by C. W. Niess
“Ride it out?” Mark asked. “What makes you so sure they’ll eventually let me be?”
“Because I know Janice,” Brooke said. “She hates men. She thinks you’re all perverts.”
“If she hates us so much, why wouldn’t she just call the police?” Mark asked. “And why would she get bored and move on from me?”
“Because I just know,” Brooke said. “You’re not the first guy Janice has blackmailed. Soon enough, some other guy’ll come along. She’ll forget about you and focus her energy on fucking up his life.”
“Some other guy?” Mark snapped. “How do you know this? She did this before?”
“I’ve said too much already,” Brooke said turning away from Mark. “Just trust me. Play along with their game. It’ll suck for a while, but you’ll be okay.”
“But what do you mean?” Mark begged as Brooke continued walking away from him. Mark thought about giving chase but decided against it. Mark figured he would see much more of the young blonde anyway.
Mark didn’t know whether Brooke was sincerely trying to help him or if she was just part of Janice’s master plan. As smart as Janice was, it wouldn’t surprise him at all if she had Brooke trying to make friends with him; his friendship with Brooke could allow Janice to keep another set of eyes on his activity. In fact, that sounded exactly like something Janice would do. At the same time, Janice had to know that, thanks to those videos, he was completely at her mercy. Wouldn’t planting Brooke be monumental overkill?
Either way, one thing was very clear. There was no way Mark could risk trying to call Janice’s bluff. He had no choice, at least for the time being; he had to play along with Janice’s game. Brooke’s presence didn’t really change anything for him.
Mark fought through the rest of the day even taking a much-needed break for lunch. As the day unfolded, Mark counted down the hours, minutes, and seconds before his encounter with Lucy. This would be the first time Mark saw Lucy since the shower spying incident; it would be the first time he actually talked to her since they’d broken up.
Even so, Mark looked forward to any clarity Lucy could provide him. Playing the waiting game over the previous couple of days was more than he could bear. Mark desperately wanted to know what Lucy had in store for him. More so, he wanted an answer to his most burning question of all. When was this going to be over? He just wanted his ordinary life back.
Chapter Four
After a long day of classes mixed in with pacing, roleplaying, worrying, and rationalizing, it was time to suck it up and meet Lucy for dinner. Mark locked his dorm room and started toward the dining hall. He took the back stairway to avoid running into his ex-girlfriend or her roommate along the way; he would see Lucy soon enough.
As terrifying as facing his ex-girlfriend would be, Mark almost looked forward to the reunion. If nothing else, he would get some idea what sort of penance Lucy expected of him. Mark hoped Lucy’s demands weren’t as dramatic as his morning exploits in the women’s shower; he also knew such hope was more than likely of the false variety.
During their time as boyfriend and girlfriend, Lucy had never been quick to forgive. She would bring up even minor infractions months after they occurred. Early in their relationship, Mark had accidentally deleted one of Lucy’s homework assignments. Mark then heard about his mistake almost every day for what seemed like an eternity.
Lucy also had a tendency to take everything as a personal insult. Instead of realizing that Mark had only been guilty of being careless with her computer, Lucy had figured her boyfriend was somehow trying to sabotage her education and hold her back. Now that Lucy found out about him spying on her shower, he worried what conclusions the redhead would jump to. Instead of accepting he was just another horny college student or that he missed their time together, she could easily assume he was stalking her or worse.
Mark was hardly able to envisage his ex-girlfriend forgiving his transgression absent consequence. Mark was going to pay a price for invading Lucy’s privacy. Either that, or he would spend the rest of his life explaining the videos Janice was blackmailing him with.
It was seven o’clock sharp when Mark scanned his student ID and stepped into the crowded cafeteria. He immediately heard a too-familiar voice.
“There you are,” Brooke gushed rushing to Mark’s side. She grabbed his sleeve pulling him toward the dinner line. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Without a word, Mark followed Brooke’s lead. It irked him how the young girl somehow managed to insert herself into Lucy’s and his issues once again. Whether Brooke meant to help Mark or not, she was only making things worse. More than anything, Mark longed for a few minutes alone with his ex-girlfriend. Indeed, they could work something out, just the two of them.
“Lucy’s running late,” Brooke offered. She brushed her short hair over her ears and adjusted her glasses. “She asked me to wait with you.”
Without a response, Mark picked up a dinner tray and placed it on the aluminum tracks. Were they actually making him wait again? He didn’t buy the suggestion that Lucy’s delay was accidental. Lucy didn’t do accidents.
Brooke ordered some grilled chicken and carrots then took the liberty of requesting the same for her guest. “Go ahead and get us something to drink,” Brooke ordered cheerfully. “I’ll find us a table.”
Mark shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.” He really wanted to tell Brooke to kiss off, but the young blonde was, for some unknown reason, acting as an agent for Lucy and Janice. Why they needed Brooke to speak for them was lost on him.
He took his time at the drink bar. There was nothing to be gained by spending more time with Brooke. Every second invested in beverage preparation would be one less second he would need to spend with the young blonde. Besides, there was a chance Lucy would enter the cafeteria as he was getting the drinks and this would create an opportunity for Mark to speak with Lucy in private.
Mark couldn’t remember the last time he was this anxious. His hands shook wildly as he filled the glasses with ice and beverage; he then lost at least a third of the glass’ content as he made his way across the dining hall to Brooke’s chosen table.
“I got you iced tea,” Mark said joining Brooke at a round table toward the far end of the cafeteria. “I hope that’s OK.”
“Whatever,” Brooke said accepting the glass. “Take a load off.” The blonde pulled out the chair directly beside her seat and patted the backrest.
Hoping to limit further discussion, Mark sat down next to the blonde freshman. He thought it odd that she had him sit directly beside her. If Mark had been watching another couple in a similar position, he would assume they were in a romantic relationship. In this case, he would be wrong.
Brooke spent the next few minutes trying to engage Mark in small talk, something he wasn’t great at even when willingly participating. Begrudgingly, Mark answered questions about how he was a computer science major and how he didn’t have any blood siblings but grew up with his step-sister. Mark claimed that he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after graduation; this was a lie. More than trying to deceive Brooke, he wanted to avoid any lengthy topics of conversation.
As Mark usually made a habit of doing in the dining hall, he tried passing the time watching the other tables. He paid extra attention to a couple just a few tables down from his and Brooke’s. They were eating their food quietly avoiding any and all eye contact with each other. Over the past few weeks, Mark had watched this couple fight then make up before getting into yet another argument. The two were engaging in a repeated cycle of conflict and resolution.
The couple would eventually break up for good even if they didn’t know it yet. They would eventually have to accept that being alone for a while might be better than sticking with a dysfunctional relationship. Mark generally tried to avoid taking sides in such disagreements, but on this occasion, he empathized with the guy. The morning prior, Mark had seen the girl fraternizing with another boy. At the time, he hadn’t been sure if she was actua
lly cheating on her boyfriend or if the other guy was just a friend. Based on their current behavior, Mark assumed the former. He couldn’t understand why the girl just didn’t break it off with her boyfriend if she really wanted to be with someone else.
“There you two are,” Janice said suddenly appearing out of nowhere. “I was starting to think you had run off together.” Janice sat down directly across from Mark with the look of someone who just won the lottery. “Have you talked to Lucy yet?” Janice asked him.
“No,” Mark responded keeping his eyes on the table. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday morning.”
Janice shook her head and smiled. “Well, you sure saw a lot her then. Didn’t you?”
Mark didn’t respond.
After listening to a few minutes of meaningless chatter, Mark saw Lucy making her way into the cafeteria. He thought about trying to join her in the dinner line but figured such a maneuver would appear too presumptuous. The other girls didn’t notice Lucy until the redhead joined them at the table.
“Hello everyone,” Lucy said sitting down with the group. She positioned herself between Janice and Brooke. The group formed a “C” around the table with two empty chairs between Mark and Janice. “Hi, Mark,” Lucy added in deference to her ex-boyfriend’s quiet demeanor.
Mark looked up from the table at his ex-girlfriend; he shifted nervously in his chair. “Hi, Lucy.”
Lucy smiled uneasily back at him. The redhead was clearly upset with him despite her best efforts to remain cordial.
“Lucy,” Mark added still looking down at the table. “I’m so sorry about yesterday. I really am. It’s just that…”
“Stop it, Mark,” Lucy responded. She scowled across the table. “I know you’re sorry. Believe me; I know.”
Mark forced himself to look up at the three girls. “I really am sorry, Lucy. You got to trust me. I really am.”
Lucy held her hand in the air deflecting Mark’s repeated apology. “I said stop it. We’ll talk about this after we eat. Not a word until then. I can’t even stand to hear your voice right now.”
Janice rested her hand on Lucy’s forearm. “I hate that this happened to you.”
“Thanks, Janice,” Lucy replied laying her hand on top of Janice’s. “I’m just so glad you were there to…”
“I know,” Janice interrupted. “I’ll always be there for you.”
Between Lucy’s anger and Janice’s bullshit, Mart felt like he was about to throw up.
“Well,” Brooke jumped in breaking the tension. “Let’s eat. Shall we.”
“Yeah,” Lucy agreed. “Let’s eat.”
Mark couldn’t force himself to swallow more than a few bites of his chicken. Instead, he spent the next thirty minutes moving food around his plate and listening to Janice complain to Lucy about her teachers and the other girls in their dorm.
Like Mark, Brooke didn’t join in the conversation. She remained an odd fit in the group. Janice and Lucy weren’t engaging Brooke like they would a close friend or even a peer. How then, was Brooke in the middle of this whole ordeal? It didn’t make sense.
Consuming her last few bites of food, Lucy’s demeanor grew even more severe. She grabbed Janice’s hand in a show of solidarity then gave her former boyfriend an evil glare. “You ready to talk?”
“Right now?” Mark asked looking back and forth between Brooke and Janice. His hope was that Lucy would discuss this with him in private.
“Don’t worry about them,” Lucy insisted. “You weren’t worried about who else was around yesterday morning. Were you?”
Mark rubbed his hands through his dirty blond hair. “Lucy, about that. I swear I was just…”
“No,” Lucy snapped yet again holding her palm in the air. “It’s my turn to talk now.”
Mark started to respond but managed to choke his words back.
“You going to let me talk?” Lucy asked setting her hand back on the table.
“Shut it,” Janice added unnecessarily. “Just shut it.”
Mark nodded his head.
Lucy proceeded to methodically lay out her terms for Mark. “If you do as we ask, your secret will be safe with us,” Lucy promised. “You’ll finish school and graduate. It will be like nothing happened.”
Mark looked relieved at Lucy’s promise; when she vowed to keep the videos private, he believed her. Still, he knew meeting Lucy’s terms wouldn’t be easy.
“There were three other girls in the showers yesterday morning,” Lucy continued. “As I see it, you owe them an apology too.”
Mark’s face lit up. “And I am sorry,” he said. “I do owe all of you an apology. I can do that.”
Lucy scowled. “Are you going to let me finish?”
“Sorry,” Mark replied lifting both hands off the table in surrender. “Not another word. I promise.”
“I would hope not,” Lucy continued. She explained that after eating dinner they would go back to the study room where Janice had caught Mark masturbating the day before. “Once we’re all ready,” Lucy continued. “You’re going to take off your clothes.”
Mark thought about objecting, but he had already expected Lucy to make him strip naked at some point. The punishment, after all, had to fit the crime, and Mark couldn’t see Lucy going any easier on him than Janice had that morning. Needless to say, the odds of him staying dressed were slim to none.
“I’m liking this already,” Janice interjected. “Not that he has much for us to look at.”
Lucy flashed her roommate a smile before continuing with her demands. “After getting undressed, you’ll go find Emily, Alison, and Monica. You’re going to offer each of them a night of service.”
“A night of service?” Mark asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Lucy snapped at Mark’s question. “Let me finish or I’ll have you strip naked right here. Do you understand?”
Mark nodded quietly.
“As I was saying,” Lucy continued. “You’re going to offer each of them a night of service,” Lucy explained that each of the girls would sign up for an evening the next week. They would have Mark from seven o’clock until midnight and could do with him as they saw fit. The only restrictions were that they couldn’t force him into anything that would get him arrested, injured, or kicked out of school.
As part of his entertainment duty, Mark would report to the study room fifteen minutes before each shift was to begin. If that evening’s host had any requested preparations for Mark, he would ready himself as specified. Mark would report to his host by seven sharp.
If Mark resisted his hosts in any way, it would be Lucy’s option to require another night of service or to publish the damning videos.
Stunned by Lucy’s demands, Mark stared blankly at his ex-girlfriend. Mark expected Lucy’s punishment to be severe, but this was more than he ever could have imagined. He would not only have to strip for Lucy, Janice, and Brooke; he would also have to seek out and submit himself to the other three girls. He was in for the longest week of his life.
“Are we clear?” Lucy finished.
“Yeah,” Mark affirmed.
“Yeah, what?”
“We’re clear,” Mark repeated. “We’re clear. I’ll do it. Okay.”
“But what about you,” Janice said to Lucy. “Shouldn’t he have to do something for you too? You were the one he was spying on.”
Lucy pulled her hand away from Janice’s. “I’ve thought this through, believe me. You said it was my decision, didn’t you?”
Janice grabbed Lucy’s retreating hand and covered it gently over the table. “Yes. This is your decision. If Mark respects that, I can respect it too.”
Lucy looked at Mark. “Once you’ve made your peace with the other girls, I’ll consider us square. That doesn’t mean I’ll forgive you. It just means I won’t report you or share that video. Once this is all over, I never want to talk to you again.”
Mark looked down at the table ashamed by how his behavior impacted his ex-girlfriend.
Mark nodded and watched as the trio of girls left the dining room. He couldn’t get his brain to process what just happened, let alone what Lucy expected him to do back on the sixth floor. As nervous as he was about his forthcoming strip show, he still felt bad about hurting Lucy. Thinking back to the previous morning in the study room, he never even considered how his spying could wound Lucy so deeply.
Then there was her last request. After this was over, Lucy never wanted to speak to Mark again. Any hope, even the faintest of chances, Mark had of rebuilding his relationship with Lucy was over. If he believed anything Lucy told him, he understood that she wanted him out of her life for good.
Mark sat at the round table staring into space for quite some time. He wasn’t stalling even though he had good reason to do so. He just couldn’t process everything. For someone who enjoyed watching other people’s drama, Mark found himself in a situation he could never even imagine, not for himself or for anyone else.
“Hello,” Mark heard faintly. “Hello. Are you there,” the voice continued.
“Oh,” Mark responded snapping out of his funk. He noticed a girl trying to claim his table. “Sorry.”
“You sitting here?” the girl continued.
“We’re done,” Mark responded frantically piling empty plates and silverware onto a plastic tray. “You can sit here.”
After clearing the tables and placing his tray on the conveyor belt, Mark began the seemingly long walk back to the dormitory. Less than two blocks away, the trip didn’t provide much time for him to consider how he would approach the rest of his evening. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter what Mark wanted anyway. This was Lucy’s show.
As he stepped into the dormitory lobby, it felt like everyone was staring at him, like they knew what he had done and was now expected to do. Even fully clothed, Mark felt exposed and vulnerable. With each girl he passed, he wondered if she lived on the sixth floor if she were one of the three he would approach later.