“Well done for coming Maxine, it’s a good step, and an important one. I’m very glad you’ve come.”

“Thank you,” the shy young girl glanced at me through her eyelashes.

“Let me tell you a bit about myself, then if you feel like it you can do the same, alright?” I smiled encouragingly. “I’m Emma, a registered therapist. I’m trained in helping girls who’ve had some bad experiences, helping you to come to terms with what happened, and to understand it, and see it’s not your fault, okay? Not anything you did or said or wore. It’s about someone else...” I recited the rest of my prepared introduction, which is deliberately a good length to help the client settle in, “ ... and whatever you say to me is confidential. I’m not allowed to tell anyone, anyone at all, about anything you say. Ever,” I finished, hands open, still smiling, as I’d been taught.

“K.” She looked more steadily at me.

“So, you saw my TikTok about therapy, and asked your GP to refer you?”

She just nodded, but was engaging at least. I waited with a smile, until she managed to speak: “I saw how you manage with the comments. Guys saying things - sexual things - and you stay so calm. Like, you’re above it. When they’re saying stupid things, some of them, about how hot you are and all that ... if you’ve even left school and the kind of treatment they’d like. You don’t give them anything.”

“That’s good. It’s about being positive, and recognising what’s about me, or you, and what’s more about them. Now, I have some details, from the teacher you confided in and your doctor: your parents have split up, and now your father has a new girlfriend and she’s moved in with you? And this has affected you?”

“She’s much younger than him.”

“Too young, would you say?”

“I don’t know. I mean, she’s not like my mother, or a mother.”

“What was her attitude to you in the beginning, did you feel? Was it caring, for example? Did you feel she was looking after you?”

“She kept looking at me. I mean AT me. Not so much after me ... well...” she petered out.

“How about your dad?” I steered the topic to broaden it a little.

“It’s a bit off. How he is about her. He’s always touching her, and even talking about like, her ass or legs or whatever.”

“Would you say they’re ‘loving partners’?”

“She’s a bit like me. Same height and everything, size of clothes a lot of them. Dad buys her things and she offers to lend them or give them to me. So she’s his girlfriend, but at the same time, a bit more like my sister, in a way, like: my sister, but...” she dried up.

“What sort of clothes are they?”

“Oh they’re fine, but, for a party or something. I mean, short, you know. Short skirts, or dresses, and short tops, tanks - the kind you definitely need a bra with. And that you have to be perfect for. And they’re thin, you know, they don’t hide a thing. If you’d got a tummy or you’re a bit over, pretty much anywhere, you’d just look an idiot.”

“Is this a style she wears herself, during the day?”

“Oh yes, round the house.”

“But not when she goes out?”

“Well, she might put leggings on and a coat or jacket.”

“And do you wear them?” She was in fact wearing a short tank under a lightweight jacket, and a short, floaty skirt. Bare legs and trainers - she was not overdressed.

“They go on at me to.”

“Your dad as well?”

“Especially Dad.”

“So, you began to think your dad was expecting his girlfriend to be lending you these clothes?”

“After a while. It was just a bit weird. And then...” she stopped, looking down into her lap.

“When you’re ready.” I nudged, after a minute.

“He wanted us to wear the same.”

“The same?”

“Matching outfits. So we’d look like twins, he said. But she’s nineteen.”

“Twins?”

“With the same hair and everything, long and loose, apart from her being more blonde, and makeup ... she doesn’t wear much, so she looks young, with eyes, and I’m supposed to look older...”

“And is your father controlling all this? What did you feel?”

“It’s not controlling, not really. I mean, it just was what he was liking, or asking for, and Noellie thought it was funny. And she liked the idea too, and dressing like that, with me. And then getting changed...”

“So she was being friendly?”

“I just thought, you know, to start with, she wanted me to accept her, so she could be in the family with Dad. Then she was touching me - just in a bestie kind of way kind of thing, sharing a joke, laughing a lot and asking me about everything, school and sports and posts and followers. It was super friendly and then, after a bit, she was saying things about me - my body.”

“How did you feel about it, and the changing and touching, and the revealing clothes?”

“It made me nervous, with what it was about, possibly, but at the same time it felt nice, in some ways. I mean it was nice things: ‘lean’ and ‘fit’ and stuff ... and just a tap on the arm, kind of thing, not, you know, ‘touching’ touching. Until...”

“It was novel, or is novel for you, having the body shape of a woman?”

“Well ... Noellie is skinny as well. She’s only an A cup and size four same as me. So I don’t know about being a woman, shape wise.”

“You have a waist...” I had to support her body image.

“I suppose.”

“And people around you are starting to see you as, let’s say, not a child?”

“No. I mean yes: not a child.”

“So, alright I see the general situation I think. Do you feel ready to tell me a bit about what’s happened?”

Maxine took a deep breath, and let it out as a sigh.

“Noellie is really seriously beautiful. She’s actually a student at the Uni where Dad works, and she does climbing. He’s not a lecturer, he does building management, so it’s not against the rules ... he started dating her. He was doing something in the gym, to the heating. He’s pretty fit too, so...” she paused.

“Was your mother still living with you, at the time?”

“She was having an affair already, with a woman at work: I’d seen them actually kissing when she was round once - like real kissing you know? So Dad’s phone was on the table and she saw a message coming in, and she made him show her, and it was her saying when could she see him. So there was a massive row and in the end Mum said she prefers women anyway, and it ended with her going off to move in with this woman. And then next thing Noellie was living with us.”

“Being super friendly...”

“Yes. And to start with I just thought it was about Dad, and me being onside with it, and then it was lending the clothes and then changing with her...”

“Skirts and tops?”

“To start with...”

“It grew from there?”

“She was changing as well, it’d be in my room which isn’t that huge, and she’d be helping me get them on and smoothing them down, bumping together all that, you know lots of touching. And laughing, smiling ... and she really is stunning. I mean when she smiles at you, you just have to smile back, and then she’s smiling even more...”

“I understand,” I nodded. I did too. I didn’t know about this Noellie but Maxine could certainly make someone smile.

“It seems so stupid now but honestly I had no idea. And she was talking to me, about what I’d been doing at school, interested, and just in undies, often.”

“It sounds like a lot of affection.”

“I really fell for it ... it just got closer and closer. Then in the end ... she said to try a bra she had, and I let her take mine off, from the front, you know...”

“One she’d been wearing?” I smiled.

“Yes. She took it off. By this time it didn’t seem weird, for her to be topless, or me either. So she was right there up against me, reaching round...”

“She knew you wouldn’t mind.”

“No I didn’t. Well, I could’ve just moved, and I didn’t. She undid my bra, and then she took it off over my head without moving back! So we’re the same size, you know, and her tits are quite high like mine, and so they were together, on each other, and she rubbed them! Quite gently but moving, side to side, definitely, rubbing her nipples on mine!

“And we were this close, she was looking right into my eyes, and her eyes are light - light blue, so her pupils really stand out and they were enormous! Then she put her hand on my shoulder. That was all, but it meant ... well, that it was me and her.

“My hand went onto her ass, it just went! And my other one into her hair, behind on her back, and I knew my pupils were big as well ... and then ... she kissed me. Kissed, really...”

I smiled. I didn’t know Noellie of course but I could certainly understand her being attracted to Maxine, who is very slender and extremely pretty. She’s a petite five-three, at the moment at least, and if Noellie was the same then why wouldn’t Maxine feel the pull too? “You were attracted to each other.”

“Oh God! I just melted. I kissed her back, tongues and everything, and I could smell her, and feel her skin, everywhere, warm. My hands were all over her, and hers were all over me, my back and ass and just ... stroking, or pulling, so my brain was...” she petered out.

“Happy?”

“At the time, just then, I was the happiest. The happiest ever. I was so loved, and excited, all at once. Cos it was so close, so close. But at the same time it was, you know, quite taboo, with being lez and me being so much younger, and she was my dad’s girlfriend! But at that moment it was only the feelings, and they were amazing. Then she put her thumbs in my panties and started pulling them down, and then I began realising I was being seduced and it was actually sex.”

“Did that change your feelings?”

“Not at the time. Not straight away. I just wanted to be naked with her, and be touching her to the most absolute extreme possible! Inside her, if I could’ve been.” She smiled dreamily at me, pupils dilating.

“How did it develop?”

“She stood there, after she’d got my panties off, so I took hers off, then while I was down there she grabbed the back of my head! She opened her legs a bit and sat down on the bed and pushed my face in!” She stopped.

I wondered whether to prompt her, but before I decide how, she continued, relaxing more now:

“Luckily some of us at school’ve been looking at videos, you know, and I’d started playing with myself, a bit, and comparing, some of us, in the showers, and stuff, so I knew what I was supposed to do, roughly anyway.”

“What was that?” I knew I shouldn’t really be asking.

She inspected my expression, before answering: “Lickling, and sucking, and sticking my tongue in, as far as it’d go - it’s quite long, luckily.” She giggled. “I used to worry it was weird, but Noellie likes it.”

I smiled encouragingly, noting the present tense as Maxine continued:

“Then next thing she was flat on the bed, with her legs wide open, I mean wide wide, and I was lezzing her like mad! She had her hands in my hair, guiding me, and I was licking and tonguing and sucking and her bits were all swollen up and completely soaking, jerking around and she was gasping and groaning, and her fingers were in my hair, on my head...” she tailed off, with a faraway look in her glistening green eyes, and an angelic smile.

“So you gave her an orgasm?”

“It was so fast. Honestly it wasn’t even a minute! And so intense. I could feel it, like almost as if it was mine. She was jerking like ... vibrating, and pressing me in, and then she froze, completely rigid, and I knew she was in another world, of just pure ... pure pleasure, where there wasn’t anything else, at all, just ecstasy...”

I let a few seconds pass while she was reliving it.

“Quite an intense experience for you,” I smiled my acceptance.

“She pulled me up, on her, so I was lying on her, naked, she was kissing me and stroking me, with her leg between mine, her fingertips, in my hair, down my back ... she was so warm, and actually a bit sweaty but I loved it, it was fragrant! And her breathing, in my ear, was so ... together. It was infinitely together. I’d never felt anything like it. Or even imagined. And then, she bent her leg...”

“So you could rub on it,” I nodded.

“Just for a bit. I had to. As soon as I felt her leg there, I started, it was automatic. The whole thing was unreal, how natural it all was - suddenly, to be doing sex with her ... with a girl, who was in a way almost my stepmother! But she wasn’t a mother at all, she was like me. IS like me.”

“Is the relationship still going?”

“Well, it’s kind of developed.”

“Developed?”

“A couple of days later, I didn’t go into school, and Noellie didn’t go into Uni either, but Dad went into work as usual. So we spent the day in bed, basically. I mean literally we had sex the entire day. In my bed, or on my bed, and it was just her and my body, being so close, like clothes had never existed, touching all the time, everywhere, and...” she paused, checking my expression.

“Was it love, did you feel?”

“I don’t know, if it’s love or what. Being sex mad or girlfriends or what. It just was, kind of thing, just feelings not thinking. Amazing feelings. And the time disappeared without even noticing, so we didn’t have lunch or even realise, until the door went...”

“You got caught?” I’d been wondering what had triggered Maxine’s need for therapy.

“It was Dad, home from work! And he came straight up, to change, and we knew he was going to look in, we hadn’t even closed the door, so there wasn’t time to get up and get dressed - if we’d got up he’d have seen me naked! So we just pulled the quilt over and froze, and there he was. Looking in.”

“Was he angry? How did he take it?”

“No he said ‘Aha!’ like that. Like he was expecting it. But, at the time, I was just relieved he wasn’t going mad. He was actually smiling, or grinning, and then he started taking his clothes off! And I hardly knew what was going on at all, but I could feel Noellie wasn’t scared, so I stopped being scared and just watched with her while Dad stripped, in front of us.

“And there he was, naked, with his cock but just dangling, and his pubes, and standing there letting us look at him. I mean, that’s how it felt. Not, you know, threatening or anything, like he was planning to do anything to us, or me, but more like ‘am I sexy’ and knowing he was. Cos he is: in shape not like dads are generally.”