Raincoating Ch. 02

Bridget came back into the living room. She carried with her four raincoats of different colors—all of them were soaked. She looked like she had been crying, or on the verge of crying.

"That fucking cunt," said the blonde, almost sobbing. "She hid our raincoats. In the goddamn ice tub in the bathroom... of all places..."

"Oh, what a bitch!" Claudia yelped. She took her coat from Bridget and looked it over. "I don't fucking believe it..."

Jody's laugh didn't make any of us feel better. "I told you this was a contest. If you thought anyone here really felt some sisterhood bullshit..."

"You could have made a run for the door," I said, getting angry. "You had a pretty good chance of making it. You're already standing. You even had the pictures on your camera already. Was it really fear of getting grabbed and held to the ground that stopped you?"

"I didn't stay because I have some love for any of you," snapped Jody.

Rachel said, "No, you did it because you had enough of everyone hating you. In here, it's just the six of us. Out there, it's all those guys and girls you'll be going to school with for another semester or two. You realized your trash-talking and head games weren't making you any friends. Better to lose like a good sport than to have everyone talking about how cold-blooded you are behind your back."

"I don't really mind losing all that much," agreed Jody, a little loud, and she flashed us her body beneath the coat again. "But there is a pretty big difference between losing fair and square and being fucking conned by that cunt. If people are going to talk shit about me, at least they better know that I didn't get fooled."

"Wait," I said. I patted Claudia's shoulder to make sure she was sober enough to listen to me. She stared at me through squinted eyes. I told the other contestants, "I don't think Sunny won."

They checked each other for how much they believed me. All of them, even Rachel, seemed much more suspicious after what Sunny had pulled. "Why do you say that?"

"There's a trick... Jack told me that himself. I passed that much on to you guys. I thought I had to."

"To be a good sport, of course," sighed Jody.

"Six contestants," I told them. They were a little more intrigued. "Each camera is supposed to have pictures of all the contestants. That's what Jack told us. I think he meant those words as a clue. I've got pictures of you five... but not of myself. None of us have taken pictures of ourselves."

Bridget crossed her arms and Jody sucked in a pensive breath. Rachel clapped her hands a couple of times.

"You genius bitch," she said with a little laugh. "I think you're right."

"So... Bridget... we already agreed you should go first. That seems fair. I'll take a picture of you with your camera—"

"My camera's gone," she said, then she shrugged. "It was in my raincoat pocket, like I said. At least I'm pretty sure it was. That bitch took it with her when she ran out. She must have switched it to her own before we came in to get Claudia."

"Does that mean she has all the pictures?" asked Rachel. I hadn't time to give it much thought, still feeling bad for the way Bridget had been played. I heard Claudia seething beside me, talking about how she was going to crack Sunny's head open. I shrugged, but then I shook my head.

"I don't think so. She should only have one camera when she leaves. If she's got two, they may disqualify her. If they are as quick to cite the rules as I think they are, they'll at least expect her to have pictures of all six of us on one camera."

"It's worth trying anyway," said Jody. She lifted her camera, but then groaned. "I need one of you to take a picture of me."

"Bridget's the winner!" I told her. That only made Jody argue louder with me, until Bridget stopped us by waving her hands around.

"Look, I lost already... okay? Thanks for fighting for me... but I don't have a camera." I offered her mine, but she refused it, pushed it back at me with her hand. "Thanks. Really. It's not that I couldn't use the money, but... I would feel too awful. You're the one who figured it out. If it wasn't for you, Erica, we wouldn't even have this contest. I think it's fair to say you won this one."

"As far as I'm concerned, I'd say the prize is up for grabs again."

Rachel didn't agree with Jody. She put an arm around me, and I hoped I didn't tense noticeably. "Bridget's right. You can run for the door if you want, girl, but it won't help you if you get outside and find out Erica's right. No one here is going to take a picture of you until after she goes through the door first. Got it?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed derisively, then Jody said, "You are all fucking bitches. I'm serious."

I handed my camera to Rachel and she tossed hers to me. I gave her a little scowl, but then broke into a smile. As much as I felt like arguing that Bridget should take the camera and win the contest, I was extremely relieved to think I would win after all. After all I had seen within these walls, everything I had done as well, I wasn't eager to end up a photo on a website.

One last photograph to win wasn't going to hurt me, though. I spread my arms really wide and made the sexiest face I could muster as the flash went off. A gag photo, of course, I told myself.

We all swapped cameras until we had shots of each other—except Rachel held onto Jody's, although Jody didn't seem that surprised. Rachel held up a hand to keep Jody from whining about it.

"Do you have all the pictures on your camera, Erica?" I checked. I did. "You go on then. As soon as we hear the door close, I'll finish us up here. Then we'll follow you."

"So lame," Jody murmured, but she didn't argue with us about it anymore. I picked up the red vinyl raincoat with my name on the back, wishing it had been a number instead of something so identifying, and I slipped my arms into it. Fucking cold! Throwing our coats into the ice water was just another reason to hate Sunny. She didn't have to do that.

"You can always go out without it," said Claudia, and I smiled, but was quick to shake my head.

I snapped the coat closed and sniffed, then thanked all of them. Even Jody.

Then I went to find the exit.

Inside the kitchen was the door leading to the backyard. I put my palm on the handle.

I turned the knob and stepped out.

It was black outside. I could definitely hear the crowd, all of them chattering with each other, but couldn't see anything. It was so dark it took me several seconds to realize I had stepped into something like a booth, the walls lined with curtains. It was like I was voting at someone's funeral. I pushed the black material around until I found a breach I could get through.

All those sets of eyes saw me on the stage and they burst into applause and shouting. I smiled and shivered. I suddenly wondered if I had put enough makeup on for this. In the afternoon, just before I left, I told myself it didn't really matter how I looked, even if I lost I was going to look pretty miserable. Since I had won, though, these pictures were more likely to focus on my face.

I searched the crowd as I saw Jack, clapping along with everyone else, coming closer to me. Just behind him was Conner, and the fact he looked pretty pissed off made me feel a lot better. Even more upset, with her dark mascara running down her cheeks, was Sunny. She stood on the end of the stage and ran a hand through her red hair, standing there in her pink raincoat. That wasn't the face of someone who had won.

"I got to check your camera," Jack whispered to me. "If you really stuck to the rules, you may have won."

I nodded. I didn't let myself take an easy breath just yet, but I was getting confident that I had figured it out.

Standing on the other side of the stage from Sunny were the male contestants. I beamed a smile when I saw Rory, but he gave me a half-hearted wave. It's a shame, I thought, guessing that he didn't win. He looked really cute in his lime-green raincoat.

As Jack checked my camera, Jody came wiggling out of the black curtains on her long legs, waving her own camera in the air. People were applauding her, another possible winner, and they grew louder when Rachel followed her, then Claudia, and finally, Bridget. All of the contestants were out.

When I looked back to Jack, he was holding my camera in the air like a ref might hold the arm of the heavyweight champion. I slapped my hands together as I raised my eyebrows, waiting for the definitive signal.

"Erica's our winner!" he shouted. I jumped up and down, but only twice, then I remembered maybe I wasn't dressed for a display like that. The rest of what Jack called out was lost to most of the crowd, they were roaring. "Let's give her our love... the first winner of our ladies-only Raincoating contest! I have to admit, it's made us a lot of money here..."

Rachel was hugging me hard enough that I couldn't breathe. I hugged her back, and she leaned in, talking at normal volume in her best attempt at a whisper with all the noise around us.

"I so wish I hadn't made us do this!" she said. I looked at her. The ecstasy hadn't quite left her eyes, but she was straight enough that she wasn't going to do this easy.

As drunk as she still was, Claudia didn't seem all that worried about being on stage with plenty of men and women taking in the sight of her. Bridget didn't look happy, but considerably more comfortable than Sunny did. It was Jody that really surprised me. She was smiling. It could have been faked, sure, but she was leaning forward and flirting with the crowd, the men in the front row, in a way that would have been very impressive acting. I don't believe she ever intended to strip when she signed up for the contest, but it looked like she had made her peace with not winning.

Jack picked up a camera from off a plastic chair and the men howled out their excitement. That made Sunny cry all the harder, but Jack held out his hands. Like he wasn't responsible, he was just honoring the agreement we had all made. He waved me aside, but I wasn't quick to leave Rachel.

I leaned over and kissed her cheek, very close to her lips, closer than intended. Her eyes were a little watery, but she wasn't completely distraught.

"All for my career."

"Whatever," I said quietly. "You're just an exhibitionist. Admit it."

"And you loved having me tongue-fuck you," she said. That shut me up. I looked frozen, hoping she wouldn't spread the word around, but she only grinned at me and walked back to meet Jody, Claudia, and Bridget.

I moved to the end of the stage by where the guys stood, careful to keep a hand on the end of my raincoat. If it swayed a little too much this way or that, I would have a few more eyes where I didn't want them. I smiled at Rory and he smiled back.

"Glad you won," he said. I asked him if he did, though I knew the answer. He just tossed his shoulders and took a breath. "I can't keep all this sexy under a raincoat, baby. I've got fans who want to see the goods."

"Don't forget your biggest fan wants a private show. Tonight," I told him. The other five guys were right there, overheard us easily, and they made a loud "woo" that momentarily distracted the girls on stage and Jack.

Some drama occurred on the other side of the stage when Sunny refused to come over and join the others. She probably feared an ass-beating, and I would have, too, knowing how I felt. I almost felt sorry for her, seeing that running mascara and all the humiliation she was suffering. Not sorry enough that I didn't enjoy watching Jack lean over and whisper something into her ear that made her eyes go wide and made her slump over to join the other competitors. I can imagine pretty easily that whatever Jack told her had to revolve around some video footage captured with Sunny fucking the brains out of some mechanical cock upstairs in the Granville house.

All of them lined up and I watched closely, feeling a little bad for all of them, but mostly Rachel. This had always seemed crazy to me, and now she was realizing it, too. I glanced toward the buzzing crowd for a moment and my heart stopped. It seemed like every hand was raised and they all had phones, tablets, or digital cameras of their own. A few of them had pretty nice camcorders, from what I could tell. I had never heard about this kind of thing at the previous Raincoatings. The size of the group filling the backyard was huge, bigger than I could believe, and they were all packed between very tall wooden fence walls that Jack had paid to have set up. I remembered hearing something about charging admission for the closing ceremony, maybe that was another recent addition.

I was even more relieved that I had won. I looked to Rachel to see how she was bearing through it.

Jack backed up to the edge of the stage and then lifted the camera. He counted down from five, and on "three," it seemed like every voice in the crowd joined in.

Two.

One.

Jody was the first to open her blue raincoat. She bounced on her feet and shivered all over, but then she broke out into a sort of euphoric smile. Next was Claudia, who threw her coat off entirely. She lifted her arms into the air, fists clenched at the end of them, like she had won the college a big game. Everyone cheered her. She glanced down like she noticed she was naked, then laughed. All of that noise and approval for her nudity seemed to have sobered her up quick.

It was Rachel who joined them after that. She doffed her yellow raincoat and took a bow that brought forth some laughs. I was smiling, but I wasn't about to laugh at her. Both Claudia an Jody looked fantastic, but if anyone up there made me jealous, it was Rachel, as beautiful as any photograph I had ever seen of her. She shook her breasts back and forth like a stripper from the '50s and even the male contestants at my side joined the roar.

Bridget, too, slipped out of her raincoat and let it fall to the stage. She looked as giddy and terrified as if she were standing before a firing squad, but the positive shouts from the baritones in the audience seemed to win her over to a more comfortable posture in a few seconds.

It took a look from Jack before Sunny pinched her face, then threw open her coat. She held it open, and the bellows from the crowd didn't make her feel better, but worse, from what I could tell. Jack didn't hurry to take the picture. He let the noise diminish a little, and it took almost two minutes. Cell phones and video cameras seemed to run the whole time. Sunny let her coat fall shut twice, and both times Jack waved his finger to get her to comply again.

At last, Jake said, "Say... 'cheeks!'"

Four of the contestants did, at least, and the flash went off. Jack took four more pictures, and the mob seemed to love each one all the more.

As Sunny and Bridget started to put their raincoats back on again, Jack halted them. Then he signaled for the male contestants to join them. All of them climbed the steps again except for Geronimo, who was screaming out his own name as some of the crowd laughed along or joined him.

Rory's hand brushed against mine as he passed, and though I gripped it faintly, he kept on his way until it left my touch. I gave him a smile. I think he was too nervous to notice.

They all opened their coats, and the audience shouted out their endorsement—the voices seemed of a higher pitch, for the most part. As odd as it was seeing five other women naked as I had in the house and again on the stage, it was like a something I had never imagined to see five nude men on stage at the same time. Nick held out his hands like he was trying to curry votes or something from the ladies, and they were quick to give their vocal support. A very good-looking guy, though I was kind of surprised he wasn't a little bigger or longer; even half-erect, his dick was pretty average, maybe even below. If it had been that kind of contest, Bruce would have been the winner, to my shock. Thick, long, even too heavy to stand up, it seemed, at least without a little more coaxing—but maybe that's a poor choice of word. I've always found the euphemism of "sausage" to be unpleasant, even nauseating, but I could see the similarity with the fat appendage hanging over Bruce's tight scrotum. I believe Rachel lived out the fantasy of some of the women in the audience when she rubbed her ass against it. I gasped and laughed along, but Bruce looked a little worried his rocket was about to actually rise.

Five naked men on stage, the only one who actually had a real erection was Tyler, and the ladies weren't disappointed to see it. The ripple of squeals and screams all seemed to happen just before I noticed it. It made Jack laugh, and he made the crowd noise peak when he stepped over and grabbed hold of Tyler's hard cock and gave it a little jerk. It didn't seem to bother Tyler at all, an attention whore if I've ever seen one. It had been his plan all along to be up there, I thought.

I was sure Ben and Rory would have been happy to vanish into the background. My boyfriend succeeded a little, I guess, but Jack noticed Ben, put an arm around him, and led him to the front of the small group to stand beside Jody. The Englishwoman stretched an arm around him and leaned her head on his shoulder, which left him all the more embarrassed. But the mob did seem to enjoy his humiliation.

Rory looked my way and gave me a weak smile. I smiled back at him, much more at ease, but then I felt like an idiot. I had been looking over his body, even admiring it, though nobody would call it perfect. Not tanned and toned like Tyler, not lean and classical like Nick's, not muscular and intimidating like Bruce's, or even long and narrow like Ben's. But it was Rory's, and I did like it, maybe because I cared so much for the owner. Yet I had forgotten in all the excitement, all my relief that I wouldn't be naked up here being judged by strangers, that maybe being nude in front of people he didn't know didn't bother Rory nearly as much as having my first look at him being up here, under unflattering lights and standing next to such competition. I covered my mouth and told myself I'd have to prove how happy I was to have him once we got home.

Everyone had started slipping their raincoats on again when I noticed Conner come over to the microphone. He whispered something to Jack, who shook his head, but then Conner just took the mic in hand. Jack didn't bother to stop him, but didn't look happy either.

"Congratulations to our winners... especially to Erica," said Conner, and he had to wait for the clapping crowd to quiet a little again. "I know you won fair and square... no one helped you and no one told you how to win. So as I said... nice work. I hope you enjoy spending that thousand dollars. I'm sure you could use it."

There was a little more applause, but I think even the audience sensed a little tension between us. I just kept smiling. I had already won. Let him throw his little tantrum.

"I'll tell you what... people may know that Erica and I used to date, so you can imagine how excited I am to see her win this, guys," continued Conner. "But I've got even better news. Jack will vouch for me here... I'll add another one thousand to your prize, Erica. For real." More cheering, happy people who didn't know the offer was being made by a dickhead I didn't trust for a second. "The only condition is... you come up here and take a picture with everyone else. Pose right here and now, with just what god gave you."

The catcalls and shouts of joy from the crowd were impossible to shut out. I placed a hand over the buttons of my raincoat and waited for it to go quiet again. In the meantime, Conner handed the microphone back to Jack. I don't think I had ever seen Jack look quite so pissed off.