The Date, Part Eight
Part Eight
Hallie screamed.
The brief struggle against Liv taking her towel had kept her quiet due to the surprise and shock, but a camera pointed at her naked body was more than enough to snap her out of it. “Tara!!” Hallie exclaimed. She reflexively wrapped her arms around herself; one firmly over her breasts and the other protecting her most private area. “What the hell?!”
“Too slow,” Tara chuckled. She tilted the screen towards Liv, the perhaps not so incompetent waitress. “Look at that, Liv. The arms are a tiny bit blurry, but you can see her boobs perfectly.”
“And her vag,” Liv smiled, peering a little more closely at the photo, “Fully shaved. Is it always like that, or is this a special surprise for Jake?”
“Oh, they haven’t had sex yet! Hallie’s only a slut around boys she’s stealing. She’s been putting on quite the prudish show for dear Jakey.”
By the time Tara offered the photo up to Liv, Hallie had fully protected herself with her arms, but it seemed like the damage had already been done. A smarter move might have been to grab the towel or the phone, but her desire for modesty, especially outdoors, had overridden anything else. Before she could even get the question out, Tara had answered it for her. ‘Shit. SHIT.’ A small knot formed in Hallie’s stomach as she stood there totally naked.
Did Mark tell Tara? Is that why the two of them really broke up?
She had suspected as much when Tara announced the break-up so soon after that Christmas house party, but had quickly put the theory to bed. Hallie thought she had gotten away with it all the way up until the break-up, and had braced herself for the social suicide she had brought on herself thanks to her curiosity and lowered inhibitions. When that didn’t happen, Hallie’s next theory had been that Tara knew (or suspected) that Mark cheated with someone, but didn’t know who. But Tara and Mark were cordial around each other following the break-up. It seemed like a painless split, so Hallie had just shrugged the whole thing off and figured that she got away with it.
Apparently not.
“Tara, please!” Hallie exclaimed. In her flustered state, she couldn’t decide what to say beyond that. ‘Please delete that.’ ‘Please give me something to wear.’ ‘Please stop showing a stranger such a revealing picture.’
And then Hallie noticed something else. That was HER phone in Tara’s hands. When did Tara get that? How did she know the password? A naked photo of her in the hands of a spiteful girl would have been mortifying enough, but combining that with access to her contacts and social media accounts made her want to throw up.
“Oh don’t worry, Hallie.” Tara said. Her amused smile had faded into an emotionless expression as she slipped Hallie’s phone into her dress, letting her bra cup hold it for now. “If you do as I say, you’ll be fine.”
Hallie only half listened to the conditional words. Her eyes had already flitted down to Tara’s chest. Tara and Liv were only a few steps away. A quick charge would be all it took. Grab the phone, grab the towel, protect her modesty. Of course, she would still be trapped in only a towel, but it was better than nothing.
Unfortunately, Tara seemed to follow her gaze and read her mind. “Eyes up here, Hallie. Before you get any bright ideas, I already sent that lovely picture to my phone and Liv’s. Just in case. Now, do you want the whole world to see your naked body, or just us?”
“I-” Hallie’s voice caught in her throat. She was trapped. Aside from the picture, she was still stuck outside without a shred of clothing on top of that.
Apparently her silence was enough to imply her compliance. “That’s what I thought. So, you want me and Liv to see your naked body. Perfect. Now then, we’re going to do a little photoshoot. Just do some poses for us, and you can be on your way.”
That’s-
The way Tara phrased it was awful. Though she had only given Hallie two choices, saying that Hallie ‘wanted’ it made her blush and awkwardly glance away. But the next part was worse. A photoshoot?! Tara wanted to take more pictures of her while she was naked? No. Absolutely not.
Snapping a picture while she was unable to cover was one thing. But taking more when she was actively posing for them . . .
Hallie was a rather intelligent girl. Despite her promiscuous tendencies, she wasn’t one of those girls who prioritized boys over everything else. She was a straight A student with an active social and extracurricular life. For her, horny collegiate boys had just been another thing to ‘study,’ to prepare her for more mature relationships after graduation. The only reason Tara had been able to guide her into being naked in a towel outdoors is because she combined logic and trust.
Point is, Hallie had seen things like this before. In a lot of TV shows. A damning piece of blackmail leads a character to do the villain’s bidding for over half a season until it all comes crumbling down. It had always made her roll her eyes, especially when that first shred of blackmail came to light anyway near the end. If he/she just sucked it up and dealt with the consequences of the initial problem, the rest of the issues wouldn’t have stacked up.
And yet, after all that eye rolling at fictional characters, she couldn’t find the willpower to put her foot down when asked to do something that would give Tara more blackmail against her. Besides, it wasn’t just the pictures. She was also still naked! Inside the fancy restaurant and outside in the open air were both terrible options without clothes. All she could do was beg for mercy and hope Tara gave it to her.
“Tara, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” Hallie said. She forced herself to meet Tara’s eyes. “Please, don’t make me do this. I’ll do anything else.”
“Hmm, anything else?” Tara mused. She gave Hallie a hard look. The tone in her voice made the knot in Hallie’s stomach tighten, as did the following silence. “Okay,” she finally said, “If you don’t want a photoshoot, then you may run home as you are.”
Hallie’s eyes widened. “T-Tara . . . that’s like five miles!” Five naked miles. Best case scenario, she’d be seen by countless people. Walking or running, she couldn’t cover everything. Worst case scenario, she’d get arrested for public indecency.
“You said ‘anything else,’ didn’t you?”
“But-”
“No ‘buts,’ Hallie. Naked photoshoot, or naked run. Take your pick.”
Tara crossed her arms, and Liv followed suit. Both fully clothed girls glared at her in silence, leaving her to choose one of the two horrible options.
As if there was a choice. Quietly, Hallie verbally accepted the first. “. . . Photoshoot . . .”
“What was that, Hallie?”
“I’ll do the naked photoshoot,” Hallie flushed. She knew the quickest way to end all this was to just do as Tara said. Fuck! There were so many boys at that party. Why did she have to pursue Mark? Why did Tara have to tell all those sexy stories that led to such temptation? There was blame to go around, but Hallie knew (and far too late) that she had royally fucked up. If Tara had been secretly holding onto her anger for this long, there was no chance in hell that she could be talked down. And it seemed like the price to pay was to bare herself to her own camera. Hallie had lasted the entirety of her life so far without being pantsed or pranked in some exposing way. After all that, she was about to show everything . . . The slim silver lining was the fact that the phone wasn't pointing in her direction as she more boldly said that she would do so.
Tara just smiled. It was the first time she had done so since her scowling expression that rested on her face ever since she revealed what she knew about Mark, but it wasn’t anything like the smiles Hallie had seen since the beginning of her friendship with Tara. It was somewhere between victorious and menacing. “Good. Hands by your side, Hallie. Or would you prefer to be called ‘slut’ instead?”
Hallie just glanced away. Partially out of shame, and partially to take a tiny peek at the small parking lot and the grassy clearing beyond it. She wasn’t sure if the question was rhetorical or not, but chose not to answer.
No people around. It still didn’t change the fact that they were outdoors. The sun hung low in the sky, offering more than enough light for anyone walking by to catch a glimpse of her. Though she was tucked back in the mostly concealed area behind the restaurant, the corner of the deck didn’t hide her completely.
She was naked. Outside.
Without the protection of a towel or her own arms, she would be truly exposed for the first time outdoors. Skinny dipping in the dark was one thing, but this was something else entirely. In response to Hallie’s hesitation, Tara lightly cleared her throat. She held up Hallie’s phone. Even if no one nearby witnessed it, there would be very clear evidence of her doing something so shameless. And there was nothing Hallie could do about it.
Going completely against every instinct telling her otherwise, Hallie slowly lowered her arms.