Chapter 1: Uncomfortable

Sitting in the back of the lecture hall, Lisa pulled at her top and fanned herself. It was suddenly very hot, and she felt cramped, suffocated. She’d been feeling vaguely uncomfortable all day, and now her discomfort had become acute. It was as if a giant hand was squeezing her, pushing out the air in her lungs. And it was so hot!

She glanced at the other students. None of them seemed uncomfortable, just bored. And no-one else was reacting to the unbearable heat—many of the students seemed happy in their jackets and sweaters and long pants. The lecturer at the front wore a suit jacket and his brows betrayed no trace of sweat. Meanwhile, Lisa had removed her sweater at the start of the class and just gotten hotter from there.

A bead of sweat dripped from her nose and splashed on the desk. She took slow breaths, in and out, and filled her minds with thoughts of snow and cold winter days.

The lecturer’s droning voice had stopped and everyone around Lisa was rising to their feet. She’d been so absorbed in her discomfort that she hadn’t heard a word of the lecture, or even noticed when it ended. Relieved, she pushed her chair out, grabbed her green sweater and satchel and speed-walked to the exit door. What was wrong with her? Did she have a fever? She should see the nurse.

The soft breeze outside made Lisa feel a bit cooler, but now the constricted feeling returned with a vengeance. She was being squeezed and felt like she might burst. Bile rose to her throat. No time to get to the nurse’s office—she had to find a bathroom. Now.

Fortunately, there was a ladies room off the narrow hallway in front of the lecture hall. She went back inside the building, and rushed into the thankfully deserted bathroom.

Lisa splashed some water on her face at the sink and looked up at herself in the mirror. Her dripping face was red and her dirty blonde curls were in disarray. There was panic in her light blue eyes. She tried to take more deep breaths, but her throat just made horrible choking sounds. She couldn’t breathe!

Lisa grabbed at her top, forcefully shaking the fabric to generate a momentary air flow. The brief sense of relief from doing this told her that it was her clothes that were the problem. She was suffocating under all this fabric. It had to come off.

Glancing worriedly at the entrance to the bathroom, Lisa retreated into a stall and swung the latch closed. She dumped her sweater and book-bag on the floor behind the toiler. After making very certain that the stall door was locked tight, she began to disrobe.

First came her sleeveless black top, up and over her head and on top of the sweater. That felt better. Sweat glistened on her flat stomach and the tops of her round, firm breasts. She breathed in and out but still felt constricted. The bra had to go.

She unhooked her black bra and dumped it on top of her shirt. The next few breaths felt even better. But still, there was a tightness. Her feet were hot and cramped inside her black boots, so she loosened their laces and stepped out of them, pulling off her socks for good measure. She sat on the toilet seat, wiggling her toes in relief.

Lisa’s legs felt as though they were gripped by a vice. She had to go all the way. Sighing, she unclipped her belt and pulled her tight white jeans down, catching her panties in her fingers. She kicked them off and winced as the belt buckle glanced off the stall door. Then she breathed. In and out. In and out.

The heat was gone and so was the suffocating feeling. Sweat glistened across her long, slim body. She placed the back of her hand against her forehead. It was cool. Lisa felt normal again. Well, apart from the sensation of sitting in a public bathroom stall totally naked. That was anything but normal.

A knock on the stall door made Lisa almost jump out of her skin. “You okay in there?” asked an unfamiliar woman’s voice.

“Y-yes,” Lisa squeaked, drawing her arms over her breasts as though the knocker might be able to see through the floor-length stall door. “Just fine.”

“Okay then...” replied the voice. Lisa heard footsteps, running water, and then the bathroom door. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Her jeans and boots lay by the door and her sweater and shirt lay on the other end of the stall, with her satchel. After taking a few more breaths, she reached for her panties and pulled them out of her jeans. The material was coarse against her hand and she felt her chest tighten. The thought of sliding these panties up her legs, snapping them on her waist, made her hyperventilate, though she desperately wanted to. With an involuntary jerk, she flung the panties against the stall door. Her breathing returned to normal.

Okay, she was still feeling a little weird. A bit hot. Slightly uncomfortable. Maybe if she just gave this time to pass, she would feel better and would be able to get dressed and go. Yes, that was it. Time.

Lisa sat back down on the toilet lid, the plastic cool on her bottom, and rummaged through her satchel for one of her assigned readings. She would read a few pages of this, allow herself to calm down, and then she would be ready to put her clothes back on. Everything would be fine. She took her reading glasses out of their case and put them on, still feeling fine.

Sitting naked in the toilet stall, she completed her reading. It actually went by rather quickly, and by the end of it she was feeling totally normal, if a little chilly. She put her book away and reached for her panties again. They felt ... fine. Relieved, Lisa stepped through them and pulled them up over her crotch. The waistband made a satisfying snap.

Lisa pulled on her bra and then her jeans, shirt and even sweater. She pulled her socks and boots on without any incident. Whatever she’d been feeling before must have been temporary, she decided. Maybe it was something she ate. You never knew what was going on with the meat in college cafeterias.

Lisa slung her satchel over her shoulder and exited the bathroom, headed for her dormitory. She was feeling fine and had even got a head start on her reading. All was right with the world.

Or so she thought, until she was woken by her roommate the next morning.

“Woah! Someone had a violent night!” Shelly said. “Here, take this. You must have thrown it off.”

Confused, Lisa blinked the sleep out of her eyes and looked around. Her bed-sheets lay in a tangled heap at the foot of her bed, and Shelly was holding out something lacy and pink to her. Shelly’s face was turned away and her eyes were scrunched up. The thing in Shelly’s hand was familiar.

Lisa glanced down and saw she was naked. With an “eep!” of surprise, she snatched her nightgown from Shelly’s outstretched hand and hastily pulled it over her head. “Th-thanks,” she said. “Y-you can look now.”

Shelly turned towards her, blushing. “Did you have a nightmare?” Her hazel eyes were full of concern.

Lisa cast her mind back. She recalled her dream. The details were already fading from her conscious mind, but she could remember a vast ocean. She was swimming, seemingly without the need for air, and she’d been chasing a school of colorful fish. The chase had felt urgent, had had a good reason that she’d now forgotten. And there was a squid. A giant squid tentacle, wrapping around her, blocking out her senses. And squeezing. Squeezing her until she thought her eyes would pop out of their sockets.

“Y-yes,” said Lisa, shaking her head to clear it of the awful memory. “A nightmare. I was ... suffocating.”

“Ah, okay, that explains it then,” said Shelly, brightening up. “But you’re normally such a quiet sleeper. Are you feeling okay? Did something happen yesterday?”

Lisa thought about telling her about the strange feeling in the lecture hall, but felt shy and embarrassed about it. No-one but her knew about what had happened, and she preferred to keep it that way. “Probably something I ate,” she said, half-believing herself.

“Those pies were a bit funky,” Shelly admitted. “Anyway, I’ve got an early lecture today, so I’d better get going.” She was already fully dressed and ready, her dark bob combed and immaculate as always. It bounced as she headed out of the room after a quick goodbye.