Veronica and Sandi finished a threesome in the Fuck Tank. Sandi was out of breath. Her face dripping in sweat. The guy was a total loser but somehow Sandi was into it. Astonishing, Veronica thought. What a will. What an unabashedly determined chick hellbent on earning cold hard cash. It was Sandi who had persuaded her to join the ranks of the working class at the Pixel Dust Bar last August, after the rape. She told her it was the best way to turn things around. It was the best to way to take back her power.
Veronica smiled at her friend. As she re-fastened her bra she recalled the day they met. Veronica was sitting in the campus quad staring at a picture of a naked guy on her phone. He looked like a young corporate Wall Street go-getter. Clean-cut. The requisite pair of aviators. He stood in a forest surrounded by tall leafless trees. It was a bleak, barren wood. Yet romantic somehow. He was alone, in the middle of it all, oozing sex appeal. A striking male model slash financial gladiator without his clothes. Yum.
He must be cold, she thought, admiring his physique. Looks like the dead of winter. Maybe there was snow on the ground. She couldn't tell. It wasn't visible in the picture. It was cut off just above his-
His body was utterly perfect. A lean, muscular torso. Flat stomach.
"Frozen balls."
Veronica immediately clicked off her phone.
A girl with short, spiky pink hair sat down on the bench next to her, smiling.
"It must not be very big."
Veronica put her phone in her backpack.
"No shame here. It's okay," the girl said, "Your boyfriend?"
"No, he- I'm late for class," she said, rising from the bench.
The pinked-haired girl laughed. "He's hot," she said, staring directly at Veronica, who fidgeted, searching through her backpack for her sunglasses.
"I have to go," she said, putting on a pair of aviators.
The pink-haired girl lit a cigarette as Veronica walked away.
"Was it something I said?" she asked herself ironically, taking a deep drag off her cigarette and blowing smoke into the fantastically pristine blue sky above her.
* * *
After biology Veronica sat in the cafeteria sipping a hot chocolate topped with way more whipped cream than she had asked for.
Absolutely delicious.
She stared at his body. It was hard. Definitely hard. Chiseled. Firm.
She wondered what his voice sounded like. Masculine, for sure. Deep. Resonant. But not too deep. A perfect balance, she imagined, of confidence and-
"Someone's obsessed."
Veronica didn't even have to look up from her phone to know who it was. This chick was stalking her. Clearly. She took a deep breath. Fuck, it didn't matter anymore. It was useless to pretend otherwise. Why not just admit it?
She looked up at the girl and raised her hands in the air.
"Guilty."
The pink-haired girl grinned. "I get it. A girl's got to have her secrets. Otherwise what fun is life, really, if you think about it?"
She offered a cigarette.
"No thanks. Those things are mini death sentences in shiny wrappers," Veronica said.
"Who are you, the school nurse?"
"Hope so, if I'm lucky," Veronica replied, "But tuition's a bit steep these days."
"The tragedy of a society ruled by monetary interests."
"And you are, the school philosopher?"
The girl grinned. She was pretty. Soft, delicate features, but clearly more than a pretty face. She had guts. Fortitude. What Veronica's mother called gumption with a capital 'G'.
"Just a girl with a great pair of economic indicators," she replied.
Veronica laughed. "I'm Veronica."
"Sandi. I see you like your whipped cream Veronica."
"If applied in the right places, I do."
They smiled at each other. It felt real. Kindred, almost. There was an unspoken, instant, clandestine camaraderie.
