ii. trigger

The second stage in a story is the trigger. It's the thing that sparks off the story that sets the actions into motion.

Again, it's a little unclear what the exact trigger is for Abrielle's story. All of this confusion is probably sparked by the fact that the main character is so confused herself. She really needs to pull herself together. But that's okay. Characters with problems make for a better story. Perfect characters are boring. Flaws are interesting. That's important to remember.

The trigger might have been this conversation.

"Should I come over to your house so we can continue working on our project?" Samuella, or well Sammy, as she preferred to be called, the girl Abrielle is partnered with for one of her art projects, who is sitting right in front of her, cutting away parts of magazines, asks.

Ah, the dreadful words.

Of course Sammy is an exchange student. This is her first semester. She knows very little about Abrielle and even less about her roommates so it would be highly doubtful that she was one of those stalking girls or occasional homosexuals that were just teaming up with Abrielle or asking to study with her in order to get into her house.

She tries to get out of it, but Sammy lives in the dorms. Her room is tiny and the shared spaces aren't amazing to work on their project. Arielle has a whole house to herself.

In the end she can't get out of it. Sammy has to come to her place.

Before she arrives, Abrielle tries to warn her friends. And by warning them she means that she tries to hide them.

"How about we play a game? Whoever can stay the longest in their rooms without ever going out wins? Let's start now."

Abrielle has learned this over the years. If you want to make a boy do something, turn it into a competition or a game. Chief will never do the dishes on his own but if she tells him that she can dry the dishes faster than he can wash them that boy will clean everyyyything.

"Are you having a schoolmate coming over again?" Ace asks her. He's a little bit less gullible than Chief and obviously less of a problem when it comes to sleeping with anyone that ABC brings home.

"Abrielle Bridget Campbell, were you trying to distract us?" Chief asks her, all offended.

He's not. He finds this amusing. And he was also actually looking forward to see who could stay the longest in their rooms. He's a little bum it probably won't happen now.

"Maaaaaaybe." Ace gives her a look and she gives up. "Okay, yeah fine. Totally."

"And why exactly are you trying to hide us?" he asks her.

She tells him. "Because I know that the minute she'll see you guys she'll want to fuck you... or well get fucked by you, but it could be also fuck you if she strapped a dildo to herself and b—"

"Exit only" they both stop her—though Chief sings it and Ace grumbles it—before she can get into more details. Totally unnecessary details.

"And why does that matter?" Chiefs inquires.

He has a point. And Abrielle realizes this. But she doesn't give him the pleasure of feeding his ego.

Why does it matter? Her two roommates often flirt with the opposite sex. They've gone out with a lot of girls. Why should it matter if a girl she brings home is attracted to them? Because she doesn't want to be used as some kind of matchmaker? Because she doesn't want her teammate to be distracted by the boys in her house?

Or is it something else?

When Sammy arrives at her house Abrielle is still trying to figure out a way to keep her teammate from her roommates.

Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for the continuity of this story, her roommates don't hide in their rooms. They practically wait by the door.

The only way she finds to try to salvage the situation is to introduce her friends like this, "This is my gay-best-friend Donavan and my fuck buddy Shanahan."

Ace stops her short though. "We're her roommates. She's messing with you"

"Thanks for the team effort..." Abrielle grumbles

"Why do I always have to be the gay friend? I'm sorry but Chief sports the high pitch voice way more than I do," Donavan whines.

"Yes but if I introduce him as the gay friend I have way less chances of succeeding. You just glare a little. Chief will need to step on the tables, drop his pants and scream "this is a man cock, a man cock that only sticks it in women's holes" Abrielle complains.

Poor Sammy is a little lost in the middle of this.

"I do and say no such things," Chief replies and then extends his hand to Sammy and says with a smile, "Please to meet you gentle lady."

Sammy blushes. Abrielle huffs.

The boys scatter away after this little episode. Sammy doesn't bring them up as they work on their project and Abrielle believes that for a moment she was freaking out for no reason.

That's until they wrap things up around dinner time and Sammy is about to leave. Of course, the boys have crawled out of their rooms at this point. Donavan doesn't point it out but he's the last one who came out of his room. In his head he's totally won the contest.

So, Sammy is about to leave and she says, "If you guys want, me and a couple of my friends are going out to get drinks. You could join us."

And Chief automatically answers, "Oh, we'd be delighted to."

It's difficult to say if this is the exact moment when Abrielle realizes this for the first time. She might have thought about it a few times before. The thought might have been lingering in her head for a while. But at this moment she thinks that maybe that thought is the reason why she's so bothered by the idea that a girl might want to go out with her roommates.

Oh yes, it would make a lot more sense to state what it is actually that she figured out.

That she might be in love with one of her friends.

Because that realization is the little thing that sets this whole story off.