ANYTHING YOU NEED
My roommate, Heather, was an enterprising young woman. When she heard her friends Christopher and Nathan were looking for a woman to donate an egg and carry a child for them, she volunteered to do it for half as much as they were prepared to spend on a more qualified, traditional surrogate. Most surrogates have to take a pregnancy of their own to term prior to acting as a professional surrogate. Chris and Nathan liked the idea, though, of spending $15,000 rather than $30,000, and, hopefully more importantly, they liked the idea of receiving genetic material from their close (and undeniably beautiful) friend Heather. And so it was decided.
My name is Jenny, by the way. Heather and I were both 20 years old at the time, juniors in college who had just moved off-campus a few months before the start of this adventure through pregnancy. As I said up top, Heather was very enterprising, a real go-getter. She liked the idea of doing a favor for her good friends who couldn't do it for themselves, and she loved the idea of rather passively making a bunch of money. To boot, she felt that her drinking days had pretty much run their course by 2+ years into college; it would be no great loss on that front. I made a point of questioning her regarding her feelings about pregnancy itself; she shrugged and said "Everyone does it." I suppose to her that suggested that it would be easy. Personally, I was under no such misconception. Naturally, though, I wanted to support my friend and roommate.
"Anything you need, just ask," I told her once the whole thing was set in stone. In spite of her idea that this all would be a cakewalk, she seemed very happy to have someone close in her corner. I'd be a support person sleeping in the same one-bedroom apartment as she, a tangible comfort to her. I was very happy to do this: I loved Heather, and thought she was being remarkably brave and generous.
Heather underwent hormone treatments in preparation for IVF treatments. She was an emotional nightmare for about 2 weeks. I promised her I wouldn't write too much about that brief period of time, though. The first attempt at egg retrieval and fertilization was successful; she was pregnant a mere 6 weeks after hearing of her friends' desire to become parents.
Another 6 weeks later, morning sickness began. Heather seemed somewhat complacent during her first month-and-a-half of pregnancy, borderline arrogant about the fact that she had been impregnated and felt completely fine. Morning sickness acted as a brutal reality check. This was the point at which Heather began taking me up on my offer of help. "Anything you need..." I'd promised. That guarantee would certainly be tested.
The "morning" label was a real misnomer: Heather was sick nearly 24/7 for weeks. I cleaned vomit from most of the surfaces in our apartment. I dispensed saltines and ginger ale multiple times daily. I regularly guided her to the toilet when she couldn't do anything but momentarily delay puking. I'm not regularly squeamish or particularly germaphobic, but it was kind of a lot of vomit to deal with; I cleaned our place obsessively.
Another early pregnancy symptom was Heather's breasts swelling. I thought I'd noticed her usually modest rack becoming a little more substantial; she confirmed it, complaining of their increased tenderness as they grew. One morning, I watched her massage them in the early morning light while she thought I was still sleeping. When she took her bra off, I could only assume the level of contrast between her bosom's skin and the color of her nipples was another pregnancy byproduct: it was quite the extreme difference. I watched her massage her newly-grown chest and gently rub her darkened nipples for a solid 5 minutes.
I just could not seem to avert my gaze, risky as observing my exposed friend may have been. The view gave me certain feelings toward Heather with which I was heretofore unfamiliar. They were mostly localized to my crotch, it seemed. I was alarmed by the whole situation, never having had so much as a twinge of lesbian feeling prior to observing Heather rub her pregnant tits. What did all this suggest about me, about my relationship with my roommate? I managed to watch extensively and escape uncaught, luckily. So, I'd at least be able to sort through these new feelings of attraction on my own.
Heather's belly began to swell at around 15 weeks into the pregnancy. It was hard to keep my eyes off this physical growth, too; they were usually glued to her burgeoning midsection whenever I thought I could get away with a stolen glance. For her part, she couldn't seem to keep her hands off her growing bump. She rubbed and played with her new belly near-constantly; I was somewhat envious of this, desperately wanting to get my own hands on it. I would soon get my opportunity.
My roommate complained extensively about her developing soreness, located especially in her swelling belly and strained lower back. On one pained moan-filled morning, Heather finally asked for my help in alleviating the discomfort. She sat facing away from me on the couch and pulled her shirt up a bit so I could rub her bare back. I focused on the lower part just as requested, stopping just short of the butt crack Heather wasn't aware she was flashing me. The moans escaping her lips quickly turned from pained to pleasured. "Oh my God, Jenny," she managed with what breath remained, "that feels so amazing." I kept going, and she kept moaning. It was...intriguing, let's say. "Would you mind..." she began after a few minutes, stopping just short of making another request.
"Whatever you need, Heather. What were you going to say?" I prodded.