With the application of almond oil, which was an expensive leaving present from Alexa and which I never wondered I’d be christening in this way, I woke up with my seared butt mostly recovered — I’d ended up sleeping without a duvet or bottoms, which I’m sure the Moon appreciated, so it didn’t bear thinking about what state I could have been in.

Having slept properly, this time, I at least felt relatively ready for the day, with daydreams of what might transpire already gushing through my mind. Once I was showered, feeling the confidence to show up to work in my jazzy shirt that looked like a multicoloured barcode, along with loose fitting jeans which hopefully wouldn’t torture my ‘wounds’ all day, I was packing my bag when my phone pinged. Glancing at it, I saw it was from Kam.

“Morning!” it read.

“Good morning :)” I wrote back.

“How’s the Ass?” I sniggered.

“Not so bad all things considered. You?” I hadn’t expected them to send me a picture — but they did. It had been taken in a bathroom mirror, Kam’s face not visible in the incandescent camera flash, with them stood bottomless in a white hoodie, their newly pink bared cheeks on display. I stared for quite some time, quickly saving the photo, that sense returning of something stirring between my thighs, knowing I probably didn’t have enough time to relieve it. “Wow,” was all the reply I could muster.

“Yep,” they wrote back. The inclination took me to respond in kind — quickly, I went to the bathroom and shut the door, even locking it, as if that were necessary.

This I had certainly never done before — but, hey, the chat was encrypted and this was feeling more and more like a time for trying new things. I pulled down my jeans and, after a moment’s hesitation, my underwear went down, too, and I strained to discover an equivalent angle to match Kam’s picture in the mirror. None of them were satisfactory — I didn’t like how the skin of my lower back wrinkled as I twisted round, and I soon gave up, instead simply holding the phone up close to my butt, looking up at it, where Kam could make a proper judgement of my battle scars. It took a moment for me to stop staring at the picture myself; having never traded pictures like these, I’d never really seen my rear like this before. I hadn’t expected to like it as much as I did.

My thumb hovered over the SEND button for a fair while, knowing there was no taking this back, no pretending it hadn’t happened — but, I kept reminding myself, we’d for all intents and purposes hooked up in the woods last night. I came in front of them! This was the source of some slight shame and a lot of excitement. I clicked it.

“Share and compare heh,” I wrote by way of a caption.

T here I stood, against the bathroom door, barely even noticing that my underwear was still halfway down my thighs, waiting for them to reply.

“Maaaaaaan,” they finally wrote back, accompanied by a line of crying emojis. Then, a follow-up: “I wanna play with it again right nowwww.” I shuddered with excitement.

“Are we sexting right now,” I asked, and Kam sent back a wave of crying-laughing emojis.

“Idk lol but I’m not complaining.”

As I left my room, I, again, ran into Cherry coming from the kitchen, dressed in black silk pyjamas which ran off her curvy body like dark water.

“Are you following me?” she joked.

“No,” I laughed. “I guess we’re in sync.”

“Must be,” she mumbled through a mouthful of toast. “I shouldn’t even be up — I don’t have lectures today. How was the date?”

“It wasn’t…” I sighed and she laughed. “Well, actually, maybe it was. I’m not so sure, now.”

“Oh, yeah?” she asked. “Anything happen?”

” I’m not even sure how I could sum up what happened.” Cherry gave me an intrigued look.

“Try.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, I’m curious. I wanna know little Kelly is having a good time.” Why did I enjoy how my name sounded on her tongue? I wasn’t with Kam — I was allowed to feel these methods, right?

“Well… we went for a walk. In the park.”

“Uh-huh…?”

“And then we kind of accidentally snuck into the woods and…” How to phrase this? “…hooked up.”

” Kind of accidentally?” Cherry sniggered. I worried that I was distracting from her toast — it could get cold.

” It was their idea.”

“You didn’t get forced into anything, right?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” I said quickly, “a thousand times, no. It was fun. Just… different. I’ve never done anything like that before.”

“Was this a losing your v-card kind of sitch?”

“No, we didn’t go all the way,” I said. “They’re ace.” Cherry looked confused.

“Then how are they able to hook up?”

“Well… they like spanking.” Cherry inhaled, deeply, which shifted to a cackling laugh. “What?”

“Oh my days, are you in a BDSM relationship, now?” She stepped forward and, with one hand, gripped my top for emphasis. “Because that is a step.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I think we’re just mucking around. It’s exciting, though.”

“And on your first day, too,” she sighed, shaking her head, letting go of my top. ” Well, you go, girl. Just be safe, alright? Don’t get more invested than them. People play games, you know?”

“I think it’s a game from the start,” I said. “For both of us. Maybe that’s good.”

“Long as you’re both on the same page, then it’s good,” she said, nodding. “Good for you, Kel. Proud of you.” We parted after a bit of forgettable small talk — all the more forgettable because she called me Kel. Wow, we really were friends. I’ve never had a nickname before — except that period in Year 10 when I was ‘ Cockingbird’ for reasons that weren’t made entirely clear.

On my walk to work, still texting Kam back and forth, mostly discussing video games (butts can only get you so far, I suppose, even if my job did sort of revolve around them), passing the Recreation Field and dodging the early morning joggers, a dark wondered then occurred to me — had Kam’s aim last night been to coax an Orgasm out of me? And, if it was, what did it say, when it was their turn to receive, that my goal had been to coax tears? That could say things about me which I wasn’t ready to confront.

Walking to the office, I found Beth coming the other way, pushing hair from her eyes as she walked.

“Oh, hi,” she said as she spotted me.

“Hi!” I said, brightly.

“Someone’s chipper today,” she said, smirking.

“Am I?” I hadn’t even realised.

“Must have been a good evening.” At that, her smirk widening, she kept walking, leaving me watching her and looking around, hoping nobody was listening. One student, sat on a windowsill and staring at her phone, was nearby, but she seemed lost to the world. Did Beth know? Had Kam told her? Had Kam told everyone? Carrying on down the corridor, the grip on my bag a little tighter, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this sort of information to get out when even I still didn’t know what to do with it.

I supposed, though, that Beth was right. I found a pleasant energy wafting all around me, like I was being followed everywhere by an indescribably warm glow. Last night’s experience had been like nothing I’d ever done before. Nothing. I don’t think I’d even imagined, not in the deepest recesses of my mind, that I’d ever do something like that. Fantasy couldn’t lead me down the path which Kam still found for me that night.