Skylar looked in the mirror again, checking her makeup one last time. When she realized what she was doing, she made a face and shook her head.

“What am I doing? It’s just a dance.” She told herself in the mirror.

Skylar didn’t know why she was feeling so anxious. She had been to dozens of dances. It had never been anything particularly exciting. However, she knew for this dance that he was going to be there.

“What was I thinking?” she asked herself.

She had approached Aiko and asked him out in the library. It had been a spur-of-the-moment thing. She was just trying to get passed the awkwardness that had begun with Daryl. Why did it have to blow into something bigger? Did it even blow into something bigger? It was only after she had asked Aiko if he wanted to go with her that she realized that they had never actually made plans.

“He’s volunteering anyway… so it’s not like we’re going together,” Skylar told herself this to help her cool down. “Should I have volunteered?”

Skylar shook her head again. She was fretting over nonsense.

“Hey, Skylar, aren’t you going to the dance tonight?” A voice yelled into her room.

Skylar glanced at the watch and then winced. “Yes… mom.”

“Oh? You should get a move on it or you’ll end up coming late.”

That was just the thing. Skylar didn’t know if Aiko was going to pick her up from her house or not. They had never actually made plans. Worse, despite the two of them working together for a few weeks now, she didn’t have his phone number. She couldn’t even call him to check.

This had left Skylar in a state of indecision. Should she go to the dance and risk Aiko coming to her house to pick her up, or should she wait and risk being extremely late? Either option could be extremely embarrassing.

“Oh, your date has come!” Her mother shouted.

Skylar couldn’t help but perk up. Aiko really had come! Although she wanted to play it cool, she couldn’t help but run out her door and then race over to the front door with a smile on her face. As soon as her mom stepped aside and she could see out the door though, that smile disappeared.

“Daryl…”

Daryl was the last guy she had been expecting to see. It was true that they had made a date together, but that was under the threat of blackmail. Since Skylar had taken that image of him having digestive distress, she had assumed that they would be done with each other. On top of that, ever since Daryl had attacked Aiko and she had made her threat directly, he hadn’t come to school. She had thought he was too embarrassed to show himself, and even Aiko seemed to think that he wouldn’t be returning for a while. Yet, here he was at her front door.

He wasn’t even wearing a suit or anything nice for a dance. He had a short sleeve button-up shirt and wore chains. His hair had blonde highlights and he looked like a dickhead. Skylar couldn’t help but make a face as soon as she saw him. He seemed to pretend he couldn’t see her displeasure.

“Are you ready to go?” He grinned.

“You think we’re going on a date?” Skylar asked in a cold voice.

“Our first date might have gone poorly, but don’t think I’m a quitter just because of that!”

“You meant that you shit yourself?” She reminded him.

It should have been an embarrassing enough event on its own that he’d never talk to her again. When she added the threat of blackmail, it should have been enough he’d transfer to another school. This guy had some thick skin to come to my door after all of that.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have had any problems if that bastard Aiko hadn’t thought he was clever. I’m still going to deal with that bastard when the time comes.” A look of furry appeared on his face.

“No, you won’t!” Skylar responded defiantly. “I still have images! I’ll show them if you do anything to me, or Aiko!”

Skylar felt a strange excitement in her chest when she spoke Aiko’s name. Protecting herself should have been enough, but protecting Aiko too for some reason made her feel a bit closer to him. They were just coworkers at best, or were they? She was going to meet him at the dance, after all. As Skylar was thinking such frivolous thoughts, she didn’t notice the dark and hateful expression on Daryl’s face. She also didn’t notice until it was too late when he leaned over and kissed her.

Her eyes widened and she immediately shoved him away. “What the hell?”

“Oh, I was just wondering how your precious Aiko will feel if he sees this.” Daryl held up his phone, showing him recording the kiss.

It was a three-second recording, and in context it was obvious he lunged at and kissed Skylar, but as he scrolled along, there was one instance where it looked like a legitimate kiss. He pulled his phone back as soon as she saw that image. Her face started to turn white.

“Y-you… I’ll show that image…”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Sports players who work too hard end up shitting themselves. Drunk people shit themselves. I realized that such an image ain’t so bad. I’ll make some joke about fast food Mexican and everyone will laugh it away. That’s the thing about blackmail, what you have has to be worse. For example…” He stopped at that moment and gave a perfect smile.

It made the back of Skylar’s neck crawl, but she heard her mother approaching and knew to keep her mouth closed as an arm wrapped around her.

“I found my camera!” Mom declared. “I was afraid you would have taken off already. Skylar always tries to run away from my pictures. Since you’re both here, I want to get a picture of her on her date.”

“This is not a date!” Skylar responded in horror.

“Haha!” Daryl laughed and grabbed Skylar, pulling her to his side. “What she means is that we already started dating beforehand.”

“Oh? Skylar, you should have told me you had a boyfriend!”

“Watch it, or I’ll tell her about your job,” Daryl whispered in Skylar’s ear.

She wanted nothing more than to rip herself out of his filthy grip, but he had her in the worst situation. Her mom was poor, which was why Skylar worked as much at her job. She never wanted to work at the porn shop, but it had just ended up that way. It allowed her to help her mom pay the bills, and her mom, being bad with money, never really asked where it came from. This was good because if her mom knew she was at a porn shop, she’d make her quit immediately. Yet, Skylar hadn’t been able to find any other decently paying job. She had tried.

“Yes, it was just last week,” Skylar spoke in a strained voice.

Her mother had always been the absent-minded parent, and she took her words at face value. “That’s wonderful! Just don’t get up to anything bad as you see in those naughty pictures you can get online.”

“M-Mom!” I cried out.

“Well, you know… teenage boys have access to all that garbage on the internet,” Mom spoke defensively. “I’m a photographer myself. I struggle to get my art out there, but I preserver. I was once offered a job taking bad images, but my integrity was too important, so I told them to shove me off, even though I would have made a ton. I just want to make sure you two don’t get influenced by that kind of stuff…”

That was the reason Skylar had to keep her job a secret. Her mother had a strange hatred of pornography. As an unsuccessful photographer who brung in money intermittently, she had an event in her youth where she realized sex sells, but refused to do anything risqué. If she knew her daughter was selling pornography to pay her bills, it would destroy her.

“Don’t worry,” Daryl spoke in a smarmy voice that made Skylar shiver. “I’ll take care of your daughter properly. I won’t go any farther than her integrity permits.”

Skylar understood what he meant by integrity. She worked at a porn store, so in his mind, integrity was anything anyone in those porn tapes would do.

“Oh, good…” Her mom didn’t seem to note any issues with his words as she held up her camera. “Ah, Skylar, smile!”

Skylar forced herself to smile, but she felt like complete scum. She tried to plead with her mother several times to realize that something was off. Yet, her mother remained clueless to the end, and soon Skylar was in Daryl’s car, a place she had never wanted to see herself again.

“Haha… your mom is dumb. That picture she took was really good though. She really should do porn. It’d be top-notch. She could even take her pictures. She’d be an online hit! Of course, if she brought you on too, that mother-daughter theme would make millions!”

Daryl was a complete pig as always. He didn’t even bother to hide it anymore. It was clear he was being intentionally vindictive for no reason. I wanted to talk back and fight him, but he’d only pull out his blackmail and tease me more. It was better to just treat him coldly. Yet, he was right about one thing. That picture was really good. My mother was a good photographer. Why was she unsuccessful? Because she was a bit of an airhead. She forgot her camera, showed up late, took pictures she wasn’t supposed to be focused on and was taken advantage of by people. Twice, she had done an entire wedding only to not be paid. She was so nice, that as soon as someone said that she did something wrong, she’d give them a full refund. She was the kind of photographer who would believe someone if they wanted her to do it for free for “exposure”.

Why couldn’t that image have been with Aiko and me?

A strange thought entered Skylar’s mind. Why would that have mattered? Besides, Aiko didn’t come. He had the chance, and he decided to ditch her. She tried to get herself angry at Aiko to take her mind off of what was happening, but in the end, she couldn’t do it.

“Huh? Where are we going?” Skylar asked in shock.

She realized that they had passed high school. It was true that she didn’t want to go to the dance with him. How would she explain herself if she was beside Daryl again?

“Hehe… I got a special spot for us tonight.” He grinned.

Skylar was confused at first, but when he pulled up into an unpaved road surrounded by forests on a steep incline, she knew they were heading for Climax Peak. There was only one reason a couple drove up to Climax Peak in the middle of the night. Skylar’s stomach began to turn and she felt sick.

“What about that dance…” Skylar asked, but her voice held no energy.

“We’ll have a different kind of dance.” Daryl laughed, pulling up into a spot.

Skylar had let a guy she didn’t trust and who was blackmailing her drive her up to a spot in the middle of nowhere. She was an idiot. What did she think would happen? As soon as he stopped the car, Skylar hit the unlock and opened the door. Her eyes scanned around, but there was only the dull light from the nearby cars and the stars. It would be a beautiful night and a beautiful place in any other situation, but the darkness was horrifying at that moment.

The forest beyond looked like a carpet of blackness. Anything could be in that forest, and Skylar had no comfort with the outdoors at all. She didn’t want to get eaten by some monster. Her hesitation gave Daryl all the time he needed. He wrapped his arms around her, and she couldn’t even summon the strength to fight him. She heard the door click open, and then she was shoved down. She fell onto her back in the backseat of his car. A seatbelt dug into her back as Daryl jumped on top of her.

“No… please…” Skylar cried out, a tear falling down her cheek.

She was helpless at that moment. Her eyes closed, and she resigned herself to her fate. Her body was numb. She could barely feel anything. She had her head turned away, refusing to kiss him, but he didn’t seem interested in that in the first place. Her legs were open, and she was waiting for that piercing pain that said it was all over. At that moment, the image of Aiko appeared in her mind. For some reason, it made her sad.

I’m sorry, Aiko…

“Shit!” Daryl cursed. “Still? Uh… I… I got to go to the bathroom!”

The weight came off of her, and it was another moment before she opened her eyes. Daryl was gone? Why did he leave so suddenly? Skylar forced herself up, trying to get her clothing back in order. He hadn’t pulled any of her clothing off yet, it was just a little wrinkled. She stumbled out of the car, shutting the door behind her.

Skylar felt a bit confused and disorientated. All she knew was that she had somehow been given a chance to escape. If Daryl came back, she knew what would happen. Thus, she did the only thing she could. She stumbled into the forest hoping to escape. In her haste and confusion, she had completely forgotten her purse and her cell phone.