A girl lays passively on her bed, chest rising and falling in slow, heavy breaths that offer her calm at long last. "What the hell..." She mutters, fingers curling into the sheets and loosening just as quickly. Despite herself, Amelia feels disappointed. A part of her wishes she never left that rank and file, while another part of her was worried about what could happen if she'd went along with it all and really made herself the subject of ambitious thesis. A documentation on the changes to her own mind as she gave in to sir's control, conditioning. A tale of temptation and slow but sure corruption of the self. 

With shame burning her poor cheeks, Amelia rolls a hand over her breast before stopping herself in frustration. Such a coincidental discovery, she cannot help but consider the opportunity she just walked away from 'once in a lifetime' for better or worse. It isn't like she wants to be conditioned like those girls, she just knows that she can't commit herself to any other topic now it has its hooks in her. With rising frustration, she figures she should simply drop out, to do so at the very end of her degree seems laughably rash but she knows that this paper isn't going to materialise.

Amelia tosses and turns, removing the collar and throwing it onto her desk before finally the kiss of sleep traces down her neck and makes her submit to it until morning comes around. The girl wakes to sun tickling her ankle in similarly soft and caring strokes, sitting up and pushing that strange fantasy of Eden to the back of her mind. For the first time this week, Amelia decides to attend her college classes, even if it's mostly quiet study and dissertation guidance. The girl simply feels the need for social interaction for the first time in her adult life. 

It's a half empty lecture hall, no surprise there when there's no requirement for attendance at this stage. She stares down at her notepad and remembers what fills it, scoffing at her own mess of mind. With nothing else to do, Amelia reads over her notes that she began taking yesterday morning with a cheek resting on her fist. While she came here with the excuse of mingling, sitting alone here is something she defaulted to all too comfortably. Talking to people is so difficult, she's surprised at how well she managed it with that stranger when you'd expect them to be the most difficult of all. This is why she baulked so much at being labelled too ordinary by them, even if it's embarrassing to take offense at that. She doesn't take pride in being different, she'd like to be more normal even, but having those difficulties disregarded felt like she had been invalidated in a way that has yet to stop hurting. 

After these thoughts begin to intensify again, Amelia quickly excuses herself and practically runs to the restroom, hands slamming down in front of the mirror to assess her sorry self and give a much needed chiding. The sight of black leather covering her neck gives Amelia pause, causing her to question why she put the collar back on when she got herself ready this morning. It's a sight that makes her cold and exhilarated all at once, finally understanding why the lack of control might be appealing to some. Amelia assesses her face and she realises she didn't make it up so much this morning, more than she usually would, to impress her coursemates who she knew would never look her way. There's only one person willing to give her such attention. 

Biting the air in frustration and wondering what's wrong with her, Amelia pulls at the collar and turns the inside towards the mirror, spare hand dialling in that number once again before hastily raising the phone to her ear with heart racing. 

"Is that you, Amy?" Honeyed words caress her ears like sleep and sunlight, no longer kicking up sand that makes her scoff. 

A brief pause before she answers, the girl asking herself if she really should. "Yes... I... I know you said I couldn't return, but I still need to return your property and besides--"

"By which you mean the collar, right? Or is there something else of mine you'd like to return as well?" There's a lilting chuckle before the voice continues, Amelia hoping that nobody else walks in and finding herself glad the building is mostly empty. "And besides, as you were about to say... are you wearing your collar right now, Amy?"

"My collar? Wait, how did y--"

"A simple deduction and a bit of wishful thinking, I appreciate you confirming my suspicion so willingly. That leather around your neck reminds you in your isolation that you have a place that'll have you, girl. I don't know much of your life outside my walls and I wouldn't care to learn, but if you're wearing it now I can tell you've not much of one. If you'd like to continue your dissertation, you'll need to come here by lunchtime. I'm proud of you for coming around so quickly!"

"Oh, don't push... it? Hello? Ah, asshole..." Amelia looks up into the mirror and wonders why her face is such bright red, she's not even that annoyed...