Chapter 3

Anna continued playfully, slowly paddling her legs while lying on her stomach on the floor of her living room once the gentlemen left with her mother. Her brother was on the couch with me. He seemed nonchalant about the exchange and was watching the TV program as well.

They both seemed bored rather than shocked.

I was too embarrassed to say anything about it. It seemed to me that maybe their mother was a prostitute. All I knew about Women of the Night was from movies and pop culture. I assumed they wore garish costumes and walked the streets at night in the poor section of town.

Anna’s neighborhood wasn’t wealthy, but it wasn’t the ghetto. I didn’t think men came over to women’s houses for sex for money. Yet, that’s all I could think about once the door was shut.

Anna reached behind her body absent-mindedly and ran her finger down her ass crack. It wasn’t a sensual move. It was more akin to pulling your shorts out of your bottom when they bunch up. However, it seemed inappropriate given that for a brief moment, her brother and I saw her pussy flaps extended like wings between her legs and the tender hint of her pink anus.

Anna’s anus was entirely different than her mother’s asshole. Rachel had dark-colored skin, and I could see the actual wrinkles around the center. The skin was darker around the hole.

In the brief moment that Anna ran her finger down her crack, I had the impression that Anna’s anus was smooth and pink like well-chewed bubble gum someone had left on the ground and flattened with their sneaker.

“Why don’t you make us some popcorn, Brodie?” Anna politely asked after she returned her hand to where it had been in front of her body.

“Why don’t you get off your lazy ass and make it yourself instead of showing off for your girlfriend?”

“She’s NOT my girlfriend,” Anna’s abrupt protest almost felt insulting. We were simply friends, but the insinuation was that the thought we could be anything more was unthinkable to her. Anna briefly stopped herself and looked up at me apologetically without commenting on her remark. She glared at her brother and said, “How am I showing off? I always strip off when I get home from school,” she shrugged.

“Trust me, Anna. You don’t have much to show off besides a fat bubble butt and a flat chest. I meant ordering me around to make you guys popcorn,” he stood up reluctantly.

“Oh, Jeez, you aren’t doing anything. What’s the big deal?”

“I am not your slave,” he said as he went into the kitchen and put a popcorn bag in the microwave.

“You wish you were,” she teased.

That was the only exchange between them. It had been so subtle and fast that I almost missed it. When Anna said “Slave,” my thoughts began to coalesce around the collar that her mother wore. It made Rachel appear like a BDSM slave or submissive of some sort.

I had no idea what BDSM really was or wasn’t – only a few images I had seen on the internet. I had no real interest in it. However, I was suddenly desperate to do a Google search for collars and bondage. I might be able to make some sense of what was happening.

I imagined that Rachel was kneeling before that stranger while he gave her commands – sexual ones.

pa-pap-pop-pa, the sound and smell of the buttery popcorn interrupted my thoughts.

“What are you looking for, Susan?” Anna asked me why I was fidgeting.

I had begun instinctively searching for my phone without realizing it. I normally kept it with me at all times. I realized I had left it on the table in a basket with the others at her mother’s instructions and told her that I was looking for it.

“Oh, Brodie, my dear, can you bring our phones too?”

“I am going to slather this popcorn with butter and salt and bring you a bowl, but I will not be your fetch and step boy for the rest of the night,” he joked pleasantly as he removed the popcorn and began separating it into bowls for us.

“I’ll get it,” I volunteered politely.

“Get mine too, pretty please?” Anna blinked at me. She had removed her eyebrows, but she fluttered her eyelashes at me playfully.

I did as I was told and brought it to her.

“Thank you,” she patted the ground next to her. I was not inclined to sit on the carpet. However, her brother placed my bowl of popcorn next to his sister’s before getting his own and plopping on the couch.

“How should I sit?” I asked awkwardly.

“Any way you want,” Anna smiled.

I felt strange. There was no rule at my house about not sitting on the carpet, but we had enough chairs, and nobody did that. I hadn’t since I was little. It seemed like something a child or a pet would do.

“Lay down on your stomach like me,” Anna realized that I was dumbfounded by the request. I did as she suggested, and she smiled and popped some yellow buttered popcorn into her mouth.

Fifteen minutes went by without much talking. We ate our popcorn and watched the program. In one scene, two girls named Manny and Paige are at the mall.

Manny was Hispanic and nothing like Anna physically, but I associated her with my friend. She desired to be adventurous and change her look. She was on a mission to be “not cute, not adorable – hot!”

She wanted to win over a boy that barely noticed her. I could relate to that – although Manny’s transformation seemed a bit over the top to me. She wasn’t making gradual changes. She was making big ones.

The blonde friend Page was supportive but more reluctant. She had braces and reminded me of me – a rule follower. The two girls were at the mall, and she picked up a thong in the lingerie department and said she didn’t think they should sell that at the mall. I was not that BIG of a prude, but I did not own any thongs either.

Manny took the thong and got a bright idea, and the next thing that you know she is strutting down the halls with a bejeweled G-string pulled waist high, a pair of low riders, an off-the-shoulder crop top, and a floppy hat. All the boys were staring as Manny walked by. “Yeah, as if!!”

Anna finally protested the plot, and called it unbelievable.

“Yeah, we’d get kicked out of school for dressing like that,” I said.

“What?” Anna and her brother both looked at me like I was nuts. Brodie said girls wore far skimpier outfits than that. That was true, but nothing quite that garish. Keep in mind, this episode was from almost ten years before I was born, and the outfits were totally different back then.

The slutty outfits of my time seemed far more “acceptable” because they weren’t so trashy.

“I just meant that this show isn’t realistic. Everyone is supportive of how Manny is dressed. No one wants her to conform to the norm,” Anna used the catchphrase like that would be the last thing she wanted to do was be like everyone else. “No jealous girls are teasing her; suddenly, all the boys want her,” Anna looked disappointed.

“Yeah, because she looks like she’d put out,” Brodie made the observation with an expression that read he’d get with Manny as well if she dressed that way.

“The actress that played her is older than Mom,” Anna frowned.

“I am sorry girls are so mean at school,” I apologized to Anna for the way she obviously got treated. “I don’t even get that. I feel invisible.”

“Shave your head, and you can experience the joys of constant teasing,” Anna joked. I had witnessed some of the mean jokes she endured. Anna pointed out that they recycled them, and she had heard them all. “Cancer victim, cue ball, bowling ball, skinhead.”

“So why do you shave your head?” I asked what felt like an obvious question. If she didn’t like the reaction that she got. I could fathom her motivation if she truly wanted the appeal of all the boys in school.

I had already asked the question, but now I regretted it.

Anna glared at me as if I had just trumpeted a fart when I asked the question. I felt stupid and started to blush.

“Don’t believe Anna. She loves the attention,” Brodie said.

“I do not like being teased about it,” Anna clarified somberly.

“You don’t like it when I say you are so bald that I can read your mind?”

“No!” she tossed a piece of popcorn at her brother’s head.

“What about you, You’re so bald; the Hair Club for Men has elected you president!”

“That doesn’t even make sense, you turd!” she whipped another kernel of popped corn at her brother, and it bounced harmlessly off his knee.

“Oh, I know; how about if we draw a little line on the top of your head. It will look like a penis!” he teased and chuckled.

Anna turned around abruptly in time to continue watching the show – effectively ignoring her brother and giving him the cold shoulder. I thought she would say something snarky to him, but she clearly had the resolve to bite her tongue.

“Oh, what? Too far? Hey,” he said as she picked up a kernel of corn and flung it at his sister’s buttocks. It bounced harmlessly off and onto the carpet. She ignored it. “Pick these up!”

The siblings harmlessly bickered. When Rachel opened her door, I felt like we were caught doing something we should not be doing. Rachel glared at the three of us. I felt like I had been part of the bickering simply by extension of being next to my friend on the carpet. I sat up immediately and picked up the popcorn.

Rachel looked sweaty – not sweaty like exhausted. She had a fine sheen of sweat coating her body like olive oil. She looked refreshed and placid.

The man was fully dressed, just as he had been when he went into her room and looked pleased and relaxed, but not like he had exerted himself. He politely bent at the knees and tried to kiss her on the lips. It was a polite kiss, and perhaps the only reason I noticed was that she was naked. He pushed his body into hers just enough that her nipples dragged the material of his shirt in the brief instant of physical contact.

It was obvious to me from Rachel’s body language she hadn’t invited him to do that or wanted it. However, she politely accepted the kiss. “Thank you for coming by. When will I see you again?”

“I’ll make an appointment soon,” he replied. He stared right past me down at Anna’s naked ass. I could tell he was looking through me like I was a window.

“You always say that, and then I don’t hear from you again for a month. I can give you a break on weekly sessions,” she offered.

“I do need it, but I will have to think about it,” he politely refused the offer. I could tell that Rachel was being a little pushy and selling a service – but what kind? She said “massage,” but I had already associated whatever she was doing with sexual services.

As soon as the man left, Rachel spun on her kids and lambasted them. I assumed it was for something they said in front of her client, but instead, it was about me.

“Anna, why is your friend cleaning up the mess you and your brother made?”

“How do you know she didn’t make it with us?” Anna sat up. The carpet had left small red imprints on her chest and tight little tummy.

Rachel arched what would have been an eyebrow if she hadn’t shaved them off. It was clear she didn’t think I was a troublemaker. I would ordinarily associate that with a compliment. However, I felt like there was something wrong with me. I was definitely someone that conformed to the norm. It was obvious to me that people saw me as incapable of getting into trouble, and I suddenly wanted to change that, like the characters on Degrassi.

Rachel placed her hands on her hips and stared at the TV while I threw the popcorn away. “I watched this episode back when I was in high school. Do these kids ever graduate?” she laughed. She got down on the floor with her daughter and lay casually on her belly. Rachel’s tits were quite a bit bigger, and they naturally acted as a boost to raise her body off of the carpet.

I returned to the carpet and lay down in the same position as Rachel and her mother. I assumed perhaps that was a rule in their house. I wondered if girls HAD to lie on the ground with their butts on display.

My mind raced through various scenarios where that made it easier to spank them or pinch their bottoms.

The fantasy didn’t quite add up to me, though. It was clear Brodie wasn’t in charge, even if he was the only one allowed on the couch. His mother frequently talked down to him, and so did Anna. Who would enforce the rules? Who would pinch the butts?

Then I wondered if perhaps Rachel’s customers did it. That, too, didn’t make a lot of sense. Rachel clearly took them into her room for privacy.

I began to theorize about Anna’s father. He might be the missing piece of the puzzle. He might have made the rule and then left or died.

Naturally, there was no rule at all. I found out because, at some point, Anna began sitting up with her butt flat on the carpet and her legs around her popcorn. Her mom shared with her from her bowl until it was all gone.

“Hey, you ate all of my popcorn!” Anna noted with mock surprise.

“Hear this?” Rachel smiled and rubbed her thumb and finger together while grinning. “It’s the world’s smallest violin!”

It was sarcasm but nothing mean-spirited. It was totally different than my mother’s more serious tone with me. She didn’t talk down to me at all, and I doubted she’d have ever eaten my popcorn and joked about it.

My mom was polite, serious, and considerate. She was, to be quite frank, what I was destined to become if I continued on my path.

I was envious of Anna’s relationship with her mother. They seemed like best friends on some level.

That evening we adjourned to Anna’s room. She remained naked. She shut the door when she went to the bathroom to take her shower. I wondered why she bothered if she didn’t care if her brother saw her naked.

I found that it was easier to joke and talk with Anna after dinner when we were alone and her mother and Brodie weren’t around.

They weren’t judgmental. I think it was simply the fact that when I had 100% of my friend’s attention, and I could say anything to her – I felt like I should. I found it easy to talk to her and not be forced. We talked about nothing in general. It wasn’t anything deep, and even if I remembered what was said – the details weren’t important.

Fast forward two hours in. Rachel knocked on the bedroom door and then entered after getting permission. I found that interesting – because I assumed they did not value or desire privacy. “Okay, girls, I know you are going to stay up and gab all night, so I am not going to tell you that you HAVE to go to bed. I am going to tell you good night, though, and that you probably SHOULD try to get some sleep,” she smiled warmly.

The look on Rachel’s face suggested she empathized with us and didn’t expect us to adhere to any strict lights-out/bedtime rules.

“You are welcome here anytime, Susan. You are just an angel! Your mom texted me, and we had a long chat.”

I was suddenly alarmed.

Rachel could read my body expression and assured me that what was said was all positive.

“Does Mom know you are naked?”

Rachel laughed. “She didn’t ask what I was wearing. Is what I have on, or don’t have, going to be a problem to her?” Rachel implied it might be a problem with me as well.

“No, I just...” I summoned the courage to spit out my thought and admit that I didn’t want my parents to know that she and Anna were naked.

“If they asked, I would tell them. I don’t believe in secrets. I also don’t advertise how I choose to live either. I am more comfortable without clothes, and this is my house. If you want to tell your parents I won’t tell you what to do there. That is your call. I did warn Anna that she probably shouldn’t freak you out on your first trip to our house. It’s not my intention to freak your parents out either. You are perfectly safe here, but if they don’t want you here then I’d respect that decision as well.”

“Susan has been over many times!” Anna blushed.

“Yeah, but you could have given Susan a heads up,” Rachel smirked at her daughter in response.

“You don’t tell all your customers that I am going to be naked, do you?” Anna countered defiantly. I got the distinct impression Anna was just trying to be coy. I would have simply accepted my mother’s feedback and not tried to find fault with her.

I was surprised that her mother would entertain arguing with her about this.

“My clients know that I perform Reiki healing and Tantric massage fully nude. We talked about this when you first wanted to shave your head. I told you that if you insist on being in the common areas, then some of my customers are going to look at you.”

“Mom!” Anna clearly wanted her mother to stop talking about whatever arrangement or understanding they had.

“What?” Rachel’s tone suggested that she didn’t see a reason to stop talking about it since Anna had brought it up. “There is nothing sexual or provocative about nudity. It is simply the original and natural state we are born into in this world. If I teach my clients to leave their own repressions and taboos outside of my sanctum, then I would be a hypocrite if I required you to be fully dressed. You are old enough to make that decision. However, I also know that men are going to look at boobs. It’s been like that since the first titty popped out,” she playfully stroked her own tit like it suddenly exploded into existence.

“Men get curious, and they stare. As long as that’s all they do, I do not have a problem with it,” Rachel seemed to be addressing me with her comment. I wasn’t a man, but I felt she was talking to me- telling me that it was okay to stare at her body.