“Vic, it’s just a game. And I’m not exactly Rob’s girlfriend, not yet anyway. Besides, when me and Laura were an item, that didn’t mean my character couldn’t flirt with girl NPCs... or even with other players. When Lionel was playing a girl alien in Schwarzschild Radius II —”

---

Twisted Throwback

part 16 of 25

by Trismegistus Shandy

This story is set, with Morpheus' permission, in his Twisted universe. It's set about a generation later than "Twisted", "Twisted Pink", etc. A somewhat different version was serialized on the morpheuscabinet2 mailing list in January-April 2014.

Thanks to Morpheus, Maggie Finson, D.A.W., Johanna, and JM for beta-reading earlier drafts. Thanks to Grover, Paps Paw, and others who commented on the earlier serial.

---

---

Saturday morning, after a quick trip to the bathroom, I went back to bed with my tablet and had a relaxing morning studying and doing homework. It may sound absurd, but it was relaxing for me, post-Twist. I saw messages from Lionel and Vic; Lionel said he had to help his dad with some yard work today, but he’d probably be finished by lunchtime and we could play Phantoms of Phobos or just hang out. And Vic suggested I come hang out with him for a while before we went over to Lionel’s house. Rob had messaged too, thanking me for the lovely time he’d had last night. I smiled at that, and went back to studying. I’d caught up with most of my homework by the time I smelled breakfast cooking and went downstairs.

“Morning, Emily,” Uncle Jack said. “Got any plans for today?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “I might go hang out with Vic and Lionel later.”

“I was thinking of going for a long walk after breakfast.”

“I might go with you.”

Mildred, still in her pajamas, and Dad, already in his suit and tie, came downstairs a few minutes later. Uncle Jack repeated his proposal.

“I may very well accompany you, John, after we clean up the breakfast dishes. Emily, Mildred, would you care to join us?”

“No thanks,” Mildred said.

“Come on,” I said. “You can’t sit in the house all the time. This might be one of the last warm days before winter really sets in.”

“I might go out in the back yard,” she said. “But not out on the sidewalk where everybody can look at me and freak out.”

“We could drive to Terrell Park, and walk there,” Uncle Jack suggested. “There might not be many people on the trails this time of day.”

“...Maybe. Let me think about it.”

Mom encouraged her to get out and about as well, and said she’d come with us. By the time we finished breakfast and had the dishes washed, Mildred had given in and agreed to come. I messaged Vic and told him we were going to Terrell Park to walk the trails, and he could join us there if he wanted.

I hesitated a long time over what to wear — I wanted to wear a skirt, but knew it didn’t make sense for today — and finally put on the jeans with hearts embroidered on the pockets I’d worn while helping put down insulation the previous Saturday, and one of the few old T-shirts from my boy days that I could still stand to wear, a solid green.

We all rode in Mom’s car, since it had a little more room in the back seat than Dad’s or Uncle Jack’s. Mildred sat between me and Uncle Jack. Terrell Park was over on the other side of town, a couple of miles outside the city limits, around two hundred acres of woods with trails of various lengths snaking through them, and a soccer field, picnic tables and grills in the cleared area near the parking lot. There were only three or four other cars in the lot when we got there, and none of them were Vic’s.

We set out on one of the longer trails as soon as we got out of the car; Mildred led the way, wanting perhaps to get away from the group of people setting up on one of the picnic tables, a couple of whom were eying her curiously. I caught up with her and walked beside her, and Mom, Dad and Uncle Jack trailed a little way behind.

“It’s good to get out, isn’t it?” I said.

“Yeah... I just hope we don’t meet too many people.”

When we first set out, the morning sun was shining on our backs through the trailhead from over the parking lot. As we got deeper into the woods and were constantly in shade, Mildred slowed down a little; and when we got to a clearing where the trail crossed the stream over a little bridge, and were in direct sunlight again, she paused and seemed reluctant to go on right away. I took the hint and wandered a little way off the trail, looking into the stream. Its surface was too roiled by water splashing over the rocks to reflect a clear image, which suited me fine.

Uncle Jack, Mom and Dad hadn’t caught up with us. “There’s nobody else around,” Mildred said slowly, turning her face toward the sun and closing her eyes.

“Yes... it’s nice and quiet.”

“And it’s not like I have anything to hide anyway. Not even nipples like a little girl...”

“What do you mean —?” But she was taking off her T-shirt, leaving her in shorts and sandals. Of course she had no bra on under it, nor any need of one. My momentary qualm was banished by my reaction to the sunlight glistening on her scales, making different patterns as she turned this way and that to warm her sides and back. She was the most beautiful thing I’d seen in a long time. I stood there and looked at her for a long moment. I heard voices back along the trail, and said: “You might want to put that back on.”

She started to do so, but hesitated, wanting to soak up as much sun as possible, and Uncle Jack, Mom and Dad wandered into the clearing while she was standing there with her T-shirt over her head and arms, her chest bare.

“Mildred Katherine Harper! What are you doing?” Mom barked. Mildred finished putting her T-shirt on and stammered; I said:

“She’s basking in the sun. I think she needs direct sunlight more than just being outdoors.”

“Oh...” Mom said. “You should do that in the back yard, honey. Not here.”

“It’s not like I have anything to hide,” she said. “People let babies run around with no shirt on, and I don’t even have nipples like they do.”

“Still, people will talk...”

“Your mother is correct, Mildred. It is perhaps true that the ordinary reasons why girls should not expose their chests do not apply to you, yet we cannot expect everyone to think clearly and understand that.”

“People are more easygoing about that in Spiral,” Uncle Jack said. “Or in Little Five Points, for that matter — not on Moreland Avenue, but on a couple of side-streets where they have a local exemption to the public decency laws.”

“And it’s sunnier in California,” Mildred said.

“We will take all that into consideration,” Dad said. “Shall we walk on?”

We crossed the bridge and continued along another shady part of the trail for a good distance. After a while we came to a place where three of the trails intersected, and there was a water-fountain and a restroom. Vic was sitting on the bench outside the restroom.

“Hi, Emily,” he said. “Morning, Mr. and Mrs. Harper... You must be Mildred. Emily told me about your Twist.”

“Hi, Vic,” I said. “Which trail are you doing?”

“The Waxwing trail,” he said — that was a three quarter-mile trail that would have given him a shortcut to this point from the parking lot. “But I’ll go with y’all from here if that suits.” He stood up.

Dad and Mom glanced uneasily at Mildred, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake suggesting that Vic meet us here.

“Suit yourself,” Mildred said, and went on along the Whippoorwill trail. Uncle Jack followed her. I smiled nervously at Vic and said:

“Sorry. She’s a little touchy today... she’s been having a hard time at school.”

“I imagine so,” he said. I looked at Mom and Dad.

“Maybe Vic and I should take another trail and let Mildred be alone for a bit?”

“That may be a good idea, Emily. Katherine, shall I walk with Emily and Vic, and you follow John and Mildred?”

“Good plan,” Mom said. She kissed Dad and hurried off down the Whippoorwill trail.

“Shall we follow the Waxwing or the Cardinal?” Dad asked.

“The Cardinal’s longer,” I suggested. Vic started off that way; I walked beside him and Dad followed us.

“So...” Vic said. “The kids at school have been picking on her, I guess.”

“Yeah. Some of them have been really mean. And... I guess she’s nervous now about meeting anybody, worrying if they’ll act the same way.”

“I won’t.”

“No, but you were kind of staring at her.”

“Sorry.”

“I know. It’s hard not to... the way the sunlight reflects on her scales, and all. But it makes her uncomfortable, so try to control yourself.”

“I will.” We walked on in silence, stopping now and then to look at a spiderweb or an interesting moss formation. After a few minutes he said:

“You planning to come over to Lionel’s house this afternoon?”

“Probably so, yeah...” I turned and asked Dad: “Do you think it suits?”

“I do not see any reason why not.”

“Sure,” I said to Vic.

“Cool.” Then he was silent for a good while longer. At last he said: “So... um, last night — you went out with Rob?”

“Yes. It was a double date, Olive and Karl were with us.”

“Oh.”

He looked uncomfortable, and didn’t say anything for a while. Finally I said: “Vic, I thought you understood this — better than Lionel, anyway. Better than most people. I’m a girl now, and I like guys.”

“It’s not that,” he said. “I understand you’re a girl. I just — I think you can do better than Rob.” He glanced back at my Dad.

“Probably eventually,” I said. “When I get my body fixed, I’ll have a wider range of options... But the way I am right now? I was pleasantly surprised to find out that anybody would be interested in me like this. And Rob’s not just the only guy who’s shown any interest in me since my Twist, he’s a really nice guy; he’s not going to push me to do more than I feel comfortable with, and he’s fun to hang out with... I think I’ll probably go out with him again.”

Vic didn’t say anything until we got to the end of the trail, back at the parking lot. His car was parked next to Mom’s.

“Want me to give you a ride to Lionel’s house from here?”

I looked at Dad. “Is that okay?”

“Yes, you may go to visit Lionel. Remember what we spoke about a few days ago.”

Not being alone with Lionel in his bedroom. Check. “Sure.”

“I think I shall meet your mother and the others. I shall see you back at the house — shall we say, suppertime? Six o’clock?”

“I can give her a ride back by then,” Vic said.

Dad set out on the other end of the Whippoorwill trail, which Mom and Mildred and Uncle Jack were probably still walking. Maybe they’d stopped to rest in a clearing and let Mildred get more direct sunlight. Vic opened his passenger door for me and I got in, and a few minutes later we were at Lionel’s house.

He and his dad were trimming the hedges in the front yard when we pulled up. “Almost done,” he called out when we got out of the car. “I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”

“Want some help?” Vic asked.

“No, we’ve only got two sets of clippers, and there’s not much more to do. Go in and help yourselves.”

We went inside, and found nobody around — Lionel’s mom’s car hadn’t been in the driveway. We got drinks and chips and sat down on the sofa.

“I’m sorry,” Vic said. “I don’t mean to get on your case about Rob — it’s just —” He shrugged helplessly.

“I guess it’s kind of weird for you, seeing me like this...”

“Yeah, kind of. I see you, and even though you’re a girl now you’re obviously the same person I’ve been friends with for twelve years. And I want to still be friends with you, but I see how annoyed you get when Lionel treats you like you’re still a guy — and I’m not sure how you want me to be.”

“You’re doing pretty well — way better than Lionel, anyway.” Actually, I thought the overprotective way he was acting toward me was kind of sweet, if sometimes a little annoying; I was afraid Lionel would react very differently to me going out with Rob, when he heard about it — if he hadn’t already.

I was right. A little later Lionel and his dad came in. “I’ll be right there,” Lionel said.

“You should wash up first,” his dad said.

“Yeah, okay.” He disappeared into his bedroom, and came back ten minutes later wearing clean clothes. “Um, Emily — what’s up with you and Rob Dyer? Vic told me you’d gone on a date with him — for real?”

“Yes, for real.” I rolled my eyes. “He asked me out, and I checked with my parents and they said it was okay. And Olive and Karl went with us and made it a double date. We had dinner at Tower of Hanoi and saw The Left Hand of Darkness at the Magnifico.”

“Didn’t we see that a couple of years ago?” Vic said. “It wasn’t very good — nothing like the book.”

“This was the 2058 version,” I said. “Rob specially recommended it —”

“Dude, never mind the movie,” Lionel said. “Are you seriously interested in Rob?”

“I’m not pining for him to propose to me, but I’ll probably go out with him again. I had a good time last night.”

“Huh. I read about girls like you — guys who Twist into girls, I mean — and it said most of them still like girls after they Twist.”

“Every Twist is unique. Mine more than usual. Yes, I like guys now.”

“Weird.”

“Kind of. But there it is. Are you okay with it?”

“I guess I have to be, don’t I?”

I rewarded him with a smile. “Yes, you do. Do you want to play something or just hang out?”

“I thought we’d continue that game we started Tuesday. Me and Vic played another game with different characters Thursday and last night, but we left the game we saved Tuesday alone until you could join us again.”

“Thanks.”

We put on the VR gear and became Kiera, Oscar and Peter for a couple of hours.

---

“Gotta go,” I said as I peeled off my gloves. I dashed to the bathroom, barely noticing that Lionel’s mom was sitting at her desk in the living room, having come home sometime while we were in the game. When I returned, I found Vic looking at something on his tablet. Lionel was probably gone to the other bathroom.

Vic looked up as I returned. “What are you reading?” I asked.

“Um — it’s the new book by Sven Fowler. I guess you wouldn’t be interested in it, now...”

I sighed. “No, I probably won’t be interested enough to actually read it, not until school’s out and maybe not then. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear about it.”

He summarized the plot so far. It sounded like something I would have enjoyed before my Twist, and I said so. Then I said: “It seemed like... like Oscar wasn’t as interested in Kiera as before.”

He looked away. “Yeah, I... I kind of thought, what with you and Rob...”

“Vic, it’s just a game. And I’m not exactly Rob’s girlfriend, not yet anyway. Besides, when me and Laura were an item, that didn’t mean my character couldn’t flirt with girl NPCs... or even with other players. When Lionel was playing a girl alien in Schwarzschild Radius II —”

“Oh, God, don’t bring that up again,” Lionel said, walking in and sitting down next to Vic. “I should pay you back for that sometime, now that you’re playing girl characters. Not this game, of course, but when you’re least expecting it.” He gave me an evil grin.

“Depending on who my character is, I might make the first move. It’s all in the roleplaying.”

“So... do y’all want to play another session?” Vic asked. “Emily doesn’t have to be home until six.”

“Maybe,” Lionel said. “But not as long this time... Or we could just hang out and talk. I’m kind of tired from working in the yard all morning, and I stayed up too late last night; I’m going to take a nap in a little while. Y’all are welcome to stay and use my system as long as you like.”

We sat and ate and talked for half an hour longer until Lionel got sleepy. Vic and I left then.

“We’ve got a few hours till you have to be home,” Vic said. “And those chips didn’t fill me up. You want to go somewhere for lunch?”

“Sure,” I said. “Delhi Deli?”

He headed in that direction. After a minute or so he said, “So, next game session... you think Oscar and Kiera should get closer?”

“Probably,” I said. “Let’s see how it develops. It makes sense, given their backstory and all.”

We ate at Delhi Deli, chatting about the game and about things we’d read and seen lately — I told him about the articles and books I’d been reading for my Modern History term paper, and what I could remember of The Left Hand of Darkness, and he told me about the Twist League: Boston spinoff series he’d just started reading.

Then he took me home. “You’re welcome to come in and hang out for a while,” I said as I got out of the car.

“Sure,” he said. Then I wondered if Mildred would be annoyed at me bringing him home; but I was pretty sure he would be good for her, someone outside the family who treated her like a normal person. I thought he’d be okay after I’d talked to him about her that morning, but I warned him anyway: “Try not to stare at Mildred, okay?”

“I won’t,” he promised.

Mildred wasn’t in the living room when we came in; Uncle Jack was sitting on the sofa working on his tablet.

“Hi, Uncle Jack,” I said. “You’ve met Vic, right?”

“Not recently, but I think so. Good afternoon.”

“Where’s Mildred and Mom and Dad?”

“Your dad’s taking a nap, I think — your mom and Mildred are in the back yard.”

“Okay.” I turned to Vic: “Help yourself in the kitchen, okay? I’m going to step out in the yard and tell Mom I’m home.” And tell Mildred that Vic was around, in case she wanted to avoid him — but I hoped she wouldn’t.

I found Mildred wearing only shorts, and Mom wearing shorts and a bikini top, lying on beach towels near the back porch. Mildred seemed to be asleep. “Hi, Emily,” Mom said. “Want to join us?”

“Um, probably not. I just wanted to let you know I was home. Vic gave me a ride home from Lionel’s house, he’s in yonder with Uncle Jack... I was going to hang out with him until he needs to go home for supper, if it suits.”

“Oh... I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“You don’t need to —”

“I haven’t seen Vic in a while, not since before your Twist. And remember what your father and I told you —”

“Not in my bedroom, right. Living room or kitchen only.”

I went back inside. Vic was in the living room, chatting with Uncle Jack about his travels; I sat in the other easy chair, listening to them. Mom came in, and said: “Hi, Vic. I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Good afternoon, Ms. Harper.”

“I’m glad to see that Emily’s friends are supporting her with her Twist. I’m afraid Mildred’s friends haven’t been so helpful.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. Mildred’s a good kid.”

“Her best friend — former best friend — has a phobia of snakes,” I put in. “And her other friends haven’t been that great to her either. None of them’s come over here or invited her to their houses since the Twist.”

“That’s rough.”

“You’re welcome to stay for supper if your parents don’t need you home anytime soon,” Mom said. “Let me know in the next half hour or so if you’re staying...” She went upstairs, and came back a few minutes later wearing a T-shirt and jeans. That reminded me I was still wearing the jeans and T-shirt I’d gone to walk in that morning, and I excused myself to go shower and change clothes, leaving Uncle Jack telling Vic a long story about a con artist he’d double-crossed in Tangiers a few years ago.

I came back downstairs wearing a blouse and skirt, feeling a lot more comfortably girly. Mom was in the kitchen, chopping vegetables.

“Can I help?” I asked.

“There’s no hurry with this; go visit with your friend.”

Vic looked at me in surprise when I returned to the living room. “Why are you all dressed up?”

I shrugged. “I just felt like changing into something nicer.”

“Today — in the park — that was the first time I’d seen you wearing jeans since your Twist...”

“Yeah. I don’t really like jeans, but a skirt’s not good for walking in the woods.”

“Is it a Twist compulsion?”

“Kind of. I mean, I have a compulsion to wear girl clothes — I couldn’t have worn those jeans if they were boy-cut or didn’t have the hearts embroidered on them. But I prefer wearing skirts.” Maybe to remind people — especially myself — that I was a girl.

“Emily, go check the thermometer on the porch, would you?” Mom called.

I did. “It’s down to sixty-eight,” I said.

“Go tell your sister to come in.”

“All right.” Vic started to follow me, but I told him to wait. “She’s sunbathing — or she was; she might not want you to see her.”

Mildred was asleep on her beach towel, the sun still playing off her iridescent scales. I wanted to take a picture of her, but I knew she wouldn’t like it. I knelt and shook her gently until she woke.

“What is it?”

“Mom says you need to come in — it’s getting cool.”

“Oh. Sure.” She put on her shirt and followed me into the house.

“Vic’s here,” I said.

“You brought him here?” She sounded dismayed, and stopped just inside the back door.

“Yes. He’s okay, remember? He never picked on you half as much as Lionel, and I think he’ll be fine with your Twist.”

“I didn’t like the way he was looking at me in the park.”

“He was just startled. You’ve got to cut people some slack — almost everyone’s going to stare a little when they first see you, you’re so beautiful in such a surprising way. But the nice people will treat you normally once they get over their shock. Give Vic a chance, okay?”

She came into the living room with me.

“Hi, Mildred,” Vic said. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” she said. “Got turned into a snake, lost half my friends, counting the days till we can move to Spiral.”

“Sorry... I guess both of you got a raw deal out of being Twisted. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”

“You could help Mildred practice her trick,” I suggested. That might cheer her up. “And I need to practice mine, too. — Mom, is it okay if we go upstairs and use one of the full-length mirrors?”

“All right,” she said.

“What’s your trick?” Vic asked, interested. “Emily didn’t tell me.”

“I’ll show you,” Mildred said, grinning. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Vic and I followed Mildred upstairs to her bedroom, which had a full-length mirror on the back of the door. I flinched at the sight of my too-masculine reflection; Vic looked startled, too — I don’t think he’d seen my reflection since my Twist.

“In the mirror you look kind of like your old self — except for your hair, and your goatee... hmm. I’m not sure what else is different.”

“My reflection shows what I really look like without my trick,” I said. “I’ve been exercising to try to get people to see the real me in the mirror, too.”

“Be quiet and let her concentrate,” Mildred advised. We all stood there looking at the mirror in silence for a while. I started doing the exercises Dr. Yarrow had taught me, relaxing, taking deep breaths, concentrating on my image in the mirror and mentally superimposing on it the image of girl-me that I wanted Vic and Mildred to see...

“Hey, Mildred,” Vic said, interrupting my concentration, “weren’t you going to show me your trick too? Do you need a mirror for it?”

“I’ll show you later,” Mildred said. “Shh, let us concentrate.”

“Okay, sorry.” Vic stood there watching our reflections.

After a while, as he was starting to fidget, he suddenly looked carefully at the mirror, then turned and looked behind him. I smiled and tried to keep concentrating on my exercises. Vic turned and looked back at the mirror. A minute later he jumped, turned around and looked at where he’d been standing. “Watch out,” he cried.

“There you go,” I said. “You wanted to see Mildred’s trick.”

“What?” He kept looking around. “You mean... Mildred made me see it?”

“What did you see?” Mildred asked.

“A snake — I saw it right behind me in the mirror, but when I turned around I couldn’t see it.”

“Cool!” she said. “What kind of snake?”

“I’m not sure — could have been a copperhead, or something harmless with similar coloring. I didn’t get a clear look at it.”

“Just right, then,” she said.

“What do you mean, just right?”

“That’s the kind of snake I wanted you to see... Sometimes it doesn’t quite work, somebody sees a different kind of snake than I was thinking of, or in a different place. And getting you to see it in the mirror but not when you look straight at it is cool; I haven’t done that before.”

“Good for you,” Vic said. I was trying to keep concentrating on my exercises while they talked, and it finally paid off.

He looked back at the mirror as he said: “So, can you make people see anything, or just snakes...?”

“So far just snakes,” Mildred said. “They said I could maybe make people see other things but it will take a lot of practice, and I should get more control over the kind of snakes people see and what they’re doing first.”

But Vic was looking closer at me in the mirror, and he said: “Mildred, does she look a little different to you?”

Mildred looked back and forth from me to my reflection. “Oh, yeah. Emily, your Adam’s apple is gone!”

I put my hand instinctively to my throat. I could still feel it. And I could still see it in the mirror... but apparently Mildred and Vic couldn’t. I grinned, jumped up and down, and hugged Mildred, then Vic.

That was when Mom opened the door. I let go of Vic, who was probably even more startled and embarrassed than I was.

“Look in the mirror!” Mildred said.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Close the door so we can see the mirror; Emily’s got us seeing her in the mirror!”

“You do? Honey, that’s wonderful!” Mom hugged me, and Mildred closed the door. We looked into the mirror — it was getting crowded in the space near the door, and Vic moved away toward Mildred’s desk.

“It’s not quite a perfect match,” Mom said, after carefully comparing me with my reflection, “but it’s definitely closer. Good work, honey.” She looked up at Vic. “Thank you for helping her practice her trick.”

“And Mildred’s,” Vic put in with a sardonic smile. “I’d better call my Mom and see if it’s okay to stay for supper.”

But it turned out that it wasn’t; he left a few minutes later. After I’d shown Dad and Uncle Jack my new reflection, I studied for a while before supper. When I’d caught up with all my homework, and turned to the Modern History term paper, I read something about a transsexual support group Erin Ann Pendergrass had been part of, and that reminded me of the forum Ingrid had told me about; I looked at it again. This was the most recent post:

From: Rachel396
Date: Saturday 14 November 21—
Subject: Compulsions

Since I went back to school after my Twist, things have been just awful. I got suspended for a couple of days because my compulsions weren’t letting me adhere to the dress code, and that was kind of a relief, but then Dad’s lawyer made the school give me an “accommodation,” which means I have to go to school again and let everybody see my boobs practically popping out of blouses that are too small for me. And of course the guys are staring at me constantly. How do y’all deal with that?

I re-read the post I’d drafted Thursday evening about my own Twist, revised it, and was about to send it when I thought of something else. I added this postscript:

P.S. I have a friend who lost track of her cousin Jason when he Twisted and his parents divorced right afterward. She doesn’t know what he’s like after his Twist or whether his name might have changed. (They lived in Douglasville, Georgia before he Twisted and his parents got divorced.) If you know him, tell him to get in touch with his cousin Morgan through me.

While I’d been reading recent posts and writing my own, someone had replied to Rachel396's post:

From: RainbowHead
Date: Saturday 14 November 21—
Subject: Compulsions

There was a girl like us at school with me, a grade or two ahead of me, with compulsions somewhat similar to yours — she wore revealing clothes, and once in a while she would pretend to have a wardrobe malfunction. My own compulsions aren’t the same — mostly a kind of impulsiveness that comes over me at times — but my counselor I saw for a while after my Twist gave me some exercises to help keep it under control, to help me slow down and think before I act. Have you tested the edges of your compulsions? Do you have to wear blouses too small for you, or could you wear something with a lower neckline that fits you? That might satisfy a compulsion to show off your breasts, without making you physically uncomfortable — it won’t help with the staring, though. Or can you grit your teeth and wear better-fitting clothes during the school day, and satisfy the compulsion by putting on a tight blouse when you get home from school?

But most Twisted actually enjoy acting out their compulsions, once they get used to them. Try to relax and enjoy it, if you can — people appreciate looking at you, and that can be a source of power if you learn to use it. If it’s that kind of compulsion, you’ll probably find that the discomfort of your clothes being too tight goes away or doesn’t bother you anymore after a while.

If that doesn’t work, if your compulsion is making you miserable, talk to your doctor — there are drugs and procedures that can help with harmful compulsions, but they don’t like to use them if it’s not absolutely necessary because of the side effects.

I didn’t have any useful advice to give Rachel396. I thought about asking Dad how Ryan got his compulsions under control, but I decided he probably wouldn’t want to talk about it. I went back to work on my term paper until time for supper, and again afterward.

---

---

If you're enjoying this novel, why not check out some of my other books?

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes	Smashwords	Amazon
When Wasps Make Honey	Smashwords	Amazon
A Notional Treason	Smashwords	Amazon
The Weight of Silence and Other Stories	Smashwords	Amazon