Coming Out of My Shell Ch. 01

The liberal arts college I attended had a strong theater program, and since I had been in a few plays in high school, I decided to sign up for an elective class in theater. It was quite different from my high school experience where we did plays like Oklahoma and never did anything remotely controversial.

But college was very different, and we seemed to always pick scenes or short plays that were very racy, and covered topics that would have been scandalous in my high school. In my very first role, my character bragged to one of her friends that she gives great blowjobs. I had to practice a bunch before I could say it without cracking up or blushing. The funniest part was that at this point in my life, I had never actually given a blowjob, so this was a true test of my acting ability.

But the biggest surprise for me was how casual theater people were about getting changed in front of each other. At this point in my life, I would always turn my back or try to find a private space to change to the point where I don't think my sisters had even seen me naked. And no boy had ever seen me naked. I had let a couple feel my breasts, and my last boyfriend in high school had gotten under my bra, but always with my shirt still on. Like I said, I was a total prude.

So here I am a freshman in college, trying to fit in with my new theater friends and not look like the inexperienced prude that I actually was. We were in the theater workshop room picking out wardrobe for an upcoming class performance of a scene we had been working on. It would only be performed in our class, but we were trying to get all the details right for our characters.

I was flipping through a rack of clothes and found a dress I thought would be great for my character. I turned around to show one of my new friends (who was a Senior) what I had found and was shocked to see her standing there topless. I immediately apologized and turned away blushing. She said, "Jane, if you are going to be in theater, you are going to have to get used to seeing people naked, especially when we get to a real performance and have to do quick changes backstage."

I turned back around and realized that of the four girls in the room, I was the only one fully dressed. One was in her underwear, one was topless but wearing her jeans, and the other was only wearing panties. I tried not to look at any particular body parts, but couldn't help but check them out a bit.

I told myself that this was part of theater and part of the college experience and I had to get past my childish habit of hiding my body if I was going to fit in. So I took a deep breath and started to undress while trying to carry on a normal conversation. It was hard at first, my brain kept telling me to turn around, my eyes kept glancing at the exposed boobs, but somehow I managed to keep talking and giving feedback on the various outfits the other girls were holding up.

Then one of the girls pointed out that I couldn't wear the dress I had on with the bra I had on. It didn't look right, and was certainly not something my character would wear. I looked in the mirror and realized she was right. Moment of truth, could I actually do it?

I tried to act casual and peeled the dress straps off my shoulders and dropped the dress to my waist. I took another deep breath and reached back and un-clasped my bra, shrugged my shoulders and watched as my bra fell forward and off. It seems silly, since it was just me and a few girls all of whom were getting dressed and undressed every couple minutes, but it was a big deal to me.

Totally unconsciously, I brushed my hands over my boobs, as if I had sand or something on them. And when I touched my nipples it was like a pleasant electric shock that travelled straight down my stomach to my pussy.

I fought the desire to rush pulling the dress back up or to turn away, or do anything that showed how freaked out I was. I actually made myself count to 5 before pulling the straps back up and settling my boobs into place in the dress.

Everyone agreed that the dress looked much better and much more in character without a bra, and as I looked in the mirror I totally agreed. It was the first time I had ever worn something without a bra. Even at home or in my dorm room I would always wear a bra unless it was bed time and I was wearing flannel pajamas. I liked how it looked, and in truth I liked how it felt. The new me, can go braless at least with the right dress, I thought to myself.

I picked out a scarf and some shoes to go with the costume, and then it was time to change back into my street clothes. Feeling very brave, I slipped the dress off and now wearing only my panties, I took my time putting the dress back on the hangar and gathering up the shoes and scarf. I even walked over when one of the other girls asked my opinion on her dress, and managed to stand there topless and talk with her for 3-4 minutes as she turned around looking in the mirror, and then as she stripped off the dress and stood topless in her undies.

One of the other girls said, "Jane, you really need to wear some sexier panties. Your character would never wear those. Plus you can totally see the lines through that dress."

I looked down and realized that while they weren't granny panties, they weren't sexy at all. A quick look around the room confirmed that everyone else looked like they bought their panties at Victoria's Secret and mine looked like I had bought them at Sears. This was well before thongs became popular, but they all had really cute, sexy undies, and it was absolutely true that my character would too.

I made an excuse about being behind on laundry, and I would wear a better pair when we did the show. I didn't want to admit that all my panties were the same or worse than the pair I had on. I had some shopping to do.

Using the excuse of checking out my panties in the mirror, I turned a few times and really saw myself naked, or at least topless, for the first time as somebody else would see me. Don't get me wrong, I had obviously checked out my body in the mirror many times. Usually right after a shower. But that was all clinical, and mostly critical. This was just me seeing a reflection of a topless girl in a room with 3 other topless girls. It was nice, and for once in my life the voice that always said, your boobs are to small, your hips are too big, you have a zit on your butt - that voice was silent. Don't get me wrong, for women, that voice always comes back, but I discovered that it doesn't have to always be on.

I pulled on my jeans and then put my bra and shirt back on, feeling like a totally different person than the Jane who had walked into the theater room an hour ago. I also felt like I understood my character a little better.

A few days later, with a new pair of sexy panties on, I showed up at class on the day we were doing our performance. Only to discover that there was only one changing room for both the guys and girls to share...