A letter was in the closet when Cat woke up on Wednesday morning. Something so simple laying on the floor under her blouses and skirts shouldn't have been so alarming, and yet… She looked up to the ceiling, the faintest indication of a square door above her. She and Max had never tried to climb up to it, push at it to see if it would move, or even give much thought to where it might lead to. Clearly, something was there.

The letter was addressed to her, in the same neat and tidy script that her first letter from August had been addressed. Holy shit. He had written to her and somehow had it dropped IN HER ROOM?!? She looked over both of her shoulders fearfully, as if her patron was standing watching her. As far as she knew, the room she shared with Max was entirely and completely private. At least that had been her understanding until the discovery of this letter.

She shoved it up her shirt - she didn't even really know why, it's not like anyone would see it. Max had already left for her first classes a few minutes prior. So the letter probably hadn't been dropped by her either. It was an alarming prospect.

Cat sat on her bed, tucked herself up small against the wall, reached up into her top and withdrew her secret note. Opened it and began to read.

Dear Kitty Cat,

Again. Sincere apologies for whatever trouble you have found yourself in after last weekend. I narrowly escaped my own punishment, thanks in large part to my father who was able to pull some strings with St. Joseph's. Unfortunately, the event has put me under lock and key every day since. For my safety, of course. I'm staying in the tunnels until Sunday. I'm in Room 35. If you are able to sneak down with Max some night, maybe we can see each other again? Or not. I'll totally understand if you don't want to take the risk. Maybe you won't even get this letter. I hear your dean locks girls in attics and throws them in dungeons under the tunnels. I hope you're not in a dungeon, Cat. But I'd like to see you again. Very much. Room 35. If you're up for it. I'm here till Sunday, Max knows the way.

Yours,

August

Cat was going to hyperventilate.

::::

“You're sure?” Max asked again for the sixth time.

“Yes,” Cat had made up her mind by Friday after sexual education.

The dean had given her all sorts of grossly uncomfortable information about oral sex. Had made her practice licking a six inch length of plastic. Had unexpectedly shoved it back against her throat. It made her vomit a little. He hadn't liked that and had slapped her stupid for it.

Now she was sporting rosy red cheeks, one looking just a slight shade of purple, but she was firm in her resolve. Yes. She did want to see August. Put some of the nightmare of the day she'd had behind her and do something risky. See her boyfriend. She wondered if she could actually call August her boyfriend if they never had the opportunity to actually go out on a date.

Max shrugged as if to say, “Your future examination here” and pulled a key out of her desk drawer.

“How many keys do you have?!” Cat asked. It wasn't the same key Max wore around her neck at all times.

“All of them,” Max winked. “Let's go.”

Cat took a step towards the door to their room but was stopped by Max's sudden burst of laughter.

“Oh my god, no! We're going up!” Max grabbed the chair from her desk and brought it over to their closet. “Go out that door and try to explain to your personal patron why you're headed out with me at 8 pm? I think not. That's definitely not gonna fly around here.”

Max placed the chair under where Cat assumed the trap door to be, climbed up onto the seat and pushed up into the ceiling. A rope ladder dropped down from the opening and Max grinned broadly.

“First we go up, then we go down, c'mon Cat, let's go get you a date,” she said as she placed her hands and feet on the ladder and ascended into the closet ceiling.

::::

Their walk through the maze of hallways felt endless. How could there possibly be so many halls and rooms?! Even if the tunnels housed every single student at each of the colleges, Cat thought there would still be rooms to spare. It seemed like an endless maze of wasted space to her.

The girls passed under a sign hanging from the ceiling indicating “BLOCK 30”. Max promised they were close. The hallway was silent, all the doors closed, the only activity coming from a blinking “EXIT” light at the very end of the hall. Max stopped at a grey door with “35” written on it in numbers that had to have been half as tall as Cat. Cat expected her friend to knock on the door, but instead she withdrew another - mysterious - key from somewhere within the waistband of her skirt and silently inserted the key into the door, turned the lock, and stepped through the threshold.

“Shouldn't we knock?” Cat asked nervously as she followed Max through the doorway. But she immediately realized why they hadn't. They hadn't entered a room, but rather a chamber not much bigger than a small supply closet. The chamber led to three more doors. Max pushed a button to her right and the door next to it silently slid open into an exceptionally normal looking college dorm room.

“Hey! You made it!” August stood up from a chair in the corner where he had been watching a television - an action movie by the looks of it - and crossed the room to the two girls.

“What the…” Cat stammered as she stepped in a full circle, gawking at her surroundings. It literally looked exactly like the room she shared with Max - a little smaller, a bit more boyish, no windows facing the outside, but it was exceptionally…normal.

“You want me to go stand guard?” Max asked, looking back in the direction of the door.

“I wouldn’t go out in the hallway, no,” August answered, totally cool, totally normal, nothing weird about this tunnel dorm room, “I think they’ll probably be coming through within the next half hour for curfew purposes. If you just wait outside the door in the little entry room, I think that should be fine. Is that fine?”

”I can just go next door,” Max indicated her nod towards the wall as she said it. What was next door?! “It’s after hours and I’m assuming you have the entire chamber to yourself.”

Cat’s head spun. What was behind the other doors??

”You don’t mind?” August asked, uneasily.

Max shrugged, “It’s fine. I assume it’s empty, right?”

“Better be,” he said simply. What was behind the other doors??

”Have fun, kids,” Max said with a grin and a wink as she hit the button for the door and disappeared back out the way she and Cat had come in.

“Wanna watch a movie?” August asked with a smile as he took Cat’s hand in hers. Started leading her towards the corner of the room with the television before she could even respond.

She didn’t really know what to do with herself. She’d never been left alone with a boy before. Certainly not in his bedroom. She supposed maybe this wasn’t his permanent bedroom, but he was certainly sleeping here for the time being. There was the bed. A few personal items of his were strewn about. It was just the two of them…

“Sorry, I only have the couple of chairs, the bed is kind of far from the TV here,” he indicated to another hard plastic chair next to where he had stood up from when they’d entered his room. “I guess we can sit in the bed…if you want?”

Cat enthusiastically shook her head “no” - no, she didn’t think sitting on the bed with August would be a prudent idea. Just her own hunch. She didn’t want to invite that sort of temptation upon herself - especially not after the events of the past month or two at the college. She would be good. Chaste. Pure. As she was expected to be.

But oh. He DID smell good. Still. She looked around the room trying to locate where he might keep his cologne. Or aftershave. Or whatever the hell that intoxicating aroma of his was. She didn’t really see much other than a few books, writing implements, and electronics.

The moment Cat sat down in her chair, she heard a shriek. She gasped out loud. She knew that shriek - Max.

“What’s wrong?” Cat whipped around to look at the door the moment it slid open and her heart plummeted down into the floor. Max was standing in the little entry alcove, her arms pinned behind her back by the dean.

But which dean?

”Fuck,” August muttered under his breath. Well, either way, that wasn’t a promising response.

“Catherine?!” The dean seemed legitimately surprised to see her sitting there with August in his room. His eyes darted back and forth between the two of them sitting in front of the television as Max helplessly wriggled against his grip.

“Sir! I…” Cat began.

“Deviance?” The dean said it as if it was a question. Was it a question? Was deviance sneaking into the tunnels and going into a boy’s private room within them? Sure seemed like a punishable offense to Cat. Easily.

Max writhed and wriggled some more and the dean backhanded her HARD across the back of her skull and Cat couldn’t believe she remained standing on her feet from the blow.

“Next door, all of you,” the dean said coldly, as he wrenched Max by the arms behind her back and pulled her out the door in the way that they had come.

“Fuck, fuck, shit,” August muttered some more as he reluctantly stood to his feet as Cat looked on terrified. If August was afraid of the dean, what hope did either she or Max have for the rest of the evening? Cat reluctantly brought up the rear of their sorry ensemble as August followed in the direction the dean had taken Max - through the door on the left of the entry room.

Cat’s heart hammered within her chest as they walked into an incredibly clean and clinical space. There was one of those bizarre dental-like chairs that Cat had seen the terrifying night that she and Max had escaped the bonfire through the tunnels. Instead of a single footrest extending out in front, it divided in two - giving it the appearance of a very uncomfortable recliner with two gym benches extending out in front of it.

“August, you can have a seat,” the dean indicated, nodding towards the chair.

“What?!” Max gasped, agape. She looked frantically back and forth amongst each of the individuals in the room. Cat became even more frightened. Max had become so cool and calm over the past couple of months - Cat couldn’t even remember the last time anything had even remotely phased, or even bothered, her.

“Catherine, will you please inform your friends here of your sexual education studies from this past week?” The dean asked as August uneasily approached the chair and took a seat at the edge.

“Sir, what is happening right now?” Cat challenged in return.

“Your studies, please,” he said, though not unkindly.

Cat looked anxiously between August and Max - still grasped tightly in the dean’s grip.

“O…Oral sex?” She squeaked.

An imperceptible look crossed Max’s face. She looked anything but cool and calm, but she also looked… revolted? No. Uneasy? No. Cat couldn’t parse it.

“A lesson you perhaps had some difficulties with today, I do apologize, Catherine,” the dean said - again, not unkindly, but almost in a mocking tone? “Perhaps it would help to witness an actual live demonstration of the act in question?”

Oh fuck. The blood drained from Cat’s face - ALL of their faces as she looked to both August and Max. Who was going to…

”Perhaps you are unaware, but your roommate Maxine here has quite the talent for the deed,” the dean said as he did something that Cat couldn’t see from behind Max’s back and she squeaked in response. “Not that we’ve ever allowed her to practice on a live subject… Up until tonight. What do you think, Mr. Rogers?”

August was completely pale and sat frozen in the bizarre chair. Cat thought - surely - this was a gross violation of their own college policy. The dean was allowing two scholars to sexually engage with one another? And why Max?? Cat was sure she was going to break down and cry. For so many reasons.

“Mr. Rogers, I would advise you remove your bottoms,” the dean indicated, “Maxine, if you do not comply, I will drag you by the hair down to room ten and use the electric seven.”

She literally squeaked. Cat had NEVER heard Max squeak.

“Begin. At your leisure,” the dean roughly shoved Max towards August and the two of them just stood and sat facing each other, awkwardly, unmoving. “NOW!”

They both visibly swallowed hard and August rose to his feet to remove his pants and underwear. Max stood awkwardly in front of him as she waited for him to re-situate himself, and then kneeled on the floor between the two padded leg rests that extended outward on either side of her.

Cat was going to hyperventilate. Like really, truly this time. Her breath was fast and shallow as she stared between the boy she was utterly smitten with and her very best friend and roommate. She tried to avoid looking at August’s genitalia, but her curiosity got the best of her - she’d NEVER seen a boy naked before. The dean had showed her some rough pictures and diagrams, but the real thing here in front of her was a completely different thing.

“I’m so sorry,” Cat heard Max whisper from where she knelt on the floor in front of August and the chair. Cat had no idea if she was talking to August, or her, or maybe all of them?

Cat couldn’t take her eyes away from her friends in front of her and nearly missed the dean crossing the room to stand next to her where she was. His heavy, oppressive presence behind her sent a tangible chill through her body. She wanted to sob as Max reached out to touch August.

“NO TOUCHING,” the dean boomed, making Cat jump.

Despite the lack of touch, August’s body was clearly responding - although his face didn’t quite match the same enthusiasm. Cat felt nauseous. Max placed both of her hands on her knees and leaned forward to take August into her mouth and Cat felt as if her head might actually explode from the heat and anxiety coursing through her body. What the FUCK was this?!?

Max took August into her mouth completely and Cat gasped. She was a swirling, nauseous, whirlwind of conflicting feelings - anger, jealously, despair, but also… aroused. She’d never seen anything so flagrantly sexual before in her entire life. She legitimately felt envy for Max - perhaps not for what she was doing in this situation or how she was forced into doing the act, but when August let out the faintest noise of pleasure, Cat felt it like a lightning bolt through her body. Perhaps this was an act that she wanted to perform on someone. Eventually. In a much different scenario than this.

She nearly jumped when she felt a heavy hand across her shoulders. She’d almost forgotten about the dean’s heavy presence behind her, but it came crashing back into her reality as he - stroked?!? - at her shoulder, her hair, and began to provide commentary about the scene as Max continued in her ministrations.

It was just noise in Cat’s ears - her entire head was a violent hurricane of conflicting thoughts and feelings. Ringing through the whirlwind were words and phrases such as: “see how she unlocks her jaw…” and “he’s really enjoying her mouth…” and “you’ll practice…” and “climax”, “swallow” and “pleased”. Cat couldn’t catch her breath.

“LOOK AT HER” the dean boomed from behind Cat. That startled her back to where she was standing in the room. She looked uneasily at August who opened his eyes and looked at Max.

“No! Catherine!” The dean directed. Cat swallowed hard. Why did the dean want August to look at her?! Oh god. It was so uncomfortable. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to look August in the eye again after tonight.

August gasped and turned his head in their direction and his hips bucked upward. Cat wanted to cry as his eyes locked on hers.

“Don’t look away,” the dean said coldly as August made eye contact with Cat. Her heart rate was galloping throughout her entire body. She swore that her skirt was probably jumping with each thunderous beat.

She barely paid attention to the constant brushing motion at the back of her neck. Why was the dean touching - no, stroking - her constantly?! She swayed on her feet and took a step backwards, her hand accidentally brushing up against the front of the dean. She wasn't positive what an erection felt like, but she was pretty sure she'd just touched his. She literally shuddered and went to take another step forward and away. The dean closed his hand tight around the back of her neck and held her even closer to his oppressive body.

August moaned, the noise a strangled, involuntary sound. Cat couldn't believe Max’s stamina. She'd been kneeling on the cold cement floor, bare kneed, for at least 5 minutes now.

“He's going to orgasm,” the dean said, sounding pleased, so casual. “Maxine, please swallow. I don't want to have to send someone in to clean up the mess.”

Cat swore she saw a sideways glance in their direction from Max. Even more certain she saw a subtle middle finger extended on her left hand, facing in their direction. Clearly the dean wasn't looking at her hands.

August made another strangled noise from his throat, bucked his hips and his hands became tight fists at his sides. He froze for a moment, two, three, sunk deep inside Max’s mouth and she made a strangled noise of her own.

“SWALLOW,” the dean boomed and Cat jumped again. She watched as Max struggled to get down whatever she had been instructed to swallow, and she pulled away her head and turned to look at the dean (and Cat) with an absolutely evil and scathing look in her eyes. She opened her mouth wide, stuck out her tongue, and Cat watched as she extended the single middle finger on her right hand on top of her knee. Meanwhile, August lay gasping, breathing heavy, staring mute at the ceiling above him.

”Strip naked,” the dean intoned. Cat whirled her head around to look at him incredulously. Who was he talking to?!? Oh god, she hoped not all three of them…

Max rolled her eyes as she stood to her feet, unfastened her skirt and let it drop to her feet.

“Sir?!” Cat practically whispered. Oh god, she did NOT want to get naked in front of all of them. Especially right now.

“Just Maxine,” he said coldly, not taking his eyes off of her as she unbuttoned her blouse obediently and shrugged it off of her shoulders.

God. She looked incredible. Cat wished she had Max’s voluptuous female body. She felt like the doll everyone called her… A doll with big boobs, at least.

“Where’s the key?” The dean asked as Max peeled her bra away.

“What key?” Max asked, demure.

“How did you get down here?” The dean asked, his voice rising.

“Special invitation,” Max replied, evading the question.

Cat looked at her roommate incredulously. They’d gotten in here with more than one key. Where had they gone?!