Walking dutifully in line behind her mother and older sister, Tara found herself staring at her sister’s well-developed butt as the 20-year-old’s voluptuous hips rolled from side to side. Tall, gorgeous, and blonde, Tess seemed to have been blessed with both girls’ puberty, while Tara had received little to nothing. Even at 18, a senior in high school, the tiny redhead looked little different than she had as a freshman. Barely five feet tall, with a figure bearing more in common with flagpoles than her sister’s lush curves, Tara had begun to despair that she would ever look like anything more than a twelve-year-old.
Lost in thought, mesmerized by envy of her sister’s penduluming derrière, Tara failed to notice that Tess had let go of the door on her way inside the store. The heavy oak door swung toward the young redhead, the thick glass pane at its center slamming into her nose. She fell backward, landing on her bony ass to the sidewalk. Her sister, casting a condescending backward glance, shot her a mocking smile. “You should watch where you’re going, midget.”
The sexy blonde’s full lips curled into a superior smirk as she spun on her heel to follow their mother further into the shop. Tara brushed frizzy strands of hair out of her eyes, looking up at the sign above the aged woodwork of the shop’s exterior. It read “Esoteric Texts”.
Brushing herself off, Tara rose with a frown. Why was her mother always taking them to these weird old bookstores? Grumpy after falling prey to another of her sister’s pranks, she pulled open the door, marching glumly inside. Tess thumbed away at her phone as their mom perused dusty volumes in the far corner of the shop, likely checking the countless messages she received on her socials.
“Bitch,” Tara muttered under her breath in her sister’s general direction as she passed.
Not looking up from her phone, Tess replied with her typical automatic response. “Rodent.”
Letting out a hiss of frustration, Tara worked her way to the opposite corner of the shop. She browsed the shelves, running her fingertips over the leather bindings of the dusty tomes until they paused on the final book on the shelf. It was a locked, leather-bound volume entitled “The Burgeoning Book”. She nearly laughed at the absurdity of the title. She could certainly use some burgeoning!
Looking around, seeing the shopkeeper with her mother and Tess’ attention still glued to her phone, Tara pulled the book from the shelf, wedging it between her diminutive hips and a row of other volumes. She fiddled with the clasp that held the book closed until it finally popped free. A puff of dust and musty smell emerged as she opened the cover. She almost thought that she saw a strange glimmer flash over the pulpy pages as she flipped through them, settling on a page that read “Dreams”.
Dreams has she of what may lack.
They place what’s real on different tack.
Notions of what I desire
shape her form with cleansing fire.
When she wakes from deepest sleep,
then will she find what want did reap.”
She read the words in a whisper, a shiver rolling down her spine as she finished. Tara stared at the page, uncertain what had just happened, but knowing instinctively that there had been power in those words.
As her eyes studied the spidery handwritten text, an approaching voice startled her. “May I help you with something?”
It was the shopkeeper, her heels clicking swiftly across the creaky hardwood floor. Quickly, Tara turned her body to block the woman’s view of what she was doing. She shut the book, reclasping the lock before repositioning herself to allow the woman to see the weighty volume in her small hands. “I-I was just checking out this book.”
The middle-aged woman arched a graying brow, her eyes darting suspiciously between the book and Tara’s flushing cheeks. “Please put that one back, young woman. It’s not for sale. It’s for… decorative purposes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Tara, relieved that the woman hadn’t challenged her small lie. She put the book back on the shelf, before turning to face the others. She clasped her hands awkwardly before her as she waited for her mother to finish and check out. Attempting to put the book out of her mind, Tara pulled out her phone, finding a text from one of her best friends, Anna, awaiting her attention.
“Back from vacay?” read the message.
“Yeah. Out shopping for books with mom and Tess,” Tara replied.
“Tess?! Yummy! Can I come?” Anna’s response was immediate.
Tara grinned. Her diminutive Asian friend had always had a thing for her sister. “Almost done. Maybe come over to my house after?”
“Thought you’d never ask!”
“K. Cya soon!”
***
As Tara’s mother pulled the car into the driveway, Tara saw Anna bounding down the sidewalk toward their house. The girl was nothing if not eager. With her flat, sub-five-foot frame and oversized sun dress, her classmate’s body made Tara’s curveless form look positively voluptuous!
Arriving just as Tara stepped out of the car, Anna pinned her to its side with an enthusiastic hug. “Oh, my God, Tare! I missed you so much these last two weeks!”
Tara laughed. “Geez, Anna! It’s good to see you too! But lay off the PDA, will ya?”
Anna ignored her request, giving her friend another emphatic squeeze before stepping back with a broad smile. Her eyes cast about for the sultry blonde that was being loaded with an armful of books. As the short, slender Asian made eye contact, Tess shot her a superior sneer.
“Hi, Anna,” she said haughtily. “Nice to see that even my sister is somehow actually bigger than someone.”
Anna’s smile faltered slightly, but Tara could see that her sister’s nasty comments had done nothing to diminish the desire that swirled within Anna’s dark eyes.
As they strode into the house, Tara whispered, so that her sister wouldn’t be able to hear. “Why do you like Tess so much? She’s so conceited!”
“Yeah,” Anna sighed dreamily. “And so insanely fucking hot.”
Tara rolled her eyes. “You sound like all the boys in the neighborhood.”
That got Anna’s attention, her almond-shaped eyes growing wide with alarm. “Boys? You never said anything about boys before! I thought you said she didn’t date dudes?!”
“She doesn’t really date anybody. At least, not that I can tell.”
Anna shoulders slumped in relief. She turned her head to sneak a furtive glance at Tara’s sexy sister as she circled around the car, balancing an impressive stack of books before her equally impressive chest.
“Thank God,” said the young Asian, before slipping into the house. “Don’t scare me like that!”
“Anna, she hates your guts. She hates all of our guts!”
“Yeah, for now. But maybe someday, I’ll grow D-cups like hers, and she’ll fall madly in love with me.”
Tara leveled her friend with a look that she intended as discouragement. Instead, it only seemed to have the opposite effect, Anna’s eyes brightening as a thought seemed to occur to her.
“We need to go shopping for bikinis tomorrow. I need something that makes it look like I actually have cleavage,” her friend gushed. “I need to dress to Tess impress for the beach party tomorrow!”
“You actually want to go to that stupid thing?” Tara said, exasperated at her friend’s refusal to come to terms with the reality that Tess would never be interested in her.
It was Anna’s turn to level Tara with a look of irritation. “Everyone who’s anyone goes to the annual beach party.”
“What makes you think we count as anyone? We’re tiny. We barely have enough up top to fill an A-cup. With girls like Tess around, do you really think we’re going to even get a second glance?”
“Having girls like Tess around is kinda the whole point!” said Anna, with a mischievous giggle. “Besides, if we don’t go to the only social event we ever get invited to, we’ll never manage to land any dates before we’re out of high school!”
“Well, that may be the point for you, but I’m into guys, remember?”
“Oh yeah,” said Anna absently. “Sucks to be you. If I had a sister who looked like that in my house...” Her eyelashes fluttered, and she made a sound that sounded something like a purring cat attempting to gargle mouthwash.
“Ew!” Tara wrinkled her nose, nudging her friend playfully. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Only on good days,” Anna winked at her, giving Tara a friendly nudge back.
The two girls caught up for hours, Anna filling Tara in on the gossip and events of the previous two weeks, while Tara had been away. When her friend finally left, Tara collapsed into bed, staring at the ceiling. Thoughts of her sister, her friend, and the strange book she’d discovered in the antique bookshop drifted through her fading thoughts as her eyes slowly closed.
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