Protest (Short Story by Smruti Choudhury)

She flipped on her stomach to see his face clearly. But couldn’t. The proximity was blurring her vision. She tried to push him away to see better. But he was too engrossed in nibbling her neck and wouldn’t budge. This didn’t please her at all. No way. If she wanted to see his face, she had to.

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She shoved him away with force. He was bemused by the force. He thought it was a new game they were playing. He started coming even closer and the nibbling became more intense.

She had enough of the nibbling anyway. Her neck had lost all sensation with the constant gnawing. She lay still with a stern face. He didn’t notice. He continued.

She knew that she could ask him to stop. But she didn’t want to. She wanted him to read her non-verbal protest. She couldn’t jeopardise the progress she had made by verbalising her protest now, could she?

She tried to be as still as possible and shut her body down. She tried to slow down her breathing, isolating what was happening to her neck as an out of body experience. She could then look at him and see that he was slowly becoming aware of the change in environment.

He took some time, but eventually realised that she wasn’t having any fun. That didn’t matter to him much, he was having fun. But he was aware that something had changed. His body understood the change and slowed down. But his mind was still in the rush of excitement. The conflict bothered him and he paused.

That was when she seized the moment and pushed him away. Gently. She got up from the bed and stood looking down at him. She smiled.

Everyone else clapped. He was confused. It took him some time to get back to reality. He took in the surroundings and remembered that he had given permission for others to watch. He hoped he had succeeded in the experiment. Surprisingly he didn’t feel like a fool. She gave him a hug and said that he had scored a 6 out of 10 and that it was higher than the other participants.

She ushered him to the outside area where he would receive his certificate and a memento for successfully completing the “Understanding Non-Verbal Protest during a Sexual Act”. He made sure to recommend this revolutionary therapy technique to all his friends who were facing issues in their relationship.

She got ready for the next client.