Author's note:
Well, dear readers, here we have a special bonus chapter of Freshers, set during Christmas of 1985. I hope you'll enjoy finding out how Tommy, Beth and Terri spent their Christmas back in Westborough-on-sea, and where a certain Mrs. Stroud - Terri's mother - is reunited with her errant daughter, and meets Tommy for the first time. Will Tommy manage to escape his encounter with Terri's overzealously puritanical mother with his genitals intact? Read on to find out!
As always, all characters are over 18, and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
Enjoy!
Freshers - A Christmas To Remember
Christmas Eve, 1985
Meeting Mrs. Stroud (Tommy)
"It'll all be fine," my mother insisted as she busied herself in the kitchen, preparing for the imminent arrival of Terri's Mum.
"So you keep saying," I replied nervously. "But your reassurances aren't really working - I mean, what if things turn ugly?"
"They won't," Mum assured me. "I'm sure Terri's mother is a rational enough woman."
"That's not how Terri describes her," I huffed in reply. "
Over-zealous puritan crackpot
, is more how she speaks of her."
"Oh, come on - I doubt she's
that
bad!" Mum scoffed as she finished preparing a plate of cucumber sandwiches. "But, if I can, I'll try and have a woman to woman chat with her. I know you're nervous, sweetheart, but your dad and I, and Beth and Terri as well for that matter, won't let her do anything to you."
"I know, I know," I groaned in answer. "But you're not the one who has to tell this woman that you took her daughter's virginity!"
"Look, worrying about it is only going to make matters worse," Mum turned and replied sternly. "She'll be here any minute, so get this stuff put out on the table, and for pity's sake stop fretting!"
"Yes, Mum," I sighed, and took the freshly prepared clingfilm covered plate of sandwiches into the dining room next door.
If I sound like I was absolutely terrified, take it from me, I genuinely was. In a short while I would have to stand in front of Terri's mother and admit to her that I'd had sex with her only daughter. Now, I know that I shouldn't be nervous, but then I'd listened to all of the horror stories Terri had told me about her mother and all the times during her childhood when she'd punished her for reading or watching things that she didn't approve of. Suffice it to say, that Terri had painted quite a vivid picture of her mother, and I'd lost count of the amount of times she'd recalled the fateful argument that saw her leaving home.
Terri, of course, hadn't been let in on what was planned for that evening, we'd all kept it from her out of fear that she might run away again if she found out. And likewise, Terri's mum had been kept in the dark as well. All she knew was that she'd been invited to tea by a nice couple who vaguely knew her through the local school parents association.
As I set the plate of sandwiches down on the dining room table along with everything else, Terri came downstairs. As far as she knew, our parents had just invited a few of their friends around, and was blissfully unaware of what we had planned. She looked wonderful in a smart black dress she'd borrowed from Beth, which complimented her blond hair and the tasteful jewellery she wore (also borrowed from my sister). It was all a far cry from her normal clothes, and as stark a contrast as could possibly be from the strip-o-gram girl that she'd become back up in York.
"How do I look?" she asked me as she gave me a quick twirl.
"Wonderful," I replied, and gave her a brief kiss.
I felt like cheekily adding that she'd look even better
without
the dress on, but it was neither the time nor the place to make such a comment so I had to bite my tongue.
"Do you know these friends of your parents?" Terri queried.
"A little," I replied, keeping the fact that only
one
person, her mum, had actually been invited. "Don't know much about them though."
Just then the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" I heard Mum call from the kitchen.
Mum dashed from the kitchen and into the hallway to let our only invited guest in. This was it - the moment of truth - from now on there was no going back. I heard Mum exchange a few pleasantries, and they were both joined by Dad a few moments later. Beth also came downstairs and joined in the greeting. Their voices were a little muffled through the wall, so Terri was still mercifully unaware of the identity of our guest. But all that was about to change.
I'll never forget that moment - the moment the door into the living room opened and Terri's mother stepped in. I'd expected Mrs. Stroud, Terri's mother, to look like some puritanical matriarch, like the woman from Grant Wood's famous painting
American Gothic.
I hadn't expected her to look so normal and dressed in such normal clothes. There was no doubt that the woman that entered the room was Terri's mother - she had the same nose, the same eyes, and her hair was the exact same vibrant blond, albeit greying a little in places.
"Mum?!?" Terri shrieked.
"Theresa!" Mrs. Stroud replied, clearly taken aback and not expecting her estranged daughter to be there.
"I'm afraid I have a little confession to make, Terri," Mum said as she followed the woman inside. "Mrs. Stroud, the reason we invited you here today is to give you and Terri an opportunity to hopefully make amends on neutral territory. I'm sorry it's come as a shock, but we had to keep the real reason from you both - I hope you can understand."
"Theresa! Oh, my beautiful girl!" Mrs. Stroud exclaimed with open arms.
If she was angry about anything, she clearly wasn't showing it - yet. Terri, on the other hand, appeared both shocked and apprehensive, leaving her mother in the middle of the room with her arms outstretched. Beth however, came to the rescue and gently pushed her friend forward. Taking the hint, Terri allowed herself to be taken into her mother's embrace. It was a genuinely touching moment, seeing mother and daughter reunited after so many weeks apart. The spell was broken rather abruptly, however.
"You stupid, stupid girl, Theresa!" Mrs. Stroud scolded tearfully. "Why on earth did you have to go running away like that? You could have been killed or something!"
"You know damned well why, Mother!" Terri answered back. "You basically called me a whore, just because I had sex with a boy on holiday!"
"He stole your virtue!" Terri's mother retorted. "Sex outside the sanctity of marriage is a sin, as well you should know, my girl!"
"Oh, for God's sake, Mum!" Terri replied curtly. "You make it sound like he raped me or something! Did you ever stop to consider that he didn't take my virginity - I
gave
it to him, willingly, because I was in love with him."
"Yes, and where is he now, this lover-boy of yours, hmm?" Mrs. Stroud fired back, with barely constrained ire in her voice. "Back in France, smoking those disgusting cigarettes and probably in bed with another slut as we speak! Don't you see, my girl? You're just another conquest to this boy - just another notch on his bedpost! Another easy foreign girl who drops her knickers and opens her legs as soon as she's out from under her mother's protection!"
"Mum!" Terri responded angrily.
"That's enough, Mrs. Stroud!" I interjected, having finally had enough of her damning rhetoric. "I won't have you talk to Terri like that!"
"Tommy, don't!" Terri said. "Let me handle her."
