Photo Ops

Julie and Linnea's room was the stuff of freshman guys' fantasies all over campus. Friday afternoons were for Julie to return the favor, and that day she did so most enthusiastically.

Concertmistress, varsity cheerleader, first string tennis star, top photographer on campus, award-winning writer...between them, the two beautiful juniors could claim all those titles and a few more to spare. They could also claim to be the object of any number of crushes from guys all over campus, most they didn't even know about but a fair number they did. Linnea had long since let it all go to her head, but Julie was proud to say she had stubbornly kept her own feet on the ground.

Well, not always on the ground, Julie admitted to herself that afternoon in March when she had the room to herself for a precious bit. Right then, after all, her feet were not on the ground; they were spread wide on her bed, enjoying the early spring breeze through the open window along with the rest of her. Having long since memorized the confluences of Linnea's schedule and her own, she always knew when she'd have a bit of privacy. Friday afternoons brought cheerleading practice for Linnea, lasting an hour after Julie's advanced American literature seminar was done with.

It offered just enough time -- and the perfect time of the week -- for Julie to ring in the weekend with a bang. Today, with the misty March breeze offering a slight, pleasant chill, Julie was loving every moment of her fleeting privacy. With her panties tossed aside her shoes on the floor, she lay back with her long dark hair spilling carelessly about her pillow and pulled her skirt out of the way, and went to town on herself with both hands.

She'd been daydreaming all day about a cute grad student who was auditing the AmLit class, and now she eagerly imagined him eating her out then and there. If her fingers were a poor substitute for his tongue, her imagination made up for it as she writhed about on her comforter and thrust her hips up now and again, occasionally reaching a finger inside as she flicked about with her other fingers. Enjoying the sensation, she closed her eyes and rubbed her head back against her pillow, and threw caution to the wind with the open window and moaned.

Her moaning was loud enough that she didn't hear the closet door swing open. It was not loud enough, however, to drown out the sound of the shutter clicking. She heard that loud and clear, and she knew what it was. Her eyes flew open and she saw Linnea standing at the foot of her bed, looking sheepish, an iPhone in her hand. "Julie, I'm sorry!" she said as soon as her presence registered with Julie.

"Nae!" Julie yanked her skirt back down and sat up, feeling her face turn crimson. "What the hell?!"

Before Linnea could answer, Julie got enough over her shock to jump up and lunge for the phone. But just as she was about to do that, their room door opened and in stepped Jeff Johnson, the premier jock on campus, the male Julie-and-Linnea rolled up in one. "Hello, Julie," he said with the grin that had moistened panties all over campus -- but never Julie's; she'd never liked his cockiness. "Thank you, Nae," he added, taking the phone from Linnea and kissing her cheek.

"What the hell is this, you assholes?!" Julie jumped up and grabbed for the phone. But Jeff held it over his head and he was much taller than either of the women. When Julie leapt up to reach for it, he gave her a gruff shove in the breasts with his other hand and sent her sprawling back on her bed. Her skirt flew up around her hips, and she wasted just enough time pulling it back down to allow Linnea to pin her down on the bed and sit on her abdomen. "Get off, you bitch!" she growled. "I will never forgive you for this!"

"Julie, I'm sorry!" Linnea whined. "But you'd best listen to him if you want him to delete that photo!"

"That's right," Jeff said. He slipped the phone triumphantly into his pocket. "Julie, I believe you know Nick Evans?"

"Nick. The freshman downstairs." Julie's humiliation had turned to rage, and she felt the tears welling as she answered Jeff. He knew damn well she knew Nick. Everyone knew how she'd helped the nerdy freshman through a romantic mishap the prior semester, supporting him like an older sister after he'd made a fool of himself asking his crush to the winter formal and being rejected publicly in the dorm lounge. They also knew the poor thing had developed a crush on Julie herself after that, but he'd been smart enough to know a beautiful big-woman-on-campus like Julie wouldn't bother with him. So Julie had been spared the awkwardness of telling him as much. "Yeah, Jeff, I know Nick. Don't expect me to believe he has anything to do with this, though! He's a nerd, but he's no pervert!"

"Oh, you're quite right, Julie, he doesn't." Jeff pulled Linnea's desk chair out and sat backwards in it, his legs spread, betraying a bulge in them that Julie knew she had inspired. "The little shit's in my Spanish class, and he's been spoiling the curve for everyone all semester. That's bad enough. What's worse is, this morning, you know the Lopez Prize?"

"It's this thing where you can go study in Mexico for the summer, you see," Linnea explained.

"Shut up! Yes, I know the Lopez Prize!" Julie snapped. "What's wrong, Nick actually worked instead of showing up to class hung over, and he got the prize instead of you, Jeff?!"

"Yes!" Jeff stood up and shoved Linnea's desk chair violently away; it tipped over on the corner of a throw-rug and fell over harmlessly, but with a loud bang. "Three years I've been waiting for my chance with that, and I'm Jeff Johnson! That prize belonged to me! Not to some wimpy little freshman who probably learned Spanish from his dad's maid who molested him or something."

"What the hell do you expect me to do about it?!" Julie demanded. "And why on earth would I want to help you?"

"You don't want your pussy all over the internet, do you?" Jeff asked with a smug grin. "And I'll tell you what, I won't put it there. Not if you do one thing for me."

Julie squirmed under Linnea's weight, but she was pinned, and she had the feeling Jeff would have no qualms about beating her up if it came to that. She was defeated. "What thing, Jeff?"

"Good girl," he said. "Nick has a crush on you, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Julie said. "But he's never done anything but smile at me a little too much. He's a gentleman, not that you'd understand!"

"My thoughts exactly," Jeff said. "That's why I want you to let him think the feeling is mutual. I happen to know you don't have a date yet for the Spring Fling." He paused here and nodded to Linnea, who gave Julie a sad look to acknowledge that she had told Jeff as much. "Now you do. I want you to take Nick there, get him in a compromising position, and humiliate him. I don't care what you do, but do something he'll regret. It's his private parts that go public or yours, Julie, you understand? And I want the whole school to know about it, or else they'll know about this. Remember, the Spring Fling is the last day of March, so you can tell him it was all an April fool." He patted the bulge in his pocket, and turned to leave. With his hand on the doorknob, he paused and looked back. "An April fool he'll never forget, and neither will you, I guess, Julie. Pick you up at eight, Linnea?"

"Downstairs," Linnea confirmed with her cheerleader's grin. "Have a heart and don't make Julie see you again after this."

"Fair enough," he said. "Wear a short skirt, huh?" And he was gone.

As soon as the door was shut, Linnea jumped up and ran over to lock it. "Julie, I am so, so sorry!" she gushed as soon as she had the door locked. She stood defensively, as if she expected Julie to attack her.

But Julie only sat up and stared out the window, at the serenity that had made her feel so wonderfully alive only minutes before. At last, she let herself cry. "How could you?!" she finally said between sobs.

"Jeff said he'd go out with me if I did this for him," Linnea explained. "What would you do? You know I've been crazy about him since freshman year!"

Julie jumped up, her fists clenched in rage. "You did that to me for a date?! A date with Jeff? Linnea, you know how he treats girls! They call his room 'the waiting room', you know that!"

"Come on, Julie, you'd have done the same thing, wouldn't you?" Linnea whined. "I've been crazy about him for two years! And it won't be like that with me, when he sees how much I love him, and I mean, I'm Linnea, aren't I? Smart and beautiful, the cheerleader and the photographer? I'm not like all those other girls, he'll know that."

"And that's worth humiliating me like this?!" Julie screamed. "I've always known you were a selfish bitch, but this...I can't believe this, Nae!"

"But Julie, you heard him!" Linnea protested. "It's only an April fool's trick! Just screw that Nick kid, and he'll delete the photo! No one else will even see it, maybe not even Jeff himself!"

"Oh, come on!" Julie shouted. "You really think he won't look at it?"

"Well, so what if he does?" Linnea sniffed. "He's probably seen hundreds of pussies. But I do intend to make mine the only one he wants to see anymore. When I marry him, I'll remember what you did for us, I promise."

"Oh, for the love of god!" Julie flung herself down on her bed and dropped her face in her hands.

"I will, Julie! I'll be there at the head table with him on my arm, and I'll look over at you and say, 'I owe it all to you!' I mean it, Julie, I'll never forget what you did for us!"

"You bitch," Julie sobbed.

"Hey, it's not like you had a date for the Spring Fling anyway," Linnea sniffed. Sensing it was safe, she collected her chair and set it back in front of her desk, and sat down to start her homework. "And speaking of which, maybe you ought to get started. It's only a couple of weeks, after all, and he just might be desperate enough to ask some other girl. Then where will you be?"

"Linnea," Julie said, having finally gotten her crying under control. "We've been the best of friends for two years. Do you have any idea how selfish you sound right now?"

"Friends help each other, Julie," Linnea chirped. "That's all I'm asking you to do now. You think a date with Jeff is easy to get, even for someone like me? You've got to play a little dirty. Come on, I'd do the same for you, wouldn't I?"

"And what about Nick?" Julie went on. "What did he ever do to either of us to deserve me hurting him like this?!"

"Who cares about little Nick?" Linnea asked with a shrug. "We're Julie and Linnea, and he's a little nerd. Whatever you do to him, he'll get over it. Besides, even you said he tends to smile at you too much."

Julie gave her friend a dirty look but found herself utterly speechless. She wiped her hands across her eyes, and without another word she stormed out of the room to take a long walk and try to figure out what to do.

She was already downstairs and out in the early spring afternoon before she remembered she wasn't wearing any panties under her skirt. But that seemed the least of her worries just now.

Julie had no desire whatsoever to harm Nick. But throughout her long walk, all she could think of was that horrible picture, and the prospect of its being available to anyone, anywhere. There didn't seem to be any other way out of it. As for Nick, he was a nice kid, but he was a nerd. The kind of guy who seemed proud of his nerdiness, even, which was something Julie had found endearing in him when she'd befriended him last semester. Proud of his lack of a sense of the cool or of making any effort to achieve it, proud to be who he was, and after flaming out so spectacularly with Melissa the freshman heartbreaker from the cross-country team, proud to have tried. "It sucks she said no," he'd told Julie at the time, "But at least I can say I was honest about how I felt about her."

Julie had been tempted to suggest the word was "shameless" rather than "honest," the way he'd gotten down on one knee at the afternoon tea in the lounge, as if he were going to propose to her. But she'd kept that to herself, as she couldn't help but admire his defiance in the face of Melissa's almost haughty no. But she could recall her own freshman year well enough to understand the utter earnestness with which the poor kid had no doubt approached the whole thing. And despite the fact that she had never wanted for dates -- between orchestra and tennis and the campus literary magazine, she had the jocks and the artistic types well in her circle of friends -- Julie had never been the subject of such a grand gesture herself. As she walked off her shame and fury now, she had to admit that the very idea of such a thing had fueled quite a few of her Friday afternoon fantasies of late.

But Nick had never been the guy in any of those fantasies. He wasn't bad to look at, with his dark eyes and the hair he'd let grow a little too long as his freshman year wore on, probably for the first time in his life (Julie knew the type well), but he was an awkward freshman and Julie had her dance card full with the older guys. Besides, Jeff was right, the poor thing clearly had developed a crush on her. Anyone could see that, the way he always smiled shyly at her and then whipped his head away, and how he tried just a little too hard to make small talk with her when their paths crossed. And Julie, who was accustomed to being approached, had no interest in making the first move for the first time in her life with cute but nerdy Nick.

Now, she had to admit to herself as she wandered around campus and town trying to shake off the shame of that awful photograph, she really didn't have a choice. Nick was used to being laughed at anyway, she reasoned; he'd get over it and maybe even be toughened up a bit. And she would apologize to him, just as Linnea had apologized to her. Julie doubted he would accept her apology, but then she wasn't accepting Linnea's apology just yet either.

She did resolve that she would do so once Jeff tossed her aside like he did with all the girls. But what could happen to make Nick apologize to her? Julie couldn't think of anything. But if it was the only way to keep that photograph off the internet...

Julie's first spotting of Nick came the next day at breakfast. As she arrived at the dining hall door and swiped her card, she scanned the room and spotted him sitting with a few other freshmen. This time, in spite of her profound shame at the whole thing, she was ready with a broad smile before he looked up to see her. Look up, though, he did, and he looked pleased as he nodded and waved back. As there was no room at his table, Julie settled for taking a seat at the next table, inconspicuously behind him.

And she listened.

"You going to the bio workshop this afternoon?" asked one of the other guys. "They say it makes all the difference on the midterm if you go."

"Is it over before two?" Nick asked. "I want to go swimming at two, that's when the pool has open lanes."

"Yeah," One of the others replied. "Twelve-thirty to two, I think."

"Cool," Nick said. "Then I can just go to the pool from there. Perfect for washing off the dirt of bio, huh?"

The other guys all laughed at Nick's lame joke. Julie didn't, and she felt even worse about what she had up her sleeve as she sensed his gentle innocence. But, with a stern reminder from the back of her mind that it was this or become an unwilling porn star, she was already rearranging her schedule for the day to fit in a visit to the pool at two.

She had set the entire day aside to hole up in the library and finish The Beautiful and Damned for her AmLit seminar, but now she made up her mind to plow through it by lunch. She got close enough to feel only mildly guilty when she set off for the phys-ed building with her bikini in her backpack. Arriving fashionably late, she had little trouble spotting Nick in the water as she sauntered over to the empty lane next to his.

With perfect timing born of years of passive flirting, she passed his lane just in time for him to complete a lap and look up to see her as he grabbed onto the ledge. "Hi, Nick," she said, pausing to stand over him and give him a look at her scantily clad body.

"Julie!" he said. "I haven't seen you here before! I mean, I don't remember seeing you here, and I'm pretty sure I would have, because...oh, god, did I just say that? I'm sorry!"

Julie laughed. "It's fine, Nick! I'm not shy, you know." She even took a gander down at herself, as if to prove the point. "And no, I don't think you've seen me here before. I haven't been swimming in ages, and to tell you the truth, I'm probably pretty rusty at it. Got any pointers?"

"Well..." Nick looked almost painfully shy once again. "I could help if you...wanted to join me. No pressure, but if you want to..."

"Of course I want to!" Julie lost no more time in jumping in alongside Nick in his lane; before coming up for air, she opened her eyes underwater to enjoy a look at his body as well, and she was flattered to see his trunks were bulging. When she surfaced, she shook the water out of her eyes and smiled at him, doing her best to tamp down the stern shame-on-you voice in her head. "I'm yours," she said.

There was one thing she could be completely honest with Nick about: she really was out of practice and her technique really was rusty. So there was no need to fake anything for the next hour as Nick critiqued her posture and helped her correct it, occasionally even touching her but always asking first in the most respectful (and, to Julie, endearing) way. The jocks she'd dated certainly could have learned a thing or two from Nick! As it was, Julie learned something from him as well; soon she could feel the difference in her strokes, and in her confidence as she completed each lap. A couple of times she even spotted other guys she knew, who looked amused at the sight of the unlikely pair. But she welcomed that, at least until her conscience caught up with her each time.

"How are you feeling?" Nick asked as they both climbed out of the water some time later.

"Like my arms and legs are all about three inches longer!" Julie joked as she patted herself dry; normally she wrapped herself in a towel, but this time she made sure to keep herself on display for Nick, who did wrap his towel around his waste quite hurriedly. "I'm going to feel this in the morning, I know. But it was worth it. Thanks, Nick."

"You improved a lot," he said, as they strolled to the locker rooms, taking the opportunity to admire Julie's body. "I'm impressed. I come here Wednesdays too, if you want to join me then."

"Oh, I'd like to, but this Wednesday I have a recital." Julie's regret was absolutely real as she said it.

"I've seen the signs for that!" Nick said. "You're doing Opus 17, aren't you? Haydn?"

"Wow!" Julie was delighted, and the consequence be damned. "You remembered that."

"I love Haydn," Nick said. "Everyone thinks I'm a metalhead because of..." He touched his long hair. "And I like some of that too. But my mother's big into classical and I grew up with it, and yes, I love Haydn."

"Well, then," said Julie. "Four o'clock on Wednesday at the student union..."

"I'll be there!" And for a wonderful moment, Julie thought he was going to hug her, but he stopped himself just in time.

Julie was thrilled, and as she undressed for the shower, she enjoyed the longest stretch yet of not remembering just what she was up to with Nick. In the privacy of the shower stall, she promptly set about playing with herself as she remembered the feel of his hands on her body, the endearing looks at her, and the promise of his presence on Wednesday, and the lovely look in his eyes and his surprisingly toned body throughout it all. She had no trouble bringing herself off...and only then did she remember. A wave of guilt worse than she'd ever felt after masturbating when she was younger overcame her, but the attraction to Nick did not subside.