Chapter 1

Debbie closed her eyes, leaned back against the soft cushion of the deck chair and tried to relax. It was getting harder to do so lately but the pretty Mormon mom doubted anyone who knew her would give her any sympathy.

After all, why would they? Here she was relaxing pool side with her three best friends and her friend’s daughter.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and they were all soaking up the sun in what was perhaps the nicest, most expensive house in any suburb of Birmingham.

In fact, all three women were leading the charmed life that only a rich white lady who was also a stay-at-home mom could know.

And they were all together; Beth, Shawna, and Janet, all of whom she had grown up with, were keeping her company every Tuesday afternoon as they lounged by the pool.

Janet had brought her daughter Jenny along, and that was out of the ordinary, but why wouldn’t she? After all, it wasn’t just the mothers that were best friends.

No, in fact, the entire families of all the ladies were all as close as if they were siblings.

They were practically siblings; perhaps closer than siblings since siblings didn’t tend to be the same age.

Yet, all the ladies were and they had known each other since elementary school.

They had all gone to the same college, learned to worship the Lord in the same church and had all gotten married and bore children within weeks of each other.

Or at least they had as far as their sons were concerned.

Janet had gotten pregnant two years early and though she would never bring it up, she suspected that Janet’s daughter Jenny had been unplanned.

Even so, the traditions of the four families were being handed down from one generation to the next.

For all four ladies each had a 14-year-old son and all four boys were also best friends; they were practically inseparable.

It was a life most other people couldn’t have dreamt of and here Debbie was living it.

Still, Debbie couldn’t relax for, inside her mind, there was always that niggling little worry, that whisper inside her brain, the one that kept comparing her to each one of her friends and wondering if any of them were better than her in any particular way.

Now, that worry sat there and burrowed into her brain.

It wouldn’t let her rest and her only respite was to indulge it again.

Oh god, here I go. Thought Debbie glumly as she brushed a lock of her auburn-colored hair out of her face.

It was important to be subtle at a time like this and the last thing Debbie wanted was for any of her friends to catch her looking at them out of one slightly cracked eye.

But Debbie was powerless to stop it or at least that is what she told herself as she now opened her right eye just enough so that she clearly see each of her friends.

First, Debbie’s right eye landed on Beth as the 5’7” blond sat upright on the deck chair next to Debbie’s.

Beth was in animated conversation with Shawna and though Debbie couldn’t hear what they were saying, their topic of conversation was something that the short and stocky Debbie didn’t care about at all.

No, what Debbie cared about at that moment was that both Beth and Shawna were taller than her and Debbie thought that maybe tall women were more attractive.

The good Lord, in his infinite wisdom, had only blessed Debbie with 63 inches of height while he had graced both Beth and Shawna with at least four more inches than that.

Even worse, perhaps, was that both Beth and Shawna were thinner than Debbie too.

It wasn’t that Debbie thought she was fat by any stretch of the imagination, it was just that her hips were wider, heck her whole body was wider and it was something about which she was self-conscious.

Both Beth and Shawna had the appearance of being lithe, long, lean, sexy, and gorgeous.

Neither woman had as pronounced an hourglass shape as Debbie for their hips were not as wide but both of them still had large and firm breasts; ones that constantly seemed to strain against the material of their swimsuits as if they were threatening to burst free at any moment.

In comparison, Beth was more like her for both she and Debbie had very fair skin and its creamy white complexion, if it was exposed to the sun for too long, would go straight from the color of porcelain to a bright and angry pinkish-red and this was a curse that Jenny shared as well.

In contrast, both Shawna and Janet had a slight olive tint to their skin; one that not only hinted at a heritage from further south in Europe but that also would turn to a gorgeous coppery brown should either woman decide to tan.

Beth, Jenny, who took after her Nordic Father at least in skin tone, and Debbie, however, had much fairer skin and the short auburn-haired mom spent a second debating whether that was a blessing or a curse.

The fashion models in magazines, Debbie knew, at least the ones being photographed in the tropics, all sported deep brown tans.

Still, the runway models of New York were all as pale as ghosts so that was something too.

In the end, it was a debate that Debbie knew she wouldn’t resolve today and so she put it aside.

It was time to keep moving and maybe start to feel less insecure as Debbie’s eye wandered past Shawna and onto Janet.

Out of her three best friends, Debbie had decided Janet was her favorite but not just because she was the one Debbie considered to be the most ordinary.

Like Debbie she was only five foot three and, also like Debbie, Janet had a wider body than either Shawna or Beth but Janet’s hips didn’t swell out into an hourglass figure as pronounced as her own.

Janet’s skin also had that olive tint that belied an ancestry that hinted at part Italian, Greek or Slavic heritage and the other mother also sported a pair of full and rounded breasts that Debbie worried might be as large as her own.

Debbie had always both loved and hated her own breasts, a pair of rounded and wide 36Ds for, while Debbie knew they made her attractive to men, that was also the problem.

It had been better when she had been single as Debbie now wondered just how big a role her large breasts played in her husband first noticing her.

Now though, Debbie’s breasts were just a liability because, while Debbie desperately wanted her husband to find her desirable, it was the way the large and bulbous orbs drew the gaze of all other men, and even some shockingly young boys, that made Debbie self-conscious.

It was just so infuriating that men could be so disgusting for, even though she had her own natural sexual desires, she didn’t go around gawking at any man she found to be attractive while acting as if she were ready to fornicate right in the middle of the street.

Still, Debbie knew that this wasn’t going to change and so she made her mind turn away from its revulsion and refocus on the task at hand.

She went back to looking at Janet as she continued her evaluation.

Janet’s hair, Debbie thought, was a little bit stringy, as it fell in dark brown locks that extended just to her shoulders.

Her facial features weren’t exactly those of a supermodel either but then Debbie thought none of her friend’s really were except for possibly Beth.

Now Beth could attract some attention but, unlike Debbie, the wrong sort of attention never seemed to bother her.

Men would just stop and stare while the two of them were out walking, captivated by the elegant visage of her friend whose narrow, long and sloping nose was perfectly in proportion to her thin and delicate jawline.

More than once, Debbie recalled, Beth’s sparkling blue eyes and flawless creamy white skin had turned men’s heads so fast it seemed like it might snap their necks.

But Beth’s hair was sort of like Janet’s, Debbie now thought, and she wondered why her friend didn’t do something to give it more body or just make it look less lifeless and stringy.

She guessed that Beth didn’t have too; she was a married woman after all and, though she and her husband only had one kid, she thought that he probably still lusted after her.

She wished it were the same in her own marriage but being the wife of a partner with the city’s largest law firm; well, there were bound to be some sort of tradeoffs.

In the end, that was probably the reason the four ladies still spent so much time together; their husbands were always off working and it seemed like the four of them got together every weekend just so each of them would have some company.

It was sad really and so Debbie did what she could to find her own happiness and, if that meant tearing down her friends inside her own mind, well, it was o.k. as long as no one found out.

Debbie moved on and now turned her attention to Janet’s pretty face.

Each of the five ladies was absolutely stunning in her own way, there was no doubt about that, but Debbie thought that Janet was probably the most ordinary.

None of them really had a round face except maybe Debbie herself.

Beth’s was probably the furthest from being round, it was long and thin like the rest of her body while the leanness Beth’s cheeks made her face look even longer than it otherwise would have.