Freshers Ch. 05 - A Christmas to Remember

Her Majesty removed her reading glasses and then turned to face the camera once more.

"There are masses more, and it's encouraging to know that again next year, there will be a new group coming to receive their awards whose achievements will be just as ingenious and just as exciting. There are similar examples throughout the commonwealth - these success stories are often pushed into the background, but they are the guarantee of our future.

"Christmas is a time of good news - I believe it is a time to look at the good things of life and to remember that there are a great many people trying to make the world a better place, even though their efforts may go unrecognised. There's a lesson in this for us all, and we should never forget our obligation to make our own individual contributions, however small, towards the sum of human goodness. The story of the Good Samaritan reminds us of our duty to our neighbour - we should try to follow Christ's clear instruction at the end of that story: go and do thou likewise.

"I wish you all a very happy Christmas, and I hope that we shall all try to make some good news in the coming year."

The scene changed one last time to show the royal standard flying proudly from the flagpole on the palace, and the national anthem played once again.

"God bless Her Majesty!" Dad, who had always been a vocal royalist said, raising his glass at the conclusion of the royal message.

We joined in the toast, each raising our own glasses in return and then Terri's mum rose to her feet.

"I um, I just wanted to say thank you, to all of you, for inviting me here to share the festivities with you," she began. "I'd especially like to thank you for intervening and reuniting me with Theresa - I guess I should get used to calling her Terri from now on - not being able to be with her and talk with her was tearing me up inside and I couldn't see for myself how destructive my ways and beliefs were for her. But the past twenty four hours have forced me to do a lot of soul-searching and although I can't promise to be as liberal as some people, I shall do all that I can to be less quick to judge and condemn others and to lay off the religious rhetoric from now on. And to Tommy especially I'd like to say that, having got to know you a little better, I'm sorry for how I initially treated you when we first met yesterday, and I apologise unreservedly for calling you a rapist. I will happily give you my blessing to pursue a relationship with my daughter."

"Apology accepted, Mrs. Stroud," Tommy replied. "I know it was all a shock for you, and that you were angry which may have clouded your judgment, so I am prepared to regard it all as water under the bridge now. I know how much Terri means to you, and likewise she means the world to me as well - and I promise you that I shall do my best for her."

"Well, I think this calls for another toast!" Dad interjected. "To Thomas and Terri!"

"Aw, Dad! Can you at least call me Tommy for once? Like everybody else does?" Tommy pouted.

"Sorry, son, old habits die hard!" Dad replied apologetically. "To Tommy and Terri!"

"Tommy and Terri!" we all reciprocated.

They Don't Have Boxing Day In America? (Tommy)

Phew! What a Christmas Day that had been! Having to be on my best behaviour for the benefit of Terri's mum for most of it had been mentally exhausting, but it was worth it. To her, and to my own parents, Terri and I were officially 'dating' now, to use our American friend's terminology. Of course the real situation was much more complicated than that, but having a sort of semi-official status as a couple at least would be a convenient cover for what was really going on between the three of us.

Or should the really be four of us, since I was also still in love with Alex. Just thinking about him, and what had happened between us that night back at our flat in York, caused me to feel a definite stirring in my pants, and I was suddenly hit with a yearning to be with him again, and to feel him inside me once more. Of course, what with being thousands of miles apart it was impossible, but at least I could call to wish him and Jenny a belated Merry Christmas. Beth and I asked Dad if it was okay to call our stateside friends since it was such an expense, and after being granted permission, Beth, Terri and I went into Dad's study to place the call. It was mid afternoon our time, so it was morning over in California, so we were confident that they wouldn't be in bed. As it turned out however, we were a bit wrong on that front. Speaker phones weren't really a 'thing' back in those days, so the three of us huddled around the receiver as best we could.

"Hello?" came a familiar American accent at the other end of the line.

"Alex! It's Tommy here!" I replied enthusiastically.

"Tommy, dude! How are ya?" Alex positively beamed down the phone line.

"I'm good - Beth and Terri are here too. Is Jenny there with you?"

"Hi girls!" Alex said brightly. "She sure is! Mom and Dad are at work, so we're just having a little time to ourselves, if you catch my drift!"

"They're at work?" Beth asked in slight disbelief. "On Boxing Day?"

"Boxing Day? Ah, we don't have that over here," I heard Jenny reply, who was clearly within earshot of the receiver at their end.

"Still, it gives us a chance to er, enjoy each other's company," Alex said a little sheepishly.

"Er, anyway, we were just calling to wish you a belated Happy Christmas," Beth continued.

"Yeah, happy holidays you guys! Where are you? You still in York?" Jenny said.

"No, we're back home at our parents place down on the south coast," I replied.

"And you say Terri's there?" Alex enquired. "I thought she and her mom weren't on speaking terms."

"Well, we weren't," Terri said. "But thanks to my friends and their parents, we are now."

"Cool! We're real pleased to hear that!" Jenny enthused. "I knew you'd make up in the end. So, how'd it all come about then?"

We talked them through how we'd arranged to force Terri and her mum back together, and then recounted the events of Christmas Day.

"What, so you and Terri are like, an item now?" Jenny asked.

"Officially, I guess," Terri answered. "We decided amongst ourselves that it was the best way to draw any attention away from how things really are between us and our little ménage á trois."

"Or maybe that should be ménage á quatre, since Tommy and my brother here still hold a flame for each other!" Jenny chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess," I agreed bashfully. "I er, I love you, Alex - I can't wait to see you again."

"Can't wait to feel his cock inside you, more like!" Beth sniggered under her breath.

"What did she just say?" I heard Alex say on the other end of the line.

"Ignore her, she's just being facetious," I replied, giving my sister a playful look of admonishment.

"I thought she was cool with you and I being y'know, more than just friends," Alex went on.

"I am," Beth replied. "I was just joking! Really, it think it's cool you and Tommy are, well, helping to further Anglo-American relations with each other."

"Well, I guess that's a novel way to describe fucking each other's brains out!" Jenny guffawed.

"Just keeping the British end up!" Terri added, cheekily quoting from The Spy Who Loved Me, my favourite Bond movie.

It was a good job our parents always respected mine and Beth's privacy on the phone, because if either of them had intercepted our conversation it would've taken a lot of explaining! So with that thought in mind I thought it best to change the subject.

"So, have the two of you found an apartment yet?" I asked them.

"Yeah, it's just a little place in a complex a couple miles from here, but it means we'll have some space to ourselves rather than be under Mom and Dad's feet all the time," Jenny replied. "We'll be moving in after New Year's."

"Oh, yeah, that's something else I was going to say!" Alex said enthusiastically. "You'll never guess what our folks got us for Christmas!"

"No? What?" I answered.

"Only a family vacation to England!" Alex replied brightly.

"Plane tickets? You're coming back here?" I gasped.

"Mom and Dad asked us what we'd like to do for spring break next year and we told 'em we'd love to come back to England since we had a blast over there with you guys," Jenny explained.

"And so for Christmas they got us plane tickets, accommodation, car rental, everything!" Alex took over.

"Wow! That's amazing! So does that mean you'll be coming to visit us again?" Beth said. "It'll be so cool to see you two again!"

"Well, we'll be staying in Oxford with our folks, but I reckon we could slip away for a couple days to visit you guys."

"Cool!" I enthused brightly.

My heart leapt, as did a certain other part of my body, at the news that I'd get to see Alex again so much sooner than I'd anticipated. After that we had to wrap up our conversation, after all, we didn't want to run up too large a phone bill for our parents to have to take care of, so after a few brief exchanges of goodwill and some shared "happy New Years" we rang off. I wasn't sure if either of the girls understood, but being able to be with Alex again was easily as good a Christmas present as the bracelet and Mickey Mouse watch they had bought me!

Coming Home (Terri)

Well, another year, another Christmas - I wasn't sure what 1986 had in store for Tommy, Beth and I, but at least for me one thing was for sure - I had my mum back, and she'd promised to change and be less proselytising and more understanding in future. But as my two friends packed their belongings to head back for York I was left with a decision to make - should I head back with them, or wait a few days until after New Year's Day before travelling back up north, so that I could spend a few more days with Mum and work on further repairing our relationship. Beth assured me it was fine whatever decision I made, and that they both understood how important it was to me to fix things with my mother - she didn't really have much else in the way of family locally, so I was pretty much all she had.

The trouble was, spending Christmas Day with her might have gone okay, but as a guest of Tommy and Beth's folks she had to have been on her best behaviour. Which begged the question - without any outside influence, would she accidentally slip back into her old ways and say something hurtful about me being little better than a prostitute, and send us crashing back to square one?

I realised of course there was only one way to find out, and that I'd never know for sure if I simply headed back to York with the Twins. So in the end, the decision was a fairly easy one, if a little bit of an uncertain one. My old bedroom was waiting for me, Mum told me as I called her up on the morning of the 27th, and that of course it would be fine for me to stay on for a few more days.

"Just as long as it isn't too much like old times," I told her guardedly.

"I promise you, sweetheart, it won't be," Mum assured me. "I'm serious about wanting to change - at least so that I'm less of an ogre."

"Oh, Mum," I sighed. "I never thought you were an ogre."

"Well, maybe not, but I sheltered you, I wrapped you up in cotton wool and left you unprepared for the real world. I know now I shouldn't have tried to protect you from boys and not teaching you about the things a girl needs to know about, well, 'adult relations' and stuff."

"You can say 'sex', Mum, it isn't sinful to mention it," I replied.

"Sorry, dear, but it'll take a while to break old habits," Mum answered. "But at least I'm trying."

"Believe me, I'm very glad of it," I assured her.

The following afternoon, after having seen Tommy and Beth off at Brighton Station, I strolled back to the house I grew up in. The memory of that fateful night back in September still haunted me, so in a way going back to stay there was a way of exorcising it from my mind once and for all. Indeed, after being greeted by Mum with a long and fairly tearful hug, I went back upstairs to my old room. True to her word, my room was exactly as I'd left it when I sneaked out of the house in the early hours of that late September morning. My posters (well, the ones Mum approved of) still adorned my wall, and my collection of teddies and other soft toys still sat on my bed and on my shelves. My wardrobe still had all my old clothes in it - clothes that now seemed austere and boring compared to what I now preferred to wear - when I was wearing clothes, that is. Deciding to leave them where they were was a fairly easy choice to make.

"Terri! I'm just popping into town to get something nice for dinner!" Mum called up the stairs to me.

"Okay, Mum!" I called back.

I came and stood at the window and watched as she got into the car and then drove off down the street. I reflected on all those years I'd spent in this house, so sheltered from all the things most normal kids were doing. Of course, no matter how much she'd tried to protect me from 'sinful' images and TV shows and movies that had even so much as a slight hint of any sexuality in them, she could not prevent a curious teenager from exploring her own body in the privacy of her own room.

With that memory in mind, it wasn't long before I felt myself undoing my jeans and slipping my finger inside my underwear. Seconds later, I was practically ripping my clothes off until I stood totally naked in the middle of my bedroom. Before I met Beth, and later Tommy, I'd been pretty much innocent in the ways of self-pleasuring - I'd explored myself of course, and quickly came to the conclusion that touching those 'sinful' areas felt wonderfully pleasurable. How could something that feels so good possibly be sinful? I'd asked myself at the time.

I laid myself out on my bed, surrounded by all my cuddly toys, their cartoonish faces all staring back at me as I wantonly fingered myself in their inanimate presence.

Those first few times had been pretty good, but the time I had my first ever orgasm, on my eighteenth birthday no less, had been something else. It was a good job my mother had been out at work that day, for if she'd heard me screaming out in pure unadulterated orgasmic euphoria, she'd have thrown me out onto the street for sure! I had no idea what an orgasm was at the time, and it had even frightened me that something that felt so utterly incredible could happen. It wasn't until I learned from Beth what it was that had happened, and that it was quite normal and okay, that I dared to try and make it happen again. Would Mum throw me out right now, if she were to come across me doing this? I thought to myself as I delved my fingers into my vagina.

I thought back to that amazing day in August, when Beth had first introduced me to Tommy - a day that blew my mind. I'd never seen a boy naked before, indeed I had no idea what to expect. I'd heard that boys had this thing called a 'penis', but what a penis looked like, how it worked and what it was for, I had no idea. I'll never forget the image of myself in Beth's bedroom, kneeling before Tommy as I slowly took his underwear down, revealing his maleness to me in all its glory, that had been denied me for so long.

I started to gasp and moan as my arousal grew and grew, whilst I fingered myself with one hand and teased my breasts with the other.

And after that amazing experience had come that holiday. It had only been a few months back, but it felt like a whole lifetime ago now. I got onto that plane as a fairly plain and dowdy girl, but came back a confident woman. Those two weeks in Southern France had a profound impact on me - the discovery of Beth and Tommy's incestuous relationship, losing my virginity to Tommy, discovering the joy of naturism and meeting Alex and Jenny, had been a succession of revelations that had far-reaching consequences. I had discovered my sexuality - discovered who I really was underneath the 'Plain Jane' exterior.

Calling up those thoughts and memories had me careening towards the brink of orgasm, and I was by that time writhing and gasping on my bed, willing myself to come, urging my naked body towards my climax.

I recalled the first time I performed a striptease, an experience that had been filled by an intoxicating mixture of nervousness and liberation. I'll never forget the looks in the eyes of the big, burly men in the room as I removed the last vestiges of clothing, revealing to them my nakedness. I'll always hear their cheers as I slipped my knickers off and stood before them, displaying myself for their appraising gaze. It felt utterly electrifying, and even though I knew neither Beth nor Tommy would understand, to me it had felt like the ultimate 'screw you' to the overzealous austerity I had grown up surrounded by.

The first wave of orgasm rippled across my bare skin, causing me to squirm and gasp as my body was covered in goosebumps. Seconds later, I was consumed with the familiar fire that emanated from deep inside me, and as my fingers worked furiously on my clitoris and my nipples, I began to cry out in exaltation.

"Ahh! Hahh! Hahh! Oh, how can this possibly be sinful?" I cried aloud as my orgasm engulfed me.

All too soon however, it was all over. My orgasm drifted away from me, and despite my efforts to cling on to the delicious sensation, Mother Nature had intervened as if to say "that's your lot, my girl, don't get carried away in case your mum comes back unannounced!" Sated, my whole body went limp and I was left draped across my bed like a crumpled sheet that had been casually tossed onto the mattress. After a few minutes of simply lying there naked, and now fully lucid following my post-orgasmic afterglow, I picked up my hastily shed clothes and dressed myself. And just in time too, for as soon as I pulled my sweater on, Mum pulled up onto the driveway outside.

The perfect crime!

Happy New Year! (Beth)

With Terri spending a few days with her mum before rejoining Tommy and I, it was nice to have the entire flat to ourselves. As much as we both loved having Terri around, it was also nice for us to enjoy being alone without a third presence in the flat.

There were plenty of student parties scheduled for New Year's Eve - everything from a sophisticated Scottish style Hogmanay with evening dresses and dinner jackets, not to mention plenty of whiskey, to much more debauched fancy dress affairs. Indeed, as Tommy and I strolled through the streets of York towards the Pig & Whistle pub, we passed a group of revellers dressed in various silly costumes. I remember seeing the funniest thing I had ever seen - a man dressed as a Playboy bunny! He had it all - the velvet leotard, black leggings, white cuffs and collar, and the familiar white bunny ears and tail.

"Happy new year!" he bellowed as we passed them by.

It was only just after eight in the evening and already I suspected he and his friends were already three sheets to the wind. Well, I suppose for a guy you'd have to be at least a bit tipsy to go out dressed like that!

"Ooh, Tommy, you'd look so sexy dressed like that!" I teased my brother.

"So would you, babe!" he replied with a devilish glint in his eye.

* * * * * *

The party at the pub was in full swing and the bar was heaving as the midnight hour approached. The TV mounted high up in the corner of the bar showed the BBC's traditional New Year's Eve program. At precisely one minute to go, the familiar sight of Big Ben appeared, and the final countdown to 1986 began.

"Okay everyone!" the landlord of the pub called out just as the clock began to chime. "In ten... nine... eight... seven..."

Every one joined in counting down the seconds in unison.