false god

chapter 5

Embarrassingly, it took Taylor until the fourth coupon to realize that something was up with the prompts she was being given.

Somehow, her mind had rationalized herself out of the first three. The first one could be construed as completely platonic. The second one, while a little sexy, could have stayed chaste and cute. And her mind was fried from finals. The third one she really didn't have an excuse for, other than it was a party and it seemed like a dare and somehow she just didn't connect it to the book at all, despite watching him tear it out of the binding. And she was a little buzzed.

The fourth one, however? Well, that's when it crossed the line into decidedly sexy, naughty things.

Maybe some part of her had been keeping her sane by telling herself such lies. Lies like 'these are normal things for roommates to do' or, 'strip teases don't have to be smutty or sinful', which she told herself any second a glimmer of doubt clouded her mind. Because, as she would come to realize, this would make a change in their dynamic, spearheaded by her. By acting like these previous ones were somehow normal expectations in a chores book, she could be blissfully naive to the truth that was staring her in the face from day one.

And then, it also left her with a choice.

Three days after the Halloween party, the one that had haunted Taylor's wet-dreams every single night, Travis came to her at night with his fourth coupon. She was in her bedroom, lazily watching 'Bones' for the ninth time around, half-heartedly doing some homework.

"Tay?" He knocked on her door.

"Come in, Trav," She said, trying not to blush scarlet at just the mere sight of him. Had she been avoiding him in the apartment since Halloween? Well, just a little.

She hadn't come home deciding that. She'd been convinced she was going to treat him normally, because why wouldn't she? And then, that night, she'd caught him shirtless again and she'd been so turned on it had been embarrassing. To keep herself from getting wet when she was trying to write a very convincing article about capitalism and its fiendish leaders, she holed herself up in her room. If Travis had noticed, he hadn't made any comment about it...yet.

"I just wanted to submit another coupon," He said, sounding much more sure of himself compared to the first time.

"Uh, cool. I might not have time for it tonight, but lay it on me," Taylor said. However, maybe getting up and cleaning would encourage her to actually get her homework done. She always cleaned best when trying to avoid doing something.

"Fine, well, tomorrow works too. Or now. Whenever." He said in an easy-going tone, shrugging his shoulders.

Taylor held out her hand, focused on the work being done on the screen.

She had to do a double-take for this coupon.

No, she had to re-read it four times before the words finally stopped looking like squiggles and started forming words that were in a sentence.

Good for One Session of Watching The Giver Get Themselves Off. Bring out your inner voyeur!

Taylor stared at it.

This was unmistakably sexual in nature. There was no skirting around it.

Taylor swallowed hard, feeling her saliva stick in her throat.

What...the...hell?

If she thought her brain had fuzzled out after reading the other coupons, her brain was currently the blue screen of death as she tried to re-arrange the facts in her brain quick enough to not say something stupid.