Or maybe he can persuade Ellie to let him try hers?

Or maybe he can persuade Ellie to let him try hers?

Having him wear a set of her other leg braces could be an interesting touch to the story. I'd look forward to seeing what direction the story goes in.

Chapter 7


"So, do you?" I asked.

"Do I what?" she replied.

"Do you still have a crush on me?". Her smile became even larger, and I could see not only the 'loops' of her labial wires, I could also see a couple of the adams clasps on her molars.

"In a way.... I think I do. I guess I've occasionally thought about the timeth we spent together when you were vithiting us, I liked it when you came and stayed, and you chatted with me. Ith it a problem?"

"Not unless you make it one. You've grown up a lot since then... you seem to be a LOT more self-confident."

"I think getting away from the kids at thchool, and going off to uni, where people weren't nasty about this was the start of it..." she tapped her leg brace.

"Yeah, I remembered you said you suffered quite a bit at school."

"Oh, some of those kids were absolute dickth! I think adults tend to be a lot more underthtanding of issues like leg braces."

"I remember the one that you used to have, it had quite chunky metal shafts".

"Yeah it did, didn't it? I've had a couple of braces since then, I got this one about 18 months ago, it's so much more comfortable!"

"I'm guessing from the black that it's made of carbon fibre: that must make it a lot lighter."

"Oh, yes, it doeth, that's a big part of why it's so much nither to wear. And that old metal one was fixed to my shoes, these once since have had a moulded foot-plate, tho I can wear pretty much any shoes. Well, ok, high-heelth are probably out...". All the time she spoke, she spoke with a slight lisp, caused by her retainers: I guessed that she'd not had them long.

"It doesn't look like the velcro straps have improved a lot though."

"No, but the padding underneath is better. I think it's a bit like having glasses, you don't really notice after a while." Her comment about glasses made me think: she used to have glasses as a teen.

"Hey, thinking about glasses, you used to sometimes wear glasses, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I thtarted wearing contacts when I went to uni, probably one of the better things I did. I still have some glasses, sometimes my eyeth feel tired and itchy, so I'll need to wear them for the day."

I took a deep breath. Whilst thinking about her leg brace and the fact that she used to wear glasses were pleasant, there was something else I much preferred to talk about. "So... your braces - when did you get those?"

Ellie looks a bit confused, then she realised what I was talking about. "Oh, THESE bratheth!" she said, pointing at her mouth.

"Yeah. I always thought your teeth looked ok, and I never remember seeing you with braces as a teen." It felt so good to be talking about her PROPER braces!

"Well, I wouldn't say they were completely perfect as a teen, but they were certainly good enough to not need NHS braces. These are retainers, they don't move your teeth, they hold them in place... I got these last week. Before that I had metal bracketth for about 18 months."

"So what was the problem with your teeth then?"

"Well, whilst they were pretty straight, they were a little twisted, these top front ones were pretty much flat across, rather than being at the slight angle like they are now."

"I bet you looked cute when you had the braces." I said. Of course she smiled, and then got out her phone. She spent a moment looking through her pictures, then found one which she showed me: in the picture she had a lovely set of shiny metal brackets on her teeth. Not huge, but not small either... and definitely VERY cute. I smiled when I saw the picture. "Yup, definitely cute!" I said, looking up at her face, her mouth, taking another look at her retainers.

"You..... you actually LIKE my bratheth, don't you?" Oops... I had just been found out! I took a deep breath... an extra large deep breath. It was no use denying it. I liked Ellie, I'd always had a soft spot for her. There was a definite possibility that I'd like to get to know Ellie better, maybe even date her - heck, she was old enough now! So it was no use trying to lie to her.

"I've never actually told anyone this before... but, well, I think I can trust you. I errr.... I find girls with braces to be.... attractive....". You would not believe how hard it was to admit to that! Ellie looked at me, clearly a little confused.

"In what way?" she asked. I thought quickly - at least she hadn't called me a 'weirdo' or anything like that!

"Well.... erm... imagine you had big boobs..." I started. Ellie in fact had quite small boobs - very attractive boobs that suited her body well, I hasten to add. "Some guys might find that to be very attractive. Or maybe it's really long legs. Or a big nose, or a small nose.... or sticky-out ears. Or even glasses. For me it's braces, girls with braces....".

Ellie smiled. "Oh, ok.... a bit strange, but ok. Tho I'm guessing you like it when I thmile like this then...". She smile so gorgeously at me. "How about if I do this?", and she ran her tongue very sexily over her upper labial wire and teeth.

"Yes, that is definitely rather nice..." I replied. Ellie was clearly happy that she had discovered that she had something that I liked.

"Sounds to me like YOU are the one with a crush on ME! So what made you like girls with braces then?"

"I have no idea - I mean, ask a guy who likes girls with big boobs why he likes them!"

"Ok... yeah.... so when did it start then?". It's odd, if anyone else had asked me such questions, I would have felt very nervous, but I guess I knew Ellie well enough to feel relaxed with her.

"I think it was at school, when other kids started to get braces."

"So you never needed braces then, I'm assuming?"

"Sadly not....". All the time I could not stop looking at her mouth. Her teeth were lovely and white, and neither too big nor to small, but just right for her mouth. They were, of course, very straight, and in a lovely arch. And held in place by a lovely shiny metal wire.

"Something tells me that you might like a proper look at my retainers, wouldn't you...". I didn't need to answer, the big smile on my face said it all. She opened her mouth wide, and put her head down, letting me see her lower retainer, made of that slightly pink clear plastic, with a pair of adams clasps over her front molars, and the labial wire coming out behind her canines. Then she lifted her head back, letting me see the large plate of her upper retainer: it was the same clear red, again with a pair of adams clasps, and was one of those that went completely over the roof of her mouth, rather than one of the more normal U-shaped ones. I don't need to tell you guys that by now my heart was beating stupidly fast. Whilst I had seen MANY pictures of retainers, and girls with retainers, I'd never actually been this close, this intimate, with a girl who actually had retainers.

Of course, what I would REALLY have liked to do was to kiss her. Run my tongue over her teeth and feel that lovely wire that held her teeth firmly in place, Push my tongue inside her mouth, and feel the lovely smooth plastic of her plates. In other circumstances, I might have gone for it, but today was NOT the time to even think of doing so.

"Very nice" I said, making a massive understatement: the reality was that they were absolutely gorgeous! "I'm guessing you have to wear them full-time for the moment.... I  bet they feel very different to the braces."

"Yes, full time for three monthth... and yes, they are so different: instead of hurting my cheeks, I jutht have trouble talking! I'm just about able to drink ok with them in. At least I can brush my teeth easily again."

"Tried eating with them in yet?"

"No, you're supposed to take them out to eat..."

"Yes, I know you're SUPPOSED to, doesn't mean you HAVE to..." I said with a smile. I finished off my coffee, and Ellie finished off hers too.

"Well, probably time to get me back home...."

"Of course...." I took Ellie's hand and helped her stand up again, and we walked slowly back to my car. "So, would you like to get together again sometime? Maybe I can take you out for a drink, or maybe even dinner?"

Ellie looked at me as we walked. "Yes, I'd like that. Give me a call in a couple of days, once all this stuff has quietened down, and life is getting back to some sort of normal."

I drove her back to her parents, where she lived. "You're welcome to come in..." she suggested.

"No, I should get back, besides, you guys need some 'family time'." I leaned over to her, and gave her a friendly kiss on her cheek. To be honest, I would MUCH preferred to kiss her on the lips, and let my tongue push into her mouth, to let me feel those lovely retainers, but now wasn't the time to be forcing myself on her.

Chapter 8


I had gone to see my parents on the Sunday, the day after the funeral, and had lunch with them. I was still feeling a bit 'down', thinking about Simon, when my phone vibrated, telling me I had a new text.

"Hey there! Fancy taking me out for a drink at The Falcon some time this week then?". It was from Angela... golden braces girl. Ok, so she's not a 'girl' any more, she's about my age, but you know what I mean. Whilst I could have texted her back, I decided it would be easier - and nicer - to just call her, and arrange things. I walked out to the garden, where I could have a little privacy.

"Hiya" said a relatively cheerful voice, answering the phone.

"Good afternoon to you... and how are you today?" I asked.

"Still a bit down after yesterday, to be honest. So, what you doing?"

"I'm around at my parent's, just had Sunday lunch with them."

"No way! I'm at my mum and dad's, we just had Sunday lunch too! So, you up for going to the pub sometime? I could do with seeing a happy face!"

"I'd better try and cheer up by then, I'm feeling a bit like you right now, although the thought of seeing you is cheering me up a bit"

"Only 'a bit'?" she asked - I could hear the smile in her voice. We chatted for a few minutes: she seemed quite relaxed as we chatted, and she told me that she only lived a 3 minute walk from the pub, so why not go around to her place, and we could walk around to the pub together.

I suggested Wednesday, but she said she was busy, so we agreed on Thursday. She gave me her address, and I agreed to arrive at her place at 8pm.

Back home a few hours later, I ran up the street view, to see where she lived: it looked like it was a modernised terraced house. Next I started looking at her YT videos: I had a few reasons for doing so. First, I just wanted to find about a bit about her. Second, I wanted to see when she got her braces... and for that matter, see if she made any specific braces videos! And last, but by no means least, I wanted to look at her braces!

So, it seems that she actually had three YT channels: two had quite a small number of subscribers, and were quite specialised, the third was her main one, with the multi-million subscribers. I searched her vids for 'braces: there was one video on her main channel, and another 3 on one of the smaller channels - of course, I watched them all. The one on the main channel was quite simple, just explaining that she might look a bit different, as she'd just got braces - that video was dated 6 months ago. The other 3 videos were a bit more detailed (although, to be honest, pretty tame for us 'devotees'), but I could see that she had a bit of a crowding problem, had got 2 upper premolars removed, and it was clear that her top teeth were moving nicely into position. In the latest video, from a few weeks ago, she explained that she was now wearing elastics, to help move the teeth. As she had held her lips back, to show the videos, I spotted that she had upper molar bands with tubes on them: was that just 'standard molar bands', or did she actually wear a headgear? I could always hope....

I watched some of her more recent videos, and it was clear why she'd gone with the golden look: she was showing off her smile at every possible moment! And as for whether she was naturally blonde: it seemed that she was, although she did historically go dark for a while.

Chapter 10


I had found an Italian bistro not far from where Ellie lived: it had good reviews, and from what I read online, it wasn't stupidly expensive. Ok, I can't afford 'stupidly expensive', but I don't mind paying a bit more than average if the food and service is also better than average. Besides, you don't want to take a girl on your first date to some dodgy cheap place, do you? I had a table booked for 7:40.

And a quick search had indicated there was a pub not far up the road: it's reviews weren't quite so flattering, but we weren't planning on staying there for long, so it was less of an issue.

I had called Ellie back, and arranged to pick her up at 6:45. When I got there, she was ready. I remembered back, and remembered that was one thing Ellie was always good about: being ready on time.

"Have a nice evening, love!" called her mum as she closed the door, then slowly got into my car, needing to sit down, then unlock the knee joint of the leg brace on her left leg, which let her then lift her leg into my car, and finally close the door. She looked over at me, and smiled, once again letting me see the wires of her retainers across her teeth. I was worried that maybe she would just leave her retainers out for the evening, knowing that she was going to be eating... but luckily for me, she was being a good patient, and wearing them.

"Hiya!" I said, smiling back at her.

"It's actually been a while since I've been out on a date..." explained Ellie. To be honest, it had been a while since I had been out on a date too, but I didn't say anything.

"Well, I just hope the evening lives up to your expectations!" I replied

"I'm sure it will," she said, looking at me with a rather nice look on her face... one that seemed to say 'I'm looking forward to tonight... whatever happens'.
 
The pub turned out to be pretty ok: being midweek, it was fairly quiet, and plenty of places to sit. We both had a half pint of the local real ale, which tasted really good. After that, it was a short walk to the bistro: again, it was pretty quiet, but not actually dead. The decor was fresh and had a nice Italian feel to it.

"Do you like Dough Balls?" I asked Ellie, after we'd looked at the menu for a couple of minutes.

"Oh yeth! And how about some Oliveth too?". As I listened to Ellie speak, I could tell that her lisp was much softer than it had been just 4 days ago.

"So what do you fancy for your main then? Pizza, or pasta?". Ellie went for the Salmon Tagliatelle with spinach, I chose the chicken / cheese / mushroom Penne, and we both had a salad side.

I was looking forward to seeing how Ellie dealt with having to remove her retainers when the food arrived, which was only a few minutes later. Luckily, there wasn't anyone else sitting too close, so she simply took out and opened a pink retainer case from her shoulder bag, then discretely removed first her top retainer, then her bottom one, putting them both into the retainer case. They were both made of that lovely pink clear plastic, and looked lovely: I was quite jealous that she wore them. After letting me look at them for a few seconds, she closed the lid, then put the case back into her bag.

For the first time, I saw Ellie's teeth without her retainers: they looked quite beautiful, and actually quite similar to how I remember her teeth when she was a teen. 

"Your teeth look really nice!" I commented.

"I bet you prefer them with the retainers on, don't you?" she said with a very cute smile.

Over the next hour or so, we chatted about this and that. She told me about her time at university, how much nicer it was than her time at school. It soon became clear to me that this was very much the same Ellie I had got to know as a teenager, but with so much anger removed: she was now able to enjoy life.

"I'm rather hoping I'll be able to afford to leave home soon, maybe share a house or similar. Living at home is cheap, but it's a bit restricting, especially as far as boyfriends go!" she said. I had explained that I rented a small house with a guy I got on pretty well with.

The evening went very well: the food was excellent, and so was the service.. quick and discrete. We agreed that I would get in touch with her soon to organise another evening out together. While she went to the toilet, to brush her teeth, and put her retainers back in, I paid the bill - not cheap, but not too expensive. Not that I begrudged a penny: I had spent a lovely evening with Ellie

I took her hand gently as we walked back to the car, which was parked along the road, near the pub. Once more, she was able to easily get into the car by herself.

----

"So, do I get a kiss goodnight?" she asked, as she undid her seatbelt, in preparation for getting out of the car.

"I guess it rather depends on what you mean by 'a kiss goodnight'?" I replied, teasing her.

"Well... I was thinking that maybe you could start by putting your lips to mine." I undid my seatbelt, leaned over to Ellie, and put my lips on hers, giving her a gentle kiss.

"Something like that?" I asked.

"Yes, SOMETHING like that," she replied, smiling at me, and putting her hand around my head, and pulling it close to her again. Once again our lips touched, then again and again. Then her tongue popped out between her lips, and she ran it over my lips. I replied by using my tongue to touch the tip of her tongue. I clearly do NOT need to explain the effect this was having on me... well, this and the anticipation of actually feeling her retainers!

Our two tongues danced for a while, then she slowly retracted her tongue: my tongue follower hers, between her lips. She pulled her tongue into her mouth, then closed her teeth together: that's when my tongue felt the labial wire of her top retainer for the first time. To say the feeling was 'nice' or 'good' would be a huge understatement! It was amazing, electric.... I've kissed a few girls before, run my tongue over their teeth, but never across the teeth of a girl with a retainer!

She let my tongue investigate her upper then lower retainer wires, then opened her mouth a little, letting my tongue go between her teeth: that's when I felt the plastic plate that was just behind her front teeth... It was, of course, completely smooth, and felt strange yet immensely pleasurable to my tongue. Of course, Ellie couldn't actually feel my tongue running over her plastic plate, but she knew what I was doing, as she had pulled her tongue back, to let me do so.

The sensation of feeling that smooth plastic in her mouth is like nothing I have ever experienced before. Dreamed of and imagined MANY times, but never actually experienced.

Trying to feel her lower plate was a bit more difficult, but I gained certain sensations from using the bottom of my tongue.

Having spent a minute or more feeling her retainers, I gently pulled my tongue back into my mouth, letting Ellie investigate my teeth - something tells me that she didn't gain anywhere near as much pleasure from feeling inside my mouth as I had got from feeling hers!

Nice job @sparky

Chapter 11


'Just leaving, hope to be with you in about 20 minutes' said the text I sent Angela. I was supposed to be at Angela's by 8pm, but I was running a few minutes late - yes, I'd taken a shower, and put on some fresh clothes... I wanted to appear interested, rather than turn up smelling of work, and in my work clothes... but I'd spent a bit too long getting ready. Not that it REALLY mattered. Well, that's what girls would say when I questioned them about being late!

Whilst Angela only lived about 10 miles away, it was across country, and would take about 20 minutes... in fact, Google was telling me that tonight it would take 22 minutes!

I arrived at 8:09, and it had only taken me 21 minutes! There weren't too many cars around, and I managed to park almost directly outside her house. I went and rang her doorbell.

"Hi Justin, come on in a second, just need to put my shoes on!". Her front door went straight into the living room, which generally looked quite nice, but was a bit untidy in places (but probably better than my place!). Modern furniture. Angela was currently sat in one of the chairs, putting her shoes on.

Angela was dressed rather less formally that she had been on Saturday, yet still looked smart, with simple, yet still slightly 'colourful' makeup. She was wearing a pale pink blouse, with a patterned skirt and tan-coloured tights, and shoes with slight heels. She grabbed a slightly bolder pink jacket, and put it on as she came over to the door.

"You look smart," she said, as she gave me a friendly kiss on the cheek, "let's go...". I could sense quite a lot of confidence in her. The weather was nice, and it was a pleasant walk to the pub. I bought us both a drink, and we found a small table to sit at.

"Cheers!" I said.

"Cheers!" she replied. "So, why don't you start things off by telling me a bit about yourself?" suggested Angela.

"Ok, well, I am Justin William Thyme, I'm 28." I started. I told her a bit of my background, that I went to university to study computing, had an older sister, Caitlin. "So, I work in one of the regional offices of a big supermarket, helping to keep the IT infrastructure working."

"And what do you do in your spare time?" she asked. Spare time: yes, I have quite a bit of that!

"Well, apart from occasionally going out somewhere nice for a bike ride or a walk, I like playing online games, watching TV, and - I'm sure you'll be glad to hear - watching stuff on You Tube..."

"So, who do you subscribe to on YouTube then? Obviously me, but who else?"

"Well, There's Big Clive... and the LockPickingLawyer... then there's Tom Scott."

"Tom Scott? He's good: I'd like to do a collab with him sometime. Anyone else?"

"Mrwhosetheboss..."

"Oh, yeah, he's really cool, we're trying to work out a collab right now." Angela paused. "I'm talking about work, aren't I?".

"That doesn't matter, work is a bit bit of our lives, it affects who we are...."

Needless to say, whenever Angela spoke, I was attentively looking at her face.... her mouth, trying to catch another glimpse of not only those golden brackets, but also the elastics that I had seen earlier. I had been watching her mouth for a while when I realised that it wasn't just the brackets that were golden, so were the archwires: why had I not noticed that on her YouTube videos I had watched the other day?

We drank, and we chatted, about this that and the other. We seemed to get on well. Needless to say, as we chatted, my eyes would go to her mouth, to look at those metal braces... and maybe even the elastics that I had seen in one of her videos. Finally, I said something that made her smile very widely, letting me see her braces very clearly, along with the elastics she wore, one on each side.

I decided to ask her about her braces. I needed a reasonably 'neutral' question, one that, were I a 'normal person (and by that, I mean a person without a love of braces), I might ask. "So, your braces.... why the gold? I mean, I've never seen anyone else with GOLD braces."

"I've seen you looking at them.... I'm guessing you like them?"

"Yes, they are rather different..."

"And there you go, you just answered your own question! To be honest, it's a combination of reasons. First, yes, they are different. And on YouTube there's plenty of people with braces, so if I was going to have braces and continue to be on YouTube. I wanted to 'stand out' in some way" she started to explain. "Yes, they cost a bit more, but I had decided to make my getting braces a bit of a treat for hitting 5 million subs, and when I saw the gold option, I decided the treat would just HAVE to include them! And you have to admit, they are rather nice, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are," I replied. "So it was a present to yourself for making the 5 million?"

"Well, I'd been thinking about getting braces for a while to be honest..."

"So what was the problem with your teeth?"

"You've not watched the videos, have you?"

"I have, but I was hoping you could tell me, more one-to-one, rather than a news broadcast on YouTube!". That made her giggle.

"Oh gawd, did I REALLY sound like a newsreader? Ok, well, you know how anything in your mouth feels hundreds of times worse than anywhere else.... my teeth were just a little crooked... a couple of my teeth were slightly twisted, some not in line, and a couple needed to be pulled down a bit. Luckily my molars line up fairly nicely, otherwise I could have ended up with a load more metal in my mouth!".

'Oh, what a shame!' I thought to myself! "So, you didn't fancy getting those invisible braces, that are popular these days?". It was actually a very valid question: I suspect many young ladies in her position would (sadly) want the invisible option.

"I watched a load of videos about the different types of braces... and to be honest, those invisible ones aren't really THAT invisible, what with those lumps they put on your teeth. So, if it's going to be obvious you have braces, you might as well just go the whole hog.... I would have gone for the normal metal ones, but when I saw the gold ones, well, wow!" 

"They look a bit bigger than some braces you see now...."

"Yes, I could have had some smaller ones, but heck, if you're gonna get gold braces, you want people to actually be able to SEE that they are golden! I'm thinking more about my videos..." I could see why she was doing so well on YouTube: she understood how important image was, and how important it was to stand out above the crowd.

"Had any negative feedback about getting braces?" I asked. It was nice to be talking about braces, and I was trying very hard to make my questions and comments seem as 'normal' as I could. Besides, I had noticed that, since she had started talking about her braces, she was smiling more, showing them off. Was that subconscious, or maybe she was specifically try to just tease me? Or, heaven forbid, she had worked out that I had a thing for braces, and was trying to draw me out.

"Not really, no," she said. We chatted a bit more about her braces, then moved onto other topics.

"So, would you like another beer?" suggested Angela as I finished my current one, "or maybe you'd like to come back to my place and have a coffee?".

"Actually, the coffee sounds like a sensible idea, I don't think I want another beer. Besides, I need a clear head to drive, and for work tomorrow.". I excused myself and went to the loo, then we both walked back to her place.