ED AND NATALIE NAKED AT SCHOOL

I woke up the next morning to the sensation of something eating my face. I screamed.

"WHAT? WHO?" Ed yelled, woken up by my screaming.

I opened my eyes, and saw what was eating my face—a very large black Labrador Retriever! "Oh my God, my heart just stopped." Ed chuckled behind me. "I’m sorry for waking you. He scared the crap out of me!" He looked up at me and started licking my face again, making me giggle.

Mrs. Bauer burst in the room. "Is everything all right? I heard a scream." Oh, now I was really embarrassed.

"Everything’s fine," Ed said. "Buster just scared the shit out of Natalie."

"I’m sorry. I’m so embarrassed," I said. "He started kissing me in my sleep and I woke up and didn’t know what it was."

"That’s OK. Didn’t you have the door closed?" Mrs. Bauer asked Ed.

"Yeah. But you know Buster," he laughed. "He opens doors," he said to me.

Mrs. Bauer chuckled and left—and then Buster jumped right up on the bed and started licking me! "Buster, DOWN!" Ed said, but Buster was having none of it. I sat up, trying to fend him off a little, and, when I did, the sheet fell off me—leaving me naked from the waist up. And the damn dog leaned down and licked my boob!

I couldn’t help it. I had to laugh. "Ed, your dog is a pervert," I told him.

"Of course he is," Ed grinned. "He’s my dog, isn’t he?" I just stuck my tongue out at him. "OK, Buster, that’s enough. I know she’s cute, but only I get to molest her." He pulled the dog off the bed and led him out of the bedroom. Then he climbed back into bed, took me in his arms, and kissed me. "Good morning, by the way."

"Good morning to you, too," I grinned.

"Hey, Ed," we heard from downstairs. "You guys want breakfast?"

"Sure. Be down in a bit," he called. "Ah, well. There goes the good-morning boink."

"That’s OK. You’ll have plenty of other opportunities for that," I grinned.

"I was hoping I’d wake up first. I was going to crawl between your legs and gently lick you awake. Of course, Buster tried that, and you woke up all of Westport with that scream. So I’m probably better off."

"Oh, you," I hit him. "If it was down there, I would’ve known it was you. I hope," I giggled. "Anyhow, even on my face, I think I would’ve known it was you. Your tongue isn’t like sandpaper," I grimaced. "He’s certainly a friendly dog, though, isn’t he?"

"Yeah, Buster’s cool. He’s just overbearing."

"I’ll agree with that," I giggled. I got up, and found a bag I had left there.

"What’s that?" Ed asked.

"After Amanda and I got our hair done yesterday, I went and bought a few things." I pulled out a bra and panties, and a tee-shirt and shorts. "I didn’t want to go home, and I didn’t want to wear the same clothes for three days. Especially those panties, after what you did to them." He grinned at me. "My other clothes are already in the bag."

Ed smiled, and went into his dresser to find some things. He got dressed, and we went downstairs. After a nice meal, and a nice chat with his folks, I turned to him and said, "I think I need to go home."

"I guess you would eventually," he said.

"Well, I have to at least stop in," I told him.

"That’s fine. Let’s go." I went upstairs and grabbed my clothes and stuff, and we took off.

"You need to know something," Ed said. "My mother loves you. She told me so. She’s crazy about you."

"I know," I smiled.

"I just thought—since you’re probably about to get a load of shit at home—I just thought, you know, it might help."

"It does," I smiled. "It helps a lot."

We pulled into my building, and went upstairs. I unlocked the door and stepped in, and immediately sighed. The place was a disaster.

"Three days I’m gone, and look at this place," I said to Ed.

"Hey, who the fuck are you?" Oh, Jesus. There was some guy sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"I live here. Who the fuck are you, and where’s my mother?"

"She’s still asleep." He gave me a leer. "I wore her out last night." I could see his eyes all over me. I was wearing a simple shorts and tee-shirt set, but it flattered my curves—and this scumbag was taking them all in.

"That’s nice. You can leave now." I said.

"Sharon said I could stay," he said.

"Good for Sharon. I’m telling you to get out. I live here, I’m underage, I have no idea who you are. You leave, or I call the cops."

"Jesus! I’m going, I’m going." He finally did, leering all the way. But he left.

"You’re something else," Ed said. "I thought I was going to have to get involved, but I didn’t."

"See? You’ve got the drill already," I grinned at him. "Help me when I need it, just stand beside me when I don’t." He grinned back. "Now kiss me." He did. "Good. Now I have to clean this mess up."

"This is when I’m supposed to help you, right?" he laughed.

"You got it," I grinned at him. "No, I’m just kidding. This isn’t your mess."

"Not yours either," he grinned, and headed over to the sink.

"You’re a sweetheart, you know that?" I told him.

"Yup, that’s me, Ed the Sweetheart." I giggled. "Has she done a single dish while you were gone?" Ed asked while starting in on them.

"I doubt it," I said, as I cleared off what I think was the kitchen table. I’d know for sure when I could see it.

I found some dishes over there and walked them over to Ed. "Uh-uh, sweetie," he said. "If you’re going to add to my pile, I need a kiss in return." I giggled, and gave him one.

"You’ve got a start on some here. I’ll dry." I picked up a towel and started doing just that. "You’re a handy man with a sponge, Ed Bauer," I teased him. "Your momma brought you up right."

"Yes she did. Do I get a kiss for my mighty sponge technique?"

"But of course," I batted my eyes at him, and kissed him again. We stood there, doing the dishes. At one point, I goosed his ass. He took the sprayer and threatened, "Do that again, and I’m going to have my very own private wet tee shirt contest."

"That could be fun," I grinned. He just shook his head, and went back to his sponge.

I’ve had to clean up this apartment a million times. I never had fun doing it before.

Just then, I heard footsteps shuffling into the kitchen. "Natalie?" It was Mother, of course—dressed in a ratty old housecoat, looking like hell.

"Hello, Mother," I said.

"Where have you been?" she asked—with no heat, remarkably enough.

"At Ed’s. You remember Ed." She actually nodded at him! "Last night was the junior prom," I told her.

"It was?" she said. She shuffled over to the couch in the living room—the living room and the kitchen were really one room. "What did your dress look like?" she asked softly, surprising me.

"I wasn’t wearing one," I laughed. "You picked a real good week to put me in The Program."

"You mean, you had to go to the prom naked?" she asked.

"Yeah. It was good, though," I told her. "Ed was naked, too, so it was fine—he was in The Program this week, too. That’s how we met." I grinned at him. "He’s cute naked." And I goosed his ass again.

"I warned you!" And he did it! A good blast of water from the sprayer right at my boobs! I shrieked.

"You FINK!" I yelled at him—laughing, though. I couldn’t stop laughing. I was drenched, and you could see right through my tee shirt and my bra.

I had forgotten that Mom was there—until I heard the chuckle. I looked over, and she was actually smiling. "He got you good," she chuckled. Ed and I just looked at each other in amazement.

"Mom, are you drunk?" I asked.

"No," she chuckled. "Hung-over, yes; drunk, no." She looked around. "Where is Joe, anyhow?"

"If Joe was the sleazebag that was here when I got here, I kicked him out," I told her.

"Ah," she said. "All for the better, I guess." I just looked at Ed, not knowing what to say to that.

"I really should change my shirt," I said to Ed.

"What’s the point? We’re doing dishes. It’s going to get wet anyhow. Change it after." Then he leered at me. "Besides, I like the view."

"I’ll get you back," I grinned. "Wash." He grinned back, and went back to the dishes. After a few minutes, I heard Mother say something.

"What?" I asked.

"I said, I thought you weren’t coming back."

"Where would I go?"

"With him?" she said.

"His mother did invite me. But, no, we’re not ready for that yet."

"Good," she said. "I wouldn’t have liked it if you left."

"I know. Who’d do the dishes, right?" I said somewhat snidely.

"No, it’s not that," she said—but didn’t say anything more. Ed and I looked at each other, and went back to the dishes.

"I remember my junior prom," she said after a while.

"You do?" I said.

"Yeah. It’s kind of hard to forget. It was the night I got pregnant."

"Oh," I said.

"Do you love him?" she asked me, pointing at Ed.

"Yeah."

"You love her?" she asked Ed.

"Yes, I do," he said.

"You guys sleep together yet?" she asked.

"Mom, I don’t think that’s any of your business," I told her.

"I’m asking this for a reason." She stood up and walked over into the kitchen. "You’ve been with him for three days, so I’m assuming you have."

"Yes. OK. We have."

"So you’ve already slept with him. And he’s in here helping you do my dirty dishes. Good. He stood up for you with me the other night, and now he’s helping you clean. Any guy who’ll do that isn’t just out for one thing." I was amazed at this. "You’ve got me thinking about my junior prom, as I said. I loved your father, you know. Loved him with all my heart. And I was the same age that you are now, so you can’t tell me it wasn’t real."

"No," I agreed.

"And he let me down. He let me down hard." She looked at Ed. "You’d better not fucking let her down," she said. As I looked at her in complete astonishment, she nodded her head, and then shuffled off towards the bathroom.

"Oh my God, I think I’m going to faint," I said.

"That’s OK." He picked up the sprayer. "I’ll just set it to ice-cold. It’ll be a short faint.

"Don’t you dare!" I laughed.

"If you’re going to be fainting, it’d better be from this," he said—and then he grabbed me and kissed me.

"Oh, swoon," I said with a giggle, and then kissed him again. Midway through some nice heavy lip-locking, I heard a chuckle. I broke the kiss, and looked back and saw Mom again.

"Oh, don’t stop on my account," she chuckled. I just looked at her, astonished.

"Mom, are you ill?"

"No," she chuckled. "Well, I won’t be as soon as the Pepto and the Advil I just took kick in." I laughed. She looked at me. "Like I said, I was thinking about my prom. When your father left me, I stopped believing in love. And the way my life turned out didn’t help—you don’t see much canoodling over dirty dishes at Doc’s." I giggled at that. "And I never showed you much love, either," she admitted. "How is it you still believe in it?"

"I don’t know," I admitted. "I’m not sure I did. It just happened. I can’t not believe in something I know I’m feeling, can I?"

"Hey, I hadn’t believed in love for two years until I met Natalie," Ed said. "It’s a long story, but let’s just say I had a very bad experience. But then I met Natalie, and it happened, and I couldn’t deny it anymore, like she said."

Mom had sat down at the kitchen table. "The problem with love is, if you’re not careful, it turns into obligation. And you’d better believe in love when you’re confronted with the obligations. If you don’t, you screw up. Badly," she admitted. "You’re still on the pill, right?" she asked me.

"Yes," I told her.

"Good. Stay away from obligations until you can handle them, OK?" she said sadly.

"Mother," I told her, "you’re probably not going to like what I have to say, but—if I was shying away from my obligations, I wouldn’t have come home at all."

She looked at me in surprise. Then she settled down. "You see me as an obligation. You feel obliged to cook, clean, do all those things."

"Yes," I said.

"I suppose that’s only fair, because I’ve been treating you like one since the day you were born." She looked up at me. "What can I do?"

WHAT? I was going to faint. "Huh?" was what I said.

"What can I do so—you know—you feel less obligated to come home?"

I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it. "First, stop hitting me, and stop threatening me."

"Done," she said simply. "What else?"

Wow. Was it that easy? Should I go for the crux of the matter? Why not? "I think things would be a whole lot better for me around here—and for you, for that matter—if you’d make an attempt to cut down on your drinking."

She sighed. "That’s going to be harder. I can only promise to try."

"They run AA meetings in town," Ed spoke up. "My Uncle’s a recovering alcoholic, I can get you the details if you're interested."

"I’ll think about it," she said. "Maybe. Let me try on my own first. If that doesn’t work, I’ll take you up on it." She sighed. "I really thought you had gone, you know. I saw you Thursday night, you left me a note Friday morning, and then I don’t hear from you. I figured you were gone." She sighed again. "And, at first, I was pissed. Then I realized, I couldn’t blame you." She stood up and looked at me. "I couldn’t blame you at all. If I were you, I’d have left a long time ago." She started walking towards her bedroom. Then she stopped, and said, very softly, so I barely heard it, "I’m glad you came back." Then she walked into her bedroom.

I collapsed, crying, on the floor, in complete disbelief. I couldn’t believe she actually said that. Ed came down on the floor next to me, and held me as I cried. After I calmed down, he smiled at me, and said, "Honey, I think you need to disappear for three days more often!"

"Jeez, I know, huh?" I sniffled. "I suppose, in a way, it’s pathetic."

"What is?" he asked.

"That ‘I’m glad you came back’ are the nicest words I’ve ever heard from my mother."

"Baby steps, Natalie, baby steps. You know?"

"Yeah," I agreed. We got up off the floor and went back to the cleaning. After we were done, and the place looked pretty good, I looked at Ed and said, "You know what? I’m starving. I know your mom made a nice breakfast, but that was a few hours ago." I looked in the refrigerator. "Unfortunately, it must be time for me to go shopping, because there’s nothing in here."

"How’s pizza sound?" Ed asked.

"Heavenly," I grinned. He grabbed the phone and ordered it.

While we waited, we went into the living room. Ed found my video collection, and put in The Sound Of Music. The pizza came, and we were munching on it, snuggling on the couch, watching the movie, when Mom came out of the bedroom. She had gotten dressed, and looked better. She went into the kitchen, made a cup of tea, and then came into the living room, sitting in the chair.

"The Sound Of Music?" she asked.

"Yeah, Ed’s an old film buff, too," I said.

"Yes, you told me that," she said. "The other night."

"That night was our first sort-of date," I giggled, "and he showed me Singing In The Rain, which I hadn’t ever seen, which is his favorite."

"Would you like some pizza?" Ed said thoughtfully. "There’s plenty."

"Ugh," she grinned. "Thank you for the offer, Ed, but I think I’ll stick with tea, the way my stomach feels."

The movie was up to the part where Maria and the children are in the bed singing.

"Julie Andrews in a nightgown. Hubba-hubba," Ed joked.

"Yeah, right," I grinned at him. "That nightgown is less revealing than the straightjackets I used to wear."

"Used to?" Mom said. "When did you stop?"

"Friday," I laughed. "While Ed was at baseball practice, I borrowed his car and went to the mall, and put a major dent in my trust fund."

"Well, that’s what your grandparents wanted you to use it for," Mom said.

"I came out of practice, saw her, and almost swallowed my tongue," Ed laughed. "Though I’ve only seen that one outfit."

"Good point," I grinned. "You know what? This shirt is still wet. I’ll go change." I kissed him and ran into my bedroom.

"I think we’re getting a fashion show," I heard Mom say through the wall.

"I think you’re right," Ed agreed with a laugh. I chose a light blue spaghetti-strap low-cut tank top, and a navy blue flared miniskirt. Light blue bra and panties. I was back out in a flash.

"Oy," Ed said with a huge grin. "I’m gonna have a coronary."

"I’m glad you like it," I grinned back.

"When are the auditions?" he asked.

"Auditions?"

"Yeah, for the Miss Teen Cleavage beauty pageant."

I laughed, and swatted him. "You be nice."

"I’m always nice. I’m a sweetheart, remember?"

"Keep telling me that and someday I’ll believe it," I teased.

I happened to glance at Mom. She was staring at me.

"Mom?" I asked.

"You know something? I put you in the program for all the wrong reasons. But if it made you this at ease with your body in just a week, maybe I did something right after all."

"Well, I have to admit. The Program helped, but it was mostly Ed," I smiled.

"Good for Ed," she laughed. "You really do look nice," she managed.

"Thanks," I grinned.

She watched the rest of the movie with us. I actually enjoyed it.

Afterwards, she went to work. So, we were alone in the apartment. Did we take advantage of it? What do you think?

The funny thing was—the only article of clothing that Ed took off me was my panties. He fucked my brains out with my tank top and bra still on, and my skirt bunched up around my waist. He really liked that outfit!

So, that’s the story of Ed’s and my week in The Program. Looking back on it, it almost seemed like a month rather than a week, so much had happened. For both of us. It was quite a week—one I don’t think either of us will ever forget.

We gathered at the entrance to school on Monday morning clothed. Though, I must say, what I was wearing was closer to naked than my old straightjacket outfits! Will I ever pull a Jared and Amanda and go nude for the hell of it? I might. Ed and I have talked about that. We both found it liberating at times. But we also appreciate the ‘hint’ of a sexy outfit. Both ways are fun.

And a good friend of ours was about to find out the fun of nudity. As Ed and I and his gang gathered outside the school Monday morning, we heard, over the loudspeaker, "Frankie Gutierrez, please report to Mr. Tilling’s office."

Yup, it was Frankie’s turn!

--Fin—