52-CONTEMPORARY TV FICTION

"HURT?" his Mom squealed. "Oh dear, what happened!" "Honestly, Mother, I'm fine...really," Wayne insisted. "A baseball hit me, but Ron's been super...a real friend!" "My precious darling!" she doted. "What a terrible BRUISE!"

It was getting TOO bizarre for me. But as I was about to leave, I felt a hard tug at my pants pocket.

go,

"Don't Ron!" Wayne cried, his doe-like desperately. "At least not until we say goodbye." "Goodbye! Call me tomorrow...

"Tomorrow's too LATE! I'll be gone."

"GONE! WHERE?"

eyes pleading

"Ron, you don't know?" Rachel baited. "Wayne's leaving town. Tomorrow morning he's off to Europe and..."

"EUROPE!" I howled. "But why...how?"

Curling against his mother, Wayne shamefully buried his face to her bosom. "Tell him, dear," Mrs. Carr encouraged. "After all, Ron's your best friend."

Several false starts later, he finally spit it out. "Rita's starting my career abroad. She says my look's all the rage in Paris. I should of told you sooner, but..."

39

I felt so deceived, yet didn't know why. Nonetheless, all his changes aside, Wayne's leaving really pissed me off. "It's only for nine months."

Wayne's eternal optimism warmed my chilled heart. "Sure, pal," I smiled. See you then!" Yet, gazing at his willowy femininity made me worry that it was easier said than done!

Returning home that evening, Wayne's predicament left a heavy load on my mind. Awake in bed, I wondered about him, his future and the shape he'd eventually be in when he got back!

Not sleeping a wink, I rolled out of bed at dawn. I had promised Wayne to see him off that morning. Yet, as the time of his departure approached, I anxiously procrastinated.

Once I was finally dressed, I gazed out my bedroom window. Just then, I saw Rachel walk out her front door.

About to head over to the Carr's house, I took one more glance across the street. What I saw froze me in place!

Wayne's pale yellow suit molded to his lithe, feminized figure like a second skin. Its conservative, jeweled neck top hid his smallish bust line, yet the ultra short skirt showed his long,

BOSOM BUDDY -53 shapely, nylon clad legs, perched atop matching four inch pumps!

Gliding down the porch steps, he stopped. It seemed Rachel made some terse remark because he instantly thrust his slender arms to his rounded hips, sourly pursing his full, peachy glossed lips.

I couldn't believe what had happened to my pal. The picture of femininity had become far TOO perfect to have ever been male!

His creamy white polished fingernails glistened in the morning sun. Scanning the street, his richly mascaraed eyes widened as he daintily patted stray tendrils of endlessly long brunette hair.

Cowering behind my window shade, I lost all my nerve. The Wayne Carr I knew was gone. It was best he forget about me, too.

Life goes on...Within a week, I too had left town, off to Wettington University.

As my coach predicted, I became a football STAR! My grades were great and so were the babes! College was GOOD! Yet, in a new school, with new friends in a new town, my guilt for letting Wayne down lingered. Blazed in my mind was his hurtful pout as his Mom drove him past my house.

On a Wednesday in September, I returned to my dorm after a late class. Opening my mail box, I found an air mail letter. "Fancy envelope!" my roommate, Matt Taylor, brayed, sneaking up from behind me. "Who's it from?""

"Got me. No return address. Wait, the stamp's from..." "FRANCE! Smell that PERFUME. Ron, you dirty dog, who's your French squeeze? Come on, 'fess up!"

I knew EXACTLY who wrote me. But Matt Taylor, our team's six foot, six inch, 280 pound defensive end, couldn't know too!

"Just a friend."

"RIGHT!" he knowingly winked, walking away. "Don't strain your eyes!"

With Matt out of sight, I made doubly sure I was alone. Then I opened the envelope.

The spicy aroma overwhelmed my nostrils. But I was relieved to read only of Wayne's adventures in France.