12 Years Ago, High School
I took a deep breath before I went into my house.
My dad was the first one to see me. “Hey kiddo! You’re home early, you all good?”
I shrugged and nodded to Dad, then took a couple more steps into the living room and saw Mom on the couch, checking her Instagram for the latest Yorkie updates; she was obsessed with Yorkshire Terriers. Without even looking up, she addressed me. “Date didn't go so well, hmmm, Mandy?”
I could just feel her judging me.
“No, not so well. I won’t be dating Greg anymore.”
“Well, If you had maybe curled your hair like I said, you would have looked better and you wouldn’t be in this forlorn state of mind.”
My chest tightened, but I managed to squeak out the words, “I’m going to Stephanie’s… spending the night.”
“I love you sweetheart,” Daddy called from the couch.
Mom just gave me that look, that raised-eyebrow, condescending, I-know-what’s-best-for-you look. I patted my dad’s shoulder, went to my room, grabbed some overnight stuff and fled to Stephanie’s.
~~~
“Why does every guy have to attack my boobs?” I complained to Steph as I changed into my night clothes, a white T-shirt and Spankies, those tight fitting little pants that are kind of like underwear.
“Ha!” she laughed. “You’re asking me?”
It was kind of funny, I guess. Steph has been a lesbian since forever, so she wouldn’t know much about teen-male behavior. But she was my best friend, and I needed some help.
“I mean, they’re just boobs, right? Every girl has them. It’s just skin and fat, why does everyone make such a big deal out of them?”
“Because, dear Mandy, oh little naive girl, nobody else at school has ones as big as yours. I think guys see them as sexy, or if you want to get Freudian, it’s part of the oedipal complex.”
“Who or what is Freudian?” Steph read a lot more than I did. “Look, never mind. It’s not even about that. It’s just, we were making out in the car… and he took my hand... and he... he...” I was practically panting now. My chest tightened again and it was hard to breathe, I just couldn’t catch my breath.
“Hey, sweetie, it’s okay! It’s alright, you’re safe now. Tell me what happened?”
The tears poured down my cheeks now. “He pulled my hand down… down to his, you know. And I felt it through his pants. It seemed huge, and scary. And it was just too much for me.”
“I see...” Steph pondered. She paused for a few moments before she spoke again. “Well, that’s his penis--”
“I know that! I’m not stupid! Look, the kissing was great, magical, even. It’s like I get transported when we kiss, all my troubles just vanish and my mind calms. Even when he touched my boobs, it was still fine. In fact, it felt nice and I got a little turned on. But then, he wanted me to touch his cock…”
My breathing shallowed, it was like I couldn’t get enough oxygen. I could only speak between gasps now.
“I pulled my… hand back... and he… unzipped his pants and… took it out… and… “ Steph held on to me as I cried harder. “And he put his hand… on the back of my neck and... tried to pull me down…”
Stephanie held me tight, telling me it was alright now, she was taking care of me, it was all fine, those kinds of things. But it didn’t matter, my mind was spinning out of control, the room was closing in, and somebody had taken all the oxygen out of the room. That same somebody grabbed the insides of my chest and squeezed it. Am I too young for a heart attack? I kept trying to breathe but it didn’t seem to be working. My heart tried to thump its way out of my chest.
“I’ll be right back, stay here.” Concerned at this point, Steph went upstairs to her kitchen to get something. Great, now I’m alone in her fucking basement. She knows about me and basements!
She came back down with a brown paper lunch bag. “Breathe into this, you’re hyperventilating.”
She held it to my face as we sat on her bed and that didn’t help at all. There was far less oxygen in that little fucking bag than in the room. What was she thinking?
“Mandy! You need to calm--”
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” I screamed at her in a shrill voice. Then I unloaded on her, my voice rising to an almost unnatural pitch as my anxiety took complete control over me. ”How can I calm down when my world is crashing? I don’t think I like boys! Don’t you get it? I’ll never get married, or have kids, Greg is going to tell everyone at school and they will laugh at me and think I’m stupid or frigid and maybe I am a lesbian and my mom is going to kill me and never talk to me and that wouldn't be so bad but she will judge me like she does everything--”
“Mandy! Stop!”
“I can’t stop it’s like a freight train in my head and you’re trying to kill me with a paper bag but not really and everything is upside down and Greg is really cute and he makes me hot but I don’t want to see his cock and I don't know what to do anymore but I do know my mom has won and I am fat and ugly and won’t go to college and nobody will ever love me--”
I rattled on more, it felt like I was in a whirlpool of despair, and I was going under fast.
Stephanie reached over and grabbed my hands and pulled me over her lap. I didn’t know what was going on, but at least she wasn’t trying to put that fucking bag over my face anymore.I started to push myself off of her when I felt it.
Spank!
I lay there stunned. My best friend in the whole world was... spanking me? My body went rigid, then I tried to get up.
Is she fucking serious?
“Steph! What--”
Spank!
“Ow! That stings! Steph!”
Spank! Spank! Spank!
Each spank was right across the center of both of my ass cheeks. And Stephanie didn’t stop. My body fell from rigid to limp, I lay across her lap like a wet noodle. Steph kept spanking me, and spanking me.
She’s varying her locations now... up my left cheek and down the other… it hurts… it stings… I’m kicking my feet, it hurts so much... I thrash around but I don’t try to get off of her… I don’t want to leave the safety of her lap… that makes no sense at all... Stephanie, don’t stop… please…
My best friend spanked me for another minute or so, then she slowed down, and finally stopped.
“Well,” she panted, out of breath. “Look who finally calmed the fuck down.”
I had stopped crying, that somebody who took all my air and squeezed my chest was gone. Gone! My breaths were deep, my lungs filled with air on each one. I was breathing hard, but it was from the, well, I don't know if exertion is the right word. But it was from getting spanked. My mind was clear, I wasn’t worried about Greg or my boobs or even, amazingly, my mother. That dark blanket of anxiety was… gone.