. "I was just trying to get pictures of all the family, so I could make some kind of online album or something and share it with everyone." It was a weak and stupid lie. I had never shown any interest in photography before, and I had never made much effort in doing things like that for the family. Nor did it explain why I had to conceal what I was doing. I could tell from the look on Holly's face that she saw through the lie immediately. "Okay, in that case let's have a look at the other family photos you have been taking," she said, pressing more buttons on the phone. I made another snatch at the phone, but once again Holly was too quick for me and stepped away. There were other pictures on the phone, but I definitely didn't want her to see them. Slowly her face turned an ashen shade and any remnants of humour left in her expression disappeared. She looked up at me, her big brown eyes betraying a mix of hurt and anger. "Every single picture is of me Steven," she said, simply. She wasn't shouting, in fact her voice was barely above a whisper. "Look, I can explain..." I started, desperately hoping that I could. "Here's me in the pool, and here's me sunbathing, and here's me holding a drink, and here's me indoors on the sofa," she said, flicking through the photos. "I wondered why you always seemed to be messing with your phone." "Okay, let's not make a scene, if you just let me explain..." "Explain what?" she scythed back. She didn't raise her voice much, thankfully it seemed she didn't want to create a scene either, but her words contained venom. "Explain that you've been secretly taking photos of me? Explain how you're going to jerk off looking at them in your room later? We're cousins for fuck sake!" "No, it's not like that! Listen, I..." "You're a sad, pathetic, perverted piece of shit Steven!" She threw my phone onto the grass and stormed off in the direction of the house. I paused for a while, not knowing whether I should go after her or not. I looked over to the pool and nobody else seemed to have noticed our altercation. That was something at least! Eventually I decided that I had to try and talk to her. If she told her parents or, worse, my parents about this it would be an absolute disaster! And it's not like I could really make things any worse. But what could I tell her? I was fresh out of lies, nothing I could think of sounded even remotely convincing. Maybe I would try telling the truth. _______ So what was the truth? By now you are probably thinking exactly the same as Holly; that I am some pathetic loser with an incestuous infatuation with my cousin, trying to get some good jerk-off material. I'll admit that some bits of that are partly true. I guess you could call me a bit of a loser and I do acknowledge that Holly is smoking hot. I will even admit that several years ago, during those difficult puberty years, I did knock one out while thinking about her a couple of times. But that was in the past and the photos weren't for jerking off to. I had something much different in mind. Not something I was particularly proud of, but not nearly as bad as she thought. I guess to explain properly I have to take you back several years. At school I was a stereotypical geek. I was skinny and spotty and bad at sports and into a bunch of things that were definitely not considered cool, like roleplaying games, science-fiction and math. I had a few friends, but they were mostly other geeks, and we were not-so-affectionately dubbed 'the loser gang' by some of the cooler kids. I won't exaggerate and say that my school days were horrible, I'm sure a lot of kids had it much worse than me, but suffice to say I wasn't exactly Mr Popular. I studied, got good grades and got a place at a decent college, but what some people call 'the best years of their life' were rather forgettable for me. I certainly had no luck with girls. This was partly because they weren't really interested in a geek like me, but also partly because I didn't make much effort with them either. Don't get me wrong, I was a red-blooded teenage boy and had 'urges'. But the girls at my school seemed a bit unattainable to me. I couldn't even have a decent conversation with most of them, let alone figure out how to 'take things further', so I made do with internet porn and jerking off and tried my best to convince myself that I was happy with that. I didn't have a date for my senior prom and went with a couple of my geeky friends who also didn't have dates. It was a fitting end to my high-school days. When the time came to go to college I was really looking forward to making a completely fresh start. I decided I was going to stop being a geek, reinvent myself and try to join the mainstream. Over the summer I got myself a proper haircut, spent a large amount of savings on some new clothes and ditched all of my geeky hobbies. I even watched enough sport that I could at least bluff my way through a conversation on football or baseball. And the amazing thing is that it worked! Well, sort of anyway. I didn't magically become cool overnight of course, but I was broadly accepted by my peers at college and wasn't considered a geek. I made some 'normal' friends, who did the things that most ordinary students do at college, like get drunk, party, go to gigs, join societies and try to get away with doing as little academic work as possible. Another thing we did a lot was try to get laid, which was definitely new territory. Women were like a completely alien species to me and I didn't really know how to talk to them, so my early efforts to get some tail had predictable results. I didn't have the confidence or the chat up lines to just ask for a date (or more), so instead I tried making friends with several girls with the hope of eventually taking it further. Unfortunately most guys reading will know where that leads - I always ended up as their friend while they went out and banged some other guy. It seemed that the only times I actually came close to achieving my goal was when I was very drunk and imbued with the false confidence that brings. Unfortunately, being drunk I was never in any position to say or do the right thing and always managed to mess things up. The end result was that I was now coming towards the end of my freshman year at college and my virginity was still in the wrapper it came in. My only action all year had been a couple of drunken kisses with girls at parties, which hadn't lead anywhere. This was bad enough in itself, but the worst part is that over time it became more and more obvious to everyone that I never got lucky. It became a running joke on the dorm and, in a world where men are measured largely by their virility, I found myself drifting towards the bottom of the social hierarchy once more. Of course, I didn't admit to anyone that I was a virgin (you never do that at college) but it was suggested countless times that I was, or even that I was gay, and I earned the unfortunate nickname of 'Shrinkwrap' (as in, the shrink wrap was still on my dick). With hindsight it wasn't that bad, most of the teasing came from just a handful of spiteful guys. But after trying so hard and having a taste of being popular, it was difficult to see it all slipping away for what seemed like such a stupid reason. I felt that if I could only score with a couple of girls, or even just one, my 'reputation' would grow and I would become more popular again. All this was weighing on my mind going into spring break. When I came back to college for the summer trimester I did something that, with hindsight, was pretty silly. I pretended I had hooked up with a girl during the spring break and we were now dating. The thinking behind this was twofold. First, I would get some kudos for getting laid. Second, I would have the perfect excuse if I didn't manage to score with any other girls, because after all I wasn't really trying, I already had a girlfriend. And if I did get the opportunity to get some real sex then I could always 'cheat on my girlfriend' or fake a break-up or something. It would be a very nice problem to have. The flaw with this plan, which even I should have learned in high school, was that stories of 'vacation hookups' are always treated with a healthy dose of scepticism, especially when the person telling the story has never shown any ability to pick up girls. When I mentioned I had a girlfriend, some people were immediately suspicious. They started asking probing questions about her and wanted to see pictures. Of course, my shifty and evasive answers to even the simplest questions raised suspicions even more. Rather than ditch the plan, I tried to salvage the situation by making up a few bits of information. She was a sophomore at another college, we met at a bar in my hometown, she was a brunette, she was into sports. I also tried to find some pictures on the internet that I could show off, but I couldn't really find anything suitable. After all, to pull this off I really needed several pictures of the same girl, fitting the above description, in natural-looking surroundings, that nobody would accidently stumble upon while surfing the net. This turned out to be extremely difficult, but it seemed that not having any pictures was really straining the credibility of my story. After all, everyone has some pictures of their girlfriend somewhere right? Then, completely out of the blue, I got a call from Uncle Frank inviting me to his pool party. I was going to politely turn down the invitation, after all it was a long trip, but then a thought struck me. Holly went to a college close to home, so she would probably be at the party. She was a brunette and she looked quite sporty. She was actually a senior at college, but she didn't look that old for her age and could probably pass as a sophomore. And what's more, even though she was my cousin, I had to admit that she was extremely hot, which would really impress the guys at college. It was perfect really, all I had to do was tell my friends that I was going home for the weekend to see my girlfriend, then go to the party, subtly take some suitable photos of Holly, then come back and show off the results. Easy game! _______ And that is the unfortunate series of events that led me to the giant clusterfuck in which I now resided. I was starting to realize that what I had done was stupid, but it wasn't nearly as bad as Holly thought. I eventually found her sitting in the summerhouse on her own. She had put on a sarong and was sitting there on a sofa, just staring at the wall, her face like thunder. She wasn't at all pleased to see me; in fact she jumped up and shouted at me to get out. After a lot of pleading and grovelling, I managed to persuade her to listen to my story, but I knew I was on a short leash. I sat down and told her everything, right from the beginning. All my life I had looked up to Holly as my cool older cousin. When we were kids growing up she used to look after me, I used to tell her all my problems, and she would give me advice. But, as often happens with cousins, we saw less of each other as we got older. By the time I started college we only saw each other three or four times a year and we weren't nearly as close any more. In fact, until now, we hadn't really had a deep and meaningful conversation as adults before. I laid myself bare and told her everything about school and also how I had tried to change at college in order to fit in. I was torn whether or not I should tell her about still being a virgin, but in the end I decided to lay everything out there and tell her that too, even though it was very embarrassing. Then finally I told her about inventing a girlfriend and why I was taking the pictures. Holly didn't say much while I told the story, she just listened intently. To begin with her stare was stone-cold and confrontational, but as I recounted more and more her expression visibly softened. When I told her that I was hoping to score lots of points with my peers because she was hot, she even smiled momentarily. I could tell she believed my story and I hoped she would understand. "You're an idiot Steven," she eventually said. "But I do believe you. You're a terrible liar and there's no way you could have made all that stuff up." "I promise you, I swear that it's all true," I said. "And for what it's worth I'm really sorry, I had no right to try and use pictures of you like that without asking. Look, I'm going to delete all the pictures now, and you can watch me do it just to make sure. And I promise I won't take any more, in fact you can look after my phone until I go home if you like." I got up from my seat and sat down next to Holly on the sofa. I showed her my phone as I navigated to the photo gallery and went to delete all the photos I had taken of her that day. "Steven, wait." she said. She paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Look, I know what it's like you know. I remember when I went to college worrying that I wasn't going to fit in. And I know that college guys can be really superficial and shallow." I didn't reply, I just grimaced and nodded and waited for her to continue. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if this is important to you - the guys at college thinking that you've got some 'hot girlfriend' back home that is - then it's okay with me if you want to use the photos." "Really?" I said, quite surprised. "Yes really, if it's important to you that is. All I ask is that you delete this one," she said, pointing to a photo where she was sunbathing and her nipples were clearly visible through the fabric of her bikini. "I think that one is showing a bit more than I'm comfortable with." "That's awesome Holly," I said, deleting the offending photo. "And again, I'm really sorry about what happened. Are we cool?" I said, extending a hand. "We're cool," she said shaking my hand. "Besides, it will be fun thinking about all those young college boys looking at bikini shots of me!" She laughed as she said it and I laughed along too. I was so relieved things had turned out okay and it was extra lucky that I was able to keep the photos and even had Holly's blessing to use them. Holly was really cool, it was a shame we didn't see as much of each other since we got older. I bet she could have taught me tons about girls, and maybe I would never have become a geek in the first place. I wondered briefly about asking for further help, but I had just pulled myself back from the brink of calamity and I didn't want to push my luck at this point. "I'll see you back at the pool," I said. She smiled and waved in return, but stayed in the summerhouse as I walked back down the garden to re-join my family. I really needed a cool drink after that heated confrontation! _______ Initially things went really well on my return to college. I showed my friends the pictures of Holly and their eyes nearly popped out of their head when they saw how amazing my 'girlfriend' looked. One picture especially, the one of her getting out of the pool, drew particular admiration and a couple of guys begged me to give them a copy. I played it cool, saying that I didn't think Holly would like that (I finally decided to give my girlfriend a name). However, I made a point of making that photo the background screen on my phone, which I would 'accidently' show people whenever possible. Life was pretty good for... maybe a week or two. My Hot Pretend Girlfriend Unfortunately, the same bullies as before started to pick more and more holes in my story. Why did she never seem to call or even text me? Why do all the photos I have of her seem to be taken on the same day? Why were there no photos of us together? And the big burning question that was on everybody's lips, even those that were too nice to say it, how on earth did I manage to land a girl so clearly out of my league? I also didn't help matters by making a major gaff. When talking about the pool photo, I accidently let slip that it was my uncle's pool she was getting out of. This was immediately jumped upon by the interrogating hordes. What was my girlfriend doing in my uncle's pool? Had I already introduced her to my family after we had only been dating a few weeks? This all just added up as way too suspicious for a bunch of people who were probably looking for the opportunity to discredit my story anyway, so they could go back to calling me Shrinkwrap. After all, someone in the dorm was going to be the butt of jokes. If it wasn't me anymore it would be someone else, and I think several people secretly worried it would be them. Eventually someone suggested that I probably just downloaded the pictures off the internet or something and, as I couldn't provide any evidence to the contrary, this was widely accepted as the truth. I was back to square one. No, actually it was worse than that. Before I was just a guy who never got laid, now I was a guy who never got laid and went to great lengths to invent himself a girlfriend, which was significantly more humiliating. Even the people I thought of as friends, who never really cared that I never got laid, started to join in on the jokes at that point. I didn't want to admit that my girlfriend was fictional, but whenever I mentioned her I was met with a chorus of disbelief and ridicule, so instead I decided to just stop talking about her and hope that, over time, people would forget about the whole thing. It was about that time that I received a surprise message from Holly on Facebook. My Hot Pretend Girlfriend I put some music on and started to get dressed myself. I put on my crisp wing-collared shirt and black pants. Through a bit of trial and error I even managed to work out how the cummerbund worked, but the bowtie defeated me. Why on earth didn't I get one of the ready tied ones? I was about to give in and find one of the guys in the dorm to help me when Holly got back from the shower. I admired her for having the confidence to walk back through a dorm full of complete strangers wrapped in only a towel. If any of the guys had run into her they would have got a real visual treat "Are you having a bit of trouble there?" she said, after spending ten seconds watching me fail to tie my bowtie. "A little," I admitted "Here, let me sort that out for you," she said, walking over and starting to expertly tie the fabric. "There really should be a Freshman 101 course that teaches you how to do this kind of stuff," she added, laughing. It felt strange having my nearly-naked cousin standing there right in front of me doing up my tie. She was a couple of inches shorter than me and I could smell the scent of the shampoo she must have used on her hair. It smelled a little of citrus and a little of coconut, pleasant but subtle. The top of her breasts were clearly visible above the line of the towel and they moved up and down slowly and rhythmically as she breathed. I tried not to look. "There," she stepped back and gave me a critical view. I picked up my dinner jacket and put it on, wanting to give her the full look. "What do you think?" "Well, well, don't you look handsome tonight," she said, in a mock-flirty voice. "Now why don't you go off and join your friends, I think everyone is starting to gather in the rec room." "Oh don't worry about that, they'll probably just be drinking and stuff, we don't have to leave for ages yet." "Yes, but I need to um... you know, get dressed and stuff," said Holly, indicating her towel. "And, well, I know you're my boyfriend for the night, but I still don't think I want you to see me naked." She winked to let me know she was just teasing. I imagined her naked for a moment, thinking about how amazing she would look. Then I realized I had left a longer than acceptable silence. "Oh yes, of course," I said, thoroughly embarrassed. "Take all the time you need, I'll go and join the others." As I walked along the corridor and down the stairs to the recreation room I heard a cheer go up. I wasn't sure what the others were doing, but it sounded like they were in very high spirits. As I entered the room everybody looked at me and there was another cheer. I now understood the 'game'. About half the guys and girls (it was mostly guys) in the room were in their evening wear, the other half were still not dressed. The cheers were for whenever someone succeeded in getting ready, maybe as a subtle hint to the stragglers to get their asses in gear. "Yo Shrinkwrap, have a beer man!" said Kenny, the dorms unofficial illicit alcohol supplier. Kenny tossed me a beer and as he did so another cheer went up as Rekesh entered the room in his tuxedo. "So what's going on?" I said to Kenny after thanking him for the beer. "Not much, we're waiting for everyone to get changed. Most of the guys are nearly ready but none of the girls are yet. As he said this, Kenny glared at the sofa where Stacey and Ellen were sitting, still wearing dressing gowns. "Okay, we're going, sheesh!" said Stacey, and the two of them walked off in a huff towards their rooms. Two people immediately stole their seats in what was becoming quite a crowded room. I tried to relax as I drank a couple of beers and chatted with the other guys as more and more people got ready and were greeted with a cheer. Eventually a couple of the girls started to emerge in their eveningwear too and they got even louder cheers. They had all really made an effort, and I must admit some of them looked fantastic. Even the girls that looked plain, homely or tomboyish most of the time looked much better once they put on a bit of make-up and a nice dress. Every time someone came in, I looked round anxiously to see if it was Holly, but she was yet to emerge. It was nearly an hour since I left her in the room and it seemed almost everyone else was ready. Was there a problem? Should I go back to see? "What's up Stevie, are you waiting on a date or something?" said Rekesh, clearly picking up on my anxiety. "Um yeah, something like that," I admitted. "I never knew you had a date, why didn't you tell me?" Rekesh was one of the few people in the dorm I really liked. We had been friends from practically the day I moved in and he was one of the only people that never jumped on the bandwagon when everyone else was teasing me non-stop about the fake girlfriend thing. "Well I didn't really want to bring it up as... you know" "So who is she, where did you meet? I was about to answer when Jay gate-crashed our conversation. "What's this, Shrinkwrap has a date?" he said, loudly. A number of people turned their heads. "Apparently so," replied Rekesh. "You've got to be kidding me, where the hell did you find a girl crazy or desperate enough to come to the party with you?" said Jay, starting to play up to the crowd. "So where is she then?" "She's over here!" I looked up hurriedly expecting to see Holly, but instead I saw Ethan, another of my regular tormentors indicating a patch of thin air. "It seems she's imaginary just like the last one. Hi there Shrinkwrap's date, pleased to meet you. We never got to meet his last imaginary girlfriend, so glad you could make it tonight." He pretended to shake hands with the imaginary person in front of him. Most of the people in the room now were now laughing at Ethan and he was grinning broadly, happy to be the centre of attention. Part of me wanted to just leave the room, while part of me wanted to smack Ethan and Jay in their stupid faces (not that I was much of a fighter). But I knew that this time it was different and that I held all the aces. If Jay and Ethan wanted to dig a big hole for themselves then I was going to help them do it. "So where's your date for tonight Ethan?" I said. Usually I retreated and went into my shell when I was being teased, but this time I was confident and smiling in the face of adversity, which seemed to throw Ethan a bit. "I don't have one," he said. "Much rather keep my options open, you know, get the pick of the girls once we get there." A couple of the girls in the room sniggered at this point, which made Ethan uncomfortable. He looked unsure of himself, maybe starting to realise that I probably wouldn't make up a date at this point if I didn't actually have one. Jay tried to come to his rescue. "Well I'd much rather go to the party with no date than an imaginary one. Or worse yet an ugly one," he said. "Yeah dude," said Ethan, visibly relieved at the help. "If Shrinkwrap has managed to get a date she must be some kind of troglodyte." "So I'm guessing you don't have a date either Jay?" I said "Who the hell are you to..." Jay began, but he stopped. He realized that he didn't have everybody's attention any more. Nearly everybody was looking up towards the entrance of the room. I looked around, but I didn't really need to. I knew of only one person here tonight who could grab an entire room's attention without even saying anything. Holly looked stunning. Her long brown hair, usually either in a ponytail or hanging free down her back, had been blow-dried to hang seductively over her left shoulder. I'm not sure what she had done with her make-up, but her lips were pink and enticing and her eyes dark and mysterious. She wore a maroon strapless dress that stopped just above the knee, showing plenty of her long, athletic legs. At the top the dress was subtle rather than slutty, showing just a hint of cleavage, but shaped to show the full contours of her breasts. They were not huge, maybe a C cup, but they looked larger on her otherwise athletic frame. I remembered my promise to Holly and briefly wondered how much the dress had cost me. Quite a bit, I concluded, but boy was it worth it! "Hey everyone," she said, in a relaxed and innocent tone. "Is Steven here?" There was a silence that probably lasted a few seconds, but it seemed more like minutes. Even though I had rehearsed how this moment might go over and over in my head I was somehow lost for words. Everyone turned to look at me and eventually I managed to smile and wave at Holly. "Ah, there you are!" said Holly. She walked over to me and gave me a loving, lingering kiss on the lips. "Sorry I was so long babe, I lost track of time a bit." "No problem," I said, trying to sound like this was in some way 'normal' and I wasn't struggling to breathe. "It was worth the wait, you look amazing. Wouldn't you say Jay?" This was cruel, but I couldn't help it. Jay was still standing there in front of me from where he had been ripping into me just seconds ago. As soon as he saw Holly his jaw had almost hit the floor and he had done nothing since except stand there, staring. A space had cleared around him and suddenly he looked like a very lonely figure. His eyes opened wide and he just nodded. I looked around and saw that most of the men in the room were transfixed on Holly, while some of the girls were whispering to each other. It was a magical moment. Even though I had been imagining it since the minute Holly suggested coming, it had surpassed all expectation. I was hoping to get a few 'attaboys' and maybe some apologies from the people who had not believed I had a girlfriend, but what I got was so much more. I may have been a figure of fun in the dorm for most of the last trimester, but right here, right now, every guy in the room wished they were me. "Damn!" said a voice from a sofa at the far end of the room. The gargantuan frame of Dale, the football player, stood up and walked over to me, a huge smile on his face. "I think I just have to shake you by the hand Stevie!" This was the tension-breaker that everyone needed. I laughed and shook Dale's enormous hand and introduced him to Holly. Elsewhere in the room everybody started talking amongst themselves again and some kind of normality reasserted itself. Over the next half an hour I introduced Holly to damn near everybody in the dorm, guys and girls alike. A few made jokes to Holly about the fact that most people hadn't believed she existed and, while Holly was distracted, several guys quietly apologized to me. Meanwhile, Jay and Ethan sat in the corner, on their own, just drinking and not saying much. That sight on its own was worth more to me than anything Holly could have spent on a dress. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the party and we all filed out of the dorm and down to the waiting taxis. Holly and I walked slowly, hand-in-hand, quietly whispering to each other, very much like new, loved-up couples do (which of course was the idea). As I felt the eyes of everybody else on us, I tried to savor every moment, conscious that I might never feel this good again. This was going to be a real night to remember. _______ I won't bore you with the details of everything that happened at the party. There were several hundred students there and it's fair to say that most of them had a good time. There was music, dancing, silly games and a lot of people got drunk (some excessively so). Some lucky individuals hooked up with someone new for the first time and no doubt several of them woke up in strange beds the following morning, with either a huge smile or a look of horror on their face. It was always going to be tough for the party to live up to the expectations that a lot of us freshmen had, but for the most part it succeeded. And how did I fare? Well, it's no exaggeration to say that Holly was absolutely fantastic. She played the role of my girlfriend flawlessly; looking at me, talking to (and about) me and touching me exactly as if we were a couple in love. She was so convincing that several times I was almost taken in myself and I had to remind myself that it was all make-believe and she was only my cousin. But not only was she a great actress, she was also so much fun. I had never been out with Holly before (well, not without our parents around at a 'family' event anyway) and I had no idea how charismatic she was. She had all my friends completely captivated by her personality. She made jokes with the guys, she gossiped with the girls, she traded insults with the jocks and she subtly flirted with the shy guys. I lost count of the number of times someone came up to me and told me excitedly how amazing Holly was and how lucky I was to have a girl like that. Guys that had looked down on me all year suddenly seemed to want to be my best friend. It was almost as if I was feeding off Holly's incredible charisma simply by association. And it wasn't just guys either, girls were treating me differently too. Some, which I had always known strictly as friends, suddenly started flirting with me. Girls that rarely spoke to me much were coming over and striking up conversations. Even girls I had never met before seemed to be randomly finding excuses to talk to me. At one point a girl on my course who I sometimes chatted to in class implied very suggestively that it was a shame I had a girlfriend. Damn, I would have to remember that! "What the hell is going on Holly?" I asked, when I finally managed to get my cousin alone for a few minutes. "What do you mean hun?" she said, smiling. "Well, maybe you don't know this, but all these girls coming up and talking to me; flirting with me. it's not normal!" "Well that's good right? You said you had trouble meeting girls." "Yes but, what did you do? Did you spread a rumor that I have an enormous cock or something?" "No, I didn't say anything like that," said Holly, laughing. "It's probably just that..." "What?" "Do you know what social proof is?" "Yes, of course. I mean wait, no I don't. What is it?" "Um, it's a psychology thing," said Holly. "You know like on the Discovery Channel when you have the pride of lions or something and... no wait that's not what I mean. It's more like when there's some new band and they're struggling, but then they get a big break and... no, that's not really it either," "What are you talking about Holly?" "I don't really know how to explain it," she admitted. "But girls tend to like guys that other girls seem to like. It's some crazy subconscious competitive... thing. We see a guy and may not really give him a second look, but then we see that same guy with another girl and suddenly he seems more attractive." "So I'm suddenly more attractive to girls because I'm with you?" "Basically yes" "That's stupid," I said. "Why would girls be attracted to guys who already have girlfriends? Shouldn't they be attracted to guys that are actually available?" "Yes they should," she admitted. "That's not the way it works, don't ask me why." I understood what she was saying more than I let on. I had often heard guys complain that as soon as they got a girlfriend they suddenly got opportunities for sex with other girls that they never had before. At the time I assumed they were just imagining it, but in light of what Holly had just said it sort of made sense. Girls were seeing me with Holly and, maybe for the first time, were seeing me as a potential partner rather than just some guy. Of course, the minor detail that Holly had left out in her modesty was that the fact that she was incredibly attractive, an alpha female I guess, made the effect even stronger. Girls were looking at us subliminally thinking "wow, if that extremely hot girl finds Steven attractive then maybe I should too!" Or something like that anyway. As we returned to the hustle and bustle of the party I wondered if I could use any of this to my advantage. The absurdity was that, if this theory was correct, the very thing that was attracting these girls to me was the very thing that meant I couldn't do anything about it. I had a girlfriend, or at least from everybody else's perspective I did. Why were women so complicated! Maybe some of my new-found sexual magnetism would roll over to next year, once Holly and I had 'broken up'. I really hoped so. By now it was after 2am and the party was starting to reach its climax. Although a few people had left (as a result of being too tired, too drunk, or 'getting lucky') most people were sticking it out and the dance floor was packed. Holly was dancing with a few of the girls from the dorm, but I had declined to join them. I didn't really like dancing and was terrible at it; I had absolutely no rhythm at all. Right now, I seemed to be more popular than I ever thought possible and I didn't want to ruin that by putting in a D-minus performance on the dance floor. Instead I sat at a table, chilling with some of my new-found friends, and sipped on a beer. This would be my last one, I thought. I was starting to get quite drunk and I didn't want to do something to make an ass of myself. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Holly smiling at me. "Are you sure we can't get you on the dance floor honey?" I smiled back and shook my head. Holly put her arm around my shoulder and sat down on my lap. Wow, she was really playing her role well! I played my part too, putting my arm around her waist. The feel of her perfectly formed waist under her dress, combined with the scent of the perfume on her neck made me start to have thoughts totally inappropriate to have about my cousin. I wondered how far she would be willing to take this. She seemed perfectly comfortable with any amount of 'cuddling' and other forms of non-sexual touching and there had been that wonderful kiss in the rec room earlier. Not a proper 'making out' kiss, but certainly not the kind of kiss you gave 'just a friend' either. I would love to get another kiss like that from her later if I could only find a pretext. So far I had completely followed Holly's lead with regards to what was appropriate and permissible but, probably fuelled by a bit of alcohol-induced courage, I decided to push the boundary a little bit. With one arm still around her waist, I put my other hand on the bottom of her thigh, just above the knee, underneath the hem of her dress. Initially I felt her flinch ever so slightly, but she didn't object or make any effort to move my hand. Her skin was warm, soft and smooth. It was extremely tempting to stroke her leg and maybe move my hand up her thigh slightly, but I forced myself to behave. She's your cousin Steven, not your actual girlfriend, don't ruin everything! We sat like that for a while, chatting with the others at the table. I could see some of the guys looking at my hands, one around Holly's waist and the other on her thigh, with much jealousy. I wondered what they would give to be sitting in my position now. Slowly the music changed. What had been up-beat dance music was being phased out and replaced by more mellow tunes. Gradually the energetic groups of guys and girls on the dance floor started to leave, and were replaced with couples slow-dancing together. "Come on, let's dance," said Holly suddenly. "I told you I really don't want to dance," I protested. "Seriously Steven, if you don't come and dance with me right now, I'm going to dance with..." she looked up at my friends, as if deciding which one she wanted to take onto the dance floor. None of them said anything, but some of them looked up at her longingly, silently begging her to pick them. "Okay, okay, I'll go!" I said. I don't think she really would have slow-danced with one of my friends, she was probably just kidding. But I agreed to dance partly because she really seemed to want to and I didn't want to disappoint her, but also because there was a part of me that really wanted to dance with her too. The part of my brain that saw Holly as my objectively hot, but completely platonic cousin was slowly being taken over by another part that I didn't want to acknowledge. The part that wanted to touch her, feel her, caress her, kiss her. I allowed her to take my hand and I followed her in a trance-like state. As we got to the dance floor, the song that was playing finished and was replaced a proper, genuine slow-dance -- Bed of Roses by Bon Jovi. Incredibly cheesy and not my kind of music at all but, I had to admit, a great song for those trying to seduce a girl. I'm not trying to seduce a girl! I reminded myself.