The Stipulation

by Young, M. L.

  The Stipulation

  Vol. 1

  M.L. Young

  http://www.facebook.com/realmlyoung

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  The end of this book contains an excerpt from Volume Two, which is now available!

  Editor: Laura LaTulipe

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances of characters to actual persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. The author, M.L. Young, holds exclusive rights to this work.

  Copyright © 2013 by M.L. Young

  All rights reserved

  Chapter One

  The blistering cold wind hit me as I walked out of Gabel Hall and started my trek across campus. December in Illinois and the ground began to turn solid from frost and the breath coming from your mouth instantly turned into a fog before quickly dissipating. It didn’t help that I decided to wear a skirt today, thinking I would actually look cute for once. Now my decision started to haunt me, as the freezing cold wind battered my freshly shaven legs and made any tiny remnants of stubble that were there stand on end.

  I weaved in and out of the slow-walking students and couples, not paying attention to the way they held onto each other for warmth, as if it even mattered when the temperature was this cold outside. I admit I was a little jealous, for I wanted to be holding onto somebody, but it just wasn’t in the cards. I only got into this university because I held a 3.9 GPA through high school, and my only way to pay the rest of the tuition that my grants didn’t cover was to work almost full-time while not in class. I barely had time for anything anymore, with my time filled up with either listening to an old professor drone on, or standing in front of a cash register acting polite to the bitchy men and women who came in and deliberately tried to cause me problems. I wanted to say the whole situation really bothered me, but I guess I signed up for it all. I’m the one who chose this school out of all of the others I could’ve gone to. My parents even tried to talk me out of it, saying it was too expensive and I wouldn’t get to socialize, but I didn’t listen. I told them I was eighteen, an adult, and I could conquer anything that came my way! Now while all of my friends went to parties and spent time together, I was either stuck with my face inside of a textbook or in front of a ringing cash register.

  I never told my parents, for quite frankly, I didn’t want them to know they were right. They told me if I went to a smaller school they would’ve helped me pay some of the tuition and board, but I declined. They’re missionaries, and not exactly a glamorous or high-paying job. They’re paid by the church to go and help not only people in this country, but also outside the country, and they made just enough to pay the mortgage and put food in their stomachs. All I had told them, on the rare chance I got to talk to them, was that I was having a great time and partying it up. If it made them think I was right then that’s all that mattered.

  Tuesday night and my six o’clock class was over—not to mention one of the only nights I didn’t have to work—so I decided to go back to my dorm and munch on some of the snacks my parents had sent me in a care package from Mexico. I was a little scared the products would make me sick, but my parents assured me they were in a great place and everything was safe. Normally I would just smile while emptying the box into the trash, but my meal plan money for the week was already gone—my roommate’s best friend’s boyfriend took my card and got food for not only him, but also his buddies—letting me starve for the week until the money refreshed.

  I got stopped at the Glade Street stoplight, which was the biggest and most annoying of all of the intersections on campus. The traffic lights for cars and pedestrians changed almost in the blink of an eye and if you were in the middle of the street then you had better run like your life depended on it. Normally, when the weather was nice, it wouldn’t be a problem, but now it posed a serious threat. The air and ground were chilling, and we even had a few flurries over the past week. Earlier today, outside the student union, I saw a university worker slip and fall, and I didn’t want to follow by planting myself in the middle of the road—in a skirt. I didn’t want anybody, especially these horny and hormone-raged college guys to see up my skirt and get any wet dreams about me later tonight. I was a virgin and wanted it to stay that way both for me and in the minds of every guy on campus. Letting them think I was easy or that I frequently gave free looks wasn’t what I was all about.

  I stood there at the light, shivering like I had since leaving the warmth of the building, and waited patiently with five other students for the light to change. It was just my luck that the one time out of my year and a half at this school, the light decided to take its time and not change at the drop of a hat like it had every other time I had stood there. Maybe it wasn’t actually taking that long, but when twenty-degree air is pulsating against your bare and clean legs, time seems to stand still and go at a blisteringly slow pace. Four of the other people waiting with me were of course couples, and in true college fashion, they were sucking each other’s faces like some kind of giant leech. I got a little disgusted, but realized they were just being normal and that I was the freak who still hadn’t even gone all the way with a guy. I’m twenty years old and the most I’ve ever done was let a guy touch my bare breast as he came prematurely from the sheer excitement of seeing and touching a boob.

  Just as I was about to give up hope, the light changed. The hulking and unforgiving red hand turned into the white glow of a walking man, and we all went for it. I watched the opposite traffic light, and as we were halfway across, their light turned yellow. The waiting cars started to inch forward as if antsy to just floor it and race through the middle of the biggest intersection on campus. I walked as fast as I could, but their light turned green before I had made it all of the way across. I shuffled my feet faster, hoping I would make it and not slip on some rogue slick of ice. My foot touched the opposite sidewalk seconds before the car raced past us all, the current of wind trailing behind it and striking me like the mighty winds of Mt. Everest. The resulting wind blew underneath my skirt and pushed it up, exposing my pink lace panties to anybody around me, which were unfortunately mostly guys. I could practically see the bulges in their pants press outward as now the only thoughts they would have of me is the girl with the goose bump covered ass.

  ***

  My dorm was one of the biggest on campus—a cluster of several towers each around fourteen stories high. A huge common area with dining and other offices in the middle connected the four wings together so students and faculty could travel freely between them without being subjected to the elements. I was in B Wing, with many of the other upperclassmen. Well, I was only a sophomore, but I guess after getting good grades and passing my first year here I got to call myself that, even though many seniors and even juniors would scoff at that title I had given myself.

  I went to the Snack Shack, a small alcove filled with snacks, and used part of the last five dollars on my student ID card, which was also used as the dining card, to get myself a bag of potato chips. Water was free—well, tap water—so I filled a small paper cup and walked out shamefully toward my wing, where at least I could be alone in the solace of my likely empty room as my roommate was probably at some frat party like she normally was. Her boyfriend belonged to a fraternity and always brought her along to the parties, which she once said she was sick of, but she never put up much of a fight. I think she just liked getting out of the dorm, and that was her one true way out of our cold and dimly lit room. She routinely invited me along, but between studying and work, I never had the time to just unwind. Even when I did have free time, like now, I enjoyed just sitting in my chair and relaxing before having to pick up a book and trying to study.

  The dorms had elevators, and each floor was only accessible with a key. Each student received
an elevator key for their floor, administration claimed this method was to prevent a would-be attacker from gaining control of a floor, if that was even plausible. I think they were just too scared of students sneaking off and humping each other around every corner, especially at night, so they tried to restrict access onto dorm floors.

  I inserted my key and turned it, the little button for my floor lit up, and the elevator started to ascend until it abruptly stopped. The elevator always did this when I got to my floor, and it scared me every single time. If I weren’t on the eleventh floor I would just take the stairs to spare my poor beating heart, but for now I would just have to deal with it.

  I walked off the elevator and immediately wanted to jump back outside into the cold when I saw one of the worst sights in the world.

  “Hey, Natalie!” Trevor said as he waved vigorously.

  Trevor was this guy, boy really, who was seven rooms down from me. He was a nice guy, always there if you needed help or something done, but he was weird, and that was being nice. He always wore old striped polos, tucked into his pants, and sometimes even pants that were up too high, separating his balls and giving him the male version of a camel toe. It was distracting and not exactly something that made girls all giddy and wanting more.

  “Hey, Trevor,” I said with a half-assed smile as I went to walk past him and to my room.

  I acted as though I was really busy and tired, hoping he would let me go and not try to talk to me or help me into my room.

  Luckily for me, Clarissa, my RA, saw us and called Trevor, telling him she needed help inside the floor’s community room. I mouthed thank you and sped down to my room, hoping I could get inside before he realized she really didn’t need any help whatsoever.

  I opened the door, revealing the sweet silence and solace of my dorm room, with Jillian not anywhere in sight. I turned on the light and slipped off my ballet flats. I tossed my backpack onto my bed, plopped myself into my chair, and was finally able to breathe—as I heard the squeaking bed of the guy from the floor above me, indicating that he was yet again boning some poor girl that he likely seduced at some party. This was college life, and the situation I put myself in when I decided to live in this cold and unforgiving dorm.

  Chapter Two

  I opened the tattered and poorly wrapped package my parents had given me, displaying all the brightly colored and questionable snacks they had sent. I sifted through them, contemplating if I should eat one of them, and pulled out some corn chips, which were in a yellow and orange package. As I opened them and reluctantly looked inside the bag, I noticed they really didn’t look that much different from corn chips on the shelves here. I put one in my mouth and was surprised to find out they even tasted the same as the ones here. It made me wonder, as I sat there with my feet propped up on my desk, if these were the same corn chips produced here. Hell, I bet they were made in the same factory and put in different packages.

  “He was being such a dick to you, Jillian. You should just dump him already and go work with me,” Tara, my roommate Jillian’s friend said to her as they walked into the room, surprising me as I stuffed my face with Mexican snacks.

  “Oh, hey, Natalie,” Jillian said with a smile as they walked in and situated themselves on her side of the room.

  “I’m telling you, Jillian, you should just come with me sometime and check it out. I have everything done and paid for, and I never have to worry about a single thing,” Tara said, as if trying to convince Jillian to do something.

  “I just don’t know, Tara. I mean, I love Steve and I would feel so bad doing that to him. Besides, I’m not sure I want to be with some old man.” Jillian shivered a little as if the thought disgusted her.

  I sat up, trying to figure out what they were talking about. All I heard was something about things being paid for, and it obviously sounded like some kind of job. If a job was easy enough for Tara to do, then I wanted in…whatever it was.

  “It isn’t just old men, Jillian. There are literally hundreds of guys, and Jerome picks through each guy and interviews them thoroughly. And it isn’t about sex at all! It’s just companionship. Sure, there is some sex and you’ll definitely have to put out, but it’s also about going out to dinner, going to mature parties, and just being a companion. I’m currently seeing two older guys and between the two I am getting my tuition and bills paid for,” Tara said, still trying to convince Jillian to participate.

  “Isn’t that just prostitution?” Jillian asked.

  “No! They don’t pay me for sex in the slightest. I give them a relationship and companionship, and in turn, they take care of me. It’s just like being in a relationship or marriage and having the guy pay the bills or take you out and buy you things. You’re having sex with them, and you aren’t doing anything illegal. They don’t give me any money, they just pay off bills I need paid for and sometimes give me little presents in exchange for the time and attention I give them,” Tara said.

  “What are you two talking about?” I asked curiously, trying to figure this all out.

  “You wouldn’t be interested,” Jillian said, as if suggesting I wasn’t good enough to participate.

  “Now, Jillian, don’t be rude. If she’s interested then we will talk to her about it! Jerome is always looking for new girls. He said business is booming and there aren’t enough girls to go around, so if a cute girl is interested then we should take her to see him,” Tara said.

  Jillian still looked slightly annoyed. Either she didn’t want me to participate, or she didn’t want me to get involved and get hurt. I’ve always been a little more sensitive and pure than most girls my age, and she knew that. Maybe she was just protecting me in some weird way.

  “Now, Natalie, are you interested?” Tara asked.

  “Well, I mean, I could use the extra money, but I’m not sure if I would do a good job. I don’t really have much experience in the sex department—and I’m a virgin,” I said, unsure if I should even take this further.

  “It isn’t about sex. There are five girls I know of that don’t even have sex with their guys. It really is about companionship. Some of the guys like sex, while others just want to spend time with a pretty girl because they are too busy to date anybody. Besides, it’s about time you lost that V-card,” Tara said with a smile.

  “Tara, she’s too innocent to do this. Hell, she’s never even done oral with any guy. Do you really think that your friend will want her?” Jillian asked.

  “I could do it,” I said, defending myself.

  The truth was…I was a little interested, and the thought of having my tuition paid for was enticing. I hated that shitty job I had to do, and taking the money from the assholes that came into my store was getting rather old and stale. If I did this, even though I was scared, I could quit my job and still have everything paid for. My parents would think I was doing some great job with no student loans or bills, and I would have way more time to study. If I didn’t keep my GPA above a 3.7, I would lose my grants, and I couldn’t afford that. I definitely wouldn’t be able to stay at this school, and the thought of going to a community college or being stuck in that cashier position scared the hell out of me.

  “Well, since you’re not interested because of Steve, I need to bring somebody to Jerome. I already told him that you’d be interested, but since that just went downhill, Natalie will have to do. Besides, we both know she’s super cute. I think Jerome could set her up with a guy that would really like her. She can get more free time, have her tuition paid down some, and finally lose that V-card,” Tara said with a smile, as if she were happy with the proposition.

  “I still don’t think it’s a good idea, Tara,” Jillian said, obviously believing this was a horrible idea still.

  “We’ll see. We should get going, though, if we want to make the party in time,” Tara said.

  “Do you want to come?” Jillian asked me.

  “No, I better study if I’m going to do well on this biology exam.” I smiled, hoping my excuse wa
s a good enough one.

  “All right, well we will see you tomorrow.” Tara returned the smile before they grabbed their bags and walked out of the room.

  The door clicked behind them and I was left there, once again, with only my thoughts to fill my head. Was I really going to be one of these sugar babies? I mean, I don’t even know if this Jerome guy is going to accept me or believe I even have what it takes to be a sugar baby. I was a little uncomfortable still with it all. I didn’t know what to expect or what this all meant. Sure, getting my bills paid and not having to slave away at that crappy store was a great thing, but was this really the way I wanted to free myself from both that job and my debts? Was I breaking some moral rule and buying myself a one-way ticket to hell someday? I knew if my parents found out I would be pulled out of this school so fast I wouldn’t be able to get a word in, but then again, I didn’t have to tell them. I could just make them think I was still mulling along in school and not actually out with some older guy.

  Who knew, maybe I would like it. I did feel a little stupid still being a virgin, and maybe an older guy would be better than these immature college guys that had hit on me every single day I’ve been here. And like Tara said, it wasn’t about sex. Getting to just hang out and spend time with someone would be pretty nice, considering I was always either cooped in my dorm, in a classroom, or standing in front of that old cash register. Getting some time away from everything, even if it were only for the semester, was something I was actually starting to welcome. I’ve never felt that special before, considering no guy had ever doted on me or went out of his way to make me feel special, and even if this wasn’t some kind of relationship, I could at least get some attention that I’ve craved for years.