@sadistgalore and I have joined forces on a whump project!
We aren't sure what to call it yet.
@sadistgalore's whumper, Dr. Joseph Anderson
@all-whumped-out's whumpee Ava Simons
Dr. Joseph Anderson and Ava Simons work together to sell pills at local raves, but things go sideways one night when one of Dr. Anderson's pills do something much worse than just give kids a high. Then, everything changes.
TW: drug mention, death mention, overdose mention.
Chapter One
“No, no, no! How many times do I have t-”
Ava stopped herself from continuing the sentence that sat on the end of her tongue.
The big blue eyes that stared up to her from the lowest level of the Hallidey Lecture Hall grew wider. She should have done the reading before class. The blonde who commented about a dendrite being a synapse deserved the snappy response, Ava reasoned, but she was trying to keep herself in check. Another complaint over unprofessional behaviour, and her promising future would be gone in an instant.
“This is the axon terminal, the synapse is at the very end of the axon terminal,” Ava used a laser pointer, on the large screen to highlight the areas clearly. “Of the neuron. Now, who can tell me what the big circle in the center of the neuron is called?”
Not a single person raised their hand, or even bothered to call out a response. A hundred young adults in a massive hall, and you could have heard a pin drop with the silence.
“It’s the nucleus,” she sighed.
Peering at the clock in her periphery, Ava knew it was time to send the students away to their next class, and for her to follow up with the professor that was supposed to be teaching the biopsychology course to begin with.
The campus of St. Mark’s University carried on for a five-block radius from the Hallidey Lecture Hall. Just downstairs, there were several computer labs and lockers lining the hallways. Above the Hallidey building were the labs, where no doubt, Dr. Anderson would be working on his own style of “research” where he was usually on his own- the other professors didn’t use the labs much, or seemed to like being around him much either.
Ava trudged up the stairs in worn out Skechers and slung a black backpack over one shoulder. Laboratory #3. She knocked twice, then paused. Then she knocked twice more, and then she let herself in.
“Did you plan to have me teach that entire class on my own?” she hollered through the room. Dr. Anderson wasn’t around. Maybe she was mistaken. Maybe he was out sick, or worse-
“It wasn’t my intention,” came an echoing low voice from a corner of the lab.
He emerged, in a long white lab coat from a crouching position near a cabinet. He pulled a damp cloth from a nearby sink and wiped his hands clean as he walked towards Ava.
“But I had full confidence in you to do a good job without me there, Simons. You are my T. A. after all.”
Ava raised her brows and plopped herself onto a stool by the door.
“I dunno,” she shook her head. “I don’t think I’m cut out to be stared at that blankly.”
“Makes you uncomfortable?” Dr. Anderson asked.
Ava nodded.
“And then I get on edge, and then I just get mean. I don’t mean to be mean.”
Dr. Anderson nodded, cleaning up his work station, as he listened carefully to her complaints. Finally, after all the concern had been said, he pulled out a cigarette and motioned for her to leave. He closed the lab door behind them.
He started down the stairs and Ava followed. She knew better than to ask what he had been working on for the last hour and a half until they were outside, and far away from listening ears.
The last batch he had given her was pink. This batch was as yellow as the dandy-lions that grew around their feet, and he added little sunshine stars to the tops. There were twenty-six pills. It was a lot, considering-
“The last batch was only eight,” she commented. She quickly hid the baggy of pills in a pocket in her backpack.
“And you will sell all twenty-six.”
“In one night? You’re a loon.”
Ava scoffed, and there was only silence from her professor as he lit a cigarette. They stood beneath an elm tree, likely the same age as the original buildings on the campus grounds.
“I can’t sell them all, I’d get caught in an instant,” she said. “And I won’t be able to sell them twice. I’d risk blowing my cover on the second night.”
Dr. Anderson smoked his cigarette quietly.
Ava shook her rusty brown hair and grunted.
“Look, I’ll try. I’ll take an extra disguise to the rave if I have to, but-“
“But?”
“Are you sure this batch is safe?”
Ava stepped back as her professor let out a sudden laugh. Like she had told him a joke.
“You ask me that every single time one of these parties come around. Have I ever given you a reason to doubt me?” Anderson exhaled a stream of smoke lifting through the canopy.
Ava shook her head.
“No, I just-“
She remembered the first time they did this. This messed up deal they had ended up giving one kid a trip to the hospital with an overdose. He used to be a student. There was a tree planted here somewhere for him in his memory.
“Don’t worry, Ava,” Dr. Anderson finally turned his head to stare her down. He knew what she was thinking, what she was remembering. “That boy had done a whole concoction of drugs that night. You had no way of knowing that he would do more than he could handle. None of that was your fault or mine. He should have been more careful.”
Ava blinked slowly, and nodded.
“You’re right. Fine… I’ll sell them all.”
“The high is mellow, and long-lasting. But don’t you dare think of taking one yourself. It will come right out of your paycheque.”
“Got it.”
Ava hoisted her bag further up her shoulder and then disappeared through the campus trees. She planned to use her blue contacts this time. She would pin her brown hair back and replace it with a neon pink wig. With a bit of contouring, she’d be unrecognizable to anyone who knew her personally.
The word was already out that the pills would be on the dance floor of Cherry On Top- most people just called the nightclub The Cherry.
Ava waited by the door, she was earlier than usual, that night. Biff, the monstrous bouncer of The Cherry, already seemed to have his hands full with a couple fresh drunks that wanted inside. He tossed them away like refuse. She moved forward, keeping a wary eye on the crumpled boys off to the side.
“Name?”
“Vanilla.”
Biff rolled his eyes. “You know the arrangement. I get twenty percent.”
“Twenty?! Our deal was for fifteen!”
“Do you want to get in or not?” he asked.
Ava snarled. “Fine. Twenty. But my guy will be furious with me, you know.”
Biff chuckled, lifting the rope over Ava’s head.
“I’m sure he will. If you would rather make up for that five percent with something else,” Biff stared down up and down and licked his lips, “be my guest.”
“In your dreams.”
Ava scowled at him, then walked into the neon party.
The first ten pills sold within the hour. Too quick for her liking. If there was a single police officer in the building, she would have been noticed right away. Ava skirted the walls toward the women’s washroom. She flipped her wig off in one of the stalls and tucked it away into her bra while pulling out a new one.
“So, fucking itchy,” she muttered.
The new wig was bright blue and curled down her shoulders.
Sixteen left. The bundle of cash hidden in her bra was becoming problematic and bulky. Biff would be expecting twenty percent, so she pulled a wad of cash out and hid it under the toilet bowl, behind one of the loose tiles. He would know where to find it. The people outside the washroom were louder, overpowering the bass. The screams filtered into the washroom, but it was nothing new. There must’ve been another fight brewing on the floor.
She adjusted herself once more, cleared her throat and went back out into the fray.
Ava stopped cold in her tracks. She was pushed back as people made room for a young woman, convulsing on the floor. Several feet away, another partier crashed to the ground to her left.
A mixture of foam and blood pooled around the young woman’s face.
A familiar one. One that sat in her class and was recognized tonight when she bought some of Dr. Anderson's sunshine.
Ava pushed her way through the crowd towards an emergency exit that emptied out into the alleyway. She had to tell Dr. Anderson what happened. He would know what to do. He would…
