Apologies for the delay. Life intervened. I will try to catch-up a little bit these next couple of days.
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Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
I woke strangely early in the morning. Remembering that it was Tuesday- and technically my normal lecture schedule was happening, I tore myself out of bed as gently as possible so as to let Cindy continue to sleep. She looked peaceful, and happy. Overtaken by a warm feeling I pulled the cover higher to cover her breasts, copping only a momentary feel.
I met Alex coming out of the shower. He looked hungover, and almost walked into me. "Dude," he groaned, "your girlfriend is CRAZY. She bought a whole freaking bottle of tequila and had us doing shots until it was empty."
I grinned at my flat-mate, a guy I knew more as a social drinker and not as a heavy drinker. "Good night, was it?"
He managed to grin back. "One of the top three. Even Irina got a little wacky. It's a little hazy, but I think Cindy and Irina might have kissed at one point."
My grin grew wider alongside my eyes. That was an image I could enjoy. "That must have been hot. Turn you on, did it?" I asked Alex bluntly.
He grew red, and I noticed an involuntary twitch of his eye towards the shower. The freak must have jerked off in there. "Uh... Yeah. Really hot." He mumbled.
"Irina in your room?" I asked Alex.
"Yeah, why?" He replied a little suspicious. In answer I turned my friend by the shoulders to face down the hallway towards his bedroom. "Go ask her whether she liked it. Tell her you liked it too. Then tell her what you just did in the shower." I told him, then pushed him towards his door.
Five minutes later, when I came out of the shower myself (efficiently alone), I paused to listen at his door, and hear a rhythmic squeaking of springs come from the other side. My private smile must have split my face in half.
I let Cindy continue her blissful sleep. There would be enough of a hangover for her when she woke later. I did leave a note for her telling her two things. First, that I hoped she had slept well, and that if she woke up before midday she should text me so that we could meet for lunch. And secondly, that I knew about her kiss with Irina, and that if Alex and Irina didn't show their faces, it was probably because they were cooped up in their room being otherwise occupied. I suggested she not disturb them unnecessarily.
With that I left for my lecture.
I barely made it to the lecture hall on time, and a whisper went through the gaggle of girls that shared the class with me. At least one of them - given their study interests, probably all of them - had obviously been at my speech the previous day. From the smiles they were directing my way I guessed that I had impressed them. How I had managed that feat was still unclear to me.
Professor Lex put a stop to their whispering quickly with a sharp eye, and started the class. I took my customary seat, and had a very good two hours in the lecture. Me and the professor fought heatedly with words over the supposedly 'natural' devolution of power, and in the professor's eyes also of sovereignty, to an increasingly wider audience.
Don't get me wrong, the professor was by no means a Marxist, quite the contrary - she had little more than a passing interest in a historical evolution of class structures, but an abundant respect for the necessity of bureaucratic administration to allow for a sharing of power amongst those involved in the bureaucracy. By her argument, as empires and domains increased in size, population and function a society required ever-increasing spread of its powers to devolved persons or entities, such as counts, earls, marshalls, guilds, mayors, etc.
I, on the other hand, argued that this devolution was by no means natural. I did agree that a king with an increasingly large empire would self-evidently need to rely on others to enforce his will at a distance, and administer to all of the small necessities required for the functioning of an evolving society. But in my opinion, since the king had the capacity to choose with whom he shared that power, and since all of the power still derived from his supposed divine right to rule, there was nothing natural about the process. Furthermore, for the same reasons, any such power reverted back to the king at his choosing and at his will - assuming that the key figures supporting his rule, be it the army, the populace or the other administrators, backed the king up.
The other students all gave their two cents to the discussion - a surprising number actually choosing to fall somewhere in the middle, arguing that the devolution was necessary, but that only through successive generations would it become a permanent restriction on kingship, and that further devolution of power required the populace requesting that devolution to speak up.
Class ended without a conclusion to the discussion, and Prof. Lex let us go with the promise that our essays would be returned the next week. She also held me back as I was about to leave. "That was quite an impressive speech yesterday." She declared neutrally - perhaps because some of the other students - girls - were still packing away their books.
"Thanks." I muttered. "Was written by a friend of mine."
That earned me a sharp glance from the Professor. "Don't ever admit to having ghostwriters." She admonished me in hushed tones. She eyed the girls as they slipped past me out the door, then focused back on me once the room was empty. "Everybody with a brain can figure out that you didn't write the speech yourself. I've read enough of your essays to know that wasn't the way you'd express yourself. You have a tendency to... rant."
