“I - I’ve.” I hiccuped between sobs, unable to formulate the words to describe my misery. Instead, I buried my head into my best friend’s shoulder and cried some more.
It took me a few minutes of having my back rubbed soothingly to get my composure back, but finally, the tears subsided and I slowly extricated myself from her embrace, wiped my eyes and nose and took a deep breath.
“I’ve been kicked from college. Thrown out of the dorm. I’m broke, and I can’t go home.” There it was, out in the open.
Jess’ eyes got wide. “Oh my! However did you manage that, Breanne?” But before the question could sink in, she backtracked. “I’m sorry, I’m so insensitive. Forget the question, let’s sit down comfortably, then we can talk.”
With that, she pulled me across the living room, my overnight bag forgotten next to the door, and pushed me softly onto the plush black leather couch. I let myself get steered by her, everything had happened just hours ago, and I was still wrapped in a bubble of surreality.
Jess was already halfway across the room again. “Something to drink?”
“A bottle of whiskey. A coke will do too.” Well, at least I hadn’t lost my humor.
“Coming right up.”
While I could hear Jess rummaging in the kitchen, I looked around the room and thought about our strange relationship. We had both started out college together, business studies, and shared a dorm room for the first half year. We had gotten on quite well, even though she was a bit overbearing and controlling, but we had quickly settled into a routine, with me doing the cleaning and cooking, and her the shopping and taking care of both our schedules. Until, one evening after a party, she had kissed me. On the mouth, tongue and all. And her hands had squeezed my boobs. At first, I had been so perplexed that I simply let her, but then I had pushed her away, and we ended up having our first and last major row. She moved into a separate room two days later.
The clinking of glasses on the coffee table pulled me from my memories. One stood in front of me, a long drink glass with a straw that contained, guessing by the opacity of the content, not only coke.
“I was only joking about the whiskey, you know.”
She plopped down next to me. “I know, but I think you’re still in shock. Alcohol won’t make it better, but it’ll be over quicker. Let’s drink, to shitty days and best friends!”
She had turned partially towards me, and I took in her appearance for the first time. She was wearing tight, dark brown leather pants and an equally form fitting spaghetti top, neon green and showing a lot of skin above and below it. Since she had dropped out of college, she had her hair cropped short and dyed fire engine red. It made her look pale, but somehow fit her. It certainly mirrored her fiery personality.
She cleared her throat, breaking me from my musings, and I picked up my own glass and clinked it against hers. “To really, really shitty days and the only real friend I have.”
I shouldn’t have said that, even if it was true and Jess was aware of it. But it brought home the misery of my existence. I quickly drew a big gulp from the straw and almost spat it out again. The mixture was far heavier than any whiskey-cola I had had before.
“Gosh,” I protested, “do you want to make me pass out on your couch after a single glass?”
The suggestive smile on her lips betrayed the innocent tone of her voice. “Perhaps?”
I sighed. After our row, she had never completely stopped teasing me.
“I’ll admit that you are the last person I would have expected to get kicked out. Tell me what happened.”
I closed my eyes. This was going to be hard, but I had to be up-front with her. I knew the real story would make its way to her sooner or later, it was surely all over the college by now.
“It - it all started when I met Jeremy. He’s two years older than me, a Junior. We met at a party, a crappy one, and I was just leaving when I bumped into him. He asked me to go for a walk with him, and I agreed. He really looks good, you know, a few inches bigger than me, and he’s a lot into sports, so he’s got a nice body. He’s tanned. And blonde. That spiked haircut, which makes him look a bit rugged. But he’s got a smile to die for.”
Jess was watching me idly, and by the way the left corner of her mouth twitched upward, I could guess that she found my rambling amusing. Still, she did try to hide it.
“Anyway, we hit it off and became an item. We - we had great sex, but after a while he got a bit of a controlling streak, you know.”
“No, I don’t.” Jess was now looking at me intently. Something about the twinkle in her eyes was a bit unsettling, but maybe it was just a trick of the light. “Tell me about it.”
“Well…” My breath grew heavier. I really didn’t want to talk about it, but then, I’d have to tell the worst bit about it anyway. “He liked to tell me what to wear. He made me go out without panties. He -” I closed my eyes, “he made me show my boobs to his friends. And sometimes he would make me cum in the middle of a party.”
“And you liked it.” Jess’ comment wasn’t a question.
“No! Yes! I don’t know…” I hung my head, embarrassed.
“But go on, that’s not the reason you were kicked.”
“But it is. Well, in a way.” I took a few deep breaths. “His last command was that he wanted photographs of me in the faculty room.”
“Photos?”
I nodded. “Naked. Naked and,” my voice grew raspy, and I had to cough, then I whispered, “masturbating.”
Jess’ eyes lit up like fireworks. “Let me get this straight, you broke into the faculty room, and they caught you, little Miss holier-than-thou Breanne Jones, naked and diddling yourself?”
I hid my face behind my hands and nodded.
“Oh! My! God!” She cried. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard in… ever!”
“Don’t rub it in!” I protested. “It’s not funny at all!”
“I guess it isn’t, for you,” she conceded. “And your parents?”
“They called them. Told them the whole story, as if I wasn’t eighteen already. You’ve met dad and heard his christian morale sermons. He doesn’t want a sinner polluting his house!”
“Conceited prudish asshole!” Jess took the words right out of my mouth. “What are you going to do now?”
Now came the hardest part, the part I had feared all the way when I had walked the five miles to her house. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to find a job and a flat. But I’m broke, even when I have a job, I need some time to save enough money to afford the lease. I - I wanted to ask if I could stay here.”
Jess looked critically at me, I almost could hear the wheels spinning inside her head. “I don’t know,” she said softly.
“Please!” I begged, now wasn’t the time for false pride. “I’ll do anything. I’ll clean, I’ll wash, I’ll do the cooking. Just until I have found a job and saved enough cash for a flat.”
She tilted her head, and I could see an idea forming.
“Know what,” she told me after a few seconds pause, “I’ll ring my girlfriend and ask her what she thinks about it.”
“Girlfriend?” I squeaked.
“Yes, Catherine, Cat. I thought you had met her?”
“I have. I just didn’t…” Now her assault on me made perfect sense and put a different light on the kissing incident. She was a lesbian. “Never mind. I’m sometimes a bit slow on the uptake.”
She giggled. “Who am I to contradict you? I’ll go upstairs to call her, you stay here and watch some tv or listen to some music if you like.”
With that, she vanished up the stairs, and set on the couch, nervous and trembling, trying to work out what I’d do if she sent me away, and coming up empty. I knew I could go home, play the role of the repentant sinner, and they would accept me back. But then I’d have to play the good girl again, and they’d probably ground me for months. I shivered as I thought of the daily lectures I’d have to endure. No, going home was not an option.
I waited for ages for Jess to come back down, and twice I caught myself biting my nails. When she did come back, she wore a radiant smile. “I think I’ve worked something out with Cat,” she announced, “let’s see if you find it agreeable. I’ll be right back.”
She turned to the left and went into the kitchen, only to emerge a few seconds later carrying one of the wooden chair. I was too taken up in my hopeful feelings to question her actions immediately, but once she sat the chair down two feet in front of the couch, I was a bit bewildered.
“Sit on the chair, Bre,” she almost ordered, “then we can talk about you staying with us.”
“But… Why…” Even as I tried to formulate a question, I mechanically rose from the couch, walked the few steps to the chair and sat down awkwardly.
Jess plopped down on the couch right in front of the chair and lounged back, stretching her legs out under the chair, making me spread my own legs to avoid getting hit in the shins.
“Cat and I both agree that you can stay with us,” she told me with a soft smile.
“Oh thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!” I big weight dropped from my shoulders.
“Wait!” She held up a hand, and I had to bite my lip. “You’ll not want to stay once I’m finished. We both agreed that there need to be some stipulations.”
“Stip - stipulations?” I hated myself for sounding like a child the moment the words left my mouth. Sitting so uncomfortably on the wooden chair while she lounged on the couch only added to the feeling.
“Yes, stipulations. I’ll explain them to you, so wait until I’m finished before you say anything. Understood?”
Her voice had developed a harder edge now, something I knew, but which had hardly ever targeted at me. I nodded.
“Good. You’re aware that I’ve been attracted to you when we were rooming together. And I still am.”
My eyes went wide, but I didn’t want to follow the thought of suspicion, so I simply listened.
“But before I get to the point, I need to know something. Are you and that Jeremy still an item?”
Looking down at the floor, I shook my head. “No. I let slip his name, so they interrogated him. He told me he never wants to see me again.” The memory brought fresh tears to my eyes, and I angrily wiped them away.
“Good. It’ll work out better that way.” Jess appeared unmoved by my anguish. “This is the first stipulation: if you want to stay here, keep in mind that your yearning for kinky control has brought you into this situation. So it’s only fair if the same will bring you out of it.”
“But, how…”
“I told you to keep your questions until I’m finished!” Jen snapped at me, and I bit my lip and withered under her angry stare, which she held for a whole minute before her expression softened again.
“As I said, if you need to play kinky control games, you shall have them. You will follow mine and Catherine’s orders as you would have followed Jeremy’s. Nod if you understand that!”
I gulped. A feeling of panic washed through my chest, but then I thought about all the things Jeremy had made me do, and the panic turned into a strange, disconnected state of arousal. I couldn’t believe that this was happening, and I wondered what kinds of things Jess and her girlfriend would make me do. Would I have to expose myself to them, or to their friends? My cheeks flushed, and I nodded, unable to look her into the eyes.
“Brilliant. Then there’s the second stipulation: I know that having you around will turn me on, you’re going to be a constant tease for me. But I can’t be running around the house being horny all day. So I’ll have the right to use you any way I see fit to get rid of those horny feelings.”
I was about to protest, if I understood her words correctly, she was telling me I’d be expected to have sex with her! But I caught myself when I saw the challenge in her eyes.
