Author's Note: I'm going to take a moment to recap, for two reasons. (1) A few of you may have skipped the first part just to get to the sex scene which I said would be in this chapter. (2) It's been a solid month since I posted the first chapter, and the more patient readers would probably like to be reminded what's happened so they don't have to re-read.
Vicky and Jonas have been dating for six months, but most of that time they've had to keep it secret under threat of them both being expelled from the university, on top of the possibilities of Jonas losing his job and Vicky being deported back to the UK. To make matters worse, in the past month Jonas has been neglecting Vicky's emotional and sexual needs in order to meet the demands of his graduate thesis. He's aware that she resents that and he's afraid she might break up with him.
And that pretty much catches all you guys up. On with the show! Enjoy!
#
I resolved to let fate decide. I continued working on my thesis, hoping that if our love was meant to be, it would endure and guide us through this sexual and emotional wasteland.
It was a week after I'd had to turn down Vicky in the classroom, and I hadn't seen her since, not even on the weekend. I was just too busy. The only contact we'd made was through some idle texting and Snapchatting that amounted to nothing and only reaffirmed the distance between us.
There was still a lot of work to do, and I was low on time—it was just a few hours till midnight. I had to rewrite the last few pages of a section that analyzed Lovecraft's use of old decrepit architecture in his settings. Milton sympathized that it was tough going, so he had loaned me his office for the past few days. It was more preferable to my shared cubicle in the grad student's bullpen, and the library too, which at this time of the semester was packed full of students doing the same thing I was—working on their term papers. Milton's office had all the reference materials I needed, his computer had undeterred access to JSTOR and other premium indexes, and to top it all off, it was private and secluded deep in the English Department building, with a coffee machine three doors down the hallway in the lounge. Instrumental music helped me concentrate so I had my earphones in and was completely engrossed by my work.
A shadow suddenly appeared over the keyboard and someone's hands grabbed my shoulders.
I jumped out of my chair, startled half to death.
"Whoa there," the owner of the shadow said. It was Vicky.
My heart was still pounding madly in my throat, but I tried to calm it down. "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."
"Yeah, I saw that you had your headphones on," Vicky said. "What were you listening to?"
"
Death Note
score."
Vicky giggled, something very uncharacteristic of her lately. "Yeah, mix that ominous music with Lovecraft and you certainly have a creepy atmosphere." She looked down at the empty coffee cups on the desk. "Coffee jitters don't help."
I couldn't help but notice her demeanor. "Are you high?" I asked.
Vicky shrugged. "Meh... not even half-baked." Meaning she'd already had a puff or two.
But as relieved as I was to see her, and to see her in such a good mood, I couldn't help but be cautious. I closed the door to the office, but not before looking out into the hallway to insure we were alone. This late, the custodians were long gone, but the campus police did random patrols. "Why are you here, Vicky?"
"Rebecca's
'hosting a guest'
in our dorm—" She used air quotes, so it obviously meant her roommate was having sex. "—the Kappas are hogging the common room, and everything else is closed, so I just thought I'd pay you a visit."
"You know better than to do that, Vick. It's too risky."
"It's the middle of the night. We'll be okay, no one's going to see us together."
"The campus police—" I began.
"—have their hands full with the baseball regionals tonight."
"The CCTV..."
Vicky rolled her eyes. "They purge the records every week, and they don't look at them unless they have a reason to. They don't give a ruddy fuck who we are. Common sense. Jonas, would you relax, please?"
She took a step toward me, and for the first time I realized what she was wearing. A pleated dress, all black with matching Toms. Her nipples—perpetually erect because they were pierced—were poking through the thin cotton fabric, indicating she wasn't wearing a bra.
Vicky was no stranger to dresses, but she didn't wear them often. There had to be an occasion. "Why are you here, Vicky?" I asked her again.
"I told you," she said, hooking a finger around a button on my shirt and looking coyly into my eyes. "I came to see you. I miss you..."
Despite her lighter spirits at the moment, it still broke my heart to hear her say
I miss you
—which she had been saying a
lot
for the past few months; I heard it almost as much as
I love you
. "Look, I miss you too, but I have a ton of work to do. And I have to finish it all tonight."
"See, I heard different. Rebecca said the grad theses and dissertations aren't due for another two weeks."
"Due in two weeks for the committees. I still have to turn in my final draft to my advisor for review. That deadline is in the morning, and I still have a few pages left to rewrite. I'm gonna be up all night."
Vicky perked up. "But that means that you're going to be free for the weekend, right?"
"I'm actually going to take that time to catch up on grading papers..."
"Such bollocks," Vicky grumbled, letting go of my shirt and lightly punching me in the chest.
"I know, I'm sorry." I withdrew from Vicky and took a sip of my coffee. It had gone tepid but I didn't care because I needed the boost. Just talking about deadlines was stressing me out more than Vicky's presence. I took off my glasses and rubbed the bridge of my nose.
"You really need to relax, sweetie," Vicky said. "And that's the other reason why I'm here." She reached into her canvas tote and pulled out a glass pipe and a little pill bottle of marijuana buds.
"I can't afford to get high right now; I need to concentrate."
Milton had a small sofa in his office, for guests and reading (we English majors did a lot of that), so Vicky sat down on it and started prepping the pipe.
"This is really mellow stuff, I swear. Really low key," Vicky said. "It'll calm you down. Being chill and slow-baked will do more good for your concentration than being sober and stressed out—trust me, babe."
I had to admit she had a point. "Okay... Just a hit or two, I guess."
"That's my boy..." Vicky smiled and patted the cushion next to her.
I pulled out my zippo—which I always had on me—and took a seat next to her. Vicky immediately handed me the packed pipe. I lit up and took a moderate hit. It smelled heavy and tasted really sour, which I didn't expect. I exhaled, coughing softly a few times. "I thought you said this was light stuff. What's it called? Tastes familiar."
Vicky took the pipe. "Jabberwocky, I think. Not sure. And I meant the
high
is low-key."
She brought her legs up onto the couch and took a hit herself, a deep one. Before she exhaled, she grabbed my chin and brought my face close to hers. She passed the smoke to me through a shallow kiss, something we frequently liked to do. I drew back and held it in, which was tough because there was no oxygen in it. Vicky undid the first few buttons of my shirt, slipped her hand in, and rubbed my bare chest as I exhaled.
We had gone so long without physical contact—a solid week, and even then it was that unfulfilling snog in the classroom—that Vicky's smoky kiss and gentle touch on my chest had me reeling. Or maybe it was just the weed.
Either way, something was stirred in my loins and I was beginning to get turned on. Unfortunately, I still had work to do, and promised myself only a couple puffs.
"That'll do it," I said with finality, getting off the sofa. "Got to hit the books."
Vicky looked disappointed again, although not as bad as before. "But I just got here. I thought I'd have a little more time with you..."
I cracked open the window behind Milton's desk. I didn't want to trigger the smoke alarm, or let the smell set in on his furniture. "You can stick around for a while if you want, but I have to keep working."