The Tolerant
Chapter Fifteen
Brittney was impressed with how well DJ held it together. She herself had been on the edge of screaming or crying for hours, ever since she’d literally stumbled upon the body. Emily’s body.
He’d stood there numbly at first, then took Brittney by the hand and helped her out of the bed without further disturbing Emily. They’d gotten dressed, feeling awkward being naked in front of… that. Her. It had been while Brittney was looking for where her shirt had wound up that she’d found the letter. The envelope had DJ’s name on it; she quietly pointed it out to him and stood back while he read. Trying not to throw up, or run from the room. Or both.
When he’d finished, he just folded the letter back up and put it on his desk. After another long, numb look at her, he’d gone ahead and called the police. After that, it all happened fast. Some paramedics had come and taken the body, the police had questioned DJ and her separately. She didn’t really know what to say, so she just told them that Emily was a co-worker of his who he’d been sleeping with and that they’d broken up last week. Other than giving this pretty new face in his room a wry look, they accepted it without a lot of questioning; it was the kind of thing that happened sometimes. His power didn’t even seem to come into it that she could tell.
He’d called his boss, a blonde woman with a bit of an accent Brittney couldn’t place, who arrived soon after. The woman was crying when she walked in, and didn’t ever really stop. She’d offered to let him move into another room, but he said all he needed was a new mattress. They’d gotten it together from the supply closet, and DJ hauled the old one out to the dumpster himself.
There was so much blood on it. She wouldn’t have believed a person could bleed so much.
Worried about how such an event could impact the floor—they’d all seen plenty of Emily around, after all—DJ was holding an emergency floor meeting to tell everyone what had happened. (After all, they’d seen medics leaving with a body bag; he’d have to tell them something just to prevent a panic.) Brittney sat there only half-listening as he told them, mentioned the campus counseling center, offered to talk if anyone needed to.
Brittney barely heard it, laying her head on Mercedes’ shoulder and losing herself in the feelings. She wasn’t in shock, exactly; finding the body had been jarring, to say the least. But that the body was there to be found… she wished it surprised her more. Part of the reason she’d reached out to Emily last week had been fear for the girl’s well-being. She’d always struck Brittney as a bit unhinged—her bizarre behavior, how cagey she’d been when Brittney had tried to approach her. Then after their conversation, when she’d learned how damaged her poor mind had been, how bleak her outlook still was…
Suddenly the small part of her brain that was paying attention told her there was something worth listening to, and she welcomed the distraction. “…that’s right. To be clear, from here on out, things are back to normal around here. No more arbitrary punishments, no more ‘inspections,’ no more shower duty. We’re going to be just like the other communities. Same rules, same consequences.”
A murmur went through the room. “Is this related to… that?” Alyssa asked. She couldn’t make herself say the words yet. Emily hadn’t been liked—in truth, most had thought she was a freak—but still, a life was a life.
“No, not really,” DJ said. “I’ve been doing some soul-searching lately and realized I’ve been selfish. I know ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t cover it, and I’m going to work on making it up to you all. I don’t want to get too much into all that now—it’s late, and we have classes tomorrow and everything. I just wanted to let you know things are getting back to normal. And if I, um, had any special rules for individuals, those are gone too.”
“All of them?” an Asian girl Brittney didn’t recognize asked quietly. “Even… with my guild?”
“Yes, Miko.” DJ’s cheeks colored somewhat. Brittney was glad she didn’t know why. She really liked this renewed considerate DJ, but she hadn’t forgotten the fear she’d had of his power.
Jillian raised her hand. “To clarify… are you saying you’re not requiring shower duty any more, or you’re not allowing shower duty any more?”
“I’m sorry…?” He seemed not to follow the distinction.
“It’s one of the best parts of my week is what I’m saying. Are you kicking us out, or just saying we don’t have to if we don’t have to?” Jillian grinned immodestly. Brittney blinked, startled at her bluntness, but then again, spending most of the semester having it common knowledge that every passingly attractive girl on the floor was showering with the RA would remove the need for circumspection. Everyone in the room new what had been happening.
DJ glanced awkwardly at Brittney, who couldn’t help but smile at his bashfulness. “Go ahead,” she said. “Have your fun.”
Did I really just say that?! Yet as she thought on it… she really didn’t mind. If Jillian didn’t mind, and Brittney didn’t mind… could it be wrong? It was undoubtedly his power making her feel that way, but it was the way she felt nonetheless. Not like DJ was doing it maliciously. Not like it upset or hurt anyone. Two people, having fun, and it bothered her no more than the thought of the two of them having a dry, boring study session.
Was that all there was to it? Doing no harm?
“Um, I’ll get back to you on that,” DJ said. “For now, you can sleep in tomorrow, Jill.”
“It’s actually my turn tomorrow,” Janelle said. “Same deal?” Like Jillian, she sounded a little put out. Then again, having a weekly shower with a cute (and well-equipped) guy with no strings attached… well, maybe it made more sense than she’d initially considered. After all, Brittney had forced her own way into the line-up when Ashley had pushed her out.
“Same for everyone,” he said. “Now let’s wrap up, gang. And if anybody needs someone to talk to, my door’s always open, or I can come to you. Day or night. Good night, everybody.”
People went their separate ways, most of them in soft conversation about the kinds of things people talk about with death in their peripheral awareness. Jillian and Janelle were giggle-whispering a plan to ambush him his stall the next day.
Brittney just took DJ’s hand as the lounge emptied. “So what do we do now?”
“I think I need some sleep.”
She nodded. “My room? Mercedes won’t mind, considering.”
“No, I think I need to be on my own tonight. Is that OK?”
She took his hands in hers and squeezed softly. “You’re going to be all right? DJ, I’m worried. What happened today… that’s a lot to handle for anyone, especially on your own.”
“I’ll be OK. I just… I need to process. In her letter, Emily said…” he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just need to process. And… I think I need to talk to Ashley.”
“Ashley?” Brittney frowned. Then again, it made sense. After what the three of them had been through… of course he’d at least want to tell her what had happened. Him and Ashley… that was no study date. “Oh. Yeah, sure. Well, you know where to find me. Any time, OK? Even if it’s in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t even mind if I could mind you.” She smiled softly.
“Thanks, hon. Are you going to be all right?”
“Yeah. Mercedes can do a little tolerating of me tonight.”
“Good night, Brittney.”
“G’night, DJ.” She kissed him—then twice more—before letting him go to her.
DJ knocked on Ashley’s door a short while later. She opened almost immediately, apparently still awake. He tried not to notice she was just wearing a long shirt that was stretched tight across her chest, just long enough to reveal the bottom of her black satin panties and nothing else.
She always did know how to push his buttons.
“Heya Deej. C’mon in.”
They had the room to themselves, since Ashley had convinced DJ to relocate Janet on an all-boy’s floor across campus. Most of the guy’s on the floor were football players—as was Janet’s new roommate, a hairy brute of a defensive tackle with a habit of leering too casually, which was why Ashley had picked him. Shit, there was another thing he’d have to get to fixing.
Ashley plopped down on her bed, making no effort to conceal herself. He sat down in her desk chair, keeping a safe distance. “So what’s up? After this morning, I didn’t think I’d see much of you for a while.”
“Yeah, that had been the plan, but… look, I have to tell you something. About Emily.”
“Oh? What’s that freak gotten herself into now?”
“Ashley, don’t…” He steeled himself. “I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just say it. She’s dead. She killed herself earlier today. In my bed.”
“What? No, I just saw her the other day… she can’t… I saw the ambulance in the parking lot earlier, but I never thought…” He gave her a moment to process, letting her stumble and stammer through the initial realization. Her eyes watered, a little. He was surprised she managed even that, considering.
“She left a letter,” he said, removing it from his pocket and holding it out to her. She retrieved it, taking a long moment to control her breathing before plucking it from the envelope.
Ashley read it aloud. He’d read it at least a dozen times this evening, to the point he could nearly recite it along with her. Somehow, hearing the words made it even harder.
“Dear DJ,” she began, “I don’t know where to begin with my apologies. I’ve done so much wrong that it’s hard to separate it all in words when in my heart, it’s all one big tangled mess. I’m sorriest that I hurt you—that much I know. Those things I said there, at the end… I never meant them. I’ve loved you for so long, ever since you first made your move on me that night in the lounge. You were so bold, you just took what you wanted. Since then, I’ve wanted nothing but to make you want me.
“I know I wasn’t what you wanted, that I don’t have a body like mistress, but I wanted to thank you for humoring me and my fucked-up needs and desires as well as you did. I wanted you all to myself, but I realized more and more each day that I couldn’t be enough. You needed Ashley, someone whose heart was big enough to share with you. Yes, I had known she strayed… in fact, it had been my idea all along. I figured if I could make you leave her, I might get you to myself, so I pushed and pushed until she gave in.
“It wasn’t until after, when I saw how I hurt you and hurt her and ruined your relationship, that I realized what I’d done—and worse, that I still wasn’t what you wanted. I was crushed, and I lashed out in the pain of rejection. When you threw me out, I lost it. I have nothing without you, and without the best thing I ever had, I don’t see any point to going on.
“I love you, and I’m sorry, and I hope that all the things I’ve broken can still be fixed.
“With love forever, Emily.” She set down the letter in her lap, sniffling. “DJ, I’m so sorry. I had no idea she felt that way.”
“Yeah. It sure sounds like she felt bad over breaking us up. I never would’ve believed she was responsible for what happened with you and Tony.”
“Look, I don’t want to point fingers at her before she’s even cold,” Ashley said. “But… yeah. You never gave me a chance to explain.”
“So that’s it, was it? Bad advice, and jealous of me for sleeping around but couldn’t make yourself tell me?”
“Does it have to be something more sinister?”
He shrugged. “I guess not. I guess Emily felt pretty terrible for breaking us up. I’ve been thinking it over all evening, and maybe… maybe we owe it to her to give it another shot. What do you think?”
She brightened immediately, dropping the letter beside her and sauntering over to him. “I think… well, I guess I think it’s awesome something good can come out of this. I couldn’t imagine facing this news alone. And now you don’t have to either.”
She sank into his lap and kissed him. It was happening fast, but maybe that was for the best. He hadn’t wanted to have a long discussion about this with her. She’d accepted and now it was time to move on with it.
“Ashley, would you mind…? It’s been a while.” He glanced down.
She took his meaning immediately, and grinned broadly. “What, little miss blondie bitch too good to get on her knees and take care of you? Well don’t you worry, asshole. I’m gonna suck your fucking brains out through your cock.”
She sunk to her knees while he removed his belt and helped her get his cock out. In a moment, her mouth was wrapped around it, lovingly sucking him off with a fervor even beyond her normal. One thing he’d found to be true—Ashley was one hell of a cocksucker. Not the best he’d had, but the girl tried harder than anyone he’d had.
It took her a while to get him hard, but she was determined, pulling out every trick in her slut playbook. Eye contact, the little moans, and of course ditching her shirt and letting those glorious tits of hers out.
“Oh fuck, I’m so glad you’re letting me do this,” she said between loving slurps. “I missed your cock more than you could believe.”
“I bet you have,” he said. “I’m glad you like it so much, because…”
Ashley’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she pulled back slightly. “Because…? Because whmmmmph!” She squealed in surprise as he wrapped his belt around the back of her head and pulled her snugly down onto his cock. He made sure to pull her down until his cock was good and lodged in her throat. She twitched uncomfortably as her air passage was cut off, though—of course—she couldn’t much make herself fight him. She knelt before him, choking on his cock, not offering the least bit of resistance.
“Ashley… I need some answers from you, but I can’t stand to hear another goddamn word out of your mouth. I realize it’s rather cliché, but we’re going to do the old blink once for yes, twice for no, OK? You understand? C’mon, Ashley, your air’s not gonna hold out forever. Tell me you understand.”
Blink.
“Oh hey, nobody said to ease up on the blowjob either. Just because you got a cock in your throat doesn’t mean you can’t use some tongue, give it a little TLC right? Seeing as how you always loved sucking my cock so much, I’d hate for you to miss out on your last opportunity.”
Blink. With wide eyes, she resumed her ministrations.
“Good girl.” He patted her forehead. “Remember that, how excited Emily used to get when we said that? Maybe that could be your role, now, take over for her? I could dress you up in slutty little costumes, you could walk along in my shadow with your head bent down submissively, I could loan you out to people when I didn’t have a use for you. You could do all my little chores for me, drop out of school and just serve me full-time. Would you like that?”
Blink blink.
“But you’d do it for me, wouldn’t you? I mean, I’d be so upset if you wouldn’t, I’d feel like you hated me… would you do it, just to show me you can put up with my wants and needs?”
She hesitated. He tugged a little harder on the belt.
Blink.
“Maybe we could even dye your hair blonde—don’t you think you’d look precious? My big-titted blonde sex slave. We could even change your name to something nice and cute to match the new you. I think you’d look like a Bambi. Or maybe a Barbie. Something adorable like that. How about it? Can I have your name legally changed? Maybe get it inked on your forehead?”
Blink. She didn’t even pause this time. If he wanted it, she’d tolerate it. No questions asked.
However, she was starting to spasm a little as she ran out of oxygen, so he loosened his grip on his belt. “DJ!” she cried after a few gasps for air. “Why…! Why are you—”
He reeled her back in, and she didn’t even need another reminder to continue licking his shaft as it gagged her. “Oh, a hot little sex slave is a precious commodity. I guess I’m spoiled now, huh. And since you took away my last one…”
Blink blink. Blink blink.
“No?” he asked dubiously. “You don’t think I know you’re behind it? You think I’m that stupid, do you? Well, who could blame you I guess. After all, I fell for every bit of bullshit you fed me all semester, let you pull me into all your dirty little games. To be honest, I hardly even doubted you cared. I mean, I knew you loved my power more than you loved me—that was obvious. But I really had thought there was more to it than that. I guess we see what we want to see, huh.”
He paused; she didn’t seem to know if the question was rhetorical, but she obviously didn’t want to waste more of her limited air supply wondering if she should respond. Blink.
“It was Emily who tipped me off, actually, when she blew up at me last week. Gave me a good look at myself from the outside. I’d gotten so use to everyone being so nice to me, so accommodating, that I’d sort of forgotten they could hold a different opinion in private. After all, how could you respect me when you had me wrapped around your finger?”
Blink blink.
“Oh, don’t bother. I get it. You’re one ambitious bitch, Ashley—you want what you want and you’ll do anything to get it. You just got greedy is all. Sloppy. Then when you lost me, you realized just what you’d pissed away—and I don’t mean some bullshit true-love romance, but… the power. You’d had your taste, and just couldn’t handle losing it. Do anything to get it back.”
Ashley swallowed around his cock, moaning the way he liked to hear, but never stopped double-blinking at him as she worked to get him off.
“I gotta hand it to you—as blind as I’ve been, it must have seemed like I’d fall for your bullshit ‘suicide’ note. I might have, if I hadn’t called her the other day and told her not to move out. I told her I wanted to talk to her. We didn’t talk long… I didn’t really know what I wanted to say yet. I mean, what do you say to someone you’ve treated so badly? Guess it doesn’t matter now.
“So when I found her where you left her, I had to wonder… why, when things were about to turn around for her, would she do something like that? And why the ham-fisted note all but pleading for me to take you back? At first, I was like… no, Ashley wouldn’t do that. She’s a lot of things, but a murderer? No way.”
As her eyes started rolling back in her head, he let up again, letting her drink in a few gulps of air before pulling her back down. She didn’t even manage to get a word in this time.
“Then I thought back, remembered the gleam in your eye when you got to take someone down a peg, the way you got crazy horny after I let you hurt or humiliate someone. The things you made me do…” He stopped himself. “No, you didn’t ‘make me.’ I chose it. I gotta live with that. Just like you gotta live with your actions.”
Blink blink.
“So once I realized what you’d done, I just had to take some time to think about what should happen to you. How exactly does one bring justice to Ashley Vandoren? I thought maybe I could find a nice sex slave ring—not the cushy kind, like what we put Emily through—the kind where you wish your dad was Liam Neeson because otherwise you’re going to be sitting in a little room drugged out of your mind and fucked by an endless stream of strangers until you’re dead.”
She squeezed her eyes shut fiercely on each blink.
“Yeah, but then I figured I wouldn’t even know how to find one of those, and even if I did, seems like I’d have a hard time living with myself just letting them get on with business, so… that was out. I figured I could just pimp you out around campus—I don’t need the money, but we could turn that sweet mouth of yours into a scholarship fund for the needy. There are some frats around here that’d pay good money to run a train on you, I bet, and no shortage of homely nerds who’d pay top dollar to have you fuck and suck them like it was your mission in life.”
Blink blink. Still committed to pleasuring him, Ashley somehow pushed herself down still further on his cock, several inches planted in her snug throat. In spite of himself, the bitch was actually getting him close. She was just that gifted.
“But no, you might enjoy that too much, slut that you are. So I just brain-stormed for a while. All kinds of crazy things came to mind —selling you to an ex-boyfriend who’s got it out for you, corporal punishment… hell, I even thought about bringing back the stockades at one point, let the whole campus get a good look at Ashley Vandoren naked and helpless, let them abuse you however they see fit.”
Blink blink. She moaned around his tip, working her tongue in a frenzy. DJ wanted a blowjob, and even if he was plotting how best to destroy her, she just had to tolerate it.
“But then just earlier today I realized… I’m guilty too. So who… am I… to… JUDGE?”
DJ squirted right down her throat, emptying his balls. He hadn’t meant to, but she really was just too good. When he was good and drained, he relinquished his grip and she fell back to the floor, the both of them panting.
“I didn’t do anything!” she cried, then had to stop to catch her breath again. “DJ, you have to let me go—I’m innocent, I swear!”
He looked down at her. Half-naked, his cum dribbling down her chin from where she’d coughed some of it up, breasts heaving as her lungs fought to recover. As far as he could tell, this was the sum total of her—a big-titted cocksucker who never stopped thinking exclusively of herself. In that moment, he felt all those instincts roaring back, wanted to do all those horrible things he’d said and others he hadn’t. To let her be degraded and humiliated and isolated the way she’d done to Emily.
The way they’d both done to Emily.
“I am letting you go,” he said, pulling his pants back on. He tried to ignore her sigh of relief. “Of course, the deputies I called who’re waiting down the hall aren’t likely to be feeling as merciful, since I convinced them you were worth investigating.”
“Wait what! You called the police!”
“Well, since you’re innocent, I’m sure they won’t find anything, right? I’m sure the tox-screen on Emily won’t turn up anything. Certainly no traces of pills—or poison or however you incapacitated her—that they’ll find around your room, right? None of your fingerprints on her body, no blade you used to cut her open? Nothing like that, right?”
She looked down. “They don’t check for those kinds of things with a suicide.”
“Yeah, I bet they don’t. Just another broken-hearted college girl, some poor slut with nobody who loved her who couldn’t handle life on her own. If only she had somebody who could push them into taking a closer look.”
“DJ, no… you can’t. Please. I’ll do anything—anything you want.”
“You’d do that anyway, Ashley. You’d thank me for letting you almost suffocate yourself on my cock just now, if I wanted you to. Wouldn’t you.”
“I… do you? Want me to?” He just gave her a long look. “Um, thank you, DJ.”
He shook his head wryly. “C’mon, get dressed. I don’t want them to drag you out of the building in your underwear. These folks have seen enough of your naked body for this lifetime.”
Realizing he wasn’t budging, and unable to push him to do otherwise, she sullenly found a pair of jeans and eased into them. “But DJ, you weren’t any better to her than I was. Are we really so different? Maybe I… took it farther, but she’d have killed herself anyway without you. You broke that little whore’s head in epic fucking fashion, you know.”
Ashley trembled at the effort it took to manage that much brutal honesty with him, and she looked like she might be sick. He’d come to appreciate how hard—usually impossible—such a task was, and was almost impressed.
“You’re right,” he said. “I didn’t kill her, but if I’d just left her alone, she’d still be alive right now.”
“You’re guilty of a bundle of crimes as big as my left tit, asshole,” she said bitterly. “You turning yourself in too?”
“No. And for two reasons. The first is that there would be no point. You think a jury would convict me? A judge sentence me? I could make them, maybe, but then why not save the taxpayers a dime, skip the trial and go straight to prison and make them prepare a cell for me. A cell they’d let me walk right back out of whenever I wanted, surrounded by guards and inmates who’d never think of hurting me. Prison would be a bad diet and lumpy mattress for me. Would that I could say the same for you.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Ashley protested, but she wasn’t even trying to sound convincing any more.
“See, and that’s the second reason. We’ve both used people, damaged them. Some of it probably beyond what we could ever fix even if we tried. You knew full well what you were doing all along, and you never pulled punches. Even now, with Emily—our Emily—cold and dead, you’re only worried about yourself.
“But I thought I wasn’t doing any harm, just having some casual fun that nobody minded. When I realized I was hurting people, all I wanted to do was stop. Go back and make things right, or as right as I could. Ashley, you have no idea the satisfaction it would bring me to punish you in equal measure to all the harm you’ve done—but that’s not the point. It can’t just be about what I want—it has to be about them. For Emily, she and the people who cared about her deserve to know what happened, and to have you brought to justice is the only way I can do that for them. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Her family disowned her for being such a whackjob skank. She doesn’t have loved ones any more.”
“Well I’ll just have to help them see it wasn’t her fault. Or try at least—maybe I can’t. It’s all I can do.” He went to the door. “She was good to me. So much better than I ever could deserve, and thanks to you, more than I can ever repay. So every time you’re sitting in your cell pitying yourself for how hard you’ve got it, you just thank her for showing you mercy. That you’re still alive, and with a future ahead of you that you just might be able to salvage something out of if you work at it. You can thank her you have that opportunity, because if I left it up to me…” He just shook his head.
With that, he opened the door and called out to the two police officers who’d been waiting patiently for him around the corner. “She’s all yours.”
For a bed in a college dorm, his new mattress was surprisingly comfortable. Unused, still good and springy. Crisp new sheets on it. The scent of air freshener helping mask the stench of blood that hadn’t quite left the room with the old mattress.
Sleep was nonetheless a long time coming. But it came.