Page 364 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“Now, eat your breakfast,” he told her as he went back to his seat.

“It looks gross,” she muttered.

“True,” he said, picking up his toast. “But you’re going to be here a while, and the food won’t look any better later on.”

It was a weird thing to eat food that looked so awful and yet tasted so good. She managed to swallow five or six bites, but it sat like a lump in the pit of her stomach for a long time afterward, and she spent the entire walk down the grey streets to Beth and Peter’s high school trying to convince herself that she wasn’t going to throw it all up again.

“When do we start to get chased by spiders?” she asked Morgan. She had to scoot a little closer and slightly behind him as they passed two movie-generated teenagers—listless and non-conversational—also walking towards the high school. Everyone they passed looked just like that. To Audrey, it was like walking through a town full of zombies.

“Not for a good while yet,” he assured her. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you know before it happens.”

“I don’t think I want to know.”

Just as they were about to cross the street to the high school, Morgan stopped her. “This is a fifties-style movie and you’re the heroine, remember? That means you survive this too, okay?”

She nodded. “I’d just feel better if I knew what was going to happen. What if we survive the spiders only to have this reality collapse in on us? I don’t want to fade to black. I want to go home.”

“I know. It’ll be okay.” He smiled at her, and then without warning, leaned down to press a soft kiss on her forehead. In that instant, it felt as though her stomach dropped all the way to her toes. It wasn’t an unpleasant kiss and, delivered as it was in an almost brotherly fashion, the warm touch of his lips against her skin had her lips tingling to return the gesture.

The sensation shot down through her body, ignoring all of her innocent extremities to lodge in her suddenly stiffening nipples and even lower down in her belly. It was an entirely sexual response, one that was completely unexpected, unwarranted and was, frankly, unwelcome. This was, after all, the man who had unrepentantly spanked her. Not just once, but twice now. He wasn’t supposed to kiss her, and she really wasn’t supposed to like it.

By the look on Morgan’s face as he pulled back again, that kiss had been just as unnerving for him. “Um, that was just… for luck.”

“Right,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “Thanks.”

“Sure.” He abruptly let go of her and cleared his throat. “Anytime.”

They started across the street and Audrey felt that by now familiar vacuum sensation begin to suck the air from her lungs. The entire world shifted into a brighter version of black and white. Suddenly, with a lightning flash of brilliance, disorientation hit her as her surroundings vanished.

She found herself standing at the foot of the school’s front steps, not far from the flag pole and with Morgan nowhere in sight.

“Hey, Beth!”

Audrey turned to see three giggling girls in poodle skirts and white-and-black shoes heading right for her.

“Well, has he asked you yet?” the first one gushed as they drew nearer.

“Uh, who?” she asked. “Asked me what?”

All three stared at her in astonishment. They probably couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d shucked off all her clothes and run down the sidewalk starkers.

“Has Trevor asked you to the dance?” one girl, her platinum blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail with a bright pink ribbon, slowly asked. “Remember Trevor? Your incredibly cute boyfriend, the most gorgeous hunk in the entire school, not to mention the captain of the football team.”

“How could you forget?” another, a dark-haired girl with a Lucille Ball hairdo, asked. “I thought you went out last night.”

“Uh, no, I went out looking for my father,” Audrey stammered, and darted a quick glance around for Morgan. “He’s missing. I’m very worried.”

“Beth?” The blonde peered at her closely. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I—I’m just very, very worried and don’t feel much like dating. I guess.”

The three girls looked at her, then at each other, then back at her.

“Well, then,” the blonde managed a smile. “We’ll see you in home-ec, okay, Beth?”

“Sure.” Audrey waved to them as they shuffled past her. They jogged quickly up the stairs, their heads ducking together in furtive whispers as they glanced back at her once before disappearing into the school.

That probably could have gone better.

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