Compile:Quest

Chapter 7: Day Tripper

Peppermint's Apartment, Upper Northbridge,

Africa Dome

"Good p.m., Peppermint. Maple is requesting access to your apartment."

Peppermint's eyes snapped open. Her heart thudded in her chest at her abrupt awakening. The floor-to-ceiling windows in her bedroom showed only a ghostly silhouette of the outside world. Peppermint opened her weConnect, using its apartment control tools to decrease the window's opacity.

She lay spread-eagled on her king size bed, the bedsheets twisted around her nakedness. Her eyes drew to slits as artificial light streamed in from outside. It spilled on the yellow SUN logo stretching over her bedroom carpet.

"Please confirm if I can—"

"Yes, let her in," Peppermint mumbled.

She burrowed her head into her pillow and tensed when she heard her clustermate pad across the gray carpet. The mattress bounced as Maple landed on top of Peppermint.

"Get off!" She tried struggling, but Maple quickly trapped Peppermint between her knees.

"Greetings, you lolly-bag." Maple attempted to tickle her through the sheets.

Peppermint squirmed, shooting Maple a death stare and lifting her index fingers in warning. Maple relented. Her clustermate slid from the bed and tugged off the covers. "Ooooh, you naughty girl," she said, leering at Peppermint. "Were you thinking of me?"

"What time is it?" Peppermint croaked, but opened her weConnect and checked for herself before Maple could answer. "Data!" She pushed past Maple in her mad dash to the bathroom.

"What now?" Maple called after her.

"Didn't Nick tell you?"

Maple replied in a sing-song voice. "I wouldn't be asking if he did."

"He's going to some inception party tonight. I said I'd go. I'll send you the e-vite. I haven't even looked at it."

The bathroom shower had no walls — just a drain for the spent water. As Peppermint stepped on its sensor plate, perfectly-tempered water gushed out from a cuboid shower head suspended from the ceiling. The water glowed blue, lit by a strip of LED's set into the shower head. Peppermint sighed, incapacitated by the luxurious sensation of water pounding her shoulders.

"Hellooo? Still waiting," Maple said.

"Mmmm? Yeah... hold on..." Peppermint gasped as a hand slid over her stomach and startled her from blissful inebriation. Her clustermate wore nothing but a lecherous grin. "Get out! We're going to be late!"

"I also need to shower." Maple's lips twisted into a coy smile. "I'm all dirty."

"You—" her words were muffled by Maple's mouth.

After a few seconds of steadfast resistance, Peppermint caved and allowed Maple to crush her against the bathroom's cool tiles. Blue water cascaded over them, diluting the taste of Maple's mouth. Maple gripped Peppermint's hair, preventing her from slipping away and ending their brief, aquatic tryst.

"I'm sorry you had a bad day," Maple whispered when their mouths parted.

Peppermint shook her head at Maple's sympathetic expression. "You don't know the half of it."

"Whappened?"

"I'll tell you when we see Nick."

"Fine, fine." Maple gave her wet hair a critical stare in the mirror behind the basin. "What you wearing?"