The Housekeeper, Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
Hannah
It really was too easy.
Now that little Jessie had been conditioned over the course of the afternoon to be obedient to me and my friends, especially now that I had thoroughly intimidated her and shown her that there were consequences for not listening, she clearly didn’t have the backbone to ignore our calls.
For a couple minutes, we continued to summon her back, always waiting until she was just within reach of the kitchen or the hallway beyond. A fresh drink, a new bowl of chips, a towel from where one of my friends had left hers on the porch. We were pretty much done with swimming at this point, despite the fact that we were still hanging out in bikinis, but Jess didn’t need to know that. The naked brunette had said out loud that she would drop everything for us when called, and we were all more than happy to put that to the test.
I was actually a little impressed at how well the girl was hanging on.
It had been nearly an hour since she chugged all that water, and I had expected her to look more desperate at this point. She was so little, so I assumed holding that much would have been more difficult. Jess wasn’t squirming like before, although I could tell by her expressions that each return trip was taking its toll. Since she had already admitted that she needed to pee, I had to imagine it wouldn’t be that much longer, but I also wasn’t sure if that meant five minutes or another thirty. Patience wasn’t even my issue; it would just be kind of boring to make her refresh drinks over and over again. Not only would that game get stale, but my friends and I were already pretty drunk. We couldn’t continuously knock back each glass and can Jess brought us; pouring them would be an option, but again, that would get old sooner rather than later. It honestly wasn’t worth the effort.
Instead, I outsourced creativity to the other girls. I had already done plenty, and would be fully in charge of Jess when they left for the night. Might as well let them get in on the action while they had the opportunity.
Besides, I deserved a small break, unlike Jessica.
Jess
I knew they were doing it on purpose.
Before, Hannah and her friends had ordered a new round of drinks all at once. That had been a different kind of torment, as I had to keep track of each girl’s specific cocktail while my mind was already overwhelmed with embarrassment and disorganized thoughts about how I might get this job back on track. This time around was objectively more simple, as the majority of the requests were much less involved than before, and only one or two at once, but that wasn’t the point. The issue was that I was trying to make it to the bathroom to relieve myself, not to mention how a small breather from the clique of girls would be nice.
But they wouldn’t let me make it past the kitchen. There was no way in hell I was going to humiliate myself in a similar manner to what had happened in the living room earlier. And yet, they were obviously trying to orchestrate something like that. Or maybe they just wanted to make me uncomfortable and subservient all at the same time, flexing how far they could take Hannah’s latest insistence about how I needed to come running basically whenever she snapped her fingers.
I tried my very best to feign indifference. Without a word, I continued to bring them anything they asked, while also keeping myself fully exposed. It went against every instinct I had, considering that I never walked around naked due to how I had only ever lived with my parents and currently a roommate at university. I just held onto the weak logic that they had already seen every inch of me. Covering wouldn’t really do anything, even if that would be my preference.
When I returned with the first cocktail after four separate trips for four cans, one of Hannah’s friends hopped up from her spot and walked over to me. “Look how flat she is!” the girl exclaimed. There was definitely a small slur to her words, reminding me how badly I was failing at my job. Instead of keeping them from drinking, I was serving them alcohol. “I mean, not like, her boobs. Those are fucking huge. I mean, here!” She gave my stomach a sharp slap. “So FLAT.”
I gasped from the unexpected hit. It’s not that it really hurt or anything, but the surprise was enough. Also, I certainly didn’t feel flat down there. I was so bloated from all the water I had chugged, and the slap awkwardly confirmed that my stomach wasn’t exactly as flat as she was commenting due to the current water weight. Also, it was only just now dawning on me that I hadn’t eaten since lunch on the road. No wonder I was feeling a little weak beyond the general submissiveness.
While I so badly wanted to slap the girl’s hand away, both from how she was violating my personal space as well as the rude way she was commenting on my body, Hannah’s stare alone was enough to keep my arms down. I couldn’t berate her or any of her friends when I was completely at their mercy. Until I figured out a way to contact her parents and get back to the role I was supposed to have here, I had to play nice. More than nice, really. I had to let the drunken girls treat me like I was their servant.
Hannah smirked, giving me one of those judgmental once-overs that only a rich, popular girl could pull off. Only instead of checking out my outfit, she was giving a cursory look to my bare body. “You’re right,” the young blonde said, “I guess little Jessie lives up to her cute name.”
“Mm hmm!” the girl next to me nodded. She reached out and gave my stomach a harsh pinch that instantly made me wish she had just given me another slap down there. “And yet the boys don’t want her? Why not?”
“We’ve been over this,” Taylor rolled her eyes, “Boys like hot girls, remember? She’s a virgin because she’s short and cute. No ass, either, speaking of ‘flat.’”
“And she’s a lesbian,” Hannah added, “Although she obviously can’t get any girls for the same reasons.”
“Ooh, I have an idea!” The redhead, Willow, hopped up from her spot and tagged in. Sending the other girl back to her seat, Willow placed a hand on my shoulder and made sure we were both fully facing the rest of the girls before going on. “Out of all of us, who do you want to make out with the most?”
I definitely wasn’t prepared for that. There was always a way for all this to get worse. No matter how many times Hannah and her friends proved as much, I kept falling for it. As mortifying as serving them drinks while completely exposed was, at least I could disassociate and try to blend into the background while they carried on with their immature conversations. Not that there weren’t eyes on me, of course, but I had been able to somewhat ignore them by focusing on the task at hand. That wasn’t possible when literally all of them were staring at me.
Interpreting my silence as something else, Willow gave my shoulder a playful nudge, “Don’t worry, you can choose me if you want.”
That was not my concern. I was still working through the surprise of the question, as well as where my answer might lead. If I answered, would they try and make me kiss that girl? While I had allowed a lot to happen, including the fact that I gave them all permission to touch my body everywhere in the name of figuring out why I was a virgin, making out with a girl was different. Mostly in that it would require active participation on my end, in contrast to how I merely had to stand still and swallow my pride when I had allowed all of Hannah’s friends to degrade me with their hands and their words earlier. Also, I had only ever kissed boys, and not that many of them. The idea of doing it with the opposite gender was quite daunting, considering that I wasn’t actually the lesbian Hannah was portraying me as. And to do something so intimate in front of others? Even if I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it, it was still a pretty big first, and one that would forever stand out in my mind due to how it came to pass.
The buzz from knocking back the seltzer earlier had long faded, especially after what Hannah had put me through when it was just the two of us in the basement. Liquid courage would be nice at the moment. Kiss or no kiss, there was no good answer to the redhead’s question. And everyone was staring.
“Well, Virgin?” Hannah pointedly asked, “Are you going to make us all wait forever, or are you going to answer the fucking question?”
A quick scan of the bikini clad eighteen year olds confirmed that I didn’t find any of them attractive. Partly because I wasn’t actually into girls, and partly because none of them were the company I would enjoy even under normal circumstances. Shallow, popular girls were bad enough, and adding ‘entitled’ to the mix just made it worse. Still, Hannah’s tone was enough to spark a little fear and remind me that I had to play along with whatever evil games she and her friends came up with.
“L-Lillian,” I nervously stammered. There was very little thought given to the name. I only knew a handful of the girls’ names in general, and I was worried that Willow would kiss me right then and there if I said her name due to the proximity. Hannah was obviously out. Despite how far I had fallen, I was still clinging to whatever scraps of dignity and defiance I could find. There was no way I would give Hannah the satisfaction of choosing her when she was the spoiled brat I was supposed to be babysitting.
She was quick to crush those weak embers, however. “Excuse me?” Hannah rose from her lounge chair and took a couple steps towards me. Not fully in my personal space, but enough to remind me just how tall she was in comparison. Intimidating, too. “Are you saying I’m NOT the hottest girl here?”
I half expected Lillian to look offended that Hannah was questioning my choice, or perhaps one of the other girls when Hannah implied that she was basically hotter than all of them, but they all seemed fine with it. Probably because she was still the one ultimately running the show here. If it made things more interesting when it came to their target, then naturally they wouldn’t bother bickering amongst themselves over who was the most attractive.
My focus was more on Hannah, anyway. After seeing what she was capable of earlier, it felt as if her very gaze was causing me to shrink. I instantly regretted my choice of Lillian, as I clearly hadn’t thought things through where Hannah was involved. Avoiding her amusement and satisfaction had seemed appealing in the moment, until I saw the flash of anger in her eyes. My resolve crumbled right away, and I tried to backtrack, “No, you are,” I awkwardly replied, “The hottest, I mean. I just- Lillian looks like a good kisser . . . ” The silence was deafening. After a few seconds, I couldn’t take it any more, and said, “I’d rather make out with you, Hannah.”
“Sounds to me like you’re a slut,” Hannah said. She took one more step before placing a hand on her hip. “It’s always the virgins that end up being the thirstiest, right? You want multiple girls, Jessica? Didn’t you just meet all of us today? And you already want to make out with a couple of us. Wow.”
Every time I managed to push away a blush, a new one seemed to come back in full force whenever Hannah or her friends talked about me in a new, demeaning way. And she was totally twisting my words! I didn’t want to make out with any of them. This was supposed to be a ‘if I had to choose’ thing. That’s it. “No, I-”
“Did I give you permission to speak, Virgin?” Hannah snapped. “And don’t try to deny that you want me.” She turned to her friends, taking the opposite side of me than the one Willow was on. “Jessie tried to kiss me in the kitchen earlier, but I denied her. Obviously. I’d never go for someone so small and pathetic. So if anyone is ever alone with Jessica the lesbian slut, watch your back. Especially you, Lillian!”
I looked at Hannah in horror, mouth slightly agape as I processed her blatant lie. That never happened!! It was one thing to be coerced into ‘admitting’ that I was a lesbian, but now it seemed like I was as desperate as she was claiming. That I tried to kiss the girl I was hired to babysit. Or, as her friends saw it, the girl I was supposed to be serving. “That-”
“JESSICA.” For a second, it looked like Hannah was going to slap me. Instead, her aggressive body language shifted into a more casual stance as she turned her scowl back into a smirk. Still training her gaze on me, she said, “First of all, we’ve been over this. No speaking unless you’re given permission. Nod if you understand.”
This part wasn’t new to me, although it was a lot more difficult to comply with when she was spouting humiliating fiction about me. I reluctantly nodded, immediately feeling conflicted. For starters, I knew I wouldn’t be able to defend myself in regards to any other lies Hannah decided to say about me. I had also already said out loud that I needed a bathroom break, and still hadn’t been given an opportunity to do so. While I didn’t want to be in the same situation as last time, asking when it was far too late, I was also nervous about potentially being punished for speaking up or taking a break when they were trying to call on me for something.
“Good girl,” Hannah said, “Honestly, you’re going to have to improve your game if you don’t want to be a virgin for life. You’re already so weak in the physical department. Do you really think some girl is going to kiss you just because you go for it?”
“Her lips aren’t even kissable!” Taylor exclaimed, “Trust me, we felt them.”
Hannah just shrugged. “Whatever. She’s our little servant girl. It’s not like she has a chance with any of us anyway.”
What did that even mean?? I had kissed people before, and I knew that the way they were all talking about me right in front of me was designed to make me feel self conscious, but it somewhat worked anyway. Although I was older than all of them, I wasn’t particularly experienced. It was difficult to ignore their insulting and judgmental comments when they all sounded so sure about what they were saying.
“Jessie. Go get a can of seltzer. Any flavor.”
Something as simple as a new command left me unsure of what to do or say. I had been pushed to say ‘Yes, Hannah’ to the blonde’s demands leading up to this point, but I had just been told that I wasn’t allowed to speak. Trying to communicate how I was torn, I glanced towards Hannah and gave her a small nod. I slightly pivoted my body, preparing to head back inside, but also lingering just enough for her to correct me if she wanted to. Once again, in a situation where I felt the need to wait for Hannah’s approval.
Observant and socially adept enough to pick up my confusion, she quietly scoffed. “Those two words are allowed, Jessica. I told you to do something, didn’t I?”
“Yes, Hannah,” I quietly muttered. There was my answer, then.
Making yet another trip to the kitchen, I grabbed the first can of alcoholic seltzer I saw in the fridge’s drawer. Shivering a bit from the latest wave of cool air, and noticing just how much the girls had gone through the collection of drinks they had brought over, I headed back out to the pool. They were drunk; I was naked. No matter how many times I thought about it, it was difficult to convince myself that this wasn’t somehow my fault. I was failing spectacularly at this job, and I really should have put my foot down hours ago.
It was way too late for that, however. So for the umpteenth time, I approached the girls without covering, with drink in hand for whomever needed a fresh can this time around.
After a few seconds of silence, as I was committed to not speaking, Hannah smiled from the seat she had returned to. “That one is for you, Jessie. And you have to chug it for us. What do you think, girls? Thirty seconds, like last time?”
“How about 25, to see if she can beat her record?” Lillian suggested.
“Good idea!” Hannah replied. She pulled out her phone and tapped it a couple times, “Okay, Virgin. You have 25 seconds, or you’re going to be in serious trouble with all of us.” She glanced up from her screen with her lips pursed in a smile, “And after that, you’re going to play a little game with us.”