Chapter 2

The first few weeks had flown by as Ashley settled into her class schedule. She already had three big assignments due before Halloween, as well as several smaller papers due in between. She was lucky that most of her classes were in the same building complex so she didn’t have to run around as much as Trisha did. Ashley would hear every day how Trisha had to dart from one building to the other and then back again for some of her classes.

Both girls were getting along quite well now and as the days passed. Ashley found that she was seeing some of her old self within Trisha. The part she’d broken free from that first day when she ran out of money downtown and met Rick and Scott. Trisha was constantly holding herself back, worrying about what her parents or others might think of her. It was something Ashley hoped to help her with over the next year.

“What are your plans for the weekend?” Ashley asked as she lay in her bed reading a textbook.

“I don’t know, probably stay in and read. So much reading!” Trisha complained as she sat at her desk in front of her laptop. “What about you, parties or something?”

“I have to work Saturday at the studio. I don’t have as much time during the week to schedule things, and the paperwork is piling up,” Ashley replied. This was only half true, though. Some paperwork was building up, but it was easy enough to do in an afternoon. No, Ashley was going in for other reasons that she wasn’t quite comfortable sharing with Trisha quite yet.

“It’s weird that you have such a crazy job while in school. How’d you get it again?” Trisha asked. She’d been told a story about knowing someone who knew someone, but it didn’t feel right. Ashley was pretty honest about most things, but her work always had a haziness around it that Trisha couldn’t break through. All she knew was that Ashley did some modeling for them as well as run their studio finances. That’s a lot of responsibility for an eighteen-year-old just starting college.

“My parents knew people who knew some people. It’s nothing, really. Easy stuff most of the time, though sometimes it can get a little rough,” Ashley answered, suppressing a smile. “Anyway, you should go out and do something. You don’t need me to have fun.”

“I know, but I like having you for backup. I feel safer knowing you’re there with me.”

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Ashley put down her book, opened the door, and found Justin standing there looking really good. Ashley hadn’t really had a chance to talk to him since that night at the party. Trisha really liked him, so Ashley tried to stay out of the way.

“Hey, Ashley, I was wondering if you and Trish wanted to go out tomorrow night. We found a little place that is loose on checking I.D.s.”

“I’m not sure. Who’s going?” Ashley asked as Trisha ran up to the door but just out of sight.

“Not Alan, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Justin said with a laugh. “I don’t know what you did to him, but he’s terrified of seeing you again.”

“Well, some people don’t know how to treat a lady. They are a little quick on the draw.”

“I don’t even want to know what that means, but yeah, can you two come?” Justin asked. His teeth sparkled white as he smiled. Damn, why did I have to give him up to Trisha? Ashley asked herself.

“I don’t know if I can make it. I have to go to work, but probably Trisha will be free. I’ll try to swing by if I can.”

“Ok, well, I hope you can. Here’s the address. See you later, 237.” Justin tapped his knuckle on the door once and walked away. He seemed unperturbed by anything at that moment. Ashley shut the door and turned to Trisha.

“Come on, you have to go! Please?” Trisha begged.

“I don’t know, maybe. It depends on work. But if you’re going out, we need to get you some new clothes!”

“But I don’t have much money, I just have enough to make it through the month before my parents top me up.”

Ashley hugged her friend, “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got you. We’ll go shopping during the day and get you a few ... uh, less modest clothes. We also need to get you some new underwear. Those Granny panties won’t do, that’s for sure.”

“I can’t ask you to do that, Ash.”

“You aren’t asking. Think of it as a gift from a friend. We’ll wake up tomorrow, shower, get you cleaned up, and then hit the downtown stores before I go to work.”

Trisha reluctantly agreed, assuming they’d be going to some of the cheaper stores downtown. Maybe Ashley knew of some discount-name-brand clothing outlets or something that sold all this stuff. The one thing she was certain of was that she was going to look good. Ashley had great taste and a good eye for style.

Ashley’s alarm went off at 9:00 am the next morning. She was tired but knew she had a lot to do this morning. Trisha slowly got up as well, stretching in bed and looking across at Ashley as she climbed out of bed wearing nothing but a pair of panties. She was getting used to seeing Ashley naked often, and it barely registered now.

“Come on, let’s get to the showers before they get busy,” Ashley strutted as she put on a robe, flip flops, and grabbed a little carrier of shower essentials.

The women’s washrooms and showers were a few doors down the hallway. As Ashley entered, she noted little activity yet. Most days during the week, there was a line to get into one of the shower stalls if you arrived during the morning rush. Girls of all shapes and sizes were washing, shaving, and making themselves up for the day ahead, unless they were the type to just roll out of bed and go to class in PJ pants.

This was a Saturday morning, though, so most of the floor was dead silent, likely from partying Friday night. Ashley found a shower stall and waited for Trisha to arrive, slinging her towel on a hook and quickly brushing her teeth in one of the sinks. As she was halfway through, her raven-haired roommate arrived.

“Take the one next to me,” Ashley mumbled, her mouth still full of toothpaste. Not certain why it mattered which shower she used, Trisha simply shrugged and wandered into the one Ashley pointed at. She placed her robe and towel on a hook and started the water. It started cold, giving her a bit of a rude wake-up jolt before it warmed up enough to feel nice. Her eyes were closed as she leaned back to rinse her hair. She didn’t hear the door open.

“Hey Trish...”

“AAAHHHH! What the fuck!” Trisha yelled when she saw Ashley standing naked in her shower.

“Sorry, I guess you didn’t hear me knock. We need to clean up that bush of yours if you ever want a guy to go down there without shears.”

“We really need to work on your boundaries, Ash. Seriously.”

“Come on, it’s not like I haven’t seen a girl naked before, or you either by this point. That mop needs to go though, unless you want the 70s to come back.”

“You’re crazy. Alright fine. Leave some though, I don’t want to look like a child like your hairless snatch.”

“Sounds good to me, just tell me when.”

Trisha sat down on a little shelf in the shower and spread her legs. It was uncomfortable enough to be naked with another girl but to have that girl look closely at her ‘parts’ was something else. Ashley knelt down between her legs and just looked at the clump of black hair that covered everything. Trisha couldn’t help but wonder what Ashley was seeing or thinking at that moment, as she felt the girl’s fingers run through her bush. She hoped Ashley would think the wetness was from the shower and not from her, as something about this was turning her on.

“How much do you want to keep?” Ashley asked, as she touched the thick carpet of curly hair.

“Maybe a patch at the top? An inch or two wide, I guess.”

“Sounds good. And the rest will go?”

Trisha simply nodded, her face bright red. Ashley looked back down at the workspace. There was hair everywhere. She mentally mapped out the section she figured Trisha wanted to keep and took a pair of scissors from her kit. She’d done this before on Nikki once during the summer. It wasn’t this bad, and it was really just an excuse for them to mess around, but it was fun.

Ashley started at the sides, trimming off the longer hairs from the area near her legs and worked her way to the center. Little by little, snip by snip, more sensitive flesh was uncovered, like a slow archeological dig for pussy. As she worked around the labia, carefully revealing the hidden pink below, Ashley had to resist the urge to slip a finger in there. Trisha was trusting her to do this job, and she didn’t want to betray that trust again. With the thick bush reduced to scrub brush, it was time for the razor.

Spraying some shaving cream in her hand, Ashley made a nice lather and spread it around Trisha’s pubic area first. Ashley passed the razor down on one side, making a nice smooth spot. She let her free hand roam over the freshly shaved spot in search of errant hairs that may have been missed before moving to the next spot. When the top was done, there was a nice orderly bushy spot surrounded by pale smooth skin, but the harder part was next.

Ashley reapplied more shaving cream onto her hand and lathered it up once again. This time, she spread it around the outer labia, her hand cupping her roommate’s sex for an even coating. This was trickier, as Ashley didn’t want to cause any nicks or cuts that would be painful for her friend. It meant that in order to be very cautious, she’d have to touch and pull on Trisha’s sensitive flesh a bit.

Trisha looked down as she felt another girl’s hands on her privates and a razor passing closely to tender areas. She could see Ashley’s face was very close to her open vagina, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all. She almost seemed familiar with doing this with another girl. There was a look of concentration on her face with each glide of the sharp blade, and then the softness of her hand would slide over the cleaned section. It was strangely erotic, not only in a sexual way, but also in an intimate way. There was an unspoken closeness when you allowed someone to do something like that to you; something so sharp and dangerous touching your most private spots.

As Ashley cleaned up the last remaining hairs, she ran her hand over the whole of Trisha’s pussy one last time and admired her work. Everything was smooth and soft except for the nice, slightly trimmed tuft of black hair right above her pink slit. Ashley had been so focused on her task that she hadn’t really looked closely at the vagina in front of her. It was thicker and meatier than her own, with longer inner lips dangling down from her outer labia. With the hair cleaned away, it looked good and sexy.

“All done. What do you think?” Ashley asked as she stood up.

“It looks great! To be honest, I never thought I’d have someone else do that for me, but I can’t argue with the results.”

“Nope. I take my work very seriously. If you ever want a touch up, I’m your gal.”

“Thanks, Ash. I might just do that.”

Ashley took her grooming kit and went to her own shower to wash herself off. She was a little worked up from all that erotic activity, but hoped to be able to take care of it later at the studio. But first, they had some shopping to do. She’d tamed the bush. Now Ashley needed to fix the outer works of her friend, and she knew some of the best places to do it.

When they arrived at the downtown shopping district, Ashley made a beeline straight to a lingerie store, dragging a bewildered Trisha behind her. These were not the kinds of places Trisha’s ever shopped at, let alone owned clothing from. Most of these shops were small boutique style stores that dealt directly with manufacturers and designers.

The doors flung open, and Trisha saw racks upon racks of all kinds of panties, bras, and various undergarments of all colors and styles. There were two ladies behind the counter, and the blonde one stepped forward to greet them.

“Hello, ladies, what can we do for you today?” the thin attractive lady asked.

Ashley approached the saleswoman, “Hello, Christy, my friend here needs some new everything. What can you do for her?”

“Oh, Ms. Ashley. Nice to see you again! Of course we can help your friend. Let’s go to the back to get her sized properly.”

Ashley took Trisha’s hand and led her towards the back. “Ashley, how do they know your name here? Do you shop here often?”

“You could say that. Take off your clothes so Christy can get a proper fit.”

Trisha did what she was told, stripping down to her bra and panties. She could see why Ashley wanted her shaved today since it would have been embarrassing to have all that hair pouring out the sides in front of someone else. Trisha’s mom usually got her underwear from Walmart or Target, so style was never really the goal.

“Wow, I see what you mean,” Christy said as she looked at the girl’s plain underwear. The clerk touched and pulled on Trisha’s bra, before pulling out a tape measure and wrapped over her in different ways.

“Trisha, is it? Do you find your bra hurts after a while?” Christy asked.

“Well, yeah, but everyone I’ve talked to says that’s normal.”

Christy simply shook her head, her hand to her forehead. “It is normal, because most women don’t get properly fitted for bras. They get measured and fitted for their feet but ignore something they’ll wear most of the day. What size are you wearing now?”

“I think it’s a 34C, I’m not too sure.”

“Yeah, you should have a 32D. Take yours off and I’ll get you a proper fitting one.” The salesclerk then disappeared around a corner while Trisha removed her bra, covering herself with her hands.

“Ashley what...” Trisha tried to say before Christy returned holding a lacy white bra.

“Try this on, I went with a neutral color. We can get into styles and color later. No need to be shy, we’re all women here.”

Trisha lowered her arms, exposing her breasts to the blonde salesclerk. She took the new bra from the outstretched hand and touched the material. She assumed the lacy material would feel rough and scratchy in her hand, but it was very soft. The back band was thicker, likely to accommodate a heavier wire. Trisha put it on and turned around to look in the mirror.

“Feel better?” Christy asked, as she placed her hand on the girl’s bare shoulder.

“It does. I can’t believe it.”

“It should. That’s how a bra is supposed to feel. No pinching or pulling while providing reasonable support. You obviously can’t run in that, especially with a pair that large, but you should feel more comfortable and confident now,” Christy said with a smile.

Ashley jumped in, “Ok, so let’s talk panties now...”

Christy brought the girls multiple colors and styles for Trisha to choose from, none of which had price tags on them. That sort of freaked Trisha out but it didn’t seem to bother Ashley at all. When a collection of three different colored panties and bras were chosen, Christy led them to the front register. With each item entered, the escalating total made Trisha’s eyes water.

“So, for everything you’re looking at $1685.49.” The blond Christy said like it was $10 at a convenience store.

“Oh, my GOD! Ashley no!” Trish cried out when she heard the total.

“Oh, oops, sorry, Ashley,” Christy replied and punched a few extra things into the cash, “forgot your discount. That’s $1348.39.”

“Discount?” Trisha muttered under her breath. She watched Ashley pull out a black credit card from her purse and ring it through. It was approved and the garments were put into a nice little brown bag and handed to Trisha.

“Thanks for shopping with us today. Look forward to seeing you again Ashley,” Christy said as the girls headed towards the door.

“Of course. Always a pleasure, Christy.” Ashley walked a few more steps and turned back around. “Oh, tell Markus that I can’t wait to see the new line. We’ll organize the shoot in a few months.”

“I’ll let him know, thank you. My love to Rick and Scott.”

Ashley waved goodbye and they were out the door and headed to another store. Trisha’s head was spinning as she tried to make sense of that entire experience. Sure, she got some nice underwear out of the exchange, but those prices were astronomical. How could Ashley afford this stuff, and how did they know her and give her a standing discount? They were just about to enter another store, when Trisha pulled them both to a stop.

“Ashley, what the hell was that in there?”

“What do you mean? You got some underwear that actually fits and doesn’t make you look like a nun.”

“But it was so expensive! And how do they know you?”

“We work with them at the studio. Markus is a local designer and that’s his shop. He’s been trying to expand his market online, so he hired us for photos for the website. I talk to and know a lot more people than you’d imagine,” Ashley said nonchalantly. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

This store was just as fancy, with dresses, skirts, and tops ranging from ballroom gowns to artistic faux-punk skirts and shirts. This time, a man approached and seemed to glow when he saw Ashley.

“Hellooo, Ms. Thang, pleasure to see you again,” the man said. His words came out almost in song.

“Hellooo, Mr. Beau, how are things?” Ashley greeted him back. They kissed each other on the cheek and Trisha felt like she’d entered the twilight zone.