Just remember we are here if you need to talk." Thanks, Zoe."I kissed the back of Vicki's neck and we all drifted off to sleep.The next morning, I wok... up feeling like I was being squished. Vicki had turned around in her sleep, and was pressed against one shoulder with Tami pressed against my side, but under my shoulder so she didn't bother my injury. Zoe had somehow managed to work herself completely over Vicki to lay on top of me, again lower on my body so she didn't push against my chest. Inside the jewelry store, Master spoke in some foreign language with the owner of the shop. Master was probably explaining what he wanted pierced and negotiating the cost I presumed as his hand gestures indicated. Master turned to me and told me we would be going into Surgical Learning Lab for the piercings. The owner had a few students who needed to complete their training by observing the owner at work on these types of delicate body parts. Master had given permission for me to be the subject. He knew he was responsible for overseeing the lecture, but he couldn’t bare the weight of all the stares. How was it that everyone assumed the worst when it came to the Turks? There was more lore than truth by a landslide, and Rude was fed up. There had to be someone with enough pull to snap that band-wagoned crowd back to reality. As the flood of trainees swarmed past Rude, Elena lingered in the foyer, her arms full of papers and spent overhead sheets. ‘They’re taking a break before we head to. . I dunno man-boy to me. The shit I used to think was confidence now seems like lazyness, his bravado seems like dim-wittedness. I know he hasnt changed. Its the same him, the same shit, but Im different now. It feels dissonant, frightening. Like I thought I knew what I wanted, and it wore a leather jacket and smelled like engine-oil and booze, and rode motorcycles with a devil-may-care attitude, and bent me over those motorcycles and fucked me with that same devil-may-care attitude. But now it.