Chapter 4 - The Shackles Of The Self
Lucy is angry.
One may wonder how I know that. After all, I'm curled up naked under her desk, exhausted by hours of slavish chores. I can't even see her, since one of her socked feet is triumphantly draped over my eyes as she rocks back and forth in her gaming chair.
The other, of course, is firmly lodged in my mouth.
Still, I know my ex-girlfriend well enough that I can tell, in my gut, when she's angry. I can tell by how aggressively she's tapping on the screen of my smartphone, ignoring the videogame she was playing until moments ago. I can tell by the sharp hitch in her breath and the huffing sounds she occasionally makes.
And of course, I love her deeply enough that I'd do anything to calm her displeasure, to win even the smallest shred of approval. To get confirmation that I'm on the path of atonement, and I'll get to be her girlfriend again some day.
Lucy shifts above me, her foot pressing harder against my forehead as she leans back in her chair. With the motion, she idly wiggles her toes in my mouth with the other foot, and I flinch at the sensation. The fabric of her sock is damp with sweat, and I can feel the rough texture scraping against my tongue.
She's been wearing these socks for days, and the smell is overwhelming. It falls on me to clean them by sucking all the sweat out.
Don't mistake this for sex, she told me when she had me crawl under here. It's understandable why she'd tell me that. What with my naked body, and all, one might think... but no: I'm not her girlfriend after all, and I have no right to sexual contact with her.
Don't mistake this for sex: this is laundry.
I hollow my cheeks and suck, suck, suck. There's a mindless peace to it. I can just lie here and siphon every drop of foot sweat out of my ex-girlfriend's socks, while she idly rifles through the eroticized ruins of my social media life. Of my reputation.
No thinking, no responsibilities, no input, no decisions. Just being her sock-washer and letting her do whatever she wants to my life.
Is there anything more surrendery than that?
Lucy returns her attention to my phone, her fingers tapping angrily. I wonder what she's looking at, but I don't dare to ask. The suspense gnaws at me, but I know better than to interrupt her when she's in a mood like this.
She pauses, and for a moment I hope that she's finished with whatever is upsetting her. But then she lets out a derisive snort and mutters something under her breath. I brace myself for the explosion, for the verbal lashing that will surely come, but it doesn't.
Instead, she stretches, her body arching in a way that momentarily lifts her foot from my forehead.
The reprieve is short-lived. She settles back into her chair, her foot coming down with a thud on my head. Then, failing to contain her frustration any longer, she finally speaks up.
"You were banned from this site, too."
Ah. That's why she's angry. That's not exactly surprising, given the content she's been posting in my name...
"Your friends are such losers, you know? All I've done is make your social media presence much more honest. Everyone now knows how you feel about me, and what you're doing to make it up to me for your disgusting behavior. You're living out your slave lifestyle in public. And yet they keep reporting you."
I want to say something, anything that will win me a little validation from Lucy, but I can't. I have an important job, sucking the sweat out of her sock. All I can do is flop my tongue uselessly against the foot invading my mouth.
It's hard to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach as I imagine what she's been posting on my social media accounts.
I've seen glimpses, of course. There are photos of me on my hands and knees, scrubbing the floor in a cocktail dress I bought for an anniversary with her. My hair is perfectly done up, my makeup flawless. I look ready to step into a limo with my arm around a stunning girl. Instead, I'm her sexy little maid.
There are videos of me worshipping her feet, thanking her for the privilege of being her slave.
Even my professional profiles haven't been spared. My JobHunt profile now features an avatar of me in my graduation dress (a gift from my parents), hand-washing Lucy's grimy floor while her foot rests daintily above my neck. Like she's a huntress posing with her prey.
The caption reads 'Aspiring girlfriend interning in hopes of earning a future role.'
"The one redeeming thing that can be said about them is that they post funny comments sometimes," Lucy says from above. "Look at this one. It's from some guy named Leonard, no clue who the fuck that is. Must be some 'friend' you made after you broke up with me."
She clears her throat and starts reading.
"Bruh, imagine reaching this level of simp lmao. Get therapy. And they say dudes are the ones who get desperate."
As much as the comment makes me squirm like a worm pinned underfoot, it makes Lucy giggle with such pure joy. "That's harsh! But hey, it's not like he's wrong." She glances down at me with that smirk that always makes me feel like I'm about to be punished. "You are desperate, aren't you?"
I make a muffled noise around her foot--something between a whimper and a whine--but Lucy doesn't seem to care. She resumes her scrolling, and the angry tapping, and the huffing.
To fight off the ban wave, she's recently started to make original content, so to speak. Now, a lot of my chores are filmed and uploaded in video format, under the guise of a channel advocating for a "trad homemaking lesbian lifestyle". There's only one video that doesn't prominently feature chores...
Just thinking about that makes me squirm feebly under Lucy's feet. In preparation for that video, she'd been especially cruel and distant to for days, leaving me groveling at her feet, pleading for just one sniff, one taste of her. When she finally relented, shoving her foot in my face, I broke down sobbing in pathetic gratitude.
And of course, she filmed the whole thing. Posted it for the world to see, with the title: "How to turn your ex-girlfriend into your dog."
The thought of that moment, my lowest point, being broadcast to everyone I know makes me want to curl up and die from humiliation. But even that escape is denied to me. Lucy won't let me hide. She wants me exposed, wants everyone to witness my debasement.
These additions give Lucy an additional outlet to humble and chastise me, but they don't really make up for the ban wave. And she's angry about it.