Vivian Laaning Ch. 12

Vivian Laaning's final senior year at high school in due course ended. And she could not be happier! She no longer experienced the ordeal of enduring daily insults and mockery from her school mates. And she could not be happier! Her four cows had aged past their productive capability so she no longer had to engage in hand milking chores. And she could not be happier! She was going to move to Madison to live for the first time away from her parents. And she could not be happier!

The dynamics of her relationship with Erin Falconbridge had also changed. No longer Erin's student, Vivian now viewed herself as an equal love partner to Erin. After all they were both university students albeit, Vivian was an undergraduate student whereas Erin was a graduate student. Still they attended the same school: University of Wisconsin at the main campus in the state capital city. And to make their relationship more equal was the fact that there was not that much age disparity between them; Erin was only one year older than Vivian's sister, Erica English.

Erin for her part, also inwardly sensed a dramatic shift in their love affair. Because Lydiaville was such a small town, she was constantly fearful of exposure of their affair and the inevitable unpleasant consequences thereof. It was paradoxically fortunate that Vivian was so detested by her fellow class mates. Being friendless none of her class mates were cognizant of Vivian's constant and conspicuously happy disposition and therefore not suspecting of a close love interest as a determinant of her serenity. They were just too busy in tormenting and bullying her.

Also there was no suspicion of partiality between Erin and Vivian amongst the faculty of the Arthur MacArthur High School. Vivian was be far the most outstanding student at the school easily vastly superior in intellect and in seriousness of purpose than the rest. That made her the favorite student of every one of her teachers as well as the balance of the faculty who had previously taught her. Thus any discerned partiality between the two of them would be chalked up as normal and understandable given the circumstances, and the thought that they may be lovers never entered the mind of any of the teachers.

Of course given the late hour of the night when they did meet for sex and the essentially isolation of Vivian's barn residence rendered detection of their affair hardly possible. Still Erin's was apprehensive of the bromide: 'There's nothing certain in life except death and taxes.' No matter how careful they might be; something unforeseen could occur that would expose their affair, and thereby all hell would break loose.

This subconscious fear had an unsettling edge to their love making. Although all of their sexual congress was as spontaneously joyful and pleasurable occurrences as either could desire, still when they were not in each other's arms, the terror of discovery tended to tamp down their serendipity.

Those fears came to an end when Vivian arrived at Madison. She acquired a basement apartment with her own private entrance to a large house containing four other separate apartments rented out to the university students.

Generally in such a big campus anonymity was so much easier to maintain. One does have acquaintances amongst fellow students but they represent a small fraction to the total student body. And even amongst such acquaintances few of them become close friends. In addition considering the liberal atmosphere of the current big time universities, homosexuality was tolerated and viewed much more favorably than in the general populace; and University of Wisconsin was no exception to such political correctness.

Finally, although sexual relationships between a graduate and an undergraduate student were not necessarily common place, still the same were not condemned. Such were more tolerated than a known relationship between a university professor and his/her student. Perhaps when the student no longer had a class with the professor, thereby invalidating the charge of favoritism such situations would be considered equivalent to Erin-Vivian's affair . Certainly their relationship would not now be censured as it would have been had their high school teacher and student liaison been discovered.

So, once Vivian became acquainted with her fellow tenants who as a matter of course became aware of Erin-Vivian's relationship, no one raised an eyebrow. And when anyone spotted them on campus in a romantic embrace, no one thought anything of it. The extinction of the fear from being discovered in a lesbian affair with possible awful consequences had the happy result of elevating their passion. The freedom to openly acknowledge their love was liberating and they took full advantage.

The sex between them became even more intense and exhilarating as well as more frequent. Erin still traveled from Lydiaville to Madison two week nights to attend her graduate classes and thereafter stay the night with Vivian before returning to Lydiaville in the morning to teach her classes at Arthur MacArthur HS. She curtailed her hours at the Quality Inn and worked only every other weekend; with the other weekends she spent the time with Vivian.

In that fashion they adhered to a usual co-ed college life. They saw some Badger football games; drank at bars frequented by university students and went to various on campus parties. And the sex they engaged in was incredible! All in all their relationship during that academic year was by far the happiest time to date in each of their lives.

Alas as the hackneyed platitude states: 'All good thing must come to an end'. In retrospect two major factors contributed to prevent their love for each other to blossom into a permanent and meaningful relationship. Although each of them had similar career aspirations which helped make themselves more compatible, they differed drastically as how to achieve their end goals.

Erin detested the cold Wisconsin winters and so her ultimate desire was to return to the south. On the other hand those cold winters held no terror for Vivian who knew no other kind of winter. When as a girl she had occasion to go to Chicago on a school field trip, she formed an unshakeable desire to eventually reside in the Windy City. Thus there was no scope for a compromise as to where they wished to mutually settle down.

By far the major road block in forming a lasting relationship was their differing sexual orientation. As Erin had advised, she was a 'gold star' lesbian. She simply had no interest in having sex with a man. None of them, not even the acknowledged consummate desirable male, inspired any romantic interest in her nor aroused her libido or for that matter her soul.

Vivian on the other hand still was interested in cock. In fact she wouldn't want to acknowledge to herself that she was a lesbian. Of course having had sex with her sister and now having engaged in this most desirable, even powerful and torrid love affair with Erin tended to objectively belie such assertion. She therefore had to admit that at the very least she was bi-sexual since she could no longer claim to be exclusively heterosexual.

Although gay marriage had not yet reached legal status, as their time at the University of Wisconsin predated the Obama Presidency, still committed gay couples living in an exclusive arrangement together had become recognized as mainstream and certainly acceptable. So naturally discussions between them of the future centered on the possibility of living together and their different desires of location was always a bone of contention between them.

However the most persuasive argument for Vivian against planning on an exclusive permanent arrangement with Erin was the fact that she would want to eventually become a mother. In her mind having children would be inimical to a lesbian lifestyle.

One day when in a discussion she voiced such objections, only to have Erin protest:

"Just because one is a lesbian does not preclude having children. All kinds of lesbian couples raise children. Why there are a majority of government adoption agencies that will approve of suitable lesbian couples and given our education we sure as hell would be deemed suitable."

"Yes but I would want a natural born child of my body. I would not want to adopt a child."

"But Vivian even some heterosexual couples adopt children especially if one of them or for that matter both of them are unable to conceive for one reason or another. And of course adopted children are just as loveable and are loved."

"Of course I would want to adopt a child if it turns out that I'm unable to conceive. But my preference would be to have a child born of my blood."

"For your information Ms Laaning, I too would eventually want to become a mother, and I too would want a child born from my body. Although as you know I don't intend to ever have sex with a man I would undertake an artificial insemination in order to become pregnant. And even if you would prefer to get pregnant the old fashion way, I love you enough, that I would not stand in the way of you participating in a one night stand or stands with a man or men in order to get to such condition."

To this personal plea, Vivian articulated her main concern:

"But that's my point of heterosexual couples having a child versus a lesbian couple. The child of a heterosexual child is a child of each of them with each of their blood equally contained in the child. But in our situation even if we were impregnated by the same male our respective children would not have the exact same blood. Our children might be half sibs were they to have the same sire but still they would not be full blooded sibs.

"And no matter what good intentions to the contrary we would not look at each other's child as completely our own and therefore we each would treat them differently even if ever so subtlety. It's not like a heterosexual couple trying to quiet their unruly child where the man might say something stupid like: 'can't 'you keep your son quiet!' and the woman would retort: 'he's your child too. So you deal with him!'."

This viewpoint by Vivian inspired Erin to propose a novel rebuttal. She declared:

"Vivian you have a brother and so do I. So if each of us were artificially inseminated and impregnated by our respective brothers our resultant children would be full blooded sibs and therefore the actual children of both of us. My delivered child would obviously have my blood but would have your blood just as well since your brother has the absolute same blood as you. Likewise vice versus the child born of your body will be my blood child as well in such a scenario."

This suggestion was totally unacceptable to Vivian. Whenever in the past Erin had mentioned her brother, her only sib and four years older than Vivian, she described him in less than glowing terms. By such accounts Vivian had the impression he was the stereotypical redneck hillbilly from Appalachia. For that reason, perhaps even as a snobbish rationale, Vivian could not imagine in any way that he would be of any interest to her and this in turn caused her to be horrified by Erin's plan.

However since she did not want to hurt Erin's feelings nor insult her, Vivian diplomatically nixed the possibility by declaring:

"Knowing my brother, I'm fully confident that he would never under any circumstance consent to participate in such a scheme."

That ended this particular discussion and tended to curtail any speculation concerning any plan or plans of future mutual living. The possibility of a future permanent relationship was dramatically quashed when Vivian cheated on Erin. What made matters worse was the fact that Erin discovered Vivian's deceit as soon as possible after the event as Vivian could not be bothered to even attempt to cover up the evidence of her betrayal. Perhaps subconsciously she wanted to be found out.

It happened on a weekend when Erin remained at Lydiaville to work her shifts at the Quality Inn. The other tenants of the house where Vivian resided decided to combine and throw a party that Saturday night. It was a typical college bash where guests were required to bring their own booze (BYOB). The hosts though bought and supplied sufficient alcohol to ensure that the liquor would not run out during the course of the party. There were also a modicum of drugs, chiefly marijuana, but alcohol consisting of hard liquor, wine and beer was the predominant choice of the revelers.

The house was remodeled from its original construction as a single family dwelling for the affluent to provide suitable accommodation for UW students. Vivian had a self contained two bedroom basement apartment, which included a full kitchen and bathroom and had a separate exclusive entrance. The main street door opened into a corridor through the center of the main floor which provided stairs upstairs to the second floor and downstairs to that part of the basement not occupied by Vivian.

On either side of the main floor corridor opened into common rooms, one originally a living room and the other a dining room. For the party the dining table was removed and an impromptu dance floor was made available.

There was a large kitchen and bathroom then located at the back of the house. The kitchen had two refrigerators and a gas range to service all four upstairs apartments. The upstairs tenants were compatible enough that there was never any conflicts concerning the food contained in the two refrigerators.

The second floor contained four apartment suites; each suite consisted of two bedrooms, a small common area and a bathroom. Aside from Vivian's apartment, the basement contained laundry facilities with also an outside entrance to it separate from Vivian's access to her space. Since access to Vivian's apartment was awkward to contain the partygoers it was off limits for the party. Of course she was invited and she accepted without a thought concerning the absence of Erin.

Besides Vivian there were eight inhabitants to the building who were essentially the hosts. Each of those eight dwellers had a coterie of friends and acquaintances independent of the others. As a result there were an overabundance of invited guests which made for a very raucous affair. In other words the party was a blast!

One of the ancillary benefits Vivian acquired from her relationship with Erin was useful information and tips on how to make herself more physically attractive in appearance. Erin in turn acquired such insight from her time with Mary O'Keefe, her first lover. The latter was a well-to-do socialite from Atlanta, GA, who was the quintessential expert in converting an ugly duckling to a graceful swan.

In Erin's case, under Mary's tutelage she transformed herself from a plain country girl to an intriguing, mystifying femme fatale. Albeit she still was not beautiful but by wearing flattering and sensational clothes coupled with accessaries and just the right make-up, she looked desirable. Even though she was a 'gold star' lesbian still the glances she was able to provoke from male onlookers made her smile inside, and boost her self assurance.

In a similar fashion, Erin was able to instruct Vivian into taking greater care in presenting herself to the outside world. Vivian was naturally appealing in appearance but nowhere near as ravishing as her sister, Erica. However under Erin's guidance she no longer betrayed her rustic roots but instead was a head turner amongst males seeing her gamboling about along the college walkways.

For this party Vivian devoted a great deal of time to make herself look very alluring. During the afternoon she saw a hair dresser to cut and style her fiery coppery red hair. To Vivian's delight the professional stylist was extremely skillful and produced a breath taking hairdo that made her look fascinating and enticing at the same time. Vivian giggled and chuckled and clapped her hands as she saw herself in the mirror after the hair stylist was finished with her. She gave a generous tip. She also had a manicure and a pedicure done while at salon.

Vivian knew the party would be very casual; probably most females would be in jeans. However she wanted to stand out and so she picked out her 'zebra dress'. The dress's pattern was simply black and white stripes; vertical from the waist up and horizontal in the skirt of the dress. There was no show of cleavage but it fitted tight enough to inadvertently (or maybe deliberatively) highlight her most beautiful feminine bosom.

The dress was perfect in that it was casual enough to fit in as alternative garb to fashion jeans. But its pattern of stripes was eye catching enough to invite attention. She wore comfortable dressy shoes and a necklace that Erin had gifted her for her nineteenth birthday. She looked good and she knew it. So she looked forward to having a good time with the novelty that for the first time she would be out for a social evening, unaccompanied by Erin.

Vivian arrived at the party not unduly early but not atrociously late either. She immediately helped herself to some drinks. She downed three gin and tonics fairly quickly to achieve a warm buzz to enable her to relax and start enjoying herself. She started to mingle and had brief conversations with each of the host/occupants.

After a few more drinks and Vivian was getting satisfactorily buzzed, she finally got into an interesting conversation with a very strikingly fine good looking man; apparently a close friend of one of the tenants. He was taller than Vivian, a plus in her mind. He had a generous mane of very black dark hair that projected a mysterious captivating romantic look to him. For Vivian he was absolute eye candy and seductive. She was eager to learn more about him. He introduced himself as John Jay Hooker which prompted this response from Vivian:

"Mr Hooker huh? I suppose you were ridiculed and taunted in high school because of your last name. As I've been bullied and taunted myself while in high school I can surely empathize with your misery if that indeed was your experience. But at least you have the solace that you can't help what your name is and thus you would have been unjustly a victim of mockery."

"Well Ms Laaning, that is very kind and thoughtful of you indeed..."

Here Vivian interrupted:

"Please call me Vivian!"

"Well yes Vivian. Now admittedly there were and no doubt there still are some boorish people who do smirk when introduced to me and try to hide their rudeness, but most people are decent. But you Vivian go the extra mile of managing to turn the indelicacy of my last name into a great ice breaker for further conversation."

"Oh my Mr. Hooker..."

And now John interrupted:

"Please call me John, Vivian."

"Okay! Dokey! John Vivian it is."

At this point Vivian started giggling and burst out laughing as she said:

"Oh please forgive me John that is truly lame, but I just couldn't resist. I guess that negates your seemingly first good impression of me?"

John gallantly replied:

"Oh! No! No! Vivian! You are simply beguiling. If you do happen to make a silly observation it can't be adjudged as such. Actually it is understood that a pretty woman such as yourself is incapable of committing such a lapse in social niceties."

Hearing these gracious remarks from John made Vivian's heart melt. At this point just as in the case of Luke Woodbury at her sister's wedding, she made a subconscious decision. She vowed that if she didn't have sex with John that night, it would not be as a result of any reticence on her part. For that reason she became more emboldened in her conversation. So she replied:

"My! My! My! I'm beguiling you say? Your sweet words and compliments are music to my ears. As the cliché goes 'flattery will get you everything you want'."

John playfully replied: