[KrycekLives]

The year was 1992. It was one of those nights in college that found a mix of friends hanging out together up way to late. We’d all been out to various parties and gatherings throughout the Friday night and a remnant of us ended up at a dump of a duplex near campus at midnight. We felt it was too early to call it an evening and yet many of our friends had already headed back to their dorms. What was left was a mix of folks looking to find one last bit of fun. My roommate had left to go back to our dorm hours ago so I was solo the rest of the night. The duplex where we were hanging out had four guys living in it but only two were in town that weekend. Each of them still had their girlfriends there. Plus me and two other girls were still there to make a nice group of seven. With that many girls, there wasn’t anywhere better for a single guy like me to be.

One of the guys, Kurt, and I enjoyed playing strategy board games like Axis and Allies and Supremacy late on Friday nights way into the morning. (These were the days before video games ruled.) But the rest of the guys that normally played with us were not there. The girls enjoyed card games like Spades. So with the music playing the TV stuck on late night QVC we debated what to do. Everyone thought some kind of game would be fun but finding one we were all interested in was impossible. The girls had enough of watching us “play war” previously and none of the guys were up for the mental energy and intensity of Spades.

So of course, someone said Truth or Dare. Someone else said Spin the Bottle. Then one of the racy girls, Sarah brought up Strip Poker. Everyone laughed. But it was the kind of laugh that revealed what was on everyone’s mind. Over on one couch Lenny was slouched sideways with his back against the arm with his legs laid across his girlfriend Abby. Kurt was sitting in the big lazy boy chair in the other corner with his girlfriend Mandy sitting on the arm half d****d over him. On the long couch was me on one end with Sarah on the other. In the middle sat Donna.

Clearly, Kurt and Lenny were hoping we’d head on home so they could take their girlfriend back in their rooms. But Sarah and Donna were enjoying themselves and talking up a storm with the other girls. Both girls beside me were close friends of mine but only Sarah and I had any kind of connection in the past. We’d made out a couple times and that was it.

Sarah pushed her idea further. She’d had just enough to drink that she has lost her inhibitions but not her wit. She saw that the two couples were probably game for anything that moved them faster towards being together. And she knew Donna liked to have fun. So she suggested that we play a game as three groups. Poker required too much thought and time so we’d play blackjack instead but with no betting and with something risqué as the consequences.

The game that was created was a quick stroke of genius by Sarah. It mixed in all the craziness of our debate over the last 15 minutes. We’d play blackjack in our three teams. The team that won kept all their clothes. The other teams had to put in an article of clothing per person. It was simple and not obviously risky and I figured it would last only a round or two. I think that why everyone said OK to it.