D Cup Blues Again

PRELUDE: SPRING

"You're so adorable with your glasses," Caryn sighed between moans as she humped Dave with delightful abandon in his narrow bed.

"I feel silly wearing them when I'm not wearing anything else!" Dave replied.

"Oh, you know you love seeing these as well as you can feel them!" Caryn placed both her hands over his hands, which were massaging her large breasts expertly. "You're brilliant at that, by the way!"

"Can't believe you were ashamed of them!"

"Can't believe you were ashamed of being able to see!"

They both dissolved into laughter at the joyful memory of how their miserable hang-ups -- hers about her bra size, his about his glasses -- had brought them together in the sweetest way. For all her consternation about her breasts -- and she still didn't like them very much, except at a moment like this -- she loved how Dave paid them so much attention when they made love. His gentle hands all over them felt far better than letting them bounce around as her rocking grew intense every time she was close to coming.

She was close to coming for the second time that afternoon -- and he for the first -- when the garage door opener began rumbling. All at once Caryn came to a stop and they looked at one another in horror, their pleasure forgotten even as she still had him clenched tightly inside her. "Shit, my dad!" Dave exclaimed. "His bowling team must've canceled!"

Caryn pulled off him and stumbled off to the side of the bed, where all their clothes lay in a heap. She pulled her jeans and top on without bothering with her underwear, and he followed just a beat behind. Still zipping up his pants, Dave rushed to the bedroom door and opened it just in time to hear the door from the garage opening.

To both their surprise, it wasn't Dave's father who called out to them. It was his girlfriend, Francine, and she seemed as surprised to see them as they were to see her. "Dave?!"

"Hi, Francine," Dave said, and Caryn appeared at his side a moment too late to hide her presence; she smiled hello nervously as well.

"Caryn, hi!" she said. "I thought you two would be at the library."

"We were having trouble concentrating there," Dave lied. "We just got back and we were about to go study in the kitchen." Even he could hear the lie in his voice, Caryn was sure of that, and she was quite sure she could see in Francine's eyes that she knew the truth.

But she smiled through any suspicions she may have had. "I'm sorry if I startled you," she said. "I just wanted to pop in before your father got home, to..." Francine looked a bit flustered, and just as uncomfortable as Caryn felt. "Oh, Dave, congratulations on Vassar! That's a great school."

"Thanks," said Dave. "I'm still pretty surprised I got in."

"No one else is," Caryn said. "Have you noticed that, Francine? Everyone knows what a brain he is, but he doesn't?"

"I'm afraid I have," Francine said. "How do you feel about him going to a school with mostly girls, by the way?"

"I hear they're mostly gay anyway," Caryn joked, kissing Dave's cheek to apologize for the joke all his friends had been tormenting them both with ever since he'd been accepted. Dave, to his credit, only laughed this time.

"And you're going to California, Caryn?" Francine asked.

"Got into Davis, wait-listed at Berkeley," she said. "I'm hoping I can transfer next year if I don't get it this time."

"Good for you!" Francine said with a wistful smile. Caryn felt like kissing her for passing over in silence the fact that it meant she and Dave would be a continent apart come August -- another thing everyone had been reminding them of. She was determined to enjoy the precious months they had left.

"Well, I guess we should get to studying?" Dave said to Caryn. "Unless we'll be in your way in the kitchen, Francine?"

"Not at all!" Francine said. "Just...no need to cook tonight, okay?"

"Are you cooking?" Dave asked over his shoulder from back inside the bedroom, where he'd gone to retrieve his books. Caryn followed suit.

"No," Francine said. "I'd like to...well, I'm hoping we'll all have reason to go out and celebrate. And you too, Caryn, if you want to come along."

"Celebrate what?" Dave asked, and then he noticed for the first time the shiny department store bag clutched in Francine's hand. All at once he put two and two together. "Wait, you're going to propose to Dad?!"

"He's never going to ask me, is he?" Francine said with a wry smile. "Once bitten, you know?"

"Oh, man!" Dave threw his arms around Francine. "That's wonderful!"

"It is if he says yes," Francine agreed as she hugged him back. "I'm certainly glad to see you approve. I know I'll never be your mother, Dave, but..."

"Never mind that!" Dave said. "She broke his heart and you put it back together. Congratulations."

"Save that for if he says yes!" Francine warned.

"He will. He's afraid to ask you himself, but he will."

Caryn, to her shame, had no choice but to also hug Francine, meaning there was no way she could avoid revealing to her that she wasn't wearing a bra. She contented herself with the assumption that, given what Francine had just revealed, their secret was safe with her.

"She knows!" Caryn hissed a few minutes later when they had settled themselves at the kitchen table, with Francine now busy getting the bedroom ready for the big moment. "She must!"

"She won't tell Dad," Dave said. "Not after what she just told us."

"Still, so embarrassing!" Caryn said. "And that reminds me..." She stood up. "I'd better at least get my bra back on before your dad gets home!"

"Aren't you glad to know you can go without it? At least for a few minutes?" Dave couldn't help laughing.

"It's a good thing I already love you, you jerk," Caryn smacked his head playfully. Then, remembering how he'd told her he'd once been afraid of her, she leaned over and kissed him on the lips and let him play with her dangling breasts for a few wonderful seconds.

"She must've known!" Caryn groused on the phone to Audrey later that night, after the very festive dinner.

"So what?" Audrey asked. "Do you think they don't know you're doing it?"

"They must," Caryn conceded. "But I can't imagine they're too happy knowing we did it in their house!"

"Where else are you supposed to do it?" Audrey asked. "In a car? Outside?"

"Good point," Caryn said. "I just -- I figure they'd like to at least pretend we don't do it, and we made that impossible today. Francine must've noticed I wasn't wearing a bra, and of course she'd know why."

"There's the smell, too," Audrey pointed out. "Once you know that just-had-sex smell, you can't miss it."

"I hadn't even thought of that!" Caryn said. "I hope Dave doesn't get punished."

"Mr. McCarter's probably much too happy now to bother with that," Audrey said. "Oh, wait -- he did say yes, didn't he?"

"Of course he did!" Only now did Caryn realize she hadn't even mentioned anything that had happened after Francine got home. "He did, and then he took us all out to dinner, just like Francine wanted. Not a word about what Dave and I'd been up to. So there is that. Oh my God, you know what else?!"

"He let you and Dave drink champagne?" Audrey asked hopefully.

"No, and he made Dave drive home because he and Francine both had a lot of it. But Audrey, he wants us all in the wedding! All four of us!"

"All four of us." Audrey's reply had none of the joy Caryn was expecting.

"Yes! It'll probably be in early August, so we'll all still be in town. It'll be a perfect last hurrah, don't you think?"

"It will be if Dave and Maureen are speaking to each other by then," Audrey pointed out.

"Oh, shit, I hadn't thought of that." Over two months after the Valentine's Day dance, Maureen still hadn't forgiven Dave for falling in love with Caryn instead of herself. She'd even officially joined Dave's ex-friend Scott, whom she'd asked to the dance in a fit of pique, and his misfit friends at their lunch table. "I always figured after the dance she'd ditch Scott -- I mean, she's made her point and she knows what a jerk he really is."

"I think that's probably why she didn't do it," Audrey said. "Because we all thought she would, you know?"

"And she's Dave's oldest friend of the four of us," Caryn mused. "She was friends with him back when you hated him."

"I never hated Dave!" Audrey protested. "I just didn't really know him."

"You used to call him a nerd all the time!" Caryn reminded her. "And worse!"

"So did you," Audrey said.

"Yeah, whatever. Not like you did. Anyway, it wouldn't really make any sense to have you and me and Valerie there but not her, would it?"

"I guess. But if Maureen can't get over her grudge..."

"We can't just leave it like that!" Caryn said. "Best friends since grade school, and we might never even see each other again after August."

Audrey laughed, to Caryn's disgust. "God, you must be in love with Dave all right, Caryn. You're starting to talk like him. Mister and Missus sentimental."

"I'm serious, Audrey! Don't you want us all to be friends again before we all go off to college?"

"Of course I do," Audrey said. "But Maureen's furious at Dave, and probably at you too. Why else would she stay with that creep Scott?"

"Maybe he's great in the sack," Caryn joked.

"Oh, gross!" Audrey snapped. "Changing the subject, Caryn! Any chance you could get Dave to make up with Scott? Maybe then Maureen would get over it?"

"I doubt it, and I don't see why that'd matter to Maureen," Caryn said. "But I guess I could ask. Scott did bail Dave out that day in the bathroom."

"What day in the bathroom?"

"Oh my God, we didn't tell anyone about that!" Caryn exclaimed. "Yeah, back before the dance, Rick and a couple of his buddies attacked Dave in the bathroom, but Scott told Ms. Kendall and she broke it up before they could really hurt him. I've told him a couple of times he really needs to at least say thanks to Scott. I could remind him again."

"It's worth a try."

"I guess."

Dave, for his part, was also worrying about Maureen at that moment. But, having frittered away the afternoon in bed with Caryn, he was keeping that concern in the back of his mind as best he could as he struggled wearily to finish his homework. He had only one chapter left in that week's installment of

Hard Times

when he heard the knocking at his door and the door opening a second later, before he could respond. "Hi, Dad," he said without looking up. Francine always waited for him to say "come in". Dad never did. He swallowed hard and hoped having the windows open for six hours had gotten the smell out.

"You okay, David?" Dad asked, helping himself to a seat on the bed, which Caryn had surreptitiously made up when she'd gone back in to retrieve her bra.

"Just really busy," Dave said, finally looking up from the book, which he set down open on his desk. "But if you mean about Francine, I'm delighted. Really. You know I love her, Dad."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. Just, whatever you're feeling about her, David --"

"I told you what I'm feeling about her! I'm not repressing any resentment about Mom, if that's what you think."

Dad laughed. "Good thing I sent you to that counselor, huh?"

"Of course it is, Dad. Look, if I had a problem with Francine, I'd tell you."

"Okay, okay," Dad said. "I just wanted to check, because I didn't get any chance to talk to you about it beforehand. Did she tell you and Caryn?"

"Yes."

"Lucky I said yes, then," Dad chuckled. "Now, speaking of Caryn --"

"Dad, look --"

"Relax, David!" Dad said in a tone that invited anything but that. "Does she not want to be in the wedding? I saw the way you both looked when I said I wanted all the girls to join us."

"That's not the problem, Dad. It's Maureen. She's -- on the outs with us. I think she had a crush on me and...she's jealous."

"Of course she had a crush on you, David. Anyone could see that."

"Anyone but me."

Dad laughed. "I guess so. In any case, if she doesn't want to come, that's her business. But I do want you to let her know she's invited."

"I will if I can."

"Of course you can! You can't tell me you're not speaking at all after being friends all these years!"

"It's not that simple." Dave and his father hadn't spoken about the nightmare Scott and Brad had put him through since back around the time he fell in with the girls in the first place, and he certainly didn't want him to know now. "But I'll try, okay?"

Dad nodded. "Okay, son. Thank you." He stood up to leave, and Dave was just feeling reassured that he'd dodged a bullet when his father stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned around. "Listen, Dave, and don't give me an argument about this. I'm going to buy you some more condoms, and I expect you to use them. Understood?"

"Yeah," Dave managed to say without looking up from his book. His heart was in his throat and he was sure his face was the color of a strawberry, but at least he heard the beautiful sound of the door closing behind Dad without another word.

Valerie, at least, was delighted when Caryn and Dave gave her the news the next day. "Oh my god, that'd be awesome!" she gushed. "Just tell me she's not going to make us wear pink at least."

"I don't think that's been decided yet," Dave said. "But I'll give Francine your order."

They all laughed, but Caryn said what all three girls were thinking. "Seriously, Dave, the way your dad talks about us, he just might treat it like an order."

"I know," Dave said. "But it's Francine's day, isn't it? She'll let us know what she wants, and of course we're all going to listen, right?"

"So says the guy!" Valerie replied, though she smiled as she said it. "It's not like you'll have to wear pink."

"What do you mean by the way your dad talks about them, Dave?" asked Tom, who had become a regular at their table since his election loss.

"Well, see," Dave began somewhat reluctantly, "I was in a really bad place just before we all became friends. My mom had just run off, and --"

"Is that what happened?!" Audrey interrupted. "Dave, I always thought she died! I'm sorry!"

"It's fine," Dave said. "It was a long time ago and I probably should've told you all then -- I was just trying so hard to lose my crybaby reputation, and talking about the worst thing that ever happened to me wasn't going to help."

"I'm sorry, too," Valerie said.

"Thanks," Dave said. "Anyway, Tom, my mom had run off and then you know all about how Scott deserted me -- now you see why I don't just forgive and forget -- and when I became friends with the girls, Dad always said he saw the difference it made in me. And he loves them for it."

"That's a little dramatic, isn't it?" Valerie asked. "All we did was invite you to eat lunch with us."

"No, it was a lot more than that!" Audrey said. "Come on, no need to be all macho here, Val."

"I'd have to agree," Dave said. "You know what I always say..."

"Must be you that builds me confidently!" they all sang in unison, and Dave noticed to his amusement that Tom joined in this time.

"Anyway," Dave said. "He loves you all and he wants you all there. Including, you know..." He gestured to the misfits table in the corner, where Maureen sat defiantly by Scott's side.

"Can't believe she ditched us for him with three months to graduation," Audrey groused. "All these years..."

"Guys, it's not like we're all dropping off the face of the earth!" Valerie, always the unsentimental one of the gang, replied.

"Well, you're certainly not," Audrey shot back. "I still can't believe you won't be there with me at State. I always imagined us getting a nice little bachelorette pad, you know."

"You have to live in the dorms first year anyway," Valerie reminded her. "And maybe next year. We'll see how I like community college."

"You could've at least applied to State!" Audrey said yet again. "You might've gotten in!"

"Don't you remember my freshman year grades?" Valerie reminded her, as Caryn silently recited the lines in her head; they had all heard the exchange a hundred times or more. "I barely passed. I didn't want to deal with the rejection, okay, and I'm not even sure if college is for me at all. If I get decent grades at community college, I'll see you there, Audj! Really!"

"Rejection isn't the end of the world," Dave said.

"Yeah, life goes on!" Caryn added.

"That's different!" Valerie said. "We're not talking about Harvard or UCLA here, it's State! Who wants to say 'I couldn't even get in there?'"

"Hey!" Audrey snapped.

"That

was

rude," Caryn added. "Heck, I'm going to a state university, too. And got rejected by one."

"Okay, okay, sorry!" Valerie relented. "I guess..." She sighed and gave each of her friends a probing look in return. "I guess, now that I'm finally on the ball as far as high school is concerned, I really don't want it to end yet, you know?"

"Yeah," Dave said. "I do know. And not because I think another year would've gotten me into Harvard, by the way."

"No offense, but did you ever think you'd get in?" Audrey asked.

"No," Dave said. "But hey, aim high."

"And for me, staying in school at all is aiming high, all right?" Valerie asked.

"I'll sure miss you all next year," Tom said. "It'll be back to the misfits table for lunch, for one thing!" He laughed, but Caryn was sure she heard sorrow somewhere in there.

"Come see me at Sally's after school, then," Valerie said. "I just applied for a job there," she added proudly.

"Sally's?!" Audrey said. "Wow, you really don't want high school to end!"

"Just remember if you see me there, I'm working," Valerie declared. "I can't just hang out with you guys."

"I always figured we'd never go back there after graduation anyway," Caryn said. "Isn't that how it always works?"

"Where are we supposed to hang out for our last summer, then?" Audrey asked.

"I'd rather spend it someplace that doesn't smell like French fries anyway," Dave quipped. Everyone laughed except Valerie, who realized all at once that she'd be washing that smell off herself for at least a year.

Though there were several issues to go before the end of the year, plans were already underway in newspaper class for the grand final issue. "Any luck in scaring up old pictures for the last issue?" Dave asked when work was complete on that week's paper. "Especially any with a bunch of us together?"

"Just the freshman year JV pictures," said Meredith, the sports editor. "But I do have plenty of those."

"Yeah, the jocks don't get nearly enough press, do they?" Dave joked.

Chris, the deputy editor, laughed a little too hard like he always did at Dave's jokes. Maureen, to no one's surprise, did not. "Do you have any pictures from back then that you'd want to share, Dave?" she asked, her tone cordial but less than friendly, as it had been for weeks.

"I do have a great one of us, at the homecoming dance freshman year," Dave said with a hopeful smile, which was not returned. By "us" he meant the two of them, Caryn, Valerie and Audrey. "But I figured it wouldn't look good for the editors in chief to put only their friends on the front page."

"I'd have to agree with that, David," said Mrs. Cutchins. "Let's only use pictures of anyone in this room if we can't get enough from anyone else."

"I hate that picture anyway," Maureen grumbled.

"Really?" Dave had never heard her comment on it before, nor had she ever complained about its presence on his bookshelf at home, where she'd been to study together plenty of times.

"My hair looks ridiculous, and I never liked that dress," Maureen said.

Before Dave had the time to think of anything decent to say in response, Meredith had the good sense to bring up an idea about offering incentives for pictures from everyone, and the issue was allowed to quietly die. He lost his resolve and found it again at least a dozen times in the remaining ten minutes of class, but when the final bell rang he recalled what it meant to his father, and forced a smile. "Hey, Maureen," he said before she could grab up her backpack and leave without a word.