Chapter 25

Sunday 28 August 2022

Larissa was awakened by a touch on her shoulder. She looked up to find Layna with her finger over her lips. Awake now, she took stock. The sun was up, and Patti was lying behind her, an arm around her, holding her breast. The sheet was gone. Oh. She looked around quickly, and saw one other girl was awake - Alison, who met her glance with raised eyebrows.

Layna indicated for Larissa to follow her outside, so she slid out from under Patti’s arm, and pulled the sheet up over her. She wrapped her sarong around her waist and followed Layna quietly outside. Alison followed her.

Outside, she found Layna sitting on the stone that was the top step of the path down to the beach, and Layna indicated for them to sit beside her. When she did, Layna said quietly, “Alison, all this discussion is confidential.”

“OK. I’ll never say anything.”

“Thanks. Firstly, Larissa, thank you. Yesterday was amazing. Astonishing. I was having shivers inside half the day. Alison, you did great too.”

“Umm, OK,” Alison said. “What happened that was so amazing?”

Layna smiled at her. “Larissa just unwinds people’s inhibitions, gets into their heart. Gets them naked, literally, and figuratively. Open for new things. And you went along, totally naturally. I think it’s been genuinely great for them, and for me.”

Larissa smiled at Layna. “I think so, though I didn’t try particularly hard. But we need to talk about Isla, Patti, and Sienna at least.”

Layna agreed. “And Sarah too. But let’s talk about Patti first. Was last night her coming out of the closet?”

Alison was surprised, but Larissa wasn’t. Of course Layna would just know. “I don’t think so. She’s out to her parents, but firmly in the closet otherwise, and resigned to staying there, doing marriage and kids, building the dynasty. Last night ... Isla just created an opening for her to have an all night sleep with a girl, and she risked everything for it. She’s had lovers, but never sleepovers, not since her mum learned she was gay. Sleepovers only for boys, a kind of conversion therapy plan. At first she cried into my chest, and then we both went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up and she was kissing my cheek. Sweet. She was embarrassed since she said nothing but an all night cuddle, but I said we could kiss but no more, and we had a long gentle one, and then we went back to sleep. Thanks for waking me up.”

“Should we leave her, or wake her up?”

“I don’t know. She should be out to these friends, but it’s her secret. But anyone who sees her lying naked on my mattress will at least wonder, even after what both of you said yesterday about being in bed with me. But waking her up will make it obvious there’s a secret, if anyone sees that.”

Layna frowned. “Alison, you have an opinion?”

“I didn’t know until I saw her this morning, where her hand was and her smile for that. But she looked around, saw she had no cover, put her hand on Larissa’s breast, and went back to sleep. If anyone else was awake to see that, she’s out of the closet. But it was probably just me. Unless she’s just another straight girl who bends for Larissa. Like me.”

“And me,” Layna said. “And at least two others in there. OK, we leave her there, leave her to decide how to handle it. Alright, let’s talk about Isla. Thanks for keeping the other girls away from us last night, Isla and I sat right here and she completely fell apart. If you’d done anything other than that game they’d have heard.”

“Great,” Larissa said. “I certainly hoped it would give you enough time.”

“Isla has never enjoyed sex. She’s done it, willingly, but it’s been in such an emotionally controlled environment, that the fact it is being done is more important that the doing of it. The idea that you do it to enjoy it ... she’d heard about that, but thought that was for other girls. You know, poor ones, who have nothing better to do with their lives. But that’s just part of a wider pattern - she’s highly controlled and repressed, much more than the other girls, and her mother is too. She kind of hinted at the situation when she talked about herself yesterday morning, but that was not the truth from her heart, she’s afraid of her truth. Everything must be perfect, even within the family. She thinks her father has never seen her mother shit or bleed.”

Larissa shook her head. What kind of marriage was that?

“She came to this weekend hoping for something different. And you’ve blown her mind from the very start, Larissa. She spent all afternoon yesterday yearning to take her bikini top off, and terrified of doing it. Even Emily was just wearing a thong. Then, late in the afternoon, she did it. Huge for her, and only a couple of us noticed, and smiled at her for it, and then she loved it and hated it. Loved the freedom, being part of it, sticking it up her family. Hated that she kept thinking her tits weren’t perfect, and that she wasn’t behaving perfectly.”

“Wow,” Larissa said. “And then after talking to you, she turns around and pulls out those incredible performances, and then says she wants to sing that song with you? She has to know what that’ll mean, right? What did you say to her? And you think I’m magic?”

Layna nodded. “We talked about where her life goes, that she’s at a cross-roads. One path, the one laid out for her. Alison knows that path.”

“Shit yeah,” Alison said.

“Or the other path. The one she makes. I showed her Alison’s ball photos with Landon, and the expressions on your friend’s faces. That’s what she fell in love with, that big bang that makes her own space, and that’s what she wants to do. We talked more about it sometime during the night, she woke me up excited to do that. Music is her space, her voice, so her parents control it tightly. She knows where this will lead. And it’s going to be very massive because if I can, we’re going to film it this week, and I’ll take it with me to Europe with John Kerry, and show it off there. She wants me to do that.”

Larissa was just shaking her head. Surely that would be a global hit. “That’s huge in a way I haven’t imagined before. She doesn’t get a cooling off period?”

“Sort of. I’ll sit down with her with Chez and Nathan when she signs the paperwork and give her one last chance to change her mind. If she doesn’t, we might need to keep her away from her family while they go through their own cooling off period.”

“No problems. We can find somewhere. Introduce her to Mason.”

“Or she can come stay with Landon and I,” Alison said.

“If it comes to it, thanks. But today ... Larissa, it would be good if you can get her naked. You’ll have to keep trying, so be gentle but persistent. She asked me to ask you.” Larissa nodded. “And Alison, she wants a deep and meaningful with you about your choices.” Alison agreed. “Make sure you cover the costs you’ve paid too.” Sure. “I hope we can give her the strength she needs to smash her cage, but we don’t want to feed her anger, because she has it. What we said about rage ... she knows that. That’s why there’s no cooling off period, Larissa, because the rage will spill out of her somehow, and soon. This weekend has made that inevitable.”

That made sense.

“Thank you,” Larissa said to Layna. “I’m glad she opened up to you.”

Layna grinned. “I am too. OK. Sienna. What do you think?”

Larissa frowned. “On the surface, it sounded like she’s overcome a difficult upbringing. Plenty of drowning in sex there, but as she said, it wasn’t a positive experience. Did you have a good talk to her?”

“No. Did you?”

“No. So one of us should?”

“I think so. You. Maybe things are fine. But maybe they’re not. I just get this feeling that her life is very fragile, very poor family support emotionally. Lots of transactional behaviour. I wonder how good her relationship with her guy actually is, how much she talked that up. But maybe that’s her best place?”

Larissa knew about that. “OK. If I get a chance. What about Sarah?”

“Well, we planned the weekend with Sarah and Cornelia, right?” Sure. “But it’s at Cornelia’s place, and she’s totally taken control, cut Sarah out of it. She’s a bit miffed, yes?”

Larissa thought about that. “Yeah. I think so.” But Layna would be dead right, of course.

Layna nodded. “So I have a plan. I’m going to talk to the just the two of them, while you two are swimming, and put it to them, real leadership is encouraging others to achieve their best, and so you and I are super impressed with how Sarah did that for Cornelia yesterday, and that you’ll notice if Cornelia shows that same leadership skill. And that it’s important because then Sarah can make sure that we thank Cornelia and Emily properly. Difficult if Cornelia tries to control that. So if they say anything to you, you can sing that song?”

“Sure. Thanks for thinking about that. Are we done? I need to wee!”

Layna laughed. “Off you go then!”

When she’d done that, she slid back under the cover with Patti, and hugged her, since she was awake. Patti was still naked. She held Patti close and whispered to her, “The sheet was off this morning, and other girls saw. If you want, you can come out to your friends. Or we can say you’re just another straight girl who bent a little for me. Layna and Alison will back you up. Your choice.”

Patti looked at her, thinking about that. Larissa kissed her cheek tenderly. “What do you think I should do?” she whispered back.

Larissa smiled. “I think you should be honest with your friends. We’ll all still love you, it doesn’t matter.”

Patti stared at her, and then said, “I’ll think about it.”

“Hey everyone,” Cornelia said, loudly enough for everyone to hear, “it’s time for Larissa and Alison’s race, if you want to watch it.” Larissa grinned to herself, several of the girls groaned. “You’ve got some time before it ends, but come and watch. I want to see who’s going to be naked for the day.”

“Are we actually doing that, are we?” Larissa said. She knew the answer, of course, everyone would insist, and Layna would want her too.

“Hell yes!” Kayla said. “Alison or Larissa naked? This is not a hardship, but Alison, please beat her.” That got general laughter.

“Anyone would think you’re not quite straight, Kayla,” Sienna said.

“Oh, I am, but I know beauty when I see it. Why not enjoy it?”

“Oh, OK,” Larissa said, “Alison, you up for getting naked?”

“Already am! And you almost are. It’s not about getting naked, it’s about staying that way.”

“Obviously I lose,” Larissa said. “When does it last to?”

“Until you’re on the beach at the other island.”

Larissa looked at Alison in surprise, but she could see that Alison was up for that. Whatever, then. Down on the beach, she did some warm up stretches, mainly for her shoulders, while she listened to the girls making their own predictions who would win. All of them had come down to watch, in spite of groaning about getting up early. Even Emily was watching. Most of the girls were backing Larissa, so she said, “Is it just us with something at stake? What about the rest of you?” There was a thoughtful silence. “How about you all pick a side. If you pick me, and I lose, then you do breakfast naked. If you pick Alison, and she loses, you do breakfast naked.”

As she kept stretching, she listened to themselves talking each other into it. And that made them think harder. In the end, four of them went with Alison, and four with Larissa. “Well,” Larissa said, “let’s see!” She grabbed Alison’s hand, and they walked into the water. “This is by the far the most fun race I’ve had,” she said. “I have to get this same bet for the audience if ever I do it again. But I am going to try and beat you,” you said.

Alison smiled. “Try all you like, it ain’t happening.”

They lined up on the finish side, and Larissa could see the girls climbing over the rocks around to stand near it. “OK,” she said to Alison. “You call it.”

As soon as they were off, Larissa knew she was in trouble. Her game plan was simple: keep up with Alison, on her shoulder, and see if she had anything left at the end. Alison probably didn’t have that big final kick of raw power that Julian had.

She held that for twenty something laps. At the end of each double lap, she could hear the girls cheering - they were into this as much as they’d been into the game, really involved. She sat on Alison’s shoulder, getting increasingly concerned. She’d been hoping that her extra experience at ocean swimming would give her some edge, but she wasn’t seeing it, and she could feel her wall approaching soon. Alison hadn’t changed her stroke rate, kick or speed for the entire race; she was swimming like a machine.

She was pretty sure it was at twenty five laps that things started changing. Alison slowed, a distinct drop in her stroke rate. Larissa could’ve been happy with that but she had pretty much decided that she had no choice to slow down and concede the race anyway. Alison held that slower pace for three laps, and Larissa felt slightly better after that, as if she still had something left in the tank. As she expected, Alison gave a big kick for the final two laps, though not a Julian level kick, and she did her best to keep with Alison, but she knew that there was nothing she could do by this stage, Alison had her licked. At the start of the the final lap she was two body lengths behind, and it was tempting to coast to the end, but she gritted her teeth and said to herself, one more lap, she was going to die trying. She could barely think by this stage, but she realised that she had caught up to Alison’s feet when she passed the coral that marked about ten meters to go. Ten meters! She gave one last huge surge, but when she touched, she realised that Alison had beaten her by about half a meter.

She held onto the rock, resting against it under the water, taking huge breaths, and waited for the exhaustion to pass, trying not to throw up. She really did give that one everything. And Alison obviously did too. She looked up at Alison, and saw that Alison was the same, hanging on the rock gasping for breath.

She looked up at the girls, and realised that they were jumping up and down, cheering. She smiled and shook her head, what a race that was. After enough seconds, she felt a bit better, so she slid off the rock and moved over to Alison, and hugged her. “Congratulations!” she said. “I never had any chance at all. And Julian wouldn’t have even been in the picture.” Alison gave her a smile, still too exhausted to say anything.

She looked up at the audience, which had calmed down now. “Sorry to my backers,” she said, “I did give it everything.”

“What an awesome race!” Kayla exclaimed. “If that length really is seventy meters like you think, both of you are close to olympic qualifying speed. Awesome!”

“Could be in the picture,” Larissa said, “Alison considered trying to get to the Olympics in swimming, and I really took a lot off my PB through winter, Julian pushed me hard. But those last few seconds per lap, that’s where the pain really begins.”

“I’m glad I didn’t try for swimming at the Olympics,” Alison said. “That fucking hurt. I nearly didn’t make it. Larissa, you just kept coming at me.”

“Well, you earned some clothes, Alison, while me ... I guess it’s good I don’t mind being naked. Alison and I are going to swim slowly back to the beach, and I’m afraid, Layna, Kayla, Isla, and Patti, you get to join me.”

“And Emily!” Kayla said.

She smiled at her fans. “Well, I appreciate that you all believed in me, and I’m sorry I didn’t deliver.”

Kayla shrugged. “We know you tried. And it’s just us girls. So it’ll be fine.”

She swam slowly back to the beach, hugging Alison all the way. “Well, you won,” she said. “You must have trained hard.”

“Oh, you have no idea. I really wanted that. You know what I think of you, my hero and big sister in my heart, you’ll always be awesome in all regards. But now I know, I can pip you at at least one thing, and it feels really good. My whole family is going to be thrilled. They’ve all been in on the training, hoping I can get one in for the family.”

“Well, you did it. You can FaceTime them tomorrow morning and I’ll tell them how you hammered me.”

“Well, that’ll be a small consolation prize for them for everything else,” Alison said. “By the way, it turned out to be easier than I thought to get Isla naked.”

Larissa laughed. “She’s not naked yet. We’ll see how that goes.”

They waited on the beach, arms around each other, watching the girls clambering across the rocks. Sienna looked at them and laughed, “You two just aren’t shy.”

Alison shrugged. “My sister Dee got me a poster that says, ‘Swimming: a sport for the unabashed,’ though usually I have to at least wear something covering my coochie at home.”

“Alight, girls,” Kayla said, “Time to pay up!” She took her wrap off, and dropped her bikini bottoms. “There.”

Larissa smiled at her, and also Layna, who had done the same. Patti grinned at her, and licked her lips, and then did a kind of fake striptease, and then posed, tada, when she was naked. That left Emily and Isla.

“Umm,” Emily said, “I know I said, but I don’t want to get sacked.”

Larissa grinned at her. “If Cornelia’s family is stupid enough to sack you after this weekend, we’ll be lining up for you, Emily, so don’t worry about that.” Emily grinned for that, and positively ripped her uniform off.

That just left Isla. “Isla, you don’t have to. I can see it’s a bigger deal for you than the rest of us. If you just leave your thong on, I’ll do something to make up for it. Maybe I’ll stay topless at the other island.”

“Oh, no, Larissa, don’t do that. I can do this. I never have, but I can.”

Larissa smiled at her. “Sure you can. You’re not going to end up like me, comfortable naked anywhere, but you can do it here, with just us around. And you do look good, I saw that yesterday.”

“Hey, Isla,” Layna said, “Larissa’s right. This is the time and place. Girls, I know I’m not on the losing side, but maybe we should all do it, make it easier for Isla? It’s a family thing for her, I’m not sure her father’s ever seen her mother actually naked.”

The other girls laughed gently for that, and Sienna said, “Sure, I can do it. If it makes it easier for Isla.”

“What the hell,” Cornelia said, “I’m in.”

Well, they all were, now, and by the time Sarah was naked, Isla was too. She smiled shyly at Larissa.

“Well, you all know I love naked with my friends,” Larissa said, “just so close. Can we do a group hug?” They did, all in a circle, arms around each other. “Imagine,” she said, “you go home, and tell your guys that we did this. Or your mums. Going to blow their minds!”

They had a good laugh for that. Then Harper said, “On the subject of no photos, can we take a photo on the beach here of all of us later, once that we can share? I’ve really loved this weekend, it’s been life-changing, and I want to put a poster of us on my wall to remember this. And maybe we can let Larissa at least get a bikini on for just that part?” The other girls laughed, and agreed that was a very good idea.

“OK. Shall we go have brekky?” Cornelia asked. Sure, they agreed to do that. “And since we’re all wearing the same uniform as Emily, we’ll just have to help her, and Emily can eat at the table with us.” The girls laughed for that uniform thing and agreed that was a good idea.

When it was time to sit down, Alison said for Isla to sit up her lap, and she spent the entire breakfast with one arm around Isla’s waist while eating with her other hand. Larissa got their food for them.

Sienna accidentally dropped some food on her breast. She lifted it and licked it clean. “One of the privileges of having back-problem sized tits,” she explained to the others.

“I bet your boys never minded,” Harper said.

“No, they don’t. But honestly,” Sienna said, “I’d prefer smaller.” She looked around the room. “Isla’s for instance. Fucking awesome.” Larissa wondered whether Layna had worded her up. “The girl I had, she was that size. She said the guys loved them just fine, though not quite as much as I did.”

Larissa laughed. “It’s super weird, you know. All my friends obsess about them. Too big. Too small. Too perky. Nips too big, too small, whatever. As if the guys won’t like them. Well, I’ve talked to enough guys about this. Guys like them. They don’t care about all that stuff. If you like them, they like them more. And if you stick them in their face, they know just what to do with them. So we should just stop worrying about them, and being critical of them, and smile at what we’ve got, and use them to blow their minds.”

“I’ve got this game I play with Julian, you know. Some friend of mine, she’s worrying about her tits, something. Cause we’re always talking about sex, right?” Grins for that. “So I call Julian over, and say, what do you think, comment on my friends tit’s. And he goes, what the fuck, are you trying to kill me here?” The girls all laughed for this. “And then he refuses to comment, and I say he won’t get laid if he doesn’t, and he responds that he won’t get laid if does, but since he’s screwed either way, or rather, since he’s not screwed either way, then...” the girls burst into laughter for that. “Anyway, then, he says he might as well the truth, and gives them a really heartfelt compliment, and manages to work into it that he really wishes he could get his hands on them, and then he refuses to say anything more. And then I say, you can’t get a more honest take on your tits than that. And he’s never seen a pair of tits that he can’t compliment and sound sincere when he says he wants to get his hands on them.”

“I bet!” Patti said, and they all burst into laughter.

“But that’s really lovely,” Sarah said, when they stopped laughing. “Julian’s happy to do that?”

“Sure,” Layna said, “Larissa has trained Julian very nicely, he’s always looking for opportunities to make girls feel good about themselves, encourage them to be strong and confident. It’s awesome having him at my right hand. Joe’s naturally like that too, and they’re bouncing off each other at that. They get lots of very close female friends, get lots of hugs and kisses. Oh, and with guys too.”

“They kiss guys?”

“Sure they do,” Layna said, and told them why they both had the campaign around getting guys to kiss each other. That caused lots of interest.

It was time to tidy up from breakfast. Most of the girls helped, but Alison dragged Isla over to a bean bag in the corner, sat Isla on her lap over there, and talked to her. The other girls had showers, worked on their hair, or put moisturiser on each other, laughing because they’d never done it for naked friends before. Gradually, they put light wraps or bikinis on. Larissa did their hair - she’d done it for all of them now, or put moisturiser on their faces, arms, and for Patti, her chest, for which she got a very genuine smile. Then Sienna and Harper called her over, and did her hair and rubbed cream in over most of her body. “Larissa,” Sienna said quietly to her from behind. “I’ve learnt a lot from watching you this weekend. At first, I thought you were all about sex, particularly given your reputation. But I quickly saw, while that’s true, you’re one of the best friends I’ve ever seen, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Harper had heard that, and she smiled. “I agree,” she said, quietly. She held Larissa’s hands to her chest and said, “I’ll try and be more like you.”

Sienna was running her hands over Larissa’s back, just killing time, really. When Harper got up to do something else, Sienna said even more quietly, “You had a little committee meeting with Layna and Alison this morning, I saw. I guess you talked about Isla.” She stopped, and looked at Isla. Larissa looked over and saw Alison hugging Isla close, still talking, and Patti now lying on the floor next to them listening. She hummed her agreement - there didn’t seem much point denying it. “Did you talk about me?”

Larissa turned her head in surprise, and found Sienna regarding her solemnly. She decided to go with the truth. “We did. Are you OK? We wondered. You have a tough history to deal with. We agreed that I’d try to find time for a heart to heart with you. Maybe there’s something we can do to help you, or just talking will help.”

“What’s the quid pro quo? Isla’s is huge, doing that with Layna ... gobsmacking.”

“There’s no quid pro quo,” Larissa said. “We didn’t ask Isla to do that, and we won’t treat her any differently if she decides not to do that after all, and there’s none for you. We want you to be strong, confident, loved, at peace. If we can help you with that, we will. If you want to do something with us, then we’re happy to talk. But that’s entirely separate.”

Sienna thought about that and then leant forward and kissed her on the cheek. “We will talk later, thanks.”

A few minutes later, Sarah said, “OK, girls, time for our council of war. Gather round, please.”

They sat around in a circle, on lounges and bean bags. Larissa was naked, of course. She was surprised to see that three other girls had stayed naked with her. The rest of them had bikinis or beach wraps on. Except for Layna, who had Larissa’s sarong on and that was the only thing she was wearing. Layna gave Larissa a grin. Alison, Isla, and Patti had stayed naked, and they were all sitting together on a single lounge, Alison in the middle with her arms around both of them.

“OK,” Sarah said, once they were all settled, and Emily had made sure they all had cold water. “I see Emily is still in uniform.”

Emily laughed - she was still naked. “I’m staying like this,” she said, “Until you’re all gone. Saves on washing!” They laughed for that.

“So we’ve had a great weekend, and a lovely getting to know you session that Cornelia ran yesterday, and she did a great job. This morning, it’s our council of war. Given what we learnt about each other, and taking our examples from Larissa and Layna, what do we want to do with our lives? All of us are doing some things, charities and boards and initiatives, we heard that yesterday, and those are good things. Do we want to do more? What are the big problems we want to take on, what could we do about them? It’s entirely up to you girls, and me. We can do something together, or individually, or we can decide we’re doing enough. Or we can decide that we’re doing something with Larissa or Layna. I asked Layna this morning, and she says they didn’t come here looking to get you to do stuff with them, and they aren’t needy, but if you want to support them, then naturally they’ll appreciate the help.”

“Or maybe you’re like me, and you realise that you really need to do some personal development after this weekend, building better relationships. Maybe you want to talk about that, but you don’t have to, of course. I already know that this is one the great weekends of my life, and I can trust all of you if I need some support in my personal development later.”

“Cornelia and I talked about this. We’re not going to be as structured as we were yesterday, in terms of walking around the circle. Instead, Layna’s going to keep a list of things that we want to talk about it on the TV here, and we’ll work through it.” The list was empty. “Does that make sense to everyone?” The girls were all nodding their heads. “OK. Does anyone want to go first?”

“I do,” Patti said, “before my nerve fails me.” She stood up in the middle of the circle. “Here I am. Naked.” She took a deep breath. “Can’t hide anything, right?” The other girls were nodding. “You all saw that I slept in Larissa’s arms last night. I asked her to do that, and she did, out of compassion for me. Then this morning, she said, if I wanted, we could say that I was just another straight girl who kinked a bit for Larissa. Apparently there’s a few of you.” Most of them, apparently. Embarrassing, but she was used to it now. “Lovely, because Larissa is possibly the most loving person I know. But she knows the truth, and said I’d be better off if you know it too. Girls, I’m gay through and through.”

Harper jumped up, and hugged her. “Great, Congratulations. I’m really pleased you told us. Girls, this is Patti, one of my best friends all through school and she still is. I recommend her to you as a faithful friend, and I love her just like I always have.”

Sweet, what a lovely reaction, Larissa thought and nearly said.

“Thanks, Harper, I love you too. I feel so good right now. It’s always been my big dirty secret, you know.”

“I can see that. Your family don’t know? Girls, Patti’s played the game, had boyfriends. Did they know?”

“My mom and dad know. They don’t care if I’m gay personally, but it’s a secret, no one else to know. I’m allowed female lovers, but I must have boyfriends, and they’re the only ones allowed to sleep over night. My mums attempt at conversion therapy, because I have to extend the dynasty, right?. So I couldn’t help myself last night, when Isla slept with Layna, and I finally got my all night cuddle with a girl. Larissa, thanks.”

“That’s fine, Patti. It broke my heart, thinking you how had to let all those boys screw you when you weren’t interested, and missing out on one of the great pleasures of life, a sleepover with your bestie. So sad, and I was happy to cuddle you all night.”