Chapter 5
Veronica turned as she heard the door open. "Hey Chels," she called, throwing her voice around the back of the couch and down the hall. "Maddi and I are thinkin' of checking out the Delta Omega Alpha party tonight. You in?"
If Chelsea heard, she didn't reply. Veronica shot a quizzical look at Maddi sitting on the chair across from her, but the muscular red-head only shrugged. "Chelsea?" Veronica tried again, only to be met with similar silence. She sighed and carefully set her nail polish aside, holding her half-painted nails aloft as she stood and walked down the hall.
Sure enough, Chelsea was in the foyer, wresting her jacket from the packed closet. But something was...off. Her styled blonde hair and impeccable makeup were ready for a Friday night out, but her yoga pants and striped tank-top combo definitely was not. And...was she not wearing a bra underneath?
"Yo, Chels," Veronica said as she padded closer. Her friend turned, appearing to register the greeting this time.
"Oh, hey," Chelsea said, seeming distracted as she threw her coat on. "What's up?"
"You, uh, you doing okay?" Veronica asked. "Your mom finally call you or something?"
"Huh?" Chelsea blinked. "Oh, um. No. Not yet."
"Okay so...do you wanna come with me and Maddi to—"
"Sorry, I can't." Chelsea interrupted. "I have to go and uh...take care of some...thing..." her voice trailed off, her gaze becoming oddly dull and distant as she turned and headed out the door.
Veronica stood in the empty foyer for a moment, trying and failing to process what she just witnessed before drifting back into the common area.
"What was that all about?" Maddi asked.
"Dunno," Veronica answered, dropping back onto the couch. "Guess she's got somewhere to be."
Maddi chuckled. "Better be somewhere good if she's sneakin' out like that."
Veronica sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I just hope she's okay. She's seemed really strung-out all week."
"Did she finally get the call from momma-saurus-rex? Thought I heard her on the phone when I came in."
"Wait, really?" Veronica sat up. "With who?"
"Dunno. She had it on speaker, but I couldn't really make out the other voice," Maddi squinted in thought. "Although...it did kinda sound like..." she let out a frustrated sigh. "Ah, never mind. Think I'm imagining things."
"Some help you are." Veronica sank into the sofa, disappointed.
Maddi smirked. "Are you worried that she's got a boy on the hook? Or maybe even a girl?" she added with a devilish grin.
Veronica shot Maddi a glare, not appreciating the jab. "Very funny. But that's not it. She would tell me if she was seeing somebody."
Or at least, Veronica hoped she would. But there was no need to tell Maddi that, especially when she had just teased Veronica about her own amorous history.
In truth, there was one other time that Chelsea had acted this way. It was back when the two of them were in high school, when Chelsea had secretly started dating a boy without her mother's approval. What started as a rebellious fling turned into a fight that left Chelsea locked in her room for days. To save face and reassure her mother, Chelsea had to humiliate her poor beau on Christmas, spinning the whole affair as a demonstration of her manipulative might. But Veronica knew better. She had seen Chelsea's hidden glances turn to hidden tears.
Whatever her best friend's new secret was, Veronica hoped to God it had a happier ending. Hiding her own feelings while helping Chelsea up had been bad enough the first time—Veronica wasn't sure she had strength to do it again. If there was one thing she had learned from their friendship, it was that denial wasn't the death of desire—it was the fuel.
And all it would take was the right spark to set it ablaze.
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Seb hesitated as he mounted the steps to the graduate library. The Grad (as it was called) was an infamously ominous presence: a towering cathedral-like structure hidden down a forested path. Its stone façade and gothic architecture were the pride and joy of the school, remnants from the days when Diepner was known more for its seminary than its social scene. Now the lonely building felt less like a holy beacon and more like a lonely ghost. Seb supposed that was why there were rumors of the halls being haunted, and why even the most studious of students tended to avoid it.
He hoped dearly that held true tonight.
Seb swiped his student ID through the entrance card reader and pushed open the heavy oak doors. The receptionist didn't even bother looking up from her phone as he slipped into the library proper. The ground level held mostly open desks and furniture for studying, but the second floor was an absolute maze of overladen shelves and forgotten pushcarts. Warm lighting filtered through the rows of academic journals and textbooks, creating pockets of intimate shadows. Not only did the tomes block long sightlines, but their thick paper binding also worked as impromptu sound-proofing: even on high alert as he was, Seb still had to strain to hear the sound of his own footsteps as he ventured deeper into the Grad.
He had to hand it to Chelsea: she had picked the perfect place for a covert rendezvous. The question was if she would make it as well.
Seb's heart hammered in his ears as he neared their agreed meeting point. The naked photo on his phone was proof enough of the Vox's efficacy over the airwaves, but controlling Chelsea remotely had proven far more taxing than he had expected. It made a kind of sense, he guessed: the Vox seemed to feed off of his own lust and desire, so it followed that controlling a subject would come more naturally in person than at a remove. Still, forcing his power through the scratchy phone speaker had left him feeling tired and woozy. A part of him worried that, even if Chelsea showed up, he would struggle to overcome her considerable mental barriers.
Fortunately, the part between his legs didn't harbor the same doubts.
With a deep breath and a silent prayer, Seb rounded the corner. For a moment, his heart froze.
There she was. Staring through a shelf of scientific histories, her red lips parted vacantly, her unzipped jacket starting to slip from her slumped shoulders, her bare skin the color of cream. If he was worried about the Vox's stamina, those fears were swiftly put to rest. It took all of Seb's willpower to contain its eagerness, forcing him to announce his approach with a strained cough.
Chelsea blinked, the light returning to her eyes as she faced him. "The psychology section, huh?" she asked with an arched eyebrow. "Cute."
"It was the only one I knew I could find from memory," Seb confessed. "I uh, actually spent a lot of time here my freshman year."
"Reading about hypnosis?" Chelsea guessed.
