Com[f]ort [f]rom a dear friend

Hey guys, I'm Shannon. I'm workshopping my new novel, and I was hoping to get some feedback. Please let me know what you think!

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I was in over my head. I knew I was. I was living on my own for the first time in my life, in a one bedroom apartment on the south side of town, paying my own bills, buying my own groceries. My job barely brought in enough money to keep my head above water, and my student loan debt was growing by leaps and bounds every semester.

By being very careful with my spending, I was able to set aside about $1000 over the course of October and November for Christmas presents for my friends and family. Then, on the very first day of December, I was driving through an intersection and a Blazer clipped my back end. I screamed out loud while my car spun around, and I just caught sight of the other car as it drove away.

The repairs totally wiped out my Christmas fund and cut my grocery budget in half for the week.

I was crushed. I called my best friend Cassie when I got home from the body shop, and she rushed over with two bottles of my favorite wine to comfort me.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I said, wiping tears from my cheeks with a wad of Kleenex.

“I’ll let you pick up a few of my shifts,” Cassie said. “You can make up a little money that way.”

I had met Cassie at the restaurant where we both waited tables. She was 5’8”, with blonde hair down to the middle of her back. She worked out all the time, so her body was just about perfect, and she always wore low-cut shirts to show off her C-cup breasts. She always made great money.

I was jealous of her in a lot of ways. She was confident and charming. My breasts were bigger, but I couldn’t bring myself to dress the way she did. I was 5’10”, with short brown hair. I didn’t work out nearly as much as Cassie, but I was always naturally skinny. The trouble was that I had always been shy. Cassie always told me that I would make more money if I would just flirt with the customers, but I could never get enough confidence to do it effectively.

“Thanks,” I said, “but I can’t do that. I have finals coming up. It’s hard enough finding time to study with the shifts I already have.”

“Could you ask your family for money?”

I laughed. “Right. I’m going to ask my family for money to buy Christmas presents for them. I might as well tell them to go out and buy what they want for themselves.”

“If I had the money, I’d give it to you myself.”

I took her hand and squeezed it.

“I know,” I said. “You’re the sweetest.”

Cassie looked around my living room.

“Do you have anything you could sell?”

“Nothing of any value,” I said. “Just the camera that my dad gave me for my birthday. I feel like I just learned how to use it.”

We polished off the first bottle of wine watching Friends on Netflix. When Cassie opened the second bottle, I was starting to feel good.

Then Cassie sat straight up on the couch. I could practically see the light bulb switching on in her eyes.

“Oh my God,” she said. “I just had an idea.”

“What? What is it?”

I sat up too. Just watching her was getting me excited.

“Okay, so, you’re going to have to keep an open mind here.” She set her wine glass on the coffee table. When she was really jazzed about something, she got really animated when she talked. “I read on the internet about these guys who buy women’s panties. Like, they get off on it. You send them a picture of yourself wearing the panties, and they pay, like, ridiculous amounts of money. You could make bank.”

I rolled my eyes and slumped back on the couch.

“I’m serious!” Cassie slapped my knee. “I told you to keep an open mind!”

“I don’t think my mind opens that far.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“God, Cassie, I don’t know. Maybe I just don’t like the idea of some weirdo sniffing my panties!”

“Fine.”

Cassie picked up her glass and took another drink.

“That’s your main issue? The pantie-sniffing?”

“I guess,” I said. “Why?”

“Okay.” She set her glass down again. “What if you just sold pictures?”

I frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, like, some sexy pictures. You have that nice camera and all. And guys on the internet will buy them, I promise you. You’re this sweet, innocent girl who wants to make some money to buy her family presents. If you frame it like that, I guarantee you’ll find some sweet, kind-hearted perverts–and I mean that in the best possible way–to help you out. You post like one racy picture, tell them there’s more where that came from if they pay up.”

“I don’t know, Cassie.”

“Come on! What do you have to lose? Just give it a shot. If you don’t make any money, you’re at least not out anything.”

My heart was beating out of my chest.

“You know I’m too shy to do something like that.”

“I’ll help you. I’ll handle all of the online stuff, so you won’t even have to talk to the guys.”

I downed my entire glass of wine. My hands were sweating. My thoughts were all over the place. The one concrete idea in my head was money. If this worked as well as Cassie seemed to think it would, then I would be able to buy gifts for my family and friends. Maybe I would even have some money left over for myself.

Cassie picked up the wine bottle, and I let her refill my glass.

“Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll do it with you. That will be my Christmas present to you.”

“Seriously?”

My heart felt like it was going to break through my ribs.

“Sure. You’ll probably make twice as much with both of us in the shots. Guys eat that shit up.”

“What kind of pictures are we talking about here?”

“You know, like, sexy pictures. We’ll start out in nice dresses, and we’ll just strip down.”

“Naked?”

Cassie laughed. “Yes, silly. Come on! It will be fun. Haven’t you ever done a Skype striptease for your boyfriend?”

“Never!”

I could feel my face getting hot.

“Oh my God, it’s the biggest turn-on! You’re going to love it.”

I bit my lip. The thought of having Cassie with me made me less nervous. It also made me excited. That I had not expected. Cassie was one of the sexiest girls I had ever met, but I had never had any sexual thoughts about her. Mostly I was just jealous of her flat tummy, her blue eyes, and her gorgeous smile.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

We brought the wine bottle back to my bedroom and raided my closet. Cassie found a short black skirt that I had worn last New Year’s and a white top, left open at the top to maximize her cleavage. I wore a red dress with a modest neckline. Even though we were preparing to strip in front of a camera, I still didn’t feel bold. I was still the same nervous little mouse.

I set up my DSLR on my tripod and set the timer so it would take pictures every twenty seconds. Then I aimed the camera at my bed.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cassie said. She was kneeling on my bed, swaying her hips back and forth in excitement.

I took a deep breath and pushed the shutter button on my camera. I ran the few steps to the bed and jumped up next to Cassie, nearly knocking her over.

We both laughed, and Cassie put her arms around me for support. I felt the warmth of her body through the thin material of the dress. Only then did I realize how turned on I was. I blamed the wine. The bottle and our glasses stood on my dresser, all empty.

The flash went off while we were still laughing.

“Here we go,” Cassie said, undoing buttons on her blouse, revealing a lacy black bra.

I followed her lead by sliding the straps of my dress down over my shoulders. We paused there to let the camera capture us, still giggling nervously. After the second flash, Cassie undid the rest of her buttons and held her blouse open. She could have been a model. Her stomach was perfectly flat, and her breasts were larger than I remembered.

I pulled my dress down over my bra. I was wearing a white bra and pantie set, to contrast with Cassie’s black undies. Cassie stared at my chest.

“You have great tits, Shan,” she said.

She reached out and ran one finger across the top of my right breast. I sighed.

The camera flashed a third time.

Cassie threw her blouse to the floor and tucked her thumb in the top of her skirt, pulling it down just enough to reveal the top of her panties. I went a little further this time, sliding my dress down over my hips.

After the camera went off, Cassie unzipped her skirt and let it fall to the bed. I did the same with my dress. We knelt on my bed in our underwear, waiting for the camera to flash again. I put my hands on my hips, striking a Wonder Woman pose, and Cassie laughed.

“What? It’s awkward. I don’t know what to do with my hands.”

“Here.”

Cassie grabbed my wrist and placed my hand on her hip. She placed her hand on my side, like she was about to pull me close.

After Cassie tossed her skirt to the floor and I discarded my dress, she said, “Let’s make this a little more natural.”

She put her arms around me, and I felt her fingers at the clasp of my bra.

“You do mine,” she whispered.

The heat of her breath on my ear sent an electrical charge to my nippes. Suddenly they were so hard they ached. She unsnapped my bra, and a shiver ran down my spine. As I put my arms around Cassie, our breasts gently pressed together. I was breating heavy. Could she tell how turned on I was?

I fumbled with the clasp of her bra. God, I was like a teenage boy. I had never taken off another girl’s bra before.

Finally the clasp sprung open. We pulled apart, each removing the other’s bra, and for a moment I froze, staring at her almond brown nipples. They were as hard as mine felt. I guess she was just as turned on as I was.

“Jesus, Shan.”

Cassie was staring at my chest.

“You’ve got a pretty rockin’ body,” she said.

I’m certain my face was beet red at that point.

“So do you,” I said quietly.

“But I don’t have your tits.”

Cassie reached out with both hands and caressed the sides of my breasts, tracing lines with her fingertips, coming close but never quite touching my nippes.

In a haze, half from the wine and half from the unfamiliarity of the situation, I followed Cassie’s lead. My hands were shaking. Starting at her hips, I let my fingertips slide over the smooth skin of her tummy, tracing the curve beneath her breasts, then caressing the top of her breasts, circling her nipples.

I felt an urge and without thinking I gave in. I pinched her nipple.

“Hey!” Cassie laughed. She retaliated by pinching and gently twisting both of my nipples.

I thought my legs were going to give out.My panties were soaked. I was so turned on that I had forgotten all about the camera.

Cassie patted my hip.

“Stand up,” she said.

I rose, following her instruction without thinking. Cassie knelt before me and hooked her fingers into the elastic band of my panties. Slowly she tugged them down, now the right side, now the left side, exposing me inch by inch. When my pussy was exposed, Cassie lifted her head and we locked eyes. She had a hungry look, like she was ready to knock me down on the bed and have her way with me. And I would have let her. In that moment, staring into her sapphire eyes while my panties fell to the bed, I was hers. She could have done absolutely anything to me.

I stepped out of my panties and kicked them off the bed.

“Your turn,” I said.

Cassie stood, and for a moment we were face to face again. Our breasts brushed together, and I felt her nipples touch mine.

Maintaining eye contact, I knelt in front of her. I brought my hands up to her breasts and ran them slowly, teasingly down her stomach until I reached her panties. I could smell her, and I realized then that she had probably seen and smelled just how wet I was when she was in this position.

I broke eye contact and pulled her panties down, exposing the deep V shape below her stomach, exposing a thin strip of blonde pubic hair, exposing her pussy. I had never been so close to a woman’s pussy before. It was beautiful. Her lips parted slightly, covered with drops of moisture.

With one last tug, her panties came free and fell to the bed. She kicked them to the floor.

We locked eyes, and Cassie ran her fingers through my hair.

“Now what?” she asked.

Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/2u3nt5/comfort_from_a_dear_friend