The Short Happy Turning Of Emily H

Text from Tara

Emily Holly, a pretty little thing with a small, heart-shaped face, round cheeks and round wide eyes sitting above a button nose, and a cute mouth with full, pouting lips above the merest point of a chin, lay back against the fluffy round arm of the family room sofa, staring at her phone and wondering at the text from Tara. She had just turned 18 last week.

The noise of Zombie Gods rumbled over the floor, shaking the very of the room. She'd yelled at her little brother Ryan to turn it down, but he just pulled slowly from a red and white can of Pigskin Lightning, his favorite energy drink, ending the gulp with a loud burb. Emily looked away in disgust.

She'd go up to her room, but she hated surrendering any space to her brother.

So she just ignored him and tried to drown out the noise with her EarBudz.

Tara never spoke to Emily before.

She ran with a, well, unbecoming set of people, that Kristin Dale for one. Not decent.

There were so many rumors of the two of them being promiscuous. Slutty.

And they dressed that way. As much as the school would allow, which was quite a bit actually.

Short skirts, midriffs exposed, tight jeans, makeup, eyes dark with liner and mascara, glittery shadow above their piercing eyes. Tara had pale green eyes, and Kristin had bright blue eyes.

They openly laughed at both Emily and her best friend Jenny for going to church every Sunday, the silver crosses both girls wore around their necks. And when they learned Emily went to bible camp during the summer, their laughter turned into derision.

"That's wasting summer, isn't it?"

"What's it like to fuck at bible camp, anyway?"

Emily couldn't answer. She never fucked at bible camp. She didn't even like to think the word, much less say it. So she turned beet red, took Jenny arm, and walked quickly down the hall to the laughter of Tara and Kristin behind them.

Several days later, Tara apologized.

"I'm sorry we were so mean to you, Emily. Me and Kristin were just teasing you."

It didn't take long for Emily, being the kind of girl she was, to gush her forgiveness, to say it really didn't mean anything, she didn't take it to heart.

After that both Tara and Kristin played nice with Emily and Jenny.

They stopped swearing, stopped talking about sex. They started dressing a little modestly.

They lingered around Emily, talked to her openly in the halls, sometimes sat by the two girls at lunch, always complimenting and paying attention to Emily.

And Emily got used to it.

You shouldn't listen to rumors anyway, she told herself. Tara and Kristin were nice.

Then yesterday Tara asked her if she'd like to come over to her house.

"We should hang out," she said.

Emily would have turned to Jenny, but Tara had caught her by herself coming out of the girl's restroom.

Emily stared at Tara, trying to guess the girl's intent.

Tara's green eyes sparkled at her. She wore her long brown hair, highlighted with blond balayage accents, parted in the middle, two wavy sheets falling well past her shoulders. She stood a little taller than Emily, who, at 5'1" was used to looking up at the world.

Tara turned her head to look down the hall, holding head up and straight, the squarish angles of her face giving her an almost, but not quite, masculine appearance, softened and subdued by the feminine flesh of her fine, sharply defined bones. The flat profile of her face, broken only by the clear, straight incline of her nose and the round mounds of her lips, tapered to an oblate square. When she turned to face her again, the liveliness and contours of her cheeks, lips, and brows that arched in a wide, flattened arc over her green eyes surprised Emily. Although not breathtakingly alluring, Tara's expressive visage had something altogether attractive.

She really is pretty, Emily thought to herself.

Tara's dark sleeveless top, tight against her breasts, complemented her red and black plaid skirt, thigh high, exposing the bare skin of her thighs and knees before a pair of tall, shiny black leather boots engulfed her calves and feet. Emily wondered how Tara could walk in those platforms, well over the three-inch restriction set by the school administration.

A green pendant in the shape of a bird, a jade bird in flight, hung from Tara's neck on a fine silver chain. The bird floated between the hills of Tara's chest, glittering and lovely. Emily eyes focus on the green wings, the green body of the bird in flight.

"How about tomorrow after school?"

Tara's voice rolled and echoed in Emily's ears.

"Um," Emily hesitated, trying to come up with reason to say no, couldn't really find one, so finally agreed. "Okay. Send me your address. I guess I could come over for a few hours. I don't have much homework."

"Great. Give me your phone."

Tara added her name to Emily's few contacts, being sure to type her address.

"You do Instagram, Snapchat?"

"Um. No. Not really. I just. Don't," Emily stammered.

"Maybe that's what we can do tomorrow. We can set you up. I use Instagram all the time. Snapchat, too. And, well, other apps too. But we can get you started with those two."

Tara smiled a bright, friendly smile at Emily and hugged her.

"We'll have fun, you'll see."

Emily watched Tara walk slowly down the hall. Tara's entire body undulated in the confident swing of a woman with purpose. You could stand to use some of that yourself, Emily Holly thought. Then she turned in the other direction, towards her own locker.

The bell rang, catching Emily late for class.

Going to Tara's house

Emily stared at the phone.

How about tonight, the text said. Dinner with my fam?

Emily considered her reply. Then her phone rang with Jefferson's ringtone. Hesitating only briefly, she answered her boyfriend's call.

"Hey, Emily, it's me Jefferson."

"I know, you dork."

"Um, you still going with me to Stripes and Thorns tomorrow?"

Stripes and Thorns was the new Christian bookstore Jefferson had been telling her about all week.

"Of course. Why not?"

They talked for a few minutes, Jefferson gushing like a fountain then suddenly going quiet, talking himself out, his initial exuberance faded.

A few moments of silence followed. A new text from Tara popped up on the phone.

"Um, Jefferson. I need to get another call. I'll talk to you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"'Kay."

Well?

Emily quickly typed.

Sure. I need to ask my Mom, but she'll let me.

Tara looked at Emily's reply.

"Too cute," she said aloud, hopping off her bed to get ready.

Five minutes later Emily's phone rang again.

"Hey Emily, it's me Tara. Whatcha wearing?"

A strange question, Emily thought.

"Um. What I wore at school today. I didn't change. That's okay, isn't it?"

Emily looked down at her outfit. Knee-length blue and white skirt, bobby socks, white blouse with short sleeves, brown sandals on low heels.

"Sure it's okay. I just wanted to. You'll see. Also, I bought you a little something. Just a little something, is all."

This news surprised Emily. Curiosity piqued, she asked, "What?"

"Oh, just the cutest little necklace. You'll love it. It'll go great with your eyes. Bye for now."

Then Tara hung up.

Later, Emily sat at her vanity desk looking in the mirror at her silver cross.

It's kind of silly to wear it to Tara's, she thought. She'd think that I was showing off my religion. I mean, everybody at school knows. Besides, she bought me a necklace, and I'll have to try it on.

Unhooking her necklace she laid it carefully on the top of her vanity chest.

At Tara's

Emily's blue Honda Civic pulled into Tara's large driveway, one of those U-shaped turnarounds in front of a huge, vaguely Mediterranean house in a new suburban development, gated naturally. Emily guessed the house to be easily 7-bedrooms. It wasn't the largest house in the neighborhood, but it wasn't the smallest either.

Emily rang the bell on the side of the wide, double doors, made of heavy oak, stained dark, with a window on both doors, covered in wrought iron.

Tara answered, dressed in a short, baby blue skirt with white vertical stripes that billowed around her hips, showing plenty of thigh. She wore a white, sleeveless blouse, her top buttons undone to the beginning of her cleavage. Emily tried to look away, but her glance caught the jade bird hanging on its silver chain.

"You like looking at my necklace, don't you?"

The question sounded strange to Emily. She wanted to deny what almost sounded like an accusation.

"Yes," she said, almost meekly.

"You want to touch it, don't you?"

"No," she said, continuing to stare at the green bird in its stationary flight. "I mean," she gulped, "can I?"

Emily held her hand in mid-air, poised to grasp the pendant.

"Sure," laughed Tara. "It's just jewelry."

The bird hung just below the first button closing Tara's blouse, above which the girl's milky white breasts pressed together, fine blue lines of her veins giving her bosom the appearance of marble.

The backs of Emily's knuckles dragged across the surface of Tara's breasts as she caught the chain in her fingers, pulling it away from the girl to get a better look. To inspect more closely the jade piece of work, clearly a masterpiece of sorts.

"It's beautiful," Emily mouthed, setting the necklace down gently, her fingers once again brushing the bare skin of Tara's cleavage. A strange thrill passed through her, but she ignored it, and it passed.

"You're just in time for dinner," Tara smiled. "Let's go. I hope you like lasagna."

Tara extended her hand to Emily, dropped it at the last minute, started the girl by hugging her briefly, and then startled her more by grabbing her hand to lead her to the dining room.

Dinner passed quietly, without much to remark. Tara's parents started the dinner politely enough, asking Emily questions, giving her their full attention, and doting on their daughter. But they grew silent as dinner went on, almost entirely ignoring both Tara and Emily, talking to each other as if neither girl sat at the table with them nor even existed.

Tara sat next to Emily, turning to her frequently, swiveling on her hips to turn her front to Emily, who couldn't help but stare at Tara's necklace, much to the other girl's amusement.

The jade flashed green in Emily's mind, Tara's voice echoed in her head, but she couldn't pay attention to the words. She knew they were a series of statements, declarations posed as questions, questions not really requiring Emily's response, but she found herself agreeing to them anyway.

"You like wearing skirts, don't you? You like to wear skirts all the time, don't you?"

Emily nodded. It was true. She did.

I mean, jeans are good too, she thought. I like to wear jeans. I like baggy pants and sweats too, especially around the house.

"You don't like jeans, do you? They're just so constraining. You like your legs to be bare and free, don't you? You like the feel the naked air on your legs."

Emily shook her head.

She liked to wear jeans.

"I like jeans," she said, feeling proud and strong. Assertive.

Tara let the matter drop, placing her hand on Emily's bare knee.

Emily jerked her knee away, flinching. She didn't like that. She just wasn't touchy-feely. Jenny kept her hands to herself. Jenny hated hugging and touching, and Emily hated it too.

Not Tara.

Tara didn't seem to hate it at all.

Tara turned away from Emily, towards her father sitting at the other end of the table. The bird vanished, and Emily felt a sense of panic at the sudden loss. It was so beautiful, and she'd never see it again.

Suddenly Tara turned to face Emily once more, and the bird blazed green and opulent in Emily's eyes. She sighed in relief, fixing her eyes between Tara's breasts, noticing but not really understanding that Tara had unfastened another button and then another, so that the bird now floated in the midst of Tara's white flesh, enclosed in a frilly black lace peeking from the edges of her blouse.

"Eyes up here, Emily," Tara said, laughing.

Emily stammered an apology.

"It's okay if you look. Girls can check each out, can't they?"

Emily head swam with confusion. She felt hot, uncomfortable. Dizzy. A dizziness in which only two things were clear.

It was okay for her to look.

And girls could check each other out.

Tara's hand went back on Emily's bare knee, slipping partially under the hem of her skirt. Emily flinched again.

"It's okay for friends to touch each other, isn't it? You like me touching you, don't you?"

Emily shook her head, eyes remaining on the bird. She didn't like it, and it wasn't okay.

They finished the meal in silence.

Emily remained rigid, alert, nervous. Tara's hand stayed on her knee throughout most of dinner, much to Emily's dismay. When it finally lifted, Emily breathed an audible sigh of relief.

A question plagued her afterwards.

Should she have moved her hand? Or held it? Should she have held her hand on Tara's knee?

After all, friends like touching each other, don't they? Don't they?

And why did her knee feel so empty without Tara's touch?

Downloading apps, taking pictures, going home

"Give me your phone," Tara insisted as she sat on her bed in her room, patting the mattress beside her. "Sit."

Emily sat down beside Tara. Tara shifted so that their thighs touched. Emily bit her lip.

It's okay, she told herself. It's what friends do.

Tara poked around on Emily's phone and downloaded a couple of photo-sharing apps. Instagram. Snapchat. And another Emily never heard of. Girlsnaps.

She turned to Emily, sticking out her chest, emphasizing the jade bird.

Emily eyes drifted towards the jade.

"Do you want to tell me your email and password? I can sign you up that way. You want to tell me, don't you?"

Emily shrugged.

Tara's hand went back to Emily's knee.

Emily breathed deeply. It felt good, didn't it? Having Tara touch her? It's what friends did.

"So?"

"What?"

"So what's your email and password, silly?"

Emily gave them both to her. Tara typed for a while and returned Emily's phone.

"There," she said brightly, "now you have your own Instagram. Snapchat too."

Emily looked at the new apps.

"What's Girlsnaps?"

"Oh, that's for us. You know, we can send each other pics. Only girls can sign up."

"How do they know that?"

"Well, a member has to sign you up. I'm a member. It's pretty exclusive."

Tara suggested taking pics.

She encouraged Emily to take pics of her, posing, striking poses, holding her chest out, swaying a hip to one side.

They sat down on the bed again, shoulders and thighs touching as Tara asked Emily to show her the pictures.

"Now you can upload them to your Instagram. People can like them, love them, make comments, and share pictures with you."

Emily knew all that of course.

"Your turn."

Tara leapt off the bed, pulling Emily after her.

"Go strike some poses, girl."

Tara took picture after picture of Emily, calling Emily cute, calling Emily pretty, calling Emily sweet.

You like to be cute, don't you?

You like to be pretty, don't you?

You like to be sweet, don't you?

She called Emily hot.

It's fun to be hot, isn't it?

So hot, so sexy. You like being hot and sexy, don't you? Hot and sexy for your friends.

Emily's breathed heavily, puffing short, ragged huffs as if out of breath after having exercised.

She stared at Tara's jade pendant, trying to clear the thoughts from her head.

"You're hot right now, aren't you? So hot."

Emily nodded her head. She was hot, sweat beaded on her forehead.

"Undo two buttons of your blouse. She me your cleavage. You've been looking at mine all night. It's only fair to show me yours, isn't it?"

It was. It was only fair.

Emily unbuttoned her shirt, pulled the collars, and showed part of her breasts to Tara, squeezing her chest with the upper arms to make them the look fuller.

Her breasts weren't as large as Tara's. A 32 B cup.

"Your tits are so pretty, Emily. I'm so glad you like to show them to me," Tara said, standing behind her phone, continually taking pictures.

Tara unbuttoned the few remaining buttons on her blouse. Her shirt dropped open, the jade bird jiggled between her tits.

"It's kind of hot to show me your tits, isn't it?"

It was. It was kind of hot.

"My shirt's unbuttoned all the way. Shouldn't you undo your shirt all the way?"

Emily's hands rose almost on the own volition to undo the buttons of her blouse.

What am I doing, Emily thought. Should I be doing this? Is this right?

"It feels so good, Emily. You like this."

Emily did. Emily liked doing this.

Tara drooped her shoulders and shuffled her blouse, pulling one arm then the other through the armhole, letting the garment fall to the floor.

Tara continued taking pictures of Emily, suggesting poses, stooping to try different angles, getting close to Emily and aiming up at her from the floor.

All the while Emily kept her eyes on the green pendant.

"Keep your eyes on my necklace, Emily. It makes you feel so good, so hot, so sexy."

Emily didn't need to be told.

"Hold up your skirt, Emily, and show me a little skin. I bet you have the prettiest legs. Do you think I have pretty legs? You do, don't you?"

Tara had very pretty legs, Emily thought, a clear thought joining the other statements made by Tara, statements cutting through the green fog in her mind, adhering to the walls of her consciousness.

"Hold your skirt out, too. So I can take pictures up your skirt. So hot. So sexy."

Emily held her skirt out and up for Tara, going so far as raising her hem above her waist, exposing her hips and panties as Tara walked in a circle around the girl, taking pictures from every direction.

"So sexy. Showing off your hot body for your girlfriends, so hot to show off your body to your friends, isn't it? After all, we're all just girls, and you love it. You love showing off your hot body to us girls, don't you? Me. Kristin. Even Jenny. I bet she loves to see your body."

Emily nodded mutely, slowly, unthinkingly. The green bird loomed gigantically in her mind now, its great green wings sweeping over her, covering her mind in the green shadow of its form.

"I took my blouse off, Emily. You should take your blouse off, too."

Emily should. She really should.

Her hands lifted to the remaining buttons of her blouse, unbuttoning them one after the other. She slowly removed her top, staring at the bird.

She didn't need to stare at the bird, though. It filled her mind. If she closed her mind, the green bird would still fill her mind. The green bird would follow her wherever she went. The green bird would follow her home.

Emily stood in the middle of Tara's room, dressed only in a white bra and her blue and white skirt.

Tara took a few more pictures, the tossed the phone onto her bed.

Dressed only in her black lacy bra and short skirt, she walked close to Emily, reaching out to caress the girl's cheek, looking down at her as she raised her face by the chin, and looked deeply into her brown eyes.

Emily gazed into the green pools of Tara's eyes. So green. So pretty.

"If you want me to take off my bra, Emily, you'll have to take off yours first. That's fair, isn't it? If you want to see my tits, you have to show me yours first."

It was. It was fair.

If she wanted to see Tara's tits, she'd have to show Tara her tits first.

Did she, though? Did she want to see Tara's tits?

"You've been staring at my chest all night long. You must really want to see them. My tits. You really want to see them, don't you Emily."

Emily nodded slowly, in a daze of confusion and mounting lust.

She did. She did want to see Tara's tits.

Emily reached behind her to clasp her bra, which fell quietly to her feet.