Seriously?
“I’m actually . . . gonna go back to my room right now.”
Kate might have found Dana’s sudden departure strange, if she hadn’t just been overwhelmed with the same tingling sensation throughout her body. Dana just backed up a few steps into her room without another word. Honestly, it provided Kate with some degree of relief, as nobody questioned why she suddenly sagged against the wall, her breathing picking way up. Her pulse almost never escalated anymore - ever since she’d become invincible, a lot of things had just become a lot less scary.
This wasn’t fear that she was feeling. No, no, this sudden warmth radiating out of her skin just kept her breathing shallow. She wanted to go to her room, too, and just enjoy it, but knowing how the dorms was being affected made her uncomfortable at best.
She knew who the culprit was. And she knew where to find her.
A few seconds later, Kate was banging on the door of Victoria’s room with the flat of her palm.
“I’m coming in!” She announced, then counted to three to prevent the sudden escalation of fear that she didn’t feel like adding to everything she was already feeling.
At the end of her count, she turned the knob, and barged in. Everything she expected to see was right there - Victoria wrapped up in her sheets, her face a deep red; Max stark naked right beside her, trying to tear the sheets from her grasp to cover herself up, but to no avail.
Kate entered and closed the door right behind her.
Max said, “Kate, what are you doing-” but Kate let out such a huffy sigh that it cut Max right off.
Putting on a polite, if somewhat sarcastic smile, Kate turned to Victoria. “Tori,” she said, extremely professionally, “you’re radiating your feelings outwards again. To the whole dorm, actually.”
An uncomfortable grin burst on Kate’s face as she said this, and Victoria abandoned the sheet to hide her face in her hands. Max was quick to tug the sheet free, just pulling it right over her head so she couldn’t be seen at all.
Victoria’s hands fell to her mouth after a few seconds, and she replied, “Oh my god, shit, I’m sor-”
Kate held up a finger to pause her, and to her delight, Victoria obeyed. “No. No. You do not get to say ‘I’m sorry’. Seriously?, this is the third time. Dana just ended our conversation to go back to her room; I am dripping wet, and I am pretty sure I heard Stella’s incredibly loud vibrator turn on from out in the hall. This has got to stop.”
Now Victoria was just covering half of her face with her hand, but she was clearly pouting. If Kate hadn’t been so annoyed, she probably would have found it pretty cute. But now, her pouty “But I was so close . . .” just rankled Kate.
Kate took a deep breath, dealing with her own frustration as well as the nightmarish waves of embarrassment and arousal from Victoria.
After she exhaled, she said quietly, but no less sternly, “Fine. Max, just finish her. Like, quickly, some of us have homework to do.”
Max pulled up the sheet and gave Kate a neutral expression. When Kate made no moves, she tilted her head curiously. “Like, right now?” she asked.
Kate sounded exasperated, “Yes!”
Victoria and Max looked at each other.
“Uh, okay,” Max shrugged.
“Are you just going to stand here or are you-” Victoria cut off speech in favor of a flat-toned, quiet screech of mind blank as Max apparently found her sweet spot with practiced ease.
And, seeing as she and Victoria were still making eye contact, Kate felt a lot more of it herself than she had planned for. She had planned to just turn and leave, but as her legs seemingly turned to jelly, she sagged against the door instead.
Victoria was going to try and continue her question, Kate could tell, but Max pushed her down and corrected any designs she had at saying anything more.