College Chronicles Ep. 10

But I was flattering myself, and Aurora didn't even stop to allow me a response, turning to Jaelen.

"Jae!!" Of course, everyone knew everyone. Except me. Aurora ran to embrace him, my existence wholly forgotten. When she pulled back, she was launching into some topic I had no awareness of.

"Ugh, Jaxx told me how your coach is totally fucking you over!"

Jaelen chuckled, shaking his head in resignation.

"Yeah... It is what it is. If coach wants to do some freshman hazing shit, he's gonna do it." Jaelen pulled a face, then looked over Aurora's head to Jaxx, who was returning to the couch. "We just gotta keep going hard in practice, wait for our shot."

Jaxx was vaulting over the couch as he responded. "Man, fuck outta here, 'practice'. We **deserve** to start. Might actually win a few games if we do." His familiar smirk spread across his face, and I was just glad it wasn't at me. "Coach is gonna have to play me soon. Play both of us. If he wants to keep his job. I heard the Dean isn't impressed with a losing record."

Jaelen shared Jaxx's assurance, but without the spite: "I don't know about that. All I'm saying, they best not let us on the field, or we gone take that shit."

Aurora wasn't satisfied, her sympathetic offense bubbling through. "But it's bullshit you can't get playing time just because you're freshman!"

Jaelen was done. "We just gotta be ready. Enough about that, let's get fucked up and hit the club!"

To illustrate, he danced to an imagined beat, very really bumping and grinding against Aurora, who giggled before enthusiastically joining his pantomime, pushing back into him and gyrating gamely. I was a little startled-- wouldn't Jaxx take their lewd dancing badly? But he couldn't have cared less, already pouring out shots for Aurora and the rest of us, not a trace of jealousy in his bearing. What did he even have to be jealous of; I knew how unlimited his options were.

When it was just the four of us, I had reached a level of comfort. Jaxx was always a brusque, intimidating factor; but Cindy and Jaelen were softer and more kind, balancing him and shielding me. Aurora, however, tipped the scale. Her mere presence was an assault on my nerves. The girl I'd idolized for years so close to me, in such provocative clothing. My... accessories... only fueled my discomfort. I became even more self-aware, fidgeting in my seat as I tried to cover myself inconspicuously.

But worse than that, she monopolized Jaxx and Jaelen's attention. Even Cindy was relegated somewhat, and I was forgotten as if I were watching through the window while they laughed uproariously at her jokes and snuck peeks every time she leaned forward or back.

We all drank a shot with Aurora, then sat for five minutes, the four of them gossiping and talking shit, while I reeled, struggling with my social anxiety and suddenly unbalanced stomach. When Cindy subtly passed a cup of water to me, I drained it immediately, thankful to know she still watched over me. That knowledge was the only thing that kept me from panicking as Aurora abruptly downed her second shot and sprung out of her seat.

"Let's fucking go! Fuck this boring shit, it's Halloween." She turned and I was confronted by her bright nordic blue eyes, clear like a morning sky. "Let's go get slutty!"

She hadn't even looked at me since her first comment, but now she beamed down at me, her hands offered out to lift from my seat. I paused for a moment, suspicious. But it was easier to just reach out and take her soft hands, let her hoist me up in a smooth motion. I felt slow, almost detached, like I was controlling my body with a delay. I could only watch as she swatted my ass playfully, then spun away, strutting across the room.

"Where's the limo Jaxx? Don't make us walk far."

"Nah, chill. I got him waiting outside, but hold on a sec." He was over his bed, rummaging through a black backpack I'd never seen before. "I got you all a present."

He'd found a small translucent baggie with a handful of circular white pills, and returned with an affect of great benevolence. "Pure MDMA, the best shit my dealer's ever had." The cocky, galling smirk landed on me, eyes so cold they sent a shiver down my spine. "Get ready for a wild night, girls."

He was speaking to all three of us, but his extended eye contact made it feel intended solely for me; a promise so loaded as to become a threat. I was already nearing my limits: drunk, high, filled, caged. How much crazier could the night become, before I risked ending it prematurely? I'd heard rumors of freshman ending up in the emergency room, needing stomachs pumped and other embarrassing procedures. I really didn't want that to happen. Not only would it be painful, on top of mortifying to end up somewhere dressed as I was, but I also couldn't shake the spectre of ruining the night for the others, giving Jaxx more ammunition to tease me for being soft and bailing.

I considered voicing my worries to Cindy, pulling her aside and asking what to do. But as I turned, she was already downing the pill with Jaelen, the two flirting and play fighting as they walked to the door. My heart fell. Jaxx and Aurora, Jaelen and Cindy. Sami alone on the outside. And that was ignoring the obvious chemistry between Jaelen and Cindy, supposedly my girlfriend.

Then thick fingers were pushing a little dot into my fragile palm, lifting my hand towards my face. I looked up in shock and stumbled into the icy fissures of Jaxx's eyes.

"Open up Sami." The calm instruction was irresistible, and suddenly the pill was in my mouth, and a drink was in my hand, and he lifted that to my mouth as he tapped it against his own.

"Cheers."

And I drank, easily yielding to his insistence. I was a little surprised to find that the liquid was just water.

Then we were in the limo. I didn't remember walking down. The interior was simple but refined, black and silver, seats around three walls and a small bar in the fourth, just under what I assumed was a window to the driver. Jaxx sat at the back, arms extended over the shoulders of Aurora to his right, Cindy to his left. Jaelen was next to Cindy, and I sat outside him, again in the margins. All attention pointed inwards, and I was content to shrink into the seat for a moment, rearrange my cape between my legs, admire the car, fish my phone from the small clutch I'd borrowed from Cindy and pretend to check messages, flicking through social media apps.

When the limo came to a stop, I looked up in surprise, unsure how long or how far we'd travelled. My absence from conversation hadn't been noticed, even Cindy was out of control, shouting and laughing with the others. But a warning wouldn't have prepared me for the burst of sound and color from the opened door.

Then the seats were full, and I could barely parse the shrieks, giggles, and thumping music that had begun with a boom. The limousine had been flooded with nimble, near-naked bodies, each more impressed by the interior than the last, all competing to show their appreciation in more loud and spectacular fashion. Sooner than the doors were closed, each new passenger drew a bottle of liquor from somewhere on their person: bottles of vodka or suspiciously colored soda from purses, a few small flasks emerging from within costumes themselves.

Now the party started in earnest, shouting and singing and dancing and more.

Aurora and Cindy had somehow maintained their positions at Jaxx's flanks, but Jaelen and I had been split from them in the fracas, pushed away until Jaelen occupied the center of his own side, the two men holding court over separate corners of the vehicle.

I found myself squeezed into Jae's side, encircled by one long, muscled arm. Had he already been holding me like that, or was it a reaction to the flood trying to pull us apart? I gave up on the remembering as I felt the glares of two girls to my side. They had the unlucky places outside all the action, separated from Jaxx and Jaelen, sat between me and a wall. Even without looking at them I could sense their displeasure. I had lots of experience, after all, with bullies giving looks that said 'I'm about to make my problem yours.'

I couldn't deal with that. I realized there was a bottle in my hands as it pulled away from my lips, and the thought of being confronted by angry hot girls in slutty costumes, in my inebriated state, with Cindy so far away, was unbearable.

Instead I mustered my best puppy dog eyes and looked up to Jaelen, putting all my eggs the basket that was the token interest he'd shown me earlier.

To my surprise, he was already looking at me, even in the midst of Bacchanalia. A light smile creased his face, and he leaned even closer to half-shout into my ear,

"It's all good. I got you! Just chill baby."

It wasn't the words as much as how he said them, but it calmed me. He was louder than the hubbub around us, and that solidity, the assuredness, was just what I wanted to hear. I had an ally. I wasn't alone.

Jae looked like he was going to continue, but a tanned arm intruded between us, bright yellow and black nails pulling him away from me.

"Jaeee, do a line off my fucking tits!"

Reaching from his other side was an extremely slutty bumblebee I somehow recognized. She was platinum blonde with dark roots showing and a huge pair of tits threatening to burst from her struggling striped tube top.

There was already a rough trail of white powder running along the top of one barely concealed breast, and before I knew it Jae's face was buried in her pillows as she shrieked and kicked in joking panic. Next to her, a girl with night black hair and a pair of cat ears rolled her eyes in frustration. Then hope flared in her eyes, and she tapped a little white powder out of a small tube onto her hand before she spun to face Jaxx's side of the car.

In that time, Jae had come up for air from between the blonde's breasts, and she had noticed me, staring with an expression of intense concentration, as if she'd forgotten a question she meant to ask.

That look of strenuous thought finally connected the dots. It was Bianca, Cindy's bimbo friend from our very first night together. Would she recognize me? Was she going to out me, ruin the night, maybe my whole life? I could feel my anxiety starting to spiral, sweat beading on my forehead as her eyes darted between Jaelen and I fuzzily, her mouth gaping a few times before finding slurred words.

"Oh my god like... you're... like, SOO pretty! What are you?!"

I was stumped-- It wasn't what I'd expected at all, and it took me a few seconds to understand her words, between the drugs and the noise around us. I could feel my face flush at the unexpected compliment, and my mouth gaped to match her earlier speechlessness.

"She's Supergirl! Damn, y'all don't watch tv or something."

Jaelen answered for me, but Bianca wasn't that interested. She found my lips before words did, leaning forward across Jae's lap and grabbing my collar with one hand, pulling me to meet her. Our faces collided awkwardly, and she was planting wet kisses on and around my mouth, her tongue wiggling wildly. She tasted of sugar, alcohol, and smoke, and I melted at the sudden intense physicality.

Just as suddenly, she pulled away, and I was left feeling foolish with eyes closed, mid kiss. As I settled back under Jaelen's arm, I found myself chewing on a piece of bubblegum that wasn't mine. A little grossed out, but too overwhelmed to process, I sneakily slipped it into my hand and dropped it onto the floor beside me. My little clit, just catching up to Bianca's kiss, strained in prison, and I whimpered in bewildered pain. Remembering myself, my eyes shot up in panic, dreading someone having seen or heard my embarrassing moment.

Obviously the limo was far too busy for anyone to notice me, and I was only a pawn in Bianca's games. She had turned back to Jaelen, one hand coyly covering her mouth in wide-eyed astonishment.

"Ohmygodd... I get SO horny when I'm drunk... You won't tell anyone what I do tonight, will you?!"

Even I wasn't drunk enough to miss the inherent promise in her request, and Jae grinned, unable to mask a lustful scan of her body.

"Shiit, baby. You know my lips are sealed."

And just like that, I was forgotten again.

Jaelen kept his word, arm extended and holding me close, so I wasn't lost. But the sweetness of the gesture was undercut by the poking and bouncing of Bianca as she fell over him, sucking on his face.

It would have been awkward, if anyone else in the limo was watching us. Someone had lit another joint, and now the interior of the limo was growing hazy with thick weed smoke, sweet and acrid. The girls who sat beyond me (a sexy French maid and sexy nurse) had grown tired of their invisibility and jumped to dance in the aisle, taking every bump in the road as an opportunity to fall into a lap or present their barely covered assets. The girl with the cat ears was locked in embrace with a blonde pixie who shed glitter endlessly, passionately exploring each other's bodies with hands and tongues.

And enthroned at the end of the car, presiding over the debauchery like a pagan god of sex and wine; Jaxx. He was flanked by Cindy and Aurora, beautiful and deadly in their villainous costumes. They protected their privileged positions from the jealous jostling of less fortunate girls. Nubile bodies vied for his attention, some on their knees on limousine floor. He wore that fucking smirk proudly the entire time, presiding over his domain. Did he make eye contact with me? I must have been imagining it. But I caught it a second time. A moment of acknowledgement; eyes locking through the smoke. Even at distance, his cold grey stare triggered a jolting shiver down my spine.

If I wanted more than that brief glance, I'd have to get closer.

Do more.

But the competition was too fierce, the arena overwhelming. I didn't stand a chance.

Just as I was considering wriggling out of Jaelen's arm and retreating to a safer corner of the car, we swerved and jolted to a stop. The sudden motion threw both dancers into Jaxx's lap, and there was a great burst of confusion-- giggling and shrieking from the girls, complaints from Cindy and Natalie, and a deep chuckle as Jaxx's hands wandered under the bottoms of short skirts.

"This is our stop ladies." He rumbled in a mock-heroic voice, sending up a chorus of drunken cheers from all around. Everyone was ready for the real party.

Everyone except me.

The door flew open, and in came the sudden sounds of voices shouting, the dull thumping of loud electronic music in the distance. In seconds, the car was empty, and the door's slam shut left only thoughts echoing in my head. I was out of my depth. I didn't belong. I was in pain, and humiliating myself. Maybe if I asked the driver nicely he would take me back to 001.

Then the door was open again; the sounds and lights of the club entered with Jaxx, one hand extended, s-symbol shining with reflected light. The suit only made his fucking smirk more aggravating.

"Come on, don't be a pussy."

Though the word made me wince, he didn't spit it with his usual derision. A brief moment of clarity: it was a test-- he was pushing, to see what I would do. I had to answer him. I wanted him to respect me, at least a little. My cheeks flushed as I mustered every ounce of my feeble confidence,

"Go fuck yourself, *Superman*"

I hoped the emphasis I added was rebellious, but he just smiled and pulled as I grabbed his hand. His huge paw enveloped mine up to the wrist, easily dragged me out the limousine and set me on unsteady heels.

I was flooded by cold air and bright lights and the loud slurred conversations of the long line of people waiting, huddled against the building. Standing in the bracing chill, I wobbled on drunk legs, felt my exposed legs and midriff prickle with goosebumps, my nipples going hard under my top. I clung to the cape like a childhood teddy bear, fingers compulsively kneading the soft fabric as I shivered in fear, cold, and nerves.

Then there was hot skin against my back, and sultry breath in my ear,

"Don't worry 'lil slut. It'll be warm inside, and we can **dance*.*"

Cindy punctuated her promise with a firm squeeze of my ass. Despite her rudeness, I was glad she hadn't forgotten me. She slithered around my side and before I knew it we were locked in a kiss, her tongue exploring my mouth in her dominating way. I could smell the alcohol, strong on her breath, and her hands matched tongue, roaming me aggressively. As she pulled away, I was so dazed it took a few seconds to comprehend the hooting of the portion of the line nearby, loudly admiring our embrace. When it did register, my whole body went hot, and an electric tingle shot from head to toe and back to my frustrated clit.

Jaelen had already walked ahead, two girls under each arm, another couple in tow. Cindy and I were swept up as Jaxx herded us in the same direction, and I clung to her under his arm.

With the kiss, the crowd had gone from subtly eyeing our group to outright gawking, and they let us know their displeasure when they saw Jaxx and Jaelen bypassing the line.

"Yo, where the fuck they going?"

"Damn look at that bitch with the tiddies!"

"Hey Harley, I'm the Joker baby!"

"Get in line!"

"Bro, check out these sluts!"

"You can't do that!"

"Yo Supergirl, suck on this!"

"God damn!!"

"Aye chill you fuckin' weirdo!"

"Harley?!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

We were swept along by the guys, unconcerned with the jumble of jeers and come-ons, the other girls laughing and drinking and groping our bodyguards as they drove us toward the club entrance.

I however, couldn't resist being concerned. When I'd heard my costume called out, I'd turned and caught the cat caller's bloodshot leer. He was an average height, thick man with long greasy-looking hair and a stubble beard. He was wearing a white t-shirt with red letters that spelled out "ORGASM DONOR." But what really horrified me was that as a bottom, all he had was a hospital gown, which he had pulled up so his dark, fleshy package was hanging out in the open, jostling as he thrust lewdly.

It was obscenity I wasn't prepared for. I snapped away, my cheeks scorching in embarrassment as someone in crowd remonstrated the flasher. Coincidentally, I found Cindy's emerald gaze and held it for a moment, but no words came to mind to express the feelings roiling inside me.

Cindy hadn't seen it, and smiled sympathetically at what must have been a horrified expression. Before she could speak, Jaxx's arms abruptly left our shoulders, and I shivered in the sudden absence of his protection.

We had reached a red felt barrier that cordoned off three husky looking bouncers wearing matching suits, grimaces, and ear-pieces. Beyond them, the large, ornate door of the club; windows above and around that pulsed in time to the thumping bass in a rainbow of swimming colours.

I almost hoped the bouncers might share the crowd's sentiments, take issue with our boldness, direct us to the back of the line, end the night before it began. But that was a foolish hope, and as Jaxx approached with his cocky smirk, the foremost bouncer's grimace broke into a wide smile. They clapped each other up, and after a short, quiet conversation, the bouncer pulled a section of the barrier back and made way. Jaxx motioned us after him and lead the way in, as the two other bouncers swung the doors opened before him. With significant trepidation, but Cindy's unyielding grip urging me forward, I followed into the yawning black hole that was the entrance.

Inside, we paused to let our eyes adjust. There was a short hallway with mirrors lining both sides, and shadowy reflections of our group paced and faded in and out of sight, making me think of some sort of veiled, liminal passage to another world. The bass had swelled to a dull roar inside, giving everything a near-apocalyptic aspect. Or maybe that was just my imagination.