Chapter One

 

Teagan lay on her side, head propped up on her elbow as she used her other hand to work the mouse. She was wearing a thong and the briefest, thinnest of tank tops with no bra. It was hot in the house, and this was her passive-aggressive way of protesting the temperature.

She had several tabs open on her laptop, including Snapchat, Instagram, X, and a job site she was browsing. Spotify was also open in the background playing music on a nearby speaker. Occasionally, she muted it to watch a video someone had posted.

She also had YouTube open, with the picture of a Republican politician in the middle of a speech. She wasn't interested in what he or any other lying politician had to say. But she knew her mother despised him. If she stopped by, and Teagan had time, she would open that tab and start it playing.

Her laptop was sitting on a small food tray on the bed in front of her, along with an ice-filled glass of diet Coke (with straw), and an open bag of popcorn. Her mother heavily disapproved of both of them. First, on health grounds, and second because her dental care was still on her parents' insurance and the Coke was bad for her teeth.

She had a minor point, but Teagan really didn't care. Let her turn the fucking air conditioning on and she'd dress properly and wouldn't need to drink so many sodas. Anyway, her teeth were fine. She brushed, flossed, and used mouthwash religiously.

The door to her room was open. She was hoping her mother passed by. She knew seeing her like this would irritate her. After all, Teagan was young and beautiful, with a firm, slender body. She knew she had a great ass. What was more, she had inherited her breasts from her father's side of the family. Her mother was not completely flat-chested but certainly didn't have breasts as big as Teagan.

Plus, she was older now and while not unattractive just couldn't compete with a nineteen-year-old girl at the peak of her sexual attractiveness. She was also constantly fighting with weight and doing diets. Teagan knew it irritated her that she could eat almost anything she wanted and not gain weight. Of course, Teagan exercised a lot. And she also seemed to get her metabolism from her dad, too.

Teagan was well aware, by now, that a lot of middle-aged women resented girls who looked like her. While she might grudgingly admit her mother was probably proud of her, she knew she was completely immune to that sentiment.

Teagan liked the idea she might make her jealous. But she would settle for merely irritating her. She liked pretending she had a much more active love life than she actually did. Her mother had such a stick up her butt about sex. It was a wonder she'd managed to have any kids.

Her mom had been warning her about boys and getting pregnant since she was twelve. She was sooooo sick of it! If only she could find a decent job and get the hell out. Unfortunately, the cost of housing was ridiculous, and that included rents.

At nineteen, the idea of actually buying a place wasn't even visible on the horizon. She doubted she'd ever have the money for that given the way the economy was sucking. She resented her parents being able to buy such a nice house when they were young. Well, her father had bought it. Well, he and his brother. Then her father bought his brother out.

That was back when prices were reasonable. They sure weren't anymore. Which was why she was stuck still living at home almost two years after she'd graduated from high school.

She idly combed her heavy bangs back. They were getting annoying. She really wanted to cut her hair back to something easier to manage. She'd been strongly thinking about it. Until her mother had told her that was what she should do. Shorter hair would be more practical, she'd said.

Teagan hated the word practical almost as much as she hated the word realistic, both of which her mother used constantly.

When her mother had told her that she was soon not going to be a teenager and should cut her hair so it would be more practical and adult and so it wouldn't take so much effort to take care of she'd told her she liked it long so men could pull on it when they were in bed.

Her mother hadn't mentioned it again.

The funny thing was that she figured her mother likely thought she was just saying that to be a bitch, which was certainly true. But what she'd said was also true. Unfortunately, it didn't happen nearly as much as she pretended.

Sadly, men, in bed, were generally a disappointment. She didn't mind sex when it was with a guy she really liked. But with a guy she'd only dated a few times, it was just... uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally. It was messy, often painful, and sometimes just plain awful.

They really ought to have a class to teach guys how to have sex. Because most of them weren't at all good at it.

Then again, they didn't need to be. Guys had so few demands in sex she could just lay there and they'd be happy. And they always came. Easily. And usually quickly. No wonder they never bothered to get good at it. They didn't need to. Especially if they were good-looking. And with her looks, why would she settle for a guy who wasn't good-looking?

Maybe if they weren't all so homophobic they could practice kissing with their friends the way girls did. Yeah, right! As if that would happen! She'd laugh to see some of those jocks from high school asking their buddies to practice kissing with them!

Guys put so little effort into sex! Meanwhile, she and her girlfriends constantly talked about how to make sex better for them, read articles on the internet, and did things like getting their tongues pierced so they could perform oral sex better. She slid her tongue out so the stud slid between her lips and felt a little glow of smug satisfaction about her own abilities in that department.

Oral sex was often a way of disarming guys - so to speak - so their hunger for sex wasn't so annoying. Sometimes, they could even act like human beings when they were calmed down by oral sex.

Needless to say, her mother didn't like her tongue piercing. Or her other piercings. But she never said anything about them. She was a prude, but she was also an earnest progressive who felt everyone should be allowed to express themselves and have full control of their bodies. Especially women.

Which made her kind of schizophrenic because she was also a feminist and heavily disapproved of women wearing anything remotely revealing. Women, she insisted, should look to be respected for their minds and characters, not their bodies. And certainly not for their oral sex skills!

Teagan understood the concept. She just thought it unrealistic. Unless a guy thought a girl was hot, he wasn't going to approach her or want to go out with her, to begin with. So, her fine character and intelligence would never be revealed to him.

Her father understood. He was a marketing executive, after all. And he was working overtime tonight, or she wouldn't be dressed like this with the door open.

Her phone started playing a tune from Mozart and she opened it.

"What time am I picking you up, loser?" the text said.

"About Nine," she replied.

"Wear something sexy."

"Everything I wear is sexy because I'm wearing it," she replied.

She got a LOL in reply.

She didn't expect much to come out of tonight's party. Just because they were a bunch of college guys going didn't mean they'd behave any differently or were any more intelligent or sophisticated than the high school guys she used to date. A couple of years didn't make much of a difference in men, she'd learned.

"Teagan!"

She smirked and ignored her mother's call. She stayed positioned with her back to the door as she brought up the tab of the Republican. Then she put a pair of EarPods in her ears. She heard her mother calling again, then heard the sound of her feet on the stairs and started the video while pretending to be fascinated with whatever he was saying.

Whatever he was saying didn't matter since she'd muted the video.

"Teagan!" her mother called from the door.

She half rolled over in a fashion meant to communicate she was surprised.

"Didn't you hear me!?"

She took one of the EarPods out and looked at her mother quizzically.

"I was watching this guy Morgan talking about how dangerous having all those addicts on the streets was and how they should all be locked up."

Her mother scowled.

She had short brown hair and was wearing a loose T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

"He's an idiot. Why are you watching that!?"

"It came up after I watched this video of all the homeless people causing stores to close down."

"Homeless people aren't causing stores to close down! Corporate greed is causing stores to close down! Guys like him who keep cutting taxes and won't pay to have proper social services are what are closing stores down!"

"I thought shoplifting was doing it."

Her mother glared at her. "I don't have time for this. Come downstairs and get your laundry so I can put mine in."

"You could have gotten it, you know."

"Why should I do that when it's your laundry and you're home doing nothing? I have other important things to do. Now move. Now!"

Her mother backed out without commenting on the way Teagan was dressed - or not dressed, much to her disappointment. She smirked and rolled over, then went downstair as she was. Her breasts wobbled more in the tank top, but they were fairly firm for their size. She just had to make sure the studs in her nipples didn't catch on the fabric of her top.

This time it was a bit more than her mother could keep silent about.

"Do you have to walk around the house in your underwear?" she demanded.

"Why not? No one's home. And it's hot because you won't turn on the air conditioning."

"It's not hot. It's just a little humid. You won't melt. And using more electricity contributes to CO2 emissions. Do you want the world to burn up?"

"The world isn't going to burn up. It's fine. It won't care if you turn on the air-conditioner," Teagan said, rolling her eyes.

"Everyone has to do their share," her mother said, turning away.

Teagan made a face and gathered her things from the dryer.

"And put my stuff in the dryer!" her mother called.

Teagan would have liked to have complained but she was standing right here.

She sighed and opened the washer, then started transferring her and her father's things into the dryer. She smirked at one of her mother's white bras. It was a thirty-two-B. Teagan herself was a thirty-Six-C. She tossed it all into the dryer and set it, then took her own basket upstairs.

She had a lot of it since it had been a sweaty week, both inside and out. Her own underwear went into a drawer, her socks into another. Then her T-shirts, tanks, and halters in a third. Her shorts and skirts went into a fourth, with everything but the socks neatly folded. Those were carefully sorted and rolled up together.

She checked the time on her phone, then went into the bathroom and started putting on some makeup and doing her hair. She put her lipstick on carefully, then went back to her room and put on her strappy, high-heeled sandals. Next came her short black skirt. She folded it at the top to make it shorter, then put her belt around it to hide it.

Next came the new top she'd bought recently. It was black and had long sleeves, but the place would be air-conditioned, so that didn't matter as much. The whole front of the thing was missing, though. It was held together by four straps, each about an inch wide. The straps had silver buckles and notches and when pulled sufficiently tight would draw the two sides of the halter together far enough that they at least covered her breasts to just past the nipples.

The top strap was at the base of her neck. The lowest one was a little below her breasts. The second two straps cut across the middle of her breasts and the top. The top one served to squeeze her breasts down a bit, even as pulling on the sides of the halter squeezed them in toward each other. The other one across the middle of her breasts would hide her nipples if they peeked out.

It was a very sexy top, and looked at logically, it didn't really reveal any more skin than her bikini top or say a low-cut dress. It just showed the insides of her breasts as opposed to the tops. Well, it showed the tops too... and the bottoms... but only a bit less than half.

She shrugged and posed for herself in her full-length mirror.

Oh, yeah, she thought in satisfaction. I'm hot!

She grabbed her smaller purse and checked her phone.

"Better be there cuz I ain't waiting," was the last text from Quinn said.

She wasn't worried. Quinn would wait.

She gave her hair a little brush with her fingers to push the bangs aside, then smirked at her image as she pushed her chest out.

"I'm here!" the phone said.

She gave herself a final check, then grabbed her purse and headed downstairs.

"I'm going out!" she called.

"Where? And when will you be back?"

"A party. Don't know."

"Where?!"

She rolled her eyes and turned for the kitchen.

"It's at a house somewhere. Quinn knows, not me."

"Quinn is an airhead."

"You say that about me, too."

"Only when I'm - ." Her mother stopped when she saw her.

"You are NOT wearing that outside!"

"Why not?"

"Teagan! Your breasts are practically bare!"

"No, they're not. You can only see like, less than half. You can see as much if I wear a bikini top."

"You don't wear bikinis except at a beach!"

"It'll be fine. There'll be lots of girls dressed the same way."

"That top is barely one step from being indecent exposure!"

"You can't see my nipples or anything," Teagan said.

"You don't have to show your body off! And you don't want a guy who is only interested in your body!"

"No, but you don't get them to read your book if you don't have a good cover."

"You are about five seconds from being naked. All someone has to do is unzip that skirt and unbuckle those straps!"

"That could come in handy," Teagan said with a grin as she opened the front door.

"Teagan!"

"Quinn is here. I gotta go!" she called back.

She was very satisfied as she strolled down the walk to Quinn's old Toyota.

She opened the door and slipped inside and Quinn stared at her top.

"What are you wearing!?" she exclaimed.

"A top. Let's go."

"Holy shit. Are you really going to wear that to the party?!"

"Sure. Why not."

"I don't know. Something about tossing meat to starving lions comes to mind. They might all jump you the second you come inside."

"I am kind of hot and sexy, aren't I?" Teagan said with a smirk.

"Slut!"

"Oh, look who's talking."

Quinn was wearing a short kilt and a very tight halter that showed a lot of bare midriff.

"Anyway, I'm not really going to wear it like this."

Quinn pulled away from the curb and headed for the corner.