Nicole wasn't used to being stared at. She wasn't really the type of woman that men paid much attention to; she was short, and pudgy, and she had muddy brown eyes and mousy brown hair. She wore thick chunky glasses and dumb hats she knitted herself and she dressed in black but not in a cool gothy way, just in a 'I don't know what matches' way, and she only looked at people when she thought they weren't looking at them. People didn't look at Nicole, let alone stare at her, and she was happy with that.
Someone was staring at Nicole right now.
He was a boy, maybe a year or two younger than her--a freshman instead of a junior, probably. He was standing on the sidewalk, maybe twenty feet away from where she was sitting, and he was looking at her with nervous indecision. The kind of look boys got in movies when they were working up the courage to ask a girl out. Nicole was pretty sure he wasn't doing that, though. She was pretty good with faces, and his didn't look familiar to her even a little bit. Not even in the way that she had gotten used to seeing some people walk past every day while she was studying and eating lunch. This boy was a stranger, but he was staring at her. She looked back down at her book, unsure of what to do with herself.
Out of the corner of her eye, Nicole saw him walking over to her.
His shadow fell across the page she was reading. She looked up, squinting a little against the late spring sunlight. He had this really nervous expression on his face, like he was about do do something someone dared him to do. Nicole felt a sudden, sick sense of worry in her gut--junior high and high school had left her with a certain amount of healthy skepticism when it came to cute guys spontaneously asking her on dates, and this boy was pretty cute. Really really curly blond hair, and sea-foam green eyes, and skin that looked like it had never even seen a pimple. Nicole started to gather up her stuff out of automatic defensive anticipation.
"Um...okay, hi," he said, his breath hitching in his throat. "Oh man. Um...Tim? From Fluid Mechanics? He, um...he told me to tell you..." The boy looked like his throat was closing up. Nicole felt almost disoriented by his shyness. Normally she was the one who had to work to get out simple sentences. She was so distracted by his attack of nerves that she almost didn't register what he was saying. "Um...bobblehead."
Nicole nodded. Then she smiled. Then she nodded again. Of course. Tim. She remembered now. She nodded at the memory. Tim was her partner last semester, back when they did that hydraulics project together. Her smile widened as she thought back to their study sessions. He was so good about her shyness, he told her he could help. She realized she hadn't stopped nodding since hearing the word 'bobblehead', but that only made her more happy. Because it meant that she remembered her lessons.
"Um...wanna take a walk with me?" the boy asked, gesturing back to the sidewalk. Nicole nodded and smiled. It felt like she couldn't stop now. She was floating on a warm sea of acceptance and relaxation, and smiling meant that she was happy and nodding meant that she was agreeable and together they meant that she was comfortable with everything that was happening. She remembered now. Tim told her that would happen, whenever someone reminded her of his silly little dolly. She picked up her backpack and stood up.
It was a very silly little dolly, she remembered. A sportsball player, she didn't know which kind, with a big wide grin and a head that wobbled with every bump of the table. Tim told her to just keep her eyes on the silly little dolly whenever she got nervous, watch the way that its head bounced and bobbled and swayed. And the more she watched the dolly, the more her stress would float away with every giggle at the silly little dolly's silly little smile. Until she smiled just like the dolly. Until her head nodded and bobbed and wobbled just like the dolly. Until Nicole was a bobblehead too.
The boy led Nicole down one of the walking paths, past the Engineering building and down through the commons, but Nicole didn't really see her surroundings. In her mind's eye, she was seeing the doll's head, nodding like it was on a spring. Nicole nodded like that too, when she was a bobblehead. That was because Nicole always agreed when she was a bobblehead. Nicole's mind was empty and plastic, a vacant little dolly head with a happy smile. Nicole didn't think when she was a bobblehead. She just agreed. That was easier. Nicole didn't have to worry about a thing when she was always happy and agreeable.
It was so nice, feeling that tension slip away. Being a bobblehead meant that she didn't have to worry about saying the wrong thing or looking the wrong way or being too weird or too smart or too sad. She was happy and she did what she was told, and that made people happy right back. Nicole felt so grateful to Tim for teaching her how to be a bobblehead. She felt so grateful to the boy leading her by the hand for reminding her how to be a bobblehead. She felt so grateful to herself for letting go and being a bobblehead. It all expanded into a big bubble of bliss that crowded out all her thoughts and left her nice and empty.
The boy led her into some bushes just off the walking path down by the river. A few discarded condoms told Nicole that he wasn't the first person to take someone for a walk down here, where the late spring leaves hid them from any passers by and the sound of rushing water covered any moans. She'd been here before, Nicole remembered. Bobbleheads like her weren't good at remembering, which was why Nicole always forgot times like this, but it felt warm and familiar and happy. Nicole felt like she knew what was about to happen next.
"Um..." The boy looked a little nervous, like he had rubbed the magic lamp and now wasn't sure if he was ready to risk making a wish. "Could you, um." He swallowed hard. "Could you get down on your knees and suck my cock?"
