Chapter 6

The next two days dragged out in excruciating drips. Andrew was heart broken that she wouldn’t be able to make it out anymore, but she considered herself lucky to have kept her car. On the other hand, being away from him meant he was sending her plenty of snaps so she wouldn’t miss out on summer. He was so sweet to her. It would have been great to sneak out without her phone, but lord knows if she did that and her mom called, she’d be in deep. As it stood, her mom called at random intervals and she had to answer or else she’d be in trouble. It was pretty much house arrest. She tried half heartedly to get Andrew to come over, but they both knew that was out of the question for now.

Patricia Walker lay on the sofa letting a boring midweek morning trudge by when she got a text from Ali.

“Hola bitch Im back!!! LOL”

She chuckled and texted back, “yo gurl how was the eurotrip?”

“Totes incred” “life changing” “you can even”

“wow 8-o” “maybe sho sum enthusiasm? ;P”

“we have to talk” “I am coming over”

“W8 YSK i’m grounded”

“LOL”

“LOL? WTF”

“LOL picturing u in trouble” “ur such a reb” “GTR 2 go”

“FFS not kidding” “mom went full aggro on me”

“LOL u kno ur not using that rite?”

“Wut aggro?”

“Du U even GAME gurl?”

“k and ur the gamergurl queen?”

“RT dat me”

“RMESH”

“WTF is that?”

Patricia sighed and typed out, “rolling my eyes so hard.”

“w/e I’m coming over”

Patricia threw up her hands. If her dad came home first, that’s be okay. But she couldn’t risk more trouble. She sent her mom a dad a text warning them that Ali was coming and she’d been gone for 3 weeks and she tried to tell her not to, but Ali was coming anyway. Her dad texted that it would be fine. Behind the scenes he convinced his wife that it’d be fine, he’d be home soon anyway.

When Ali arrived, she was suddenly and uncharacteristically quiet. They’d squeal hugged of course, but then she’d sort of been a little more quiet. She seemed different, like her cheeks were a little more sharpened, and her eyes were a little more clear. Tricia couldn’t quite point to the exact thing, but something in her friend had changed.

“So tell me, what was life changing?”

Alicia opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. “When you say grounded, does that mean you can’t go for a walk.”

She rolled her eyes, “Pretty much, I have to keep my phone on me at all times, and if I leave the house, my mom is basically going to end me.”

“Harsh. How’d that happen?”

She sighed, “Basically I flaked on back to school shopping, so she went postal. I think the only reason I still am breathing is cause of my dad.”

“Wow. Fail.”

“I know right? FML”

Her dad opened the door and called from the front room, “Hey honey, hello Alicia.”

Ali’s eyebrows popped in surprise so Patricia explained, “I told him you’d be here.”

They called back out their greetings, then Ali queried, “Mr. Walker, you’re home early.”

“Yeah, I still have contracts to work on. You two can visit, I will be in the office.”

Patricia nodded, but Ali had other thoughts, “Mr. Walker, I know she got in trouble, but there’s something important to me that I need to talk to her about. Would it be okay if we went for a walk?”

“Alicia, I don’t think that would-”

“I don’t mean to bother, it’s just that I really need my best friend for this.” He seemed skeptical, but to Tricia’s shock, he didn’t say no right away. She followed up his hesitation with a, “please?”

Tricia was scared to say anything or it could backfire, but when her father looked at her, she gave him a pleading shrug. She crumbled under their pleas, “I don’t suppose it is fair to punish Ali for your mistakes. Go on, you are hereby absolved of the curse of grounding for the time duration of half an hour. Go forth and kibitz.”

Tricia was in awe of Ali. She had that kind of power where people just seemed to do things she asked them to do. It was fun to be her friend sometimes because of that, but it was equally dangerous. She flashed back to the night they got drunk in her bedroom and could have totally gotten caught with the half finished bottle of wine. Patricia vaguely remembered she’d stole more than one bottle and wondered when that was put to good use.

“You have to teach me how to do that.”

“What this? No, this was more you. Your dad adores you.”

She shrugged, “Too bad mom doesn’t. But in other news, life changing stuff, go.”

Ali took a deep breath. “Okay, yes, right. Can we just, you know, walk to the park or something?”

“Oh ... kay, Ali, is there something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing’s bad, this isn’t about bad things. Just, change.”

“I’m listening.”

“I guess it goes back the the trip. Well, actually it goes back before that, I have always wondered about certain facets of my personality? You know? I guess I’m a little different sometimes.”

“Yeah, you’re a freak in the best possible way.”

“Dat me,” she smiled, then sighed, “yeah, that’s me. As it turns out I kind of - well it wasn’t anything new that happened really. Do you know how something you can be so comfortable in the role you’ve decided to play, like everyone expects to you be the clown, so you act like a clown. And everyone expects you to be perfect, cause well, you are, no offence.”

Patty smirked, “None taken?”

“Yeah, well, sometimes when you get out of that place where everybody had put you in a box, you can like, see outside the box you were always in. I guess I never really saw myself as anything more than what I was here, but meeting other people and being seen in a new way, I guess I just realized that I’d outgrown my box. I’ve been squeezing and pushing myself to fit in this box that everyone thinks I should be in, that when I finally just stopped it felt...” Ali’s hands were animated, her voice was lifting and soaring, and she seemed more at peace and happy than she’d been in a while. “I felt like I could breathe for the first time in, like maybe ever.”

“Wow, that’s pretty intense.”

“I know right?”

They walked the last twenty feet over to some shady trees near the park and sat down.

“So, what exactly does that mean? I mean, you can breathe and that sounds great, and this is about change. Okay, so what are you feeling?”

Ali smiled, “You’re my best friend right? No matter what.”

“Always,” Tricia took her friends hand and patted it.

“Okay, can I felt like, well I knew I could - er can, I know I can trust you with this. Because the thing I know now is, I’m gay.”

“Oh. Oh wow. Well, congratulations, that’s huge!” Immediately, Tricia recognized the fear and apprehension in her friend and hugged her to allay it. “I’m so glad for you.”

“Yeah, I- cool huh?”

“Yeah, I mean, not that I think being gay or straight is necessarily cool, but like, you figured it out and came to it without and major issues, you had the self awareness to figure it out. Then you had the guts to come out, that’s amazing. Which, I mean it’s not as big a deal as maybe like in the fifties, but yeah. Congratulations, I’m proud of you.”

“Yeah. I, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

“What? No, that’s not a big deal. You come to things in your own time and it is your business how you like your life. I’m just really happy for you.

“So you’re not mad at me?”

“No, why would I be.”

“I, uhm, no reason I guess. And, so, we’re okay, everything’s okay, I’m okay, I’m gay,” she smirked.

“You dweeb, I’m the one that’s supposed to be a spaz.”

“Like I said, I’m out of my box,” she jumped up and dodged away, “and you can’t put me back in it!”

“OMG, Ali.”

“Nope, I’m out of my box.”

“Siddown spaz.”

“Not only am I out of my box, technically I’m in your box.”

Tricia’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

“Which, I guess since, I’m gay now, it totally okay.”

Tricia shrieked and jumped up to swat Ali, who dodged out of the way. They ran and dodged like kids for a few moments before just stopping when their laughter made it too hard to chase.

“BFF’s?”

“You know it,” Tricia replied. “Hey, had you told your parents yet?”

“Not yet, I’m a little worried.”

“Oh, no, they’ll be cool.”

“Yeah, no, yeah. I thought it - I don’t know, might be easier if I told you first. Kind of make it real first. You know what I mean?”

She didn’t, “Yeah, that makes sense.” It didn’t, but her friend needed her support.

As they walked back, Ali took Tricia’s had for the first time in a while. Tricia took it with both hands and gave her an earnest pat, “You’ll be fine.” She let it go and they continued on.

Ali pulled out her iPhone and on the way back they each listened to her spotify playlist sharing one pair of earbuds and letting a young singer crooning about being a little bit older set their soundtrack of their walk.

Both Patricia and Alicia could not wait for school to begin again, and neither of them were thinking about the classes. Tricia, having been quarantined to the house for the most part didn’t have much to add to instagram, while Ali was out and about without being quite out yet. She’d come out to her parents, and was thinking about how to be when school began. Would she cut her hair short? Was that trying too hard? She already has a bob cut and it did look cool on her. Her mom offered to take her to the salon if she wanted a change to make a statement. Her mother was quite supportive. Tricia’s mother was still fuming, but steadily calming. Her dad had successfully calmed her down the day of the walk, but she was intent on keeping her daughter’s punishment through to the end.

While confined, she made excessive use of snapchat with her love. If she couldn’t be with him in person, she made it her mission to tease him to pieces. Every night was a fashion show, and she made sure he knew how much she missed him. With nothing else to think about, it was hard to not seem obsessed. Yet he didn’t seem to mind it at all. In fact, he kept telling her how beautiful she was, how he longed to be with her again, and she absolutely ate it up. Everytime she got the chance, she’d check her phone for a hit of love-drug that kept her floating.

One night she put on an oversized sweater and stretched it downward to take a pic with just that showing, but she was so tall she’d had to slouch to not be indecent.

A - Heh, got anything on underneath that?

P - wouldn’t u like to no ;P A - Why don’t you show me?

P - u wish A - I do.

A - Don’t you?

A - Doesn’t it get you just a little bit hot showing off that sexy body?

A - Or knowing how bad I want you?

A - The things I’d do to you?

P - o jeez A - Admit it.

It wasn’t exactly Cyrano, but her teasing was obviously driving him mad with desire to the point of making this lovely sweet man turn into the lustful animal. He was right, that was a really sexy thought. On the other hand the way he was talking was a little forceful. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was calm and rational. She wanted to call him and hear his voice so bad.

P - wish i cud c u She lay down in bed and pulled up her sweater to her chest, revealing her abs and took a picture. Positioned like that she her skin bunched into tiny fat rolls even though she wasn’t fat. It was a bad angle, a not so great picture. She thought about not sending it, but didn’t want to come up with a real sexy pose. Maybe it would be okay. She sent it with the caption, ‘missing u’.

Andrew saw the picture a completely different way. She was so fit and lithe that even in that position, he could see soft definition of her abs. Her hips flared out and her skin looked soft and even, just like the powder blue panties she wore. He took a screenshot of the picture, saving it so he could examine it longer. Inspecting it closer he could see she wasn’t wearing a panty liner and she kept herself nicely shaven for him. These young girls today were something else. Back when he was growing up, no one shaved down there. Now these girls kept themselves clean and prepped like porn stars.

A notification popped up that he’d taken a screenshot. She froze wondering if he knew that they notify for that. This was for him only, and there was kind of a safety in knowing the pics she sent were gone. But if he wasn’t going to play fair that was not okay. She should call him out on it. Except that it also meant that she was his idea of sexy. There was something appealing to the thought that he couldn’t help but want her even more. Even worse, she didn’t want him fantasizing about other women. Insecurity led her to inaction until he sent her a message.

A - I want you to do something for me.

A - lock your door, then lie down and take your panties off.

P - omg i m not sending nudes A - that’s fine, just tell me when you’re there.

‘Okay,’ she thought, ‘this is new.’ Curious, she did as he asked and texted him back: ready. The bed felt cool against her bare bottom even though she’d pulled the covers over herself.

A - Think about the last time we were together.

P - <3<3<3 A - remember my hands all over your body?

A - I want you to caress yourself, the way I touched you.

She smiled and bit her lip at the memory. Following his instructions, she let her hand start tracing over her own body. Bit by bit she teased herself to greater arousal, with the memory of their time together playing on loop. She thought about the time out in the woods when he laid her down and tasted her skin. Her legs spread unconsciously as her fingers teased her the way she liked. It wasn’t the same as him being there, but something about him sending her texts made it more than just touching herself.

P - i miss u so bad P - ur making me wet After a few moments, he responded with a snap of his underwear, clear misshapen by the hardness of his manhood. At any other time and from any other man she’d find it repulsive, but in this state, she looked on it and it fed her desire.

A - That is what you do to me.

A - I need to see what you’re doing, I need to hear it.

A - Show me.

P - ok He’d been right all along, she wanted to show him. It was just stupid conventions that were keeping her from sending him everything. But those stupid conventions were still in her too. She was still slave to those silly norms that kept a shy good girl like her from ever sending nudes, even though she really wanted to. She she turned the video on and centered her face in the frame. Her cheeks were flush like after a run, and the thought of him watching her was giving a booster to her desires. She was being such a naughty girl right now, it thrilled her.