[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 728 & 729. (Patreon)

Chapter 728: Updating the family.

That night, all the girls went to their own rooms. Tomorrow was a big day for all of us and we all wanted proper rest. At least, that was the excuse. We all knew we were lying, but no one felt like talking about it.

We were all nervous and anxious.

We’d be officially starting a new chapter of our lives. University wasn’t like high school, or so we had always been told. We’d all heard so many stories that we didn’t know what to even believe. Not to mention that for some of the girls, going to this university meant going against their families’ wishes. I had to add to the pressure.

I almost suggested we all sleep together again, but there really are times when you need to be alone. This was one of those times. We had pushed these thoughts away for long enough. It was time to face them.

When I was in my room, undressing to get in bed, my phone rang with the sound of a text message. Cake jumped on the night stand to inspect it, then jumped back on the bed when I picked it up.

It was a text from Fernanda.

-Fern: Hey, thanks again for today. I had an amazing time. But I just wanted to wish you luck for tomorrow. I don’t know how they’ll do things at your university, but the entrance ceremony is usually nothing too bad, and that’s coming from me.

I chuckled.

-Oliver: I had an amazing time, too. And thank you. You’re also starting again tomorrow, aren’t you?

-Fern: Yeah. Not looking forward to it. I’d be bummed that most of my old classmates are half a year ahead of me now, but it’s not like I knew them very well. I… think it’s best to see this as a new start.

-Oliver: You’ll do great. Just remember, one thing at a time.

-Fern: I texted to cheer you up, not the other way around >:( 

-Oliver: And I appreciate it a lot. Good night, Fern. Sleep well.

-Fern: You too.

I sat on the bed, wearing only my boxers. I plugged my phone to my charger and set up the alarm for 6:30 am. Cake pushed her head against my arm and began to purr while rubbing herself on me.

I smiled and picked her up in my arms. “You’ll be alone here tomorrow. I’m sorry. But you’re a big girl now, aren’t you?”

Cake gave a short meow back, eyes on me. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure me or complaining. Sometimes I can sort of tell, others not so much.

I sighed. It’s moments like this one that made me hesitate in adopting Cake. Leaving her alone in a completely new environment felt wrong, but there was little else I could do. We all had to leave.

“I’ll bring you treats, okay?” I kissed the top of her head, and again she rubbed her head against my cheek, purring. “Hey, should we call your grandma?”

Her ears stood up and she jumped out of my arms at that word. I put on a T-shirt and started a video call with mom, keeping the camera on Cake.

“Hello?” mom said as she answered. “Well, look who it is. How’s she holding up?” mom asked me.

Cake meowed loudly, either happy to see his grandma or answering the question herself. Still, she seemed gleefully restless.

“Well enough. She’s exploring at her pace but mostly staying in my bedroom because the boxes smell like me, I suppose. Today she played with Diana’s dog, though.”

“Don’t worry, she’ll settle down soon. She’s not even a year old. She’ll adapt quickly.” I could see mom walking down the hallway as she talked. She knocked on Isabelle’s door and said, “Your brother is calling.”

“Please tell me he’s wearing a shirt!” Isabelle said as she answered the door.

“He had the decency to put one on, yes.”

I’m… going to ignore the accuracy of them guessing that I didn’t have one on before calling.

“Hey, brother! How’s Cake doing?” Isabelle asked.

“She’s doing fine. How are Mint and Chip? Everything okay?”

“Ugh, don’t even start…” mom groaned.

“W-What happened?”

“Um… Chip is kind of, sort of… learning to howl,” Isabelle said, grimacing at the camera.

“Oh, no…”

“And his sister is trying to imitate him,” mom said. “It’s cute for now, since they’re young and only just learning, but soon…”

“Yep. I left at the right time.”

“Coward,” Isabelle told me.

Mom then chuckled, shook her head and looked at the camera with a gentle smile. “And how are YOU doing? Feeling alright?”

“Yeah, mostly. The house still doesn’t truly feel like home, but it’s getting there. It might be too big, actually.”

“It’ll get there. And what about tomorrow? Ready for the entrance ceremony?”

I let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. I don’t want to go, if I’m being honest. I don’t want this… whole thing to start. But there’s no stopping it, so… Better put my best foot forward.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

“I’ll see you guys there tomorrow,” Isabelle said. “Wait for me, okay?”

“Sure. We should be there at around 8:30 am or so. We’ll wait for you at the bottom of the entrance stairs.”

“Got it.”

“Now, go to sleep,” mom told me. “I won’t be there to wake you up if you oversleep.”

I chuckled. “You haven’t needed to do that in years, though. Besides, Cake has my back. She’ll bite my nose if she has to, all so that I turn off the alarm. Won’t you, girl?”

Cake answered with another short meow. Mom and Isabelle laughed.

We said good night and I got ready for bed, having already brushed my teeth. I got in the huge bed alone, with only Cake beside me. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep… and failed for the longest time.

My chest would tighten every other moment as I pictured the things that could happen tomorrow. Or maybe even what wouldn’t happen. I remembered my high school days, and how the only reason I began to have a social life was thanks to Thomas and the girls, and that happened in my senior year.

But I’m not the same person I used to be. I’ve grown and continue growing. I can handle myself now. I can talk now. Meeting new people is still as scary as it used to be, but I don’t freeze up anymore. And even if everything that could go wrong does go wrong, well… I’m not alone like I used to be. I can handle it.

That’s what I kept telling myself over and over until I finally fell asleep at like 2:00 am.

************

Chapter 729: Getting ready.

I’d say that was our first real morning in the new house, at least in the sense that we all had to wake up and get ready at the same time to leave for something important. It was the first real test of how things would work from here on out, and I’d say we barely got a passing grade.

We had an hour to shower, get dressed and have breakfast. An hour for all seven of us, and we had neglected to establish a schedule beyond ‘we leave at 7:30 am,’ and I was regretting it already.

Having a vague idea of how my girls are, I decided to use the east bathroom on the second floor. Mila would likely be the last to wake up and Grace also wasn’t a big morning person. but Sarah was. I made sure to take a quick shower and found her waiting outside with her hair all disheveled and tired eyes.

“Did I take too long?” I asked her, holding the towel around my waist.

She shook her head. “I just got here.”

I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Did you sleep well?”

She sighed. “Did you?”

I groaned.

Sarah chuckled. “Well, at least I don’t feel terrible. I’ll make this quick.”

I nodded. “I’ll get dressed and start on breakfast.”

“Thank you.”

I went back to my bedroom and got dressed in some blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a long sleeve white shirt over it, and I’ve got to say it felt really weird knowing I was going to ‘school’ wearing street clothes instead of my uniform. Weird, but good. Never really liked uniforms.

I could hear some conversation in the west-wing hallway. I think Alice was coming out of the bathroom and Noelle was going in. The time was 6:42. So far so good.

As I finished putting on my shoes, Cake jumped out of the bed, stretched her whole body and followed me downstairs to the kitchen. As I was making a big batch of scrambled eggs while the water was boiling, Sarah and Alice came down.

“We’ve hit our first snag,” Sarah said. “Grace is yelling at Mila to hurry up in the bathroom.”

“And I think Noelle might have fallen asleep in the shower,” Alice said.

I sighed. “Noelle is punctual enough, so I doubt it, but it’s true she might be taking too long. Grace might have to use the shower before Mila from now on.”

“Maybe, but Grace takes about as long in the shower, too,” Sarah said, sighing.

Next one to arrive at the kitchen was Diana, still in her pajamas, meaning some baggy pants and a small tank top with thin straps. Red was following after her, and he immediately went to sniff Cake when they met.

“I knocked on the bathroom door to tell Noelle to hurry up. I think she lost track of time, but she should be out soon. I’ll shower last since I’m not in a hurry.”

The girls began to set the table, and I hate to say it took me longer than I expected to get breakfast ready. Boiling water in the electric kettle for seven people takes a fair bit, and toasting bread two slices at a time, again for seven people, was incredibly inefficient. 

By the time we were all eating breakfast, it was 7:20 am, meaning we had 10 minutes to eat if we wanted to keep to our schedule. The good news was that we’d given ourselves time to spare, since the entrance ceremony was at 9:00 am and it would take us a bit under an hour to get to the university. We had some 30 minutes of leeway.

“Mila, you need to take faster showers,” Grace told her.

“We’re not late, though,” Mila argued back, pouting.

“We could be,” Sarah said. “And you too, Noelle. Keep a song playing or your phone or something, but you can’t take 20 minutes to shower.”

Both girls sighed.

“I’ll keep it shorter next time,” Mila said.

“I’m sorry. It takes me a while to fully wake up…” Noelle said.

“And I’ll need to find a way to get breakfast done faster. Or maybe I need to wake up earlier…” I said.

“We still have the showers on the third floor,” Grace said. “And the spa has drawers to keep our shampoos and creams. I might start using that, because, well…” She touched her braid. “This thing also eats time.”

Like I said, I’d give us a passing grade, but just barely. We were all still too used to our regular routines and ways to do things. Getting truly comfortable here would take time.

Diana went to take a shower while we finished having breakfast, and after quickly doing the dishes, we all got ready to leave. We locked the house, the girls got in my van and Diana in her own car with Red.

“I’ll see you at work on Friday, then,” she told me right before that, giving me a quick kiss on the lips. “Good luck.”

“Thanks. Hopefully we won’t need it.”

And so, we left the house. I drove, like usual, and Alice was beside me, looking quietly out the window. In the back, Mila and Grace were getting a bit more sleep leaning against each other. Sarah was scrolling down her phone and Noelle brought out a portable console. The drive was, overall, extremely quiet.

Some thirty minutes later, we were in the city proper. Mila’s modeling school was along the way, so even though her class started in one more hour, we dropped her off somewhere close. 

“Good luck, Mila,” Alice told her. “Remember, you’re good but you can always be better.”

“Don’t let ego get in your way,” Sarah told her.

“You’ll do great!” Noelle told her.

“Learn as much as you can,” I told her.

“If someone offers to sell you drugs, tell them to give you a receipt," Grace told her.

“I… Sure.” Mila chuckled. “I’ll do my best, so you all do it, too.”

We waved goodbye and went on our way. Twenty minutes after that, we made it to Hyogen University, a huge building located on a small hill in the middle of the city.

The pressure I’d been feeling in my chest only grew… but worse was knowing that it wasn’t just me. I would’ve rather that it was just me.