Chapter 11: Gina

3rd weekend in October

One of Larissa’s regular prac partners was a boy by the name of Arnold. Arnold was kind of the opposite of Julian – small, softly spoken, and effeminate. Larissa felt strange with that term – she wasn’t at all like that, and as far as she was concerned, she was all female. But that’s the word people used: effeminate. His clothes, his body language, his relationships: exactly what people meant when they said, ‘an effeminate man’.

In her first year, she’d avoided having Arnold for a lab partner – kept right away from him, but at the start of the second, she’d remembered how he was often left out when it was time to partner up for prac work, and she had her D’s principles freshly thundering through her life, so she’d deliberately chosen to partner with him. She’d actually expected him to have some story of abuse in his life, and she’d waited for him to open up to her, but when he finally did: that was just how he was. He knew people disrespected him for it, but his family didn’t; they loved him for what he was. And Larissa loved having him as a prac partner. He was so gentle and loving with animals, and they just loved him back. Yeah, he wasn’t so good with big dogs, so she had to handle them, but she relished the challenge, especially once she’d started doing vet rescue. When it came to theory, and writing the pracs up ... he wasn’t going to set the world on fire, but he was reliable, and tried hard, so anytime she could pick he partner, Arnold was her first pick. She didn’t always get to choose, of course, but she’d mentioned his strengths to some of her other friends, and there was always some partner wanting to work with him now.

What Arnold didn’t have was a girl in his life. She’d contrived to accidently introduce him to Gail, in the hope that his extreme gentleness would do it for Gail. Both of them had laughed at her later and said she wasn’t as subtle as she thought, but they did appreciate it – they just hadn’t clicked.

Naturally, Larissa had made sure that he was one of the friends she caught up with after each exam, to see how he was going. He was fine after the first one, but she could tell that he was deeply upset after the second one, on a Monday morning. What was up? Well, he hadn’t wanted to say, so she took him aside as gently she could, and sat down with him, and said, ‘Arnold, you’re my friend, and I can tell that you’re not right. I’d really love it if you tell me about it.” The story he told her wasn’t so surprising; he’d been at a pub after the exam on Friday, finally with a girl who might turn into a date and her friend, and three big strong boys had just sat themselves at the same table, and crowded them out, and been pigs to the girls while they were at it and then the girls were gone and she hadn’t talked to him since. Had Arnold talked to the boys about it? No way – they were big, and strong, and they’d all had a few drinks. Sad, said Larissa, it sucks that stuff like this still happens. “I’m glad you told me. Julian and I will come to the pub with you next time, make sure you’re OK. You can always tell me stuff like this.”

At this point Arnold looked extra sad. “Julian was one of the guys who did it to us.”

Oh.

Larissa was about to defend Julian, but she pulled herself up in time. Arnold had nothing to gain and everything to lose from telling her this. “That’s really hard for me to understand, Arnold. Tell me as much as you can about what happened. And don’t sugar coat it for me. Be honest.”

Listening to Arnold carefully, it seemed that Julian had turned up after the other two guys, and he wasn’t actually the guilty party, but he had done nothing when the guys were being pigs to the three of them. And Julian had had a beer in his hand, and it looked like he’d had a few.

Larissa cried. Julian had been so good, so disciplined. He’d never explicitly promised to have nothing at all to drink, but she’d taken it for granted given how he told everyone ‘neither of us ever drink’. Why had Julian let that happen? How much had he had? She knew he had been at that pub with a couple of mates, yes, and she’d been catching up with friends down the road. And he had asked her to drive when they met up after that, so ‘he could sort out a Youtube related problem’. She’d never thought ... she felt stupid now, and angry. So much for ethics and faithfulness.

“I’m really sorry, Arnold. All I can tell you is that’s not the Julian I know or love, and it’s not behaviour I’m OK with. I’ll talk to Julian about it. And can I talk to the girls to get their version?”

He wasn’t thrilled with that idea, but he agreed, and gave her the girl’s phone number. She called it straight away, but no answer, so she sent a message instead. She said to herself that she was going to wait until hearing from the girl before getting upset about it, but she was having trouble containing her emotions. And she certainly didn’t want to confront Julian when she wasn’t firmly in control of her feelings. And this time it really was a problem with Julian, not just something he forgot – and he’d been really good about doing the kitchen too since that last time. So, no, this was something different, something serious.

Julian was at home studying for an exam on the next day, so she didn’t want to go home until she got on top of herself. What to do? She needed some extreme exercise, she decided. She wasn’t wearing the right clothes for running, or even walking, or the gym, and any clothes for those things were at home. Where Julian was. It was a grey day, but not that cold, so she decided to go for a swim in the bay. It was still late spring, so it would be cold, but manageably so.

She had the beach to herself, as she expected, so she stripped to her panties, and walked out into the water, ready for a hard swim – out to the boating marker and back a few times. This was only her second ocean swim for the season, and the water was still cold, so she got straight into it, channelling her emotions into swimming hard. Straight away she knew she had a problem – her undies were old and a bit stretchy, and she knew they were going to come off. Crap. She decided to let them get dragged off, and then she’d wind them around her wrist and put them back on when she got out. Well, maybe that wasn’t such a good plan. When they slipped off, she stopped to grab them but as she lifted her head, she got a face full of water from a rogue wave. By the time she’d coughed it out, and recovered her breath, her undies were gone. Well, fuck it, but she might as well keep swimming.

Swimming naked felt just fine, and she went back and forward a few times, as hard as she could. She also stopped a few times to scream as loud as she could. By the time she tired, she felt a little more in control of her emotions. Now, time to face the beach. Naked. Hopefully there’d still be no one there. No such luck: there were a couple of people sitting on the beach right near her clothes. Female, at least; that was something. Well, they were about to treated to a wonderful show, since she’d now have to try to get her relatively tight jeans on while she was still wet, her ass on full display. There was no one else around, so she figured she should just do it, and she walked out of the water naked as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do. The two people – looked like a mother and daughter – watched her openly. “Hi!” she said to them, and they smiled back at her.

“Did you have a good swim?” the daughter asked.

Larissa shrugged. “Bit cold,” she said. She didn’t bother with her bra, pulled her t-shirt on, and picked up her jeans, screwing her face up when she looked at them.

The daughter laughed at her. “Here, use my towel,” she offered.

“Thanks a lot!” Larissa smiled, that was genuinely nice. That really helped, and she dried her legs quickly and then sat on it and started dragging her jeans up her legs.

“Are you OK, dear?” the mother asked her. “We could hear you screaming out there.”

Whoa. She thought she was far enough out that no one would hear. She sighed – sound travels further over water! “Oh, just problems with my man. I’ll figure it out.”

The daughter smiled at her. “Tell us about it. That’s what we’re doing here too, both of us. I feel like a good scream too.”

Larissa shrugged. “Well, go for it. The louder the better. It did make me feel less upset.”

“Oh no, I could never do that. What would people think?”

“Fuck’em,” Larissa said. “You do you, and don’t let other people hold you back from doing what you have to do. So have a good scream!”

“Is that why you were naked, dear?” asked the mother.

Larissa laughed sheepishly and told them what happened. “That’s when I finally screamed. But you don’t have to lose your undies to scream. Go on, just do it!”

The daughter did, a real loud one. Larissa was glad she knew it was coming: that was quite something. When it stopped, she smiled sympathetically at the daughter. “Feel any better?”

“Yeah, I actually do feel a little better,” she said, sounding surprised. “Mum, you’re the one who really should. Dad’s really done a number on you. Go on...”

The mother really wasn’t able to let go like that, but eventually they both encouraged her into trying to scream. She gave it a go but it tailed off and she just broke down crying in her daughter’s arms. Larissa stayed on the beach talking to them for maybe half an hour. Listening to both of their stories settled her more than her crazy swim, when she was reminded what real bastards could do to you. At least they had each other, she said, and they smiled. She swapped phone numbers with the daughter, and when she gave them her name, they realised they’d seen her on TV, so then she had to talk about that crazy experience. Eventually she realised she needed to go, and hugged both them, giving them her best wishes – they needed it, both of them.

Back at the car, she retrieved her key from its hiding place and sat in the car with the motor going, warming up a bit before she drove home. There was a message waiting for her from Arnold’s friend Gina, so Larissa called her and told her that one of the guys was her boyfriend, and she was friends with another of the boy’s girlfriends, but not which guys she was talking about, and asked her to tell the story. It was pretty much the same as what Arnold said, but Gina clarified that two of the guys had perved on them real hard, and given Arnold a very disrespecting look, though the other one hadn’t. Julian had looked sure, but nothing special. On the other hand, he had seen the other guys being pigs for sure, and hadn’t done or said anything about it. And Julian definitely had a beer in his hand.

Sigh. Larissa thanked Gina. She thought about what Julian had done. There was definitely a problem, and Julian had sure earned the discipline collar this time. But also, he needed to explain – what was he thinking? Larissa could imagine some defences that might explain some of what she’d heard. He’d been inattentive for a few seconds? Ill-disciplined for a few? He just hadn’t cared? But drinking – there was nothing to say about that. Could she trust Julian to tell her the truth? Yes, if she asked in the right way. And once she put the collar on him, then what? And whatever she did, she wanted it to be inventive, and impactful – she wanted him to really remember whatever it was. Still, she had to keep it in perspective; Julian hadn’t done anything like the guys she’d heard about on the beach. She went and bought herself a coffee and sat and planned what she was going to do, figuring out what her options were, and lining up the help she was going to need.

When she got home, Julian was sitting at their shared work desk in the bedroom, studying. She kissed him hard and asked him how his studying was going. As he answered, she undressed. Intrigued, he broke off his telling her his study preparation was going OK to ask why she had gone commando. She smirked at him, and said that was a story for later, but he’d sure love it. What was his schedule for the rest of the day? He was going to study for the afternoon, then go for a run, and make dinner for the girls while they all did yoga, and then a bit more studying in the evening.

That worked. She smiled at him. “Great, sweetie, and thanks for doing dinner. There’s going to be more of us than usual, are you good for feeding ten of us?” He nodded, smiling. “And I’m going to take an hour or two of your time after dinner, OK”. She gave him a lascivious smile, and he grinned back at her. That was just fine with him.

She stayed naked all afternoon, laying on the bed studying for her next exam, and smiling at Julian whenever he looked at her. At one stage he got impatient and tried to kiss her and get her going, but she only let him kiss her gently. “Later!” And she went back to her books and her phone.

When Julian got out of the shower after his run, he walked into their room, still drying his hair, to find Larissa sitting at their desk, fully clothed in t-shirt and jeans. The desk in front her was bare except for their discipline collar. She leaned forward and picked it up, showing it to him sombrely.

He frowned and said, “Babe, what’s up? What did you do?”

She shook her head at him. “Not me, sweetie. This time, it’s for you. Kneel in front of me and tell me about it.”

Julian looked at her in surprise. His eyes widened, and he thought about it for a couple of seconds. Then he lowered himself and kneeled in front of her, looking up with a questioning look on his face. She could see when he realised what she was talking about. His face fell.

“OK, I’m going to put the collar on you, and then you’re going to tell me about it. All of it.”

That surprised him again, she saw. She could see him thinking it through while she buckled the collar up. When she sat back up, he was ready to talk.

“So I told you that I was going to the bar with my mates. What I didn’t tell you was why. Scott’s girl cheated on him, and they had a screaming match about it, and she left him, and took a bunch of his stuff too, while he was doing an exam. He’s really down about it; she screwed him over good, and he won’t talk to her to try get his stuff back. So he wanted a drink with his mates, so he could drown his sorrows. Hamza and I went with him after the exam, and then some others were going to join him later, and then I’d leave, though maybe I should’ve stayed. Hamza wanted me there until another friend joined me later because he’s gotten out of control before.” Larissa nodded, that made sense. “Scott bought me a beer without asking me, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I should’ve lined it up for his second and not had it, but I decided that this was a good time to just drink it and be his mate. But then Hamza bought me another one. And then it was my turn, and I bought me one too.” He stopped, thinking. “You know, I thought it was just you that had a problem with alcohol, and I was just supporting you. But ... one I guess I could defend, and just nurse it all night. But I kept going. Then I realised I’d had three, and ... it felt good. Babe, it was too easy. It’s a good thing you were meeting me. I don’t know what would’ve happened otherwise.”