Chapter 26
While Canterlot High’s Thursday seemed to be rife with discord; Crystal Prep was dealing with yet another exam. The intense silence that permeated the classrooms and even the gymnasium had been broken only by strained coughing, the occasional dropped pencil, and finally the departure of each student who finished their exam to the best of their abilities; turned it in and left.
Sugarcoat, being naturally gifted, was the first down to the naturist lounge. She’d had the room redecorated slightly since the first few days. The much larger desk had been removed in favor of a smaller one for private studies. A circular table had been brought in and placed in the centre of the room with six beanbag chairs had been placed around the table.
One or two other chairs filled up the space, on the off chance that a guest from Canterlot High might wish to join them. A small stack of buildable cubby holes had been put in the far corner to store baskets for holding clothes, and a mat on the floor for shoes.
Satisfied with these changes, despite Lemon leaving the cat poster on the wall for whatever reason, Sugarcoat sat at the table in the nude and de-stressed from the morning exam. A second exam was rapidly approaching, after lunch it would be another gruelling session.
Sunny Flare appeared wiped out. A few stray tears escaped her eyes and she furiously rubbed them away.
Sour Sweet was literally trembling with apprehension.
Sugarcoat, in her own blunt way, was quite concerned for her fellow students. Sunny and Sour had always had difficulty managing exam time stress. They also happened to be the only ones fully clothed. Not that removing their clothing would do much for them, but statistically it had been known to help to take your mind off of things with something less anxious.
Lemon bobbed her head to the beat on her headphones and lay sprawled in her beanbag chair. Her legs were spread wide and she didn’t seem to mind showing off. It wasn’t distracting though, just unhelpful. Sour would occasionally glare at her and grit her teeth as if she wanted to curse.
Indigo continued to experiment with toplessness. It was rather intriguing, she removed all articles of clothing except her skirt and panties. Sugarcoat couldn’t fathom why she was so reluctant to experience the full naturist package, but she felt that the slowly building confidence would cause the other girl to open up eventually.
It was time to get Sour and Sunny to let go of their inhibitions entirely. Sugarcoat was well aware that forcing someone into this lifestyle choice wasn’t the best, but numbers did not lie. She knew her friends; she had been with them a very long time. They were all compatible with naturism in some way, no matter how insignificant. And she was tired of Sour glaring at her too when she shifted her legs.
Turning to the pair of holdouts she removed her glasses and briefly cleaned the lenses. “You are both suffering from stress. I have agreed to leave you to your own devices, however I would strongly suggest you remove your clothes and sprawl out over these beanbag chairs. Lemon and I could then massage your back and shoulders and help wipe away the anxiety before this afternoon’s test.”
Sunny shot Sugarcoat a look of disapproval.
Sour exploded at last, it was fortunate she had also had the good sense to verify Twilight’s soundproofing of the room. “I am fucking on the edge of stabbing somebody, or possibly just kicking them in the crotch if they don’t stop spreading in front of me!” Sour glared at the oblivious Lemon once again. “And you order me to strip to get a sexy naked massage!”
Sugarcoat shook her head. “One, there is nothing sensual about removing unhealthy stress. Two, I do not find you attractive in that way. Three, Lemon shaves and is listening to her music to remove the stress she is suffering from. Her leg twitches are a clear sign that she is slowly detoxifying from the harshness of this morning’s exam.
“Four, if you are going to constantly equate nudity with sex you are never going to get a boyfriend due to deep seated anger issues over our lifestyle choice. Five, I was attempting to help you out and spread the magic of Friendship. You always have the option to decline, next time however I would suggest less anger and more ‘no thank you’.”
Sour crossed her arms over her chest and just glared at no one in particular.
Sunny however got to her feet and quickly gave Sour a hug. “Please, try to understand, Sour.” Much to everyone’s surprise she actually started removing her clothes.
Sour stared in disbelief.
Sugarcoat remained aloof, though secretly she was grinning triumphantly. Her calculations and knowledge of her friend had not lied to her.
Indigo rolled her eyes. “Sugarcoat, I can see the smugness in your eyes.”
Sugarcoat sobered immediately. “My apologies.”
Sour glared accusingly at her. “You knew we’d cave?” she demanded.
Sugarcoat’s brow rose in mild annoyance. “You are neither removing your clothes nor ‘caving’, and all I knew for sure was that eventually you would both stop projecting hatred and malice towards us… Or in the case of Sunny Flare apathy and her typical laissez faire attitude. Statistically speaking naturism is a group activity, close bonds of friendship more often than not lead to new adaptors. At least where Canterlot is concerned. And we are still young enough to experiment with it for a time and choose to forego it later in life should we lose favor with it.”
Sour rolled her eyes. “Sugarcoat, are you sure you don’t just need all of us to be into nudity to satisfy your own ego?”
Sunny positioned two of the beanbag chairs together and laid out over them. “Sour, we agreed long ago that Sugarcoat’s controlling attitude wasn’t an issue.”
Sugarcoat climbed to her feet and walked over to her friend. Leaning forward she placed her hands on the other girl’s shoulders and frowned. “You are extremely tense. Also, do I really have a controlling attitude?”
Indigo smirked. “You always need to be right about everything, Sug. Your report on this naturism thing proves something about Canterlot, so it should also prove something about us. You never stopped to even consider Sour and Sunny might just not be interested in it.”
Sugarcoat shook her head and kneaded Sunny’s flesh to work out the tension. “I always consider how you will take something. I just know you all so well I expect you to follow certain patterns. I admit that not immediately embracing naturism upset my preconceived notions. However, I remain firmly entrenched in the idea that we would all benefit from this idea.”
Sour curled her lip.
Indigo shook her head and interrupted her before she could go off on another tirade again. “Out of Twilight’s circle of friends how many of them have embraced it?”
Sugarcoat paused in her machinations.
Sunny let out a soft moan of contentment as her muscles started to relax.
Sugarcoat resumed the task at hand and shook her head. “Applejack and Rarity seem to be the least inclined to participate, for reasons I could not begin to explain as two of their sisters are founding members of the club.”
Indigo nodded. “Exactly. Would you say they are holdouts to their group?”
Sugarcoat sighed. “I don’t have enough empirical data to answer that.”
Indigo chuckled and put her textbook down. “Sug, you can be a bit too dense sometimes. They aren’t holdouts. Rarity is a fashion designer, while she supports her sister openly I hardly think she would ever adopt a clothes-less lifestyle. She’s far too interested in the complete opposite of naturism, she gets off to fashion… and I should have phrased that better.” Indigo smiled sheepishly and rubbed her neck.
“And what about Applejack?” Sugarcoat wondered.
Sunny moaned some more and arched her back slightly. “God, Sug, I’m so glad you took those masseuse lessons.”
Sour decided to speak up this time. “Applejack is a down home country girl, she lives and breathes on the farm. And while she may support her sister, there’s a lot more ingrained into her world view to get over before she could ever hope to support her by openly embracing the lifestyle. But damn what I wouldn’t give to visit the farm and find her brother working the fields in the buff,” she finished as her eyes glazed over and her mind drifted to a happier place.
Aside from Lemon all of the others got faraway looks on their faces.
Sugarcoat sighed wistfully. “A very fine specimen of the male form. Unfortunately considering his skin tone I find myself unable to fantasize… the similar colour reminds me too much of Scarlet Scribe.”
Sour cursed. “Why’d you have to go and say that?” she demanded.
Indigo shuddered slightly. “Oh come on!”
Sunny flinched briefly under Sugarcoat’s expert touch and she turned her head to shoot a glare at her. “You do realize we’ve all seen your cousin naked by this point. Are you trying to ruin the mood?”
Sugarcoat’s shoulders drooped. “I apologize. I’m afraid that I let my honest nature get the best of me.”
Sour irritably climbed to her feet. “FUCK! Now I’m getting aroused by memories of somebody else’s boyfriend. Thanks a lot, Sugarcoat for your oh so wondrous comparison!” Storming out of the room in a huff she left the others behind.
“Should one of us go after her to make sure she doesn’t antagonize Cinch?” Indigo questioned the group.
Sunny shook her head. “For once I feel it best to let her alleviate the tensions herself. I suspect she’s going to find an empty bathroom and deal with her stress in the only helpful way she knows how at this point.”
Indigo sat up straight with an uncomfortable look on her face. “Are you telling me that Sour is heading off to finger herself because of Scribe?”
Lemon frowned and popped her headphones off. “Can we not talk about my boyfriend like that,” she requested.
“Blame Sugarcoat!” Indigo snapped.
Lemon turned to Scribe’s cousin. “We haven’t done anything yet physically, and I’d prefer to know that when I do pursue him that way I don’t have to worry about antagonizing Sour Sweet.”
Sugarcoat’s face remained expressionless, but her eyes shone with unintended pain and guilt. “I’m sorry, I was just being honest.”
Lemon smiled and gently reached over to squeeze her friend’s shoulder. “I know. I get it. But I think I’m going to go have a little chat with Sour before she confuses herself further with sexuality and my boyfriend.” Heading over to the cubby holes she collected her belongings and quickly got dressed.
Sugarcoat watched her leave silently.
Indigo was surprised to see her break down after Lemon was gone.
Sunny turned over and silently embraced her friend. “There, there. It’s not so bad, Sugarcoat.”
“Why am I always so fucking blunt?”
Indigo fidgeted briefly, she hated to see any of her friends upset. In fifth grade when Jet Set and Upper Crust teased Sugarcoat for her blunt honesty she’d beat them both up and got a black eye and a week’s detention for her troubles because of it. Sugarcoat had gotten a lot better since her younger days, but she was still the same highly intelligent young woman.
Indigo wanted to get her to stop beating herself up. And with only two others in the room maybe there was a way to deflect everything. Ok sure it wasn’t the best idea, but she felt a little guilty about pushing things herself. So, with a heavy sigh, she got up and walked over to her two embracing friends.
Coughing slightly to clear away the last bit of reluctance she placed her hand on Sugarcoat’s shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better all of us has something we don’t like about ourselves, or in my case really fucking can’t stand not knowing how anyone would react if they knew about it.”
Sunny blinked in surprise. “What are you saying?”
Indigo chuckled nervously, her cheeks flushed slightly. “I’m saying I think I’m ready to explain why I was so nervous and upset about this naturism thing. It took most of the week, and I was alone in my room with my thoughts staring into the mirror for three hours last night trying to figure shit out.”
Sugarcoat wiped away some of her tears and stared at her friend confused. “Why now? Didn’t you say you wanted to explain to all of us when you were ready? Indigo, please don’t tell me now. I would feel extremely guilty if I was the cause for you accelerating your personal timetable. I already believe you haven’t had nearly enough time to…”
Indigo frustratedly put a finger to Sugarcoat’s lips to get her to stop. “I’ve been thinking about this moment off and on since we were kids. I’ve agonized over it for years, this latest bit with the naturism thing just kind of forced me to see it in a new light.” Smiling, she gently began to tug at her skirt. “Besides, I wasn’t just going to tell you girls. I’m going to show you.”
Sunny frowned. “You’re what?”
Sugarcoat nodded. “I have to agree with thatstatement. How can your emotional insecurities be tied to anything physical?”
Laughing at the question Indigo simply let her skirt fall to the floor.
Sunny and Sugarcoat both stared in utter bewilderment and surprise. They could both see that something was considerably different about their friend, but their brains were rejecting this reality as being against what they believed of their friend’s identity.
The panties came off next and Indigo stood proud and unashamed before her friends. Well maybe still a little nervous, Sunny was gaping at her like some fish out of water and Sugarcoat had removed her glasses to take a much closer look. Hesitantly she reached out as if to probe the object in front of her, as though physically touching it would prove one way or the other that it existed.
“Impossible,” Sugarcoat stated firmly.
Indigo frowned. “What do you mean?”
Sugarcoat stood up and poked the rather small, though no less proven to be fully proper mammary glands on Indigo’s chest. “You possess all of the traits of a female here, your hips are more slender, your chest clearly indicative of the potential to bear young, and your face is distinctively feminine in shape and features.”
Sugarcoat brought her finger down and stabbed at the offending object of unreality before them both. “Therefore it is impossible for you to possess a fully functional member. I would expect to see some kind of larger than normal clitoris, shaped perhaps congruently into the form of a male member. This however appears to be a fully functional, and equipped male member. Which is firmly impossible and rooted in the realm of fantasy, more often depicted in Neighponese Anime of questionable moral standing.”
Indigo’s eyes went cross-eyed at that statement as she tried to figure out what Sugarcoat was getting at. It took her a few moments, but she realized what the problem was and started laughing. “I…should have… known… you’d be smart enough to…read up on Intersex people!” she managed to say while her shoulders shook with her hysterics.
Sunny stood bolt upright suddenly and her eyes dilated as her desire to return to reality overrode her higher thinking. “I’m not seeing this. I can’t be seeing this. There is an honest to goddess… Oh I can’t say it, I can’t use that term, and it was created by people with weird proclivities! It does not exist, it cannot exist!”
Indigo sighed as her mirth started to dissipate. “Girls, it can exist. And it does exist. My family doc says I’m lucky, like one in a million kind of lucky. I can experience the life from both sides of the fence, got a womb and everything… Problem is my only hope is a very big crap shoot if I ever want to bear any young. In the meantime…what you see is what I am. Born and raised.”
“But there’s no! I mean… I don’t see any… It’s like…” Sunny couldn’t get the words out. She stared and stared and just could not say what she wanted to say.
Frustrated again Indigo slapped the side of her thigh with a growl. “I know! Don’t you think I get that! No sack, nothing hanging below the damn thing, but it still gets hard. It still throbs and secretes liquid like you’d expect it to. I can’t explain how or why, I barely understand the difference between myself and other Intersex born children. There’s an entire medical paper written up about me, though my real name isn’t used at all. Can we stop with the denial phase of this thing and get on with the ‘I’m sorry I upset you Sugarcoat’ apology thing?”
Sugarcoat shook her head and blinked back her stupor. She glanced up from where she was staring and offered a hesitant smile. Then she collapsed into a seating position on the nearest beanbag chair to avoid injuring herself should she lose consciousness.
Sunny’s face paled slightly and she also sat down.
Indigo blew a bang out of her eye and nervously sat back down herself.
Silence reigned in the room as three naked girls attempted to rediscover a topic of conversation that would not immediately result in shouting and hurt feelings. Sunny was grateful that at least her tension was gone now. It was replaced with sheer confusion and some curiosity, but it was gone now.
Indigo’s heart raced a mile a minute. She’d done it, she’d revealed her deepest darkest secret to two of her friends and they weren’t outright rejecting her. This was something, she wasn’t entirely sure what, but it was something.
Sugarcoat took several calming breaths to reign in her extremely inappropriate deluge of questions and took a closer look at Indigo’s fully revealed form. The shaft seemed of a decent length, nothing too cumbersome. It would explain how she could hide it so well in her undergarments and skirts. And with a bit of careful examination she spotted a perfectly normal slit situated beneath it, so her initial findings had been slightly erroneous.
Blinking she realized she may have been staring too long. So she quickly returned her gaze to Indigo’s face and eyes and she offered a brief smile. “This is… wholly unexpected. I applaud your bravery to take this step and tell us about it, but I have so many questions.”
Indigo smirked. “I had a feeling you would.”
Sunny smoothed her hands over her lap. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and she wasn’t sure where to look, but eventually she managed to look Indigo in the eyes again. “I’m beginning to understand how we all were drawn to one another to begin with. Our friendship has grown over the years into this rather odd state, but we all seem to have some strange secrets or personality quirks that keep others from befriending us.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Indigo muttered. “But yeah, we all have some kind of ‘thing’. Blunt honesty,” she pointed at Sugarcoat, “Bossy control freak,” she aimed at Sunny, “Living proof that Dickgirls exist,” she pointed at herself with a bemused smile on her face.
Sugarcoat sighed. “The correct term is Futanari. Considering you do not have a scrotum you do not exactly match the preferred depiction of such an artist’s wet dream. You appear more to be a girl with a fully functional strap on permanently attached.”
Indigo crossed her legs and winced. “Ummm, can we maybe not call it that?”
Sugarcoat blushed. “Apologies, there’s that blunt honesty again.”
Indigo smirked and leaned back to better situate herself. “Well, I’ve got a load off my chest. And I got you two to stop feeling so depressed because of the Sour situation. I’d say my work is done.”
Sunny started to giggle. “All of those times you refused to go swimming with us suddenly make soooooo much sense.”
Indigo pouted. “Totally hated that. I love swimming; it’s one of the best sports out there. But because I’m a girl if I’m swimming in a pair of hip shorts or some shit like that everybody looks at me like I’m a freak.”
Sugarcoat nodded along with her. “Well, Scribe’s place is isolated and does have a pool. I’ve been debating a little experiment in skinny dipping for a day or so now, but wanted to make sure most of us were at least comfortable with the notion.”
Indigo flinched. “Yeah, maybe not until I’m ready to let him know. I mean, he’s a guy… I’ve never…” she trailed off and glanced down.
Sugarcoat patted her knee. “That’s alright, we’ll give you plenty of time for that.”
At this point the door flew open and Sour stormed back in with Lemon on her heels. “Ok! I’m not angry any more at you, Sugarcoat, in fact I feel wayyyyyy mellower ever since Lemon talked to me and…”
Lemon was quick to close and lock the door to make sure nobody could hear what was about to happen inside.
Sour did not, however, react as everybody thought. The girl’s eyes were wide, veins in the side of her neck became visible as her jaw clenched shut tight and something sounded painfully like a cracking tooth. And then she collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut and started to tremble and shake alarmingly.
Sunny rushed forward fearing she might be experiencing a seizure.
Sour’s mouth opened however and mad cackling escaped.
Lemon, Sugarcoat, Indigo and Sunny Flare stared at her as if she’d just lost her mind.
“What the actual fuck?” Sunny smacked her friend with a light punch.
“Not cool!” Indigo growled frustratedly. Self-consciously she crossed her legs to try and hide her shame.
Sour struggled over to a beanbag chair and managed to climb up off the floor. “Not laughing at you…” she trailed off to take a deep breath and try to center herself. “I won the bet.”
Four sets of eyes stared at her in utter bewilderment.
“What bet?” Lemon asked.
Sour started giggling again. “The bet. The one we made first week of attending school here. Remember?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“I don’t recall making any bets that day.” Sugarcoat folded her arms over her chest and grew contemplative.
“That week was like the biggest upset ever!” Lemon reminded. “We were just finding out how Crystal Prep operated. It was totally insane.”
“Exactly!” Sour blurted with another fit of giggles. “We bet that after so many years we’d be just as insane as the rest of the students here. And clearly I won, because look at us! Look at Indigo… I don’t even know the entire story, but she’s stripped down like everybody else and ok with being a naturist now. So ipso facto I won the bet, because clearly we’re all nuts.”
“You mean you weren’t surprised by the sudden dickgirl revelation?” Sunny blurted.
“Futa,” Sugarcoat corrected.
“I refuse to use that label!” Indigo snapped.
Sour flinched. “Ummm, well. I kind of didn’t think I had any place to comment on that. I mean, it would be slightly hypocritical of me considering my condition.”
“Bipolar makes you relatable to Indigo?” Sugarcoat asked in a deadpan tone.
Sour shrugged. “We’re both going to have one hell of a fucking time getting laid, why bring unnecessary attention to it?”
Everyone stared at Sour in surprise.
“That is surprisingly mature of you, Sour Sweet.” Indigo smiled warmly at her friend.
“No, don’t!” Sour tried to back up, but forgot where they were at that moment.
Indigo grabbed her friend and pulled her into a very tight embrace.
Sour sighed. “I could have gone my entire life without feeling you pressing into me, Indigo Zap.”
Indigo chuckled and pulled back. “Oh come on, I’m not even at full mast.”
Lemon looked down. “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate. So…. This thing actually can get hard?”
Indigo waved her hand dismissively. “It’s in all the medical journals. I’m not as rapid-fire trigger happy as an actual guy. Hormones are different. But I can get aroused down there pretty consistently when I’m… I mean… forget I brought that last part up,” she pleaded with an embarrassed flush in her cheeks.
Lemon nodded. “Totally forgotten.”
Sunny suddenly stomped her foot. “Sour Sweet! I remember that bet, now! It wasn’t about us going crazy, it was about us driving the faculty crazy!”
Sour sighed. “Drat, thought I could score some weekend cash for having to put up with the full frontal nudie show from everybody. I am still NOT GETTING NAKED!” she told her friends firmly.
“Fair enough.” Sugarcoat indicated the beanbags. “Need a massage before the exam?”
Sour flinched, but rapidly slumped face down onto the large chairs. “Go to it magic fingers. And we seriously need a teapot in here so we can brew some of that hippy’s special blends. I so could use a cup right about now.”
Sunny grew thoughtful and glanced around. “There are an awful lot of outlets in here. I wonder what Twilight needed them all for?”
Lemon shrugged and picked up her headphones again. “I try not to think about it.”
“Why?” Indigo wondered as she fetched a towel so she could sit more comfortably on her beanbag chair. She also took the time to fold up her skirt and panties and stick them into the cubby with her top. She’d worried herself sick for years about how they’d react, especially when her hormones started up. And it had all been for nothing. She seriously was going to get Sugarcoat back for calling her a Futanari though.
Lemon smirked and held up a hand with one finger up. “For one thing, she was studying those readings from Canterlot High down here. Who knows what kind of mystical radiation could be still lingering around from her mad science level gadgets?”
The girls all shared a look and then burst into giggles.
Sugarcoat paused her machinations of Sour Sweet’s back and sighed. “You’d feel better without this top on, Sour. And I’d have better access to your muscles, why else do you think people strip for massages at the Spa?”
Sour stuck her middle finger up. “Stuff it, you aren’t getting me with that one. I reject your attempts to conscript me into the herd of naturists you’re building.”
Sugarcoat groaned. “That is so wrong to say I can’t even dignify it with a proper thought out response. The exam is coming up soon, let’s just finish this up and enjoy lunch before our anxiety levels start climbing again.”
Sunny smiled. “Fair enough.” She began to put her clothes back on.
Sugarcoat eyed her in surprise.
Indigo shook her head and turned back to her textbook.
Lemon resumed listening to her music; the situation was over as far as she was concerned.
Sunny sighed. “I never said I would be adopting this lifestyle choice. I just prefer getting massages in the nude. I do enjoy my weekly Spa visits after all,” she reminded. Shooting her friend a wink she headed for the exit. “Besides, I need to speak with Dean Cadance about approval for allowing us to brew tea down here.”
Sugarcoat nodded. “Inevitably I will convince you that this is the proper course of action to follow. You and Sour can only hold out for so long.”
Sour bit her tongue to stop from ranting at her friend again about her controlling ego. It wasn’t entirely true; Sugarcoat wasn’t the bossy one, that was Sunny Flare, but the two were almost interchangeable at times when it came to group leader arguments. So she simply closed her eyes and enjoyed her massage as she thought back to the scene in the ladies room not long ago.
Lemon Zest found Sour Sweet staring at the mirror; she was not in a stall, nor was she diddling herself with her finger as the others had noted. Instead she was glaring angrily at herself and was obviously upset to the point that her makeup was getting a little runny.
Sour didn’t notice her at first; instead she was breathing heavily as she glared into the mirror and suddenly clenched both hands into fists. “FUCKING CUNT! ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS GETTING A GUY SO YOU CAN PRETEND TO BE NORMAL! YOU ARE A WORTHLESS, GODDESS DAMNED MORON! NOBODY WILL EVER WANT YOU! YOU DON’T DESERVE ANYONE!”
Lemon flinched at the volume of Sour’s tirade. She chose to approach her slowly though; afraid that Sour might actually start hurting herself or fighting with her if she didn’t handle this delicately. Taking a deep breath she reached out and placed her hand over Sour’s fist. “This is because one of us started dating, isn’t it?”
Sour flinched and whirled to glare at her.
Lemon swallowed her nervousness and pushed forward. “You never expected any of us to actually start dating. Or at least not openly admit to it as a group, am I right? And now I’m dating Scarlet Scribe of all people and you really don’t get how to accept that.”
Sour shook her head. “Maybe… I don’t know… When we were in sixth grade maybe I kidded myself that someday I might want to ask him out.”
Lemon stared at Sour in surprise. “Really?”
Sour dumbly nodded and turned her head sharply to hide the pained expression crossing her face. “We were young. I was just getting interested and my folks decided to give me the ‘talk’ early in anticipation of puberty setting in. Scribe was… I mean is… the only guy who’s ever not been scared of my mood swings. When my birthday came up that one year and everybody ditched for Fleur’s big coming out party… Like she’s fucking royalty or something, stupid bitch… He came to my house and gave me the biggest present he could find. And he stayed with me all day.”
Lemon cringed at the reminder of that year. “We always regretted not coming to your party, Sour. I mean… ok sure, Sugarcoat was engrossed in that personal study deal for some scholarship goal or other, Sunny and Indigo got suckered in by Fleur’s false friendship and I… I just went along with them because I knew the party was going to lead to something awful.”
Sour smirked. “I’m glad Fleur dumped that entire carton of rocky road on you three. Serves you right for going to her stupid party instead of coming to mine.”
“And we deserved it.” Lemon brushed a hand through her hair and gently rested it on Sour’s shoulder. “But I thought you could look past that. We were all young and pretty stupid, and you got yours back at Fleur anyway.”
Sour grinned wickedly a gleam in her eye as she recalled that Fleur and her stupid posse had all gotten a serious case of food poisoning. Just one of those happy little accidents that life seemed to let you enjoy sometimes.
Lemon sighed and shook her head. “So. This is because you wanted Scribe.”
Sour turned and shot Lemon a glare, which quickly morphed into an expression of horrified realization. “No! You two are good together, I could never get him to open up like you did. Or accept going out to a naturist themed restaurant and a party in the park."
“You help him be a better person, all I’m good for is being angry and moody and depressed and… all I care about these days is the SEX! Do you have any idea how hard it is to be celibate, not because you want to, but because every guy thinks you’ll bite his damn dick off if you do go down on him and give some head?”
“Do you want to give a guy head?”
“Fuck off! You know that’s not what I meant,” Sour snapped spinning around and glaring at their reflection in the mirror.
Lemon smiled, she gently walked up beside Sour and leaned in to give her a hug. “Seeing Scribe like that on Saturday did not help, and now you can’t get it out of your head, can you?”
Sour whimpered and squeezed her legs together. “He’s so FUCKING BIG!”
Lemon giggled. “I know. Looks even bigger now that his pubes are gone. But it’s just one part of him. He isn’t just a dick, and I know you don’t think that way, but it’s so hard not to feel certain urges when you’ve been stuck in this rut for as long as you can remember. Sugar didn’t exactly help matters by bringing up the similar skin tones between him and Big Mac.”
Sour sighed dejectedly and shook her head. “I hate this fucking drama, but I’m starting to get so stressed out over everything.” She stopped and glanced briefly at Lemon. “We graduate next year. College comes usually after that, if you know what you want to do with your life. Aside from my awesome archery skills and a few other things I have no fucking clue what I’m going to do.”
Lemon nodded and grew contemplative. Her head tilted to one side and she started biting her bottom lip. Then her eyes widened in surprise. “Sour, how about I make you a deal. I promise not to flaunt Scribey and I's romance any further until the end of school. After the final exam and us getting out of this place for the summer, how about we all take you to that private beach you brought up last year.”
Sour’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?”
Lemon grinned. “All of us, one big trip. Loaded with sand, surf, sun and sausages as far as the eye can see.”
“Is this about getting me into naturism again?” Sour glared frustratedly at Lemon. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
Lemon shook her head with a frown. “Of course not. You don’t have to be a naturist to enjoy that particular beach. Everybody hangs out there who wants to experience nude sunbathing or other beach stuff. And didn’t you like it when your cousins took you there?”
Sour slowly nodded reluctantly. “Yeah. It was kind of fun…” her eyes widened. “Fuck, is that why you guys like the nude thing? Because you can just be yourself whenever you want?”
Lemon winked. “Yep.”
Sighing she slowly uncrossed her arms. “Ok. We’ll do the beach scene. But it’s the only place I’m taking my clothes off! You dig?”
Lemon held up both hands wide apart placating. “Totally get you. Besides it’s no fun to have an uneven tan with ugly lines.”
“Damn straight,” Sour agreed with a hesitant smile.
Lemon hugged her friend again and turned them both to look in the mirror again. “So, need help to fix that?”
Sour laughed and shooed her away. “I can do my own makeup. But… Thanks, Lemon Zest, and I’m sorry if I’ve been on your case more the past week because of the dating thing.”
Lemon shrugged. “It happens. Ok, so not every single lady gets to see your boyfriend naked and have wet dreams about him… and I’m saying too much, but, yeah. No problems.”
Sour nodded mutely as she washed her face and then reapplied her makeup. “Gotta swing by my locker before we rejoin the others.”
Lemon tilted her head with a frown, but realization quickly struck and she simply nodded.
Sour took a deep breath to center herself and slowly exhaled. Then she broke into a wide smile. “That beach trip is going to be just what I need after this year’s exams. They are so much tougher this year on all of us… I think I saw Fleur going in to Mr. Pants’ room the other day to try and up her grade.” Cackling a bit at her implied innocuous statement she straightened her top and made her way towards the door.
Lemon frowned. “I don’t think Fleur deserves nearly as much crap as we dish on her, Sour.”
Whirling around she shot her friend a glare. “If you take away my one remaining outlet for decent venting I will give you a wedgie so hard you’ll be cleaning string out of your ass for a month!”
“Ok, ok! Give, give!” Lemon backed away rapidly. “Come on, let’s get back before anything else happens.”
As the last of her tension melted away Sour let out another contented sigh and began to think of all the fun that was going to be had on that beach. The guy watching, the tanning, some wicked wave surfing, it was going to be the best thing for her right then. She owed Lemon a lot for even thinking of it.
Flipping out her phone she quickly tapped away preparing a rapid-fire text. Lemon and Scribe were definitely good for each other. Why shouldn't she and the other girls get to enjoy a trip to the beach? Scribe was in for a real treat; he’d never seen Lemon on the beach before, not really. This was going to be great.
Her eyes wandered over to Indigo and she frowned slightly. Would she want to come? Damn, it might not be a perfect trip at that. Indigo deserved some time enjoying herself too, and it was a private beach. There weren’t any rules against anyone there, man, woman or hermaphrodite. The trick was convincing Indigo it’d be fun.
Shrugging she decided she’d deal with that after the week-of-hell as it was slowly becoming. She had at least a good couple of weeks before the beach even opened to the public who could afford to go there. Yeah, she was going to make it her mission to get them all to hang out at that beach, even if Indigo and Scribe did more hanging out than the rest of them.
Smirking at her little private innuendo she put her phone down and reached for her textbook. It was going to be another gruelling session after lunch and she needed all the studying she could get if she was going to pass.