"So, how long had it been when you and Molly finally went back to college, after what had been one hell of a break?" Dave asked curiously.
"It had been roughly a month between Molly's transformation and Eugene Changes conviction," I told him, "and it wasn't a break. Both of us were going through notes on-line and emailing in paper assignments. Which wasn't easy."
"I have no doubt," Dave commented, "So, uh, once you were at college and away from your folks did you...?"
"What? No!" I gasped as I caught on to what Dave was insinuating, "No. Molly was still adjusting to what she was now. Having sex with her would nt have helped... and returning to college presented a series of new and different problems as well as many of the same ones we had been putting up with so far..."
++++++++++++
"Are we there yet?" Molly asked from the backseat, "I'm cramped back here."
"Not yet," I sighed, "sorry... I didn't think letting you lay in the bed of the truck would have been safe."
"I could have stretched out that way," Molly grumbled with a low growl.
I only sighed. The vehicle I had was not the largest of the ones made, and because of her size, Molly didn't fit in the seats the way they were designed to. She had to lay sideways across the seat with her legs and arms tucked up to her. Her tail circled around the the front passenger seat, and I could hear it hitting the seat in a fairly rhythmic beat... sort of like someone impatiently tapping their foot on the ground. If I had been in her position, I probably wouldn't have liked it either.
"Sorry."
"What do you have to be sorry for?" Molly asked, "you weren't the one who designed this painfully small vehicle."
"I don't think they had a tigress in mind when they designed it," I commented.
There was a silence for a moment.
"George?"
"Yes? Do you need a bathroom break?" I asked.
"No," Molly spoke, "You talked at the trial about moving to some rural place... and that got me wondering... do you want to move in with me? That we'd LIVE together?"
"If you think you're going to be rid of me that easy, you have another thing coming," I gave a soft chuckle.
"I'm serious, George," Molly spoke firmly.
"We've been dating for a year, and been friends even longer," I told her, "wouldn't that be the next step? I mean, we'll be graduating in a couple of months... hopefully... and both our parents will expect us to move out."
There was a short silence.
"If this is too fast, let me know," I told her.
"Oh no, it's fine with me," Molly answered, "I guess I'm still struggling with how everyone has been treating me."
"You know I would never treat you that way," I told her.
"Thank you, George," Molly answered.
+++++++++++
"So she agreed to your idea to move here?" Dave asked.
"No, she agreed to the idea to move in together with me," I answered, "My idea to move to a rural area like this one, she didn't fully agree with because the way people had been treating her had not yet pushed her to the point where she truly began to prefer less and less company and made her discomfort at being in large groups more and more obvious."
"I see..." Dave said slowly.
"And the move here, specifically didn't occur until much later as this was where I was able to get a job," I told him, "which was why we moved her specifically."
"Ah yes, patrol officer George Wayne of the County Sheriff's Office," Dave chuckled.
"We're not there yet," I sighed.
++++++++++++
We arrived back at college with a minimum of fanfare as I parked my truck in the parking lot near the dormitory that we lived in. It was a co-ed dorm, but the floors were not. One floor was a male's floor, while the next was a female's floor, and they did have fairly strict rules about having visitors... though not that every student followed them.
That, however, wasn't my concern. I got out of the small truck and opened the door to let Molly out. Because of the way she was positioned, she had to get out on all fours before she could get up. I looked on as she stretched her legs and back and then rising up to stand on her digitigrade legs... towering over me.
"You okay?" I asked.
"About as good as I'll ever be," Molly answered and then turned to begin gathering her things from the bed of the truck.
While she was working with the bed cover that I had for the Ford Ranger, I went over to the passenger side and pulled out a pair of backpacks. One was mine, the other was Molly's. I made sure that my bag was in my right hand and Molly's was in my left hand.
"Okay, load one," I gave a slight quip as we began to take our first load of stuff into the dorms.
Molly shut the top and followed me, carrying her two suitcases. We got to the door when we heard a voice call out to us.
"Hey guys look, the mascot is here!"
I turned to see one of the college's cheerleaders there with a small group of friends. The school's sports season was winding down, and its track and baseball teams didn't need cheerleaders, so that team's freshmen, sophomores, and juniors now had a break until next fall, and seniors were done for good... unless they wanted to go into that job professionally... though neither Molly or I knew how that would work.
"Hello, Heather, girls," Molly said in a low and relatively tolerant voice.
Molly had never been part of their "clique", but it was not like the stereotypical high school situation. The college cheerleaders weren't bullies and got along fairly well with Molly and I... as well as almost everyone else on campus.
"Man, I saw it all on the news!" Heather spoke, "that guy really did a number on you!"
"Yes," Molly nodded, "yes he did."
"You know you really could have been our mascot if this was done earlier," a different cheerleader commented, "you look more like a tiger then the felt suit does."
"I was never into all that "rah rah" stuff," Molly commented.
"Throw the shock-put! I bet you could throw it a mile! Look at those arms! I bet you could bench-press George here one handed!"
"The bench-press is supposed strengthen your pectoral muscles, not your arms," I commented, reciting what I had learned from the fairly modest workout sessions that I had gone through over the years, mostly to keep in shape.
"Details, details," Heather shrugged, "but Rachel is right, Molly. You look buff."
"Uh, thanks," Molly answered, not really sure what to make of that, "but my real goal is to graduate right now."
"Well, we gotta go," Heather commented, "see you guys later!"
I watched them move off with Molly beside me for a moment and then turned to go into our dorm. In the next two months we would have our own troubles and difficulties to put up with. All we could do for now was get ready for them.