	The two days after Will left with his father were the longest of my life.  The only bright spots were his calls each day to let me know how he was doing.
	I walked around the house and watched a lot of TV.  I didn’t go out, I didn’t check out what had changed around town, I just stayed home and felt alone.
	I was starting at some inane TV show when someone started pounding on the door and ringing the doorbell.
	“I’m coming!” I yelled but the just kept pounding and ringing, pissing me off to no end.
	I grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open, ready to rip someone’s head off but, seeing who it was, I stopped dead in my tracks.
	“Boo!” Mandy said giving me her most evil grin.
	I couldn’t speak. I just stood there staring at her until, out of nowhere, the tears started to fall from my eyes.  She pulled me into her arms and held me while I bawled.
	When the onslaught of tears faded, I helped her pull her pile of luggage into my house.  From the amount of stuff she’d brought I asked her if she was planning to move in.
	She shrugged and said, “Yeah, for a little while.”
	I turned my head and tried to hide the new flood of tears from her.  No matter what, whenever I needed her or Crystal I could always count on them.
	I felt her arms wrap around me and I turned to let her hold me some more.  I needed her strength so badly and she gave it without asking for anything in return.
	She pushed me over to the sofa and sat me down.  She went into the kitchen and came back with a couple of glasses of wine.  She handed me mine and took a sip of her own. 
	“Ugh!” She said, making a disgusted face. “Lizzi, I love you but you have shit taste in wine.”
	“Well, some of us don’t get to go to Paris and have real wine,” I said. “Some of us do what we can with what we have.”
	“Actually I like the wines in Italy better,” She said, setting down her glass.  “Give me a glass of Brunello di Montalcino and I’m in Heaven!”
	“Whatever the hell that is,” I said.
	She rolled her eyes at me and said, “See? No taste at all.”
	I smacked her with a pillow.  She laughed and said, “When in doubt resort to violence!”
	We laughed and she scooted up against me and put her arm around me. I leaned against her and sighed.
	“So he cheated on you,” she said.
	“Three times,” I said.
	“I bet you went nuclear,” she said.
	“I just don’t get it,” I said.  “I did everything he wanted. We had fun and enjoyed each other. I just don’t see what I did wrong.”
	“Whoa!” Mandy said, grabbing my chin and lifting my head off of her shoulder.  She stared into my eyes and I could see the anger burning behind her eyes. 
	“Do not ever let me hear you say it was your fault ever again or I will slap the shit of you. Do you understand me?” She asked.
	“But Mandy I…”
	“No!” She snapped. “He’s the one that cheated not you.  He made a choice to do it; you didn’t force him to do it.  Now you’re going to tell me you should have seen the signs and done something about it, right?”
	I nodded.
	“You’re right on half of that,” she said.  “You did see the signs but, because you loved and trusted him, you ignored them.  Love is about trust. If I had a dime for every time I thought a guy was cheating on me and I was wrong I’d be rich.  Did I accuse all of them of cheating on me? Not all of them. Did I ruin a relationship or two by freaking out and not trusting them? More than one.  See? If he hadn’t been cheating on you and you’d accused him it might have ruined any trust you two had so you ignored the signs.”
	“I just don’t understand why he did it,” I said.
	Mandy laughed and said, “Because he’s a guy!”
	I rolled my eyes and glared at her.
	“Seriously, Lizzi!” She said. “He’s a thirty-two year old guy who’s been with the same woman since he was nineteen.  Now he’s starting to wonder if this is all life has to offer.  He’s wondering what else is out there in the world.  Then women start being a little flirty with him and he’s suddenly a stud.  He feels like a man again.  Then he comes home to you, the mother of his child, and all he sees is that fact.  You’re not as fun.  You don’t want to go out and have fun like he, or his slut, do.”
	“But I did want to go out!” I said. “I asked a ton of times about going out on a Friday and having a date night like we did when we lived in the apartment.  He always said no or that he was tired or some crap.”
	“You may have done that but I bet if you asked him he wouldn’t remember,” she said.  “In his mind you always wanted to stay home and you were an anchor holding is fun ship back.”
	“But I still don’t get why!”
	“Because he’s closing in on middle age.  He’s afraid he’s not the man he used to be and this is how he proves it to himself,” she said.  “He thinks he’s getting old and he won’t be able to have fun much longer so he goes overboard and super dumb.”
	She took my hand and said, “It’s nothing you did. I know what you’re like in bed so I know he was happy there. I know you’re one of the most beautiful women I know, both inside and out, so it’s not that.  It’s not a damn thing you did. It’s him.”
	She pulled me back against her and ran her hand though my hair while she held me.  “See?  He’s an asshole is the whole problem.”
	I snickered and said, “Will won’t stop calling him “The Asshole” even after I yelled at him.”
	Mandy chuckled and said, “That’s because Will’s a smart cookie.”
	We sat there for a few minutes just enjoying each other’s company.  I hadn’t known how badly I needed her until Mandy showed up on my doorstep.  
	“Come on,” she said, getting up and pulling me to my feet.  “Let’s go rent some movies and get some ice cream and cry a whole bunch.”
	
*****

	We went to the store and got movies, ice cream and dinner items.  Mandy insisted on cooking and took over my kitchen.  After dinner we camped out on the couch and put in the first movie.  It was only a few minutes in when Mandy said, “This isn’t right.”
	“What do you mean?” I asked.
	“We never watched movies on the couch,” she said.
	It took a second but I finally got what she meant.  When we’d lived in the apartment together we only watched TV in the front room if we had company.  The rest of the time we would always watch the one in the bedroom while lying in bed.
	I grinned at her and we took the movie, and our ice cream, into my bedroom.  I got the movie going and started to get into bed but I stopped.  Laying in bed with my tight jeans on wasn’t going to be very comfortable.  
	I unbuttoned my jeans and slid out of them. Mandy watched and I saw her eyebrows shoot up.
	“A thong?” She asked. “When did you start wearing a thong?”
	I blushed and said, “I hate panty lines.”
	“More like, you like guys to notice your ass and not the panty line,” she said.
	“Duh,” I replied.
	Mandy slipped out of her jeans and I asked, “So you make a big thing about me wearing a thong when you’re wearing one? Hypocrite!”
	She shrugged and said, “Some of the places I’ve been these are considered prudish!”
	I laughed and she got into bed with me.  She ran her hand along the top of my leg and gave a nod.
	“What was that for?” I asked.
	“Making sure you’re still shaving,” she said.  “It’s a good sign.  It means you still see yourself as a woman and I won’t have to preach at you as much.”
	“Thank God for that!” I said.  “You know, I might have shaved just because I hate the hair or didn’t want to get pimples or something.”
	“But that’s not why you did it, so shush and watch the movie,” she said.
	She nestled herself against my side and laid her head in the crook of my arm just like she had so many years ago.  It was weird how natural and right it felt.
	She laid there for a minute before she said, “Something’s not quite right.”
	She tugged my shirt up, exposing my stomach. My stomach wasn’t as flat as it had been when I was younger.  In fact it had a very slight bulge to it that was pissing me off because I couldn’t get it to go away no matter what I did.
	Mandy ran her fingers across the skin of my belly and I felt goose bumps pop up everywhere she’d touched.
	Her fingers stopped and she said, “Something’s still not right.”
	Se thought about it for a minute before she said, “My ice cream!”
	She turned over and grabbed her ice cream from where she’d set it down on the nightstand and promptly slapped it down on my exposed skin.
	I shrieked and slapped at her.  She laughed and jumped off the bed before I could get her so I threw a pillow at her and got her in the head.  We shared a laugh and she got back in bed as I watched her closely making sure she had no plans to freeze me again.
	We ate out ice cream and watched the first movie.  We giggled and cried a little during it and I had to admit I was already feeling better.  When it was over we put away the last of our ice cream and then got back into bed for the next one.
	Within ten minutes of the second one I was bored out of my mind.  Mandy started running her fingers around my belly button, tickling me with her light touch.
	“What is your obsession with my belly button?” I asked.
	“It’s cute,” she said, poking it with her finger and making my flick her on the top of her head.
	“I don’t know what it is,” she said.  “I just like touching you like this.”
	“Okay,” I said, feeling every nerve in my stomach tingle as her finger passed over it.
	“Can I ask you something?”
	“Sure,” I said.
	“How come you, me and Tim never spent the night together?”
	I thought about for a minute before I said, “He wanted to.  He joked about it a couple of times but you know how it is with a guy.  It was half joke and half begging.”
	She laughed and asked, “Then why didn’t you ask me?”
	“Would you have if I’d asked?”
	She rolled over onto her stomach, he leg falling across mine, and looked into my eyes.
	“Do you even need to ask?”
	No, I didn’t.  If I’d asked her to jump off a bridge she’d have done it for me.  And I would have done the same for her.
	I sighed and said, “Because I didn’t want to share you with him like that.  What we had was so special to me I couldn’t ask.  The only person I loved and trusted enough for that was Will.”
	Even saying his name, so many years after he’d died, brought tears to my eyes.  My son’s namesake had been so much more than just a lover.  He’d shown me how to love and be loved.  He’d let me bring Mandy into our lives and had given her the love she needed to help her heal.  
	Mandy lid higher on the bed and held me.  I could feel her own tears as we hugged and I knew how much Will had meant to her too.
	She leaned back and looked into my eyes and asked, “Why didn’t we go, Lizzi?  Why didn’t we just get out of here and go to California with him?”
	“I don’t know!” I said a lot louder than I’d intended.  “Not a damn day goes by when I don’t ask myself that.  It’s the one thing I regret most in this world.”
	She held me a little longer and then we went back to pretending to watch the movie.  My mind wandered to Will, like it had a lot lately.  What if I had gone to California?  Would he still be alive if I’d been there?  Would that asshole drunk driver have missed him because he called home to tell me he was running late?  I would never know.
	When the movie ended both of us were starting to feel tired.  I turned off the TV and lights and we climbed under the covers.  Mandy fidgeted for a few minutes before she threw the covers off.
	“What’s wrong?” I asked.
	“I can’t sleep in this damn bra,” she said from the dark.
	My own bra started to feel tight so I pulled my shirt and bra off and tossed them on the floor.
	Mandy layed back down and said, “There! Now it feels like old times.”
	“Except we’re still wearing panties,” I said.
	“I’m not,” she replied.
	With a giggle, I pulled off my thong and tossed it across the room.
	“Now it’s old times!” She declared.
	I turned onto my side and lay there waiting for sleep to take me.
	Mandy shifted closer and I felt her arms wrap around my stomach.  I felt the heat of her as she pressed her body up against mine.  I felt safe and loved and, for the first time in a long time, I fell asleep without tears.

*****

	I woke up the next morning to find Mandy was already awake and laying next to me staring at me.
	“You know that’s a good way to give someone a heart attack, you as,” I told her.
	She grinned at me and said, “I can’t help it.  You make these cute little faces when you sleep. You’re adorable!”
	I stuck my tongue out at her and asked, “You want breakfast?”
	“Are you making it?” She asked.
	“Yeah,” I said.  “I’ve gotten kind of used to getting up and making breakfast first thing.”
	“Are you going to shower first or should I?” She asked.
	“You go first,” I said. “I’ll get breakfast going and, by the time you’re done, it should be ready.”
	She smiled at me and said, “This brings back so many memories.  Remember in the apartment? You were Breakfast Girl and I was Dinner chick?”
	I laughed and said, “The only reason I started making breakfast and letting you shower first was because you’re a damn hot water hog!  If I made breakfast, by the time we were done eating, there might be some hot water back in the tank.”
	“Just for that, I’m using every damn drop of hot water there is,” she said.
	She pulled the covers off and slipped out of bed.  She put her arms over her head and stretched, letting me admire how little her body had changed.  Her hair was still the same blond fizzy nightmare it had always been.  With large doses of hair spray it could be brought under control though.  Her skin was tanned and very smooth.  Her breasts showed no signs of aging at all and were still perky as they had been years ago.  Her stomach was flat as a board which made me more than a little jealous. Her legs were a little more muscular than I remembered but she probably worked out as hard as I did to maintain her physique.  
	The only real change was her pussy.  Where once she’d had a little mound of hair like mine, now she was completely bare.
	She saw where I was looking and said, “It was just easier to take it all off rather than to try and shape it and keep it trimmed.”
	I watched her as she walked around the bed towards the bathroom.  I gazed at the smooth, soft skin of her back. My eyes wandered down to the firm, round globes of her ass.  At thirty-two Mandy was as beautiful as she’d been at eighteen.  
	She stopped at the bathroom door and looked back at me over her shoulder.
	“You know,” she said, “we could take a shower together.  Then you wouldn’t have to worry about waiting for the hot water tank to fill back up.”
	I felt a tingle of nervous energy run down my spine.  The thought of being under the hot water and Mandy’s body so close to mine made me shiver.
	“Okay,” I said, slipping out of bed. 
	I watched as her eyes traveled the length of my body.  I felt them slide over my breasts, seeing the slight sag age had brought to them. My hard nipples poked out in front of me, now just a little longer from breastfeeding Will.  Her eyes made their way across my stomach and them small bump to it that I couldn’t get rid of.  She looked at the small landing strip of hair that hid my pussy.  She eyed my toned legs, the one trait we had in common.
	Her eyes traveled back up to mine and a smile blossomed on her face.
	“You’re still as beautiful as you were in the apartment,” she said.
	I blushed and looked away from her.
	“Even with my saggy boobs and fat tummy?” I asked.
	She walked over and took my chin in her hand.  She made me look in her eyes and said, “Your boobs aren’t saggy, they’re a little bigger and rounder which makes them even better than before.  And, if you think that’s a fat tummy, I’ve got news for you, sister, you’re blind.  It’s a little bump and all it does is enhance your figure.  Girls have curves, dummy, and you have them in all the right places.”
	A huge smile lit up my face as her words sunk into my heart.
	Her smile matched mine and she said, “And when you smile the whole world seems a little brighter and a whole lot better.”
	I put my arms around her and held her.  I felt the heat of her skin on mine and I couldn’t think of any better feeling.
	I let her go and she reached up to wipe the tears from the corner of my eyes.
	“Thank you,” I said.
	“For what?” She asked.
	“For making me feel pretty,” I said.
	She leaned close and touched her lips to mine.  It was a short kiss but it left me feeling dizzy from the power of it.
	“There isn’t a day that’s gone by where you haven’t been pretty, Lizzi,” she said; only making me blush harder.
	“Okay, stop!” I laughed.  “Or we’re going to need butter to get my ego though the door.”	
	She smiled and took my hand, pulling me with her into the bathroom.  I started the water and, once it was warm enough, stepped into the shower.  She got in and watched the water running down my body.  
	She picked up the soap dispenser and got her hands lathered up.  
	“Turn around and I’ll wash your back,” she said.
	I did as she said and, when her hands touched my back, I jumped a little.  She ran her hands in small circles over my back, slowly making her way down.  Her hands rubbed against my ass, squeezing and caressing their way down.  She soaped the backs of my legs, rubbing all the way down to my feet.  
	She got a little more soap and then, reaching around me, started washing her way up my legs.  Her hands slid higher up the front of my lower legs, then up onto my thighs.  As her hands touched my inner thighs, I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning. 
	Her hands brushed the small mound of my pubic hair for just and instant before sliding up onto my tummy. Her hands made their way up past my tummy and onto my breasts.  She slid her soapy hands over my breasts, caressing and squeezing them.  My hard little nipples sent thrills of pleasure through my body as her palms slid across them. Her fingers teased and pinched my nipples and I couldn’t hold back the whimper of pleasure that escaped my lips.
	Her hands moved back down my body, down my stomach and then slowly between my legs.  Her finger slid through my pubic hair and touched my sensitive clit.  A loud moan escaped my lips as she rubbed her finger across my clit.  Her finger slid lower and rubbed against my pussy lips. I bit my lip as the tip of her finger slipped into my pussy.  
	Then it was gone.  It took me a second to catch my breath and turn around to look at her.  Mandy stood there with and evil little smile and said, “My turn.”
	She scooted past me and under the shower head.  I glared at her for a second before an evil little grin of my own tugged at my lips.  If she wanted to play it that way, I could do the same.
	I soaped up my hands and, seeing what I was doing, she turned so her back was to me.
	Just like her, I started on her back, feeling the wonderful smoothness of her skin under my hands.  My hands made their way lower and onto her firm ass.  I rubbed and squeezed her ass.  I slid my fingers along the crack of her ass and heard her make a small whimper.
	I worked my way down the backs of her legs and to her feet.  I soaped my hands again and slid them up her legs.  Just like she’d done, I slid my hands slowly up her thighs, feeling a little shiver go through her body from my touch.
	My fingers brushed against her naked pussy, making her let out a moan.  I rubbed my hands up her flat stomach and onto the roundness of her breasts.  I caressed her breasts and felt her nipples harden against my hands as I touched her.  I pinched her nipples, enjoying the low moan of pleasure she made.
	I slid my hands back down her stomach towards her bare pussy.  My finger touched her clit and she gave a little jump.  I rubbed my finger against her clit, feeling each shiver of pleasure as it shook her body.  
	My finger slid lower and I rubbed it against her pussy lips.  Slowly I pressed the tip of my finger into her.  She whimpered again and again as my finger slid deeper and deeper into her.
	I slid my finger out of her, rinsed it off and said, “I’m kind of hungry. I think I’ll go start breakfast.”
	She turned and looked at me, a look of hunger and irritation on her face.
	“You’re evil,” she said.
	“You started it,” I reminded her, blowing her a kiss as I stepped out of the shower.

*****

	I made us breakfast and then asked Mandy what she wanted to do today.  She had the idea to go see all of our old stomping grounds and I agreed.  I’d been back in town for a while but, with moving and just spending time with Will before his father took him for the rest of the summer, I hadn’t gone to see anything.
	We went by our old apartment complex first.  It had changed a lot since the last time we’d been there.
	“I don’t remember there being bars on the windows back then,” Mandy said.
	We went over to Will’s old apartment complex.  We sat in the parking lot and just looked at the place, both of us lost in our memories.  Mandy took my hand and gave it a quick squeeze.   Squeezed her hand back and knew that it was time to go.
	We stopped at the restraint we worked at when we were living in the apartment.  It smelled and the food sucked.  The place hadn’t changed all that much over the years.
	We went by the high school and were amazed by the changes there.  We’d had an open campus and, if you wanted to, on lunch you could wander off and it had just been really open and nice.  Now the whole place was surrounded by a six foot high fence and the actual entrances to the parking lot were locked off by gates over summer break.
	“Wow,” Mandy said.  “Will’s going to be going here?”
	“Yeah,” I said, not happy about this change.  “It looks more like a prison than a school.”
	We left the school and went by the video store to exchange our movies.  With a set of comedies this time, we went home.  
	Mandy made dinner and we watched the first comedy, which was actually funny for a change, in the front room.  Once it was over Mandy said, “I’m going to take a quick shower and then let’s watch the other one in the bedroom.”
	“Okay,” I said.
	While she showered, I cleaned up our dinner dished and put them in the dishwasher.  When the shower turned off, I grabbed the other movie and headed into the bedroom
	Mandy was laying on top of the covers, completely naked.  I gave her body a quick glance before I set the movie by the TV and said, “I think I’ll take a quick shower too.”
	I went in and rinsed off really quick.  I got out of the shower and looked at myself in the mirror.  Just the other day I saw myself as sagging and starting to show my age but not today.  The woman in the mirror looked happier and more sure of herself.  I really liked the woman I saw in the mirror.
	I left the bathroom and climbed into bed with Mandy.  She eyes my naked body as I leaned close and kissed her softly on the lips.
	“What was that for?” She asked.
	“Making me like me again,” I said.
	She smiled and curled up against my side.  She’d put the movie in while I’d been shower and now she hit the play button.  I didn’t pay attention to the movie for very long and neither did Mandy.  Her fingers started their drawing circles around my belly button drawing all of my attention to the tingling in my nerves.
	She made bigger and bigger circles, her fingers brushing just underneath my breasts and just above my pussy.  With every pass I could feel myself becoming more and more aroused by her touch.
	Her fingers came to a stop, with the tips just barely touching my pubic hair.  Mandy turned her head and met my eyes.
	“Lizzi, do you love me?” She asked.
	“Yes,” I said.
	“Do you want me to love you?”
	“Yes,” I breathed.
	Her fingers slid through my pubic hair and touched my clit.  It was like a bolt of lightning along my nerves and I moaned loudly as she touched me.  Her fingers rubbed my clit side to side them up and down, each touch an explosion of pleasure.
	Mandy kissed her way across my breast and then licked slow circles around my hard nipple.  Her tongue rubbed against my nipple, making me whimper.  She sucked my nipple into her mouth as she massaged my clit and I lay there in ecstasy.
	Her fingers slid down and rubbed against my wet pussy lips.  She eased her finger into me, slowly sliding it deep into my pussy.  She slid it in and out, working it deeper with each thrust.  
	She gave my nipple one last kiss before she sat up and slid her finger out of my pussy.  I watched as she brought her finger to her face and licked my wetness off of it.  I shivered at the sight, my whole body shaking with my overwhelming desire for her.
	She slid her finger into her mouth, tasting my wetness before she laid down on top of me.  She brought her lips to mine and I kissed her hungrily.  Our tongue slid against each other and I could taste my wetness on her tongue which only made me more aroused.
	She kissed her way down my jaw and bit at my neck.  Her lips made their way down to my breasts and she flicked her tongue against my nipples. She licked her way down my tummy before she stopped.  
	She made sure my eyes were on her as she lowered her face between my legs.  The tip of her tongue rubbed my clit, making me cry out.  She massaged my clit with little flicks of her tongue, making me cry out and jump with every touch.  She slid her tongue lower and I felt it slip into my pussy.
	I let out a long moan and grabbed her hair.  I pulled her face tight against my pussy as her tongue slid in and out of me.  I don’t know how long she licked me for, I just laid there and enjoyed the sensation of her tongue inside me.
	She pulled her face away from my pussy and said, “I brought you a surprise.”
	“What is it?”
	She grinned and turned towards the bottom of the bed where her bags were.  I stared at her firm round ass as she hung off the bed looking in her bag and felt my need grow.
	I got on my knees behind her and slid my fingers down the crack of her ass.  She let out a moan and stopped rooting around in her bag.  My fingers slid between her legs and I felt how wet she was.  I slipped my finger into her pussy and rubbed inside her, listening to her whimpers of pleasure.  
	I pulled my finger out and, laying on my back, slid under her and between her legs.  I pulled her hips down and pressed my face against her.  I licked my tongue against her pussy lips, tasting her wetness.  I slid my tongue inside her and Mandy let out a long moan.  I plunged my tongue in and out of her loving the sounds she made as I pleasured her.
	“Stop,” she breathed. “God, Lizzi, stop. Please.”
	Reluctantly I did.  I slid out from under her and layed back down how I had been.  Mandy shuddered a couple of times before she turned and looked at me.  She brought her hand up from her bag and I saw her present.
	It was a purple vibrator about six inches long with a strange little attachment on top.  The attachment almost looked like a hook or a crooked finger.
	“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at the attachment.
	“It’s a vibrator, Lizzi,” she said.  “What’s it look like?”
	I rolled my eyes at her and said, “No, the hook thingy.”
	She grinned and said, “You’ll see.”
	She turned the vibrator on and trailed it up my leg.  She slid it slowly up my inner thigh and then between my legs.  She eased the tip of it into my pussy and slowly worked it deeper and deeper into me.  As it got deeper, the attachment on top brushed against my clit and made me scream.  The little attachment was a mini vibrator just for my clit.
	My body shook under Mandy’s care and, after only a few minutes, I felt my orgasm send me into a screaming heaven of pleasure.
	When I came down from my orgasm, Mandy slid the vibrator out of me and sat with a very self-satisfied little smile on her face.
	“So I take it you like my present?” She asked. 
	“Oh God yes!” I said.
	She turned the vibrator off and was going to put it on the nightstand when I stopped her.  I took it from her hand and turned it back on.
	“We’re not done yet,” I told her.
	She laid back on the bed and I kissed her deeply.  As I kissed her I slipped the vibrator between her legs and into her wet pussy.
	She cried out as I thrust it into her again and again.  I pushed it deep into her, making the attachment cover her clit and watched as her whole body shook from the sensation. I pleasured her for a long time, loving her little grunts and moans but, most especially, enjoying the way she breathed my name.
	“Yes, Lizzi,” she said.  “Oh God, yes, Lizzi.  Right there.  Oh, Lizzi!”
	She screamed my name again as her orgasm took her.  I lay there with her, still holding the vibrator inside her, and watched her cum for me.
	She finally had to grab my hand and pull the vibrator out as the sensation became more than she could take. I turned it off and set it on my nightstand before I curled up against her.
	We lay there for a while, each of us basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking.
	“I love you, Lizzi.”
	“I love you too, Mandy.”

*****

	The rest of the summer seemed to blast right past us.  Mandy would drag me out on Friday and Saturday nights to some of the local clubs.  We’d dance for a while and then let guys come over and buy us drinks.  It was amazing to be out and have guys see me as a woman again.  After a while I stopped just liking the woman in the mirror I saw every day.  I actually thought she was kind of hot.
	We never took any of our would-be suitors home.  Home was reserved for just us.  We spent our nights pleasuring each other and enjoying the bond of love and friendship that only seemed to grow stronger ever day.
	Tim brought Will home right at the end of summer and, the night before he did, Mandy moved all of her stuff into the guest room.  I told her she didn’t have to but she insisted.
	We spent the last week of summer having fun and being a strange little family.
	Mandy left right before Will started school.  It was hard for me to let her go.  She’d brought me back to me and made me live again and, for the millionth time, I told her I could never repay her for everything she’d done for me.
	She laughed long and hard at this, confusing the hell out of me.  When she finally got her laughter under control, she said, “I remember a sixteen year old girl that had no reason to be my friend or protect me from the asshole of the world but she did.  I’d probably have killed myself if it wasn’t for that girl.  She helped me heal and made me feel safe. Everything I am today is because of her love.”
	I felt tears spill down my cheeks as she spoke.
	“So I want you to do me favor, okay?”
	“Anything,” I told her.
	“The next time you see that girl, you tell her how much she means to me,” she said as a grin spread across her face.  “Her name’s Crystal and she’s really cool.”
	I laughed and smacked at her. She brushed my hands aside and pulled me into a long hug.
	“I love you, you evil bitch,” I told her.
	“I love you too, my-not-quite-cute-as-me sister.”

