Kristen moved over to me. "What’s wrong, Jim?" she asked, concern showing in her voice. "You know that Patty likes doing these things. What’s wrong with Patrice doing them? She told you that she wants to be punished."
I thought for a few moments, trying to put my misgivings into words. Finally, I said, "It’s not fair to Patrice."
The two girls were now totally confused.
"Patrice," I called out. "Please come over here with us; right here, as a friend, and not as Vanessa."
Patrice came over looking confused. "What’s wrong?"
"This isn’t fair to you," I said. "I need to tell you something."
"What?"
I looked from Patrice to my beloved Kristen and then back to Patrice. I had actually been thinking about this since the previous morning, and now I knew that I had to get this off my chest. I stood up, and finally got my courage. "Patrice, you apologized for your behavior. And I accepted your apology. Now I’m going to have to ask you to accept mine."
Both girls still looked confused.
"Patrice, you have some sort of apprehension about me, don’t you?"
Patrice slowly nodded.
Finally, Kristen figured it out. But I saw worry on her face.
I continued. "Did Kristen ever tell you what I did to her?"
Patrice nodded. "She just said you humiliated her, but nothing specific about what you actually did."
"OK. I did humiliate her, and I did so in front of Patty, Wendy, and Camille," I admitted. "I was angry at Kristen, because I blamed her for turning you against me. Did you know that?"
Patrice looked shocked. "No! I had no idea…"
I continued, interrupting Patrice. "And, I wasn’t just mad at her. I was also mad at you. I did sort of the same thing to you, too. Only… you don’t remember it. I forced you to tell me personal things. Like about Ricky Lane…"
Patrice’s look of confusion turned to one of embarrassment.
I pressed on, "And Donny Erickson. Do you know what I’m talking about?"
Patrice slowly nodded, wondering how I could know about those boys.
"And I went further. You don’t remember, but it was just a couple of weeks ago."
"I don’t remember! I’d never tell you about those boys. Kristen probably heard about them from Dale!"
Kristen interrupted gently. "Patrice… Dale’s no longer at school. She’s pissed at me. You know that."
"So… how does he know?" Patrice asked. "And if I told him, why don’t I remember?"
I had to get this off my chest, but I didn’t know if I should tell Patrice about the tickets. I looked to Kristen for support, but I couldn’t read her expression. She seemed to be waiting for me to make a move.
"I… let’s just say I sort of hypnotized you," I said, remembering Patty’s description from the other night. "I told you to forget. But, deep down, there’s part of you that seems to remember. I humiliated you, which is why you feel the way you do about me."
"Can you let me remember?" Patrice asked.
"I… probably not," I admitted, knowing that I could never fully negate a wish that had been granted. "I think it was a fluke that I managed to… um… hypnotize you in the first place." I didn’t want Patrice to think that I could do something like that again.
"OK. Say I believe you. Why are you telling me now?"
"That’s easy, Patrice," I said. "You apologized to me for the way you’ve behaved over the last few years. I need to apologize to you for what I’ve done, which is probably much worse. I didn’t really realize how terrible my behavior was at the time, but I’ve managed to learn some things in the last couple of weeks."
Patrice stood there, considering my words. Then, a look of horror appeared on her face. "Jim? Does this maybe have to do with oral sex?"
So, Patrice knew! "Um… yeah…"
"Was it in my living room?"
"Yeah," I said, waiting for the next question.
Patrice looked at me, her eyes opening wide and then clenching shut repeatedly, as her mind reeled over what she was learning.
I shut my eyes, wondering what I should say to Patrice. Nothing came to mine.
Then I heard a loud SLAP and my hand automatically went to my cheek to feel it redden. I saw a blur from the right side, where Kristen had just been standing, but she was gone. She was now behind Patrice, holding her arm behind her back. Kristen had moved so fast that I didn’t even see it.
Kristen took charge. "Patrice, Jim may have deserved that. I’m not hurting you right now, but I can’t have you two fighting in here. If you want, I’ll set up mats in the exercise room."
My jaw was wide open. Patrice had slapped me, and Kristen had used some sort of Karate move to keep Patrice from doing it again.
"Please let me go, Kristen," Patrice said.
Kristen looked to me, and I nodded.
Patrice ran to me, and I saw a worried look in Kristen’s eyes. But Patrice stopped as she got near me again, saying, "Tell me what happened. Tell me everything."
I sat Patrice down next to me, and I told her the story as I had told it to Patty and Kristen. The only part that was different was the beginning. I made up a story that I had found Patrice mostly asleep watching television, and I took advantage of her half-asleep state to put her into a hypnotic trance.
When I finished my story, Patrice said, "You kissed me afterward?"
"Yeah," I admitted. "You said that Donny…"
Patrice interrupted. "Yeah, he made me feel like a whore."
I gave Patrice time to absorb the information. I looked at Kristen, who smiled at me, but had the beginnings of tears in her eyes.
Patrice sighed, and said, "I really need to think on this." She turned to Kristen and said, "You said I could stop playing this game at any time. I need to stop this for tonight. I really need to collect my thoughts."
Kristen nodded.
Patrice got up, found her clothes, and started dressing. When she finished, Kristen said, "Patrice, I’d like to spend a moment alone with Jim. Can I meet you at my car in five minutes?"
"Yeah."
The two girls hugged, and I noticed that I didn’t receive a hug. Well, I wouldn’t blame Patrice if she never forgave me, but I felt a bit better now that I had told her. I never realized how much it had been eating away at me before.
When Patrice left, Kristen said, "That took courage."
I nodded, feeling sad that I might lose a close friend that I had just gotten back a short time ago.
"I’m proud of you, Jim."
The two of us kissed. It was not one of Kristen’s erection specials, but a very tender moment of sharing between the two of us.
As we walked out of the Solarium, I made another observation, one that really disheartened me: Kristen hadn’t once tried to assure me that Patrice would forgive me.
The next morning was unusual for me. No female spent any time in my bed, the first time in a couple of weeks. Usually, either Patty or Kristen (or both) would give me a morning blow job, but Patty was out of town, and would no longer do it anymore, and I had specifically asked that Kristen not visit me this morning, except to pick me up for school.
Actually, I had considered having Camille pick me up, as she lived closer, but I didn’t want to give her any ideas about visiting me in the morning: she had told me (kidding, she said) that she’d be quite willing to take over for Patty.
The reason I didn’t want Kristen to come over was that I was really feeling in a big funk due to Patrice being angry with me. I didn’t feel very good about myself, and figured that not having Kristen come over would be the start of my own punishment.