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English => General => Topic started by: Sparky on 08. October 2022, 22:55:01 PM
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Chapter 1
Tuesday, 2 weeks ago, I received the worst phone call of my life so far. I didn't recognise the phone number, but when I heard the voice at the other end, I knew who it was.
"Hello, this is Justin...." I said, answering the call.
"Ah, hello Justin, I'm glad I have the right number for you. This is Derek, Simon's dad."
"Oh, hello there, what can I do for you?". I'd met Simon's dad on many occasions, he was actually a really nice guy - Simon took after him in many ways.
"I'm afraid that I'm the bringer of rather bad news.... Simon was a passenger in a car crash yesterday, and he died!"
I'm sure if I'd looked at myself in a mirror, I would have seen a white face looking back at me: my blood felt like it had just drained from my head, and I suddenly felt a bit light headed. Did I REALLY hear that right? NOOOOOO! Simon is much too young to die!
SH*T! And double SH*T!!
"Derek, that is such terrible news, I'm SO sorry to hear it! What can I say, it's such a shock? I mean, I can't think of any suitable words....". I took a deep breath. By now my heart was pounding. "My condolences go out to you and the family of course...."
"Thank you, Justin, but you're right, it is a bit of a shock! Look, can you do me a favour: you now have my mobile number, could you send me a text with your email on, then I can keep you in the loop. I don't suppose you could confirm the phone numbers for Robert and Kevin could you, could you?"
"Sure, I'll include them in the text. Tell you what: would you like me to call them, break the news to them?"
"Would you? That would be helpful. These are the sort of calls you never really want to make, but they need to be done. Luckily Andrew has offered to get in touch with a load of Simon's online friends, which is a geat help."
"Ok, let me send you a text - if you can respond with an email, I'll send you as much info as I can about people. I guess it's far too early to have any idea about the date for a funeral?"
"We actually met with the funeral director earlier on, it will probably be in a couple of weeks time - our thoughts are to make it as open an invitation as possible, for it to be a celebration of his life, but we'd like to get an idea of numbers."
"It doesn't matter when it is, I'll be there....."
"Thank you, that will mean a lot to us. Ok, I'd better go, more calls to make..."
"Before you go, how's Ellie taken it?"
"Pretty hard, as you might expect...."
"Yes, absolutely. Tell her she's welcome to call me, if she'd like to chat. Anyway, thanks for letting me know, Derek. If there's anything I can do, please ask!"
I ended the call, and sat there crying for the next 10 minutes! How could Simon be DEAD? It must be a mistake....
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Certainly a different start I know you sparky you've got some interesting plot lines on the way as always I'm excited for the next chapter
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Chapter 2
Ok, I guess I need to explain a few things to you.
I'm Justin, 28, work in the offices at a large supermarket chain. I first met Simon - and Robert and Kevin for that matter - on my first day at university, so about 10 years ago. We shared a flat with 3 others in one of the halls of residence, and in our second and third years, all four of us shared a house together, so we all got to know each other pretty well.
In the holidays, and for the first couple of years after university, we would get together: for example, I stayed with Simon at his parents place on several occasions, so I got to know his parents - Derek and Shirley - and his younger sister - Ellie - quite well. Sadly, in the last few years, 'life', plus distance, has got in the way, and we've not met up quite as much.
After uni, Simon did a few jobs, then started doing YouTube videos, getting quite a following, and now earns a respectable amount as an 'online influencer' (well, until yesterday, he did!). As such, he had a small team around him: Andrew was the main guy, he editted Simon's videos, and knew most of his online friends - I'm not talking about people who watched his videos, I'm thinking of the various other YouTubers he worked with.... so Andrew was obviously in a good position to 'pass on the sad news'.
Simon wasn't married, and was actually single at the moment, which made things easier in some ways. Robert has a long-term girlfriend, and Kevin got married 2 years ago. Me? I parted ways with my long-term girlfriend about 6 months ago, and I've had a couple of one-night-stands since, but I'm thinking I'm maybe ready to think about a new relationship.
After having a strong cup of tea, in attempt to calm my nerves, I called Robert, then Kevin, to tell them the bad news - unsurprisingly, their reaction was pretty much the same as mine.... complete shock. I explained that I would pass on their phone numbers / email addresses to Derek, so he had all of our contacts. They both said that they would most likely be at the funeral, whenever it was.
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This is a very different start to a story, but I think I like it. It will be interesting to see who Angela is, what she has to do with Ellie, and what this story as a whole has to do with braces.
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Chapter 3
So, it was just before lunch, and there I was standing at the grave-side. The church had been packed out, probably between a hundred and two hundred people, and the service was actually quite a nice one - as far as funerals go. The coffin had been interred a little while ago, and people were starting to leave, to go on to the wake. I was standing with Robert and Kevin, and I noticed a girl standing alone - she seemed to be rather upset, so I decided to do the decent thing and go and console her. It was very obvious that the girl was Ellie, Simon's little sister, because she had a leg brace on her left leg - not something that you see very often, and definitely made her stand out..
I had first met Ellie in my first year at Uni: Simon had invited me to stay with his family for a few days, so I guess I was 19, and Ellie would have been about 15. As a 15 year old she was a little chubby, but still a nice kid, although she had quite a love-hate relationship with her leg brace. We had chatted about it a few times over the years. Her need for the leg brace was the result of an accident when she fell off her bike very badly when she was about 11: whilst her left leg still 'worked ok' it was now quite weak, and her knee would just 'give way', causing her to fall over. Her hate for the leg braces was partly because of the annoyance of having to wear it in the first place, but mainly because of the way people - and I'm thinking mainly the kids at school - would treat her. Yes, she COULD cope without the leg brace by using crutches, but that was even worse. The phrase she used was 'feel like a cripple'. Her love of the leg brace was the opposite: that she was able to walk, and walk quite reasonably, without needing either crutches of walking sticks. It gave her her independence.
The last time I'd seen Ellie was about 5 years ago: Robert, Kevin and I had come to Simon's parent's place to collect him, as we were all going away for a long weekend. Ellie would have been 19 back then, a little less chubby, and a lot more cheerful in herself, having started at university.
"Hey, you ok? I can rent you a shoulder to cry on, if it's any use to you!" I said to her. She looked up at me, and recognising me, she gave a small smile, then buried her face into my chest, putting her arms around me. Without a moment's thought, I put my arms around her, and held her close. "There's no rush, cry as much as you need to...." I said in a soft voice. Poor Ellie, I knew that she was very close to Simon, she must have been devastated by what had happened.
So, I'm about 5ft 8ins tall, so I guess that would make her about 5ft 6ins, a couple of inches shorter than me: we were both in flat shoes. From what I had seen of her face a moment ago, and could feel from her body, she was no longer at all chubby, but an elegant looking young lady. Her almost black hair had grown quite long, with most of it currently in a ponytail (held in a lovely multi-coloured bow), but with a couple of bits 'messily' by the side of her face. The dress code for today was 'bright and colourful, avoid black!', so while she was wearing a knee-length black skirt, she had a bright blue top on, covered by a cream coloured jacket, and pink tights. For my part, I was in white chinos, and a dark blue jacket, and a pale blue shirt.
A few minutes later Ellie had calmed down again, and I gently released my grip on her.
"Juthin, it'th tho good to see you again, it'th been a while....." she said with a slight smile. A smile which I could swear seemed to have a slightly metal shine to it. Not to mention the slight lisp she had. She took a tissue from her bag, and dabbed her eyes.
"Yes, it must be about 5 years. You've changed a bit... definitely for the better too. You've lost that chubby face you used to have, and have turned into an elegant swan...". Ellie took the compliment exactly the way it was meant, and gave me a big smile. A smile that showed a set of beautifully straight teeth, with the wire of a retainer across them. I think I may have also seen a similar wire across her lower teeth too, but her lower teeth (and thus the wire) were mostly covered by her lower lip.
"I'm tho glad you could make it!"
"Hey, this isn't something you can say 'no' to... I needed to be here as much as you, to say my final respects to this guy...." I said, pointing at the grave. "Come on, let's join the others at the wake..."
"Hey, do you have your car here, can I come back with you? I'm not sure I can quite fathe mum and dad just yet."
"Of course you can!"
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Nice job @sparky
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Chapter 4
The wake was in the large hall of a community centre. As well as cups of tea and coffee, and a rather nice buffet, the bar was open too. I'm not much of a lunchtime drinker, so went for a coffee, then helped myself to some sandwiches - it was lunchtime, and my stomach needed some food. The turnout was really good: a mix of people who actually knew Simon... relatives and friends, several who had worked with Simon, plus quite a few that knew him from being a YouTuber. Everyone had taken on board the dress code, some rather more than others. A guy in quite an amazing pink suit for example. And another who looked ... well, a bit like a colourful version of a morris dancer. Lots of colour, and not a lot of black.
I went over and spoke with Simon's parents, Derek and Shirley. "Your Simon seems to have touched a LOT of people!" I commented.
"Yes, he has, hasn't he? I never quite appreciated quite how well known he was till Ellie explained it to us."
"He may have gone too soon, but I think he managed to pack a lot into the time he had. How you guys been coping?"
"Good days, bad days. I wasn't particularly looking forward to today, but actually, it's turning out rather pleasantly. Ellie's struggling a bit though."
"Yes, I noticed. It's gonna be hard for her, she loved Simon so much, didn't she? But I'll tell you what, she's grown up so much since I last saw you all!". I chatted to Simon's parents a bit more, then moved on, they had plenty of others they needed to talk to. I could see Ellie over the other side of the room, talking with a young group, and smiling. Good, she was ok for the moment!
I took my plate and cup, and sat at the table where Robert and Kevin were. "You know," said Kevin, "the scariest thing is that it could EASILY have been one of us three.... Ok, so I've not really seen Simon much over the last couple of years, but I'm still gonna miss him. Miss those videos. Miss the emails he used to send out.....". We continued chatting for a while, eating our food and drinking out coffees, then Ellie joined us.
"Guyth, thank you all tho much for coming today! It'th lovely to see you all again, jutht a shame about the circumstances!" said Ellie.
"And it's nice to see you too, little Ellie. Although you're not so little any more, you've all grown up, and 'blossomed'" said Robert. Over our time together at university, we had all stayed with Simon at his parent's place on several occasions, and had all got to know Ellie. We chatted for a while, reminiscing over fun times.
"Ok" said Ellie, checking the time, "I think it'th time to thtart the 'speeches'..."
Ellie walked to the front, where there was a microphone. "Hello everyone! Thank you all THO much for coming along today, on thith rather sad occasion. More importantly, thank you all for drething up tho brightly, it really does help make it feel like a thelebration, which is what we wanted it to be today. Mum and dad will be thaying a few words later, but I guess I should intoduce mysthelf. I'm Ellie, I'm Simon's younger thithter. Whilst I would love to tell you all about my darling brother, I know full well I'd not be able to get through everything I'd want to thay without bursting into tears.... so instead, I'm going to intruduthe a few people who would like to share their memories of Simon with you. First up, I'd like to introduce Andrew, who has worked with Thimon for a while.
A guy in his mid 20s went up to the microphone. "Hi, I'm Andrew Foster, I've been working as Simon's producer / video editor for the last couple of years. Simon has been a great inspiration for me, he's made it so easy for me to work with him. Over the last week, I've been digging out a load of our unused footage, and put together this mash-up: it starts by showing Simon on camera - including one bit with Angela, who I believe will be talking later - then shows a few outtakes - there were plenty of THOSE to choose from! - then a few 'backstage' bits. Feel free to laugh, cry, jeer, or shout out comments as you feel fit! Let's all watch Simon in action!"
Andrew then played out 5 or so minutes of video... as he had explained, it started with a more serious 'piece to camera', then quickly changed to what most of us would recognise as 'being Simon'. The outtakes were quite hilarious, as were the 'backstage' bits, and there was quite a bit of laughter.
"Well, looks like you all enjoyed that! There's two things I noticed as I put that together: first is that he almost always had a very positive attitude, and second, making everyone else feel good and enjoy themselves seemed to be more important than him having fun himself. Simon has been a joy to work with. So with that in mind, would you all like to stand up and raise your glasses... 'to Simon, a great guy to work with!'".
The mood had been clearly set: this was indeed to be a day celebrating Simon's life, short though it was.
"Thank you, Andrew, that was lovely!" said Ellie, still smiling. "Next up, I'd like to ask Justin to come and share a few memories with you all....". I walked up to the microphone, on the way looking at Ellie. She knew I wasn't going to give a long speech, so stayed next to me.
"Hi! I'm Justin," I said. A picture I'd provided was shown on the screen. "So, the first time I met Simon was on my first day at University - it's where I also first met Robert and Kevin too," I explained, pointing to both Robert and Kevin. "We were all sharing a flat in a university hall of residence with 3 others. We four all seemed to just hit it off, becoming instant friends. This picture comes from back then. In our second and third years we all shared a house together, and over those 3 years, I guess we all got to know Simon well, and I like to think that some of his attitudes rubbed off on us all. The things I'm thinking of are 'enjoying life', but also 'helping others to enjoy life', and ' making this world a slightly better place'. I have to assume those traits come from his mum and dad, so Derek, Shirley, feel very proud of the son you brought up!".
I looked left, and saw Ellie, and took her hand to calm her... "It was a few months after meeting Simon that I was invited to stay with his family for a few days, and that's when I first met his mum and dad, and Ellie here, Simon's little sister. She was quite different back then, the phrase 'slightly angsty teenager' comes to mind, and I'm sure she had a teenage crush on me back then!" I said, looking at Ellie with a big smile. There were a few laughs. Ellie smiled back... sounds like I was right! "What I felt the most back then, and whenever I've met them since, was a family full of love: Simon absolutely adored his little sister, and she clearly loved him too. The same went for his parents."
I spent a few minutes relating a couple of the 'fun events' that had happened at university, which Robert and Kevin clearly remembered well, and others thought amusing too.
"Sadly, we started to drift apart a bit after university, if only because we no longer lived near each other. Most of you now know Simon as a YouTube channel provider, maybe even an 'influencer': that all started at university, when Simon, and sometimes we, used to take videos of the silly things we all did, and posted them online - I'm sure if you look carefully, you'll find them - but don't feel you need to look TOO hard, some are a little embarrassing! Ok, not quite the following back then that he has now, but it was a beginning. Like the rest of us, Simon got a 'real job' for 2 or 3 years, but continued making the videos. Then he found he was starting to earn MORE from the videos, than from his 'real job', and we all know the rest. Over 3 million followers on YouTube isn't it? Andrew, thank you for posting that 'mash-up' of Simon earlier: what still stood out for me in all those clips was those original attitudes Simon had: 'enjoy life', 'help others to enjoy life', and 'make this world a slightly better place'."
"Ok, probably a good place to end... Simon, I'll miss you, but I'm SO glad I met you. Let's all stand and raise our glasses: Simon, thank you for being my friend!"
I looked over at Ellie, who was, not too surprisingly, crying. Whilst she was supposed to be acting as 'MC', clearly she wasn't in a good place right now, so I gently took the piece of paper from her hands, and read it.
"So, it seems that next on this list of lovely memories is Angela. I have no idea who she is, but I'm sure she'll introduce herself to us all....". I moved away from the microphone, took Ellie's hand, and took her to sit down. While I did that, an elegant lady, I would guess late 20's, went up to the microphone. Whilst she was as slim as Ellie, she had a wider frame than her, wider shoulders, and was maybe 2 or 3 inches taller. Her hair was blonde - whether that was natural or not I couldn't tell - and quite straight to just above her shoulders, with a fringe at the front. Her makeup was simple, and best described as 'colourful' (which suited the mood of the day) , and she was dressed in what were clearly quite elegant designer clothes, with a pair of designer glasses.
She introduced herself: "Hello everyone, I'm Angela, I'm another YouTuber, and whilst I'm great when there's a camera right in front of me, I'm really crap at doing this sort of thing. So, yesterday, I put a video together, which I posted earlier, I think it says things far better than I can here....".
The video started: "Hi everyone, most of you know who I am, but I have a feeling that there's a load of people watching this video today who have no idea who I am, so let me introduce myself." she started. The thing that I noticed instantly was the amazing set of golden brackets on her top and bottom teeth, brackets I'd not spotted when she'd come to the front of the room.
"I'm Angela, and I've been doing YouTube videos for over 6 years now. A couple of weeks ago, I told you that a really great guy, Simon, had been killed in a car crash. Today I will be at his funeral, and I really hope that we all have a chance to remember the fun side of Simon, because that was such a big part of who he was. I first met Simon two years ago, when he asked if I'd like to do a collaboration video. Collabs can go one of two ways - dull and boring, or really great fun: working with Simon was definitely the latter. Here's a couple of 'out-takes'...". The screen showed a couple of short 'backstage' clips of Simon and Angela, and a couple of others, clearly having a lot of fun. "Since that first one, we've worked together 3 times since, and we were planning to do another one soon - sadly that's not going to happen now".
The video told more about how Simon had touched Angela's life. "Farewell, Simon! Gone but never forgotten!" were the last words of the video.
"Andrew, you've been videoing our speeches for posterity, but I think you need to turn the camera around and record all these people pay their last respects to a great YouTuber.....". Angela waited for Andrew to turn the camera around. "To Simon, thank you for making our lives so much better!" was her simple toast, echoed by everyone in the room.
As she left the front of the room I looked carefully at her, at her mouth. Luckily she was smiling, and I could see those lovely golden brackets - between them and the nice clothes, it was clear that her YouTube career was going pretty well.
Next, Ellie introduced a couple of family members, one older, one younger, who recounted their memories of Simon.
With a small tear in her eye, Ellie went back to the microphone one last time. "Thank you all for all of those really amazing memories. If anyone else would like to thay a few words, you're welcome to come up". On guy, same sort of age as me, put up his hand, then came to the front.
"Hi, I'm John, I knew Simon back at school, and even back then, he was a great guy. Sadly, I've not seen him recently, but when I heard what had happened, I just felt I had to be here today. I'm so glad I came, it's been so good to hear all your stories about him! Simon, I'll miss you!"
Short, but sweet.
"John, thank you! Anyone else? No? In that case, mum and dad, come and thay a few words....". Derek and Shirley both came to the front, holding hands, but Derek did the talking. Ellie stood next to them.
"Thank you all so much for being with us today, to celebrate our son Simon's life. Clearly his life has touched an awful lot of people..." Derek's speech was relatively brief, recounting a few incidents from his family life, things that most of us would never have heard about before. "So, please don't feel you need to rush away, do stay and talk - and help eat up all the sandwiches!" Derek turned around to see the very flattering picture of Simon that was now being projected. "So, let's all raise our glasses one more time: to Simon, a wonderful son!"
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OMG I was nearly in tears reading that! Feels like Simon was a real person ????
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OMG I was nearly in tears reading that! Feels like Simon was a real person ????
I will take that as a huge compliment, thank you, Kelly-Marie!!
Clearly, if I'm able to get your emotions going, then I'm doing something right!
One of the problems with any story involving a couple, is working out how they meet. I'm not QUITE sure how I thought of a funeral, but I don't remember any other story with people meeting at a funeral!
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It's certainly an unusual idea but it definatley works il be interested to see how you get them to meet
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Chapter 5
"So, you guys were at university with Simon then?" asked Angela - the girl with the golden braces - as she sat at our table.
"Yeah," I replied, "those were some fun days. Simon probably worked the hardest of us all, he got a good degree, but seemed to be able to enjoy life at the same time." I looked at Angela as she sat there, with her lips slightly apart... letting me catch a tantalising glimpse of her golden brackets. They were neither large nor small, kinda 'medium', but then again, if you've paid for gold brackets, you want them to be reasonably visible, don't you?
In a small group, Angela was clearly a lot more relaxed, compared to when she was at the front of the room. Ok, so I needed to know more about this girl, I mean, those braces of hers did things to me. Nice things. I started by asking what her YT channel was. She told me she actually had several, but told me the main one: I looked it up, and subscribed to it. Shit, HOW many subscribers? Over 5 million? Yeah, that explained how she could afford the clothes (if they weren't given to her free to review) and the fancy golden braces.
We all chatted for a while.
"So, where do you live then?" I asked as innocently as I could. She named a place: "I bet you've never heard of it, have you?"
"Actually I have, I live about 10 miles from there," I replied, telling her where I lived. "I seem to remember that 'The Falcon' is a pretty good pub.". Ok, should I have continued with the next, rather corny, line? Heck, why not, she could always have just said 'no'! "Maybe I can persuade you to let me buy you a drink there sometime?"
She smiled, giving me an excellent view of her golden braces, both top and bottom. "Yeah, ok, why not!".
Well, that went a lot better than I thought it might, and we ended up exchanging numbers.
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Nice direction but i was surprised ;) my thoughts were directing more to Ellie (the duckling swan Thing ::) )
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@xxxforce I was thinking the same thing but like where this is going!
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Chapter 6
People had started to leave, when Ellie came over to me. "Hey Juthtin...." she asked.
"Yeah?" I replied, taking the opportunity to look at her mouth yet again - it was still a very pleasant sight for me!
"Are you having to rush off?"
"Not especially... why?"
"Well, I really can't fathe going back to mum and dad's thtraight away, so I was hoping that maybe we could go into town, grab a coffee, take a walk in the park or thomething like that?"
"Yeah, why not? A good breath of fresh air would probably do us both a lot of good. I assume you've let your mum and dad know?"
"Not yet, but don't worry, I will...."
The way Ellie had looked at me made me wonder if she still had a crush on me, or maybe she was just mirroring the way I had been looking at her. It didn't really matter that much, she still appeared to be good company: my mind went back to when she was a bit of an angsty teen, and I was staying with her family... we'd had some very nice chats back then. And even back then, angsty or not, it was clear that Ellie was pretty bright - kinda like the rest of her family. I was trying to remember what her teeth looked like back then - clearly not THAT bad, otherwise she would have had braces, or it would have at least been obvious. And I have to confess, it wasn't just the braces in her mouth that I liked: back then I'll admit to having a few 'naughty thoughts' about her in her leg brace. At least she was 'legal' now!
(I realise I've not actually described her leg brace: it's a modern-looking KAFO. Whilst I remember her old one she had about 10 years ago was made of shiny metal, and connected into her shoe, this one connected to what I assumed was a plastic moulded 'foot plate' inside her shoe - giving the advantage that, in principle, she could wear any shoes she wanted with it. The rods on each side weren't the traditional silver, they were black, so I'm thinking maybe carbon fibre rather than metal - which would probably make the braces a lot lighter. And Velcro straps around her lower and upper leg. I guess that, as she still had the ability to use her leg - it was just rather weak - the brace was a lot lighter-weight than some you might see online. Yes, there was a locking hinge at the knee, with some sort of 'quick-release' to let her bend it: I had noticed that she had little problem when sitting down, clearly her other leg was able to take most of her weight, and she just unlocked the knee joint as she started to sit, whilst holding onto the chair at the same time.)
Whilst Ellie had her own car (slightly adapted, I suspect, to cope with the leg brace she had on her left leg), she had decided to get a lift with her parents (or me, as it turned out), which made a lot of sense. I had parked my car in town, so we would need to take a short walk to get to town, no more than 10 minutes for me walking at my normal pace, and I knew that this was well within Ellie's capabilities, although she would need to walk a little more slowly.
So it was that, about 15 minutes later on, we were gently walking in to town together.
"Thankth for doing this with me, it's just so nice to get away from..... well, all 'that'. The last couple of weeks have been terrible, not only coping with what happened, but organising thtuff for today. At least it all went well. Hey, thanks for those nithe words you said about Thimon." Without apparently thinking about it, she took my hand, then realising what she'd just done, she started to pull it away.
"Hey, it's ok if you'd like to hold my hand....": her hand was a little smaller than mine, quite soft, and relaxed. She looked over at me, and smiled, letting me once again see that nice silver wire across her top teeth, and I smiled back. Well, I had no doubt she had had a crush on me when she was 15, maybe she still did 9 years on.... It didn't really matter, crush or no crush, it was actually rather pleasant being with Ellie.
Finally we got to the town centre, where the shops were. "So, want to sit in with the coffee, or get a takeout, and go somewhere else?" I asked her.
"Let'th get a takeout, and go thit in the park, it's a nice enough day!"
I got us a couple of coffees: we decided against any cake, as were had both eaten plenty back at the wake. The park was only about 5 to 10 minutes away, and wasn't busy. We walked gently to the far side of the park, where it was a lot quieter, and sat down on a park bench. As the bench had no arm she could hold on to, I held her hand as she unlocked her knee, and sat down, giving me a good chance to take a look at her braced leg: with her wearing pink tights, the black brace was very clear to see.... mmm, yes, very nice! Probably helped by the fact that, unlike when she was a teen, and a bit chubbier, her legs were quite slim, and looked pretty good. I could tell that her left leg was slightly thinner than her right one: whilst she still used it, most of the strain would be taken by the brace, thus letting her muscles waste away a bit.
We sat quietly for a couple of minutes, sipping our coffees, and enjoying the view and the quietness of the park. I had turned a little, to look at Ellie: specifically, I was looking at her mouth, trying to catch a glimpse of her retainer. She turned and looked at me, and gave me a lovely smile, letting me see both of the wires that went across her teeth. She looked a lot more relaxed than she had earlier.
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I'm liking the direction this story is going. I'm wondering if he is going to have a relationship with Ellie or Angela. Will either one talk him into getting braces, himself and what will his treatment look like?
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Fake leg braces as well ?.....That could be interesting ...
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Or maybe he can persuade Ellie to let him try hers?
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It seems as if the legbrace is real based on her leg being atrophied, though it may not be required at all times. Her leg may be strong enough now to not require the use of the brace anymore.
The retainers seem as if they may be fake because there doesn't seem to be evidence of treatment. There may have been time between when the guys left school and the time of the funeral for orthodontic treatment to have happened.
I can't wait to see where the story goes next.
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Or maybe he can persuade Ellie to let him try hers?
Having him wear a set of her other leg braces could be an interesting touch to the story. I'd look forward to seeing what direction the story goes in.
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It seems as if the legbrace is real based on her leg being atrophied, though it may not be required at all times. Her leg may be strong enough now to not require the use of the brace anymore.
That's an interesting point... of course, the continued need could be partially psychological..... My thinking was that, somehow, her accident caused muscle damage, even tendon damage, but yes, as a teen, it's quite likely her other muscles might partly compensate. I'm not planning on asking Jason to give her a medical quiz though, I'm just happy to let Ellie continue to wear the leg brace, more fun for us that way!!
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Chapter 7
"So, do you?" I asked.
"Do I what?" she replied.
"Do you still have a crush on me?". Her smile became even larger, and I could see not only the 'loops' of her labial wires, I could also see a couple of the adams clasps on her molars.
"In a way.... I think I do. I guess I've occasionally thought about the timeth we spent together when you were vithiting us, I liked it when you came and stayed, and you chatted with me. Ith it a problem?"
"Not unless you make it one. You've grown up a lot since then... you seem to be a LOT more self-confident."
"I think getting away from the kids at thchool, and going off to uni, where people weren't nasty about this was the start of it..." she tapped her leg brace.
"Yeah, I remembered you said you suffered quite a bit at school."
"Oh, some of those kids were absolute dickth! I think adults tend to be a lot more underthtanding of issues like leg braces."
"I remember the one that you used to have, it had quite chunky metal shafts".
"Yeah it did, didn't it? I've had a couple of braces since then, I got this one about 18 months ago, it's so much more comfortable!"
"I'm guessing from the black that it's made of carbon fibre: that must make it a lot lighter."
"Oh, yes, it doeth, that's a big part of why it's so much nither to wear. And that old metal one was fixed to my shoes, these once since have had a moulded foot-plate, tho I can wear pretty much any shoes. Well, ok, high-heelth are probably out...". All the time she spoke, she spoke with a slight lisp, caused by her retainers: I guessed that she'd not had them long.
"It doesn't look like the velcro straps have improved a lot though."
"No, but the padding underneath is better. I think it's a bit like having glasses, you don't really notice after a while." Her comment about glasses made me think: she used to have glasses as a teen.
"Hey, thinking about glasses, you used to sometimes wear glasses, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but I thtarted wearing contacts when I went to uni, probably one of the better things I did. I still have some glasses, sometimes my eyeth feel tired and itchy, so I'll need to wear them for the day."
I took a deep breath. Whilst thinking about her leg brace and the fact that she used to wear glasses were pleasant, there was something else I much preferred to talk about. "So... your braces - when did you get those?"
Ellie looks a bit confused, then she realised what I was talking about. "Oh, THESE bratheth!" she said, pointing at her mouth.
"Yeah. I always thought your teeth looked ok, and I never remember seeing you with braces as a teen." It felt so good to be talking about her PROPER braces!
"Well, I wouldn't say they were completely perfect as a teen, but they were certainly good enough to not need NHS braces. These are retainers, they don't move your teeth, they hold them in place... I got these last week. Before that I had metal bracketth for about 18 months."
"So what was the problem with your teeth then?"
"Well, whilst they were pretty straight, they were a little twisted, these top front ones were pretty much flat across, rather than being at the slight angle like they are now."
"I bet you looked cute when you had the braces." I said. Of course she smiled, and then got out her phone. She spent a moment looking through her pictures, then found one which she showed me: in the picture she had a lovely set of shiny metal brackets on her teeth. Not huge, but not small either... and definitely VERY cute. I smiled when I saw the picture. "Yup, definitely cute!" I said, looking up at her face, her mouth, taking another look at her retainers.
"You..... you actually LIKE my bratheth, don't you?" Oops... I had just been found out! I took a deep breath... an extra large deep breath. It was no use denying it. I liked Ellie, I'd always had a soft spot for her. There was a definite possibility that I'd like to get to know Ellie better, maybe even date her - heck, she was old enough now! So it was no use trying to lie to her.
"I've never actually told anyone this before... but, well, I think I can trust you. I errr.... I find girls with braces to be.... attractive....". You would not believe how hard it was to admit to that! Ellie looked at me, clearly a little confused.
"In what way?" she asked. I thought quickly - at least she hadn't called me a 'weirdo' or anything like that!
"Well.... erm... imagine you had big boobs..." I started. Ellie in fact had quite small boobs - very attractive boobs that suited her body well, I hasten to add. "Some guys might find that to be very attractive. Or maybe it's really long legs. Or a big nose, or a small nose.... or sticky-out ears. Or even glasses. For me it's braces, girls with braces....".
Ellie smiled. "Oh, ok.... a bit strange, but ok. Tho I'm guessing you like it when I thmile like this then...". She smile so gorgeously at me. "How about if I do this?", and she ran her tongue very sexily over her upper labial wire and teeth.
"Yes, that is definitely rather nice..." I replied. Ellie was clearly happy that she had discovered that she had something that I liked.
"Sounds to me like YOU are the one with a crush on ME! So what made you like girls with braces then?"
"I have no idea - I mean, ask a guy who likes girls with big boobs why he likes them!"
"Ok... yeah.... so when did it start then?". It's odd, if anyone else had asked me such questions, I would have felt very nervous, but I guess I knew Ellie well enough to feel relaxed with her.
"I think it was at school, when other kids started to get braces."
"So you never needed braces then, I'm assuming?"
"Sadly not....". All the time I could not stop looking at her mouth. Her teeth were lovely and white, and neither too big nor to small, but just right for her mouth. They were, of course, very straight, and in a lovely arch. And held in place by a lovely shiny metal wire.
"Something tells me that you might like a proper look at my retainers, wouldn't you...". I didn't need to answer, the big smile on my face said it all. She opened her mouth wide, and put her head down, letting me see her lower retainer, made of that slightly pink clear plastic, with a pair of adams clasps over her front molars, and the labial wire coming out behind her canines. Then she lifted her head back, letting me see the large plate of her upper retainer: it was the same clear red, again with a pair of adams clasps, and was one of those that went completely over the roof of her mouth, rather than one of the more normal U-shaped ones. I don't need to tell you guys that by now my heart was beating stupidly fast. Whilst I had seen MANY pictures of retainers, and girls with retainers, I'd never actually been this close, this intimate, with a girl who actually had retainers.
Of course, what I would REALLY have liked to do was to kiss her. Run my tongue over her teeth and feel that lovely wire that held her teeth firmly in place, Push my tongue inside her mouth, and feel the lovely smooth plastic of her plates. In other circumstances, I might have gone for it, but today was NOT the time to even think of doing so.
"Very nice" I said, making a massive understatement: the reality was that they were absolutely gorgeous! "I'm guessing you have to wear them full-time for the moment.... I bet they feel very different to the braces."
"Yes, full time for three monthth... and yes, they are so different: instead of hurting my cheeks, I jutht have trouble talking! I'm just about able to drink ok with them in. At least I can brush my teeth easily again."
"Tried eating with them in yet?"
"No, you're supposed to take them out to eat..."
"Yes, I know you're SUPPOSED to, doesn't mean you HAVE to..." I said with a smile. I finished off my coffee, and Ellie finished off hers too.
"Well, probably time to get me back home...."
"Of course...." I took Ellie's hand and helped her stand up again, and we walked slowly back to my car. "So, would you like to get together again sometime? Maybe I can take you out for a drink, or maybe even dinner?"
Ellie looked at me as we walked. "Yes, I'd like that. Give me a call in a couple of days, once all this stuff has quietened down, and life is getting back to some sort of normal."
I drove her back to her parents, where she lived. "You're welcome to come in..." she suggested.
"No, I should get back, besides, you guys need some 'family time'." I leaned over to her, and gave her a friendly kiss on her cheek. To be honest, I would MUCH preferred to kiss her on the lips, and let my tongue push into her mouth, to let me feel those lovely retainers, but now wasn't the time to be forcing myself on her.
-
Nice job. It'll be interesting to see what happens if he and Angela get together
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Chapter 8
I had gone to see my parents on the Sunday, the day after the funeral, and had lunch with them. I was still feeling a bit 'down', thinking about Simon, when my phone vibrated, telling me I had a new text.
"Hey there! Fancy taking me out for a drink at The Falcon some time this week then?". It was from Angela... golden braces girl. Ok, so she's not a 'girl' any more, she's about my age, but you know what I mean. Whilst I could have texted her back, I decided it would be easier - and nicer - to just call her, and arrange things. I walked out to the garden, where I could have a little privacy.
"Hiya" said a relatively cheerful voice, answering the phone.
"Good afternoon to you... and how are you today?" I asked.
"Still a bit down after yesterday, to be honest. So, what you doing?"
"I'm around at my parent's, just had Sunday lunch with them."
"No way! I'm at my mum and dad's, we just had Sunday lunch too! So, you up for going to the pub sometime? I could do with seeing a happy face!"
"I'd better try and cheer up by then, I'm feeling a bit like you right now, although the thought of seeing you is cheering me up a bit"
"Only 'a bit'?" she asked - I could hear the smile in her voice. We chatted for a few minutes: she seemed quite relaxed as we chatted, and she told me that she only lived a 3 minute walk from the pub, so why not go around to her place, and we could walk around to the pub together.
I suggested Wednesday, but she said she was busy, so we agreed on Thursday. She gave me her address, and I agreed to arrive at her place at 8pm.
Back home a few hours later, I ran up the street view, to see where she lived: it looked like it was a modernised terraced house. Next I started looking at her YT videos: I had a few reasons for doing so. First, I just wanted to find about a bit about her. Second, I wanted to see when she got her braces... and for that matter, see if she made any specific braces videos! And last, but by no means least, I wanted to look at her braces!
So, it seems that she actually had three YT channels: two had quite a small number of subscribers, and were quite specialised, the third was her main one, with the multi-million subscribers. I searched her vids for 'braces: there was one video on her main channel, and another 3 on one of the smaller channels - of course, I watched them all. The one on the main channel was quite simple, just explaining that she might look a bit different, as she'd just got braces - that video was dated 6 months ago. The other 3 videos were a bit more detailed (although, to be honest, pretty tame for us 'devotees'), but I could see that she had a bit of a crowding problem, had got 2 upper premolars removed, and it was clear that her top teeth were moving nicely into position. In the latest video, from a few weeks ago, she explained that she was now wearing elastics, to help move the teeth. As she had held her lips back, to show the videos, I spotted that she had upper molar bands with tubes on them: was that just 'standard molar bands', or did she actually wear a headgear? I could always hope....
I watched some of her more recent videos, and it was clear why she'd gone with the golden look: she was showing off her smile at every possible moment! And as for whether she was naturally blonde: it seemed that she was, although she did historically go dark for a while.
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Chapter 9
Monday, after work, I gave Ellie a call, to see how she was.
"Hey, Juthtin, tho good to hear from you!" said a very cheerful Ellie.
"You're sounding a lot more positive today!" I commented.
"Yes, I'm trying to be more pothitive, which is a lot easier now the weekend is behind uth...". Yes, I could imagine that Saturday had brought a certain level of closure for Ellie and her parents, but I had a feeling that 'old wounds would be re-opened' if and when someone was prosecuted for the crash... but I guessed that would most likely be many months away.
I thought about asking how the weekend went, after I dropped her off, but decided against it, in an effort to keep the mood more positive.
"So, would the more positive Ellie like to come out with me sometime?"
"I would love to!" she replied, surprisingly eagerly. I was not going to complain, as you know, I've long had a soft spot for her, and we did have a rather nice time together on Saturday. Besides, those retainers....
I could have just asked her out to the pub, but thought it would be nicer to do something different. "How about I take you out for dinner somewhere? Give us a chance to chat a bit more."
"I'd like that," replied Ellie, "When were you thinking?"
"This week? Or next week if this week is a problem?" I suggested. "I'm free most days."
"Yeah, my diary is pretty empty too. How about this Wednesday?" Well, that worked for me nicely, as I was seeing Angela on Thursday.
"Wednesday is good for me." I confirmed. "What sort of food would you like?"
"Oh, Juthtin, you ask such difficult quethtions! Tell you what, it's been a while since I've been to an Italian place."
"Ok, that's fine with me, I'll find somewhere and book a table. What time would you like? I can collect you..."
"How about 7:30? Maybe if there's a pub nearby, we could get a quick drink first?"
"Ok, sounds good to me. Let me find somewhere, then I'll let you know what time I'll collect you.... I'm guessing it's gonna be something like 6.30 or so... that gonna be ok for you?"
"Sure, I'm ok with that."
We chatted a little more, then said our goodbyes.
I'm kinda feeling a bit guilty: this week I have organised to go out with two girls. Two quite different girls.
They both have braces, which helps me like them both a bit more. I sort-of know Ellie, but most of the Ellie I know was a teenage Ellie, and I can tell she's changed. Of course, I know very little about Angela, apart from what I've seen online.
So, it's going to be interesting to get to know them both. The bad news is that, at some point, I'm going to have to make a decision, aren't I?
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Chapter 10
I had found an Italian bistro not far from where Ellie lived: it had good reviews, and from what I read online, it wasn't stupidly expensive. Ok, I can't afford 'stupidly expensive', but I don't mind paying a bit more than average if the food and service is also better than average. Besides, you don't want to take a girl on your first date to some dodgy cheap place, do you? I had a table booked for 7:40.
And a quick search had indicated there was a pub not far up the road: it's reviews weren't quite so flattering, but we weren't planning on staying there for long, so it was less of an issue.
I had called Ellie back, and arranged to pick her up at 6:45. When I got there, she was ready. I remembered back, and remembered that was one thing Ellie was always good about: being ready on time.
"Have a nice evening, love!" called her mum as she closed the door, then slowly got into my car, needing to sit down, then unlock the knee joint of the leg brace on her left leg, which let her then lift her leg into my car, and finally close the door. She looked over at me, and smiled, once again letting me see the wires of her retainers across her teeth. I was worried that maybe she would just leave her retainers out for the evening, knowing that she was going to be eating... but luckily for me, she was being a good patient, and wearing them.
"Hiya!" I said, smiling back at her.
"It's actually been a while since I've been out on a date..." explained Ellie. To be honest, it had been a while since I had been out on a date too, but I didn't say anything.
"Well, I just hope the evening lives up to your expectations!" I replied
"I'm sure it will," she said, looking at me with a rather nice look on her face... one that seemed to say 'I'm looking forward to tonight... whatever happens'.
The pub turned out to be pretty ok: being midweek, it was fairly quiet, and plenty of places to sit. We both had a half pint of the local real ale, which tasted really good. After that, it was a short walk to the bistro: again, it was pretty quiet, but not actually dead. The decor was fresh and had a nice Italian feel to it.
"Do you like Dough Balls?" I asked Ellie, after we'd looked at the menu for a couple of minutes.
"Oh yeth! And how about some Oliveth too?". As I listened to Ellie speak, I could tell that her lisp was much softer than it had been just 4 days ago.
"So what do you fancy for your main then? Pizza, or pasta?". Ellie went for the Salmon Tagliatelle with spinach, I chose the chicken / cheese / mushroom Penne, and we both had a salad side.
I was looking forward to seeing how Ellie dealt with having to remove her retainers when the food arrived, which was only a few minutes later. Luckily, there wasn't anyone else sitting too close, so she simply took out and opened a pink retainer case from her shoulder bag, then discretely removed first her top retainer, then her bottom one, putting them both into the retainer case. They were both made of that lovely pink clear plastic, and looked lovely: I was quite jealous that she wore them. After letting me look at them for a few seconds, she closed the lid, then put the case back into her bag.
For the first time, I saw Ellie's teeth without her retainers: they looked quite beautiful, and actually quite similar to how I remember her teeth when she was a teen.
"Your teeth look really nice!" I commented.
"I bet you prefer them with the retainers on, don't you?" she said with a very cute smile.
Over the next hour or so, we chatted about this and that. She told me about her time at university, how much nicer it was than her time at school. It soon became clear to me that this was very much the same Ellie I had got to know as a teenager, but with so much anger removed: she was now able to enjoy life.
"I'm rather hoping I'll be able to afford to leave home soon, maybe share a house or similar. Living at home is cheap, but it's a bit restricting, especially as far as boyfriends go!" she said. I had explained that I rented a small house with a guy I got on pretty well with.
The evening went very well: the food was excellent, and so was the service.. quick and discrete. We agreed that I would get in touch with her soon to organise another evening out together. While she went to the toilet, to brush her teeth, and put her retainers back in, I paid the bill - not cheap, but not too expensive. Not that I begrudged a penny: I had spent a lovely evening with Ellie
I took her hand gently as we walked back to the car, which was parked along the road, near the pub. Once more, she was able to easily get into the car by herself.
----
"So, do I get a kiss goodnight?" she asked, as she undid her seatbelt, in preparation for getting out of the car.
"I guess it rather depends on what you mean by 'a kiss goodnight'?" I replied, teasing her.
"Well... I was thinking that maybe you could start by putting your lips to mine." I undid my seatbelt, leaned over to Ellie, and put my lips on hers, giving her a gentle kiss.
"Something like that?" I asked.
"Yes, SOMETHING like that," she replied, smiling at me, and putting her hand around my head, and pulling it close to her again. Once again our lips touched, then again and again. Then her tongue popped out between her lips, and she ran it over my lips. I replied by using my tongue to touch the tip of her tongue. I clearly do NOT need to explain the effect this was having on me... well, this and the anticipation of actually feeling her retainers!
Our two tongues danced for a while, then she slowly retracted her tongue: my tongue follower hers, between her lips. She pulled her tongue into her mouth, then closed her teeth together: that's when my tongue felt the labial wire of her top retainer for the first time. To say the feeling was 'nice' or 'good' would be a huge understatement! It was amazing, electric.... I've kissed a few girls before, run my tongue over their teeth, but never across the teeth of a girl with a retainer!
She let my tongue investigate her upper then lower retainer wires, then opened her mouth a little, letting my tongue go between her teeth: that's when I felt the plastic plate that was just behind her front teeth... It was, of course, completely smooth, and felt strange yet immensely pleasurable to my tongue. Of course, Ellie couldn't actually feel my tongue running over her plastic plate, but she knew what I was doing, as she had pulled her tongue back, to let me do so.
The sensation of feeling that smooth plastic in her mouth is like nothing I have ever experienced before. Dreamed of and imagined MANY times, but never actually experienced.
Trying to feel her lower plate was a bit more difficult, but I gained certain sensations from using the bottom of my tongue.
Having spent a minute or more feeling her retainers, I gently pulled my tongue back into my mouth, letting Ellie investigate my teeth - something tells me that she didn't gain anywhere near as much pleasure from feeling inside my mouth as I had got from feeling hers!
-
This is really looking good. I look forward to see how his relationships with Ellie & Angela develop.
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Nice job @sparky
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I'm really enjoying the story so far. Can't wait to see if he tries Ellie's leg braces or if both girls talk him into getting his own set of braces on his teeth.
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Chapter 11
'Just leaving, hope to be with you in about 20 minutes' said the text I sent Angela. I was supposed to be at Angela's by 8pm, but I was running a few minutes late - yes, I'd taken a shower, and put on some fresh clothes... I wanted to appear interested, rather than turn up smelling of work, and in my work clothes... but I'd spent a bit too long getting ready. Not that it REALLY mattered. Well, that's what girls would say when I questioned them about being late!
Whilst Angela only lived about 10 miles away, it was across country, and would take about 20 minutes... in fact, Google was telling me that tonight it would take 22 minutes!
I arrived at 8:09, and it had only taken me 21 minutes! There weren't too many cars around, and I managed to park almost directly outside her house. I went and rang her doorbell.
"Hi Justin, come on in a second, just need to put my shoes on!". Her front door went straight into the living room, which generally looked quite nice, but was a bit untidy in places (but probably better than my place!). Modern furniture. Angela was currently sat in one of the chairs, putting her shoes on.
Angela was dressed rather less formally that she had been on Saturday, yet still looked smart, with simple, yet still slightly 'colourful' makeup. She was wearing a pale pink blouse, with a patterned skirt and tan-coloured tights, and shoes with slight heels. She grabbed a slightly bolder pink jacket, and put it on as she came over to the door.
"You look smart," she said, as she gave me a friendly kiss on the cheek, "let's go...". I could sense quite a lot of confidence in her. The weather was nice, and it was a pleasant walk to the pub. I bought us both a drink, and we found a small table to sit at.
"Cheers!" I said.
"Cheers!" she replied. "So, why don't you start things off by telling me a bit about yourself?" suggested Angela.
"Ok, well, I am Justin William Thyme, I'm 28." I started. I told her a bit of my background, that I went to university to study computing, had an older sister, Caitlin. "So, I work in one of the regional offices of a big supermarket, helping to keep the IT infrastructure working."
"And what do you do in your spare time?" she asked. Spare time: yes, I have quite a bit of that!
"Well, apart from occasionally going out somewhere nice for a bike ride or a walk, I like playing online games, watching TV, and - I'm sure you'll be glad to hear - watching stuff on You Tube..."
"So, who do you subscribe to on YouTube then? Obviously me, but who else?"
"Well, There's Big Clive... and the LockPickingLawyer... then there's Tom Scott."
"Tom Scott? He's good: I'd like to do a collab with him sometime. Anyone else?"
"Mrwhosetheboss..."
"Oh, yeah, he's really cool, we're trying to work out a collab right now." Angela paused. "I'm talking about work, aren't I?".
"That doesn't matter, work is a bit bit of our lives, it affects who we are...."
Needless to say, whenever Angela spoke, I was attentively looking at her face.... her mouth, trying to catch another glimpse of not only those golden brackets, but also the elastics that I had seen earlier. I had been watching her mouth for a while when I realised that it wasn't just the brackets that were golden, so were the archwires: why had I not noticed that on her YouTube videos I had watched the other day?
We drank, and we chatted, about this that and the other. We seemed to get on well. Needless to say, as we chatted, my eyes would go to her mouth, to look at those metal braces... and maybe even the elastics that I had seen in one of her videos. Finally, I said something that made her smile very widely, letting me see her braces very clearly, along with the elastics she wore, one on each side.
I decided to ask her about her braces. I needed a reasonably 'neutral' question, one that, were I a 'normal person (and by that, I mean a person without a love of braces), I might ask. "So, your braces.... why the gold? I mean, I've never seen anyone else with GOLD braces."
"I've seen you looking at them.... I'm guessing you like them?"
"Yes, they are rather different..."
"And there you go, you just answered your own question! To be honest, it's a combination of reasons. First, yes, they are different. And on YouTube there's plenty of people with braces, so if I was going to have braces and continue to be on YouTube. I wanted to 'stand out' in some way" she started to explain. "Yes, they cost a bit more, but I had decided to make my getting braces a bit of a treat for hitting 5 million subs, and when I saw the gold option, I decided the treat would just HAVE to include them! And you have to admit, they are rather nice, aren't they?"
"Yes, they are," I replied. "So it was a present to yourself for making the 5 million?"
"Well, I'd been thinking about getting braces for a while to be honest..."
"So what was the problem with your teeth?"
"You've not watched the videos, have you?"
"I have, but I was hoping you could tell me, more one-to-one, rather than a news broadcast on YouTube!". That made her giggle.
"Oh gawd, did I REALLY sound like a newsreader? Ok, well, you know how anything in your mouth feels hundreds of times worse than anywhere else.... my teeth were just a little crooked... a couple of my teeth were slightly twisted, some not in line, and a couple needed to be pulled down a bit. Luckily my molars line up fairly nicely, otherwise I could have ended up with a load more metal in my mouth!".
'Oh, what a shame!' I thought to myself! "So, you didn't fancy getting those invisible braces, that are popular these days?". It was actually a very valid question: I suspect many young ladies in her position would (sadly) want the invisible option.
"I watched a load of videos about the different types of braces... and to be honest, those invisible ones aren't really THAT invisible, what with those lumps they put on your teeth. So, if it's going to be obvious you have braces, you might as well just go the whole hog.... I would have gone for the normal metal ones, but when I saw the gold ones, well, wow!"
"They look a bit bigger than some braces you see now...."
"Yes, I could have had some smaller ones, but heck, if you're gonna get gold braces, you want people to actually be able to SEE that they are golden! I'm thinking more about my videos..." I could see why she was doing so well on YouTube: she understood how important image was, and how important it was to stand out above the crowd.
"Had any negative feedback about getting braces?" I asked. It was nice to be talking about braces, and I was trying very hard to make my questions and comments seem as 'normal' as I could. Besides, I had noticed that, since she had started talking about her braces, she was smiling more, showing them off. Was that subconscious, or maybe she was specifically try to just tease me? Or, heaven forbid, she had worked out that I had a thing for braces, and was trying to draw me out.
"Not really, no," she said. We chatted a bit more about her braces, then moved onto other topics.
"So, would you like another beer?" suggested Angela as I finished my current one, "or maybe you'd like to come back to my place and have a coffee?".
"Actually, the coffee sounds like a sensible idea, I don't think I want another beer. Besides, I need a clear head to drive, and for work tomorrow.". I excused myself and went to the loo, then we both walked back to her place.
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Chapter 12
So, the front room of Angela's house was one large room: originally there would have been two rooms, a dining room and a living room, both quite small, and it was quite normal for these old terrace houses to lose the wall between them, as well as the corridor, to make a much more usable lounge / dining room. A door from there went to the kitchen, which had been nicely extended to make it a much more usable size... you could still tell where the original walls were because of the 'lumps' in the ceiling where the metal joists were, holding up the upstairs floors and walls.
The stairs to upstairs were to the side of the room - many of these houses originally had the stairs in the middle, between the original two rooms, but part of the 'upgrade' meant moving the stairs to the side.
I followed Angela through to the kitchen: whilst not ultra-modern, it certainly wasn't old, and was very functional.
"Tea? Coffee? Or there are a few other choices, like herbal teas..."
"Coffee would be nice, please. Black, but can you put a touch of cold water in, save me burning myself." Angela got a large cafetiere out, put some ground coffee into it, then when the kettle boiled, filled it with water. A few minutes later, we both had coffees: I took note that Angela liked hers white, with one sugar.
We went through to the lounge, and I sat on the settee, putting my coffee on the table in front of me. Angela came and sat next to me, and turned to me, and looked at me. He mouth was slightly open, and I could just see the lovely golden brackets on her front top teeth.
"So, have you spoken to Ellie since the weekend?" Angela asked.
Oh sh*t! How do I answer THAT question? I can hardly say 'yes, I actually fancy Ellie, and we went out for dinner last night and ended up investigating each others tonsils' could I? Ok, so maybe just tell the truth, but maybe not ALL of it....
"Yeah, she seems to have cheered up a lot... I guess Saturday helped bring her some closure."
"Oh good, she seemed a bit down. Mind you, that's the only time I've ever actually met her, although Simon did mention her a bit. Sounds like they were pretty close."
Luckily that led the conversation away from Ellie, and to Simon, and we talked about Simon, including Angela telling me about what it was like when they worked together.
"That sounds like the Simon I know." I said. "Sorry, the Simon that I knew...". I paused a moment, once again reminding myself that he was no longer with us. "So, what did he tell you about me, and Rob and Kev?"
"Not a lot, really. I guess you weren't part of his 'active social circle', but I could tell that you guys had been important to him, back at uni, and the few years after."
A few minutes later, and things went quiet for a few moments. I realised that Angela was looking at me, so I looked at her. Our eyes looked at each other, and she moved closer, still looking at me.
"I've enjoyed this evening, you know....." she said. She moved even closer, letting her lips gently touch mine. We gently kissed, then we kissed again, then she took the initiative, and used her tongue to feel my lips, and between my lips, through until it touched my teeth. I opened my teeth a little, letting our tongues touch. I was not in a rush, I knew it would soon be my turn, when I'd be able to feel her braces. Our tongues danced together for a while, then she gently forced herself into my mouth, letting her feel the insides of my front teeth, then the outsides again. She kissed very gently, and very sexily. Finally she retracted her tongue, inviting my tongue to investigate her teeth, an offer I could not refuse.
The first thing I felt with my tongue was the brackets on her top teeth. I had expected them to be sharp, but they weren't, the edges were smooth and rounded. My tonge then felt her golden archwire, which I discovered was square or rectangular, rather than round: it is amazing how sensitive the tongue is, that it could tell the difference so easily. After running my tongue along the brackets on her top teeth, I pushed gently downwards, running it along the lower row of brackets. The sensation was very different from wehn I kissed Ellie with her retainers: they were very smooth, and by comparison fairly boring.
Angela opened her teeth a little, letting our tongues play again. I put my tongue into her mouth, feeling the inside of her front teeth, then the softtness of her palate. This was where the retainers had the upper hand, as they had that smooth plastic plate inside the mouth. After a while, my tongue returned to the outside of her teeth, and her braces.
We spent some time examining each other's mouths with our tongues, both enjoying the experience. Eventually we stopped, and drank the last of our coffees.
"Maybe we can get together again sometime" she suggested.
"Yes, that would be nice." I replied.
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I can just picture them together, so cute! I can’t wait for more of your stories, and they are really well written.
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Chapter 13
It was mid-afternoon on the Friday... that time of the week when you are mentally already at home, relaxing. Instead, I was at my desk, having my last cup of coffee at work, relaxing for a few brief moments, thinking back to last night. And the night before.
For years, I've had a thing for braces, and girls with braces, but I've never had the chance to kiss a girl in braces. At school, yes, there were several girls with braces, but I just felt awkward about even approaching them, let alone hoping I could kiss one of them.
However, in the last 2 evenings, I had taken out two different girls, both of whom had braces. Not only that, I had managed to kiss both of them. Run my tongue over and around their braces. Very different sorts of braces.
Ellie's retainers had the joy of the very smooth plastic plates inside her mouth, which still gave her a slight lisp.... which sounded very sexy to my ears. Then the feel of that smooth wire across the front of her lovely straight white teeth. I had briefly seen Ellie's retainers when she had removed them... nice.
Angela's braces were very different. No plastic plates, but they looked quite stunning, and it was interesting to feel how 'lumpy', and slightly 'sharp' they were, pushing her lips slightly outwards, and no doubt, in the first few weeks of having them, cutting into her cheeks. Whilst I had seen her elastics, they were more to the side of her mouth, so it was rather difficult to feel them with my tongue without her realising that my interest in her braces was more than just passing. I needed to take Angela out for a meal, so I could see how she coped with getting food stuck in her braces!
So, yes, two dreams fulfilled in one week!
My dreams were interrupted by my phone ringing: it was Ellie, someone I was very willing to talk to.
"Hi, Ellie!" I said, answering the call.
"Hi Juthtin! hey, what you doing tonight?". Well, I would never complain when a girl called ME up, asking what I was doing, it made a change from always being the one doing the chasing.
"Half a moment, let me look at my big and heavy diary, see if I'm free at all tonight!" I joked, making Ellie laugh. "Oh, look, you're lucky, I seem to have a slot tonight, from about 5:30 until around midnight.... What would you like to do?"
"Well, mum called me earlier, she wondered if you'd like to join uth all for dinner tonight?" It sounded to me that Ellie had 'mentioned" our recent dinner date, and her mum was wanting to play 'match maker'. Well, I would not complain on that count. Besides, I knew that both Derek and Shirly were both good company. And beside besides, it meant I would see Ellie again.
"Yes, that would be nice. What time?"
"Why don't you just come over thtraight after work - I assume you finish at 5:30?"
"Yeah, I do..."
"In that cathe, I should be there well before you, I finish at 5 on a Friday!"
"Ok, do I need to bring anything with me?"
"No, just yourthelf.....". Oh, that slight lisp was music to my ears! "By the way, thanks for Wednesday, I had a really nice time with you!" Yup, she definitely still has a crush on me, doesn't she?
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Chapter 14
Finally it was 5:30, and it was, of course, Friday, which meant it was now the weekend, no more work until Monday morning!
More importantly, it was time to drive over to to the Jones' family house, to join them for dinner. It would be interesting to see how Derek and Shirley were, whether they were finally starting to have some closure after Simon's sudden death. It would also be VERY nice to see Ellie again.
Now, I'm feeling that some of you are having negative feelings about the fact that I am 'chasing' two different girls, but it's not that I'm going steady with either of them. Or that I've promised either of them to not see other girls. I've just been out socially with them. Oh, ok, so I've kissed them both too. Is that REALLY such a big deal? All I'm doing is effectively saving myself some time: by getting to know both of them at the same time, I don't have to wait to find out that I don't really like one of them, before moving on to the other. Besides, 'time is of the essence': if I waited around, the 'backup option' could become 'unavailable'.
I am sure that eventually things will sort themselves out, that one of the two of them will like me more, and that I will like one of them more. Even better if those both actually match up.
So, it's all just a 'work in progress'. I need to be careful not to tell any actual lies: that's happened to me before, and it didn't end well. But that's different from just 'being economical with the truth'. That's what had happened last night with Angela, and I had no doubt it would happen tonight with Ellie.
Being a Friday evening, at 5:30, everyone was wanting to get home, meaning that the traffic was bad, so whilst I was sitting there in queues of traffic, waiting for the light to change or waiting for the cars in front to speed up a little, I was day-dreaming about Ellie, specifically her retainers. Whilst I liked all kinds of braces, for a variety of reasons, the thing I enjoyed the most was the whole idea of someone having to wear a pair of plastic plates in their mouth: not only would it give them a slight lisp, the thought of them constantly touching the smooth plastic plates with their tongue gave me nice feelings. Needless to say, it was even nicer if it was MY tongue that was felling the smooth plastic of the plates.
Of course, my ultimate dream would be to have braces myself... by preference some sort of removable appliance - the chunkier the better - but I'd be ok with just brackets. It would have been fun to have lived back in the 60s and 70s, when they used full bands, that must have been quite an oral sensation.
I was jerked out of my day-dream by the traffic finally starting to move again, and I got to Ellie's place about 20 minutes later. Her parents have a nice house, and I was able to park my car in a spare space in front of their house. As I got out of my car, the front door of the house opened.
"Hi Justin!" said Ellie.
"Hi!" I replied as I walked towards the door. Ellie continued to smile, letting me see the lovely sight of the silver wires over her front teeth - of course, it wasn't just the sight of the wires that was nice, it was the knowledge of what was behind those wires, inside her mouth. When I reached her, she gave me a gentle hug, and kissed me on my cheek.
"Come on in....". I followed her into the lounge, where her mum and dad were. "Cuppa?" she asked me.
"Yes please..." I replied.
"Have a chat with mum and dad, I'm doing the dinner!" Ellie said as she left the room.
"Derek, Shirley, it's always good to see you!"
"You too, Justin. Come and sit down"
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Chapter 15
We sat at the table in the kitchen to eat dinner. I should explain that their kitchen was pretty large, as was the fairly old-looking table. I was wondering what Ellie would do about removing her retainers before eating her dinner: sadly for me, she went off upstairs and removed them.
Clearly, Derek and Shirley knew that I'd taken Ellie out the other night, and had probably guessed that, even if we weren't formally dating yet, there was a closeness between us, but they didn't embarrass either Ellie or me by saying anything about it. We did, of course, talk about Simon, and about the funeral (which had been less than a week before) and how - as I had expected - it had brought a certain level of closure to the three of them.
I did mention that I'd been out for a drink with Angela, having chatted to her at the wake, after the funeral. But I didn't feel any of them needed to know about what happened back at Angela's place after the drink.
After dinner, Ellie went and brushed her teeth, returning to the lounge with her retainer back in her mouth, where we all continued to chat.
"So, it was good to see you again, Justin, thanks for coming along," said Shirley. "hope it's not too much of a trek back home again"
"It's not too bad," I replied, "it's only about 20 miles, takes about 30 minutes or so."
"Oh, not as close as I had thought then" commented Derek.
"So, what you doing tomorrow?" asked Ellie a bit later as she came out to the car to see me off.
"Nothing planned yet, why?"
"Well, I need to go to town to do some shopping tomorrow, I'd love to buy you lunch...." said Ellie, looking at me the way a puppy looks at you when he wants you to throw its ball.
"I'd love to!" I replied.
She came up close to me, and put her arms around me: her face was inches from his. "Do I get a goodnight kiss then?" she asked. Our lips touched once more. Our tongues met between our lips, and she let me slowly push my tongue past her lips so that I could once again savour the feel of the wires across her front teeth. Wires that seemed to be conducting sparks of excitement between us. Then I managed to push my tongue between her teeth, which allowed me to feel the lovely smooth plastic of the plate of her retainer on the roof of her mouth.
Ellie knows that I had a thing for braces, and that I definitely liked her retainers, so was pretty ok about letting me investigate them with my tongue. Of course, she wouldn't be able to feel my tongue on the plastic of her retainer, but I guessed that she could vaguely work out where it was because my tongue was also touching hers a bit.
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This is an enjoyable story, as yours usually are. My one problem is the sudden POV change in the last paragraph. Switching from first-person to third-person like that is generally ill-advised.
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Thank you for pointing that out: I've edited it to correct it.
That's what happens when you haven't worked on a story for a while: not only do you start to forget the storyline, you forget whether you're writing in first person or third person... I seem to alternate between them in different stories. First-person can feel a lot 'closer', but you then lose the ability to 'pass comment on how others feel' when 'you' don't actually know.
Ok, need to re-do the next chapter back to first person now!!!
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Chapter 16
I woke up at about 9 am on the Saturday, after a good sleep, with some rather nice dreams. Whilst I couldn't remember all the details, I did remember that it included Ellie, apparently wearing both brackets and a retainer, at the same time. Yes, close to impossible in real life, but strange things can happen in dreams!
After having some cereals and some coffee, I jumped into the shower, got dressed, and then went off to the supermarket not far away to do my weekly shopping. As I exited the supermarket, my phone pinged: Ellie had sent me a message, suggesting we meet in the shopping centre, at the food court, about 12:30. I replied, saying I'd be there.
It was actually convenient meeting Ellie in town, as I needed to buy a couple of bits in town too. So I arrived in town a bit before noon, did my shopping, then got to the food court several minutes early and sat down on the seat that surrounded the small fountain, in the middle of the food court.
A few minutes later a girl started to walk towards me: it took me a moment to realise that it was actually Ellie! For a start, I simply didn't recognise the clothes she was wearing. Yes, of course she looked good, but her clothes were of a slightly different style (I apologise, I'm a guy, so don't have the in-depth understanding of ladies clothes to actually explain the difference!).
More importantly, her hair looked quite different: before it was quite long, and she often just put it back into a ponytail, just to keep it out the way. When she let it down, she'd typically clip it back, or put it behind her ears, to keep it out of her eyes. But now she had a fringe, and her hair was straight, and a lot shorter, down to her shoulders. Quite a difference, but it looked really amazing, and just seemed to suit her.
"Wow!" I said. "I mean, Wow! You look very different today!" She spun around to give me a better look.
"What do you think?"
"It absolutely suits you!". I could see her face visibly relax, as she realised that I approved. "Something tells me you've decided you need a bit of a change?"
"Yeah, and why not! I let my hair grow really long back in my teens, and I guess I've been a bit to scared to actually change it."
"And the clothes?"
"I bought them this week, again, I've not bought anything for a while, so decided to treat myself, and try out something different too. You really think they suit me?"
Whilst I knew it would take me a while to really take in her slightly changed look, they seemed to 'work' ok on her. "It's gonna take me a bit to get used to the new look, but my first impression is 'it's good!'".
"Thanks, Justin.". I guess I should also comment that Ellie's speech was getting better daily: yes, there was still a slight lisp as she talked, but it was now very soft and gentle, clearly her tongue was quickly getting used to the new shape of her mouth. "So, any preferences for lunch?" she asked. "I mean, we have a good choice here!". I looked around, and instantly could see a noodle bar, an Italian, a burger place, Thai street food and a Chicken restaurant, and I knew there were plenty more. Normally, I would have deferred to my 'date's' choice, but she had asked me, so it would be rude not to choose.
"Are you ok with noodles?" I asked. Luckily she was, so we went in, and were shown to a table.
Once more, I looked on with pleasure as Ellie took out her retainers: I was expecting her to do so quite surreptitiously, as I imagined she would still feel quite nervous about removing them in public. But clearly she decided to be brave, and let me watch as she opened her mouth, then removed first her lower retainer, then her upper retainer, putting them both into the braces box she had taken out of her handbag. After closing the box, she put it back into her handbag.
The food was quite nice, plus we were able to talk about 'this and that'.
"Hey, would you like to go to the pictures next week sometime?" I suggested.
"Yeah, ok, that would nice. Any idea what's on?"
"No idea. Tell you what, we can both have a look, then I'll call you and we can work out what and when...".
After lunch, and after Ellie had brushed her teeth and put her retainers back in again, we had a bit of a walk around around the shopping centre together. We were walking towards one of those stalls that sells very nice ice creams, in fancy cones. "Fancy one?" I asked.
"Oh, yes.... but it's always so hard to choose what to have!"
"Tell you what, why don't I choose, and surprise you? Anything you don't like?"
"Not too keen on coffee, but otherwise pretyy much anything....". I bought 2 ice creams: one was vanilla and butterscotch, the other was chocolate chip and salted caramel, and I then let her choose which she preferred. She chose the chocolate chip and salted caramel. "Mmm, yummy...". I had wondered if she would bother to remove her retainers again, but she managed to eat the ice cream with them still in.
"Well, I ought to be getting home..." said Ellie.
"Ok, well thank you for lunch, I enjoyed it. And I'll be in touch about going to the pictures." We had a short kiss - we were in public after all - then we went our own ways.
I had just got to the car park, and was walking towards my car, when my phone rang. It was Angela.
"Hi there, Angela!"
"Hi Justin. You doing anything tomorrow? Specifically tomorrow lunchtime and afternoon..." she asked me.
"Nope, not a thing!" I replied.
"In that case, fancy going to 'The Falcon' for Sunday lunch, and a bit of a walk afterwards?"
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Chapter 17
As I drove home, I was thinking about both Ellie and Angela. First of all, what's their feelings towards me? Clearly they both like me, and must be happy spending time with me, as each of them have suggested at our last meetings. In terms of my feelings towards them... well, the two are quite different: Ellie seems to be a bit 'cuter' and more vulnerable, plus I've known here for a longer time.. which probably means I'm trying hard to make sure I don't upset our relationship in any way. I hardly know Angela, but she seems to be noticeably more self-confident.
They both have braces, which is a positive plus for me. Ellie also has her leg-brace, which is also 'of interest'. Strangely, that is one thing she's quite confident about: today I'd actually managed to forget about it for most of the the time we were together... clearly she had needed to unlock her knee joint when she had sat down for lunch, but she had just done it, no big deal. She was starting to get like that with her retainers, but maybe that was because she knew I liked them, and that made her more confident when taking them out in front of me.
So, would I like to have a longer-term relationship (so, boyfriend - girlfriend) with either of them? Yes, I would, but I don't know either of them well enough yet to take that big step. For the moment, I'm happy to get to know them both some more, see how things develop. Do I need to tell them each about the other... difficult one that. I think the safest way there is to not positively offer any details, but if asked, not to tell any lies.
One really pleasant side effect of all this, is that my social life had improved massively in the last week, and it looked like it might stay like that for a bit yet... it sure beat being at home alone, or just meeting friends at the pub!
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Two girls, both with braces, interested in the same guy. I am waiting to see what happens next.
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So, for my last couple of stories, I've been writing ahead, and letting Braceface2015 have an advanced copy, for the Archive. Whilst I know where this story is heading, I'm only writing the chapters just before they get posted, so this time he has no detailed idea what's gonna happen.
So, it's Sunday, and Justin is about to go and have lunch with Angela...
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Chapter 18
I was looking forward to lunchtime today: for a very pleasant change, I was going out for Sunday lunch... with Angela. Which would mean I would be able to watch her eat. And get food stuck in her braces. Her lovely GOLDEN braces. Plus I'd get to see her remove her elastics, and maybe even see her put some new ones in again.
She had called me back yesterday evening, to tell me that we had a booking for 12:15 at The Falcon (it's proper name is "The Falcon Arms", but everyone seems to just call it 'The Falcon'!), and could I get to her place by noon.
Being a sunday, the traffic was light, and I arrived at 11:50, so in plenty of time. When she opened the door, she leaned towards me and gave me a quick 'peck' on my lips. "Come on in," she said with a smile - a lovely golden smile.
As I walked in, I took a look at her. I would describe her attire as casual but still quite smart. Her hair remained blonde (must ask her if it's natural - I couldn't see any telltale signs of dark roots), and I realised that her hair style was amazingly like the new haircut that Ellie had just got. Her top was white with thing black horizontal stripes, a colourful skirt down to her knees, and long knee-socks. She had an elegant bracelet on her left wrist, and a couple of simple rings on her fingers. Strangely though, she had some very practical trainers on her feet: of course, she had suggested a walk after lunch.
She clearly had several pairs of glasses, because today she was wearing some very different round black-framed glasses. Yes, that was a noticeable difference between Ellie and Angela: Ellie dressed comparitively 'plainly', whilst Angela was far bolder, clearly spending much more money on her clothes (or maybe she got some of them given, to show off on her YouTube channel?)
"It's nice to see you again" I said. She smiled, letting me see a little gold between her lips, then went and grabbed a lightweight jacket.
"We might as well get there early, the worst that can happen is that we have to sit and drink extra booze!".
Lunch of course was carvery, and very good it was too: I went for the roast beef (don't get that all that often!), and a load of nicely cooked vegetables, Angela chose the pork. As we ate, we chatted, mainly about work, what I was doing, what she had been doing. Whilst we looked at the (rather nice) desert menu, we both decided not to.
After lunch, we went for a walk. It took about 10 minutes to get to the river, then it was a lovely walk alongside the river. After walking for about 30 minutes, we came across a seat, and sat down for a rest.
"You know, this was a good idea," I commented.
"Yes, it is a rather nice walk....". She took my hand in hers. "Look, I'm not 100% sure how to say this, but.... I've been in a couple of relationships this last year, but they both ended up a bit badly...".
"Oh, what happened" I asked.
"I guess it came down to a lack of trust. Keeping secrets, telling lies. Look, Justin, I'm enjoying spending time with you, but I need to ask you to be honest with me."
Ok, I could probably do that, except.... what do I say about Ellie? "Ok, well, I can think of a couple of things I maybe ought to mention."
"Do tell...."
"Well, you know I've seen Ellie a few times. When you rang me yesterday, we'd just had lunch together, and did a bit of shopping together. She wanted to show me her new haircut...". Well, that was 100% true. I just left out the bit about the goodbye kiss. But maybe that's sort-of implied. let's be honest, when I saw Angela, I gave her a goodbye kiss too.
"Is it serious?" she asked me.
"Not at the moment, no. No more serious than you and me, I guess.". Angela smiled at that news - she realised that there was definitely a chance that we could end up going out together, certainly something I think I'd be happy with.
"Ok. You said you had a couple of things...."
"Yeah... right". Oh, this is difficult. It was so easy with Ellie, but I guess I know Ellie a bit better than Angela. "You, see.... it's like this...".
She could see I was feeling awkward, so took my hand in both of hers. "Hey, I can't actually think of much that would upset me, unless you're something like a murderer... I really hope you're not a murderer!". That made me laugh, as well as making me realise that my 'secret' wasn't actually THAT bad.
I looked straight at her. "I have a bit of a thing for braces, and girls with braces.". There, I've said it!
"Ah.... right... yes, that DOES explain a few things!" She made a point of smiling widely straight at me, letting me see both her upper and lower golden braces. Yes, a nice sight! "So you like my braces then??" She didn't seem to be upset, worried or anything about my revelation. "I guess it's no worse than a guy having a thing for buxom girls or something like that."
"Yes, it IS a bit like that. I'm not sure why - in the same way that guys who like buxom girls probably don't know why either - but yes, it's a nice sight for me. And the fact that you have golden brackets makes it extra special for me."
"Hmmm... I don't suppose that might explain why you've been seeing Ellie too, would it? You're attracted to her braces too, aren't you?" Hell, I couldn't really deny that one, could I?
"I can not deny it, yes..." I took a breath. "So, you're ok with my 'strangeness'?". Angela smiled again for me.
"Well, it's going to be easier for me to smile for you than having to make my cleavage look bigger," she joked. "I guess it's my turn now, isn't it? I have a bit of a secret, and I really hope you're going to be ok with it. The good news is that I'm not a murderer either. However, I am a mother: I have a ten year old daughter..."
Woah, talk about 'little secrets': that was a rather big little secret. But half a moment, where IS the kid? Ok, I've not seen a lot of Angela's house, but a 10 year old in a house is gonna be hard to miss.
"Ok... I'm guessing she doesn't live with you then?"
"No, she doesn't. Maybe it's easier if I explain the full story."
"Sure, go on..."
"So, I met Chris when I was 17, and a few months later I found I was pregnant. Back then we thought we were madly in love with each other, so he proposed to me, and we got married shortly after I was 18. Sally arrived about 3 months later." She paused a moment. "I'm not really sure why, maybe it was to do with the fact that she had just 'ruined my life', but I never bonded with her. On the other hand, Chris did: Sally was the apple of his eyes, and he ended up giving her a lot of love that I didn't seem to be able to give her back then". Again she paused, and I decided to remain quiet, and let her continue her story.
"Chris and I lasted just over 5 years. We separated, then divorced, and I was quite ok with his suggestion that he should take custody of Sally. So, she officially lives with him, and his mum and aunt both help out - which wasn't too hard, as Sally had started school by then."
"I assume you get to see her regularly?"
"Oh, yeah, luckily our separation was surprisingly civilised, so whilst there's an official document in place, we're pretty flexible about looking after her. So, initially, I had problems bonding with Sally, but a couple of years ago, when she was about 8, she started to become her 'own person', and we started to get on really well, and we both quite enjoy each other's company now. She's a bright girl too, and amazingly mature for her age."
"How did she cope with the divorce?"
"Amazingly well. She knows that she's always welcome at my place, and she sometimes brings her friends back to play after school. So whilst I officially have her every other weekend, I'll often help out by taking her at other times, I can usually plan it around my work quite ok. And sometimes she'll call me, and ask if she can come over after school - maybe she and her dad exchanged words in the morning! As long as Chris and I both know, it's not a big deal. She has her own bedroom, and she keeps plenty of spare clothes at my place."
Well, yes, this WAS a bit of a biggie, and how I REALLY felt about it might actually depend on what this 'Sally' was actually like. Some 10 year olds can be a right pain, but I remember my cousin, she was pretty ok when she was 10.
"You've not run away then?". I smiled at Angela's comment.
"No, not yet, I'll maybe do that when I meet her!"
"Oh, don't worry, she really IS a cutie, I'm sure you'll get on ok. And when she's not there... well, you've seen: I'm my own person. So, if I can put up with your braces interests, you gonna try and accept that I have a daughter?"
"I'll give it a go..."
"Thanks!". She leaned over to me, and put her lips to mine, and moments later we were kissing, with my tongue exploring her braces. now that Angela understood my love of braces, she seemed to be very relaxed about letting me investigate her golden brackets with my tongue.
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I do enjoy being able to 'read ahead' on Sparky's stories. It does give me a chance to catch anything that might be incorrect in his story and point it out.
It gives both of us the opportunity to improve our writing skills.
I appreciate the effort he puts into his stories and although I may not always 'get into' them, I still do enjoy reading them. I have always said, "Write what you feel like reading, not what you think other people want to read."
With this story, I can't wait to find out what happens next. I find it interesting how he is doing one chapter (or more) with Ellie and then the next with Angela.
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I have always said, "Write what you feel like reading, not what you think other people want to read."
So, when I finished my Serina (the witch) story, someone did ask if I was going to continue it. So, taking what Braceface2015 said there, I decided that I AM going to continue it at some point. It will be a MASSIVE fairies / witches (and the other 5 realms too) crossover, but with very little braces content, but should be fun to write. And I CAN say that the witch's prophecy will be fulfilled!
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Chapter 19
Luckily where the seat was, was pretty quiet: I think I'd have been a bit embarassed if someone had come along and seen us when we were snogging!.
The afternoon was rather pleasant, so we gently walked back to her house.
"Come on in for a coffee?" she asked.
"Yeah, I could do with a drink... although I could also do with an 'empty out' first."
"Ok, I'll get the kettle on. Bathroom is to the left at the top of the stairs." I walked up the stairs, and looked to the left: the door was a little ajar, and I conformed it was the bathroom. I went in, and closed the door behind me, out of habit flicking the lock. I lifted the toilet lid and seat (yeah, it's a woman's house, isn't it!), and started to do what I needed to do. As I did so, I looked around the bathroom. Yes, I could see evidence that a second person sometimes lived here. A second toothbrush for example; a couple of plastic bath toys; kiddie's shampoo, and a few other similar things.
Then my eyes spotted something: it couldn't be Sally's, otherwise it wouldn't bet there... which meant it MUST belong to Angela. A 'little secret' that she forgot to mention. A tiny blue padded 'pillow' with plastic 'straps' with holes in attached to it. And a bent bit of double wires. Yes, a facebow and a cervical strap!
Angela wore headgear! If you remember, I had seen the headgear tubes on her molar bands the other day, and had wondered. But today, I had hit gold!
I finished doing what I had come up to do, did up my zip, flushed the loo, then washed my hands. Oh yeah, don't forget to drop the seat again! Then I picked up the facebow, and looked at it: whilst I had seen many pictures of facebows and neck straps online, this is the first time I'd ACTUALLY seen one, touched one. Looking in the mirror, I smiled widely, putting the ends of the facebow into my mouth, then closing my lips around it. Oh, yeah! Nice! Whilst I'd often wondered what having braces would be like, I'd never thought there would be anyway I would ever get to see, to touch, to put into my mouth, a real facebow.
I picked up the strap, and hooked it on one end of the facebow, then put it around my neck, and connected the other end. With my lips I made sure the front of the facebow was on my top front teeth. Once again, I looked carefully in the mirror: I was wearing a headgear! Just a shame there were no braces to go with it. It still felt good though! VERY good! If you know what I mean....
I realised that I needed to get back downstairs again, so quickly removed it, but decided to take it down with me. It would be interesting to see Angela's reaction to me finding it. Of course, what I was REALLY hoping was that she might put it on. Yes, seeing her in headgear would be a wonderful sight!
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Keep up the good work @sparky, really enjoying this story!
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Chapter 20
I walked into the kitchen, with the headgear in my hand. Angela was looking away from me, making the coffee.
"I thought we weren't supposed to be keeping secrets?" I said, jokingly.
Angela turned around. "What do you mean?" she asked. I held up the headgear, and as she saw it, a slight look of shock came to her face. "OMG, I left it in the bathroom this morning, didn't I!"
"Come on, Angela, I'm a guy who has a thing about braces, and you never thought to mention this little detail?" I made a point of smiling very obviously.
"Erm, yeah, right.... but it's not the sort of thing you go telling people about, is it?"
"True. But for that matter, I don't go around telling people about my love of braces. I think you should be punished for not telling me. I reckon you should put it on!"
There was silence for a few seconds, until Angela realised I was actually quite serious about my request.
"Please?" I added. I offered the headgear to her, and she took it from me. She had obviously had it for a while, as she opened her mouth, and slipped the ends of the facebow into the tubes of her upper molar bands without really thinking about it. Then she deftly attached the neck strap on one side, carefully fed it under her hair, and connected the other side. As she then looked at me, I could tell she was feeling rather awkward about it.
"Mmmmm, VERY nice! I've seen pictures of girls and adults with headgear, but it looks SO much nicer in person." I lifted my hand, and very gently touched the facebow, then ran my fingers across the front, where the two thick wires joined. She smiled a little, letting me see the relationship between the facebow and her braces: the facebow was maybe only 5 mm in front of her teeth and braces, so sat nicely between her lips when she closed them a moment later. I leaned forward, and put my lips to hers, around the facebow, and gave her a quick peck. I did it again, but this time kept my lips on hers, and ran my tongue along her facebow: because of the way the wire was between her lips, my tonge was also gliding over her soft lips. "You OK?" I asked after I finished the simple kiss.
"Yeah. I've never even considered the idea that I might ever kiss someone with this in my mouth."
"And how did it feel?"
"Strangely nice. But I think you might need to do it again, so I can really make my mind up!" Well, I wasn't going to turn down an invitation like that, was I? I put my lips to hers, and once again felt the facebow's thick wires with my tongue, then went a bit further, and felt her brackets, just underneath the facebow. As my tongue moved down a bit, it met her tongue, and our tongues played together for a while. When the kiss finished, she smiled again. "And how was it for YOU?" she asked.
"Oh, definitely very nice!" I replied, rather playing down the REAL effect it had on me. Angela looked a lot more relaxed now.
"Come on, let's grab our coffees and go and sit down." As she turned to pick up the mugs of coffee, I hastily 'rearranged' myself, trying to hide the evidence of how I was feeling.
I followed her back to the lounge, and we both sat on her settee. Sitting next to a girl - or maybe I should say a woman, she is 28 after all - in a headgear was rather nice, and definitely NOT something I had expected would ever happen to me. A sudden thought came to me, making me smile.
"What's so funny?" asked Angela.
"Well... I was sort-of wondering if Ellie ever had to wear headgear."
"Oh, Justin, you NAUGHTY boy!", and she leant over, and we started to kiss once more. As we kissed, without really thinking about it, my hand moved towards her breasts, which I gently rubbed through her clothes. Her breasts were pleasantly sized: not too small, nor too big either, a nice handful. And very soft to the touch too. Angela seemed to be ok with what I was doing, so I didn't stop.
The kissing was interesting, as we both started discover what you could - and couldn't - do when one of you was wearing headgear. As we continued to kiss, I could feel a hand gently rubbing my crotch: it discovered that I was indeed very aroused. In the same way Angela was ok with me feeling her boobs, I was ok with what Angela was doing too.
"It's clear my braces are having an effect on you.." commented Angela.
"You're not too surprised after what I said earlier, are you?"
"No, I guess not. Maybe if I'd known the other night, I might have put my headgear on for you.". That comment made it very clear that any worries Angela had had about wearing her headgear in front of me had completely disappeared, and that she was quite enjoying the effect she was having on me.
Once more, our lips met, and my tongue was feeling the metal of her facebow, as well as the metal of her brackets and archwire.
We kept touching and feeling each other's bodies... Angela's hand moved downwards, and she was soon able to confirm exactly how I was feeling. My hand also moved down her body, and confirmed exactly how SHE was feeling.
We looked at each other. "Do you want to?" she asked me.
"That's a stupid question," I replied, "of course I do!" Needless to say that my second brain - the one between my legs - had taken over the thinking from my primary brain.
<15 minutes later>
We just lay there, holding each other and kissing. Yes, we were still on the settee.
"Maybe we shouldn't have let ourselves get carried away like that?" I said.
"Why not. I enjoyed, it, and I'm guessing that you did too? And we are both adults, and we both have.... physical needs...".
"Yeah, but..."
"Hey, just enjoy the moment....". Angela seemed a lot more relaxed about what had happened than I had. I mean, it WAS only our second 'date'.
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Ok, so I sort-of copped out on this chapter. I was going to be rather naughtier with the "action" (which would have been published elsewhere), and post a redacted post here, but I was having problems writing it. So this is what you get - I'm sure you can fill in the missing 15 minutes yourselves!
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Chapter 21
"So, which film would you like to see then?" I asked. "I'm thinking we can have dinner first, then see the film."
It was Tuesday early evening, and as promised I had picked up Ellie, and we had come to the big multi-screen cinema. The good thing about this place is that there are also 6 or 8 ... well, I was going to say 'restaurants', but I think describing them as 'places to eat' is maybe a better and more truthful description. Put it this way, if I had offered to take a girl 'out for a meal at a restaurant', and brought her here, I don't think I'd be seeing her again!
"I know it may seem a bit naff, but I actually fancy seeing the new 'Matilda' film. Would you mind?" replied Ellie. To be honest, I look at coming out to the cinema as 'an experience' - even better if it's with a girl I like - so the actual film I see (within reason) doesn't matter. If it's worth watching, and I don't get to see it, then it's gonna be on Netflix in 6 months!
"That's fine by me, I'll get some tickets for us." I came back 5 minutes later with the tickets. "So, next question: what do you fancy to eat? You hungry?"
"Well, not Italian, we did that last week, it would be nice to have something different."
"Like spicy?"
"Spicy's fine with me.."
"So maybe Nonda's? Or there's a Thai place. Or there's Wigimimi or Thursdays." We ended up going to Thursdays, which was actually a good choice, as they have quite a good menu to choose from. We started off by sharing some cheesy dippers, then Ellie went for a Tex-Mex Salad, and I went for a half rack of ribs: both of us enjoyed the food.
By the time we finished, we still had almost 30 minutes before the film started (well, before the trailers and adverts started!), so we were not in a rush. I went to the gents first, my hands were rather sticky from the ribs. When I returned, Ellie went to go use the ladies, to brush her teeth and re-insert her retainers, but came straight back.
"One is out of action, and there are a couple of people waiting for the other one. Let's just go use one at the cinema..."
Of course, the toilets in the cinema are past the 'entrance', so we showed our tickets and walked in, and along the corridor to the left. Some way along, on the left, was a ladies and a gents, and opposite it on the right was a disabled toilet. Ellie pulled me to the right. Once inside the quite spacious disabled toilet, and before doing anything else, she kissed me: it was actually the first time we had ever kissed when she wasn't wearing her retainers, and it wasn't a short kiss either.
I then watched as she got her toothpaste and toothbrush out of her bag, then brushed her teeth. With the brush and paste back in her bag, she got out her retainer box, and re-inserted her retainers. She turned to me, put her arms around me, and gave me another very nice kiss.
"I hope you've got a condom?" she asked me. I will admit that I was rather taken aback, that wasn't at all what I thought she might say.
"Yes, of course..." was my reply.
"In that case, drop your pants, sit on the toilet seat, and put it on!" This was a very different Ellie than the one I was used to, but heck, I'm a guy, and she's attractive, so I wasn't going to complain!
As I dropped my pants and sat down, I saw Ellie lift up her skirt, revealing that she wasn't wearing pantyhose as I had thought, but stockings. (redacted) They caught on her leg brace, so she released them, and let them fall all the way to the ground. Having stepped out of them, she bent down and picked them up, putting them on top of her handbag. She next looked over at me: (redacted)
Ellie stood right in front of me, putting her hands on my shoulder.
"Do me a favour will you, as I bend down, release the clip on my knee joint, will you?"
Whilst I had seen her unlock her knee joint many times now, I'd never actually done it for her. I decided that, given what we were about to do, she wouldn't mind if I touched her leg and leg brace... so I put out my hand, and ran it down her soft thigh, and over the black strapping and carbon fibre rods of her leg braces, and down to her knee. (redacted)
(redacted) She put her mouth to mine, kissing me again, letting me stick my tongue into her mouth, and run it over that lovely wire, then inside to feel her two amazing and smooth plastic plates. At the same time, I realised that one of my hands was on her leg, so I started to feel her leg brace, with its velcro straps, then down to the long smooth black carbon fibre struts that led down to the knee joint.
(redacted)
"So... what brought that on then?" I asked her.
"I must admit, I was thinking about you at work this afternoon, and decided to 'dress up' for you, just in case 'something' happened tonight... although I was thinking it would probably happen after the film, in the car maybe. But looking at you as we ate dinner, I started feeling a bit horny, so decided I needed to do something about it," she explained, with a big smile on her face. "And don't worry, I think we'll still make the film in time!"
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Chapter 22
I was just about to leave work on the Friday evening, when my phone rang: it was Angela.
"Hey, you got plans for dinner?" she asked.
"No, but I'm guessing you have a suggestion?"
"Yes, Sally asked me to invite you over here for dinner, she wants to meet you!".
"Your 10 year old daughter wants to meet me? OMG, what have you told her about me?"
"Nothing bad, don't worry. She's staying here last night and tonight, so last night we were having a chat, and she asked me to tell her about you, and I said 'why don't you just meet him and make up your own mind?'. So want to come over?"
"Yeah, why not. When?"
"As soon as you're ready, don't want to be having dinner too late, she's only 10."
"Ok, I'll probably be there by six, that ok?"
"Excellent.
I knocked on the door, and moments later it was opened, not by Angela, but by a 10 year old girl.
"Hello, you must be Justin, please come in," she said. "Mum's in the kitchen doing dinner".
"Ah, so you must be Sally then... Hi Sally" I said in greeting. Sally was dresses like a quite typical young kid: brightly coloured clothes - clearly still a few years before she became untra-fashion-conscious - and pink trainers. Her hari was quite cute too, a few inches below her shoulders.
I followed her through to the kitchen, where Angela was working on dinner. "Hiya!" I said in greeting. She motioned me over, then when I was 'within reach' she gave me a simple kiss on my lips.
"Dinner will be about 15 minutes: you ok with fish fingers, chips and some simple veg?"
"Sure, it's been a while since I had fish fingers, I used to love them as a kid!"
"Good. In the meantime, Sally, can you and Justin set up the table for dinner?"
"Excuse me, but what should I call you?" asked Sally.
"Justin is fine."
"Ok, well, Justin, can you get the cutlery out of that drawer, and I'll get the table mats out...." It felt a bit odd being ordered around by a young teenager, but what the heck. Between us we sorted out the table: something tells me that she went a little over the top, that much of what we'd done was because I was there, a visitor."
"So, what do you think to your mum having to wear braces?" I asked her, trying to get a conversation running.
"I think she's really cool!" she replied. "I'm probably going to have to get braces soon as well..." she added, smiling so I could see her teeth. As a 10 year old, her teeth were a mix of baby and adult teeth, and I could see that the adult teeth she was getting were not especially straight.
"You gonna be ok having braces then?"
"Yeah, I'll be ok.." said Sally
"I took her to see my ortho a couple of months ago," explained Angela, who had just walked in with 3 glasses of juice. "For the moment it's a 'watch and monitor' thing, but she's coming with me to my appointment in a few weeks time, so my ortho can check her out again. She's probably going to need some sort of 'active appliance' to help her bottom jaw grow a little more, plus she needs her top jaw widening a bit. After that, it will be braces to straighten her teeth out." It was good that Angela was doing something to fix Sally's teeth while she was young - she was still growing, and her jaw still soft, so her teeth would be sorted out quite easily and quickly. Plus, at that age, she'd probably cope with braces a LOT better than if she was 15 or 16, when looks matter so much more.
Dinner itself was simple, but actually rather nice: Fish fingers, chips, sweetcorn and green beans. Angela was right, Sally was quite bright, and very able to talk and communicate well: if she kept on like that, she would do well in life.
Angela had explained when she called me that, as a 10 year old, Sally needed to be in bed by 9pm, and would need a bath before, so I'd need to be gone by about 8:30 at the latest. After dinner, which included some ice cream for pudding, we played cards for a little while, then watched one of Sally's cartoons. At about 8:15, thing had naturally come to a bit of a pause.
"Well ladies, I think it's maybe time for me to go, so you, young Sally, can get ready for bed. It was lovely to meet you! Now, you and your mum need to have a chat, to decide if you're ok with me coming to see your mum while you're here - I'll be honest, I won't mind if you prefer me not to be here..."
"I think I like you, Justin, so you can come and visit mummy any time you like, I don't mind..." replied Sally with a cute smile.
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hmm so this is getting a bit more "serious" now with angela :)
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Chapter 23
"Hey, I don't suppose you're in town, are you?" asked Angela. It was Saturday, and I was, in fact, in town doing a bit of shopping, when Angela had called me.
"I am actually, why?"
"Well, I'm at 'CostaLoadsa Coffee' over in Back Street with a friend, I thought you might like to come and join us."
"Yeah, ok! I need to buy something on the way, so I'll be about 10 minutes."
"Black Americano?" she asked
"Yeah, that's right.... see you soon....".
Well, that was a nice surprise, but nowhere near as big a surprise as I got 10 minutes later when I got to CostaLoadsa... I had walked in the front door, and started looking around. They weren't instantly visible, so I guessed they might be at the back, where there's a sort of 'lounge' area, with nice sofas and so on.
I found Angela at the back of the coffee shop, sitting on a settee over to the side. As she saw me, she smiled, letting me see her lovely golden brackets, plus a tantalising glimpse of her elastics. Also sitting on the settee was Ellie. Oh, crap: I got a feeling that was in trouble! And I did not doubt that they had been talking about me. I mean, from what I knew about the two of them, the only time they've ever actually met was at Simon's funeral, so why ELSE would they have gotten together? When Ellie saw me, she too smiled, sufficiently widely that I could see not just her upper labial wire, but her lower one too. They moved to the ends of the settee, making a gap in the middle for me to sit down. On the table, in front of me, was my coffee.
"So, doesn't your girlfriend get a kiss?" asked Angela with another very obvious smile, once again letting me see her gorgeous golden braces.
"Don't be silly," added Ellie, "neither of us is ACTUALLY his girlfriend. But maybe he should give both of his POTENTIAL girlfriends a kiss....". Ellie smiled at me, letting me see her lovely Hawley retainers once more, then leaned towards me, and put her hand to my face, turning it to face her. "Don't worry," she said, "it's ok..." and she put her lips to mine, and gave me a very gentle and sweet kiss. "You'd better give Angela one too....".
I turned to my right, where Angela was. She too leaned towards me, took my face in both her hands, and put her lips to mine, then quickly gave me a little tongue, before pulling back.
I was completely speechless: what WAS going on? I leaned forward, picked up my coffee, and took a small sip.
"So, I thought we were supposed to be open and honest to each other?" said Angela.
"Oh, don't be so unfair to him," said Ellie, "From what you said earlier, I suspect he never told you any actual LIES about him and me.... just maybe not ALL of the truth. Mind you, from what he told me, I thought you were 'just a platonic friend'... but I guess I never actually asked him to be TOTALLY honest with me!" The two girls started giggling a bit, but each of them then took one of my hands in theirs.
"Ok, so what's going on?" I asked.
"Well, you've told me a couple of times that you'd met up with Ellie: my brain interpreted that as going on dates with Ellie, and it seems I was right, although I underestimated quite how much your relationship had developed. Anyway, I thought it might be useful to 'compare notes' with her, and boy were those notes interesting! It was very clear that you actually liked us both, quite a lot in fact... and we are both quite certain that our braces feature in there, but we have both noticed something: there were two words you seemed to positively avoid using when you spoke to us. The first was 'love', and to some extent I could understand that, after all, you are a guy! But given how 'close' you were getting to both of us, I was slightly surprised. The other word you were avoiding using was 'girlfriend'... I never remember hearing you even mention or hint about that word even once. Once we two got talking, we worked out why: we reckon that you were finding it hard to commit to just one of us....." explained Angela.
She was actually spot on correct. I did actually like BOTH of them. A lot. They were quite different from each other, and thus I had slightly different feelings for each. Let me be clear, my feelings had become quite genuine, and I had just gotten myself into a position that I wasn't really sure how to get out of.
"Is she right then?" asked Ellie. "DO you like both of us? I mean in a more than trivial way?"
"I do, actually. You are both quite different, and I guess that's part of why I like - ok, maybe I should say 'love'? - you both. I've enjoyed every moment I've spent with each of you."
"So, how do you feel about having a girlfriend? Are you ready for that level of commitment?"
"Yes, I would like a girlfriend, but I'm scared that if I chose one of you, I'd upset the other, and I don't want to do that."
"We had a feeling you might say something like that, and we think we might have a solution. Maybe not what you might call 'orthodox', but let's see what you think..." said Angela.
"And that is...??" I asked.
"Do you think you could cope with having TWO girlfriends?" suggested Ellie.
"TWO girlfriends?" I asked, slightly shocked.
"Yes, that's right," said Angela, "we both become your girlfriend. Look, I've noticed that when you've been with me, you've always treated me as your centre of attention, and that's better than some toe-rags I've dated! And it seems that Ellie and I get on ok, so if there's any problems, I'm sure we can sort them out in a friendly way."
"And maybe we can sometimes all go out together, like today?" said Ellie. "I guess it depends if you're ready to take that step...".
And THAT is how I ended up dating two girls at the same time! Ok, how I ended up having TWO BRACED GIRLFRIENDS.
--- THE END ---
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By the way, if you want to see the "full" version of Chapter 21, you'll find it both in "The Archive!" as well as over on my Deviant Art page....
So, that's the end of this story, at least for the moment... you never know, I might get inspiration for a follow on!
So now, I'm working on a couple of other stories: the first is the Fairies / Witches / fulfilling the prophecy / Serina / Elida story. The other is called "Carol", I just posted the first episode. In fact, I started work on Carol maybe a year ago: I already tore up two versions, so I'm on version 3, with a slightly different storyline.
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Hmm just when it gets nice it's the end.. i would like to read more, how the special relationship is continueing .. Short or later one relationship will get stronger...
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I like to say that my stories never are finished, they are just set aside until I can get back to them.
Sparky left the story at a point where he can add more to it if he wants to. Sometimes it is better to work on another story for a while to avoid getting writer's block and to get fresh ideas.
Sometimes another writer will decide to do a story to go along with what has already been written. I've done it a few times when I saw something in a story that I felt could use a bit more attention to it. If you feel that you might want to write a story to add to what has been written already, ask Sparky for some ideas and share what you want to do, with him.
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Hmm just when it gets nice it's the end.. i would like to read more, how the special relationship is continueing .. Short or later one relationship will get stronger...
There's two sides to stuff posted here, the first is that it is a story, with characters. The second is that it's about braces. And while it's relatively easy to keep a story going, developing the characters, letting that story still have a good amount of braces content is MUCH more difficult - if you want to avoid repeating yourself that is.
We writers are VERY aware that the audience here wants braces, and the more the better! You can almost guarantee that, as soon as you throw in something more extreme, like publically worn headgear, you are more likely to get comments on your story.
Braceface2015 is quite right, when he says that we should just write what we want... the question is then whether you guys are interested in stories that we might write, with little braces content? I guess I'll find out soon, as the fairies / witches story will have minimal braces in it.
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I would definitely be interested in a story with more minimal braces content. Oftentimes I'm unable to get into a story because it's all braces at the expense of characterization, and frequently the same old cliches that have been done fifty times already. That's why I like your work, Sparky; it's less "braces stories" and more "stories in which characters have braces", something I think we need more of in general. If and when I put something up here, it'll be in a similar vein. On an unrelated note, I assume the Matilda film from chapter 21 is a historical epic about Empress Matilda's campaigns against Stephen for the English throne.
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No, Matilda is a newish film, based on the musical, Matilda... "Matilda, an extraordinary girl armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand against her oppressive parents and head teacher to change her story with miraculous results"
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Nice job @sparky . The story was jut getting interesting and I hope you come back to it later on!