The Reunion - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Melissa yawned, rolling out from under her blankets and sitting up, gazing around at her bedroom. She almost wished her parents had turned it into a craft room, or a gym, or something, anything to keep it from reminding her what she'd been like years ago. There were still posters of her silly teenage crushes on the walls, and she'd even checked her hiding place before going to sleep and found her old journals.

She sat still for a moment, listening, hoping for silence; instead, there was some faint shuffling from downstairs. She wasn't sure if it was her parents or her sister, though she didn't really want to run into either one at the moment... What she really wanted to do was walk outside and smoke, since she hadn't gotten the chance since she'd been in the car the day before, not without coming up with some lame excuse, and just hoping nobody caught her in the act.

She should have bought the patches, she told herself, or maybe gotten some of that gum... She'd never been much for gum before, though she had a feeling her family would buy that as a new habit over her claiming she'd taken up running, then lighting up once she was a safe distance away. Of course, there was always the option of telling them the truth, but...

Irritably, she stalked over to the window, pulling it open and setting her desk chair beside it. It wasn't a perfect solution; for the moment, however, it was the best she could do if she wanted to go out and face whatever members of her family were around without wanting to bite their heads off. She knew it was possible, since she'd done it with her friends a few times as a teen, but those experiences had also taught her that she had to be careful about keeping the cigarette, and her mouth, well outside the window, or she'd set off the smoke alarm.

It hadn't been the most pleasant experience then, and now was even worse as she contorted herself, leaning as far out as she dared without actually running the risk of tumbling from the second story of the house down to the ground, her older spine immediately hating her for putting it through that. She wasn't convinced it was totally worth it, although, as she sat there, it did help remind her what Kasey had told her about the hypnosis. 

This trip was only for a week, and she ought to be able to survive, just sneaking smokes when she could, for a week, but it would be easier if she didn't have to worry about it. Plus, even after she got home, it would save her quite a bit of money, so it would probably be worth it... Though, how fast did that sort of thing work? If it was going to take the whole week before it kicked in, maybe she'd go buy those nicotine patches anyway...

Melissa perched the cigarette preciously on the windowsill, hurrying back over to her bed to unplug her phone and return to the chair with it. She'd slept in - no huge surprise, that was partly what vacation was for, after all - so she felt pretty confident that she wouldn't catch Kasey asleep when she dialed her number.

It took a few rings for her friend to answer. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Melissa," she said. "Hey, listen, about that hypnotist... Do I need an appointment? Can we just walk in?"

"She's usually not all that busy," Melissa told her. "You should be able to walk in; just tell her you're my friend, and..."

"No, you're coming with me!" Melissa announced. "We can grab some crappy fast food first, then go get manis or something, it'll be..!"

"Melissa, I'm working," Kasey replied, sounding a little peeved. 

"Oh, come on," Melissa sulked. "You told me about this weird thing, you should be there for moral support! You always used to skip school with me, tell your boss you're starting to feel sick or something!"

"This isn't the same thing," Kasey huffed. "Besides, I can't be there with you when she hypnotizes you, anyway, you're supposed to be alone, so I'd just be sitting out in the waiting room most of the time..."

"I thought we were hanging out today!" Melissa groused. "We said we were gonna do stuff..."

"You said that," Kasey reminded her. "And I don't think you said today, but..."

"Whatever," Melissa sighed dramatically. "Just give me this hypnotist's info..."

Kasey did so, then, before telling Melissa goodbye, suggested, "Maybe you should call Kimberly, I saw on Facebook she was back in town, too..."

"Maybe," Melissa shrugged, physically and verbally. She'd barely even thought about Kim since they'd graduated, though they'd hung out quite a bit in high school, out of convenience if nothing else. "I'd prefer to see you, but I guess she'd do..."

"I really gotta go," Kasey said. "Have a good day!"

"Yeah," Melissa rolled her eyes. She really didn't know why she'd bothered showing up this early, if even her best friend wasn't going to bother to spend time with her. She should have known better than to believe that Holly could come up with a whole week's worth of activities in this boring little town...

She stared down at the back yard below her, wondering if her parents would notice if she flicked her cigarette butt out there. If she was lucky, they'd blame it on some punk teenagers taking a shortcut through there after school... She wouldn't consider herself a terribly lucky person, though. After a moment, she thought of something else; gently, she put the butt back down on the windowsill to pull open drawers on her desk, until she found the misshapen, until then completely unused, ashtray she'd made as her first project in pottery class years ago. She stubbed out the cigarette, then set the whole thing back in the drawer, just in case she needed it again that week.

Yawning, she pulled her door open and headed to the bathroom, then went downstairs, finally ready to face however much of her family was there. The living room and dining room were empty as she passed through them, almost convincing her that she'd imagined the noises she'd heard earlier, and she could have just gone out the back door and smoked like a normal person; then, she stepped into the kitchen.

"Morning!" Taylor chirped, sipping on a mug of coffee, the smell of which was filling the room. 

"Good morning," Melissa fidgeted, still not used to seeing her little sister all grown up. "Is there any of that left?" she nodded to Taylor's cup.

Taylor nodded, and Melissa made a bee-line for the pot, opening the cabinet over it, then blushing as she saw all the coffee cups from the bottom shelf had already been used. Unfortunately, the bottom shelf was the only one she could reach easily... She was already committed, however, and giving up would have only looked worse, so she reached up, getting up on her tiptoes, feeling ridiculous knowing her little sister was probably watching...

Taylor was, in fact, doing more than that. A moment later, Melissa saw a hand easily reaching over hers, plucking a cup down from the top shelf and handing it to her. "There you go, shrimp," Taylor chuckled.

"Th-thanks," Melissa blushed, setting it down on the counter and reaching for the coffee pot. She'd barely managed to grab the handle before Taylor brushed it away.

"Uh-uh, that's not for little girls," she teased.

"Come on, Taylor," Melissa sighed. "This isn't funny, just..."

She tried for the coffee pot again, this time stopped by a very uncomfortable sensation, as Taylor reached past the waistband of the sleep-shorts, grabbed the back of her panties, and gave them a good yank. Melissa gasped, cheeks reddening even further as her underwear bunched up, tugging tightly against her backside. Then, to make matters even worse, Taylor giggled, "Oh, my God, did you buy these in the kids' department?! So cute!"

"Shut up!" Melissa growled, gasping as her underwear rode up even further. Her underwear wasn't that bad... Was it? It was pink, which she admitted wasn't the most mature color she could have chosen, with a ribbon around the waist, polka-dotted with little hearts... All right, maybe Taylor had a point, she thought. "Let me go!"

Taylor did, leaving Melissa to readjust her panties while she plucked the mug off the counter and sauntered over to the fridge. "Here, this is much better for you," she announced, handing the cup back to Melissa.

Melissa took it, then wrinkled her nose when she looked inside and found milk. "Oh, come on," she protested. She hadn't drank straight milk in... She wasn't even sure how long. She'd never particularly liked the taste.

"It'll help you get big and strong, like me," Taylor told her, standing up straight with her hands on her hips, which only emphasized their size difference. "Not like that awful coffee... That'll stunt your growth, and you can't afford that, can you?"

"Very funny," Melissa rolled her eyes. "I get it, great joke." She walked towards the sink to dump her cup out, but Taylor stepped in front of her, blocking her way. "Taylor..." she said warningly, the way she'd always done while babysitting the girl. There was just enough of an implied threat in her tone to get her sister moving in the past; now, she just chuckled.

"Drink it up," she ordered, pushing the mug closer to Melissa's mouth. "Be a good little sister..."

"I am not the little sister!" Melissa seethed. "And I'm not drinking this, I want my coffee right...!"

Taylor snatched the mug out of her hand, then tilted it to her open mouth, letting a wave of milk silence her protests. Melissa gasped and coughed, but had no choice other than to swallow most of it. "Drink the rest," Taylor ordered, "or I'll make you drink it."

Melissa looked up at her younger sister, seeing no sign of joking in her eyes, as well as no indication that she'd stand a chance against the bigger girl if she actually decided to force her to do anything. "Fine," she muttered sheepishly. "B-But only because I'm thirsty, so..."

She wasn't sure where else she was going with that, so she began to drink the milk, nearly gagging at the taste at first. It didn't exactly get better as it went along, though she did get used to it, since she didn't have much of a choice, since Taylor was watching her like a hawk the whole time, ensuring she didn't stop.

"Good girl," Taylor patted her on the head condescendingly. "Do you want some more?"

"No!" Melissa answered instantly. She regretted it almost as quickly, sure that, if her expressions while she'd been drinking hadn't given it away, that would tell Taylor how much she disliked milk, which would probably just encourage her. "I, uh... I need to get going, I promised some friends I'd meet them, and... uh... Yeah." She shook her head, blushing, reminding herself that she didn't really owe Taylor that much of an explanation - she really was the older sister, whether she felt like it in the moment or not.

"All right, have fun!" Taylor said, taking her mug and setting it in the sink. "I'm sure we'll have lots of quality time later on this week... Unless you want me to tell mom and dad you were smoking in your room."

"I-I wasn't!" Melissa gulped, her surprise at being caught making it nearly impossible to keep from sounding even more guilty with her denial.

"I can smell it on you," Taylor told her, leaning down and sniffing dramatically. "That's not good for little girls like you, either... Should I make you smoke the whole pack to teach you a lesson?"

"I'm quitting!" Melissa promised. 

"You'd better be..." Taylor said threateningly.

That was almost enough to make Melissa want to change her mind, to just tell her parents herself so she could do it whenever she wanted and thwart any of Taylor's potential blackmail. She was an adult... She was more than old enough to smoke if that's what she decided to do. Whether her mom and dad would see it that way, especially in their house, she wasn't sure, but they couldn't deny that part of it... Could they?

It was probably best not to push the issue, especially since she really had been wanting to quit. Besides, she'd already committed to heading out into town, and she doubted there was much else there to keep her entertained for the day.

She changed out of her PJs into some actual clothes - taking a moment to examine her panties in the mirror, having to admit that they did look pretty juvenile, after all - then grabbed her keys and hurried downstairs and to her car. Almost instinctively, she reached for her cigarettes, but she was sure Taylor was watching her from the window, so she resisted.

That only lasted until she got out of the driveway, however... She was just so used to having at least one whenever she drove anywhere that she couldn't help herself, even if the trip was much shorter than she was used to. Her first stop was at a coffee shop, where she had to wait in her car for a minute to finish her cigarette, and remind herself nobody there would know what had happened to her a little while earlier when she'd attempted to get coffee.

From there, she wandered through the shops in town square for a bit, sipping at her coffee as she played a game with herself, guessing what of the merchandise on sale had been there the last time she'd browsed the stores, years ago. A surprising amount looked pretty familiar to her... A lot of the shopkeepers did, too, greeting her and catching up for a couple minutes, although there were some new faces who looked at her suspiciously instead, as if she were there to rob them in broad daylight.

Once she was bored with that, she returned to her car, staring down at the scrap of notebook paper she'd written the hypnotist's address on. Was she really going to try this? Kasey swore it had worked wonders for her, but it sounded so strange... If she just got something more normal, like the patch, or gum, her parents would probably understand, and see she was trying to quit, so even if Taylor did tattle, they couldn't get too mad...

"Oh, screw it," she rolled her eyes. "What's there to be scared of?"

Not much, it turned out; the office had been built in an old house, nestled on a street between a therapist and a book store that had done the same thing. She pulled into the tiny parking lot and marched up to the door, debating for a moment whether she should ring the doorbell or not. It felt strange barging into what was clearly a house without doing that, but there was no sign telling her she should...

A bell tinkled over her as she pushed the door open, and an older woman with glasses looked up from her desk. "Hello!" she greeted Melissa. "Do you have an appointment?"

Melissa shook her head. "Umm, sorry, no, my friend Kasey told me I didn't need one, so... I-I can come back later, if I need to..."

"Ah, Kasey's friend!" the woman smiled. "No, no, don't worry, you're fine. Wait right here, dear. Feel free to take a seat!"

Melissa looked around at the chairs set up around the room; they all looked nice enough, but if she'd needed another indication that this wasn't a typical doctor's office, they were it. They weren't the usual plastic seats she was used to seeing, and, in fact, none of them quite matched the others. There were a few magazines on small end tables at the corners of the room, but she didn't have time to peruse them, or even choose which chair she liked best.

"Melissa?" she heard another voice asked.

She turned from her examination of the seats to see the receptionist, along with another woman, this one around her own age. She wasn't much taller than Melissa, which, along with her long blonde hair and modest chest, immediately made Mel feel a little more at ease.

"Yeah, that's me!" she smiled. "My friend..."

"Kasey?" the hypnotist interrupted. "She's great, isn't she? I love her! You knew her in high school, right? I bet you have all kinds of stories..." The girl shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude... I hope you don't mind me calling you Melissa, we like to keep things casual here. You can feel free to call me by my first name, too: it's Tyler. I don't really like to go by anything more formal than that, unless that would make you more comfortable..."

Melissa resisted the urge to ask if that was because she wasn't a doctor, so she couldn't go by that; she seemed very nice, and there was no point being immediately antagonistic. "Nice to meet you, Tyler," she said. "I should probably tell you, I haven't really done this sort of thing before, and..."

"Oh, don't worry," Tyler told her. "Come on, let's go back to my office and talk... Why don't you tell me one of those stories? Just think back, and give me all the details you can remember... Take your mind back, and let it absorb as much as it can..."

"Okay..." Melissa smirked. It all really did feel silly, but Tyler seemed nice enough, and it might be nice to just chat for a few minutes, if nothing else, as long as she didn't charge too much. She paused for a moment, trying to think of which of her and Kasey's exploits she should tell the other woman about...

"Very nice work," Tyler complimented her. "You took to that quite well!"

"What?" Melissa blinked, looking around. To her surprise, there was another young woman sitting in one of the chairs, although she hadn't heard the door open.

"Now, don't you worry about payment right now," Tyler told her. "Give it a day or two to see how well it works, then come back and see me. You can tell me another one of those stories!"

"But I didn't..." she shook her head, confused, as Tyler gently put a hand on her shoulder and nudged her forward, making space for the other woman to walk past her, into the door Melissa had never gotten through herself. "Wait, I thought..."

"It can be disorienting, can't it, dear?" the receptionist said. "Look at your watch."

Melissa, of course, wasn't wearing a watch, but she took out her phone instead, eyes widening as she saw it was an hour later than it had been when she came here. "Wait... But... How..?"

"Trust me, she does good work," the woman smiled. 

"Okay..." Melissa glanced back at her phone again, trying to will it to change back, sure it was some kind of mistake. After standing around for another minute or two, she wandered back outside, to her car. Was it just a scam? Or a joke? 

She was sure that must be it, until she shoved the key in the ignition, turned it, and didn't feel the slightest urge to reach for her cigarettes. That wasn't proof, of course, but it was at least a good sign.... Even better was the fact that the desire didn't hit her once she had started driving, either. She rolled her windows down instinctively, but it was freeing, just feeling the air from it without having her arm hanging out, flicking ashes away from her and hoping they wouldn't come blowing back in...

Could it really have been that easy?! A single session, and she was cured?! It seemed to good to be true, yet, no matter how much she drove around, she didn't feel the need to reach into her glove box even once, despite knowing there was a nearly full carton in there... Even though she knew she hadn't really done it herself, she felt incredibly proud of herself.

At least, until she hit the brakes at a stoplight and turned to see a car full of teenaged girls beside her, staring and giggling. She told herself they had to be looking at something else, that there was nothing about her that should have caused that reaction, but as soon as the light turned green and the girls pulled away, she snuck a peek at herself in the rearview mirror.

Instantly, her good mood faded, her cheeks blazing bright red. There she was, sitting in her car, like she had been for who knew how long now, windows open to make her even more visible to the world, with her thumb firmly shoved in her mouth. She hadn't even noticed it happen, but, from as wet as it was when she pulled it out, she was sure she'd been doing it for a while... Maybe since she'd left Tyler's office.

She let out a squeal when the car behind her honked, her thumb instantly returning to her lips as she stepped on the gas sheepishly, not realizing it until she pulled into the nearest parking lot to think and looked in the mirror again. Apparently, she'd rid herself of the desire to smoke, sure... But she wasn't sure how much of an improvement she considered this!