A mother introduces her daughter's best friend to a woman's touch.
*
"You got in pretty late last night, Honey," Michelle called out to Karen as she passed by the partially opened door to her room. The nineteen year old didn't respond to her mother's comment. Sensing that something was not quite right, Michelle turned in the hallway and went back to Karen's room. Slowly opening the door further, she asked solicitously "Honey? Are you okay?" She looked at the young woman sitting on the edge of the bed, head down and shoulders quivering. She was wearing one of Karen's nightgowns.
"Sally! What's wrong?" Michelle was alarmed. "Where's Karen?" Sally,a year older than Karen, was her long-time best friend who was normally such an easy going, cheerful young woman. To see her saddened like this troubled Michelle.
Between her sobs, Sally quietly cried "I came home with Karen last night after we left Mary's. When Karen left for work this morning, she said I could stay for awhile to get myself together. I'm so mixed up, Mrs. Quinn. I think I have fouled everything up completely!"
"Honey, what happened? Why are you crying? Whatever did you foul up? Did you have a fight with Karen or Sean or what?"
"I might as well have had a fight with her or Sean. Maybe it would solve all my problems if I did," Sally replied. Sean had been her boyfriend since grade school. They had been paired to do an eighth grade science project together and had been together ever since.
Putting her arm on Sally's shoulder Michelle gently said "Tell me what's wrong, Honey."
"You know I love Sean, Mrs. Quinn. I really do. We've been so close for the last four years and I don't know what I would do without him, but..." Sally let the sentence trail off into nothingness.
"It's hard to talk about this, but you're like a second mother to me and I know you're the only one I could talk to about this. Sean and I are intimate with each other. We're always really careful and always use a condom as well as my birth control pills."
"That's a very mature attitude, Sally," Michelle replied. "But, please call me Michelle. I think we've known each other long enough for that," she said as she hugged the girl. "As friends of Karen's, I've watched all of you kids grow up, Honey. Now that all of you are in college and are mature enough for an adult relationship like that it is perfectly natural to want to be close physically. But, what was the fight about?"
"We didn't fight. Sean doesn't even know I'm upset. A small group of us went over to Mary's last night and we were all having a really great time dancing and eating pizza and just hanging out. At one point, Sean and Mike and Charley went into the den to play pool while we girls stayed in the kitchen. We were kind of dancing around and, you know, just playing and laughing when Mary asked me to come with her up to her room because she wanted to show me a new blouse she had just bought at Nordstrom. Karen and Rita stayed in the kitchen looking at photos on Rita's phone."
"I went upstairs with Mary. She brought the blouse she had bought out from her closet to show me. It was really pretty and kind of sexy looking so I asked her to model it. She took off her tee shirt and put it on. I don't know why I said it, but I told her it would probably look even better if she wore it without a bra, so she asked me to unsnap her bra and she took it off and put the blouse back on. Michelle, I honestly don't know why I did it but I reached out and kind of rubbed her nipples that were showing under the fabric. I immediately felt them get hard and Mary just looked at me. I pressed into her breast and moved my hand over her nipple. We just kind of stared at each other for what seemed like ten minutes and then I kissed her. Michelle, I KISSED her! Like she was Sean or some guy! God, I was waiting for her to slap me or scream at me or something but she didn't. She just pressed herself tighter against me and kissed me back. It..., it felt so natural. Then she reached down and started rubbing me through my jeans real gently and, God, I wanted to just touch her and feel her but all I could do was run from her room. I asked Karen if I could go home with her and we both left."
"I still haven't told Karen why I was so upset. As we left I told Rita to tell Sean that I had to leave because I was cramping badly."
"Am I gay, Michelle? I really, really wanted to touch Mary, your know, sexually, just like I touch Sean. How can I do that? How sick am I to want to do that?" Sally started whimpering again. "I don't think I can ever face Mary again. Or Karen. Or Sean."
"Sally, there is nothing wrong with you," Michelle said comfortingly. "You are not bad or weird or perverted or anything of the sort. I think that, as humans, all of us are just wired that way. We are able to love both men and women. Emotionally and sexually, I mean. It's only some of us who realize that and enjoy the love of both sexes." There was silence in the room save for the quiet sniffles of Sally.
"You said all of us, Michelle. What do you mean? Have you ever felt this way?"
"Sally, as a young woman you're old enough for me to tell you this and for you to understand. Yes, I have and I do. Karen's father and I acknowledged that fact years ago and, in our marriage, we have an agreement that allows me to love other women as well as loving him."
Sally looked at Michelle with mascara smeared eyes. Her tears were abating now and, as she wiped her eyes, her makeup transferred to her fingers. She took a tissue from the nightstand and dabbed at her eyes and wiped the mascara from her fingers. "Karen has never said anything about that. Does she know?"
"Karen knows, Honey. I think she feels that it is something that is quite personal and that is probably why she has never said anything to you about it."
"How do you love other women?" Sally asked, looking at her with questioning eyes.
Michelle rubbed Sally's shoulders, comforting her. "Honey, women have a special way they like to be loved and sometimes a man just can't touch you the way another woman can." Her hand softly massaged Sally's neck and arms as she spoke. Sally tilted her head onto Michelle's soft breasts. Her eyes were closed and she felt safe in the warmth of the touch of her friend's mother. Michelle's hand went from Sally's arm and onto her flannel covered breast. She gently moved her hand over the firm flesh of Sally's breast lying just beneath the thin fabric. Michelle could feel her nipple tighten and stiffen as she moved her hand over it.