“You’re awake!” she exclaimed, drying her hair with a towel. She wore a light blue terrycloth robe that fell to her mid-calf, and she self-consciously tightened it.
“Yuki? What am I doing here?”
Yuki sighed and moved to the couch, sitting beside Noelle but, at the same time, angling her body away from Noelle’s still half-covered form.
“The first time was the worst for me, too. Except there was no one I could talk to.”
Noelle tilted her head, confused, as she tried to recall what had happened after meeting Professor Cross. She knew that something had happened in Cross’s office, and her cheeks burned red at half-remembered touches and… something else.
“What happened to me? Why am I dressed like this? Did Professor Cross-?”
Yuki’s eyes lifted to Noelle’s, and Noelle could see the sadness behind them. Yuki’s lips trembled as she spoke, slow and tentative. ““Professor Cross has done something to me. To us. And the only way I can explain it is to tell you what happened to me. What’s still happening to me. Maybe it will help you remember, or maybe I just want someone to hear it all before I can’t remember myself anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” Noelle said, reaching to take Yuki’s hand. Yuki jerked her hand back as if afraid of being burned by the touch.
“Please, no!” Yuki called out, nearly crawling over the arm of the sofa to escape the threat of contact.
“I’m sorry,” Noelle said, tucking her hands under the quilt and in her lap, blushing deeper at her exposed flesh where her panties usually covered her.
“No, it’s me,” Yuki said, settling back onto the sofa and calming. “If you touch me, she could come out again. And she’s been staying longer and longer each time. I’m starting to lose whole days. Fortunately, when I wake up, I’m still me.””
“What did Cross do?”
“I met her three weeks ago,” Yuki began. “There was a sign up in the student union asking for volunteers. A psych study, no big deal. And my roommate had moved out, so I needed the extra money. I thought, what could it hurt…”
