Edge of Breaking Ch. 01

Paul Robichaux also knew that the fence around the rear yard was to be a ten foot tall fence, comprised of the same material as the house. Through Nicole Banks, her attorney, Gracie had approved the purchase of the lot, the design of the home, even down to the hiring of her business partners, Frugal Decorators to furnish the home.

Holly and Noelle Triche had no idea that the quiet woman that sat in the corner the entire semester last semester was their business partner. The two blonde twins just knew, that after Miss Lopez had given them a polite 'Be' in her Business Opportunities class, a paralegal from Coutre & Associates Law Firm had approached them and had invited them to meet with Nicole Banks.

The slim attorney had smiled, had asked them to present their idea to her, and then had asked them how much money they thought they would need to start.

"I uh, it's right here, in the uh the first page of the proposal, Noelle, the unofficial leader of the twins stammered.

"Yes, I see that. I suppose I should have asked you how much the two of you have to invest in this venture." Nicole smiled.

"I uh, nothing. Took every penny we had move here," Holly spoke up.

"Okay, then," Nicole said. "My client pretty much figured that. My client's proposal is this. My client puts up one hundred percent of turn-key, and first year operating costs, in exchange for seventy five percent ownership of Frugal Decorators. After one year, you can start to buy back shares of Frugal Decorators until you and my client are fifty-fifty co-owners in the business. Agreed?"

Noelle and Holly agreed, and signed the documents. The business was already seeing a profit; overhead was reasonably low.

Gracie had already approved some of the suggestions the twins had emailed to her anonymous email address. Since her father was still in prison, serving a twenty five year sentence for attempting to hire a hit man to kill her and her mother, Gracie used his name and year of birth as her email address.

When Nancy had recognized Gracie's Jeep, Gracie panicked. She had not wanted anyone to know that she was building the home at 417 Cross Circle. She realized now that Nancy had most likely seen Gracie's Jeep parked in front of her home as Gracie parked each evening, checking Robichaux Construction's progress.

Gracie did not want anyone to know that Marcus Whitehead, her maternal grandfather had left her three million dollars in his will. She did not want anyone to know that, through Nicole Banks, Gracie Taylor was the owner of Taylor-Whitehead Recycling in Kimble, Louisiana.

Standing at the Jeep, Gracie imagined she could almost see the building across Highway 54. Through Nicole Banks, Gracie had contracted with St. Ann and St. Elizabeth Parishes, had negotiated placing barrels on the driveway of every home in DeGarde, Baylor Lake, Bender, Kimble, Jack's Creek, Pinoak, Hardington Acres and Flowers. Every day, Monday through Friday, three trucks would roll out of Taylor-Whitehead's parking lot and would run their routes, picking up the recycling from each home.

Most of the citizens didn't know they were putting money out to the curb. Most of the citizens didn't realize that their parishes were paying a subsidy to Taylor-Whitehead to take raw currency from their bins. Most just saw it as a convenience, a convenience and a way to save the environment.

Penny Parish also paid Taylor-Whitehead a subsidy. Taylor-Whitehead transported their papers to the Sweet Gum Paper Mill in Sweet Gum, Louisiana, had an exclusive contract with the paper mill for Taylor-Whitehead's recycled papers.

"Love you, Grandpa," Gracie thought every time she logged on, looked at the different business ventures she either owned or partly owned.

Barney Siegel of Siegel's Recycling tried to sue Taylor-Whitehead. The lawsuit cost Barney nearly ten thousand dollars in legal fees, only to be told that he had no case against Taylor-Whitehead Recycling. No one was forcing the residents to put their recyclable products into the barrels provided by Taylor-Whitehead. No one was coercing the residents of St. Elizabeth or St. Ann Parishes to forego bringing their recyclable goods to Siegel's Recycling for the paltry amount that Siegel's Recycling was willing to pay. The case never even went into a courtroom. But Taylor-Whitehead did offer Barney Siegel some money for his property, for his equipment. Of course, the amount offered was twenty percent of what the property and equipment was actually worth.

"And as soon as we take ownership, we'll transfer St. Elizabeth Parish's pick-up to that facility," Gracie thought.

Gracie drove to her apartment. Even though it was now Sunday, Gracie still checked her mailbox; she'd left yesterday before the mailman had been by. As usual, there were only sales flyers in her box.

A mother was out at the pool, bloated body wedged into a one piece bathing suit. The mother smiled and laughed and clapped for her small boy as the boy splashed in the pool. For a long moment, Gracie stood and watched mother and child.

Gracie unlocked her apartment door and sighed in relief; home again. The apartment was cool, dark, comfortable. She made sure the deadbolt was secured, the safety chain latched, and the door knob's lock twisted firmly. Then Gracie collapsed onto the couch.

"Oh shit! Management!" Gracie squealed and bolted for her bedroom.

She grabbed the Business Management textbook and rapidly flipped to the chapter they were supposed to be studying. Desk lamp on, Gracie did study the material, even though she'd studied it upon arriving home Friday afternoon. She looked at the notes she'd taken in class and checked it against the textbook.

Her last act, before making herself a lunch of salad with diced ham and diced chicken breast was to replenish her pill box.

"I wonder..." Gracie yawned.

She estimated what Eddy and Nancy paid each month, excluding utilities and food. Even with that exclusion, she projected that Eddy and Nancy probably paid close to twenty nine hundred dollars a month.

"And if that mortgage even goes up one point," Gracie said, multiplying the mortgage. "Oh my God, there's no way."

"Ah! Tuition! I know Nancy didn't get a scholarship; she barely got out of Algebra. Tuition. Gas. Insurance; they both have cars..." Gracie estimated. "Oh, Nancy! Girl, you are so screwed."

Even though it was just after noon, Gracie took a shower. Then she dressed in a very sexy baby doll nighty. She pulled her heavy terry cloth robe over herself and checked the front door, that it was locked securely. She checked the front window, checked that the latches were twisted, securely locking the window.

Gracie entered her bedroom and closed and locked the door. The bedroom window was checked; it was securely latched. She even jerked a few times on the window, verifying that it could not be opened. Then she made sure that the curtains were fully closed, that the left curtain overlapped the right curtain.

Then and only then did she shrug out of her robe. In the semi-dark bedroom, she lifted the corner of her comforter and slid into her bed, her own bed, her comfortable bed.

"Aieegh!" Gracie screamed aloud when her phone gave off a chime.

"Hello?" Gracie tremulously answered.

"Hey Gracie, me, Nancy," Nancy said cheerfully. "Eddy's down in his man-cave watching the Saints get beat up by the Texans. Pre-season, but they still got to watch it, huh?"

"Okay?" Gracie asked.

"I'm so glad you spent the night," Nancy enthused into the phone. "I'm being serious. I always thought you were like the most beautiful girl in Kimble; you know I voted for you be our Homecoming Queen?"

"No way! I voted for you! Never could understand how Megan won," Gracie admitted.

"Hmm. Let's see," Nancy said. "Hmm, I can think of two very big reasons she won."

They talked; mostly Nancy talked, Gracie mumbled 'uh huh' a few times. But, Gracie found herself smiling as Nancy bubbled on and on.

"Well, I got a chapter on cardiology study; I'm sure you got a bunch of studying do," Nancy finally said. "When do you think you'll graduate anyway?"

"End of this semester," Gracie said. "I've only got six more credit hours, but I'm taking fifteen hours all the same."

"You. Are. Kidding. Me," Gracie praised. "Wow, Gracie, beauty and brains? Girl, you're the real deal huh?"

"Uh huh, whatever," Gracie giggled.

With an open-ended promise that they'd see each other soon, Nancy and Gracie ended the call. Gracie then returned to her bed. She started to get in, then had to check that the door was still firmly locked, that the window was still securely locked.

In the dark bedroom, Gracie slid open her nightstand drawer. She fumbled around and found the cool plastic tube.

"Oh," she sighed as she twisted the base and heard and felt the powerful motor begin to hum.

"Oh yeah, Nancy, I enjoyed our time together too," she said. "What? Yes, my nipples are sooo super sensitive; think it's because of the big areolae, oh!"

Gracie rubbed the buzzing, humming vibrator over her hard nipples through the clingy material of her nightie. She shivered, eyes tightly shut.

""You like yours pinched too? I thought I was the only one!" Gracie said through gritted teeth.

She unknotted the single tie that held the top closed. The two silky panels fluttered open, causing Gracie to shiver.

She pressed the humming toy to her left nipple and pinched down on her right nipple. She gasped then shuddered for a long moment.

"Damn! Yeah, that always makes me, um, makes me, you know," Gracie murmured.

"Makes me cum," she whispered.

She pressed the humming toy to her right breast, first circling slowly around the half dollar sized areole, coming closer and closer to the hard nipple. Gracie then grabbed her left nipple between thumb and forefinger.

"Oh, please, Nancy, don't. Don't tease me," she begged.

"Oh! God! God yes," Gracie cried out as she shivered in another orgasm.

"Too much, too much, my, God, told you, my nipples are so sensitive. Oh! You want me suck yours?" Gracie gasped out.

She licked, then sucked on the tip of her index finger. Playfully, she bit down on the tip.

"Ah ha, like that, huh?" Gracie giggled, twisting the base of the vibrator, turning it to full speed.

"What? Can, can Eddy join us? Oh Nancy I don't know. I, God, I, promise me. Promise me you won't get jealous okay?" Gracie said as she peeled her sodden panties down her legs.

She clenched her jaws tightly as she trailed the very tip of the vibrator up and down her drooling slit. She shivered, grunted and groaned for a few moments, then steeled herself and drove the vibrator into her pussy.

"Ugh! Oh God! Damn, Eddy, that's, ugh! You're big, know that?" Gracie mumbled as she felt an orgasm welling up in her guts.

She turned and opened her mouth. Eyes tightly shut, she licked out at empty air.

"Yes, Nancy, kiss me... Oh God, oh God, oh yes, oh that's so good," she cried out in orgasm.

Gracie had to pull the vibrator out of her pussy; her stomach was actually beginning to hurt from the powerful orgasm. She panted for a few moments.

"What?" she remembered. "In your, up your butt? In front of Warren? AND Megan? What? Eddy likes my, thinks I got a sexy butt?"

She rolled over onto her right side. Again, she opened her mouth, licked at the empty air. Her right hand pulled at her left buttock. Her left hand slowly trailed the humming vibrator up along the insides of her thighs, closer and closer to her quivering anus.

"Ugh! Oh good God!" Gracie squealed as the buzzing toy made contact with her anus.

Just the tip of the vibrator grazing along the outside of her anus sent an electric jolt through Gracie's body. She jerked from the contact.

Much of her excitement had dribbled down from her pussy, coating her rectum. The vibrator was also slick with her excitement. She managed to worm nearly an inch of the toy into her willing rectum.

"Ugh! Oh God, oh shit, yes!" Gracie screamed into a pillow.

Forcing a second inch into her again brought on another gut-twisting orgasm. Gracie thrashed and bucked on the bed hard enough to drive the headboard into the wall of her bedroom. The loud 'Bang!' caused Gracie to shriek in alarm. The loud bang also killed the sexual mood.

Gracie pulled her wet panties on, knotted the tie of her baby doll top and pulled her terry cloth robe on. She unlocked the door of her bedroom and peered out. Verifying that she was still alone in the apartment, Gracie hid the vibrator behind her back and quickly scampered into the bathroom.

She carefully cleaned the toy in the bathroom sink. After patting it dry, she blushed hotly but smiled at her reflection in the mirror.

"Told you, need put a towel or something behind that headboard, damn it," she chided her reflection, then giggled.

Gracie opened the door of the bathroom, verified that she was still alone in the apartment, then secreted the vibrator in a fold of her robe and scampered to her bedroom. She locked the door, quietly put the vibrator into the drawer, pulled a magazine over the toy and quietly slid the drawer shut again. Then she went through the ritual of making sure that door was locked, that window was securely latched, that the curtain overlapped correctly.

Turning on her bedside lamp, Gracie slid the drawer of her nightstand open again. She pulled the top magazine out and gave a guilty smile. 'Rub' was a magazine published in Oakleaf, Texas. The main focus of Rub was female masturbation and Rub always had young, beautiful, sexy women showing the camera how they liked to touch themselves and one another.

She flipped the magazine open to page 43 and turned to the empty pillow to her right. She pointed to the photo that showed one young woman with an imposing strap on vibrator cinched around her waist, a second young woman kneeling, mouth open, ready to suck on the head of the strap on.

"She, Nancy, I'd have this on, no, no, I'd order, yes, I can order it. I ordered our other vibrator; see, there's all kinds of ads for these things in this magazine," Gracie said to the empty side of the bed.

She flipped to page 44 where the picture showed the first woman tracing the tip of the strap on around the nipple of the other woman's left breast.

"Have it turned way up; yes, I know, we both got real sensitive nips," Gracie said.

"Oh, damn it, I got to..." Gracie moaned suddenly and dug her hand into the front of her panties.

"Ugh! Oh, ugh! Oh God, that, that was a good one," Gracie grunted through her orgasm.

She closed the magazine and quietly put it into the drawer, then slid the drawer shut. She clicked off the light.

"Up your... Good grief, Nancy! You saw how big that thing, yeah, Eddy's is that big, but... Yeah, okay, when I get it, we'll do it up your butt," Gracie said.

"Oh shoot! Meds. God, I hate..." Gracie sighed and got out of bed again.

She took her medication. She then went through the ritual again; door, window, curtain.

Nine thirty that evening, Gracie woke from a deep slumber. She stumbled into the bathroom, turned on the light, made sure no one was lurking behind the shower curtain then sat and used the commode.

Staggering from bathroom to kitchen she made herself a simple dinner of ham and cheese sandwich. Peering through the small pantry, Gracie vowed to get herself some cheese puffs the next time she went to the grocery store.

"Meds, meds, meds. Don't forget your meds," she reminded herself as she stacked the dish and glass into the small dishwasher.

The appliances for her new kitchen were white. The salesgirl at O'Neil's had tried to coerce Gracie toward stainless steel. Thankfully, Lisa, Gracie's mother was with Gracie. Lisa Whitehead tersely told Candy that they wanted white. They wanted white and if Candy didn't feel like selling them the appliances in white, there was always the Home Depot in Elgee.

Seeing Eddy and Nancy's stainless steel refrigerator, with the plethora of fingerprint smudges all over the front convinced Gracie she'd made the right decision. And she'd noticed that just the front of the bulky side by side appliance was actually stainless steel. The sides had been a white pebble grain finish.

Nancy did call Gracie a few more times over the next two months. Each time, Gracie laughed, giggled and gasped while Nancy chattered. They even met one time, at Saladelights, for lunch. Each girl insisted that they'd pay for the other's lunch but, in a rare move, Gracie was assertive, managing to pay for their lunches.

"Oh! Oh, look! See? Got my hair cut, just like yours," Nancy said happily.

And she had. Her thick brown hair touched the tops of her shoulders, was parted on the left, and swooped down to the right.

"Huh! And I'm sitting here thinking you look so cute," Gracie said.

Nancy did look cute. Her top was a slinky material, two spaghetti straps holding up the short light blue sheath. The clingy material hugged Nancy's small breasts, making them appear larger than they were. The hem did not meet the waistband of Nancy's shorts, leaving a small portion of her belly exposed.

Her shorts were indeed short, showing off her tanned legs. When Nancy walked in front of Gracie, Gracie could see the bottom of Nancy's buttocks peeking out.

Just as the landscaping had been completed, just as O'Neil's Furniture & Appliances delivered and installed the sparkling white appliances, just as Frugal Decorators delivered and set up the furniture to 417 Cross Circle, the phone calls stopped.

Gracie hit the number '8' on her cell phone. Her mother had the first and second numbers, her grandmother had the third number, Melanie Leblanc had the fourth and fifth, office and cell, Nicole Banks' office and cell were sixth and seventh, and Gracie's one friend was number '8' on her phone.

Gracie gasped when she heard that the number had been changed or was no longer in service.

But she had mid-term exams to worry about and studied frantically. She had to schedule an additional visit with Dr. Melanie Leblanc because of the stress of mid-term exams.

The night before the hired movers came to her apartment, Gracie put her three magazines into a paper bag, then put that bag into a plastic bag. That was put into another plastic grocery bag and then put into a kitchen garbage bag. The vibrator received the same treatment. Then, after one o'clock in the morning, in a steady downpour, Gracie threw the two garbage bags into the apartment complex's dumpster. Then she worried that she might not have secured the tops of the bags good enough. Supposed the contents spilled out?

Checking the drawer again, Gracie squealed in alarm; the jar of petroleum jelly that she'd been using as lubricant for anal penetration was there. She went through the ritual to dispose of the jar as well.

"Be just my luck, get a cold because of this," Gracie thought as she stood in the rain, tossing the bag into the dumpster, trying to make sure that this third bag did not land in the dumpster anywhere near the first two bags.

Sleep eluded Gracie. Again, she hit the '8' on her phone. Again, she heard the recording. She almost hit '5' to call Dr. Leblanc; she was leaving the familiar comfort of her apartment. Why had she decided she wanted a house? She was perfectly fine in her very own apartment. This was her apartment, her very own apartment.

"Oh no! There's eight windows! Oh my God, and three doors! I, why did I, oh God," Gracie broke down and sobbed.

Lisa Whitehead was there, two cups of Jitters coffee in hand at six thirty that morning.

"Should I have gotten you a double expresso?" Lisa gently asked her daughter.

"Didn't sleep worth a poop," Gracie admitted.

"I figured as much. But Sweetheart? I am just so unbelievably proud of you," Lisa said softly.

"Really?" Gracie asked as she sipped the strong, sweet brew.