The Usual Disclaimer: This is a work of fantasy. All characters featured in sexual situations are over 18. The characters in these stories are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons living, dead or undead is purely coincidental. Do not try this at home.
*****
"Strict but fair" was the way she had always thought of her parents. Over the past two years, though, Maddie had come to question that assessment along with almost everything else she had taken as gospel her entire life. It was not any single event that had caused her to reassess her life. Instead, it was a hundred little things that began to add up in her razor-sharp mind. Her entire self-image was eroding away.
She had come to accept that she was a "geek." For years she had dismissed the idea out of hand. She had a towering intellect, and believed her mother when she said that other people were merely jealous or intimidated when they called her mean things like that. Obviously, those feebleminded individuals didn't even know what they were talking about. The term referred to carnival and sideshow performers; it was a variant of "freak."
Maddie had felt a little sick when she realized that it was she who was mistaken. The term had evolved into something else entirely, and she fit the criteria of the modern definition perfectly. She wore thick glasses, and had her entire life. She was a voracious reader, and consumed fat textbooks and technical manuals simply because she wanted to learn. In addition, she loved science fiction. Not only did she eagerly watch every
Star Wars, Star Trek, Hitchhiker,
and
Dr. Who
movie and television series, but she also read all of the books and graphic novels that delved deeper into those rich, fictional universes.
And...she was still a virgin. Even though she was closing in on her twentieth birthday, she had never so much as masturbated. To most people, the idea would have seemed ludicrous. In an age when most kids were exploring their sexuality in their early teens, Maddie was truly an outlier. She was busy teaching herself vector calculus and learning the rudimentary rules of quantum mechanics when other girls were excited to get their first bra. Maddie only wore a bra because her parents insisted that it was necessary.
Usually when her parents would tell her that she needed to do something, they would also patiently explain why it was necessary. "It is considered crude for a woman to display her nipples in public," her father had sighed. "I understand that a brassiere is not a comfortable garment, but it is the accepted societal norm."
He had been right about that. Her brassieres were not comfortable at all. Only very recently had she gone to a shopping mall without her parents for the first time. She was stunned to see the section of women's underwear in the department store. Those brassieres were completely unlike anything she had ever worn. They actually looked pretty and comfortable, although they seemed awfully risqué at the same time. That store did not even carry the rigid white style of bra that she had worn since age fourteen—and was wearing at that moment.
At the time, she figured that the store was appealing to the prurient, shameful elements of their customer base. She had seen it elsewhere, certainly. One of her favorite television shows,
The Big Bang Theory
, often devolved into low-brow sexual humor. However, after taking note in several other shopping outlets that all of those stores seemed to have a similar selection of bras and panties, it was just one more niggling point that she could not fully explain.
Her parents had sat her down once and explained about the "birds and bees" but she had already read enough anatomy texts that she understood how all of that worked. They asked that she not date until she was older, and she readily agreed. That one they did not have to explain. She did not want to do anything as foolish as getting pregnant before she had graduated.
Many things that were rites of passage for most young women, Maddie had dismissed as foolish and wasteful. She had no interest in going to dances or even prom when she was in high school. Her parents were relieved that she was so sensible. After high school, she again did the sensible thing, remaining at home with her family while attending the local State University. It was not far from where they lived, after all, and it had as rigorous an academic program as more expensive schools further away.
A year ago, her parents had bought her younger brother a car. He had asked for one, and they had set conditions for him to get it. It jarred Maddie when they bought the car before Todd had met the conditions of their agreement. Her mother had explained, "We had earned points on our credit card that could be used on the down payment. Those points were going to expire, so we went ahead and got him the car early. It actually saved us a lot of money."
It made sense, but it was a departure from what Maddie expected from her parents. One of the conditions was that Todd was supposed to bring up his grades. After he had the car, his grades did not improve. Maddie expected her parents to take the car away until his grades improved, but they never did.
When her brother turned eighteen, there were more little incidents that bothered Maddie. He was allowed to have girls over when their parents weren't home. Their parents gave him money and encouraged him to shop for his own clothes. They had never allowed her to go shopping without them. In fact, they had never given her allowance money to her directly; they would pay for things that they approved of after she had earned them.
Recently, her mother had gone into her brother's room while he had a girl in there. She heard Todd cry out, "Mom!" Their mother had beaten a hasty retreat from his room, apologizing as she closed the door. She was blushing furiously, making Maddie wonder what she had seen.
After that incident, Todd was careful to lock his door whenever he took a girl in there. Maddie could hear curious noises coming from her brother's room, and it was starting to bother her. So many things were not adding up. It wasn't that she wanted a car, or wanted to date boys, but her parents had never really given her the option. It struck her, intellectually speaking, as inherently unfair.
One evening, after her brother and his girlfriend emerged from his bedroom, the girl had turned to Todd and murmured, "That was incredible." She had then stood on tiptoe and kissed Todd on his cheek. That piqued Maddie's curiosity. What were they doing in there that was so incredible?
Two days after that, it was Friday. Maddie had no Friday classes that semester. One of her parents always dropped her off at the University on class days, but on Fridays she stayed home alone. She took a break from studying in her room, and wandered out to the kitchen to grab something to eat. She sat at the dining room table and munched on her sandwich and chips, and her eyes came to rest on the closed door of Todd's bedroom.
What had they been doing in there?
