Give her the romantic one

It’s the more awkward option, but the two girls on the cover of the romantic yuri manga feels like a sign. You buy it and tuck it into your backpack.

Time to get back. You return to the booth, where things appear to be going OK. Bringing back cold bottles of water feels like a pitiful offering, but they still seem happy to have it. Business is still good. You’re making money steadily from the photos and selling the occasional T-shirt. You do a little math in your head. The sorority isn’t going to get rich off this booth today, but will earn enough to make it worth the time.

But the real potential lies in other areas… you’re getting ideas about how CCL could cash in much more effectively. You’ll have to chat with Athena about those some other time.

Your eyes linger on Athena, who sits beside you. At the moment, you have no customers. Her chin rests in her hand. She looks beautiful. Your mind flashes back to last night, that moment of incredible intimacy when the two of you were entwined around that vibe.

You shiver, and she notices you looking.

“Doing OK, Meri?” she asks kindly.

You nod, suddenly shy. Then… your heart sinks. You have forgotten something major.

“Athena,” you say worriedly. “I have to meet up with my friend today. For a little while. We agreed to do the con together. Before I ever knew we were doing it as CCL. I’m sorry.”

Athena takes that in gracefully. The problem here is that a crew of 4 is already too few to man a booth for a whole day. Lunch time and breaks are already scheduled in. This will disrupt them further. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s still a pain.

She nods. “Same girl from last night?”

“Yeah,” you mutter, embarrassed.

Yuki and Nancy finish taking a photo with a customer and return to the table. “Bailing on us, Pledge?” Yuki asks.

“Sorry,” you say.

“Not yet, you aren’t,” Nancy says. “You can wear these ropes then.”

“I thought you liked them,” Athena tells her.

“I do. Naked. In bed. Not to sit around in them all day,” Nancy complains.

Yuki laughs. “That’s legit.” Then she leans over to Athena and whispers in her ear. Athena’s gaze stays on you.

“OK, Meri. We’ll allow your betrayal,” she says. “But you have to pay the price.”

“A price like… free headshots for everyone,” you say, putting your hand on your camera. “Or profile pics?”

“Haha. Cute,” Yuki says.

“Oh gosh,” you say, suddenly afraid.

“Wait, what are we doing?” Nancy asks, squeezing in between Yuki and Athena. “What’s happening?”

“Meri’s taking a long lunch and we have to cover for her,” Yuki says.

“No, I mean, what are we whispering about?” Nancy clarifies.

You watch, your worry growing as the three of them whisper some more. Great. You definitely should have brought back bribes. There’s a light in Yuki’s eye that you don’t like.

“And?” you say impatiently.

“And we’ll let you do your thing,” Nancy tells you as Yuki unties the ropes. “But if you’re going to be walking around this con with some outsider harlot…”

Athena chokes on her water and almost spews it on the table.

“Oh god…” you say.

Athena wipes tears of laughter from her eyes. “You can’t bring shame on our sacred sisterhood,” she says.

“Super sacred,” Yuki says, pinching your hip. You swat her hand away as Nancy brings the ropes to you.

“You guys don’t even know how to tie those,” you say.

“But you’ll tell us. Or we’ll open up the dungeon under the house and **** you down there,” Nancy says.

“That doesn’t sound all bad,” you reply, trying to act cool.

“It’s OK, Meri. Relax. We just want to accessorize you a little,” Athena says, and you see the glance that passes between her and Yuki. You can’t fight this.

You lift your arms and tell Nancy what to do. She tightly binds your chest in a slightly less elaborate harness than what you put on her. You don’t have as much to work with in the boob department as she does, but even over a costume and a T-shirt, the white ropes draw attention to what you’ve got. This will be embarrassing as hell to walk around in…

“One more thing,” Yuki says, suddenly leaning close to you. You’re looking into her face. “Kiss me, Pledge.”

“Wait, what?”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Um…” you say, glancing at all the people walking by. Most of them politely pretend not to be seeing all this.

You awkwardly kiss Yuki on the mouth. Her hand shoots under the table. Thankfully, the table is there to protect you, but before you can react, she slips something into your costume and withdraws her hand, leaving it between your legs. You aren’t wearing underwear. Your costume keeps the object trapped in place.

You squeak in surprise and stare at her in shock as she pulls back.

“Tell me that’s not a little vibe,” you say, your mouth dry.

“It’s not a little vibe, it’s a tiny vibe. A tiny, Bluetooth vibe,” Yuki says, pulling out her phone. “Enjoy your date, Pledge.”

“Can’t I just take it out? How would you know?” you ask, shifting uncomfortably. It just feels weird down there.

She shows you the tampering alarm on the phone’s screen.

“For fuck’s sake,” you mutter.

Oh god… you really fucked up now. They’re all giggling.

“Then how do I go to the bathroom?” you plead, looking at the empty water bottle beside you.

“Guess you have to hold it,” Nancy says.

Awesome. You’re in costume with a tasteless CCL shirt over a Spider-Man costume with no underwear and they have a remote-control vibe against your clit. At least they’ll be having fun today. This is not going to make it easier to patch things up with Colby.

“Hey,” a voice snaps.

You all look up to see a black-robed figure. Under the spooky hood is a familiar mask: a white ghost’s face. It’s the killer from Scream, and there’s a girl in there.

“Uh, hi,” you say nervously, still not quite comfortable with what you’re feeling down there. The thing isn’t even turned on, you just aren’t used to having a foreign object right there… pressed against your most sensitive place while you are surrounded by people.

“Are you guys fucking kidding me?” she demands, loudly enough that people turn to look. You see a couple of guys who were definitely angling for photos change their minds and walk away.

You knew it. Someone was going to have a problem with CCL doing this.

“I mean, do you have any concept of how fucking gross this is?” the Scream girl demands, waving her fake knife at your booth. “Do you?”

Athena has to do something.

Tell her to call security?

Or offer to handle this?