The Wrong Pants Can Change a Girl

Story Sent in by Norman:

I was friends with Liz and Erin, both of whom were roommates. They were both pretty hot, but I was more drawn to Erin's quiet, intellectual beauty. She was smart, and smart is sexy.

One time, I was over at their place with a small group of mutual friends. Erin was in a nice blouse and jeans. Drinking happened, and we played a few adult party games. Nothing too raunchy, but it came out, somehow or other, that I found Erin attractive. Erin laughed it off, I didn't want her to feel embarrassed, and so I laughed it off, too. All in good fun, right?

A little while later, Erin fell asleep on the couch. I figured she'd be fine there, but then one of the guys said to me, "Hey Norm, you should put her to bed."

I thought that might've been crossing a line, but everyone, including Liz, encouraged me to carry poor Erin to bed. "I think we can trust you," Liz said to me.

And so I carried Erin as gingerly as I could to her bedroom, set her down in her bed, covered her with a sheet, resisted absolutely every overpowering urge to kiss her, and left her there, just like that. I returned to the group in the living room. The entire process couldn't have taken more than a minute.

After a little while longer, those of us who didn't live there went home, and that was the end of the night.

The next morning, Liz called and asked me, "What happened with you and Erin, last night?"

"Uh... she found out I liked her?"

"After that."

"She went to sleep and I carried her to bed."

"After that."

"I left her room and came back out to you guys."

"Before that."

"Nothing. Why?"

"Erin woke up in just a pair of giant green-and-white-striped pajama pants. She says she never changed out of what she was wearing when we were all together, no one else went into her room, and she doesn't own a pair of green-and-white-striped pants. You were the last person to see her, last night."

I laughed and said, "Maybe she had a bit more to drink than she could handle."

"Norman! This is serious! She's been freaked out all morning. You undressed her and put her in those weird pajama pants."

"Did you see me walk into your house with pajama pants? And I took less than a minute to put her to bed. You think I tore off her clothes and put a pair of random pajama pants on her? That's absurd!"

Plenty of silence from Liz's end of the phone, then she said, "I'll call you back," and hung up.

I didn't hear from Liz again for almost two weeks. When I did, she told me that when she had returned from work one afternoon, she had found all of Erin's stuff gone and a note from Erin, saying that she had to break her half of the lease and move away. Her forwarding address was clear across the country. There was no further explanation.

I'm still friendly with Liz, but neither she nor any of our other friends seems to have a clue as to why Erin would do such a thing. Liz has said, though, that Erin had not been herself since the night of the get-together.