Day 1, Back Together Again With Brenda
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Who can ever forget their first day at college? After the hustle and bustle of moving in, getting everything settled, saying goodbye to your parents; suddenly it hits you - you're alone, more alone than you've ever been in your life. Well, not quite. There's your roomie - that wonderful person we all get to either love or hate. In my case, it turned out to be this smiling freckled redhead who introduced herself to me as Brenda.
Brenda and I got along fantastic from the start even though we were quite different in many ways. She was the perky redhead with freckles whose great boobs (ok, so I was a little jealous about those!) and whose looks were already catching the eyes of the upperclassmen. One of the unusual things about Brenda compared to the rest of the girls in the dorm was that her family lived only about ten miles from school. As she explained it, her parents wanted her to stay in the dorms during her freshman year so she could have her "college life experience" and then live at home for the remaining three years (living in the dorms IS expensive). As things turned out, I doubt they had a clue what "life experiences" she would be having. If they had, they probably would have thought twice about the arrangement!
Brenda was my "first" girl-girl experience. OK, technically my mom and Aunt Linda were, but when it came to girls my age and "non-family", Brenda was my first. Although Brenda never did find out about my incestuous relationships at home, eventually I helped her to realize one of her long-time dreams - to be with her older brother. He was married with two boys at the time but as it turned out, HE had the same fantasies growing up about his sister so all it took was for me to act as the catalyst to get them started.
Although we only lived together for one year, Brenda will always have a special place in my heart and we keep in touch, telling each other's about our lives after college and such - or so I thought. I guess since I never disclosed my family secrets to her, I couldn't say much when I learned she hadn't been keeping me up to date on all her issues either, although they were quite different from mine.
"Hey Kelly, can we talk?"
It was Brenda on my cell phone. Damn, it was all of like 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning. What the heck was she doing calling me now? It had better be good, that was all I knew as I tried to wipe the sleep from my eyes.
"I'm getting married."
THAT woke me up. I sat upright in bed, my eyes wide open as I listened to find out more about this revelation. Married? Heck, I didn't even know she had a serious boyfriend!
"Wow, that's cool Brenda," I said, trying to collect my wits as I digested this new information. "When's the wedding?"
"Saturday."
Obviously I had heard her wrong so I asked her to say it again.
"That's right, you heard me, seven days from now."
A million questions popped into my head. Where was she? Where was the wedding to be held? Most of all, why the hell was it being held on such short notice?
"I'm in the Florida Keys now and that's where the wedding's going to be," she started to explain, "Remember all the dolphin stuff I use to be into? Well, I work for a dolphin rescue group down here now along with Gary."
I learned that Gary was the guy she was marrying. He was a few years older than her and the two of them worked close together doing whatever they did with the dolphins. Apparently, they had been working a little TOO close together and Brenda was pregnant.
"Oh Brenda, how could you let THAT happen?"
No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I wanted to pull them back. That was the LAST thing she needed to hear. It was the sort of thing your mother said to you, not your best friend. I tried to apologize but she took it well.
"Hey, it's OK. I know I screwed up - literally, but I want to have the baby. We just want to be married as soon as possible so it won't look so bad for the baby later on. I figure we can always tell people it was premature."
Brenda came from a highly religious family and the fact that an abortion wasn't even mentioned as an option was no surprise to me. Well, if she loved the guy then I just hoped it all worked out for her.
"I know it's short notice - can your dad pay to get you down here? I want you to be a bridesmaid."
Wow, a bridesmaid! I'd never been one in my life as it seemed all my friends were still putting off getting married - me included. What about a dress? How did this all work?
"Don't worry, we're planning a beach wedding at his parent's house. They have a place right on the ocean. I thought we could wear bikinis - wouldn't that be wild?"
We talked some more and she told me all about Gary and his family. He was 26, a few years older than Brenda. He had just a brother, Paul, who was two years older than him and was going to be his best man. Her parents had lived in the Keys for over thirty years and from the way she described it, had a beautiful home that would be perfect for the wedding. His relatives all lived in Florida so they could make it easily.
Brenda's family was scrambling for tickets but she said her parents would make it along with David, her brother but not the rest of his family due to the cost of the last-minute flights. The other girls in the bridal party were friends from her old home back in Ohio and would also be flying down for the wedding.
Well, what could I say? There really was no choice in the matter. No matter what it cost, I was going to make my friend's wedding and that was that. It wasn't hard to convince my dad to buy me the tickets. I'd learned many years before when the best time was to ask him for things like that - in the middle of a BJ.
I flew first class.
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My flight was to arrive on Tuesday which would probably get me to their place sometime late afternoon or early evening by the time we drove from the airport to the Keys. I was thrilled as I had never been to South Florida. Heck, I'd never been to Florida period except for a trip to Disneyworld with my parents when I was eight.
Brenda had everything planned out. Wednesday would be sort of a fun day, maybe we'd go swimming or even snorkeling, just sightseeing. Thursday was the bachelorette party and she said she had no idea what that was going to be about as her friends were keeping it a state secret. Friday was rehearsal with the wedding on Saturday. Being they planned to leave on their honeymoon immediately after the wedding, I scheduled my return flight for Sunday.
The flight down was rather uneventful. It was the first time in my life that I've flown alone, always with my parents in the past. All my friends teased me about joining the "Mile High Club" but the flight was packed and there was no chance of anything remotely like that happening. I arrived in the Miami airport and was fortunate to find all my luggage was there waiting for me. Walking outside the luggage area, I heard a familiar voice!
"Hey Kelly!! Over here! Oh my god, you made it."
I turned towards the voice and there she was, my old Freshman roomie, Brenda. God she had changed in the past couple of years! I don't mean in a bad way either. With her red hair and freckles she had always tended to shy from the sun but obviously that wasn't possible down here. She was now so tan that her freckles were barely visible and even though her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, it looked even redder than ever. I'd always been envious of her breasts but now they looked even better than ever! Damn she was built like a Mack truck! Whatever she was doing was keeping her in shape as she looked sexy and curvy as hell. She certainly wasn't showing any signs of being pregnant, let me tell you.