Roommates & Lovers
Book
1 in a series of novelettes
By
the Author of the Suzy & Katie Series
By:
D. D. Story
Revise
Edition
This is the first in a series of novelettes about an ambitious
young woman, who has the dream of becoming a lawyer, and fighting for the
rights of women, especially those who are lesbians,
This
book is a work of fiction, and any connections the reader may make with the
names of places or people, is purely from their own thoughts. All names of people and places were developed
by the author with the intent of adding a bit of humor into the series for the
reader.
The
cover photo; is the actual inspiration for this story and the entire series to
come.
By:
D. D. Story
©
March 18, 2014
Revised:
February 1, 2015
Suzy
Q. Stories Publishing
P.O.
Box 143,
North
Chili, NY 14514
All
Rights Reserved.
The story is set in the fall of
1941. Vanity is entering her freshman year at Jones College, an all girls
college, geared for the children of the wealthy and high society class of the
day.
Vanity Bench is a very attractive
18 year old, With her five foot six inch frame, carrying only 115 pounds, her breasts
while not extremely large, appear to be perfectly proportion for her body. Moreover, with deep green eyes, surrounded by
a mane of red hair, it is not hard to realize she is of Irish descent. She is paired with a roommate with a name as
strange as hers. They quickly become
fast friend, as they find out how much they have in common with each other. It does
not take long for them to make a name for themselves, and become known campus
wide as a team, by their last names.
Placed together; because the
Dean of Students, felt that firstly, they could deal with their names, better
as a team, than being paired with someone with a normal name. The second
reason, will become evident very early on in the story.
“Welcome to Jones Miss Vanity Bench, I’m Constance Debutante,
and I am the Dean of Student Affairs here at Jones. I enjoyed meeting your mother and father when
you made your visit last spring. Your
mother and I had quite an enchanting talk, while you and your father took your
walk.”
“Thank you Dean Debutante, I am very happy to be
here, as Jones was my first choice, as an institution to further my education, on
my way to reaching my goal of being an Attorney.” I paused and added; “I can
only guess at what you and my mother discussed, but I assume it had something
to do with me, since you felt the need to mention it to me.”
“Ah Miss Bench, I see the Attorney in you already,
and you are correct, your mother is concerned, because you do not seem to show
any interest in boys, or men, and as this is an women only university, that you
will lose all interest in men. I got the
feeling from her that she thinks you might be more interested in girls than boys,
or as we prefer to say here at Jones, young women and young men.”
“Dean Debutante, I sincerely hope that it will not
be a problem, if I show no interest in boys, or young men. I got a very distinct feeling when I took my
visit, that a young woman having other young women as special friends was quite
acceptable behavior here at Jones.”
“You were correct in your observation Miss Bench, it
is acceptable behavior here, by many, but not all, I have to add.”
“May I ask what side of the issue the Dean is on?”
“You may, as Dean I have to be neutral and support
both sides, but in private, let me simply say it is Miss Debutante and has
always been so.”
“Thank you Dean Debutante, for your honesty and
candor, my mother is correct I have never known a man, but I have had a
girlfriend or two.”
“In that case Miss Bench, let me again welcome you
to Jones. Plus, please allow me to personally invite you to the mixer next
Saturday, at my home, which I believe that you should enjoy.”
“Thank you Dean Debutante, I would be honored to
attend, and now with your permission, I would like to go to my dorm room and
meet my new roommate.”
“Very understandable Miss Bench and I trust that you
and your roommate, Carrie Meaway, will become good friends.”
“Thank you Dean Debutante and I look forward to next
Saturday.”
That was my first meeting with Dean Debutante, on my
first day at Jones, but not my last in any shape or way.
I walked across the campus, to my dorm room located
in DePant Hall. I easily skipped up the long
flights of stairs, which only the day before, had been my father’s bane, as he
carried in my trunks and bags of dresses, while my mom and I carried up the
light bags and boxes of shoes and hats.
I had been allowed to move in a day early, as my
parents were sailing to Europe in two days.
While it had meant that I got free choice as to which side of the room I
wanted, it had also relegated me to spend my first night on campus pretty much alone,
I would meet my roommate for the first time today. I could not help but to
wonder after my meeting with the dean, what Carrie Meaway would look like. I
also wondered, as I skipped up the stairs,
if like me, she enjoyed the company of women rather than men.
Today the stairs were alive with people, as it was
truly moving in day. Dad’s lugging
trunks up flights of stairs, while like mom and I; the women were all carrying
the lighter loads. The lugging job, always fell to the dads or brothers, since,
it’s not easy to carry trunks upstairs in either a skirt or dress, and special
shoes.
I made it through the congestion to the third floor
landing, and could see a pile of suitcases outside of my dorm room door. As I walked down the hall, I was happy to see
an attractive girl of my age come out of the door, grab a suitcase, and go back
in. My first impression was pleasing to
the eye, now I wondered how much she was like I.
I paused outside of the door and asked, “Which bag
do you want next roomie?”
She turned and smiled at me, “Any one you want, you
must be Vanity, hi I’m Carrie, when did you move in?
“Yesterday, my mom and dad are sailing for Europe
tomorrow, so I had to move in early. I
hope you don’t mind the side I took, I didn’t really leave you a choice.”
“Oh that’s no problem; both sides look like they are
the same anyway.”
“That’s what I thought too, can I help you unpack,
or is your mom here to help you?”
“I’d love the help; no one is here to help me now. My
mother and father had to leave right after we got it all up here.” Carrie paused, and then added; “Small world
we live in, because they are traveling to Europe tomorrow also.”
“Wow, what if they’re on the same ship?”
Then we stood there laughing like best friends, and
not two girls who had just met. We had
both said the name of the same ship at the same time. Then Carrie gave me a
quick hug, and quietly said, “I think we might have more in common than just
our parents sailing to Europe on the same ship.”
Before I released her, I softly replied, “I think
you might be right.” Then added, “Let’s get you unpacked, and then go down get
a glass of lemonade, or iced tea, and go sit under one of these beautify trees
and tell each other our life stories.”
“Sounds Lovely to me, it’s kind of hectic and mushy
up here what with all of the parents saying good bye.”
I grabbed the next bag from the hall, and asked here
where she wanted its contents put. “Top
drawer, that is my lingerie case, and before you ask, no I don’t mind, if you
don’t.”
I set the case on the bed next to her dresser, and
undid the straps, and was presently surprised when I lifted the lid and found
that her lingerie was satin, silk and lace and the only cotton I found were
bobby sox to wear with shoes. I sensed
her behind me and heard her say, “One nice thing about my mom, she only wears
lingerie from Paris, and she has taught me to do the same. I bet she will bring back a steamer trunk
full from her trip.”
“Your mom has good taste; I bet you look beautiful,
with just lingerie on.”
Carrie smiled and said, “I wonder if there is a
place to put this privacy screen. I don’t think we are going to need it.”
“Me neither, we’ll find a place for it somewhere.”
We spent the better part of the next hour putting
all of our belongings away, and then we carted Carrie’s bags to the storage
room for our floor, and checked her bags in. With that out of the way, we
locked our room and went down to the common area, got a glass of lemonade for
each of us, and went in search of nice shade tree.
We found one, around to the side, which no one else
seemed to be using at the time. We both
were wearing frilly white blouses, and skirts that ended just below our
knees. When I realized that neither of
us had thought to grab a blanket or a towel, I asked Carrie, “Do you want to
sit on a bench or is the grass okay?”
Carrie answered the easy way; she lowered herself
down and sat on the grass. Without even thinking myself, I sat down right next
to her, almost brushing against her when I did.
We each took a sip of our lemonade, waiting for the
other, to go first. Finally, Carrie
broke the silence by simply saying our names; “Vanity Bench and Carrie Meaway,
seems like our parents have more in common than just being on the same
ship. It would appear they booth decided
to grace us with names; that either make people smile, or make people snicker
behind our backs.”
“I know, I have experienced people snickering behind
my back, I just think of all of the other types of bench’s my father could have
named me, and try to be thankful that it is Vanity.”
“I know the feeling; at least they spelled it Carrie
instead of Carry, and before you ask, my grandfather was polish, and his last
name was Meawankowski. The man at Ellis Island
changed it to Meaway, because it was a lot easier to say.”
I looked at Carrie, and smiled: “I love your name,
and a least you have part of your original family name as a part of it. My Grandparents also came through Ellis
Island, which is where our last name came from.
My grandfather was born with the name of Shamus O’Donnellie. Even though
he could speak English, my grandmother was very pregnant with my father at that
time, and grandpa kept trying to get someone to give up their seat on the bench
for my grandmother to sit down. He kept walking up to people who spoke no
English at all and kept saying “bench”, over and over to them. The head immigration man was afraid my
grandmother would give birth while in line, so he moved them to the head of the
line. The so my grandfather would always remember how he got there; the immigrations
officer had them change his name to Shamus Bench.”
Carrie was laughing when I finished, “Does it ever
bother your grandfather?”
“No, he loves to tell the story to anyone who will
listen, and at times to those that don’t want to hear the story again.”
So here we are, “Carrie Meaway and Vanity Bench: we
either have to be a law firm, or a vaudeville act.”
“I vote for Law Firm, but then again as a vaudeville
act it could be fun.”
I had an idea hit me just then, I wanted to see what
Carrie thought about it: “Carrie, have
you met the Dean for Student Affairs yet?”
“You mean Dean Debutante: I did at orientation last
month, why do you ask?”
“We met this morning, and had quite a talk. I think she put us together as roommates
because of our names, well at least partially for that reason. I found out this morning that her name is
Constance Debutante, she also hinted strongly that she is a lesbian.”
Carrie laughed, “I bet she did to, I mean how would
you like to go through life being a Constant Debutante?”
“It might not be that bad, at least she is always
invited to parties. Unlike me, when you’re a vanity bench, someone is always
sitting on you, and usually only partially dressed…”
Carrie put her hand over mine and said, “That’s not
totally a bad thing, at least from my point of view.”
I did not pull my hand away, and told Carrie about
the party at Dean Debutante’s house this coming Saturday. “What do you think, should we go to the
normal mixer, or go to the mixer at the Deans house?”
“I think the Dean’s party sounds like fun, now let’s
go meet some of the other girls and get our schedules, before we become the hot
topic in the dorm tonight.”
“Something has to be, but you’re probably right.”
“In that case you may Carrie Meaway, Vanity Bench.”
I rolled my eyes at Carrie, and then gave her hand a
squeeze. I had a great feeling within me that Carrie and I would become special
friends for life. I mean; if we can be
this relaxed, when we have just met, imagine when we truly get to know each
other.
We took our glasses back to the common room of our
dorm, and then walked across the quad to administration building and got our schedules.
We were thrilled to see that we had three classes together. From the administration building, we headed
for the bookstore to get our books, and supplies, and then headed back to our
room in DePant Hall. We planned to finish getting settled in, and talk.
