Negotiating Consent

“WHAT!?” Paige exclaims in shock.

“I merely suggested that our dear Tricia have her first experience be with you, Paige.” Mercy repeats, not grasping why Paige is even shocked at the suggestion.

“Woah~! This isn’t my first… I’m not… I’m not a virgin… or anything.” Tricia corrects Mercy shyly.

“You are when it comes to this, Tricia.” Hal points out to her.

“Like lesbian stuff? I-I’ve tried it before when I was a freshman. It was mostly kissing… but I’m not, like, a complete prude or anything.” Tricia clarifies.

“That’s not the point!” Paige loudly interjects. “I am NOT here to-to… experience anything! AT ALL!” Paige adds with finality. “And can we please have this conversation with fewer onlookers!?” Paige then shouts, after realizing that the staff Mercy summoned with her clap are still within earshot of the discussion.

*Clap! Clap!*

Mercy claps her hands again, and the drove of staff walk away like nothing happened.

“Better?” Mercy asks, while Paige is breathing heavily from screaming. Paige looks around the room, and like she didn’t even shout at the top of her lungs, the crowd of the Red Rum doesn’t seem to mind that someone might have had a mental breakdown in the middle of the club.

“Don’t mind them, Paige.” Mercy advises. “You’re not the first newcomer they’ve seen react badly to a suggestion.” Mercy informs her.

“I did find your disgust at the thought of sharing an experience with Tricia a bit distasteful.” Mercy tells her.

“Yeah!” Tricia surprisingly shouts in support of Mercy’s comment.

“Wha-I-wha… I wasn’t!” Paige says defensively.

“I get why you’re not exactly excited, but you didn’t have to be so disgusted.” Tricia says, guilt tripping Paige for her reaction.

“Wha-... You’re on her side!?” Paige asks.

“I’m on my side.” Tricia corrects Paige. “Whatever gets me to experience whatever new thing this is without risking another pregnancy scare that’s going to revert my dad into a prison warden, I’m game.” Tricia explains.

“That was oddly specific.” Celeste side comments to Hal.

As for Paige, she can’t help but see where Tricia’s coming from. Tricia was clearly open to whatever the Red Rum was going to throw at her, and she’s obviously determined to try it. She even knows that whatever it is she’s going to try, something sexual would be involved, and she still wants to go through with it. Heck, she even weighed her options and chose one that she’d be more comfortable with. Paige understands all of that now. What Paige is having difficulty wrapping her mind around is how she’s suddenly being sucked into the whole thing.

“And if you think about it,” Tricia says, snapping Paige out of her train of thought. “You chose to be my self-proclaimed babysitter. What’s a better way to ensure I don’t overdo whatever it is I’m going to do than to be the one to help me do it?” Tricia argues with Paige.

“That’s… a good point.” Hal can’t help but agree in support of Tricia.

“Are you serious!?” Paige asks, feeling she’s being ganged up on.

“I don’t want to make it seem like we’re ganging up on you, but Tricia does have a point. I personally find it better to discover this world with someone I already trust. I was lucky enough to do that with someone both experienced and close to me. But if I had to choose between the two, I’d prefer an inexperienced friend, over an experienced stranger. I probably would’ve been too chicken to try it out if it was the latter.” Celeste explains to Paige.

“And inexperience won’t be too much of an issue since I can be your guide while the two of you experiment.” Mercy adds.

“Why don’t you guys help her out then!?” Paige asks the obvious question.

“Woah~ there.” Hal says with raised hands. “We came here to do our own thing, so my girlfriend and I will be otherwise preoccupied; and after our whole debacle with Viv, we’ve both come to an agreement NOT to add partners anymore. So, count us out.” Hal tells Paige with finality.

“I wouldn’t want to do it with a guy right now either.” Tricia comments. “No offense.” She adds, and Hal waves it off and tells her no offense was taken.

“As for me, I did say I’ll be there to guide the two of you if you were to accept.” Mercy tells Paige.

“Then just do it yourselves! Leave me out of it!” Paige tells Tricia and Mercy.

“How are you going to babysit her then? Are you going to just… watch?” Mercy asks teasingly. “You and I both know you’re going to get involved in some way eventually.” Mercy adds with a devilish smile, teasing Paige about what happened the last time she was here.

“I don’t think that’s the approach to get her to join us, Mercy.” Tricia comments, before approaching Paige and taking her by the hands and looking at her eye-to-eye.

“Look, Paige, I get that you just wanna look out for me since you probably think of me as some naive country bumpkin who can’t handle fun like you city folk can, but—” Tricia starts to monologue, but Paige quickly cuts her off.

“What are you talking about!? I don’t think you’re like that at all!” Paige tells Tricia, taking the latter by surprise. “I’ve been working with you for a few days now and you’re super capable. You pick things up quickly, you don’t complain, you’re excited to work… and you’re excited to learn. I don’t know who told you that they see you that way, but they’re dead wrong.” Paige suddenly starts complimenting Tricia, who can’t help but blush from the barrage.

“OH! Heh-... Thanks.” Tricia replies, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear out of shyness.

“I’m not here because I think you’re in over your head. I’m here because I have firsthand experience with Mercy getting you involved in something crazy.” Paige adds, before giving Mercy the stink eye.

“I just don’t want you to end up like me who gets wet from the idea of getting touched by her boss’s boyfriend because I watched him manhandle three girls at once like it was nothing.” Paige explains, unable to catch her flow of consciousness from revealing too much. Upon realizing her slip up, she covers her mouth with her hand in embarrassment.

“You both seem to have had a bit too many libations back at the party.” Mercy jokes with a smirk.

“This is gonna be an intrusive question, but ‘really’? Like, just the thought of him touching you makes you wet? All from just watching him? You didn’t get involved or anything?” Hal asks Paige, and immediately gets a slap from Celeste for even asking. “WHAT!? That’s fucking impressive!” Hal tries to defend his intrusive question.

“Also, not a normal reaction.” Celeste points out. “So if that’s your concern for Tricia, I can assure you, your reaction to what you experienced with my cousin isn’t the norm. It’s downright… weird. No offense.” Celeste tells Paige.

“That’s where I’d disagree.” Mercy chimes in. “If you were there, you’d have the same reaction as well.” Mercy tells Celeste.

“~Fuck off.” Celeste replies in disbelief.

“I do not lie, even I could not help but fantasize about being ravaged by him. Since I saw his display, I’ve been yearning for a show that could capture the lust I felt that night.” Mercy tells Celeste.

“No fucking way~” Celeste says, but the tone of disbelief is being lessened now. “How!?” Celeste asks, her curiosity palpable. Palpable enough that Hal can’t help but be worried about where her mind might go if she lets her curiosity get the best of her.

“~Ooookay. That’s my cue to step in and say we have our own stuff to do.” Hal tells the group.

“Oh please. He’s my cousin! I don’t see him that way.” Celeste assures Hal, a little annoyed at the lack of trust.

“His daughter is his own girlfriend. Everybody sees him that way.” Hal argues back, and Celeste can’t help but be stunned by the thought of never seeing Jay in that sexual way. Despite her knowing that he had a huge crush on her back then. But now… why did she ever think that? Why did she ever have this subconscious thought that it would be wrong to even consider it? Now she wonders, ‘why is it so normal to consider now?’

“So, yeah. We’ll leave you girls to discuss your plans for the night. We had our own plans.” Hal tells them, almost as if he’s afraid Mercy would actually describe how Jay was able to enrapture them from just watching… and that just their story might enrapture his girlfriend too.

“We can’t just leave them like that! They haven’t even finalized what they want to do yet.” Celeste tells Hal.

“Now that they hyped up my sister’s boyfriend, I honestly kinda just wanna see what he did too.” Tricia answers.

“I believe…” Mercy says, thinking deeply.

“We have a way for us to do that.”