"You have a dog?" Jenn asked as she walked Kris back home after that first sleep over. "He is really my mother's, but I walk him a lot too." Kris said with a smile. She never felt better in her entire life. Falling asleep in Jenn's arms felt safe and, for the first time, she wasn't terrorized by nightmares. When they awoke Jenn suggested that she walk Kris home. It was the weekend after all and they both wanted to spend as much time together as possible, "I like the cats better myself." "I've always wanted a dog myself." Jenn said, "but cats are cute too." Jenn had a huge calico cat at her home that kept trying to curl up with the two of them during the night. It actually forced Kris to snuggle closer to Jenn by taking over the pillow. As the girls approached the last yard on the first set of houses a large Collie-Husky ran up to the fence and jumped up so his front paws rested on the gate so he could greet Kris. "Hey Tess!" Kris said running up to the big dog. The dog had the body and fur of a Collie, but the snout and muscles of a Husky. It looked like a monster up close and could probably take down a grown man if he wanted to. The dog licked at Kris's face as she tried to open the gate, "Tess! Stop it. No!" Kris laughed. "Is he mean?" Jenn asked nervously while keeping a close eye on the dog. "Not really," Kris pushed the dog away so he couldn't lick her anymore, "He is just a big ball of fur. When mom brushes him you could make another dog." Jenn laughed at the idea, "I'd like to see that." "We can brush him if you like." Kris proposed with a grin. "Kris is that you?" A voice called out from the front door. Kris's mother stepped out onto the front steps, "Is that Tanya girl with you?" She asked, her eyes darting around the field outside of their house. "No mom." Kris answered trying to hide her frustration. Her mother banned Kris from seeing Tanya ever since a rumor spread about Tanya kissing another girl at school. Kris worried what would happen if her mother ever found out that she was the girl Tanya kissed. "Hello Mrs. Carty." Jennifer piped up, "I'm Jennifer and Kris stayed over at my place last night." "Oh I thought it was Tanya's voice that I heard." Kris's mother crossed her arms, "So it was your mother that called me last night." She turned her attention to Kris, "You know the next time you want to stay out you could always call yourself and not trouble someone else like that. Sometimes I wonder about you." Her mother said with a strange edge to it that it seemed only Kris could hear. Kris cringed at the tone in her mothers voice, "I'm sorry mom." "Remember it for next time." Her mother reprimanded sternly as she turned to enter the house when she turned back to the girls, "You friend can come in if she wants. Remember the rule: Boys in the room, Four on the floor and the door open. Girls in the room you can close the door if you like." Kris shook her head, "Yeah I know." She never understood why her mother felt she needed to keep reciting that rule. It was not like she was going to being a boy into her room. She actually found it rather funny in a way. Kris turned to Jenn, "Would you like to see my crummy room?" She offered as she opened the gate while pushing Tess back so the dog would not bowl her friend over. "Sure!" Jennifer acknowledged excitedly, following Kris into the yard, keeping her distance from the dog. The inside of the house was rather small. A living room could be seen off to the right with a small tv facing a couch and love seat with a square glass coffee table in the middle of the room. The glass of the coffee table had a large crack in it from when her mother fell through the glass. A long hall stretched out towards the kitchen and there was a set of stairs off to the right that lead up. The two girls took off their shoes and Kris guided Jenn down the hall, passed the living room and the stairs. One of her father's metal ladders lay on the floor against the hall wall. Kris had to move the ladder so that the girls could get around it into a small inlet with two other doors. One lead to the back entrance while Kris opened the other door and started to descend a long stairwell into a dark basement. Jenn followed closely behind pulling the door behind her. Soon after Kris's mother caught her with her father, again, she decided it would be best to send Kris to the basement. She had sent her husband into the basement the very next day to prepare a room for Kris and by the time she had returned home she found all her things had been moved to the cellar. "I'm sorry about the mess." Kris apologized as they ventured into the depths of the house, "My little sister, Rebecca, tends to leave a lot of her stuff around down here." She explained as she kicked a doll down the stairs. "You live in the same room as your sister?" Jenn asked curiously. "Not really." Kris said irritated by yet another toy on the stairs, "We both used to have our own rooms upstairs Then mom and dad decided to put me down here. Dad built a small wall to cut off my room from the play room." Kris scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment, "It is kind of pathetic really." She stopped at the end of the stairs not wanting to turn the corner into the playroom and slowly turned to look up at Jenn, "Maybe we should forget about this. Maybe we can find the cats in Rebecca's room. She is usually dressing them up in her dolls clothing." Jenn playfully turned Kris around, "Will you stop worrying? You saw my room and it was a mess." She started to push Kris around the corner. "Yeah, but your room doesn't look like a prison." Kris protested. She let herself be gently pushed into the playroom. The room consisted of a leather recliner, a small tv, a large old record player that took up most of the floor and toys of all kinds scattered across the deep red carpeted floor. All the walls were made of grey cement aside from one which was made out of wood panelling. There was a door to a small laundry room off to the right and a small opening was cut out of the centre of the wooden wall with a curtain as a door. Kris crossed the room and pulled the curtain to the side, "Here we are." Kris sighed. Jenn walked across the room in astonishment. The grey walls gave the play room a grim feeling however she was more shocked when she entered Kris's room. It was tiny and the main wall was not finished. Posters were stuck to wooden beams to cover up the fact that the drywall was not in place. There was a tiny window over a small rickety desk and a small dresser against the next wall with a tiny closet in the corner. Kris's bed was set in a corner at the far end of the room. The ceiling was even lower above her bed making it impossible for anyone taller than the girls to stand in that area. Jenn found herself speechless. "Welcome to my prison." Kris invited half joking as she flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, "I can understand if you want to leave. It is a hell hole." Jenn sat on the bed next to Kris, "I've seen worse." Jennifer fibbed trying to comfort her friend. "Not unless you live in a cage." Kris tried hard to force herself to laugh. Jenn touched Kris on the shoulder, "And I'm not leaving unless you want me too." "Jenn?" Kris shifted her eyes to the girl sitting over her, "Can I ask you something?" She inquired nervously. "Sure thing." Jenn stopped looking around the room and turned to look at her friend, "What is it?" Kris's heart was pounding out of control, "Did you... always like girls?" Kris asked curiously. Jenn felt herself flush, "I..." She looked around the room searching for the right words, "I don't know... it is just..." She stammered and played with her hair, "when I'm around you I just feel like..." "Like your heart is pounding a mile a minute?" Kris wondered. "Yeah!" Jenn exclaimed excitedly. "How did you know I was..." Kris could not think of the word. She wanted to say Lesbian, but that sounded dirty. Everyone teased Tanya and called her a lesbian, however Kris never felt she was. Sure she liked girls, but did that really make her one too, did it? "Something in the way you looked at me that first time." Jenn thought to herself, "So sad and filled with so many emotions. I've had boys look at me like that and feel ick. But when you looked at me. I don't know." "You don't find me dirty?" Kris inquired feeling her voice begin to quiver. Jenn looked into Kris's eyes, "You are sweet, charming and dangerous to be around, but you are not dirty." She leaned closer to Kris, "Did your mother really mean that 'girl can be in your bed'?" She asked looking at the small bed that Kris lay in. Kris blushed and nodded, then gave Jenn more room to curl up next to her. They softly kissed and wrapped their arms around each other enjoying the closeness. ***** Kris opened her eyes and looked up at the white ceiling of the bathroom. The feeling of Jennifer's lips against her own still fresh in her mind. She smiled and rolled over only to discover that she was still in the tub. She splashed around for a moment trying to sit upright and blinked a few times. She sat in the tub for a few more minutes trying to get her bearings. Lightly she touched her fingers to her lips and felt a shiver run through her body. Her heart started to race and she felt herself begin to blush. She splashed some water on her face, quickly washed up, then stepped out of the tub and prepared to get dressed for bed. Turning on the light in the living room, she relived the feeling of the girl's body pressed up against her own, the softness of her skin and the sweetness of her smile. Kris grabbed a shirt off the floor. It was a dress shirt that Jenn bought her for her 14th birthday. She hugged the shirt tight closing her eyes remembering how Jennifer smelled, then shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. What was she thinking? She entered the kitchen and pulled some left over Kraft Dinner out of the fridge. Tossing the clump of noodles onto a frying pan she heated the lot up, added a few spices before throwing it onto a plate and returning back to the living room where she sat down on the futon and leaned against the wall. The moon peeked through the patio doors. The same blue moon as the night of their first kiss. She finished her food and spent a moment staring at the moon wondering where Jennifer was right now. Was she sleeping soundly or was she wandering the earth as a tormented soul? Kris wished for the former. She curled up in a tight ball with her back to the wall and drifted into a fitful sleep. ******* To be Continued....
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