Author's Note: Thank You to everyone for their feedback and comments, I really do appreciate them. What follows is Part Two, and while I am waiting for it to post, I will be working on Part Three. Hope You enjoy!!
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After the chance encounter with her former student, Brenda had left the bookstore and finished the few errands she had to get done before going home. She picked up her dry cleaning, went to the drug store, then stopped and picked up some Chinese takeout.
When she got home, she went about putting away the things she had with her, then sat down with her dinner and began looking over the homework papers from her students. After looking over the same paper for the third time, she sat back with a frustrated sigh. She was finding it difficult to concentrate on the papers. Her mind kept drifting back to the bookstore.
Bethany had not changed much in the two years since graduation. Her dirty-blonde hair was a little longer, and she appeared to have "bulked up" a bit, no doubt from the volleyball practice and other health classes she was taking now. Overall, though, she was still the same beautiful young woman she had taught in high school.
Brenda loved teaching. It was all she had ever wanted to do. However, her chosen career often conflicted with her lifestyle. In a bigger city, the story might have been different. But in this small community, she just didn't think that the parents would accept the idea of their children being taught by a lesbian. She never advertised the fact that she loved women, and would even go out on the occasional date with men, but for the most part, everyone just considered her to be a shy, single, spinster of a woman. Anytime she was asked about when she would find someone to marry, she would just blush and look shyly away.
Because she loved and needed her job, she kept her secret. Only a very few and select friends outside of her family knew about it. Her family had become very supportive since she came out to them. It hadn't been at Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything like they showed on TV. She had been home visiting her folks for a few days shortly after she received her teaching degree and they were watching some movie on TV when her sister had made the comment that the male star was "soooo hot" and how she would love to meet him someday and "rock his world." Linda had been seventeen at that time. Her brother, John, had laughed at her, telling her that with her tomboy body, the actor probably think she was some little gay boy, as opposed to a woman who wanted to "rock his world." Linda had told him to shut up and stuck her tongue out at him. John suggested that she use that tongue on the female lead, saying she would enjoy it since she had come out as a "carpet muncher." All Linda said at this was "ewwww, gross."
"It's not all that gross, sis," Brenda said, smiling at their playful teasing. Everyone stopped talking and looked at her, their eyes boring into her. She could feel the heat and blood rising in her face.
"H-how would you know that, Bren?" her brother had asked.
"How do you think?" Brenda had relied, trembling a bit as the adrenaline flooded her veins. Her heart was thudding hard in her chest, and she could hear it in her ears.
"You've done it?" Linda asked, a slight shock of horror in her voice.
"Many times," Brenda said in a small voice, looking over to her parents with tears welling up in her eyes.
Her parents looked shocked. Her mothers jaw had literally dropped from the news, and both of them had wide eyes. Brenda was starting to feel very small and a little dirty, like she had done something vile and sinful.
"B-but you can't be gay," her mother whispered. "You just can't."
"Now, Wanda, she didn't say that," her father had said, always trying to be the peacemaker. "She just said--"
"I know what she said, Bert," her mother said, her pale face flushed with anger. "But she hasn't denied it yet either. Is it true young lady? Are you one of...those?"
"Yes, ma'am," Brenda had said in a small, tight voice. Her throat was closing and she could feel the tears starting to fall down her cheek. "I'm a lesbian."
"How could you do that?" her mother said accusingly, her own tears starting to fall. "What did we do wrong in your upbringing?"
