The Long Road Ahead
Chapter 5
by Realm_of_Mindfulness
The door unlocked, as Morgan opened it and walked into the room to find Leah enjoying a hot fudge sundae. "Hey, you ate lunch already?" She asked, wheeling her bag into the room and laying it next to the dresser with the TV on it.
"Yyyyes." Leah replied, licking the remnants of chocolate off the spoon. Morgan raised an eyebrow staring at her with uncertainty before Leah admitted "nnnno, but I'm an adult and can eat dessert before my meal if I want. Would you like to join me in being an adult?" She offered and dangled a second spoon for her friend.
Morgan sighed shaking her head as a small smile grew on her face from her friend's nonsense. Grabbing the spoon, she sat down next to her, dipping it into the ice cream.
"So, how did practice go?"
Morgan sighed, savoring the bite she just took. "Not well at first, better towards the end."
"Well at least you were able to recover. Too much going on or what?"
"No, just frustrated. You know how I am, and how I get inside my head when I make mistakes."
Leah nodded. "True, but remember what your coach tells you. It's how you finish that matters, and you finished good by the sound of it." She dips her spoon into a big lather of fudge, smiling as it hits her tongue.
Morgan looks down, trying to contain herself. "I know its just....this is BIG for me. My first actual tournament out of town. I want to do good, and against the people I'm against in this, I don't feel like I can make mistakes because if I do I'm not gonna come close to where I know I can!"
Leah set her spoon in the sundae and turned to her friend, who was now on the verge of tears. She touched her arm softly. "Hey, look at me." Her friend wiped her eyes on her sleeve as her eyes met Leah's.
"Is this gonna be your last tournament?" Morgan shook her head, sniffling slightly.
Leah nodded. "Who is asking for perfection from you?"
Morgan sighed. "Nobody."
"Exactly. So why are you expecting it when nobody else is?"
"Because I-"
Leah cut her off. "No, you don't. Nobody is perfect. We both know that. You are being much too hard on yourself. You said it yourself, it's your first tournament. Treat it like your first. Learn from it, go away gaining experience. If you do well, that's great. If not, then okay. No matter what, you'll be back. Won't you?"
Morgan nodded and took a breath, putting a hand on the hand touching her arm. "Thank you....I'm sorry."
Leah smiled, offering the last few spoonfuls of dessert to her friend. Sheepishly, she accepts, while Leah gets up and grabs the food.
The rest of their eating goes well. No more potential meltdowns to stop before they start. Morgan eating salmon with rice and steamed broccoli, while Leah has her steak and baked potato. They spend the lunch together watching TV and doing each others nails.
Midway through her toes, Morgan breaks the silence. "Can I ask something?"
"Always. What's on your mind?"
Morgan smiles a little awkwardly. "If it's odd you don't have to answer"
"Morgan....It's me, c'mon."
"Okay, okay....What's your plan overall I guess?"
Leah looked at her a bit skeptical. "Plan with....?"
"Hypnosis, hypnotizing me. Like what's your goal exactly?"
"Oh...." Leah blushed. "Can I ask why?"
Morgan started fanning her feet to speed dry her nails. "I'm curious I guess. We haven't exactly sat down and genuinely talked about it, and I figured we're not doing anything major right now. It's just us, so, why not?"
Leah started blowing her fingers. "I mean, you're right. In our defense though it all happened by complete accident, and we've kind of just been winging it since the beginning. Are you wanting to just talk about it or is there more to this?"
Morgan nodded in agreement and shrugged. "I don't know what I want. We're just kinda figuring it all out as we go like you said. I guess maybe we just talk and figure things out and go from there if that's alright...?"
Leah nodded and thought for a moment before answering. "I guess I don't really have a plan? I know I'm kinda enjoying it." She shrugged, and started painting her other hand. "I just....I want to help you relax and make you happy and enjoy things with it. Like, long as both of us are having a good time, I think I'm up for whatever happens."
Morgan nods, taking in her response, letting it simmer a bit. "What happens once we leave? Like, leave here."
"I imagine you don't mean in a little bit." Morgan let out a small giggle and shakes her head. "I hadn't really thought about it. It'll definitely be different, we don't live together, have work, social lives etc. It'd definitely be a challenge to continue in the capacity we have the past couple days. I think it'd depend how much you think you'd miss it, or want to keep the hypnosis going."
"I mean, I do enjoy it, but it's hard to ignore the eventual reality setting back in. I wouldn't be against continuing, but I also understand if we can't because of....well....life." Morgan replied. Though she seemed to sound understanding, she couldn't help but feel a pit of regret in her stomach. She did enjoy it, a lot more than she let be known. She just didn't want her friend to feel obligated to give up parts of her life to satisfy her.
Leah nodded, blowing on her nails and taking in a deep breath. A light pang of disappointment hitting her. Turns out Morgan wasn't the only one who was enjoying the new spin on their friendship hypnosis has brought them. Not to mention, she found it down right hot to have control over someone. Especially someone as gorgeous as Morgan was....
'Wait, what?' Leah said to herself. The last part caught her by surprise. She was bisexual, of course she liked girls, but she never thought of her best friend like that before. Even if she did, it's not like she'd travel down that path....right?
"Leah, you alright?" Morgan asked trying to get her attention.
She shook her head out of the thoughtful daze she was in. "Yeah. Sorry, kinda trailed off there in my head." She smiled looking down at her nails.
Morgan nodded, turning the TV off. "So, I mean what about now?....Should we stop then knowing it'll be difficult once our vacation ends?"
"No!" Leah almost blurted it out in a panic. "Sorry, I just mean that like....We're still here, and we both do enjoy it. Not to mention it's something just happening without an objective or a goal. Why stop it when we can at least have fun with it while we're here, ya know?"
"Oh, okay. I guess you're right, we can at least enjoy it while it lasts...." Morgan got up from the bed and tossed her trash out before taking her top off to change her outfit. "So, on another note, I think I wanna go explore the shops and stuff. Did you want to come with?"
"Sure, why not? I suppose I can't just sit in a hotel room all day and enjoy myself." Leah giggled as Morgan removed her pants, looking through her suitcase for her shorts. "Before we go though, I think it's 'Time to relax, Morgan.'"
Instantly, Morgan froze, the trigger catching her by surprise. Her eyes glazed over, she stopped what she was doing, and her body, relaxed down onto the floor in a seated position from her squatting as she was a moment earlier."
Leah smiled, though surprised at the result, she felt a wave of satisfaction as she watched her friend melt into trance again. "That's right Morgan, it's time to relax. You recognize that it's time to relax, as your body crumbles, your thoughts come to a stop, and you allow my words to take the reins for a little bit, and you can let me take the reins, because you trust me more than anyone, don't you?"
Morgan, lost, echoed her friend's words. "I trust you more than anyone, Leah...."
Leah smiled, satisfied with the response. She had begun reading a bit into hypnotic conditioning, and it was safe to say she was achieving the desired result. She needed a way to truly test it, however, and this was as good a time as any. Luckily for her, she had a pretty good idea to see for sure.
"Stand up for me honey, and come away from the wall. Closer to me."
Morgan blankly rose to her feet and walked over to stand in front of Leah.
"Head up for me, I want you to stare straight ahead, and the longer you stare at the wall, the more you can just let yourself relax and go deeper for me." Leah watched as Morgan's eyes fixated on the wall in the distance. She rose from the bed and circled her friend's body.
Leah took in Morgan's body for herself. Her inner monologue was right, she really was a beautiful woman. It felt weird to think about a friend like that, especially one she'd known for so long. She could normally keep her friends and partners in separate boxes in her mind. Truthfully, she had to admit that's what's throwing her off about the fact that she has such an attractive body.
Nonetheless, she couldn't dwell on it too much. Not long anyway... "Morgan, as you said, you trust me more than anyone. You know that statement to be true. As such, you know you can trust me fully to make decisions for you when awake. Isn't that right?"
Morgan nodded. "Yes Leah, I trust you more than anyone, Leah...."
Leah nodded. "Exactly, so, it makes perfect sense then, that going forward, you will find yourself becoming a bit more reliant on my opinion. You of course, don't let what people say get to you or affect you. However, when it comes to me, you can let my opinions and thoughts influence your decisions. You want them to. After all, I know you. I know what's best for you, and because of this, as well as the fact that you trust me more than anyone, you can allow me to influence your decisions and opinions in your life. Do you understand this idea?"
"Yes Leah, I understand."
"Excellent. Now, I want you to come back up for me, nice and slow. 1, slowly coming back up, 2, higher now unaware of anything that just happened, 3, wide awake back to your senses feeling so wonderful."
Morgan stretched and rubbed her eyes. Once she came to after a minute she smiled. "Ya know, a little warning would've been nice."
Leah giggled. "Sorry, I wanted to try to surprise you to see what you'd thought."
"I did like it, I was just kidding don't worry. I trust you completely, I know you won't hurt me, so do it whenever you want." Morgan went back to searching for pants as she put on a crop top, she found a pair of shorts she was looking for.
Leah watched her, almost with curious intent. "Eh, why not put that black skirt on?"
Morgan looked at her. "The short one? I don't know, I feel like it's showing a bit too much."
Leah shook her head. "It's not showing too much. You look good in it. Plus, you want to show off, its vacation after all."
A shift happened in Morgan. It was like her brain reset and she forgot whatever reservations she had about it. "You're right, I do wanna look good." She grabbed the skirt, throwing the shorts back into her suitcase, putting the skirt on.
"Ready to go?" Leah got up from the bed and grabbed her walking shoes.
Morgan nodded and smiled before opening the door, grabbing her purse and following Leah out the door, down the elevator and out of the hotel.
"Want me to drive?" Leah asked.
Morgan smiled and nodded, handing the keys to her. As they got in the car and pulled out of the parking lot, Leah thought to herself about all the ideas she had for her subject. She couldn't help but smile at what might happen while they're out.