Chapter 23

The next morning Michele had slept late. Still naked and on top of the covers, she hadn't even stirring as Annie dressed, gathered her things, and made her exit.

Nancy had found her at lunch, she and a girl named Sue from the yoga class had asked to join her. She of course agreed.

The conversation was light and fun. Annie wondered at Nancy's easy grace, comparing it to Michele's fraught ambivalence. She touched the top of her head where Michele had held her the night before. It was still tender, there was a raised lump.

"Annie? Hello." The other two girls were looking at her curiously. Nancy with a crooked grin.

"Sorry?"

"I said do you want to go together to the house party?"

Annie blinked, confused. "House party?"

Nancy frowned. "Yeah. Tomorrow night," she sounded a little concerned now. "Michele said she was going, so I figured you were too?"

"Oh yeah, I'd love to - but I have to come later," she lied. "I made a study date at the library." That seemed enough to dispel whatever worries Nancy might have felt.

"Right on. But you're coming right?"

"It's going to be fun," Sue added.

"Yeah. Where is it again?"

...

Annie worked at the library until till closing time that night. When she got to their room, the blinds were drawn. Michele was still up, but dressed in her old man pajamas and reading by her bedside light under the covers. Annie greeted her, and got a "Hey" in reply, but she didn't look up or otherwise engage.

Annie felt hollowed out as unpacked her things and went over her next day's schedule. Unwilling to credit herself with anything but average smarts, Annie thought of herself as a grind, and was proud of her workmanly ('workwomanly?') study habits. She had grown up in the chaos of her mother's emotional dramas, and wasn't allowing Michele's moods to get in the way of her classwork any more than she had allowed her mother's to.

She stripped to her panties. Pointedly displaying her little tits and puffy erect nipples, something she never would have done, even just a few days before. She turned off her desk lamp and climbed into bed. Michele switched off her light almost immediately. The two lay silently in the dark for a very long time. Annie was unsure who fell asleep first.

...

Her Friday schedule was relatively light, but Sue had invited her to an late afternoon pilates class, which turned out to be far more intense than the yoga class. They'd showered after at the field house and then walked with a few of the others from the class to the cafeteria for dinner. Annie finished first and excused herself for her "study date", heading off to the library all alone.

It was still early in the term, and a Friday night, so the library was almost entirely empty. All the same, Annie took her spot on the top floor. She worked uninterrupted until ten, when a pimply boy had come to tell her it was closing time.

The room smelled like pot, but was dark and empty when she got back. She dropped her things and got undressed. Looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair was very short. Her mother had been furious when she'd first seen how she's badly cropped her bangs. "What have you done Annie?" She'd demanded. "You've ruined your beautiful hair!"

But she'd taken Annie to the hairdressers, and the lovely young woman who had given her the pixie cut had fawned over her, telling her over and over again how pretty she was, and when she finished, she'd announced "You look like a young Mia Farrow!' Her mother had gotten caught up in the girl's enthusiasm, and had bragged about the resemblance to friends afterwards.

Annie recognized herself in the pictures of a young boyish Farrow, the thin angular build, the big blue eyes, even the shape of her face and mouth, but wouldn't allow herself to think she was anywhere near as pretty as the actress. She was however thankful to the hairstylist for deflecting her mother's anger; transforming it into pride. 'Like straw into gold', she thought.

Annie touched her breasts, they weren't much bigger than a boy's, smaller than some boys. She thought of the way Michele's breasts felt in her hands, overflowing her grasp. But she also remembered clearly the hungry look Michele had given her's little tits when she'd first shown them to her and Nancy.

She thought of kneeling on her bed legs spread with Nancy naked and twitching between her knees, Michele holding her up with one arm, while her other hand was in Annie's mouth, sucking cum from her fingers.

Reaching around with her supporting arm, Michele had pinched one of her puffy little nipples. "God I love these" she'd cooed. Taking her fingers from Annie's mouth, she'd pinched wetly at the other, smearing it with Annie's saliva. Annie remembered how heated Michele had sounded as she'd whispered about sucking them and kissed her.

Annie dug through her drawers until she found found what she was looking for. An ancient t-shirt she hadn't worn in years. She'd out grown it long ago, but couldn't bear to get rid of it, or even leave it at home. It read "Philippines ~ Shakey's ~ Pizza Parlor ~ Worlds Greatest Pizza". She smelled it. She used to be able to tell herself it smelled like her dad, smelled like distant things, exotic places, but now it just smelled like her, maybe a little like home.

She pulled it over her head and looked at herself again. It was tight, just barely covered her midriff. Her nipples stood out as if they were carved in stone. She wondered what Michele would think seeing her in it. She blushed at the thought, but wasn't sure if it was because she was embarrassed or excited.

Folded in the closet she found the jeans and pulled them on. They were tight with a low-rise waistline. Much more revealing than anything she'd wear normally - much more revealing than anything her mother would have allowed her to wear at all. While she had a boyish figure, Annie still had hips. She looked at the space between her thighs. Remembered Craig talking about her "thigh gap". She'd bought them for her date with him. She remembered his shiny thin erection, him coming in her hand. His anger when she accidentally got it on his shirt.

She wondered if Michele would admire that gap the way Craig had.

She made up her eyes - smokey, like Mia - slipped on a pair of vans, and grabbed a zip-up cardigan and headed out.