interlude

Heat flushed Ashley’s cheeks, a sign of the mix of irritation and shame she was feeling.

“Sorry Wes, I didn’t think we’d run into him again,” she mumbled, a slight quiver in her voice.

As bothered as Ashley was by her unexpected encounter with James, Wes looked even more bothered. His attention was buried in this phone as he and Ashley carried the pizza back to the living room.

Alex, Wes’ best friend, was lounging on the sofa with a game controller in hand when he noticed the two approaching. Even he could clearly see they were upset? “What’s wrong? Did something happen with the delivery?”

“We ran into James. Looks like he’s working as a pizza delivery guy now.”

“I mean, it must’ve been awkward and all, but that doesn’t explain why you look so upset.”

“It looked like he was still upset about me being with Ashley, like he’s still aware of what I did to her with the app."

Ashley wondered what Wes was talking about for a moment, but for whatever reason she couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. He was probably talking about the game Wes was always playing on his phone, but Ashley could never bring herself to care much about it.

“Wasn’t having him be aware the whole point? That’s how-“ Alex looked sideways at Ashley and caught himself –“that’s why him and Ashley broke up.”

“Yeah, I wanted it like that at first, but I set his awareness to off a while ago. But he’s still aware.”

“What does it matter if he’s aware, he still can’t do anything about it.”

“How can I be sure of that? If the awareness setting is bugged, maybe the safeguards are too.”

It seemed like Wes was really bothered by something. Ashley wasn’t happy to run into James so unexpectedly, but Was and Alex were talking like it was somehow related to a game they were playing. There’s no way James was in the same guild or whatever as they were, was there?

Thinking about it was starting to give Ashley a headache.

“I think you’re just stressing too much dude. Why don’t you have Ashley put on a show so we can relax.” The way Alex talked about Ashley was grating. Asking Wes for a ‘show’ whatever that meant, and talking about her like she wasn’t in the room. Why was Wesley ok with that?

Her headache was getting worse. “Guys, I think that’s it for me for the night. I’m headed to bed.” Ashley got up and started toward and strode toward the bedroom. Midway down the hall, she changed her mind, turned on her heel, and sauntered back into the living room.

When she rounded the corner, Wes was still looking bothered, but Alex was satisfied, almost victorious.

Ashley stepped up the coffee table, shed her socks, and stepped up onto it.

She didn’t like the fact that Alex was watching her so intently, but it couldn’t be helped.

“You win, Alex, enjoy your distraction. I’m calling customer support.” Wesley announced, his voice laced with frustration.

As she started to gyrate her hips, facing toward the boys, Ashley became aware of a woman standing in front of the paused video game on the TV. She was tall, lean, and had unnatural red skin.

“What do you want, pet” She asked.

Ashley was surprised for a moment; she didn’t remember the crimson woman coming in, yet she found her attention drifting away from the stranger as she pulled off her shirt and dropped it in front of Alex.

“There’s a glitch in the app, the awareness settings aren’t working right.”

The woman leaned in, her voice a silky challenge. “Oh, what seems to be the problem?”

“It’s James, He’s been responding to my actions even though I’ve turned awareness off for bystanders.”

The red woman’s eyes narrowed into slits. “No, the app is functioning perfectly well, your problem is that James isn’t a bystander anymore.”

Ashley noticed with disgust that Alex had taken out is phone, probably to record her. She didn’t really even want him watching, much less taking a video to save for later or, god forbid, share. She unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor.

Fear and confusion was showing on Wesley’s face. “What do you mean, not a bystander. He sure isn’t a custom girl, and I didn’t add him to my allies list, so what the hell is he?”

The woman sighed, a hint of condescension in her tone. “I’d think it’s obvious. There are custom girls, allies, and the general public, but there’s another category not affected by the awareness settings that you’re forgetting.”

Wes was obvious frustrated with the woman, but he kept control of himself. “I don’t get it, those are the only categories the app has, is there one I haven’t unlocked?”

The woman’s tone now was almost malicious. “Fine, you people aren’t exactly mental giants, so I’ll spell it out for you. The reason James’ is immune to your control is that he’s obtained a copy of the app himself.

“How the hell did James get ahold of a copy of custom girls?” Wes was clearly panicked.

The woman shrugged. “Don’t ask me, it wasn’t my call. That bitch Lily isn’t exactly a team player.”

Alex was being a creep as usual; standing up and holding his phone to get an angle on Ashley’s breasts as she held them up and shook toward the boys. She threw her sweatpants at him, then turned around and bent over; denying him the view he wanted.

“He’s going to try to kill me.”

“Worry, pet, I can protect you from whatever this James boy wants to do to you.”

“You’ll stop him from fucking with me?” Wes was incredulous, but hopeful.

“Of course,” the stranger’s voice dripped with a playful malice “all you have to do is upgrade to the premium version.”

* * *

Heather was getting more and more frustrated. Her body had undergone a huge change, seemingly overnight, and Mom didn’t seem to think it was worth worrying about.

She couldn’t get in to see a doctor on such sort noticed, she gave a call to one of her old professors from undergrad, Dr. Jacobs, and she agreed to meet up and talk.

She didn’t really have a lot to wear; most of her clothes looked ridiculous now. She pulled on a pair of leggings and an oversized t shirt. She was able to get one of her sportsbras on, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable.

She grabbed her keys and headed to the car, just as she got to the door, she realized she’d forgotten something; James’ room still wasn’t clean. It had been pretty clean yesterday, if he hadn’t made too much of a mess tonight, should could still make her appointment.

She turned around and went to James’ room. She was relieved to see her younger brother’s room was still in pretty good shape thanks to the work she put in yesterday. The only mess was some old plates from his midnight snacks and a disturbing amount of monster cans littering his desk.

She noted with disgust what looked like dried semen on the floor near his bed. She was annoyed for a second, but quickly reminded herself there was no reason to be mad at James.

When she went to make the bed, she realized the bedding wasn’t clean. Resigned, Heather gathered up her brother’s dirty laundry and headed downstairs to the washer. It probably going to take a couple hours to launder and replace everything, but she couldn’t help it; she had to to make sure James’ bed was made before he got back from work.

Checking the time on her phone, Heather’s heart sank. It looked like she wasn’t going to be meeting Dr. Jacobs after all.