College Lesbian Bondage
I suppressed a yawn with one hand, doodling in my notebook with the other. My watch read 3:55pm—almost time for the lecture to be over. Thank God.
“Now, implicit association tests can tell us how people really feel about a subject. It’s been used on topics such as racism, drug addiction and homophobia.” Ms Fielding paused and looked around the room. It was a big class, so I didn’t feel the need to feign interest.
“Each of you will devise your own implicit association tests in pairs. I want your proposals by next Tuesday, then you’ll have another month to run the experiment and submit a report. Pairs have been randomly selected.”
Chorus of groans around the room. I glanced at Jen, my usual lab partner, and she rolled her eyes and shrugged. Hopefully I wouldn’t get a deadbeat.
“The list of partners is posted up by the door. If your partner is ill or away, let me know so you aren’t disadvantaged. Otherwise, the list is final. That’s all for today.”
Everyone scrambled to see who they’d scored as a partner. I lingered in my seat, packing up my pens and books. Jen had run ahead of me, and she turned and gave me the thumbs-down sign. I mouthed “oh well,” smiling sympathetically.
Poor Jen, she was probably stuck with a total weirdo goth chick. Some of those people needed to see a real psychologist. I swear, this one girl had gone so totally emo on her arms that you couldn’t see any skin that wasn’t just scar tissue. It was fucking gross.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around.
“Hi. I’m your partner,” she smiled.
I recognized her from my tutorials. Tiny, Asian, glasses. Kind of cute in that foreign-exchange-student sort of way. “Alice, right?” I hazarded, taking her hand. Her grip was deceptively strong, and I winced.
“That’s right.”
I released her hand before she mangled mine. “Look, why don’t I leave you my email and we can work out a time to meet later—”
She beamed up at me. “Actually, I’ve already mocked out a proposal. Are you free this afternoon? I thought we should get it out of the way.”
I blinked. Talk about eager. “Um... yeah sure, whatever.”
“Great, let’s go now,” she said, leading the way.
I trailed after her, feeling slightly put out. Then I smiled. Did it matter if she’d already done most of the work? Hopefully it was a good topic and not something lame like whether people preferred fat chicks or whatever.
“You’re not on campus?” I asked, as she walked to the parking lot.
“Oh no. I’m only ten minutes away, though.” She tossed her bags in the boot of her car, and held out a hand for mine as well. I handed them over, feeling dumb for hesitating.
“Will there be a bus coming back? I just don’t want to put you out—”
“Don’t be silly, I’ll drop you off.”
I climbed into the passenger’s seat. “So what’s this proposal you drew up, and how come you already had one before today?”
She started the engine and pulled out of the car park. “It’s mostly ready, but I’d like to run a pilot first. I talked to some of the third years and apparently this is what they did last year, so there was a good chance it’d come up again.”
I laughed. “You’re super organized!”
“I like to be on top of things,” she smiled, glancing at me over her glasses. She was actually really pretty. No, scratch that, she was gorgeous.
I turned beet red and stared out the window. “Well, I’m so glad I get to work with you. I’m always doing things at the last minute.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you won’t let me down.” We pulled into her garage, and her hand reached for the brake. Just as she was doing so, I went to unbuckle my seat belt and our fingers touched. I drew back immediately and blushed, but she seemed not to notice.
I grabbed my bag from the boot, mindful of where her hands were, and we walked into the house. “Wow, this place is huge,” I said, my