[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 740 & 741. (Patreon)

Chapter 740: Growing closer?

The second morning was a lot better than the first, partly due to the fact that we were all sleeping in the same bed. My alarm woke us all up, and as we were getting up, Alice refused to give Mila and Noelle their five more minutes.

Sarah and I went up to the third floor and showered in the spa. Grace and Noelle showered in the two bathrooms on the second floor before Alice and Mila took their turns. By the time everyone was down in the kitchen, I was halfway ready with breakfast and Cake was already eating from her bowl on the floor.

Maybe because we’d already had our nerve-wracking first day, we were all not only more relaxed as we drove to university, but Mila and Noelle were sleeping while leaning against one another.

“We went to sleep at a reasonable hour and I know Mila, at least, didn’t have trouble sleeping,” Sarah said. “You’d think they’re sleep-deprived.”

“Sometimes waking up early leaves you tired no matter how much you actually slept,” I said.

Again, we dropped Mila off at her school and went to ours, parking the van and climbing those long stairs to the top of the hill. Unlike the day before, though, we didn’t have an entrance ceremony or anything like it, so we were all off directly to our classes.

“Everyone on their own again today?” Noelle asked to confirm.

“We finish the day at the same time, but our classes aren’t synced, so yeah,” Sarah said.

“See you all this afternoon,” Grace said. “Or around. We might run into each other.”

“Big chance you won’t see me,” I said. “Glancing over to the far-away outcasts building.”

“Sending thoughts and prayers,” Noelle said before a big yawn.

“Come on, wake up.” Sarah poked Noelle’s head several times just to annoy her.

“Or at least don’t sleep in class,” Alice said.

We parted ways in the main building, with everyone leaving to their respective classrooms and mine being the furthest away. That said, I now knew the way, so I wouldn’t be getting lost.

Almost immediately after the girls were out of sight, I heard people calling to me.

“Hey, Oliver!”

I turned around and saw Luna and Ruby coming towards me. I stopped and waited for them to catch up.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Good morning,” Ruby said.

“Hey, something hit me last night,” Luna said, skipping the greetings and looking me dead in the eyes as we continued walking towards the arts building.

I raised an eyebrow and glanced at the top of her head. “Um… Are you okay?”

Ruby snickered, but Luna gave me an unamused look. She ignored my clever joke and continued. “The girl you were with at the mall the other day said you’re her boyfriend, right? I’m not remembering wrong.”

I nodded. “Yeah. We started going out just that day, but yes, she’s my girlfriend.”

“But… you also said that the student council president from your school… What was her name?”

“Alice,” Ruby supplied.

“Yeah, her! You said she’s your girlfriend, too. Not your ex.”

Oh boy. I nodded. “Yes, I said that.”

“You’re two-timing them!?” Luna asked, horror in her face. She was THIS close to reviewing her opinion of me for a third time in these past three days.

“Two-timing? No, they know. Also, I’m dating seven girls. Again, they all know. I live together with five of them.”

Both girls stopped in their tracks, and for my own sanity, I didn’t. I kept walking, leaving them to process that however they wanted for as long as they wanted. Five seconds later, Luna was yelling at me as the two ran to catch up.

“Wait a damn minute, you damn playboy!” she said. “You mean… Those four hotties you were talking to…!?”

“Hey, your girlfriend is right there,” I said, frowning at her.

“Shut up, they’re super fucking hot,” Ruby said, backing her girl up. “You’re going out with them?”

I nodded, trying to keep myself cool. I didn’t know if they thought it was weird or how they saw it, but I decided to act like it was the most normal thing in the world, hoping it would help the spell we had in place.

“We dropped Mila at her modeling school, Fernanda goes to another university and Diana’s probably sleeping right now because she works night shifts as the bartender at that hotel I mentioned yesterday.”

“How long have you been going out with them?” Ruby asked.

“Um… About a year with Mila, Grace and Sarah. About ten months with Alice and Noelle. A little over four months with Diana. And only three days with Fernanda.” Not like Luna and Ruby knew their names, but it helped me keep track.

“And HOW have those girls not killed each other by now!?” Luna asked, perplexed.

It was my turn to look at her weirdly, a raised eyebrow and mouth agape. “Hah!?”

“Oliver, we barely know each other, but clearly there are two things we have in common,” Luna said, gesturing towards me, Ruby and herself. “We all like playing music and we all like girls.”

“Um… Sure?” I said, actually unsure of where she was going with this.

“Oliver, we know girls,” Ruby said. “We are fucking ruthless with each other.”

“It’s all smiles and support while we’re together, but the second we turn around, we all loathe each other,” Luna said.

“Uh… Are you sure that’s not just you?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Luna and Ruby both admitted at the same time. “But there’s still a tendency! I’ve seen it happen time and time again! When girls like the same person, it always ends in a bloodbath.”

“What we’re trying to ask is, what’s your damn secret?” Ruby asked.

Of course, she asked that in a very generic way, but for a split second I took it as if she knew there was something off about me. Thankfully, I don’t think it showed and I managed to answer calmly.

“Great communication and understanding,” I told her.

“Fuck you,” Luna said.

“You’re good in bed, aren’t you?” Ruby asked.

“I always knew that was all women cared about,” I said, shaking my head. “But yes,” I admitted shamelessly, or at least faking it. I could only hope the heat didn’t show in my face.

“Ugh! Lucky motherfucker!” Luna groaned. “I can only picture us in bed with six other hotties…”

Huh. At least she included Ruby in her fantasies.

“I can’t decide if we should tell Steven about this or not,” Ruby said. “If he finds out you’re good in bed AND don’t swing his way, it’ll only crush him more.”

“And you’re both just super comfortable thinking about someone else’s sex-life, huh?”

“Yeah,” Luna said.

“It’s almost a hobby at this point,” Ruby said.

“That’s it, I’m not telling you anything else.”

“No, come on! This is interesting!” Luna said.

“We’ll tell you about ours in return,” Ruby said.

That made me stop mid-step. I looked at the girls, both pretty attractive, and my horny, lesbain-play-enjoying mind conjured images of them in bed together… and I dismissed them with a shake of my head and continued walking.

“Nope.”

“You suck,” Luna said.

“My privacy isn’t just my own, you know?”

Ruby sighed. “That’s fair.”

These girls are weird. But I don’t hate it, for some reason.

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

Chapter 741: On their music.

Our first class that Thursday morning was an introduction to music history. The professor was a man in his late 50s, clearly passionate about the subject, if perhaps a bit of a purist who actually disliked stuff like rock & roll. He kept arguing that music, and art in general, made for the sake of profit had no right to be called art, and while I see his point, it’s hard not to feel called out as students there gambling to hopefully make a living out of music. 

“Also, the irony of teaching music and getting paid,” Luna said, frowning with arms crossed, clearly not a fan of the lecture.

After class was done and the professor left, we had a large, hour and a half window until our next class. Luna, Ruby, Steven, Eric and I kept talking as we moved somewhere else. Though we didn’t have a destination in mind, I think.

“I won’t lie, I used to think like that,” Ruby admitted. “I still do, to some extent. I just don’t care if people label our music as art or not. I enjoy it and want to keep doing it.”

“That’s a good mentality to have,” Steven said.

“By the way, where are we going?” Eric asked, noticing we were going up a floor.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you before class started,” Steven said, his eyes lighting up. “I booked one of the music rooms for us.”

Luna’s eyes brightened as well. “Wait, you did!?”

“You can book a music room?” I asked.

“You didn’t know?” Ruby asked me. “Just like you can book study rooms in the library, you can book music rooms here. There aren’t many, and most are just empty, but…” She looked at Steven, who grinned back.

“Yeah, since we’re still not bringing our instruments, I booked one of the two that has some.”

We got there quickly. It was a room the size of the classrooms, soundproofed. There were a few instruments inside, like they said. A drum set, a couple of acoustic guitars, a piano, some flutes… None in particularly pristine condition, but more than usable. There were amps set up, too, but no electric instruments.

“That’s it, I’m bringing my violin every day starting tomorrow,” Luna said. She went to pick up one of the guitars to check it. It had a few minor bumps and scratches. “Do people not know how to take care of an instrument?”

“I bet too many people use them, and replacing the instruments is probably not worth it unless they’re broken,” Eric said, going to sit down at the drums.

“...” You know what? Let’s see what we can do. I picked up the other acoustic guitar. I’m not a specialist, but I should be able to play it regardless. “Eric. Smell of the Forest,” I told him.

“Oh, fuck you. Do I remember it?” he asked himself, frowning yet picking up the sticks.  He began with a steady bass drum groove before finally remembering how it went.

It was a very simple song for all instruments involved, and I mostly just wanted to check Eric’s basics and mine. He wasn’t rusty at all, even if this was his first time playing this song in four years.

“That sounds nice,” Steven said. “Whose song is it?”

“Our high school music teacher,” I said. “He wrote it to get us all used to playing together.”

“It was the first song we learned in the music club,” Eric said. “Also… the only one you learned with us, right?”

I nodded. “Right.” I guess I also wanted to confirm I was over the music club drama. That song was my only connection to the club left, so if I could play it with Eric, then… maybe I really had moved on. “Ah, by the way Steven, fuck you,” I said with the most casual, least hostility my voice could manage.

He seemed to notice I was fooling around and smirked. “What? What did I do?”

“Your music almost gave me a mid-life crisis before my 20s. You actually ARE way too good,” I told him.

“Isn’t he?” Luna said. “We were shocked when we saw him in class since we’d been following him for about a year already.”

“Come on, I’m not all that,” Steven said. “My music is clearly just iterative of greater musicians. Learning from them taught me a lot of technical skill, but in the end I’m just a lesser version of them. Yours, though… Ugh, Oliver, you have a gift.”

“Shut up.”

“No, I’m serious! Your originals are simple, yeah, but I’ve had That Night stuck in my head since I listened to it yesterday! There’s something about it and the way to play them that just… hits you deep. Like… They remind me of the forbidden riffs.”

I felt shame wash over me at that and had to cover my face. “No, like, actually shut up!”

“What are the forbidden riffs? I’ve never heard of that,” Ruby said.

“Ah, I guess you wouldn’t have if you mostly stick to J-Pop,” Eric said. “The forbidden riffs are a bunch of extremely famous and iconic guitar riffs that are also very easy for beginners to learn, which leads to thousands upon thousands of beginners playing the same 10 songs and making everyone get tired of them.”

“But that’s the thing, they’re iconic because they’re good!” Steven said. “Oliver, your songs are like that in the sense that they stay with you after only one or two listens. There’s also the way you play them. There’s… passion to it. It’s hard to describe, but ‘passion’ is the best word I can think of. It’s like you FEEL the entire song. Its melody, its rhythm… You girls have listened to his songs, right?”

Luna and Ruby flinched and looked away with guilty, forced grins.

“We… haven’t,” Ruby said.

“HAH!?” I raised my head, looking at those two girls with incredulous disgust. “But you said I made my guitar screech!”

“We might have… only listened to a couple of clips and decided we didn’t like you,” Luna said, unable to meet my eyes.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“You two are awful,” Eric said, less like an accusation and more like stating a fact. Steven could only nod in agreement.

“We said we’re sorry!” Luna said.

I’m never listening to what a stranger tells me ever again.