Two Beers Is All It Takes

16* - I've been dreaming of this.

TW: Verbal (shouting, offensive words, no slurs), emotional (blaming, gaslighting, etc), physical (spanking, rough handling), and religious (christianity) abuse of a child is discussed in this chapter. It starts after the scene divider (***)

CW: sex in public

Honestly, there are very many triggers in this chapter, mostly things that happen to almost all kids in Eastern and Central Europe.  It's not very descriptive, and there's no SA or cults - it's generational trauma and normalized abuse of children, which is why I say: 

If you're not sure whether you can read this or not, skip it.  

The weather had been becoming appropriate for biking as a sole means of transportation again, the freshness of an early March morning had done wonders to wake Finn up, as he had watched the sky turn from a smoky navy to a welcoming shade of cobalt.

Now sitting on the cozy armchairs of the third-floor lounge on campus, he was practicing his presentation, which was scheduled for an hour from now. The sky's color continued to lighten in the rooflight above him as his speech became clearer and his anxiety began to dissipate. 

He and Vera had agreed to meet up at 10:00 and chill together as his exam was scheduled for 8:30 and hers - for 14:00. They'd slept in their own beds, a rare experience for them these days, but both of them lived in small spaces and they couldn't really practice out loud together.

First-world problems.

Before he knew it, it was time for him to go into the auditorium. Since it was an internal exam, it was open to audience. There were about 10 people he didn't recognize, who watched him present for 30 minutes before being invited to sit down for the interview portion of the grilling. 

They asked all of the questions he'd never imagined they would've asked - all the way from "How did you define your target audience?" Um, the client who's worked with them for 23 years gave it to me; to "If they're Asian, why didn't you organize a giveaway in collaboration with a local boba store?" ...Because they're 40-60-year old men from rural India, I-...

It was custom to ask the most outrageous questions to confuse the student and catch them in a lie or have them reveal some weakness in their research, but he'd been trained for a very long time to show a professional poker face and answer as if he's respectfully speaking to a 6-year-old.

Before long, he was out of there with about 15 minutes to spare, which he spent sitting in the empty lounge, in complete silence, with his eyes closed.

He couldn't believe he had just one more exam to pass in June and he would be officially done with school forever. It was so close, yet so far.

"Morn- hey, are you okay?" A worried Vera's voice sounded close to him. "You passed, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I did," he reassured her while slowly beginning to open his eyes, "they gave me a 10." (~B)

"Good," she sat on the couch next to him, "congrats."

Finally having opened his eyes, he looked at her, smiling involuntarily, "I've deserved a kiss."

"Where do you want it," she mirrored his expression.

"On my dick, please." He was very amused with himself.

"Okay, take your pants off."

"I'll be satisfied with my lips for now," he retracted with an innocent gleam in his eyes. 

After receiving the kiss he had deserved, with a few more for good measure, they submerged in comfortable silence. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, while she fidgeted with the skin between his thumb and index finger while humming a random melody.