A Slave's Doubts
Something felt off.
Melissa tugged on the straps of her bra, her breasts jiggling in the lace demi-cups. She angled her face in the mirror, trying to determine if perhaps her makeup wasn't right, or if her sandy blonde pigtails weren't falling like they should. But no matter how she twisted and turned, she could spy no cause for concern, no source for the gnawing unease in her stomach.
She frowned, puzzled, and cast a cursory glance around the slave quarters. None of the other girls seemed to share her discomfort. They were all as they should be: bouncing restlessly on the beds or touching up their appearances at the vanity mirrors, accompanied by the usual chorus of giggles and gossip. It was a morning just like any other. So why did Melissa feel so...restless?
She turned to the mirror again, and tried putting on a smile instead. There, that was better: that was the way a proper slave should look. Melissa wasn't as fit as some of her fellow sluts, but her soft, luscious curves always got plenty of attention from her Masters and patrons alike. She tried out several provocative poses, her confidence growing with every coquettish wink and teasing hair twirl. But then she blinked and, for the briefest of moments, the enticing girl in the maid lingerie vanished, replaced by a dowdy doppelganger in a drab skirt and tightly buttoned blouse. Before Melissa could comprehend what she was seeing, the vision disappeared, leaving her staring into her own wide, confused eyes.
It couldn't be...was she still thinking about that...?
"Mornin' Mel," a lithe, sable-haired girl yawned, plopping down on the neighboring seat. It was Brooke, a fellow house slut and Melissa's de factor partner-in-crime. "Excited for tonight?"
Melissa tried her smile on again, even as a fresh wave of anxiety seized her. "Uh, yeah, can't wait."
"Same," Brooke grinned, pursing her rosy lips to apply a fresh coat of gloss. "Gonna be a looottta competition this year though. You see the new girl? She's practically soaking the floor where she walks. It's adorable. Reminds me of your first homecoming party when...whoa, you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, totally," Melissa swallowed. "Um, why do you ask?"
Brooke raised an eyebrow. "You seem kinda like you're...somewhere else. And not in the 'thinking-about-getting-dicked-stupid' kinda way. You didn't chip a tooth or something, did you?"
"Oh, um, no, nothing like that," Melissa quickly assured her friend. "It's fine. I'm just..."
"Just...what?"
Melissa bit her lip. She should've known better than to try and bluff Brooke. The two of them had been best friends for almost a year, pretty much since Melissa's first day at Alpha Rho. Most sluts preferred not to work with error-prone newbies, but Brooke hadn't hesitated to take the fledgling Melissa under her wing, guiding her from protégé to partner to...something more. It wasn't long before they'd become experts on each other, fluent in the sighs that signaled boredom and the moans that meant the other's tongue had found the exact right spot. They were an unstoppable duo at parties, the interplay of Brooke's sex kitten allure and Melissa's Midwestern innocence able to seduce even the most selective of patrons. The two sluts always had each other's backs, always kept each other's secrets.
So...why was it so hard for Melissa to speak the truth now?
"Mel?" Brooke pressed, craning her neck to meet her partner's averted gaze. "C'mon, talk to me here. What's on your mind?"
"It..." Melissa cast a glance over her shoulder then lowered her voice. "It's about that guy from the store."
"The bible-humper?" Brooke exclaimed. "Seriously?"
"Not so loud!" Melissa hissed, eyes darting to make sure none of the other girls were listening in.
"Sorry, it's just...I thought you were over this."
"I am. Or...was," Melissa admitted, ashamed.
The encounter in question had happened a week ago, while the two of them were grocery shopping off-campus. Brooke had left to find some item they'd forgotten, leaving Melissa mindlessly browsing the magazine rack alone. Then, out of the blue, a stranger in a polo shirt and khakis accosted her, claiming to be Chris, her long lost boyfriend. At first, Melissa had simply tittered and brushed him off. It wasn't unusual for owned sluts like her to have strange interactions with students, especially former patrons trying to talk their way into a free ride. It was possible she had slept with a Chris prior to Alpha Rho—maybe they had even gone on a date or two. It didn't really matter: Melissa didn't care much for dwelling on the past, and she knew there was no way a slut like her had ever matched the object of affection the desperate boy described.
Then he had showed her the ring.
It was a simple little thing, pathetic compared to some of the gifts patrons had bought her. Still, she'd found herself strangely fascinated by it, unable to look away as Chris insisted this "purity ring" had once been hers. He'd claimed it represented a promise between them, an oath to stay virginal and true until they were happily married. It was such an absurd notion, Melissa had almost burst out laughing right there in the store. But when he offered to put the ring on her finger, the mirth instantly died in her throat. There'd been something...familiar about the gesture, something that suddenly made her deathly afraid of the shiny silver band, as though once she put it on, she would never be able to remove it.
Fortunately, Brooke had arrived shortly thereafter, and chased Chris away before things got any weirder. At the time, the two girls had laughed the whole episode off, interpreting it as an unusually crafty attempt to get into Melissa's panties.
But now...now she wasn't so sure.
"So what's the deal?" Brooke crossed her arms. "Why are you hung up on some loser virgin that ambushed you in a Kroger?"
"I'm not 'hung up on him,'" Melissa insisted, the words sounding hollow even to her ears.
"But..?"
"But, well..." Melissa let out an exasperated sigh. "I looked him up afterwards, okay? And...I found his Facebook profile..."
"Oh no," Brooke shook her head. "Please tell me you didn't."
Melissa toyed anxiously with her hair, trying and failing to laugh. "I...I don't know what came over me. I just...got curious or something, I guess. But I was going through his photos and I found...all these pictures of him and me together. And...other stuff too. Like, there's this video of me in a church and...I'm giving this whole speech, about sin and, um, temptation and...it doesn't make sense, right? Because that totally isn't me, and yet, it
is
me, and—"
Brooke held up a hand, halting Melissa mid-spiral. "Mel, relax. Don't you see where you went wrong?"
"Huh?" Melissa blinked. "Wh-what do you mean?"
Brooke gave her a knowing look. "This is what our Masters warned us about. Remember? You're thinking too much."
The phrase hit Melissa's brain like a calming breeze. "I'm thinking too much," she repeated, the words slipping from her lips in an automatic murmur.
"Thinking too much is bad for us," Brooke continued, her own expression relaxing. "It makes us sad and unhappy. That's why we let Masters do the hard thinking for us. So we can be happy and fun all the time."
Melissa nodded, her eyelids drooping. A strange fuzziness had descended on her, slowing and smothering her thoughts. Yet strangely, it took no effort at all to agree with what Brooke was saying, nor did Melissa hesitate to add: "I want to be happy and fun. I want to be a good slut."
Brooke smiled. "And good sluts don't need to think."
"Good sluts don't need to think." Melissa exhaled, the tension that had been clawing through her body receding. For a moment, she just sat there, smiling at Brooke, enjoying the blissful fog that always seemed to return whenever the two of them chatted for long enough. It was probably why they were such good friends, Melissa mused. She had never enjoyed conversations this soothing before...
Before...something about...before...