Nocticadia: A Dark Academia Gothic Romance
Nocticadia: Chapter 23

As I approached Emeric Hall for my entomology class, my book bag buzzed. I lifted my phone out, and seeing the academic advisor from Bee’s school calling sent my brain into panic.

“Hello?”

“Miss Vespertine?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Janet Kemphell. Everything is okay with Bee.” A flash of relief shot through me, quickly snuffed when she added, “I’m calling in regard to Bee’s tuition. Do you have a moment?”

With only four minutes before class, I rounded the corner to something of a narrow alley between Emeric and Descartes Halls for privacy. “Yes.”

“I’m just wondering when you might be able to send payment? The account is sixty days behind, and … well, I don’t want to have to do this, but we may need to disenroll your sister.”

“Wait. What? What do you mean, sixty days? I sent a thousand dollars just a few weeks ago. Conner’s payment should’ve put us two months ahead.”

“Miss Vespertine, we’ve not received a payment from Mr. Doyle since June. We’ve tried numerous times to contact him, but he never seems to return our calls. The payment you sent covered July’s tuition, but now August and September are due.”

Pangs of nausea needled my gut. Bending over, I clutched my stomach, which had begun to fold into gnarled knots of shock.

“I truly hate to make this phone call, Miss Vespertine. I know how much your sister loves the school, and–”

“Please. I’m begging you, Miss Kemphell. I will get you the money.” I clenched my eyes shut and breathed through my nose to keep from throwing up. “Can you give me some time?”

“I know you’re doing what you can. And you’ve always been very timely with your half of payment. There is a low-income grant that might offer a thirty-day extension. I can certainly speak to our provost and look into that for you. Beyond that, though, you would need to make payment for the thirty days you’re still behind.”

“I understand. I promise I’ll get you the money.”

“Again, my apologies for having to make this call, Lilia. Your sister is one of our best students, and she has made great progress here.”

“I appreciate your investment in her, and I will do everything I can to keep her enrolled.”

“I appreciate it. We’ll talk soon.”

“Thank you.” On those parting words, I clicked out of the call and scrolled through my contacts for Conner’s number. The phone rang and rang before going straight to his voicemail. Teeth grinding, I ended the call and dialed again. And again. After the fourth try, I texted him a simple message:

Call me immediately.

Enraged, I ground my teeth as I stuffed the phone into my pocket. Voices from the other end of the alley caught my attention, and I backed myself to the wall, alongside an arborvitae shrub. Peering around it showed Gilchrist and Spencer walking toward the alley. Once inside the shady passage between buildings, she shoved Spencer against the wall and ran her palm over the crotch of his jeans as she slammed her lips against his.

Frowning, I only just caught her leaning in to kiss him, before I flattened myself to the wall, feeling like I’d seen something forbidden. A buzz of discomfort hummed through me as I scurried back toward the front of Emeric Hall, my head trying to process whether, or not, I’d just seen some kind of messed-up hallucination. The sight of it wouldn’t have shocked me near as much, if I hadn’t witnessed Gilchrist pining after Professor Bramwell just a week ago.

When I glanced up, the devil himself strode up, a black, leather bag slung over his shoulder, and his gaze buried in whatever book he was reading. As the two of us converged toward the entrance, he finally peeled his attention from his reading, eyes on me as he breezed past while folding his book closed.

“Miss Vespertine,” he said, the acknowledgement nearly kicking me backward onto my ass.

“Professor Bramwell,” I responded, offering a respectful nod.

He disappeared inside, and I trailed after him, scurrying toward my usual seat in Gilchrist’s class.

The moment I took my seat, my phone buzzed with a text from Conner.

What’s up?

I choked back the urge to throw my phone against the wall as I texted back.

What the hell is going on with Bee’s tuition?! Kemphell said you haven’t made a payment in months!

Something came up. I planned to catch up this month, but then this shit with Angelo went down and now I’m drowning in bills.

In other words, the shady deals he had going with Angelo to make extra cash had gone awry.

You promised me! They’re going to kick her out.

I told you, she doesn’t need that school. She just needs more friends.

Don’t do this. I am hanging on by a thread here. Can you at least make one payment?

I need a few weeks.

I need you to swear you’ll make this payment. Please.

“Hey, how goes it?”

Irritated by the intrusion, I tucked my phone away and looked up to see Spencer looming over me. A flashing image of Gilchrist fondling his crotch flickered through my brain, and I shook my head, mentally batting it away.

“Good. Thanks.”

“Everything okay? You looked stressed.”

“Family issues.”

With a snort, he slid into the seat beside me. “You, too?”

The frustrated bitch half of me wanted to tell him rich people problems weren’t the same, but instead, I mustered as much of a smile as I could, despite the absolute chaos inside my head right then.

“Hey, wanna meet for lunch later?”

Schooling my face so as not to look entirely confused, I glanced toward Gilchrist, who stood at the lectern unpacking her computer, her eyes locked on Spencer.

How the hell was I supposed to respond without looking like the creep who’d spied on them?

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“Nah.” He sank further in his seat and hiked his elbow up on the back of it. “But what does it matter? It’s just lunch. Gotta eat, right?”

“Right.”

Another glance toward Gilchrist showed her still staring up at him. It was then that Mel’s words from before echoed inside my mind. He’s a manipulator.

Not that I’d entirely take her word on who, or what, someone was, but his persistence in being around me did strike me as odd. Even if I gave him the benefit of being a nice guy, I found it a little strange.

“I think I’m going to pass this time. I’ve got a lot going on.” Not that I wanted to be a jerk, I just wasn’t in the right headspace for casual lunch conversation when my world had flipped on its ass.

While his smile wilted to a downcast expression, he nodded. “Were you able to get a meeting with my father?” he asked.

“No, I didn’t bother, to be honest.” Aside from thanking him for allowing me to attend the school, I really had no other reason to take up his time. I wasn’t sure why Professor Gilchrist had insisted I seek him out.

Still feeling slightly bad about turning Spencer down for lunch, I sighed. The guy had consistently been decent to me, and I suspected it was my own insecurities and thoughts about guy friends in general that had me skeptical of his intentions. I hadn’t planned to avoid making friends here, after all. “Would you consider meeting up tomorrow for lunch?”

His eyes lit up. “Yeah, sure. Cool.”

That would at least let some of the chaos settle in my head. Because at that moment? I had no freaking clue how I was going to make up those missed payments.

“I’m just starting to get settled here, and Conner has already shit on things. Like, it doesn’t matter how far away I get, the guy shits on everything.” Lying in my bed back at the dorm, I stared up at the ceiling while listening to Jayda yell at her two other kids, who were apparently getting rowdy in the background.

She returned with a groan. “How desperate are you feeling right now?”

“Not enough to consider sex for money. Yet.” I rolled onto my stomach and traced the yellow stitching in my quilt.

“It’s not exactly sex for money.” Her voice was lower that time, and the lack of noise in the background told me she’d cornered herself in a quiet place.

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s a website I heard about.”

I fell onto my back again, slapping a hand over my forehead. “Jayda, I’m not–”

“Now, wait a second. Hear me out. It’s all anonymous. You don’t show your face, or anything.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head, already knowing I had no intentions of agreeing, but I was admittedly curious. “What is it?”

“Just be open-minded, okay? Because I happen to know someone who got paid to do this.”

“Your cousin?”

“No. It wasn’t my cousin.”

The tone of her voice told me she was hesitant to say, and I shot up in bed. “It was you! Was it you?”

“Look, I wouldn’t suggest this, but you’re in a tight spot, and I can speak from experience. The payout is worth it.” The excitement in her voice had me a little more than curious, all of a sudden.

“What did you do?”

“So … just keep an open mind, okay?”

“You already said that.”

“Right.” She blew out a breath that rattled through the phone. “So, I softened the peach in public.”

“What?”

“I paddled the pink canoe in the parking lot at Daly’s Market.”

“Paddled the what?” I shook my head, trying to decipher what the hell she was talking about. “What are you saying?”

“Damn it all, I finger-banged myself, okay?”

“You masturbated in public?”

“Yeah. And I’m not gonna lie, it was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever done.” She let out a nervous chuckle, as I sat daring myself to imagine her pregnant self doing something like that at Daly’s Market, of all places. “You get paid by tokens, and the site includes a small fee in those tokens, so it all basically goes to you. I made two hundred off that video, plus tips. And I didn’t even need to show my face.”

Damn. Two hundred? Jayda wouldn’t have lied about that. “You get paid right away?”

“Yep. The more risqué, the more you get paid. I guess some men are into pregnant women. You could totally play the schoolgirl, with your short skirt and knee-high socks.”

“Jayda, I’m not showing up to class looking like Britney Spears circa nineteen ninety-eight. This is college, for fucks sake. No one wears knee-high socks.”

“Suit yourself. But I’m telling you, a young thing like you, with your toned little thighs and short skirts, would make a lot of bank.”

I shook my head in a desperate bid not to seriously consider what she was suggesting. “Don’t you have to verify your age, or something? I’d be outing myself with an ID.”

“Not on this site. Don’t know how they get away with it, but they do. Look, it’s not like you’re making a career out of it, Lilia. A few videos, and you could be back on track with tuition. Shit, they might like the schoolgirl thing and you could make tuition with a single video.”

God, I hated the way she made it sound so damn easy and enticing. That all my problems could potentially be solved in a single conversation with her. “Do I have to make any sounds?”

“They just like the wet sounds.”

“Well, this just keeps getting worse.” I groaned, and she shushed me.

“You don’t have to moan, or anything. But maybe do it where other people are talking, so they know it’s in public.”

Covering my eyes with a palm, I huffed. “This is just … wrong.”

“Look, Conner is an asshole. He’s never gonna be there for you and Bee, okay? And now that he’s hooked up with Angelo? Any hope of decency is gone. You gotta figure shit out yourself, Lilia. Remember when I said be audacious? Don’t let a man take away this dream. Do whatever the fuck you gotta do to keep it.”

She was right, damn it. Relying on Conner was like praying for snow in Hell. As decent as the guy might’ve been, he just wasn’t cut out for dad shit. Uprooting Bee and throwing her into the same space as Angelo, and whatever criminal shit he had going on, would’ve been detrimental. I needed to take the reins on things. To figure things out myself. When she graduated, it’d be on her, but until then, I needed to step up. “How is it possible for me to hate and love you at the same time?”

Jayda chuckled. “You love me more than you hate me.”

“True.” I blew out a resigned breath and glanced around my room, wishing I could’ve just done the video there. But as Jayda had said–the more risqué, the more money, and I couldn’t think of anything more risqué than in class. “Okay, I got my midnight lab coming up, so I need to let you go.”

“Take care of yourself. And let me know if you decide to do it.”

“I will.” The moment I hung up the phone, I thumped my palm to my forehead and shot Jayda a quick text.

I forgot to ask the name of the site?

VoyeurBait.

Even the name has to be creepy right?

Ignore the name

I slipped out of bed, and on an exasperated sigh, I stared out the window at the courtyard below. Students bustled about, looking as carefree as birds hopping to and fro. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of them were trying to wrap their heads around some massive roadblock in life right then, or were actual classes their only source of stress?

Why the hell does my life have to be such a mess all the time?

As I scanned over the grounds, I caught sight of something off in the distance. Squinting, I leaned forward, peering through the window toward the oak between Shanlot Hall and the clock tower.

A figure cloaked in a long cape and what looked very much like a plague doctor’s mask.

A sharp breath flew out of me, as I stumbled backward, tripping over my desk chair, and landed with a hard thud on my ass. Hot needles of pain shot up my spine, and I flinched, pushing to my feet. When I stared out the window again, I saw nothing there. Only students walking about.

Great. Not only is my life a shit show, but I’m still seeing things that don’t exist.

With a huff, I fell onto my bed and rested my head against my palms.

My phone screen lit up with a text from Bee.

Hey, is everything okay? I tried to buy snacks with my food pass earlier and it says it was reduced.

I wanted to cry right then.

Everything is fine. Just a little confusion with your account, is all. The reduction is temporary.

It’s fine, Lil. I don’t need to be eating snacks between meals anyway. Just wanted make sure all was okay.

I wanted to tell her it wasn’t. That I was on the verge of tears trying to figure out what to do. Instead, I texted back:

No worries, all is great!

If you and Conner are having a hard time right now, I can get a job. I’m going to be seventeen, you know?

Her offer would’ve been wonderful, but I didn’t have the heart to remind her of the last job she’d taken a few months back, which had swiftly come to an end when she’d had one of her episodes and screamed at one of the patrons. She’d thrown a milkshake in the woman’s face, ultimately ending her very short stint at the ice cream shop.

Not that I was free from having suffered episodes myself, but mine, so far, hadn’t resulted in attacking anyone.

No need. Just a temporary issue.

Okay! How’s Dracadia?

It’s beautiful. Like Hogwarts without the wands.

Ah cool. Can’t wait to see you at Christmas.

Same. Love you.

Love you too.

Fuck. I was going to do it, wasn’t I? I was really going to film myself in class.

But when?

Lab would be perfect. The TA usually lectured for the first twenty minutes of class, and we all had our own benches with cupboards at either side. Mine was the back bench, which meant no one would see me. Not unless Spencer got snoopy, all of a sudden.

The thought made my stomach curl.

Two hundred dollars, Lilia. Two hundred that could reduce the two thousand still owed.

The decision slowly cemented itself in my head. I was really going to do it.