[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 172 & 173. (Patreon)

Chapter 172: A shared passion.

The snacks the girls brought were… not to my personal taste, let’s say. Diet soda, beet chips, sour cream and onion flavored banana chips… Nope, I still can’t bring myself to like those, but everyone else ate them with no problem.

Reminder: these girls all cared about their figure. They all exercised and ate as healthily as they could, only indulging every once in a while. It made sense they didn’t eat potato chips or drank too sugary sodas.

We sat around the living room, with the snacks on the coffee table in the middle. Cake was running around and often playing with the feathered toy Noelle was wiggling for her.

“We heard about the new science lab they’re building,” Grace said. “Was that your idea?” she asked Alice.

“You think it’s that easy to put a plan like that into action? No, it was last year’s administration’s only proposal. I did help them write it, but I can’t claim credit for it.”

A part of me was glad to hear that. I think that if it was Alice’s idea, I would’ve held a grudge against her, which would’ve been stupid, since she wouldn’t have done it out of malice against me or anything like that. The room wasn’t even mine, so I had no business getting mad at losing it, anyway. But still…

“I hear even the teachers are kind of pissed, though,” Alice added.

“The teachers? Why?” Mila asked.

“We’re on the fourth floor, so we don’t hear it,” Isabelle started explaining, “but the classrooms in the second and third floors have to deal with all the ruckus of people working during classes.”

“They’re working during classes? Why would they do that?” I asked.

Noelle answered my question. “The principal wants to get it done as soon as possible, so he’s having them work all day. The teachers are angry because students can’t concentrate. And with midterms coming soon…”

“Speaking of midterms,” Alice grinned and looked at Mila. “Have you been studying?”

“You look fat in the shirt, Alice,” was Mila’s response.

“There’s my answer, I guess.” She simply laughed it off. “I don’t need to ask Grace, so how about you two?” she asked Sarah and I.

“A little,” Sarah answered. “I’ll cram next week.”

“I… I’ve been studying at least 20 minutes every night,” I said. “Not sure it’s enough, though.”

“Not the best,” Grace said. “But it means you won’t have to pull all-nighters next week. You’ll be fine. Still, you’re cordially invited to study with Mila, Sarah and I.”

I nodded with solemn politeness. “I’ll accept that invitation, thank you.”

“Gah, enough of school crap!” Sarah groaned. “Leave that for tomorrow at least. There’s something I brought today and I wanted to show Oliver.”

We all stared with curiosity as Sarah got something from her backpack. It looked big, like a box. When I saw the first glimpse of shimmering plastic, I knew what it was, but I didn’t dare believe it. Then Sarah fully pulled it out of her backpack and showed it to us.

“Tah-dah!” She grinned from ear to ear.

In her hands was an arcade stick. An arcade stick with eight brown colored buttons and a yellow ball top. That was a shock in itself, but what was even more surprising was the print on the plastic plate, showing the picture of the character Sarah had played last time we played fighting games in my room. It was a young woman wearing a yellow coat and black stockings, wearing a hat with a license plate on it. Her ridiculously long blonde hair flowed around her and made several flower shapes.

“Y-You got one!?” I asked, jaw hanging.

“Arrived in the mail the other day. Had it customized,” Sarah grinned, looking happy at my shock. “What do you say? Want to play?”

The surprises didn’t stop there, though.

“Y-Y-You guys play GG!?” It was Noelle who asked, standing from her chair. Once she realized all eyes turned to her, though, she sat back down slowly, all stiff, bashful and with her cheeks matching the color of her hair.

“I mean…” I started, but Sarah got ahead of me.

“I only just started, but Oliver’s played for a long time. You play, too?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Noelle’s really into games,” Isabelle said. “You should see her bedroom, Oliver. You’d die from jealousy. She has every console.”

“I-Isabelle!”

“S-Seriously?” I asked. I had to quell the excitement growing in my chest.

Video games weren’t that niche a hobby as I heard they once were, but I still never had friends who played them.

“Then what are we doing here? Let’s go play!” Sarah said, standing from her seat with arcade stick in hand.

W-Wait. She meant… going to my room? I left the window open, so it wasn’t the lingering smell of sex that worried me. I looked around, and everyone else was standing up as well.

Five girls plus my sister. Seven people in my bedroom. My tiny bedroom. That I was the only guy here only made things more awkward. Then again, I don’t think other guys being here would make things any better.

Next thing I knew, my sister, our five guests, our cat and I were all in my room. At the very least four people could sit at the edge of the bed shoulder to shoulder and facing the computer screen. Then there was my desk chair, and Isabelle brought two more chairs from downstairs. We… fit, but moving around was impossible without bumping into someone else.

“I’m sorry for the… tight space,” I said.

“No, no. Sorry for intruding,” Alice said.

She and Noelle were looking around with curiosity. Noelle’s eyes lingered on my bookshelf, on the small collection of art books I had while Alice examined my guitar.

I set up the computer, plugged my and Sarah’s arcade sticks and started the game. It still felt awkward for me. Sure, Sarah wanted to play, but I felt like we’d dragged everyone else here. Mila and Grace weren’t that into games, and it didn’t look like Alice was, either. Noelle looked uncomfortable, and Isabelle… Well…

“Anyone mind if Noelle and I go first?” Sarah asked.

“Me? Really?” Noelle asked.

“Please, go ahead,” Grace said.

“I have no idea how to play this, so I’m happy to just watch,” Alice said.

“I’m betting $2 on Noelle!” Mila said. “Who’s taking it?”

“The hell? You’re betting against me?”

“Well, you suck, Sarah.”

“Very well, I’ll take that bet. $2 on the underdog,” Alice said, chuckling.

“Did you ever think your room would become an underground betting spot?” Isabelle teased me.

“This doesn’t count.”

“H-Hey, it’s not like I’m good, okay?” Noelle clarified. “I like it, but…”

“It’s fine. So long as you don’t let me win, that is,” Sarah told her.

The girls went into the character select screen, chose their characters and jumped into the game. Two rounds later, Sarah lost by a good margin.

“See?” Mila said, smirking. “You suck. Now, Alice, fork the money over!”

“I was hoping for an upset…” Alice sighed and gave Mila a couple of bills.

“Oliver, avenge me!” Sarah told me, passing me her arcade stick.

“S-Sure…”

I navigated the menus and we went back to character select. I still couldn’t shake off the awkward feeling, and maybe some of it had to do with my lingering frustration and the fact that there were so many girls in my room.

Just… focus on the game, Oliver. Focus on the game, press the buttons, do the combos, watch out for the burst and oh god I won with a perfect.

For those of you who may not know, a ‘perfect’ is what it’s called when you win a round without taking any damage at all.

I was about to be overcome with shame. I knew well the feeling of getting beat in a game that badly. It was demotivating, and I didn’t want to make someone feel that way, especially a girl who was playing mostly because we pushed her into it. But then…

“No! No way!” Noelle burst into laughter. “No way you got a perfect!”

“Avenged!” Sarah cheered, raising her arms and laughing along.

“Huh. So Noelle sucks, too,” Mila teased.

“I don’t suck!” Noelle puffed her cheeks. “Let’s go again!”

“There she goes…” Isabelle laughed. “Noelle can get really competitive, too.”

“Only when it comes to games, though,” Alice added, laughing with the others.

We played again, and after I won again (not with a perfect this time), we started passing on the arcade sticks and letting others play. Alice and Isabelle said they were okay with just watching, and they seemed to be having a good time, too. Little by little, the awkwardness I was feeling began to fade away.

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

Chapter 173: Intermission - Things they need to talk about.

Later that evening, after they left Oliver’s house, Grace insisted they go to her house for a while.

Mila was a little tired. It had been a fun day, but now she wanted to go back home, lay on her bed and mindlessly scroll down through her social media pages until she fell asleep. Grace, however, seemed serious, so Sarah drove them to the brunette’s house. With her dad still out, the girls had all the privacy they needed.

“Now you can tell us what’s on your mind?” Sarah asked as they went into Grace’s bedroom. They all sat on her bed facing each other.

Grace let out a soft groan and rubbed her face. She sometimes acted like this when she couldn’t find the words to say what she wanted, which was rare for Grace. She was the most eloquent of the three, and usually only Alice could keep up with more high-brow conversations.

“It’s… about Oliver.”

“Not that big of a surprise.” Sarah shrugged. “What about him?”

“Rather… It’s about me. I think.” Grace bit her lip, and her hands pulled on the hem of her dress skirt.

No stranger to being at a loss for words, Mila gave her friend time and Sarah a soft elbow on the ribs when she tried to hurry her up.

“Have you… ever had the thought that…” Grace smiled wryly, “Oliver would look good with another girl?”

The tiny hairs on the back of Mila’s neck stood up and a chill ran through her. Her mind immediately went back to just hours before.

Biting her lip and rubbing the bridge of her nose, Sarah asked, “Just to be clear, you don’t mean any of us three, do you?”

Grace nodded.

“H-Have you?” Mila asked carefully. “Have you thought that Oliver looked…” There was no need to finish the sentence.

Grace answered with the slowest of nods, eyes looking down at her bed covers.

“Shit. You mean I’m not alone in this?”

Mila and Grace’s heads snapped to Sarah the moment they heard her.

“Y-You too!?” Mila asked.

Sarah nodded. “I don’t know what it is, but sometimes I picture it and…”

“And?”

“...And I… don’t hate it.”

“Dammit.” Grace sighed loudly. “I was counting on you calling me an idiot, Sarah.”

“...”

A heavy silence loomed over the three friends. While it did, Mila couldn’t stop herself from thinking back to their time in Oliver’s room just earlier. He was uncomfortable at first, but soon he started to loosen up a bit, even with six other people in there with him. All girls, too, but Mila wondered if his sister counted. And then there was Noelle.

“Did you notice Noelle was checking Oliver out?” Mila asked her friends.

Grace chuckled. “Yes. She was trying so hard not to, but she looked his way every other minute when she wasn’t playing the game. It was really cute.”

“It’s not what I imagined,” Sarah said. “I’d be a bit more comfortable if it was Alice.”

“Alice, huh?” Mila frowned. “Oliver would treat her better than her ex ever did.”

“Isn’t that true?” Grace sighed. “That girl is closing herself too much. Seeing she gets along with Noelle and Isabelle puts me a bit more at ease, but still.”

“You can’t blame her, after what happened,” Sarah pointed out.

“I know that. It just makes me believe that we made a mistake. Screw the presidency. We shouldn’t have left her alone.” Grace grimaced. “She works far more than she needs to, AND she keeps up with her studies.”

Mila had a thought. “I wonder if Isabelle and Noelle know about her little obsession?”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “You think she hasn’t told them?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Grace pouted. “She’s kind of embarrassed of it.”

“Which is stupid,” Mila added. “I think it’s the coolest thing.”

“Well, it’s one more thing that could get her in trouble if word got around,” Sarah said. “Scratch that. It’s worse than being friends with us. It’s straight up illegal.”

Mila winced. “It sounds terrible when you say it like that.”

“She’ll be fine. Her brother is usually with her,” Grace told them. “But changing the topic, there were other things I wanted to ask you.”

“Hm?”

“Mila, are you using much makeup or creams these days?”

“Ah?” Makeup and creams? Wait, now that she mentioned it… “I… don’t think so. I thought I had to buy some more this month, but when I checked I noticed I had barely used any.”

“Sarah?”

“Same, actually.”

“What about your weight?”

“I’ve lost just under two kilos in the past two months,” Sarah quickly answered, touching her lower abdominals. “Trying to lose fat here was always the hardest for me, but nearly all the extra is gone now.”

“I can’t say as accurately as Sarah can,” Mila said, “but a couple of my shirts feel a bit looser, mostly around the back and the waist.”

“How are you feeling?” Grace asked. “Anything wrong with you?”

Sarah narrowed her eyes, but answered clearly. “No. If anything, I’m better than ever.”

“I’m actually waking up before my alarm now,” Mila said. “And I don’t feel tired at all. I feel great. And now that I think about it, my period didn’t hit me anywhere near as hard as it usually does.”

Grace blinked. “Your period?”

“Yeah. I usually get big headaches, right? And mood swings? But it was really smooth this month. Barely felt it.”

“Mine doesn’t hit me as hard as yours, but now that you mention it…”

“Where are you going with this, Grace?” Sarah asked.

“The three of us are losing weight without it negatively affecting our health. In fact, we all feel better than before, and it’s happening despite our one or two extra trips to the coffee shop. We look good, even needing less makeup. It’s even affecting our periods. Why do you think this is happening?”

Mila was confused. “I… don’t know. When you put it like that, it’s weird, isn’t it?”

Sarah nodded. “What IS different?” After a second, she got it. “Oliver!”

“Oliver?” Mila asked.

“Sex is proven to be beneficial for the body,” Sarah explained. “It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, strengthens your immune system, improves your sleep, not to mention it can make for a mean workout. But…”

“Not to this extent, right?” Grace asked Sarah.

The blonde nodded again. “It was never this drastic before. Then again, none of the previous guys were… Oliver.”

Mila felt a couple of steps behind her two friends, but the pieces were slowly falling in place. “Wait. Are you saying… Sex with Oliver is helping our health? More than it should?”

“Drastically so,” Sarah said, then groaned. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it.”

“You work out more than we do,” Grace told her. “Your diet is different, too. But it was noticeable for me, and I haven’t done anything different these past two months. You know, other than being with Oliver.”

“It all comes back to him, doesn’t it?” Sarah sighed. “Well, we knew there was something strange about him.”

“Don’t say it like it’s a bad thing,” Mila told her.

“I’m not. But you can’t deny it’s weird.”

Mila couldn’t refute that. “Should we be worried, then?”

“I… don’t think so,” Grace said. “Cautious, maybe, but not worried. Let’s monitor our condition more closely now. If you notice anything off, tell the others.”

Sarah and Mila agreed.

“Still, this is pretty cool,” Mila said, giggling. “Not only does it feel good to have sex with him, but it’s also good for you!”

“If there are no side effects, yeah,” Sarah said. “We should go for a general checkup at the doctor, just in case.”

“Good idea,” Grace agreed. She then chuckled. “It’s always like this with us. We jump from topic to topic without closing any one.”

“Right. So… What do we do about…” Mila swallowed. “Oliver and other girls?”

Sarah bit her lip. “I kind of… want to encourage it. Kind of. It’s scary, but…”

“Shit, I’m the same,” Grace admitted. “Mila?”

Mila pictured Oliver holding Noelle like he did with her. She pictured him kissing Alice’s cheek in that loving way of his. Her chest warmed up at the thought.

“Only if it’s either Alice or Noelle.”

“I think he likes Noelle, actually,” Grace said. “He’ll never admit it, of course, but the signs were there.”

“But how do we encourage this?” Sarah asked. “Do we just tell Oliver he’s free to flirt with them?”

“Even if we do, it means nothing if he doesn’t want to,” Grace said. “He’s been making strides in talking to people, but he’s still all stiff around Alice and Noelle.”

Mila grinned. “What if we get him into the student council?”

“All spots are taken, and I’d rather not do something so obvious as to ask Alice to kick someone out to let Oliver in.” Grace sighed. “I think we might have to step aside a little bit.”

Mila understood, and so long as it was only for a while, she accepted it.

After they ended their conversation, Sarah drove Mila to her house. Even after it was over, however, one question still lingered, one none of them could answer.

Why was sex with Oliver so different?