Good Girl (Playroom) (4 page)

“I’ll see you in the morning. Ya better hurry up and get inside. It looks like everyone is waiting on you.” We both
look at the long line of cars. I groan and Auggie belts out a hearty laugh. He pulls me from the truck and gently sets me on my feet. I wave goodbye when I get to the porch. I wait until he drives away before opening the door.

I finger the charm on my necklace and swear under my breath. Yeah, having a good girl crush on a boy is a bad idea, having a monster crush on your boss is even worse. Fuck!

~
Chapter Two~

“Happy Birthday, Willow,” Violet deadpan
s, and then her twin, Seth, pushes her for being mean.

My niece acts just like her mother- my sister, Clover. The twins are thirteen
, and I’m pretty sure Violet hates me. It could be because her mother seems to think she birthed me, too, and Seth thinks I’m his big sister. Yeah, I’m sure Violet hates me for that even more. She wants complete control over her twin and I am his biggest influence.

I hate Violet
, too, so we’re even. I look twelve and she looks eighteen. Violet has a nice body and she’s tall- she’s everything I’m not. Seth is adorable and still boy-like. We look just alike, even though he is the exact replica of Sam. Yeah, that’s why Violet hates me- I’m Seth’s real twin.

“Happy Birthday, Willow,” Seth repeats in a cheery
tone and kisses my cheek. I place a big smacker on his chubby cheek and give him a hug.

“Thanks, brother,” I
loudly say, making sure Violet heard me. Her glare could kill, but Seth looks pleased as punch.

“Behave, children,” Hester says as she barrels towards me.
She’s twenty years old and my best friend… and my cousin. Well, Hester is our cousin- Violet, Seth, and mine. Yeah, I’m sheltered. My only friends share similar DNA to mine. “Let’s get this over with. I have a surprise for you later,” Essie conspiratorially says.

And if that
just doesn’t make smoke come out of Violet’s ears, I don’t know what would. I stick my tongue out at Violet, and Seth laughs.

Hester- Essie isn’t much bigger than me, but she was blessed with curves. I’d kill to have her breasts. I’ve wished on the past eight birthday cakes for those breasts. They grew when she was ten and continued to grow until a year ago. I’ve even begged to touch them just so I knew what it
would be like to be a girl. Essie let me. Thank God, I have another birthday wish coming up! I need to become a woman.

At least I wasn’t named Hester. My name is Willow Prynne. I hate
our nature names, but Essie’s dad has a wicked sense of humor. Hester Prynne, and yes, we are descendants. I made Essie an A for her sixteenth birthday and made her wear it to school. We were reading the
Scarlett Letter
- it was awesome.

“There’s my baby girl,” Uncle Will sings to me as I enter the kitchen behind the rest of the kids. It won’t matter if we are ninety- Essie, me, Violet, and Seth will always be kids to them, at least until we give them some new blood to cuddle and coddle. 

Uncle Will is my dad’s baby brother- Essie’s dad. His name is William Prynne- yeah, that wicked sense of humor runs in the family.

“Let’s g
et this show on the road, Daddy. We have somewhere we need to be.” Essie impatiently whines.

My
entire family is in the kitchen: Mom and Dad, Uncle Will and Aunt Ana, Clover and all the kids- even Sam’s mom, Margaret Webster is here. When I see Margaret my heart bleeds for a billion different reasons, but her appearance solidifies Sam’s void.

B
ut my brother Robbie is missing. I try not to let my face fall. It feels wrong not to have Robbie with us. We lost my grandparents a few years ago, and less than five years ago we lost Clover’s husband, Sam, to cancer. One person missing from a gathering is a big deal. This is all we have. This is why we are so sheltered and smothered.

Where is Robbie?

“I wanted to make you a nice dinner, but Essie has been relentless all afternoon. She said she made dinner plans for you,” my mom says to clear the cloud that covers my face. She knows why I’m sad all of the sudden.

“Thanks, Mom. You know how Essie
is… she always gets her way,” I say with affection. If Essie gets her way, then so do I. I follow her lead. After all, Essie has two years of living on me.

“Ridicu
lousness,” Grandma Margaret snidely hisses. She is the type of woman a man would call a tough broad. She forces me to call her Grandma Margaret even though we aren’t related, and at the same time, she demands that Violet calls her Margaret- note the absence of Grandma before her name. Grandma Margaret dotes on Seth, ignores Violet, and tolerates me- oh, and she passionately hates my sister, Clover.

My cake is lit up with eighteen crackling mini-candles. They are spread wide
, making wish-fulfillment nearly impossible. While the Prynnes and Websters sing a round of Happy Birthday, I draw in a huge breath and blow. I play fire extinguisher on my cake while the whole time I think to myself
make me a woman. I want to be a woman!
I fiercely beg as I blow all eighteen candles’ flames out. A cheer erupts from my family.

I give them all a shit-eating grin for my accomplishment. Yeah, it’s not a big deal for most people, but I don’t accomplish much
, like ever.

“You won’t get into trouble tonight
or I will punish you until you’re thirty,” Clover scolds me. Her icy blue eyes are scalding me with contempt. Clover doesn’t like how I turned out. I tell her often that since she prides herself on being my mother, that it’s her fault that I’m wayward. I get slapped every time I say it. It’s on the tip of my tongue right now.

“Don’t!” My sister shouts at me in disgust knowing the direction of my thoughts.
I smirk at Clover and she walks away, fed up with my bullshit. I didn’t ask for Clover to be a controlling bitch. I will rebel as long as she treats me like a two year old. If Clover were a man, I may change my tune. But her boney ass can’t take me. I know I sound sexist, but it’s what I feel.

Seth hands me a gift
, and I know he picked it out and wrapped it himself. I smile at Seth- a real, genuine smile. Inside the funny pages paper is a pebble. It sparkles in the light as I turn it side-to-side. Seth knows I love it, and his round face brightens in delight.

Eve
ryone else looks at us like we’re freaks. They don’t get us- our connection. Seth and I take walks all the time. Not so much since I’ve been working, but we manage one or two a week. We’ve done this since I helped teach him to walk when he was a toddler. Seth’s first memory is of me and him collecting interesting pebbles on these walks. It’s sentimental and mushy, and I love it.

Violet hands me a pretty, purple package
, in case I could forget that her name is Violet. Inside is a bottle of expensive nail polish, also purple. I look at my stubby nails that are colored in with a
Sharpie
and sigh.

Clover is next
, and the gift is a pink dress that a baby-doll would wear. Clover and Violet are the same- their gifts are hints. I’m not good enough as me, I need to change. I need pretty buffed nails and a frothy dress to be a lady. I’d look like Seth playing dress-up.

Uncle Will hands me the next gift and I can tell by the look on the faces of
Aunt Ana, Uncle Will, and Essie that I will love it. The long narrow box is torn into with my jagged nails. I screech as soon as I see the concert tickets. There are three inside, and it had to have cost a fortune. I quickly hand one to Essie and one to Seth, and I don’t feel badly about it. Violet would have hated the music anyway. She would have complained about her eardrums the entire time. The three of us giddily jump up and down squealing.

“Oh my God! Thank you guys for
all the awesome gifts!” I clap and hop on heels.

“Go on and get ready for your night. I’ll divvy up the cake for everyone.” My mom starts mutilating my cake. She isn’t very good at it. I wait until Dad takes the weapon out of her hands and tries to fix the mess. I lunge up the stairs to my room with Essie at my heels.

“What’s the plan?” I excitedly yelp as I yank my sweatshirt off. I have a tank on underneath and that flutters to the floor next. I toe my sneaks off and wiggle out of my jeans that are getting too tight. They are my favorite pair- worn white from the years of wear. I’ve had them since I was thirteen. I guess I’ve finally grown a bit since I have to peel them off.

I stand before my floor-length mirror and stare at my body. My birthday wish did not give me boobies. I try to mash my itty-bitties together and make some cleavage. After a minute I give up. Essie is grinning at me in the mirror. I scowl at her
, and then grimace at my breasts, or lack thereof.

“Not fair. Do you think a pushup bra would help or maybe a padded one? I look like a boy. I thin
k Seth has bigger boobs than me,” I whine.

“Willow, you’ve never even worn a bra. Implants are your only option, and ch
ick, they would look ridiculous,” she laughs. “Accept that you have no tits. You have a perfect ass, though. I’d kill for it.”

I turn in the mirror and look at my butt. I have boy-shorts on and a bit of cheek sticks out the bottom.
I smack my ass and grin when the flesh jiggles.

“It does balance out my huge tits nicely, d
on’t ya think?” I seriously say, and Essie cracks up. I join her in making fun of my stunted body.

“Well, if you’d give me half your boobs and I’d share half my ass, we’d make a normal sized girl
,” I huskily say. 

Essie plucks my nipple and I yelp. It gives an unimpressive showing. She tries to find something to grip a
nd comes up empty handed, too. Essie rolls my nips and I flush. “Well, at least they work. I was worried about that. Even your mosquito bites are tiny,” she teases and gives another tweak before she sits back on my bed. 

“Bitch,”
I smirk at her.

“Slut,” she retorts in affection.

Essie’s gift is lying on my bed. I run over and pull on the shimmery, sliver tank and the black lace overlay. Essie knows that I don’t wear a bra so I have to wear a tank or an undershirt, so this combination is perfect. The tank is really tight and the overlay bares one of my shoulders. I change into a fresh pair of undershorts- black ones to go underneath the pleated skirt. It’s a good thing I have the shorts. The black skirt barely covers the tops of my thighs.

Essie
tosses me a pair of fishnets and kicks my boots out of my closet. I follow her lead. I know jack about dressing and even less about what her plans are for the evening. It turns out the stocking are thigh-highs and I have to roll the tops several times since my legs are so short.

Essie
pulls my hair up into pigtails and I balk at that. “Hey! I’m celebrating my newfound adulthood. No pigtails.” She does it anyway, wrapping the length of my hair into two messy buns atop my head.

“The one thing you have going for you is the naughty
little girl. No tits, a perfect ass, and the face of an angel- the guys will eat that shit up. Guys like two things: a woman who knows what she’s doing and one that doesn’t. I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing, but I have to pretend. Now you don’t, and you fit the part. Even after you’ve had an education make sure you don’t lose the innocent look.” Essie schools me in the interworking of male/female relations as she applies my makeup. I don’t know how to do that either. I trust Essie in all things fashion, and hair and makeup- Essie is a professional cosmetologist, after all.

“What’s this? Who’s AK?” Essie
asks, fiddling with my choker.

“What?” I swallow in confusion as
she hands me a compact mirror. The charm on my necklace says
Willow.
“What about AK?”

Essie turns the round tag
over until I read the inscription on the back:
AK’s Good Girl.
My face flushes bright red and the buzzing in my belly powerfully erupts. I clench my thighs against the terrible ball of ache that forms in their junction. I bet this is what took Mr. Kline so long this afternoon.

“Who’s AK?” Essie
slowly bites out.

“Mr. Kline gave it to me
tonight for my birthday,” I bashfully murmur. Essie’s blue eyes turn into saucers.

“You know what this is, don’t you?”
An awed expression fills her pretty face.

“It’s a necklace,” I say with a shrug.

“OH. MY. GOD.” She shrieks in astonishment. “I’m not going to tell you. Holy fuck, Willow! Auggie’s fucking hot.”

“Hey, now, don’t talk about him
like that. Mr. Kline has a girlfriend- I think. Her name is Isis. And no one could compete with her.” I warn Essie off from getting any ideas into her pretty head. I don’t think I would enjoy watching Auggie kiss Essie like he did Isis tonight. I don’t know why I enjoyed watching him kiss Isis in the first place, but I did. I rub my tummy since it’s threatening to cramp. Essie watches me with an amused expression on her face.