Public Purchase - Part Eight

Groaning I pull the sweaty boots off with a huff, wriggling my delicate toes as I grumble under my breath at Aurelia's distaste for socks and underwear. Clambering over to the computer I heave my lithe frame up onto the seat, slumping over slightly as I feel my heavy chest hang forward with me.

My eyes shift to the papers, my gaze locking to homework that seemed to be weeks and weeks old at this point.

"Has she not done anything since we..." I grumble, my eyes narrowing as I wonder whether she even looked at this homework since we agreed to the swap. reaching over I snatch the top item from the pile, a series of questions relating to Romeo and Juliet as my eyes begin to dart between my questions.

Despite my poor vision I slowly begin to read the work I would be expected to complete. As I sit down to try and tackle the overdue homework I quickly find myself making short work of it the questions largely just requiring a surface level reading in various texts of English Literature and basic knowledge of historical events. I worry for a moment that the wine slowly seeping into my system would ruin my handwriting, my already terrible scrawling likely to decay to an illegible mess. However, as I lose myself to answering the mind numbing questions I soon find my handwriting shifting to a neat and cursive script with cute loops and flourishes that leave me a giggling mess.

"Did Meredith make her learn..." I chortle, watching in amazement as I draft the fancy yet barely legible text.

Before long I soon exhaust all the humanities subjects in the pile, my delicate hand cramping after writing more about Macbeth and Hamlet in the past hour or two than I had done in the past decade in academia.

Turning to what little remains I let out a long groan, the sight of a quadratic equation causing me to slump over and accidentally bang my head against the table in my drunken state. Kicking my legs as I try to deal with the dull throbbing in my forehead, my foot suddenly tapping a firm canvas bag beneath the desk.

"What..." I whine, rubbing my head as I push the seat back. My hazy haze locks to the beige canvas backpack resting partially crumpled beside my feet and the aging tower PC beneath the desk. Tattered books peek out from the open top, pencil marked and folded corners immediately telling me a restless person must have owned these.

I snag my book around one of the straps, groaning a little as I drag the bag across the hardwood floor and closer towards me. I quick reach down, yelping as I feel my unrestrained chest bounce and hang inside my sundress before quickly pulling out a ratty old math text book.

"Jesus..." I wheeze, slowly flipping through the pages as I find the margins filled with meaningless scribbles and cute little doodles. "She really did have trouble paying attention."

 I slowly make my way through the book, flicking between the substantive content and the examples in the back as I try to remember my high school days all those years ago. Luckily enough I find the content coming back to me with relative ease, a soft sigh escaping my lips as I sag into my seat.

"Guess Meredith was right" I blurt out, my words requiring focus as to not slur my speech. "Guess I have what matters up here" I continue, tapping my temple with the pencil before quickly turning it to the page.

With the assistance of a calculator I slowly begin to work through the remaining homework, the hours passing by in a tipsy blur as I quickly find the sun getting low in the sky and the sound of crickets building beyond my shed of a bedroom. My hand aches as I place down the pencil, cramps running though my fingers as I massage it with my non-dominant hand.

"Ouchie ouchie ouchie..." I squeak, quickly finding myself slipping into Aurelia's cutesy speech patterns.

A loud knocking at the door snaps my out of my focus, my head suddenly pounding and my eyes strained after an afternoon of reading without Aurelia's glasses. I rub at my eyes, wiping away tears as they begin to water.

"Come in" I groan, spinning in the cheap office chair. I barely manage to remember to close my legs in time as Meredith walks in through the door, a smirk spreading across her lips as she eyes up the homework and the large amount of smudged pencil lead on the blade of my palm.

"Well look at you" she chuckles, closing the door behind her as she steps inside the room. She reaches out to an old yellowing light switch on the wall, the room suddenly becoming flooded with light from the singular bulb hanging from the ceiling. "Already cleaning up Aurelia's messes."

I groan loudly as I cover my eyes, the harsh light from above causing my headache to immediately worsen as I find myself also grappling with what was bound to be a hangover in the morning. "Turn it off" I grumble, burying my head into the crook of my elbow in an effort to escape the blinding light.

I hear another click nearby, followed by one more as the light suddenly eases off. Looking over my arm I find Meredith adjusting a bedside reading lap, twisting the head away to face a wall and not shine in my eyes.

"And you learnt a valuable lesson" Meredith states, turning back to face me before slowly approaching. "You. Need. Glasses" she whispers, reaching past me to place down a bowl of spaghetti on the desk which is soon followed by a large pitcher of water.

I look between her and the food, not waiting all too long before snatching up the pitcher and chugging several mouthfuls of water. My whole body eases up, a tension that had gripped me the whole time I had been studying suddenly leaving as I re-hydrate before turning my attention to the room temperature bolognese. I begin to shovel the food into my mouth, twisting the delicious carbs around the fork before cramming it into my maw.

"Sammie brought it home from work for you, but since you seemed so engrossed in your work... well... I convinced her to leave you be" Meredith explains, chuckling nervously as she watches her daughter tear through the cold food like some rabid dog.

"Why?" I blurt out with a face full of food, swallowing hard as I choke a little on a meatball.

"Well..." Meredith begins, pouting as her eyes narrow at me. "Don't talk with your mouthful young lady" she grumbles, causing me to flinch a little before eagerly returning to my dinner. "She would have made you stop. She's not the biggest fan of... structured learning" she explains, rolling her eyes at her partner's distaste for what was in essence her own profession. "If she had come in when she got home you would have been out on a hike, or reading at the cafe, or off to Megan's, or..."

"Just not doing the work" I state, pausing with the fork inches from my face as I speak before cramming more food inside.

"Exactly!" Meredith squeaks, her voice getting high pitched solely out of frustration at what had been the status quo.

I swallow down another mouthful, coughing a little and patting my back as I force more of the meaty sauce down. "So how did you..." I begin to ask, freezing up as the older woman holds up a hand.

"I'm not going to say how in front of my daughter" she states, looking out the window and into the extremely low sunset on the horizon. "But I do have my ways after eighteen years of marriage." she continues, placing a hand on her narrow hips as she cocks them to the side.

 

"Now..." Meredith begins, nodding to the water beside the now empty bowl of food. "Drink up if you want to avoid a damned hangover. I swear to god, don't make me regret letting you have wine."

I quickly pick up the water, drinking a little more as I feel my stomach begin to ache. I nod a little to the stern older woman as she nods back approvingly, her head turning towards the door and then to where the cottage would be beyond the wall beside us.

"Right..." she says with a clap of her hands, reaching over to take the plate back. "Bathroom is near the back door, just off to the side of... Don't worry, you can't miss it" she explains, pointing roughly to where the back door would be. "I will try to cover for you with Sammie in the morning. I mean, after spending the day with me 'getting the new lemon tree' I think she'll be desperate to spend some time with..." she states, pursing her lips in deep thought.

I let out a accidental burp as I place my hand on my once flat belly, swallowing hard as I feel the telltale bulge of a 'food baby' after the massive meal of cafe leftovers.

"Aurelia!" snaps Meredith, the older woman blinking a little as she takes a deep breath. "No... no, less strict... Alright, so Sammie may want to spend the day with you tomorrow."

"But it's a school..." I begin to mumble back sleepily, the full experience of the day finally making itself known as my body rapidly begins to demand rest.

"Night? I am aware dear" Meredith states, cutting me off as she smirks. "I would prefer you attended your classes tomorrow, though I'm sure Megan will fetch your homework... We shouldn't start you off on the wrong foot... But Sammie would be upset if you didn't go with... I mean, she could even notice something is wrong if you chose..." she stammers, blurting out her train of thought and each subsequent track as soon as it enters her head.

She pauses, looking at me and my fluttering eye lids as I slump in my seat, my gaze struggling to remain on the dark-haired woman. She takes the jug from me, carrying it to the bedside table before placing it down beside the bed.

"I'll work it out in the morning" she states, walking back towards the door. "Just follow my lead and try to not make anyone suspicious, okay?"

"Okay..." I say with a sleepy groan, staggering up to my feet with a stretch as wriggle out the kinks and aches from sitting in the cheap office chair for hours upon hours on end. "Thanks mom" I murmur, not even thinking of what I'm saying as the older woman smiles warmly back.

"Night sweetheart" she coos softly, slipping out the door before pulling it closed behind her.

My plans for the day and the night had seemed to fall away, dreams of finishing what I had started on the bus and exploring my new body quickly falling away as I stagger awkwardly to the bed. I quickly fish the heavily damaged phone from the pocket in my leather vest, placing it and the dozen or so alarm clocks programed into it on the bedside table.

Wobbling on my exhausted feet I quickly wriggle free from the best, letting it fall to the floor as I tug the dress up and over my head. I bounce and jump around as I fight to get my thick unwieldy mane of red head thorough the hole at the top, finally collapsing back onto the bed naked as I toss the dress across the room.

I roll and wriggle back into position, my head laying atop a firm and unfamiliar pillow. The single bed feel immense beneath me, the thought that I would never have fit on the damn thing just this morning boggling my tired mind. Glancing down I stare for a moment at my exposed and freckled chest, a sigh escaping my lips as I lazily prod the fatty mounds resting atop it as they try to sag their way off the sides.

"Tomorrow..." I sigh, slapping my hand around beside the bed in search of the light switch. With a click I glide my fingers over the black switch, darkness quickly consuming the room and I whisper once more "Tomorrow."

Despite lacking the time or energy to explore further my body still craved the attention, the limited time on the bus mixing with my highly hormonal form and the heady about of liquor in my system as my dreams quickly find themselves leaning towards to lewd.

I toss and turn in my bed, my unconscious mind slowly being invaded by and warped by the wants and desires of Aurelia's desperate and neglected form.