Helena stared at the bottle. For a moment, she couldn’t speak. Couldn’t think. Her pounding heartbeat filled her head, wild drums of danger. They drowned all other thought out. Fuck. Oh, fuck.

“D-Diane.” She barely recognized her own voice. It sounded so small and slurred, so uneven, so… weak. “I—the drink—”

But Diane was already refilling her glass, smiling at her. “What about it?”

“Th-The alcohol content… I thought you said it was, um, low.”

“I never said that.”

Helena’s heart stumbled. “What?”

“I never said it was low.” Diane took Helena’s hand and guided it to grip the glass. She frowned down at her. “Are you feeling okay, sweetie?”

“Y-Yes!” Helena squirmed. “I…” She found herself lifting the glass to her lips, and couldn’t tell if she was doing it of her own accord or if Diane’s hand was… steering her. “You said it was l-low, and I said I have an… an addiction… or, I mean, a h-history of…”

“You said you could handle it.” Diane’s voice was as smooth and silky-sweet as the drink trickling onto Helena’s tongue. “I trusted you. You’re an adult, aren’t you? Can’t you make your own choices?”

“N-No, I—I mean, yes, and I did say that, but—” Helena took a deep breath, but couldn’t help how it shuddered and quaked, like every beat of her heart sent tremors through her lungs. “You told me it was low alcohol content. I re—remember that.”

“Are you sure?”

There it was. That question again, delivered with such sweet, gentle innocence. Helena stared at Diane, wondering when Diane had swept her hair back, when Diane’s lips had ever been so luscious, glistening wine-red in the moody, romantic lighting. One perfect eyebrow arched.

“I—” Helena’s voice faltered. She stared into Diane’s eyes, such a beautiful, piercing blue. No. She couldn’t feel this way. She didn’t. Diane was a liar, a fraud, a—a manipulative bitch. “I think so—?”

Weakness dripped from her words like water from a leaky pipe. Weakness. Uncertainty. Doubt. She swallowed as Diane’s smile emerged. It came out slowly, like a predator from its hiding place. Her eyes glittered, spider’s eyes. Hungry. Certain. All the confidence Helena had drunk away Diane had drunk in, had devoured from her.

“You think so.” Diane’s voice was a crisp, delicate purr. “Helena, I distinctly remember telling you it was strong. I asked you if it was okay, didn’t I? Didn’t you tell me you could handle it? Because if you did, it’s not fair to put the responsibility on me.”

“I—” Helena took a sip for courage, then realized what she’d done and tried to will herself to lower the glass. It didn’t leave her lips. Diane’s hand was on hers, and it felt like she was holding it in place, but—but everything felt numb and tingly, and she couldn’t bring her eyes to leave Diane’s smile to check, because what if that smile disappeared again? What if her objections made Diane angry? A windstorm swirled in her stomach at the thought. “Yes, you—I did say that, but—”

“Helena. You’re drunk.” Diane’s voice was gentle, but firm, a warning threading between the words. “I’m not sure if you understand how manipulative you’re coming across right now.”

“W-What?”

Diane leaned in slightly. “You’re trying to tell me my own memory is wrong,” she said softly, cupping Helena’s cheek, and oh, Helena couldn’t help leaning into such a soft touch. “Do you understand how scary that is for me?”

Helena froze. She tried to form words of argument, but none came out. No. That was… Diane was trying to…


“Drink.”

“I…” Her lips parted. The glass tipped. Was it her hand tipping it?

Diane pressed in close. She felt nice. Soft. Warm. “Please apologize to me, Helena.”

Helena blinked at her professor, letting her gaze drift over those thick, dark lashes, those confident blue eyes.

Diane should have been the one apologizing to her. But as she gazed at Helena with that dark, deadly authority, Helena felt as if she was being… squeezed.

She didn’t have a crush on Diane. She couldn’t. It was the alcohol. It was the closeness.

Diane was so close.

Had she been… gaslighting Diane? To cover for her own mistake?

She’d done worse when she was an alcoholic. She’d written about that. In her essays for the class. Which Diane had read.

She’d told Diane so much about herself. Something about that felt sharp and serrated, like spilling her secrets into a spiderweb of barbed wire.

But…

She let herself wriggle a little closer, praying Diane wouldn’t notice.

It also meant Diane already knew the worst of her. And she was still giving her the chance to…

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

Diane’s smile glowed like a campfire. Her arm wrapped around Helena, and Helena shivered at the touch, the silken restraint. There was nothing sharp or barbed about these threads encircling her right now. They only became sharp when she fought.

“It’s okay, kitten,” she cooed in Helena’s ear. “I forgive you.”

Helena barely held in a moan of relief—or of pleasure, maybe, at how Diane’s voice poured into her even sweeter than liqueur.

Diane’s finger stroked along Helena’s neck, tracing her throat. “But I need you to understand, Helena, that this is the adult world. And that means taking responsibility.” Her voice dropped to a smoking purr. “If you can’t learn to take responsibility, your responsibility will be taken from you.”

“I-I know that,” Helena said. Her voice sounded like a whine. Pathetic. Petulant.

“Good girl.” Fingers laced with hers, helping her hold the glass up. “There’s a good girl. Just let me take the weight for now. You’re safe here. You can’t hurt anyone here.”

Helena’s eyelids fluttered low.

“And you’ll be staying here for tonight.”

Helena’s eyes opened wide. “But—but I—”

“Drink.”

The glass tipped. Helena tried not to part her lips, or told herself she did, but it was like a dream—the sort of dream where you convinced yourself you’d gotten out of bed until you drifted back to consciousness and realized you hadn’t moved.

In this case, she only realized her lips had parted when she tasted the addictive chocolatey nectar on her tongue.

“Wait,” she gurgled, “no, I—”

“You’re staying here tonight,” Diane said sweetly over her. “Unless you want to walk home.”

“B-But—”

“Drink.”

The glass tipped. Helena tasted the sweetness and shuddered. She couldn’t will herself not to swallow. Everything was so blurry. Fuzzed. She could barely manage her own words, but Diane’s still came crystal-clear.

“Good girl. Now, stop being silly.” Diane let out a beleaguered sigh. “I mean, a sexy thing like you wandering alone on campus, drunk and stupid, at a quarter to midnight? Are you that self-destructive?”

“I…”

“You’re staying here tonight.” Diane’s voice sharpened into a knife on the next word. “Understood?”

Helena quivered. She licked her lips.

“O-Okay,” she heard herself whisper.

“Good girl.” It felt like Diane’s lips brushed her earlobe in the softest, briefest of kisses. It might have been her imagination. “Honestly. I can’t believe the trouble I have to go through just to keep you safe from yourself.”

Helena’s cheeks burned. “I… I wasn’t…”

“Shh.” Diane sighed, her breath hot against Helena’s cheek. “I forgive you, okay? Don’t worry about it.”

“B-But…”

“Now, be a sweet girl and help me message your friend. You don’t want to worry her, do you?”

Helena opened her mouth. Liqueur streamed over her tongue to drown her objections. Her words came out garbled, incoherent.

“Of course you don’t.” Diane’s hand brushed down over Helena’s shoulder, along the collar of her button-up. “What’s your phone password, by the way?”

“I—”

“No, it’s a number code. Four digits.” Diane’s voice arched slightly. “Or did you forget it, silly girl? Or did you steal this phone?”

Helena’s whole body went hot. “I—I didn’t!” The world spun and twirled as she turned to face Diane.

And realized this put Diane’s lips mere feathers from her own.

“Then what is it?” Diane’s smile widened in amusement. Helena wondered how red her cheeks were. Were they the same shade as Diane’s plump, sensuous lips?

So close. So fucking close. Oh, fuck, Diane was so… beautiful... no, no, she had to stop thinking like that!

“Well?” Diane prompted, jolting Helena from her mortifying thoughts.

“It’s—it’s four, two—” Helena realized with a lurch what she was doing, and she hesitated. But stopping midway would make it obvious she’d done it by accident, obvious she’d zoned out. Just another dumb move from a drunk, stupid student. She refused to give Helena the satisfaction, and injected as much annoyance as she could into her voice for the last two. “Eight. One. Happy now?”

But regret and shame filled her as Diane’s eyes gleamed in satisfaction. Diane pulled away, swiping her finger across Helena’s phone screen. “Good girl.”

“Stop.” Helena’s cheeks burned. “Stop… saying that.”

“What? Why?” Diane leaned in, nuzzling Helena’s shoulder. “You’re being so good for me!”

“S-Stop it!” Helena bit her lip at the tremble to her voice.

Over Diane’s shoulder, she caught a glimpse of the email Diane was writing to her roommate. Tammi, had an emergency. May be gone for a while. Will explain when I get back. Can u let ppl know? A pleading emoji followed the request.

Helena couldn’t help but feel like it was odd that no specific time of return was specified.

Before she could ask, though, Diane sent the message and tossed the phone onto the couch. “There. That should take care of it for now.”

Helena swallowed. Diane hadn’t just given her an excuse to be gone—she’d all-but guaranteed that Helena wouldn’t be able to go back tonight without giving some sort of explanation. Not without explaining… this.

Not without explaining things like Diane’s leg hooking over her thighs.

“Drink.”

“N-No.” Helena pulled away from the glass, but there was nowhere to escape to. Diane had her cornered on the couch, pinned, and suddenly a new kind of fear was filling her.

She could fight Diane off if she needed to… right?

The world was so blurry. Spinny.

She didn’t want to need to.

The glass tipped. Her lips parted. Diane cooed praise in Helena’s ear, and she rubbed her thighs together with a whimper.

Everything went fuzzy for a moment. Blurry. Dark. Fuck. She’d had so much. Too much. She swayed.

It felt as if her seconds were spinning into hours.

“You poor thing,” Diane whispered, tugging her back to awareness. She realized she’d been on the verge of passing out. “You’re going to be just a mess tomorrow. I can’t believe you relapsed like this. Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I-I—but you’re the one—”

“Now, Helena. We talked about this.” Diane’s expression was stern, but her voice was as warm and gooey as heated honey mead. “Do you really want me to take responsibility for your actions? Because that’s how it’s coming across.”

“Wh—no, I—” Helena’s fists clenched. She set down the glass firmly, refusing to yield to Diane’s guiding grip. She wound up sloshing some on her own clothes in the process.

“You come to my home,” Diane purred. “Reveal you’ve been stalking me. Make up these ridiculous accusations about me~”

“I—wait—”

“And then you,” Diane whispered in her ear, “want me to take responsibility away from you and make it all better?”

Helena tried to speak. Nothing left her mouth but breath as Diane nibbled her earlobe.

“My, my. You really are obsessed~”

There was a hand on her shirt. Undoing the topmost button. Helena’s heart started to race. “Wait, please—”

“Hm? What’s wrong? Isn’t this what you want?”

Helena turned and stared at Diane, eyes wide, world small. Her lips fumbled.

Diane’s lips brushed hers as she spoke. “You already consented. Don’t you remember?”

Helena’s lips parted involuntarily. Still no sound emerged. Just heavy breathing. Soft sighs. Other sounds she dared not name. Everything was so blurry, fuzzy. Her brain was filled with static.

She hadn’t consented, though.

Had she?

“... buh?”

“Oh, you all-but begged for this.” Diane laughed at her. At her. Helena’s heart quickened at the blatant humiliation. “You’ve been asking for it since you brought me that ridiculous apple on the first day of class.”

Another button slipped out of its loop.

“I…” Helena managed one word. She didn’t know what came next. She felt her hand being guided back to the glass.

“What are you, an elementary schooler~?”

“B-Buh… but…” Helena squirmed, biting her lip, dropping her head in shame. She did that for all her professors at the start of a semester. It was just a little… tradition of hers. Making connections. It didn’t… she hadn’t meant it as…

She watched Diane’s nimble fingers undo a third button, trailing down Helena’s shirt, slowly stripping her. She fumbled for the words she so desperately needed to protect herself, but those words were like tiny pieces of broken eggshell drowned in thick, sweet batter. “I… j-just…”

Diane paused. Then she reached up and tipped Helena’s head up, her smile soothing, nurturing, gentle. “Oh, don’t get so insecure, sweetie.” She licked her lips. “I thought it was… cute~”

Never before had Helena heard that word instilled with such condescension and contempt. She whimpered, wringing her hands in her lap.

“You’re so eager to please,” Diane murmured, still holding Helena by the chin, still forcing her to meet that sly, predatory gaze. “So insecure. So desperate for authority figures’ approval. It’s just… adorable.”

“S… Stop,” Helena managed. She wriggled, trying to escape from Diane’s grasp, but the motions felt half-hearted even to her.

“Why?”

The question was like a shard of ice. Helena gasped as Diane’s hand slid under her shirt. “I—you’re—”

She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what she wanted.

No. She shivered, feeling Diane’s fingers grazing over her nipple through the bra. She knew what she wanted. What she craved. What she needed.

She just didn’t know why she wanted it so badly.

“G-Give me my phone,” she whispered.

“Get it yourself,” Diane purred, pinching a nipple. “Get up and get it. Though if you don’t, doesn’t that mean you’re consenting to what I’m doing here?”

Thunderwaves of pleasure rocked Helena’s body and stole her voice. She couldn’t breathe—she actually couldn’t breathe. She struggled for what felt like minutes to remember how, finally sucking in a gasp of Diane’s sweet perfume. Diane’s legs remained stretched across hers, holding her in place on the couch.

She rubbed her thighs together. Oh, god. She was… so…

“Why do you want it, anyways?” Diane squeezed Helena’s cheeks together between thumb and forefinger, smirking at her drunk, stupid student as Helena’s lips were forced into an O-shape. “Tell me.”

Fear bubbled stronger than reason inside Helena. “N-No reason,” she squeaked, her voice slurred from the grip.

Diane smirked. “I can feel your heart racing,” she cooed. “Scared, lost little bunny. You’re lying to me.” Her hand descended to Helena’s throat. “Don’t tell me you’re still clinging to those delusions about my credentials?”

“They’re—they’re not, um—”

“Shh. No need to lie to me, sweetie.” Diane’s voice sparkled and smoked like cinders in the dark. “We both know you made this up just to get my attention.” She leaned in, eyes alight with a deadly flame. “Well, bad news, sweetie…”

Helena tried to respond, but Diane’s fingers teased through her bra, pinching her nipple, and her voice broke into a hopeless cry of pleasure. No. No. Wait.

“... it worked~”

“But. But I—aaah!” Helena’s back arched and mind bent as Diane’s hand gave her breast a rough squeeze.

“You were making it up. Admit it, sweetie. Take responsibility.”

“N-No, I—” Helena had to leave. Had to tell people. Couldn’t let Diane—god, fuck, even through the alcoholic haze, she knew what Diane was doing. No matter how drunk she was, no matter how good the liqueur tasted, no matter how fucking hot her professor was and how easy it felt to let her take the reins, she had to—

“Or I’ll take it away for good.”

Helena froze. Her lips quivered. But Diane’s grip on her throat tightened, ever-so-slightly, choking her reply.

“You’re not going to report me, because there simply isn’t anything to report. You made it up to get close to me. To exploit me.” Diane’s voice was gentle, soothing, but devastatingly patronizing. “It’s okay. As toxic and manipulative as that behavior is, I’m willing to forgive you. You’re just a silly girl who wanted her professor’s attention.” She smiled down at Helena, one finger tracing along Helena’s jawline. “We can keep this our little secret, can’t we?”

Helena whimpered. No, she… fuck, she was so drunk, Diane’s words almost made sense, but she couldn’t, she mustn’t let herself be confused like this. She was the one being manipulated. Right?

Diane’s expression turned cool, and flutters of fear filled Helena as she wondered if Diane’s sweetness was about to switch to cruelty again. “Can’t we?” she repeated. The grip loosened slightly, allowing Helena to speak.

Helena trembled. The world was like a complicated smudge, and Diane was a brilliant light in the haze, radiant, angelic as it promised pure, sweet, simple clarity. Diane’s touches were so soft and delicate under Helena’s shirt. Diane pinning her down felt so nice. Helena’s mind felt molten with drugged pleasure, but she forced her lips to move.

“You…” she managed, her voice small and slurred and hoarse and scared. “Y-You c-can’t change… my mind.”

“I will, in time. About a lot of things.” Diane’s eyebrow arched. “And you want that, don’t you?”

“N-No, I—”

“You want that.” The backs of Diane’s fingertips tilted Helena’s hand up, tipped the glass down. “Drink.”

Helena drank.