Little Pink Pills
Part 2
Friday morning was a lethargic drag for April. She had evidently eventually fallen asleep, but she then subsequently slept through her alarm. A sudden sharp chill enveloped her, she shrieked and sat bolt upright in complete shock. Quickly wiping the water from her eyes, she saw Naaz, her flatmate, standing over her with a sleepy grumpy expression and a now empty glass in her hand.
“Horay... You’re awake.” Naaz sarcastically droned, pausing for a massive yawn. “I’m going back to sleep.” She left the room without another word and disappeared into her own bedroom. April just sat there, breathing rapidly and feeling the cold water seep through her pink nightie.
She wanted to be mad at Naaz, but she couldn’t be. They had established a deal to allow them to live together despite clashing working and sleeping hours. Naaz’s end of the deal included not disturbing April when she got back from working a late shift, and Naaz had evolved into a cat-like ninja since then, sometimes getting inside the flat and into bed without April hearing her at all even when still awake. April’s end of the deal involved her getting up with her first alarm, because if she turned it off within a few seconds then Naaz would sleep through it. However if it kept ringing or if April rolled over and set it to snooze, then Naaz would be woken up several hours earlier than was ideal. That was the deal, and April had just broken it, and the glass of water was the agreed upon punishment, which also served to wake April up without fail. It had only ever happened once before, and that was the result of a weeknight leaving party for a colleague that went on well past it’s planned end time. April still missed her old boss, Harvey. He was so much more supportive of her development than Dr Morrison was now. Morrison only seemed to care about the bottom line, and felt like staff morale was something to be controlled with threats and insults. Harvey had left to join Pegasus Pharmaceuticals’ great rival Kensington Hart. He and April still kept in touch, though infrequently.
Muttering under her breath about her nightie and bedsheets being soaked by water, April quietly got up and dressed. She hadn’t time for a shower, she was running so late already, so she just left and got coffee and breakfast on the way to work.
April got in only twenty minutes late, having gotten lucky with the timing of the metro, and promptly sat down to find something new on her desk. It was a small box with a folded note on top. She glanced at the note furtively.
“In case you change your mind.”
April scoffed and put both the note and the box into her bottom desk drawer, right next to where she stashed her skittles. She decided there and then that if Naomi hadn’t stopped the whole thing and taken back the pills from all the staff she had given them too by the end of the day, it would be time to escalate it above her head. April did her best to put the whole issue out of her mind while she tackled the monstrous paperwork mound on her desk. She fired through a good portion of it in the first two hours, and then decided she was caught up enough to have some lab time herself.
A few minutes later she was in her clean-suit and was in the sterile laboratory adjacent to her office. She could see her vacant office desk through the long viewing window and sighed in relief to be away from it. In the lab is where she could think clearer than anywhere or anytime else. She quickly got to work testing her idea for a new moisturizer base with varying concentrations of the multiple components involved. Soon she was deep in the zone, her hands moving with precision and robot like efficiency. While still keeping track of what she was doing, she allowed her mind to ponder the pink pill for a moment.
It would never be approved, right? A pheromone inducing drug that actually worked? That was the holy grail, next to a cure for baldness, but it was also potentially very dangerous. Scientists had been working for decades just trying to figure out if humans actually produced pheromones the way other mammals do, and human social interactions are so nuanced and complex that pheromones arguably wouldn’t even have such a big impact even if they were there.
But maybe that was the point, the note Naomi had said that the drug used hormones to stimulate a new type of pheromone. Not an animal or synthetic one that you find in perfumes and colognes, something actually human made at source. It seemed rather out there, but April admitted to herself that it was possible, and she was effectively refusing the chance to work on possibly the greatest discovery in her field this decade.
But it would never be approved, right? Say it was real... A medicine that provokes behavioral changes in those around the subject. Basically, allow women to control men by heightening their arousal... Hmm, it could have some pretty worrying connotations for sexual harassment and assault if it were as simple as that, April thought. But then the memory struck of Jeff Matthews, normally an impulsive and aggressive man who had been discussed around the water cooler more than once for making inappropriate passes at a female colleagues, and he had been as docile and smitten as an obedient puppy. Were it really just a case of sex pheromones, then it would have been an entirely different scene yesterday.
And besides, April thought, women wear makeup to influence men. Women put on perfume to influence men. Women exult their femininity for the most part to be treated better in a world dominated by men. The sad truth was that even if all women put down their makeup tomorrow and all wore hoodies, they would still be harassed by men on the street, but they wouldn’t be treated as well in a working environment because men so often let their dick do the thinking, and the prettiest woman was the one he wanted to hire. Yes, April scolded herself, it was more complicated an issue than that, but the fact was this drug fitted into the same category that existing products did... If used with the right intentions, it could be the most empowering of all products ever designed for women, because for once it wouldn’t be about looking, smelling, or acting nice for men. Naomi was right when she said that it could level the playing field... But that didn’t mean she was Right. Not with how she was approaching this. April knew she had made the right decision to not get involved, she just was feeling more and more bitter about it...
She stopped for lunch and headed for the canteen. She was running late as she had been loath to leave the lab, so the canteen was pretty deserted. She didn’t mind though, as while she occasionally sat with a friend or colleague, she most frequently read journals and sometimes treated herself to Sudoku. Halfway through her panini, a youthful looking woman April had never met before set down two coffee to go cups and sat down opposite her, smiling at April though she was an old friend.
“April, hi!” the woman said, extending her hand. Acting more on impulse that anything else, April offered her own hand. The young woman took it and shook it with a firm grip and a gentle motion. April noticed immediately how soft and pleasant her skin felt, and how her nails had been impeccably painted with ruby red nail polish. With a glance, April breathed this stranger in. A spotless and sharp looking blue suit above a pale pink blouse, and presumably a skirt below the table. Her permed dark hair framed her ebony face; large, ruby red lips smiled invitingly at April, and deep multi-toned brown eyes gazed at April with a bright twinkle.
April sat there with a stringy piece of cheese hanging out of the corner of her mouth, then did her her best to make herself a tad more presentable. It was’t that she didn’t care about her appearance, persay, just that when the clean suit hood mussed up her hair she didn’t always realize and rush to fix it, and it was extra frizzy after her water alarm this morning as well...
Resisting the urge to use her sleeve and grabbing a napkin instead, April wiped her mouth clean and finally replied to the expectant woman.
“Hello, um... Can I help you?”
“My name is Lorraine. I’m truly very sorry to interrupt your lunch, but yes, I believe you can help me.”
April waited patiently, expecting Lorraine to continue. It was such a pretty name, that she didn’t hear often. But why was it so familiar...? Of course, it was a name Naomi dropped yesterday.
“Oh. Oh, I see.” April said once the penny dropped. “Look, Lorraine...”
“Please, don’t say anything just yet.” Lorraine asked earnestly, her practiced smile giving out to a more human look of concern. “I just want you to come with me on a quick run, I have an appointment at a private practice just 10 minutes away, I’ll have you back here in no time at all.”
Manipulation. This was manipulation. Lorraine had been on the pink pill for just short of a week now, and this was a scheme to encourage April to do Naomi’s bidding. April wouldn’t fall for that and she wouldn’t be suckered into changing her mind, and that was that. April took a deep breath, preparing herself to give a flat refusal to everything Lorraine wanted.
“I’m so—”
“Please say yes,” Lorraine said, batting her eyes at April. Her eyes were so pretty, too. This is what those people meant when they talk about puppy dog eyes, April was sure of it. Lorraine gently reached over and softly stroked the back of April’s hand. “I know what you’re thinking but this isn’t a big deal.”
It wasn’t a big deal, was it? April felt the hackles on her neck go down. Lorraine hadn’t actually asked anything unreasonable, had she? Hell, she hadn’t even mentioned the pills, or asked April to change her mind. A quick trip wouldn’t hurt, surely?
“Alright,” April sighed. “But it really does need to be quick, I have a tonne of work to get through by the weekend.”
“Great. I also bought you coffee.” Lorraine beamed, sliding one of the to-go cups over to April.
April laughed and picked up the coffee. “Don’t listen to those corporate videos, bribery works.” she joked. She picked up the remainder of her panini and followed Lorraine out of the canteen. “I’m totally going to make a mess of your car, just so you know.”
“That’s fair.” Lorraine shrugged.
“I mean, intentionally. This tomato is being smeared across your leather clad dash.”
“You’d have to find the leather first.” Lorraine winked.
They arrived at the parking lot and Lorraine led April to a smart looking Prius. As they drove Lorraine talked about how everyone needed to be greener as the planet was screwed otherwise, and she was delighted to hear that April took public transport. April reigned on her promise to smear tomato over Lorraine’s car, soothed by the smooth coffee and finding to her surprise that it was relaxing to get out of the workplace for a spell. She was barely listening to Lorraine talk about the best place to find falafel burgers nearby, instead letting her mind and body calm as she watched buildings go past the window in the early afternoon sun. She sipped away at her coffee, a latte from the canteen with caramel syrup, and a funny extra taste she couldn’t quite figure out, Enjoyable all the same, the journey went by in a flash.
“Look sharp, we’re here” Lorraine announced, and April found her focus snapping back into place. As she followed Lorraine out of the car towards the entrance of the fancy looking practice, Lorraine told her to just follow her lead but otherwise not to say much. April just nodded, still unsure about why exactly she was here. They entered an expensively decorated reception, and had barely sat down when they were summoned into a nearby office.
An older, bearded man with “Dr Swan” on his name tag motioned them to have a seat without looking up from his papers...
“You have four minutes” he murmured, disinterested and still not looking up from the documents on his desk.
April glanced anxiously from Lorraine to Dr Swam and back again, repeatedly. Lorraine was just sitting there patiently, opening her document bag and calmly selecting a couple of flyers. Was she really not going to say anything? She was going to run out of time! April felt the pressure mount and mount for her to break the silence, but she remembered that Lorraine wanted her to just follow her lead. So she did her best to relax, and tried hard not to fidget nervously.
After what felt like 3 minutes and 59 seconds, Dr Swam looked up with a weary expression and started to say “Well? Are y...” but he stopped the moment his eyes fell on Lorraine. “Oh.” He said instead.
“Dr Swan.” Lorraine said courteously, “I’m glad I have your full attention.”
Dr Swam seemed to be drinking in Lorraine’s features like he was a man stranded in the desert. April watched in fascination as his expression softened and his eyes widened. His hands that were moments ago steady as a rock holding papers, put those papers down and started caressing each other in slow, sensual movements.
“I’m glad you do as well, Miss...?”
“Miss Dawson. But please, call me Lorraine.” Lorraine smiled widely as she extended her hand. Dr Swan took it and instantly raised it to his mouth were he softly kissed it.”
“Lorraine... What can I do for you today, Lorraine?” Dr Swan asked warmly as April looked on with growing astonishment.
The meeting only lasted five minutes, in which Lorraine could have had Dr Swan literally eating out of her hand had she felt so inclined. She had talked briefly about how Pegasus had some newly developed drugs that outperformed all its rivals, especially Kensington Hart in recent FDA approved trials. Dr Swan had been at rapt attention the entire time, nodding and agreeing with most of what Lorraine had said. She had finished the meeting after Dr Swan agreed to have a further, much longer meeting with her to go through the products in more detail and set up an account with Pegasus. At certain points Dr Swan had seemed uneasy or unsure for a moment, but when Lorraine told him to relax, he evidently did. Throughout the meeting, he had been fixated on Lorraine, and had only acknowledged April for a passing moment when Lorraine had introduced her. The feeling of being completely disregarded and ignored meant that April left the meeting feeling equal parts impressed an unsettled.
The pill had delivered dividends for Lorraine, there was no doubt about that. They got back into her car and April found it hard to take her eyes off the sales rep, who was beaming at such a successful meeting.
“Dr Swan has been immovably in the hands of our competitors for years, April.” Lorraine explained as they drove away. “I actually went for a meeting with him three weeks ago and he effectively ignored me the whole time. I was a flustered mess and couldn’t get out half of my pitch. It was a disaster, and one I’ve been living again and again since I started with Pegasus.”
April could see that the memories were hard on Lorraine. Beneath the smile now was a sadness and a self loathing that April was not entirely unfamiliar with. Lorraine blinked a few times, then continued.
“This is my dream job, April. I know I’m wasn’t that great at it, but driving around, meeting people, making sales, it’s my happy place. And the pills Naomi offered me have been... have been a revolution.”
“I can see that.” April sighed, finding it hard not to be entranced as the sunlight seemed to glitter off Lorraine’s shiny black hair. April decided she liked Lorraine. She decided that she probably would have liked Lorraine even without the knowledge that the pink pills were making Lorraine literally more attractive to her. April hadn’t kissed a girl since her self-styled ‘lesbian phase’ in college. It had been born from a particularly bad breakup and subsequent self destructive behavior which made her swear off men, and it lasted from her Sophomore to Junior years. She swore off all types of relationships in the Senior year to focus solely on her studies, and it was only partway through graduate school did she let herself start dating once more, though it seemed to be men once again catching her eye. Years later she read about the Kinsey scale and fancied herself fluctuating between a 1 and 3 depending on a combination of factors in her life at any given point.
None of this mattered right now, however. What mattered right now was that she wanted Lorraine to pull the car over so she could start clawing at her clothes. The heat had been rising in her in a slow simmer since the moment Lorraine had interrupted her lunch, and now April could no longer ignore the wetness in her pussy or the lust clouding her mind.
It was the pill, April knew it was the pill... She had to focus, and not on those soft inviting lips that wanted to be kissed, or Lorraine’s smooth dark skin that needed to be touched. She definitely shouldn’t be imagining Lorraine’s hand reaching over to caress her thigh, then slowly running up her leg towards her waiting wet-
“April?” Lorraine said as if it was the third time she had tried to get her attention.
“Yes! Sorry, what?” April snapped out of her reverie, then realized to her surprise that they were back at the Pegasus Pharmaceuticals parking lot.
“I was just saying that I know you’d feel differently if you tried them...” Lorraine had turned to face April, her rich brown eyes almost gleaming as she smiled warmly at April.
“I’m sure I would, Lorraine,” April sighed heavily, a part of her hating herself for even wanting to object. “But if I take the pill, I’ll become a different person, like you have, and lose all my objectivity.”
“Don’t… Don’t you like who I am though?” Lorraine asked dejectedly, her beautiful, stunning face now looking fearful and hurt.
“I do… God I do, that’s the problem…” April blushed, feeling the heat rising from her pussy into the rest of her body.
“I’m glad. I like you too, you know.” Lorraine said softly as she gently stroked a strand of hair off of April’s cheek. A tingling wave of pleasure flowed into April’s skin, pulsing through her body like a vibration of pure arousal. April shuddered and gasped as her eyes closed and her legs opened through no conscious decision of her own.
“I feel good, April.” Lorraine said in a soft, joyous voice. “For the first time in a long time, I feel confident enough to really be the me I want to be. I don’t get timid, I don’t endlessly criticize myself, and I don’t dread the days ahead anymore. I wish you could feel as I feel…” She softly ran both hands into April’s hair and gently pulled her closer. April breathed heavily, her eyes closed with a smile of deep satisfaction and intense pleasure slowly spreading across her face. Lorraine held April to her chest and April inhaled deeply, her world filling with the scent of Lorraine’s perfume mixed with her natural scent. It was beyond bliss, and April didn’t think she could feel more contented if she tried. Actually, that was a lie, her throbbing sex reminded her that a whole new level of satisfaction was still an aching need. Lorraine stroked April’s hair gently with one hand, while the other fumbled for something in her purse.
“You could you know…” Lorraine said softly. April reluctantly opened her eyes to see Lorraine holding up a pink pill a few inches from her mouth. “You want to feel good too, yes?”
April knew she shouldn’t. She couldn’t! Her mental and emotional integrity! Her ethical values! They still didn’t know what the pills might do long term.
“Yes…” she heard herself whimper. “Yes, please…” She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue slightly, waiting eagerly for Lorraine to deliver.
“I really want you to feel this good too, April…” Lorraine said, but why did she sound sad? She gently guided her fingers into April’s mouth and April’s lips closed around them, sucking and licking and trying to prise the pill from Lorraine’s fingers. But then Lorraine pulled her fingers out of April’s mouth, still holding the pill.
“No!” April pleaded. “No, please!”
“I’m sorry April, I’m so sorry. I really want to, it’s taking everything I have in me not to give into that desire. But I said I wouldn’t, I promised Naomi I wouldn’t.”
“Naomi?” April said suddenly, pulling herself back from Lorraine. “Naomi put you up this. Of course she did, how could I be so blind?” It was like she had received a sobering slap to the face.
“April, no, just listen…” Lorraine tried to interject.
“No!” April snapped, “I can’t believe I fell for your heart wrenching ‘the pills help me so much’ tear jerk. Actually, I can believe it, it’s like being around you made me drop fifty IQ points from the moment you said next to me.” She didn’t know how or why but her head was clearing, and she didn’t want to stop in case the sobering effect did too. The lust was still there, the strong desire to please was as well, but right now the anger was louder.
“It’s not like tha—“
“I was thinking with my pussy and so didn’t see the Naomi puppet strings looped around your limbs. This isn’t about you! This is about Naomi’s power trip and her blatant disregard for morals as she pumps you and god knows how many other woman full of drugs and hope things just turn out alright!” April wrung her hands at an invisible neck, fury pouring from her like hot lava.
“April, please!” Lorraine cried.
“No! God I want to grab you and fuck you so bad right now but that’s not me, Lorraine! That’s the pill making you irresistible and you may feel like it’s great for you but I feel like I’m disposable putty in your hands, you wouldn’t even look twice at me if it wasn’t for needing something. But don’t worry, if I don’t give you what you want you can always have the next doctor you visit fuck you while he signs a purchase order!”
“Hey!” Lorraine snapped. “Will you just listen for one second!?” Tears were streaming down her face now, and April felt like a torrent of guilt was threatening to drown her anger. She needed to get out of there.
“I’ve got to go.” She muttered dismissively, opening the car door. Lorraine reached over and grabbed her wrist.
“Please, April, just think about it, ok? Just really think about it before you ruin this for me! For all of us!”
April yanked her hand away and hurried into the building, feeling equal party angry, horny, confused, and disappointed. Clearly Naomi was not sticking to her word, and now she was throwing her drug fueled guinea pigs at April to manipulate her into helping. Worse still, April was already compromised. It was taking more willpower than she thought she had to not turn right around and beg Lorraine for forgiveness and make a thousand promises to her.
The pills worked. They worked so incredibly well that April, a moderately modest woman who never had sex with anyone without at least 4 dates and the sharing of at least a few intimate stories with a potential partner was feeling ready to drop to her knees and bury her head between a complete stranger’s thighs . Would Lorraine like that? April pictured it all the way back to her desk and found herself shuddering with arousal.
After a pitiful attempt to get started on some reports got nowhere, April couldn’t contain herself any longer. With a quick glance to see that the rest of the office was empty, she crept across to the little used storage cupboard in the corner of the room and let herself inside.
After closing the door behind her, her hands frantically worked to expose her dripping wet pussy to the half full shelves of stationary and immediately she began to gently stroke and probe herself. Her mind snapped back to Lorraine’s car. Her head was leaning against Lorraine’s chest and she was breathing in her erotic scent. Lorraine’s fingers slipped into her mouth, except this time April pictured herself swallowing the pill gladly, before Lorraine guided her down, down, as she opened her legs for April’s tongue and started to moan and writhe.
April felt the nearing rush of climax, a swarm of pleasure racing around her body, about to finish its final lap, about to explode in orgasmic bliss.
But then the door to the cupboard opened suddenly. April had no hope of hiding what she was doing and her frantic efforts to do so just made it look worse. She turned the brightest shade of red it was possible for a human to turn, and it felt like her heart came to a complete, terrifying stop. Standing there with a look of utter bewilderment on his face was Dr Morrison, April’s boss.