Chapter 6: A fairly normal lunch… so far…

Melody grabbed my left hand and dragged me along, me still wearing no undergarments, and ran down the stairs back to the first floor. My skirt pattered against my leg in the created wind while I continued to grip its edges with my free hand. It was much better than what I went through moments ago, but still delightfully humiliating.

Once we reached the bottom of the staircase, the sensations relaxed and it felt pretty normal, although a bit more… airy than I’m used to. We went directly out of our room, and put on some tennis shoes, although I don’t know how Melody can be comfortable wearing them without socks, it always chafes so much.

We stopped by the shared kitchen area first, and saw one of our building-mates. He was wearing a fairly bright red t-shirt and stood behind the central countertop and was pulling some salami out of a package for a sandwich. Melody waved hello and brought me over with her. “Hey, Clay. Clay, hey.”

“Hi, Mel,” Clay replied, glancing over at me. “You the famous X tier?”

“Famous?” I questioned, as Melody pulled us beside him, with me in between.

“Well, a new S tier is still famous all over campus.” He finished building his sandwich and grabbed it with his hands. “An X tier would be famous across the globe.”

“Scarlet and I are gonna go grab some lunch.” Melody glanced down at his sandwich. “I guess you’re good?”

“Yeah,” Clay replied, munching away. “Where are you heading?”

Melody shrugged. “Any suggestions?”

“Campus food court’s pretty good,” Clay said. “Free for us as well.”

“For S tier?” Melody confirmed, still holding my hand.

Clay nodded, his mouth full of food.

“Scarlet, thoughts?” Melody turned to me and leaned her body a little closer while squeezing.

“Ah… sure?” I replied, slightly distracted by her hand for some reason.

“Why’s that a question?” Melody asked, squeezing tighter. Every time she moved, her hand would brush my skirt, which brushed my legs, and reminded me of my nakedness. Standing beside a stranger…

“I… I don’t know?” I blushed. Melody chuckled in response. “Still a question.”

“You two seem close,” Clay said, drawing Melody’s attention back to him as she started swinging her hand a little more.

“We really hit it off from the start.” Melody winked at me while I turned downwards in embarrassment, which had the unhelpful side effect of me staring at the skirt I was wearing, Melody’s skirt. It was pretty short. “She’s quite the character.”

“Later Clay-er,” Melody said, pulling me away as she waved. Clay waved back and we left the building.

I never realized how cold the almost autumn air was, until it blew lovingly across my folds, sending a wave of cold through me. Unfortunately, Melody ignored my slight pause and kept walking, forcing me to speed up a little, which had the effect of blowing more air all around me.

Despite the short time I took to catch up, Melody was only walking, if a little fast, I already felt fresh arousal sliding down my exposed legs. Thankfully, it was only a short walk to the parking lot—

And we walked right past. “No car?”

“Why would we drive? It’s just across campus,” Melody stated, pulling out her phone to check. “It's near the center roundabout, between the dorm and dungeon roads.”

We continued walking down the paved path that ran alongside the road toward the center roundabout section. Turning left, there was a short path to a large, and tall, one-story building. The building, much like the rest of campus, was wooden, looking like a bunch of logs with some minor adornment at the entrance and some windows all along the sides.

This place was much busier than the streets around campus. People were continually walking in and out of campus, and as we entered my mind shifted back to my skirt. If someone bumped me down they’d see everything. If someone stumbled a little, if a gust of wind blew… so many people. My reputation would be degraded from day one.

Melody tugged me along and we entered the complex without incident. The food court wasn’t quite as special as I had expected. There were a bunch of restaurants lined up along the back wall, a larger more open buffet section on the left, which had a short barrier with an automated cashier section in the middle (probably pay per plate?), and a large open center with tables, and some small dividers with plants and whatnot.

“What are you craving, Scarlet?” Melody asked, still holding my hand.

I looked around and… couldn’t decide. There were way too many options. Honestly, the buffet is probably easiest. That’s the one place I never have trouble picking food, since I can just take a little bit of anything that interests me. “Buffet, probably.”

“Let’s go,” Melody said, dragging me to the entrance. There was one on either side of the barrier, with the exit in the center. A little weird I feel like? But I’m no designer.

We entered through the one-way swinging waist-high door, which could easily be opened from the inside, but I guess people are honorable here. The buffet counters made a squiggly line, starting from the wall, going out a little to the right, heading all the way to the back, going out a little further right before the far wall, then coming all the way back to the entrance. It continued zigzagging back and forth a couple times. This design was definitely smart. The customers and staff were kept separate, the buffet counters as the divider, and staff were able to continually restock without interference, which was happening continuously.

We started heading along, grabbing a plate at the start. Melody was still holding my hand, making it impossible for either of us to pick up food.

Melody went along and asked me, “Do you want this?” for every single item. Once we reached an item that I did want, an interesting-looking sandwich thing, she gave me her plate, told me to hold both in my one hand, which I barely managed to do considering these were ceramic plates, not plastic ones, and she used the tongs to pick up two of them, placing one on each plate, then tugged me along again.

We stopped by a few more places and soon had a plateful of food, both still being held by me, until finally we reached the checkout section, where Melody took back her plate. Fortunately, the automated process was fairly simple. Melody set her plate down on the small counter space beside the machine, she pulled out her ID card and scanned it, then the door opened and she was let through. It slammed shut behind her.

Unfortunately, Melody was still holding my hand, which was now awkwardly above the gate, and garnered quite a few stares from the people around us. Not pleasant.

I quickly set down my plate, reached around myself to grab the card I had stored in my right pocket, scanned it, and the machine confirmed payment, or non-payment I guess, and let me through the gate. I couldn’t resist asking Melody in a harsh voice, “Why are you still holding my hand?”

“What? Don’t you like it?” Melody leaned in closer, her mouth by my right ear. “Don’t pets just love attention?”

My cheeks turned rosy as Melody leaned away, then dragged me over to a table. She ended up choosing a table right in the center of the dining space. The table was midsized, and could seat six, maybe eight if you pulled a couple chairs up to either end. However, the table was occupied by three people. Two girls, one guy.

The two girls sat beside each other across from where we were, while the guy sat on the left,  across from the first girl. Melody confidently strutted over, with me still attached. “Hello, mind if we join you?”

One of the girls looked around, clearly finding quite a few empty tables, but the guy agreed before she could speak up. “Of course!”

Melody finally let go of my hand, and as I stretched it I realized it was really sweaty… Melody sweat… I wanna lick it. Gah. No. Not in public.

Melody pulled out the chair beside the guy, and gestured for me to sit. As I sat down, I pushed my skirt under my legs only for Melody to lightly pinch the back of it, holding it up. I glanced up at her and she just held a sinister smile. I ignored her and sat down, my butt touching the cold wood. After I sat, she dropped the skirt.

The cold wood made my sitting very uncomfortable. Why are chairs, or really anything, always so frickin cold? I hate it. The cold sensation spread across my thighs and I realized there were probably drips of arousal on this chair now. Lovely.

Melody sat on my right, and initiated a conversation with the rest of the table, which I had completely forgotten about. Did they see our little interaction seconds ago? Oh my god if they saw me look back… saw Melody grab my skirt… eek. I really hope not.

“Are you all freshmen, too?” Melody asked.

“Yep,” the guy replied.

“I’m lesbian,” Melody stated matter-of-factly.

The guy looked dejected. You would’ve thought he had just experienced the worst day of his life, something like him driving with a high-tiered healer to his family member who's dying with a cancer incurable via non-system means only for his car to get hit by a semi truck and by the time he wakes up his family member has already died because the high-tier couldn’t figure out what hospital he was driving to since he was too stupid to let them go on their own and now has to suffer with the guilt of letting a family member die and knowing he could've easily cured them if he used one more percentage point of his tiny brain.