Bustin' Out

Someday, she vowed to herself, looking down at her body. But when?

"Couldn't you be decent for us tonight of all nights?" Mother snapped when Laurie arrived dressed but unbound at the dinner table. "All those harlots prancing about out there for Halloween, setting such a horrible example, and you with bigger breasts than any of them!"

Before Laurie could respond in any way, the doorbell rang. Laurie began to stand up, but Mother shrieked "Don't go out there, stupid!" at the top of her lungs while Father got up to attend to the latest group of trick or treaters. "You think we want you flaunting yourself with children?!"

"I'm not out flaunting anything, am I?" Laurie grumbled, helping herself to some mashed potatoes.

"You're flaunting them for your father if no one else, and I don't appreciate that," Mother said.

"Now, hold it right there!" Father snapped, having just retaken his seat. "Just what are you implying about me?"

"There is only one pair of breasts you have any business seeing, and it isn't hers," Mother insisted.

"Good Lord, what sort of pervert do you think I am?! She's my daughter!

"George, you know the way of the world!" Mother replied. "But you're also a man and that means there are some things you'll never appreciate. The fount ties knots that the rock cannot loosen!"

"Not if the fount is the fruit of my own rock, it doesn't!" Father roared back. "For heaven's sake!"

"Oh, you vulgar, disgusting bastard!" Mother jumped up from the table and burst into tears of rage. She trotted across the room and slammed her glass down on the mantelpiece, where it sloshed a bit. "President Santorum was supposed to put a stop to all this!" she roared between sobs. "He understood that a woman's true power is in her ability to give life, and that it must be respected, and that a man simply isn't able to control his prurient instincts when it comes to women's bodies! Laurie, you've got a responsibility in this life! Being a woman is a precious gift, and it must be treasured appropriately. When you give yourself to your husband, you can share the gift of your body with him all you want, but until then, great power brings great responsibility, and you've never shown any willingness to accept that! We've been telling you all your life, you mustn't give any man -- not even your father, in fact especially not him -- any cause for lustful thoughts! And you certainly shouldn't be having any of your own!"

"What on earth makes you think I am, home alone with only the two of you?!" Laurie demanded.

"Because of the way you let your figure slop out all over the place like that!" Mother retorted. "It's abominable! It's vulgar! And your father and I should never have to see it! Why else would you make no effort to keep your breasts under wraps where they belong?"

"Because I like to breathe normally in my own home!" Now Laurie felt herself about to cry as well.

"Don't you dare make this about yourself, dear!" Mother roared. "I raised you to understand a woman's place, and yet you've got to go out there and act like a man every day, working in a ghastly office when you should be settling down with a family and raising them to the light, like I tried to do with you and your brother -- at least I got it right once out of twice!" She paused to genuflect at the photograph on the mantelpiece of Laurie's brother, Frank, in his military regalia, and went on. "That's bad enough, but then you've got to dress like a slut in our own home on top of that?! In the presence of your father?"

"Mother, do you have any idea how uncomfortable that binding is for me?" Laurie retorted. "Father and Frank certainly wouldn't know, and really neither do you, but you would at least have some idea!" She cupped her breasts unapologetically in her hands. "Look at me! How would you like having these smashed into your lungs all day long?! Damned if I'm going to put up with that in my own home as well!"

"It's MY home!" Mother roared. "I'm a decent, God-fearing lady, and I've got standards! Besides, it's Halloween! But you think it's just dandy if the trick or treaters see you unbound?!"

"Then they might appreciate what women like me have to live with all day long?" Laurie suggested. "Pardon me if I don't think that's a bad thing!"

"You're a disgrace to our family and to our sex, Laurie! I've had it with you!" Now crying uncontrollably, she stormed out of the room and up the stairs.

"Congratulations, Laurie," Father said. "She's your mother, it wouldn't kill you to humor her." Without another word, he got up and followed her up the stairs.

Laurie sat back down and ate her dinner. She saw no reason to even pretend she felt any remorse. Her only regret was that there was no one to witness her vindication when three more groups of trick or treaters came to the door and none of the kids paid any mind to her breasts.

Putting on her binding in the morning was never easy, and many had been the day Laurie was quite sure was the hardest yet. The following morning was yet another of those. Defying Mother so openly had been damn refreshing, and to once again sentence herself to all those hours of discomfort after all that broke her heart. But there was nothing to be done about it just now, she reminded herself as she enjoyed one last deep breath and exhaled it slowly while she laced up the binding. Slowly, painfully, she pulled the strings tight and watched in the mirror as her curves disappeared into legal androgyny. The first shallow breath was always the hardest, and with that out of the way she had just enough resolve to put on her blouse and face the day.

In the nasty excitement last night, though, Laurie had forgotten it was Halloween.

She was promptly disabused of that oversight on the transporter into downtown. Even at that early hour, licensed costumed women were out and about everywhere, waving at the men on the transporter and teasing them. Worst of all, there were a few on the transporter, with armed guards standing at the edge of the female-only section so that the men could look but not touch. The women, of course, were free to mingle among them; but few did. Laurie noted most of the other bound women were doing just what she felt like doing: giving the Flirts dirty looks and trying not to stare enviously at their liberated breasts.

Laurie did her best to pay them no mind. But one other woman was less reticent. "Bunch of sluts," she hissed under her breath.

"That's 'sluts who can breathe normally' to you," shot back one of the Flirts. "You're just jealous."

"Why wouldn't she be, though?" asked another Flirt. "Don't you remember the bad old days before you got your license?"

"Nothing stopping them all from doing the same," said the first one.

Laurie had had enough. "Oh yes there is!" she snapped at them both. "Don't you remember the size limit?! Some of us are over it!"

Both Flirts gawked at Laurie's flattened chest in sympathy. "Oh, my," said one of them. "I'm -- I'm sorry, and how on earth can you breathe if you're that big?"

"I feel sorry for you," said the other, "But that's still no excuse for calling us sluts."

"I didn't, did I?" Laurie reminded her.

"I did!" said the woman who had started it all. "And I'm not the least bit sorry for it. The fount ties knots that the rock cannot loosen, and sluts like you are only tying them tighter!"

The transporter pulled to a stop outside Laurie's building just then, much to her relief as she suspected a riot was in the making. She was nearly in tears of vexation as she stepped out into the October morning, but at least she wouldn't have to look at the Flirts up close again until that night.

But then what?

Laurie found the question weighing heavily on her mind as she got in line to go through the women's entrance to the building. (All public buildings had been quasi-segregated under the Libido Control Act, and the women's entrance was less conveniently located on the side of the building and understaffed, meaning longer lines at security every morning; but everyone agreed it was for the ladies' own good that now men couldn't harass them in line.) She'd been struggling to ignore that question -- then what? What next? -- all her adult life, and she had never come up with a satisfactory answer. Today that answer seemed more elusive than ever: if she made it through Halloween with her sanity intact, it was a precious few weeks to the Christmas season, where the Flirts would be out in their cute elf and reindeer costumes, and then just another month and a half to Valentine's Day, when...Laurie couldn't even bring herself to summon up that image just then.

It was the security guards who proved to be the last straw. As Laurie drew near the head of the line, she heard one of the pair telling the other, "I don't see what the big deal is with the Flirts."

"Me neither," said the other. "I mean, the ladies should be grateful! With the Flirts all over the place, who's going to bother with a bound woman?"

"It's for their own good," agreed the first one.

That, Laurie resolved, does it. As she flashed her badge and kept her poker face while being scanned and allowed into the building, she knew what had to be done. She had no idea what would happen to her as a result, but she had at last reached the point where she didn't care.

Up she went in the elevator, excruciatingly aware of her binding as she always was when she had to stand still in an enclosed space, but all the more so now that she knew one way or another, this was it for the binding! As soon as the doors opened, she bounded out and turned left instead of right, to the ladies' room instead of the office.

She almost locked herself in a stall before getting down to business, but decided it would be even better to have an audience with any other woman who happened inside. Maybe Laurie would even be able to enlist a partner in crime that way. She set her briefcase on the sink and took off her blazer, hanging it on the nearest stall door, and unbuttoned her blouse. Once it was off, she ripped off the binding in the most unceremonious, cathartic manner she could muster. The well-made garment did not tear as she had always imagined -- no doubt the manufacturers had taken into consideration what most women would think of the damn thing -- but Laurie didn't care. She pulled off the hated binding and threw it against the wall, and pulled her blouse and blazer back on over her gloriously free breasts. Not willing to leave it at that, she fished a box of matches out of her briefcase, a souvenir of a recent visit to a bar now that smoking was once again legal there, and set the binding in a dry sink. She lit a match and tossed it onto the binding, where it soon caught and burned a tiny hole that quickly grew large.

Laurie watched and enjoyed the sight for a few minutes. Then, enjoying a deep breath in public for the first time in her adult life and then some, she opened the ladies' room door and strode fearlessly down the hall toward her office.

She only passed one person in the hallway, a man whom she didn't know, but she could see from the look on his face that he could see she was unbound and that he feared for her. "Don't worry," she told him with a grin. "It's my problem, not yours."

"Uh...okay!" he said, and rushed off down the hall.

Laurie hoped that creep Lawrence might be present when she came into the office. And she wasn't disappointed; he was chatting up the receptionist, Annette, who of course was bound. "Morning, Laurie," he said, barely looking up at first, when she entered. Then, a double take and a gasp. "Laurie! Didn't you forget something?"

"Nope," Laurie said. "If you don't like it, don't gawk at my breasts. I'd rather you didn't anyway."

"What's up?" asked Eddie, the cute intern Laurie had been privately admiring for weeks - his gaze was welcome, but Laurie kept her poker face as she drank in his admiration.

"You can see what's up!" Lawrence snapped. "Laurie's unbound! In public! You can't do that, Laurie, you're not licensed. With those tits, you can't even be licensed! What the hell are you thinking?!"

Lawrence's caterwauling brought most of the office to the front room, and soon there were half a dozen women eyeing Laurie enviously and eight men -- all except Eddie -- sharing Lawrence's outrage. "Geez, Laurie, I know we gave you a hard time last night, but rules are rules!" Jordan intoned.

"Yeah, where's your respect?" Demanded Josh the accountant.

"I can't work with those on display," grumbled Jim the office manager.

"Since when do you work that hard anyway?" asked Alicia, Jim's understudy, whipping around to look at him. "And how are Laurie's breasts putting a stop to you doing your job?"

"Yeah, Jim!" snapped Annette, who without another word stood up and reached under her blouse and undid her binding. In no time it was on the floor and she was free like Laurie, who beamed in solidarity with her.

"Isn't that a relief, Annette?" she asked.

"Maybe for you!" snapped Jordan. "But what about us? The fount ties knots that the rock cannot loosen!"

Laurie had been asking herself all her life, and at long last she asked the question out loud. "What in hell does that even mean?!"

"It means you ladies have a responsibility to dress presentably!" Lawrence said. "You know that!"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with founts and rocks?" Laurie demanded.

"The men get it," Josh piped up.

"Speak for yourself, Josh!" Eddie snapped, stepping up fearlessly to look the older man in the eye. "I don't get it either! I never got it, and I've never understood why anyone thinks we men can't control ourselves! Why do we need the government forcing women to look more like men at all costs? It isn't fair! It's never been fair!"

"You snotty little bastard, you watch your mouth!" Josh roared, grabbing Eddie's coat lapels. "I ought to..."

"You ought to pick on someone your own size!" Laurie said, pulling them apart and taking Eddie's spot before Josh.

"Out of my way, bitch" Josh said, and with that he punched Laurie in the jaw, sending her sprawling on the floor. With her out of the way, he lunged at Eddie. "See what you made me do?!" he demanded as he chased Eddie around the office. "You want respect from men, you wear your damn binding!"

"Now, look here," Lawrence said, jumping up on Annette's desk while several of the others struggled to keep Josh and Eddie apart and Laurie rubbed the spot where Josh had hit her. "We're not getting anywhere beating up on one another. Let's all take a step back -- "

"Screw your steps back, Lawrence!" Annette snapped from behind him. "It's time we stepped forward instead of back! And Josh, shame on you getting violent over this!"

But no one was paying attention to her or to Lawrence. Amidst the scuffle between Josh and Eddie, two more of the women had torn their bindings off and the entire room had dissolved into anarchy. Jordan proclaimed that he had called the police, but even that did not bring the situation under control. It did, however, catch Laurie's attention. Sufficiently recovered from the blow, she got back on her feet and pulled Eddie away from the clutch of colleagues trying to keep him apart from Josh. "Come on, we've got to get out of here," she hissed in his ear.

Eddie was too caught up in the excitement of the moment to make any sense of what she had said until they were out in the hall and she was directing him to the stairwell. "Laurie, I'm so sorry he hit you!" he finally said. "I never imagined he'd do that, I swear!"

"It's not your fault, Eddie, and thank you for taking our side!" Laurie said, ushering him into the stairwell. "Come on, the cops are coming! We've got to get out of here!"

"Why'd you save me?" Eddie asked.

"I should've tried to save all the women along with you, I know," Laurie admitted as they rushed down the stairs, actually enjoying the discomfort of her jiggling breasts -- at least they weren't bound. "But there wasn't time, and I was touched that a man stood up with us. You said just what I've always wanted to say about that stupid proverb. Thank you."

"I have always wondered just what it really meant," Eddie said. "I still don't get it."

"I think that's the whole idea," Laurie said. "If anyone ever really questioned it out in the open like we just did, the whole silly house of cards would come crashing down. Let's hope that's going to happen now."

"Cool," Eddie said with a romantic flair. "We're revolutionaries."

"Yes, and we're probably wanted by the law for it already," Laurie said. As they were now only one flight of stairs above the ground level, she paused on the landing. "How do we get away from the police?"

"Join the Halloween parade?" Eddie suggested.

He laughed to show he meant it as a joke, but Laurie turned to him and grinned. "You're a genius, Eddie. It is coming right by this building!" With that she unbuttoned her blouse, welcoming Eddie's shocked admiration as she did it, and even gave him a moment to admire her bare breasts. "Go ahead and enjoy the view," she said, rolling her blouse into a sort of tube top. "I'm enjoying having them out for a change."

"I'll bet," Eddie said. "But, what..."

His voice trailed away as he watched Laurie tie the blouse around her bosom, covering it but leaving no doubt that it was unbound. She then bent over and rolled her pants up as far as she could, so they resembled capri pants. "Now," she said, "Take your shirt off and put your coat and tie back on with out it. You'll look like my pimp."

"I will?"

"It'll have to do!"

Eddie saw no alternative, and did what he was told, grinning shyly as Laurie admired him as he had just admired her. "You have a lovely body, you know," she told him.

"Thanks," he said. "You're the first woman to see it, so that means a lot."

"Tsk, such a shame that no one has had a chance to stroke that lovely chest," Laurie said. "If we get away, I hope you'll allow me."

"Allow you!" Eddie gasped, putting his coat back on. "Of course I'll...but where are we going to go, anyway?"

"We'll cross that bridge when it collapses," Laurie quipped. Then, several floors above, she heard a door open and a whistle blow. "Come on!" she hissed under her breath, and she took his hand and they rushed down the last flight of stairs.

She had, of course, taken the women's fire escape, which opened into the alley -- less convenient, but more private at a time like this. Despite the flash and wail of police sirens at the front of the building, they were able to escape undetected thanks to President Santorum's long-ago dictum that women were not to serve in such traditionally male pursuits as the police force, meaning no officer was allowed into the vicinity of the women's exit. Hand in hand, Laurie and Eddie ran down to the side street and up the way to the parade route, where spectators were lining the street.

Owing to their bizarre dress, they were allowed out into the street, where to all spectators they looked like paraders gone rogue. They even received a round of cheers as they stepped into a clutch of women in racy dance costumes, and quickly they blended in with their own impromptu dance steps as they made their way up the block.

Word didn't filter down from their office in time for the police to reach the parade route until they had made it three blocks up the street. The crowd of spectators was thick as ever when Laurie spotted a police car parked in the next cross street, and its driver struggling to make his way through the crowd to look for her and Eddie. The car stood nearly half a block back, its lights still flashing and its driver's side door wide open. Laurie saw her chance and grabbed Eddie's hand. "Don't say anything until we're in the car!" she whispered as they leapt out of line and into the crowd, where a number of men shamelessly grabbed at her breasts and several other men pulled them back and even smacked them for their impropriety. The ensuing scuffle caught the cop's attention, and his order to everyone to knock it off scared the crowd straight, enabling Laurie and Eddie to duck down and escape into the sparser part of the crowd undetected.