✅ A Dose of Humiliation

49. Who You Can Trust

"I don't really feel–" Clint said, but interrupted himself with another yawn, which seemed to contradict the point he was making. "I mean, I wasn't even tired when I got here. I think I wouldn't have fallen asleep without the–"

"Are you kids feeling sleepy already?" Marcie's mum was already joining the conversation as she opened the door, and Jodie visibly jumped at her appearance. "If you're that young, I think I made the rules about the boys pretty clear."

"We were just leaving," Lance said. "So the girls can have fun." He held up his coat, which he'd already picked up ready to go, as proof of their intentions.

"Uhh... yeah..." Clint nodded, and started to stand up too. I realised that my leg was still touching his after I'd returned to my seat, and moved away a little so he would have space to stand. "I just wanted to say that..."

His voice trailed off, with Mrs Miller staring daggers at him. I wondered what he could have been going to say; but I could tell when someone was too scared to finish the sentence. Everybody said "Bye," and "See you tomorrow" or similar sentiments, but with Mrs Miller standing over us, there was almost no more conversation until the boys had both left. A few minutes later my phone vibrated, and I saw one last message from Clint. I waited a few minutes, until we heard footsteps going back up the stairs, before mentioning it to the others.

"Clint thinks she's trying to trick us into breaking the rules so she's got an excuse to punish us."

"Yeah, that sounds like Mum. Tell him not to worry about it; I've got a lifetime experience of her brand of malice. And I'm sorry he had to get caught up in it."

"I'll watch out for anything she's planning," Serena said. "My first boyfriend was one hell of a practical joker, and I'm sure that after that experience, I'll see it coming if she tries to do anything else."

I texted Clint back and asked him not to worry. And then his second message apologised again for seeing me wearing a little less than I might have wanted him to see me in. And, a few words that must have taken a lot of courage to type, he added that he would be a lot happier to see me like that if it were to happen once I was back in control of my own thoughts. I gave silent thanks again to whatever deity or providence made my blushes invisible, and slipped the phone back into my pocket.

"So... what's next?" Jodie quickly changed the subject, and gave me a sidelong wink. She must have seen me staring at my phone, and realised that I was reading a message I didn't want to share with the others right now. She knew me too well. My friends all did, really. That was why I loved them, but some were less able to just ignore the scent of interesting gossip.

"More dares?" Serena suggested. "Now the boys are gone, your mom will have less reason to check on us. We can really go wild."

"Heh," Marcie said, and shook her head. "She'll be checking on us all night in any case. You don't know her. The dumb thing is, she might actually be more tolerant if I had a boyfriend. Like, she's said a dozen times that if I have boys over, they have to be out early. No time without a chaperone, kind of thing. But a boyfriend would be different, she'd give us some privacy so long as she can trust we're not doing drugs or sex or something."

"That's weird. Why would–"

"She can't understand the concept of being friends with the opposite sex," Elspeth explained, and the anger in her voice surprised Serena. The rest of us, who'd heard this conversation before, knew just how Elspeth felt. "In her mind, there are only two kinds of high school girls. You're either in a relationship, the property of some guy and only hanging out with his friends, or you're a thirsty slut who'll give herself to any guy who asks. And so long as Marcie is in the latter category, she doesn't get to spend time with a guy at all. I think the assumption is that casual sex is quick and easy; but misbehaving with a boyfriend takes more time. So if the boyfriend was here, he gets trusted to follow the rules without adult oversight, just so long as they're not alone for too long."