I grew up in the country. Well, more in the woods than anything. There were few neighbors around back then, mostly retired or older couples. Only one neighbor had a kid that was my age, and that was next door. Next door was a half mile away, but that doesn't matter when you're bored in the sticks.
My parents were high school sweethearts and were born in 1949. They were very successful in their work and concentrated on it. Eventually they realized they wanted a little more in life. That's where I come in, being born in 1988.
Next door was a similar story. The couple that lived there were friends of my parents and also high school sweethearts from the same class, but that's where the similarities ended. My parents often called them hippies, something I didn't understand until much later in life. They were organic farmers making a moderate living selling produce to a grocery chain in town. They were into free love but were barren. Somehow that changed and they had a redheaded baby girl two months before I was born.
Even though my parents were businesspeople and hers were hippies, their friendship ran deep. Their girl Thomasyn and I grew up together. Everyone called her Thom, but when I was young I had a stutter and called her Thom Thom. I outgrew it, but whenever someone wanted to be cute with her they called her that.
We were the only kids either of us knew early on and did everything together. We caught frogs, climbed trees, played baseball and basketball, played in her parents' tree house, and in my parents' home office. She had some dolls but never really cared for them. She didn't care for cute little dresses. She didn't care to stay clean. She was her parents' Thom boy and acted the part. They adjusted their way of raising her easily, letting her be whoever she wanted to be.
It probably didn't help that her only friend in the world was me. My parents were more conservative. I'm a boy, so that's how I was raised. I didn't want to play with the few dolls she had or do any of the cute girly things she should have done. I influenced her ways early on.
We were inseparable, being the brother and sister the other was never going to have. We believed it so much that we even called each other bro and sis.
When we started school we sat in the same seat on the bus and played at recess together. When some of the other kids teased me about hanging out with a girl, she got mad and defended me by yelling at them, even hitting a few of them. That got her in a bit of trouble but they stayed clear after that. She was a very strong protector.
Around first grade we discovered the lake about a half mile back in the woods. It's not like hadn't gone there before with our parents, but it was the first time we went there alone. We spent a lot of time there that summer and after together. We were dipping, I was skinny, but that was as far as that went. We were young and underdeveloped, swimming in shorts. A Thom boy sister, after all, would act like her brother.
Thom was odd, although I didn't realize it at the time. Her parents were vegetarians and had no weight on their bones. Thom was overweight, stocky even. She preferred the meat and potatoes type of diet that my parents fed me. Again, her parents adjusted and fed her whatever she liked.
We even had sleepovers at each others' houses. Our parents had no qualms about us spending that kind of time together since we were practically brother and sister. We never invited any of the other kids over from school because Thom and I were all the friends we needed. The others didn't understand and mostly stayed clear of us anyway.
Puberty hit me first, but other than my voice and the hidden obvious it had little effect. She was next but all that changed was that she wore baggier clothes as far as I knew. The sleepovers ended about that time, too, although at the time neither of us knew why. Thom also started wearing a shirt in the lake.
We went to prom in our freshman year together. My parents rented me a tux, and hers did the same because she hated dresses. We danced the fast dances together and had a good night.
The problem was that this started the rumors. The other kids were already talking but this confirmed it with them. We were both labeled as gay from our small minded classmates from that point on. The kids knew better than to tease us too hard, lest they feel Thom's wrath. Neither of us was interested in the opposite sex anyway, so it didn't hurt us at all.
Her dad died of a sudden heart attack just before we finished our freshman year. Thom's mom, Peggy, was devastated and couldn't function. The workers she had saved her business. Thom stepped in and saved her sales. I happily pitched in to help wherever I could.
Eight months later my mom was driving home from work and got in a horrible car accident, dying two days later in the hospital. Dad never left her side until it was over. Peggy, Thom, and I also spent most of those two days there. We were all the family any of us had left.
What Thom and I didn't know was that her mom was planning on selling the farm. Her heart wasn't into it anymore since it was something the couple started and loved together. She had serious offers and my dad was working with her to help close the deal. We found out in the fall after we started our junior year. The sale was going to go through in January and included the house.
Thom and I were devastated. We each lost a parent and now we thought we were going to lose each other. Her mom found a modest apartment in town. At least we'd be able to go to school together. I had a car so between work and school I spent whatever time I could in town with her. It wasn't much time, but it was what we had.
Her mom was working at a local grocery store as the manager; her experience running the farm landed her the job and she found a new form of happiness. She worked a lot and was rarely home in their apartment. Whatever time we spent together was most almost always alone. Nothing new.
At the end of our junior year our remaining parents sat us down at my home. Apparently a lot of the time that Peggy was gone and not working she was spending with my dad. They held hands and told us that they were going to live with each other in my home, but not get married.
My virtual sis moved in two weeks later. Unbeknownst to me while living in town, Thom had actually made some girl friends. They helped her change, no longer the Thom boy she always was. She started wearing tighter fitting blouses and a little make up. She started styling her hair instead of the pony tail she always wore. I started to notice her a little more, but since she was like my sister it was an admiration and really nothing more.
Thom started spending more time with these girls, enjoying the company of her own gender for the first time. For the first time friends were invited over to my house and it was a little awkward: I wasn't in Thom's group.
I joined the basketball team that year and made a few friends of my own on the team. It turned out I was a fast learner and did very well thanks to all those years of playing one on one with Thom. Not that I wasn't a fast learner in school: I was on track to be valedictorian.
Suddenly being a jock had some interesting side effects: girls actually paid attention to me. We took the championship that year thanks to me getting the last moment winning basket. All the girls in school really wanted a piece of me after that.
Thom and I lived in the same house but no longer spent much time together. She had her girlfriends and I had my guys and girls. There were still movie nights when we were on the couch together, her snuggled up against me with her head on my shoulder. Nothing new, it was just far less frequent.
Our 18th birthdays went by without much fanfare and we started seriously planning for college. She was no slouch when it came to academics, either. She was tied with another girl in school at the time to be salutatorian. Both of us had many schools offering us scholarships; it was just a matter of picking the right ones.
Prom was fast approaching and I had a lot of pressure on me from the guys to make it count, as they put it. I asked one of my female admirers from the cheer squad to be my date and she happily accepted.
My dad rented a limo and I went to pick up my date. She was slim, gorgeous, and had her hands on me even at her parents' house. They took pictures and I drove back home to pick up Thom and her date. Our parents wanted pictures of all of us.
I arrived at home and my date and I walked in the front door. I introduced my dad and Peggy. Then Thom walked into the living room with her date and blew my mind. She was wearing the first dress I'd ever seen her in and was sexy as hell! I was dumbstruck seeing my sis... my best friend in such a way. Thom just stared back into my bugged out eyes and smiled.
My date hit my arm and snapped me out of it. We took pictures, first of Thom and I together, then of each of us with our dates, then all four of us. In the limo we all talked about graduation while I kept stealing glances at Thom. She saw and smiled each time. My date saw and pulled me closer to her, hitting my arm a little once in a while to snap me out of it.
My date went into overdrive at the dance, holding me close and taking every opportunity to show off her sexiness. When the first slow dance came on, she pulled me out to the dance floor. She put her arms around my back and her head on my chest. I put my arms around her back and she pulled me close.
I was inexperienced to say the least with the affection. I'd kissed some of the girls who were interested in me that year, but nothing more. This time I was up against one for real, feeling our bodies pressed together. I couldn't control what happened to me, and she felt it. She wiggled a little and looked up at me.
I was embarrassed and tried to move away but she quickly put her lips on mine and her tongue into my mouth, moaning a little into it. My embarrassment quickly went away and was replaced with a feeling I'd never had before: I wanted this girl!
We heard a throat clear over the speakers and looked to see the principal up on stage staring out over the crowd. My date and I looked around and saw why: we weren't alone in our affections.
Then I saw Thom. She was staring at me and looked as if she was about to cry. She was also dancing with her date but he looked almost angry that she wasn't paying attention to him.
My date saw it, too. She pulled my face back to her and wiggled against me again, drawing my attention back to her. She was glued to me for the rest of the night, except to use the bathroom with a group of her friends. I couldn't find Thom in the crowd at all.
Another couple of slow dances and my date didn't waste time getting back into the kiss each time. My hands on her bare back and eventually on her covered ass had her ready for more. During the last slow song, she whispered in my ear that she wanted to leave and go somewhere more private.
That turned out to be a hotel room. She was prepared with condoms, taking my virginity that night in her experienced way. We became a couple for what was left of the school year and summer, repeating our coupling at her parents' house whenever we could.
Thom avoided me after prom. I hardly saw her at all, which was quite an accomplishment since we lived in the same home. Our family meals were about the only real time we spent near each other and she wouldn't even look at me. I asked what was wrong and her answer was always, "Nothing."
I made valedictorian and she beat out her competitor to be salutatorian. We graduated with full rides to college. I announced that I'd decided to go to Stanford. My dad later told me that Thom was going to Berkeley.
I tried to ask her why she wouldn't tell me herself, but she just said she didn't think it mattered. She had relatives near Berkeley and went to stay with them for the rest of the summer to get used to life away from home. This was the first time in our lives that we spent any real time away from each other.
My girlfriend and I broke up just before I went off to school. Life in college was very different than that in the sticks. But I applied myself and did well again.
Thom and I rarely spoke on the phone. We saw each other only at family gatherings or holidays. I missed her, but didn't have much time for that with all the work I did in school and the occasional girlfriend. I became serious with one of them and after I announced we were engaged, Thom never had time to talk to me on the phone.
I graduated with high honors and moved in with my fiancé, planning to marry two years later. I took an offer to join a prestigious design firm in San Francisco. I heard through our parents that Thom graduated with honors as well, moving to LA to attend law school.
My fiancé graduated a year later and moved in with me. We had grown apart some during that year but started planning the wedding. We sent out the invitations and soon the RSVPs started coming back. One of them caught my attention: Thom declined.
I tried calling her and she wouldn't answer my calls. I became depressed and with the tension of the wedding, my fiancé and I were soon fighting more than ever. One month before the wedding, she moved out and we called it off.
