Description
Maxine wasn’t sure what to think as she stood outside the Palmer Mansion at eight PM. She held her sleeping bag under one arm and a small string bag was slung over her opposite shoulder – it had her toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant – the usual stuff for a sleepover.
She’d lived next to Zee for years, and once upon a time they’d been really close friends. High school happened, track happened… they still talked with each other, but sometimes it felt like they were growing apart. Maxine just wished she could get a little closer to her blunette friend.
Just the idea made her face flush a little, and she tried to shoo those thoughts away. Not now, she liked guys… and Zee definitely wasn’t a guy… so– she didn’t even realize she’d approached the door until her hand had knocked on it.
Letting her arm drop, she stepped back and waited. Seconds later, the door opened. She was greeted by the sight of a robot butler in a fancy, black suit boasting a golden nametag. The Help, it said. With a prerecorded voice, the androgynous machine asked, “Would you like me to take your bags, madam?” and Maxine was reminded of the other reason she and Zee were growing apart.
Zee was fabulously wealthy. It had something to do with a deal her parents made a while ago, or maybe her grandparents? Maxine could never get the full story straight, but the long and short of it was that they knew where to invest and it paid off handsomely. Now they lived in a massive mansion smack dab in the middle of a bunch of townhouses.
She shook her head, “No, thanks. I just need to know where Zee’s room is.”
“Right this way, madam,” the robot bowed, stood straight, turned, and started walking. So, she followed.
As Maxine headed up, Zeke furiously typed away at a keyboard to a laptop sitting on the nondescript desk in the corner. Occasionally, he’d stop and glare at one of his slightly extended fingernails before he continued typing. From another room in the house, Jay would reply back with his phone.
When they realized that Zeke’s changes weren’t quite finished, they knew they needed to come up with a new plan. Jay would try to monitor the sleepover as best he could, and would do his best to run interference if another drastic change happened. Meanwhile, Zeke would do his best to learn about what Maxine was interested. After all, if he failed to accomplish what he set out to do after everything that had happened, he’d be pissed.
But there were some obvious problems with the plan. Jay would only be able to watch through the computer’s camera, and the only way to communicate was to type out messages. It was a tedious process that was prone to errors.
Even so, it let Jay send a message to Zeke that told him to turn around and open the door. He heard the robot butler and Maxine walking past the room he was hiding in as they went up the stairs.
Maxine watched as Zeke stepped out of his room and smiled at her, “Hey, Maxine!” he greeted, “Uh, sorry I didn’t meet you at the door. I was, uh, busy.”
“It’s no problem,” Maxine waved it off.
“So, um,” Zeke leaned against his bed, “How’re things?”
She smiled at him, “Pretty good. My grades are up, and I’m definitely getting a scholarship by the end of the year… Uh…” she frowned and looked around, “You’re doing nicely for yourself.”
“Well, I mean, I try.” Zeke replied, laughing nervously. “…So, I ordered a pizza a little while ago. You don’t mind plain? I wasn’t sure what toppings to get, so I just–”
“Plain’s fine,” she cut in.
He smiled, “Cool.”
“Yeah…” Maxine rubbed her arm, “So… wanna do something while we’re waiting?”
“Like makeup?” Zeke asked, “‘Cuz I’ve got some we can mess around with…”
“I was thinking video games,” Maxine offered. “I wouldn’t mind a soda.”
For a moment, Zeke wasn’t sure what to do. So he settled on something simple. He beamed at her, “Video games sound nice.”
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…It took about fifteen minutes for the pizza to arrive. When it did, the driver wasn’t sure how to react to the robot butler, but the eighty percent tip made up for it.
Almost instantly, the smell of cheese, tomato, and baked bread filled the house as the butler mechanically walked up the stairs and knocked twice on the door to Zeke’s room. It opened to the sight of Zeke and Maxine sitting in front of a television, frantically pressing buttons on controllers.
“Madams,” the machine spoke, “Dinner is served.” And the robot placed it on the nearest surface before bowing and backing out of the room, shutting the door as it went.
“Great!” Maxine was up first and quick to open the box, “I’m starving.” Zeke was right behind her, reaching over to grab a slice for himself.
He folded it once, brought it towards his mouth, and gently wrapped his lips around the pizza slice. With a slight crunch, he felt his teeth push through and hit soft, hot cheese. It stung a little, eliciting a whimper, but then the flavor hit.
His head pulled back slightly, stretching a thin line of cheese and sauce as he sucked, letting in some cool air to dampen the heat. It was practically melting in his mouth as he slurped up the first bite, chewing it gently as he did. A soft mix of cheese, tomato, and saliva slid down his throat with ease.
There was the sound of a slight drip, red sauce fell on Zeke’s face as his mouth opened wide; no food was left in there, only a waiting tongue as he gently licked off some of the sauce that dripped onto his upper lip. His mouth puckered, and he went for another bite.
Maxine watched the display, her slice halfway in her mouth and her eyes wide as saucers as Zeke proceeded to finish his first piece of the pie. She blinked, bit down, savored the flavor, chewed, and swallowed. Somehow, it made her feel inadequate as she blushed.
Watching through the camera on the laptop in the corner, Jay wasn’t sure how to react. “Oh… my god,” he murmured, staring at Zeke in a new light. He contemplated finding a box of tissues… maybe some lube – no, STOP, that was his friend… That was his friend who he knew as a guy. Frustrated, he felt his head bang against the wall as he breathed.
If they ever got through this whole thing, Jay knew he’d never be able to look at Zeke the same way ever again.
On his third slice, some of the cheese slid off the pizza and dripped onto Zeke’s front. Chew, chew, swallow – he looked down and saw yellow and red on the front of his dress, some of it had splattered his cheek. He frowned, “Damn.” And with long, careful motions he finished the slice before his fingers reached up to grasp the melted cheese.
He pulled the stringy food up to his waiting mouth and let it fall in, taking the time to enjoy it before swallowing. But the damage had been done. It looked like the front of his orange dress was covered in sauce… but he was still pretty hungry.
Redder than the tomato sauce they’d been eating, Maxine finished her third slice before calling it quits and washing the food down with a can of soda. Zeke ate the rest in the same manner before deciding his dress had suffered enough and, with little preamble, leaned back and started lifting it off.
“Zee?” Maxine gasped, “What’re you doing?”
“Um,” Zeke thought about it, “I’m taking my dress off?” he wasn’t sure if he meant to phrase it like a question.
“I know, but… why?”
“‘Cuz it’s messy,” he took a moment to smell himself and frowned, “And I need a shower anyway – I stink.”
Maxine took a deep breath of the room and, past the tomato and cheese, thought she smelled strawberries, honey, and a faint odor of sweat. Was that Zee’s natural scent? She thought that was perfume!
“U-Um… Yeah, okay,” she swallowed dryly and nodded. “You do that.” She tried to calm herself, but she knew from one look in the mirror of Zee’s open closet that she was still crimson all over – it was one hell of an accomplishment, given her dark complexion.
Zeke just shrugged and stepped into the bathroom. It’d be open for Maxine to use when he was done with it. That in mind, he finally figured out how to unlace his heels – but not before shutting the door behind him. He wasn’t about to give Maxine a strip show or anything. Even if she was a girl, doing that would be kind of perverted.
When the door shut, Maxine let out a sigh of relief as she looked around the room. It was large, way larger than hers even without counting the closet or the bathroom. Probably the most obvious thing in the room, past the posters of bands and the unbelievable amount of pink, was the stuffed animal collection.
Maxine couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at it. She wasn’t one to judge, “But what would Zee need with all these, anyway?” She walked over to Zee’s large bed and grabbed the nearest stuffed animal – a rabbit – and blinked in surprise. It had a surprising amount of weight to it for a stuffed animal.
She tossed it from one hand to the other, testing it.
Whatever was in this thing, it wasn’t fixed in place. She could feel it moving with the stuffing as it flew through the air. It didn’t seem like the bunny could talk, so whatever was inside it probably wasn’t used for that… Maxine frowned, curiosity getting the better of her as she turned it around and unzipped the back.
It fell out.
It was a six inch, black, rubber rod that was almost certainly not supposed to be in a stuffed rabbit. Morbidly, she noticed the switch on the side. This thing could vibrate, Maxine realized. Thankful that the rubber didn’t bounce on the carpet, she lifted it up – oh no.
Her head turned as she looked around the room. All those stuffed animals… how many of them were really filled with nothing but stuffing? The blush returned at the thought and the thought just wouldn’t go away. What else did Zee keep in her stuffed animals? What other lewd, perverted things were there? She knew that Zee had a healthy sex drive like anyone else her age – they were both adults, legally, so it wasn’t like there was anything wrong with this…
But seriously! Why the stuffed animals?!
Maxine heard the shower turn on and was quick to act, sliding the toy into her string bag and zipping up the bunny. It didn’t look noticeably saggy, and it wasn’t like Zee was going to immediately notice… hopefully…
…Why was she taking it? She, uh, wanted to see what the appeal was.
Yeah. That’s it.
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End Part 5