Chapter 8: Listen and Learn

Piper was a mountain of headache and regret in the morning. Demora was pissed and wanted her gone the minute she knew Piper was okay. Her exact words had been, “Don’t ever fucking talk to me again. Don’t even look in my direction. Last night never happened and stay the fuck away from Scott.”

Piper tried to explain, but had no words or excuses that would make sense. Instead, Demora put on a fake smile for her parents and got Piper out of the house and sent her walking on her way. She felt awful, and worse when she realized her phone was dead.

She watched the bus schedules with a throbbing headache and found her way back to the plaza close to their development. From there is was a walk with a pounding headache. She walked through the the front door praying for silence, but her mother greeted her with worry.

“Oh lord, there you are, I was starting to get worried.”

“I’m fine, mom,” Piper wished she’d been cool enough to bring sunglasses. Her head pounded and she needed a drink of water.

“If you needed a ride from the sleepover, you should have just called,” her mom explained, but her voice was getting more anxious.

“My phone died,” she explained and rubbed her temples.

“Did everybody’s phone die? You should have ... Honey, you look rough, what happened.”

“Nothing, I just, we were talking all night and I didn’t get a lot of sleep,” she lied.

Her father walked out from the kitchen, “There she is, getting off to a late start today huh?”

Piper felt a squish of anxiety, knowing she had to smell awful. “Yeah, l need to take a shower and get a nap.”

Her mom let her trudge upstairs, but called up to her, “You sure you don’t want some food honey?”

“In a minute,” she called back.

“Where was she last night?” her father asked.

“I told you last night, Demora’s mother called and said they were having an impromptu sleepover,” her mother sighed with a tinge of annoyance.

“No boys there, right?”

“No, honey, just cheerleaders.”

“Alright, you’re in charge,” he gave up and headed back into the kitchen.

Piper made sure to get her phone on a charger before she got cleaned up and fed. She was grateful to have her parents trust, but as she washed the encrusted semen of her torso, she felt the pangs of guilt knowing that she didn’t deserve their trust. With food in her belly and two glasses of water, she felt human enough to start feeling even worse about last night. She’d cheated on Jake. Not just once, and not just a kiss either. She winced thinking about how badly she’d cheated on him. Worse yet, Demora knew. Oh lord, not only did she know, but she saw her taking drugs too.

Dejected inside, Piper put on a smile to her parents just long enough to get upstairs where she hoped against hope for a nap. Unfortunately her phone had charged and there were several messages awaiting her.

“How did you like your evening partying, my sweet?”, “Dear Piper, it seems your phone is running out of battery. Please charge it now.”, and “Piper, you’ve been so good, I do hope you’re not going to disappoint me now after all your hard work.”

She plopped on the bed and typed back, “sry was pretty F’d up btw wtf wuz that?”

“Now now, Piper, you know better than to speak with me like that. Lectures are forthcoming, but I simply must know how you enjoyed your evening. Do be honest.”

She steamed, “I was really messed up. Not just that, but I feel horrible now. You want honesty? I fucking hate you. I cheated on my boyfriend because I was so high I couldn’t think straight and now I feel like crap. Why? Why did you do that to me? It was horrible! Why? What is the point of all of this?” Piper took a breath and rubbed her head. It was the truth, and he’d asked for that. But still, she hated the thought of antagonizing him. Quickly she deleted everything after feeling like crap.

“Oh, you cheated on your boyfriend? What an interesting choice you made.”

Piper lay down on her side and stared at her phone in anger. “Choice? What choice, you made me!”

“Made you what, Piper? Take drugs? Yes, go to a party? Yes, but at no point did I instruct you to have sex or cheat on your beloved. You have the texts, go ahead and reread them.”

Piper’s eyes stopped dead at the words. No, he couldn’t be right, he had made her do all of that. Her mind blinked back to their hands all over her, the lips, and the feeling of a penis in her hand. He had set it all up, it was his fault. “No, you implied that I had to.”

“Tell me when I told you explicitly to cheat. Go on, I will wait.”

She scrolled back up and to her horror, she saw he was right. It couldn’t be! Over and over she read through and ran through the memories of the night. The glorious giddiness and giggling on the floor ... the golden glow...

“I see. You understand now.” He text hit her hard with guilt.

She whispered, “No...” He was right. She’d cheated on Jake and for no damn reason, oh God. She curled up into a little ball on her bed disgusted with herself. But he didn’t let her stew for long.

“Now that we have gotten past the fact of your behaving like a tramp, do tell me, how did you enjoy last night.”

She wiped the tears that she had no right to she’d and read his text. Defeated, she answered.as honestly as she could, “I don’t know.”

“Did you feel pleasure last night?”

Pleasure? She remembered the golden glow, “Yes, but I was high.”

“Did you enjoy your activities?”

She paused. She was torn. “I don’t know.”

“Explain.”

She wrote back. “That felt amazing, crazy good. But it was all just that stupid pill. It wasn’t me.”

His words popped up in the app. “Interesting observation, my young novice. Quite smart of you to try to hide your true nature behind that little pink pill. But you are astute, the pill you took was just a simple tab of Ecstasy. Now I must ask, can you think of any moment in your life where you experienced more raw physical pleasure that last night.”

She could only honestly answer, “No.”

“it is a very pleasurable drug. In fact some people become addicted to it just because the pleasures are so much better than anything they could experience on their own. But do not worry pet. You will not become addicted to it. In time you will understand something much more powerful than any drug.”

He continued, “Wonderful, you have done very well. So we’ll in fact that I will give you a choice of activities today. You can go tanning, just bathing in the sun for hours. Or you can stay at home, relax, and be a good little girl while you listen to music.”

She felt so worn out she couldn’t process his words. While she felt relief that he wasn’t going to try to get her addicted to drugs, she worried about what he meant that was so far beyond. What could possibly top last night? Or perhaps, what could possibly bring her lower than last night? She replied, “home”.