The Long Winter #30
Fortunate Daughter part two
“I want you to know I didn’t tell anyone about it.”
Penny looked up from her computer to see that girl from before leaning over her shoulder. She had felt the tall girl's approach and noticed the shadow the tall girl cast but cared not to pay any attention to it since Lyle had finally given her something worthwhile to work on. She sighed as the girl sat down.
“I’m Bridget Morrison, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, I guess.”
“I didn’t tell anyone about you.”
Penny nodded.
“I swear. Like I said to you before, I’m sure it reflects poorly on me that I found it, too. So I kept it to myself.”
“I know it wasn’t you. It was my friend. Or at least, her friend. He said they were uploaded to his websites, so I guess he’s in that business.”
“A dirty business to be in.”
“I feel terribly dirty. In a bad way.”
“I heard. A few people were talking about that party. Not a lot, and mostly just in whispers when they think no one’s listening. There’s some fear of getting in trouble over it.”
Penny nodded. Braden had already been barred from classes and was suspended pending the investigation. After his outburst in front of Professor Fairchild it was small surprise they would want him off campus. After an awkward class where Penny and Leah avoided each other, Professor Fairchild told her Braden was staying at his parents’ lake house. As she thought about this, Penny looked up when the door opened. Leah stepped in, spotted her with Bridget, and turned and left. Bridget sniffed.
“You and Stewart aren’t getting along today.”
“She’s the one who’s friends with the pornographer.”
“Stewart? No. I straight up do not believe you.”
“It’s true. She doesn’t want to talk to me. That’s fine. I don’t want to talk to her. And to think I trusted her—“ Penny swallowed any further words and frowned at Bridget. “I’m glad you didn’t tell anyone else you found those videos. But I’m not sure how much I should trust you, since you only told me your name this morning.”
“Well, you can trust me enough to stand up for you when Lyle tries to give you shit work again. But I get it. We’re not besties. If anything, I should be looking at you like an underling.”
“Underling?”
“Yeah, given that I'm a senior and I grade half your papers and have enough clout to even boss Lyle around.”
Bridget laughed but Penny’s face remained still. Her eyes went back to the door. Leah had spotted her and immediately left. She trusted Leah. And Leah promptly betrayed her. Leah the Betrayer. A most vile betrayal, too. She hoped Leah had suffered somehow that night. It might sort of make up for all that alcohol that was dumped on her in that massive public humiliation. It was not possible to be humiliated any further.
Yes it was. They were pawing at you, too.
Thanks for the flashback, Marv.
Hey. No problem. But try not to hold too much of it against Leah. I’m sure she had something bad to deal with, too. Look at her tomorrow in class. She doesn’t look like the same girl. Something she thought she had escaped has found her.
How do you even know this?
Just look at her. You'll be able to see it.
And if I don't want to?
I'm just a figment of your imagination, remember? I can't make you do anything you don't want to, but something tells me that a small part of you does.
Penny sighed and turned her attention back to Bridget.
“I don’t mind being your underling, if that's how you put it.”
“I do,” Bridget answered with a smile. “It was good talking to you a little bit more. Take care of yourself. I’ll be seeing you.”
Bridget smiled and left. It was certainly a nicer parting than their earlier one. Bridget had a nice sway to her walk. Not nice enough to erase the weekend’s humiliation, or to get her past the heartache of losing Delaney just after the humiliation, but nice enough to provide a moment’s distraction. Bridget looked back as she reached the door to the robotics lab and laughed and rolled her eyes at Penny.
She’s not that into you, Marv said.
Penny smiled as she turned back to her work. She got no more than thirty seconds back in before someone came running at her. She jumped when Ash slammed into a nearby chair and slid over to her.
“Penny!” she said, a grand smile on her face.
“Ash, good grief! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in class?”
“They let us out early for some reason. I heard it has to do with you and some homemade porn!”
Penny wilted before her. She stared longingly at the work on her computer. If only she had stayed home over the Halloween weekend. Then she might have two quiet hours to herself to work on her first real project from Lyle.
“Aw, come on, it wasn't so bad. I saw them, you know.”
“You what?”
“Yeah! And I tell you what, I didn't know just how bad I wanted to experience an Asian girl until then!”
“Ash, please…”
The blue-haired girl sat back and looked at Penny. She cringed before Ash, her face pale with her shoulders up around her ears. Ash's smile faded and she reached out and touched Penny's arm.
“Hey. I'm sorry. I didn't know. How did you, I mean, how did… what…” She rubbed her head and glanced around. “Please finish my sentence for me.”
“My first real girlfriend's jealous ex-boyfriend hid cameras and uploaded the results on every AV website he could find.”
“AV?”
“Adult Video. Porn sites. He was arrested and neither of us ever saw him again.”
“Holy shit. Now I feel guilty. And when I go to bed tonight I'm going to have an extremely guilty orgasm watching it again.”
“Ash—”
“I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I mean, I won't be able to later either, but now that I know the truth behind them I'm going to stand up for you from now on.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“You bet! But hey, if it really bothers you, I won't keep them. We're friends, you know. I've never met anyone quite like you, and I don't want to screw it up.”
“No, it's fine. Just don't mention it again and you can keep them. I'll pretend you never saw them and you can pretend you don't know exactly what I look like naked.”
“If it makes you feel better I'll record myself masturbating and send it to you later. Then we can sort of be even.”
Penny laughed and shook her head.
“No! No way!”
“Come on. It'll give you a chance to see the glorious product of your glorious toy.”
Penny could not stop her eyes from flickering down at Ash's jeans and when she looked up the blue-haired girl was wearing a sly smile.
“We'll just pretend that I accidentally sent you a movie and you can accidentally watch it and then accidentally save it on your phone or whatever.”
“I promise I won't upload it to any AV sites.”
“It's cute the way you say AV. Why don't we go out together? What's stopping us?”
“I'm not sure, but something tells me if we were meant to go out with each other we would have started by now.”
“Yeah. It's like a mental block. It didn't stop me from watching you and your ex have passionate if sloppy sex, but it does stop me from taking you back to my room and getting you drunk enough to take advantage of.”
Penny giggled and shook her head. Ash seemed normal, at least. Even if she had seen it.
“What else did you hear about the party?”
“Party? Oh, right. Only that it was where your extracurriculars were shown to the world. Illegally, eh? I hope those fuckers all go to jail.”
“Braden's suspended right now.”
“Ugh, that freshman a-hole? Fuck that guy, I mean, seriously. He's the worst. Most people here, even though some of them are so rich they shit gold bricks, are the quiet dorky type, like you. If they're here, they're working hard.”
“What about grade-buyers?”
“Grade-buyers? That's a thing? I didn't know. I guess I wasn't paying attention.”
“That horrible Geri who forced herself on me kept making it seem like the super-rich send their kids here and then buy their grades.”
“Never met any. But maybe third and fourth year are different. Who knows? All I know is I worked my ass off to get here and everyone I know worked their asses off to get here, too, and you have one of the tightest asses I've ever seen. I see your tone, babe. You do right by your DNA.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
A group of their classmates walked into the lab. One of the young men, the tallest of the group, glanced over and noticed her and pointed. They all looked over and a ripple of soft giggles washed through them. Penny scowled across the room at them. Ash stood up.
“It was revenge porn, you fuckers!” she shouted, making Penny jump back and almost fall off her chair.
“What are you talking about?” the tall young man shot back with feigned innocence.
“I know you were laughing at her because of what she went through over the weekend, but you shouldn't!”
“What happened over the weekend?” a big-boned brunette girl asked with a too-sweet innocence to her tone.
Another boy, blond and mischievous, sprang forward and leered at Penny. “Wow, what luck to have our classes together!”
“Who is she?” asked the big-boned girl.
“That's the porn star!” the second boy pointed at her.
“I know that, idiot.”
“She was in like, 50 movies before she graduated high school. I heard she made a few million from them and that's how she's paying for college.”
“A few million? Why come here then?” The girl frowned down at her.
“It was revenge porn, morons!” Ash shouted, helping Penny back to her feet. “Her ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was mad a girl stole his ex and hid cameras to get revenge.”
“Holy shit, really?” the crowd was making its way down to Penny and Ash.
“Really. Tell them, Pen.”
“Well, I—”
“They look so professional!” the girl said, rushing to the front of the crowd. “I mean, you two were hot! You should be proud. I never looked that hot with any of my boyfriends.”
“Hah! Whatever, you suck a mean dick, Chelsea,” the first young man said.
“Can we never mention this again? This is so embarrassing…”
“I liked that one with the mat on the floor and all the blankets,” the second young man said, adjusting his shirt. “The one where you two—”
“I know what we did! Now stop! Please!”
The crowd fell silent. They looked at each other. They looked at Ash, leaning away from the anger on her face. Then they looked at Penny. The half-Asian girl was sure they were no longer seeing here as their classmate, a girl who graduated valedictorian of her high school and was there on her own merit, a girl who had done more than enough to deserve their respect. No. They were seeing the exotic foreign girl who writhed around with the other exotic foreign girl for their viewing pleasure on their computers or phones. The first young man surprised her by reaching out and touching her shoulder.
“I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…” He paused and glanced at his friends. “None of us should have assumed anything. I mean, I guess I'm probably the only one who hasn't seen it yet—”
“I haven't,” said the other girl, another brunette but a bit on the skinny side, at the back of the group.
“Me neither,” said another boy.
“If it was revenge porn we have no business watching them,” the first girl said, shaking her head slowly. “I shouldn't have enjoyed them, and I won't anymore. We shouldn't feed that awful boy's revenge.”
“What if she deserved it?” the girl at the back asked. Two boys snickered.
“She doesn't!”
“I don't!”
Penny exchanged baffled glances with Ash.
“My ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was mad I stole his girlfriend.”
“Do you always steal straight girls from their boyfriends?” the girl in the back asked.
“No, she wasn't straight.”
“But you just said—”
“I'm not lying!” Penny's shoulders fell forward and she looked over at her computer. All that work, just waiting for her. Tantalizing her. But she had to deal with this. Every day for the rest of her life.
“Tara, give it a rest,” the first girl said. “Come on. We have to go to the lab.”
“If anyone's going to spread rumors about her they're going to hear from me,” Ash said.
“Sure, Rosedale. We've heard that before. We'll be waiting for you.” the second girl tossed her hair over her shoulder and spun away, leading the group across the room for the robotics lab and its whirring machines.
“Tara's such a bitch,” Ash said, plopping down in a chair.
“What's with her?” Penny asked.
“She's mad because I wouldn't keep making out with her last year. She was my suitemate and would come back from her boyfriend's room unfulfilled, so she used me to fulfill herself. When she wouldn't return the favor I stopped and she's hated me ever since. Since she's one of my class's top dogs, emphasis on DOG, she tries to turn everyone against me.”
“And that's why you hang out with me and my friends?”
“No, I hang out with you because you're cool. So what if you're a year younger than me? You're cool, and we're friends.”
“Buddies!”
Ash beamed at her and Penny felt a smile flash across her face. Ash reached out and mussed her hair and they hugged before the blue haired girl rose and took her leave. Penny's fingers lashed out at her computer and her mind was back in motion on something more important once again. So long as her friends stood by her, she would be able to make it. Just like home.
Follow The Long Winter into #31 Fortunate Daughter part three here.