Page 18 of A Cock and Bull Story
“I'm confused,” I mumble. “Who are the busies? And I thought the Tertiaries were the ones we were trying to gain respect from. . .”
Are the Tertiaries not the good guys,I wonder.
Did I get confused and they actually meant something completely else—like the Tershes are a gang?
Was the murder gang violence?!
I shiver at the thought—theonlything I want with a gang is to bang.
“There's no time for explanations,” Arthur says gently. “We have to go now.”
And that's how I ended up riding the train back to Oxford butt naked, wrapped in nothing but a blanket—notthat anyone on campus will be surprised. I’ve marched back to my one-room apartment in less.
Whatissurprising is that all six of the others come with me.
The entire ride back to Oxford was rife with muttered words and anxiety. The four men huddled together to talk, look around, and whisper some more; Elise and Sian sat closely next to one another, afraid to even look around. I am still a bit in shock, so I don’t even question when they follow me to my living quarters.
Here I’m about to bring six of the hottest people I’ve ever met home and it’s not even to fuck—hell, I’m not even contemplating it!
I guess all I needed to be on the straight and sexless narrow was a little street murder with a dash of animorph mystery.
I'm so distraught that, when I unlock the door to my apartment, I completely forget that I always have the place set up. . .in case I bring somebody home.The table to the left has two tea lights, a hot oil warmer, and anal beads hanging where someone else would probably hang their keys. Further into the room, you can see more objects meant for, ah, sexual pleasure.
I've been meaning to pick up and make the place a little bit more respectable, but I obviously didn't intend to use any of it—I mean, the warmer isn’t on nor are the tea lights lit. I’m hoping that, given the circumstances, everyone just ignores what's around them. I lead them to my small living room area. Arthur takes a seat on my couch and yelps as he leaps back up.
Panicked, I cry, “What's wrong?”
I'm terrified that the murderer has somehow followed me home, got to my house before me, and the giant man is hiding in my child-sized couch.
Sounds legit as shit to me.
But, instead of my nightmare springing forth, Arthur reaches back a hand and pulls out a massive black cock.
“Oh, that's where that went,” I exclaim. “I was looking for it the other night. . .”
I trail off when I notice that everyone is staring at me like I've grown a second head. Yeah, maybe I should have cleaned up first, but I wasn’t expecting any company! I realize that I'm still standing there with the double-ended dildo. I drop it and kick it under my couch like a lady.
“Is anyone going to explain to me what happened now?” I ask, turning everyone's attention away from my clam stuffer to the problem at hand. “Are Tertiaries the good guys or the bad guys?”
I mean, they are going to have to work really hard to convince me that those dudes are the good guys—considering I saw one of them slash a woman's throat out.
Theo opens his mouth to speak but closes it; then, opens it again and closes it, like a fish out of water. He lifts up his hand and kind of gives a shrug.
“They're not good and they're not bad. They just. . . are,” he says.
“That was aterribleexplanation,” I deadpan.
“What he means,” Jude intervenes, ever the middleman, “is that they're in charge. They're the law. It doesn't matter if what they do is wrong.”
A lightbulb goes off in my head.
The Tertiaries are part of law enforcement.
“Oh, so they're the corrupt cops,” I mutter. “Why in the ever-living hell are we trying to gain the respect of people who are corrupt?”
“Because that's how society is built, love,” Elise explains. “It's the powerful who are in charge and the weak who submit to them.”
I cringe, but she's telling the truth. The dean of Oxford isn't top dog at the university because of his stellar academics—but because of hisname. And the privilege and wealth that comes with that is hereditary, not something that you work towards.
