The Reunion - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Melissa pulled her thumb out of her mouth, still hardly able to believe she had to do that. It definitely wasn't her imagination, however... It very clearly looked, and felt, wet, her nose wrinkling as she stared down at it, just the thought of what she'd been driving around doing making it start to drift upwards towards her lips again before she could stop herself.

She started to put her car into reverse to pull back out of the parking lot and head to the hypnotist's office again, only to recall that somebody else had been waiting for an appointment, so it would likely be another hour before she could see Tyler, and she didn't particularly want to sit around the woman's waiting room, sucking her thumb the whole time. Then again, she didn't really want to be anywhere doing that...

She shifted her car back into park, settling into her seat. The store wasn't terribly busy, and she was in the furthest parking spot away from it, so this could be a relatively safe place to wait it out. If anyone drove by, sure, she might seem a little suspicious, and if the store's workers looked out, they might wonder why she was in there on her own for so long, but hopefully not enough to do anything about it. 

Just the thought of being caught sitting in her car, thumb in her mouth, made her feel stressed, and, normally, she would have reached for her cigarettes. Instead, she caught herself nuzzling on her thumb before she even realized it. "Shit!" she spit it out, face red, and grabbed her keys, hopping out of the car. She smoked an awful lot in there... Maybe if she actually went inside the store, that would curb her desire.

Even before going in, she knew it wouldn't help for long, before boredom would overtake her. It was a furniture store, and it wasn't like she was going to buy a couch and then haul it all the way back to her actual home in her tiny car... She felt awkward trying out the stuff, knowing she had no intention to buy it, and, in all honesty, sitting in a bunch of different chairs wasn't her idea of excitement anyway. She'd pretty much just gone with whatever was cheapest and matched the rest of her stuff when she'd been shopping for her own place, and it had come together just fine.

She waved off an eager offer of help from a bored looking worker and just started wandering, pretending to examine the bedframes and endtables for a few minutes. She did have to admit that some of the set ups looked nice together, and she could certainly imagine putting them into her own bedroom, if it was closer, and she didn't already have everything she needed. 

That could only keep her attention for so long, however. The armchairs and sofas were next, but, even for the sake of simply killing time, she wasn't sure how much more time she could spend staring at furniture. Maybe she should just go somewhere else, she thought. It was a little early, but she could grab lunch and eat before going back to Tyler's office.

"Melissa?"

She turned, for a moment surprised to hear her name, then delighted as she saw a shock of red hair and a pair of double-Ds heading towards her, meaning this was, unmistakably, "Kim!" Once it was out of her mouth, Melissa remembered the other woman had started preferring her full name towards the end of high school, thinking it made her sound less like a kid, so she added, "Berly!" to the end, maybe a tad too late to sound intentional.

There was really no mistaking her for a child anymore, anyway. She only had a few inches on Melissa, and while her breasts were obviously much larger than Melissa's, it was really the suit she had on that made it obvious she was an adult, and much more responsible than she'd used to be. Melissa was used to seeing her in tops that left either her midriff, her cleavage, or both, exposed, as if that was the only way she could prove her maturity, but clearly things had changed.

"Wow!" Kimberly gave her a hug, then stepping back and looking at her. "You look exactly the same!"

Melissa wasn't sure how to take that, but it was hard to deny that her thrown-on outfit was much more similar to what she'd worn in high school than Kimberly's clothes. "You don't," she pointed out. "What happened there?"

Kim chuckled. "I was a bit of a wild child, wasn't I? Things change, you know?" she shrugged, then glanced over her shoulder. Melissa saw a man and another woman near the desks, dressed like Kimberly, quickly looking away and pretending to talk among themselves when they saw they'd been noticed. "We're shopping for things for our office," Kim explained. "We're just getting it running, and I told them we could find things cheaper here than in the city, and I always liked the stuff they carry here. Sorry, but I should probably get back to them, neither if them has any sense of style, and I'd like it to look like someone who wasn't color blind put it together. It was great seeing you, though! You're here for the reunion, right?"

Melissa nodded. "Yeah, I came in early because... Well, I don't know. Because I could."

Kimberly beamed. "You came in so you could have dinner with me, that's why! Tonight and tomorrow I have to entertain those guys, but after that they're taking everything back to start setting up. How about the day after that? I'd love to catch up!"

"Sure," Melissa shrugged. "Sounds good!"

They exchanged numbers, and another hug, then Kim went back to the office furniture, immediately steering her companions away from the set they had been examining. Melissa watched for a few moments, shocked at the transformation; Kim had always been something of a leader, though usually she was encouraging her friends to cut school, or sneak into some abandoned house for a party... 

Melissa looked down at herself, cheeks reddening. She really could have worn this any time in her high school career... Of course, she was on vacation, so it wasn't like she had to dress up. Even at work, though, she never looked as nice as Kimberly had... And, from the sound of things, she was the one running that office, in charge of what they were buying; Melissa just worked at her office, the very idea of moving up to any kind of management making her stomach turn, since that would give her more reason to stay there longer, instead of searching for her elusive dream job and getting out.

She turned away, back to the bedroom sets, and immediately spotted herself in the vanity mirror, thumb deep in her mouth. She let out a frustrated groan, her blush growing even darker, knowing that would just draw even more attention to herself, as she hoped Kim and her co-workers, and the worker here, hadn't been looking at her a few seconds earlier.

In case they were - and to keep from giving them any more chances to see her that way - she hurried for the door, slipping out and back to her car, deciding to execute her earlier plan, heading to a fast food place's drive through and getting herself a burger, some fries, and, since her day had been going so crazy so far, a milkshake. She picked a distant corner of the parking lot to eat and fume.

As she munched on her fries, she pulled out her phone, tapping out a one-handed text to Kasey, re-writing it a few times to take it from angry - "What did you have me do?!" - to a little more calm, and vague - "Can you tell me a little more about this hypnotist?" It was something she should have asked earlier, really, but the promise of a quick fix had been too tempting... Besides, how could she have foreseen this?!

She stared down at her phone as she continued eating, waiting impatiently for a response, each passing minute making her more suspicious. Had Kasey planned this, somehow, to humiliate her? She couldn't imagine why, but she had recommended Tyler, after all. 

As she drank her shake, after devouring the rest of the meal, she unlocked her phone anyway, in case she'd somehow gotten a reply and not heard the notification, or seen the light blink. There was still nothing, which made her even more annoyed. Finally, she turned the car back on and, sucking furiously on her straw, headed back to Tyler's office.

The tiny parking lot was completely empty when she got there. She hopped out and marched up to the door anyway, only to find it locked; banging on it earned her no response. After trying them both another time, she looked at the posted hours, expecting to see a lunch break scheduled there. 

Instead, the sign told her that, without an appointment, she wouldn't be able to see Tyler for the rest of the day, or the next, with just a couple hours the day after. She'd been pretty lucky to hit the woman at the right time earlier, apparently... Or, rather, unlucky, considering what had happened. 

She paced in front of the door a few minutes, chewing irritably on the straw she'd pulled from her empty milkshake cup. It distracted her from her thumb, although it was very much not the same... She was having to chew pretty aggressively at it to feel even marginally as good as a gentle suck of her finger. 

How could Kasey have let this happen to her?! She yanked her phone out of her pocket, ready to send another, less pleasant, text, only to see that she'd missed a message. 

"Like what?" Kasey's reply read.

Melissa wanted to ask what had taken her so long to come up with those two words, only to remind herself that, unlike her, her friend had to work this week, and was probably only now getting to her lunch break. "Does it really work?" she asked, after a moment or two of contemplation.

"It did for me," Kasey responded, much more quickly this time. "And someone else I work with, too. I don't know if it would for you, but it's probably worth a shot."

Melissa frowned. It had worked, but... "This might be a dumb question, but are there any side effects or anything? Is it safe?" 

There was another pause, long enough for Melissa to start feeling offended, wondering if Kasey was laughing at her. 

"Tyler can explain it better than me, but it depends on the strength of the habit she's replacing? Something like that. I was obsessed with suckers for a few days, but she mentioned she's had people start sucking on toothpicks or whatever, sometimes, in extreme cases. It's normal, and wears off pretty quickly, if it even happens. As long as you aren't super addicted, it shouldn't be a big deal. It's just a residual oral fixation thing."

Melissa stared at the text, not sure whether it was comforting or not. Kasey didn't mention thumbsucking, but it sounded within the realm of possibility, given the other examples. A couple days was definitely longer than she'd prefer to have such a childish habit, though she supposed, as long as it wore off before the reunion, she could deal. She didn't consider herself super addicted to smoking... It had apparently been a bigger problem than she'd thought, if this was happening. 

"It really isn't as scary as it sounds," Kasey sent another text. "You probably won't have anything happen." 

"Okay," Melissa shot back. "I'll think about it." 

"Cool. When are we going to hang?" 

Melissa frowned. Should she just confess that she'd already tried it, and what it had done? Even if it wasn't her fault, it was still a pretty embarrassing habit, and the less people she had to tell about it, the better... "We'll see," she typed. "I think I have some family thing tonight. I'll let you know." 

After the struggle she'd had getting Kasey to think about hanging out for whatever reason, she felt bad being so vague, but she really would rather wait until this issue cleared up. Besides, it was really Kasey's fault, since she should have mentioned this was a possibility to begin with, since she'd been so insistent on Melissa going to see Tyler! Melissa probably would have still gone anyway, with what her friend had just told her, but still... At least it wouldn't have been as big of a surprise.

She stared at the empty building, still gnawing at the straw. Was it worth it to wait, see if the hypnotist had more appointments that afternoon and confront her? If she could get rid of one habit, surely she could do the same with this new one that had replaced it, right? She would take compulsively sucking on a mint, or suckers, or whatever candy was around over her thumb any day... 

On the other hand, maybe she should have thought to ask those questions before diving right into a session. They were perfectly normal, rational things to ask before trying out something new like that... But she hadn't bothered. And she didn't even know how much of a problem this would even wind up being. Maybe the next morning, she'd be over it... Maybe it wouldn't even take that long!

She still had several days before the reunion... As long as it stopped by then, she'd be all right. It would be nice for it to stop before then, sure, so she could hang out with Kimberly and Kasey without having to worry, but that wasn't as big of a deal, especially Kasey. She didn't want her to see her sucking her thumb, though, if it happened, at least she'd know why.

No, the best thing to do for now was hide out at home, maybe take a nap, just chill out. After all, she was on vacation - she ought to be able to relax. She headed back, catching herself starting to move her hand towards her lips several times. All she had to do was stay vigilant, that's all...

That's what she thought, at any rate, until she actually saw the house, and the variety of cars parked outside. "What the hell?" she mumbled, finding a place to park her own ride, just barely. Some of the cars looked vaguely familiar, though not enough so that she thought they could be extended family. As she thought about it, there was really only one other explanation, which she didn't particularly like. 

Should she just turn back around, drive through town some more? There wasn't a whole lot else to look at, other than where she'd already been, and there was nowhere that would be as private as her room. It was as much her house as her sister's, anyway... 

She turned off the engine, pulled the keys from the ignition, and, with a sigh, stepped out of the car. Even before she got to the door, she could hear them inside, giggling and shouting over each other, like they always did... It was her sister's friends, back in town for the summer as well. She'd babysat plenty of them, and even the ones she hadn't, she'd been in charge of when Taylor had her sleepovers and her parents didn't want to deal with all those kids. 

Considering how much Taylor had changed, she didn't really want to see what they were like now, especially after the way the rest of her day had gone. If she could just slip in and creep up to her room while they were distracted, she could put on her headphones and do her best to pretend that they weren't...

"Oh, gosh, is that Lissa?" Melissa winced as she heard one of them say her old nickname, felt their eyes turn on her at once.

She waved shyly, just barely stopping herself as her other hand brushed against her chin. She'd been right to want to avoid them, seeing all of them now, no longer gawky, awkward tweens, but tall, gorgeous young women, every one. 

"There you are!" Taylor hopped up from her chair and trotted over to her, giving her a side hug, as if to make sure everyone saw the size difference, realized their former caretaker was now the smallest in the room. "Did you have a fun morning? How about you come hang out with us? There aren't any seats left, but you can sit on the floor... We could braid your hair and talk about boys, and it'll be just like the old days!"

Taylor gave her an odd look, and Melissa quickly yanked her hand down, wiping it on the side of her pants as nonchalantly as she could manage, trying to turn her sister, to reposition them so they weren't the center of attention. "I-I think I'll just head up to my room for now, but..." she said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Taylor asked, fake concern dripping from her voice. "Do you need me to get you another drink?"

Melissa shook her head, hardly wanting to have her little sister give her a glass of milk in front of all her friends. "I can get my own drinks, and they can be whatever I want," she informed Taylor, only to receive a grin that told her otherwise.

"Well, if that's what you want, I suppose," Taylor shrugged, before giving her a push in the direction of the stairs, and turning back to her friends. "Sorry, girls, I had to send her up to her room for a nap... She's being cranky today."

Melissa turned to refute that statement - quickly changing her own plans, determined not to fall asleep now that Taylor had said that - only to realize she'd started sucking her thumb again. "And stop that!" Taylor scolded. "You know that will ruin your teeth, young lady!"

She didn't give her sister the satisfaction of breaking into a run, as much as she wanted to, to get away from all those eyes on her as quickly as possible. What felt like not that long ago, she'd been the grown-up, the one everyone looked up to... Now, she was being 'banished' to her room, thumb in mouth, while they stayed down in the living room and chattered away. 

Thankfully, they slowly began to drive off as the afternoon wore on, though she felt trapped in her bedroom until the last one finally left. Her bladder was practically bursting by then, and as soon as she heard the car pull out of the driveway, she scurried for the bathroom.

"What have you been up to?" Taylor swooped in, planting herself between Melissa and the bathroom door. "You should have said hello, you rude little thing!"

"I don't know them that well," Melissa shrugged. "I just..." She tried to push around Taylor, but her sister moved to block her way.

"Don't worry, I would have reintroduced you," Taylor smiled. "They all have such fond memories of you, strutting around like you owned the place, bossing us around..."

"I was the chaperone, that was my job," Melissa rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, when you're the big sister, you have to be strict."

"I'll keep that in mind," Taylor patted her on the head, then stepped to the side to block Melissa's juke. "Is this one of those times? Should I be strict with you, since you just ignored my friends?"

"Taylor..." Melissa glared at her, only to be surprised by a jabbing of fingers at her sides, wiggling wildly as they connected with flesh. She gasped, starting to laugh despite herself. "Taylor!" she gasped. "S-Stop it!"

"Nah, I think it's time to have fun!" Taylor exclaimed, tickling her sister harder. 

"Stooop!" Melissa tried to sound serious, though it came out as more of a whine as she struggled to keep the word from dissolving completely into laughter, as well as stopping something else from happening... She groaned, pressing her thighs together, horrified to feel a trickle of moisture dripping its way into her underwear anyway, turning steadier as Taylor pressed the attack, until finally...

"All right, all right," Taylor chuckled, stepping away. "But you be a good girl from now on, or I might just have to punish you." 

Melissa wasn't sure if she was joking or not; she was too busy clamping her bladder muscles down, praying she hadn't gone enough to make a wet spot. "Or I could just tell mom and dad about this," Taylor tapped Melissa's hand, which was, of course, positioned right in front of her mouth yet again, "I don't think they'll be quite as understanding as me. Now, go on! I'd hate for you to pee your pants!" Melissa dashed into the bathroom, counting her blessings that at least her sister didn't know she'd already done just that... She'd never hear the end of that.