The Polar Bare Club

"Yeah. My little man-slut."

"Boys gone wild!" he fake-shouted, and I joined him a second after. "I bet we'd never catch you on a video like that. Plied with alcohol and begging for male approval."

"You never know," I said, but then I felt myself turn crimson as Ecks looked me over. "I mean, hey... nobody wants to see my teen boy chest anyway."

"Don't sell yourself short. Guys will drool over any pair of naked tits." He smiled. I didn't. It wasn't my intention to make him feel bad, but I couldn't help how I took the remark. Ecks leaned over toward me, breathing air with the burn of alcohol into my face, and corrected, "Guys love all types. Is what I'm saying. Me, personally, I like them on the petite side. It's the nipples that are the star of the show, right? You go to a circus, you've got to be a rube to get wowed by the size of the tent. What matters is the main act. I've always loved yours, by the way."

That did make me smile.

"I'm going out to check on them. You coming?"

So much for my quiet moment with the man of my dreams. I got up and followed him, beer in hand. I stopped to pick up my brown winter coat but Ecks went out without his, so I had to follow quick. I hadn't thought about it until the door opened and hit us with the freezing cold, but none of them had wore jackets—Kismet hadn't even worn pants, still in those black shorts she put on when she came down with her laptop. I found them in the middle of something, not quite a conversation, but Renee was packing snow into Kismet's cleavage as the blonde jumped up and down and squealed like a winner on a gameshow.

"Oh, you bitch!" Kismet giggled and shivered as she scooped the melting ice from between her tits. She then shook the bottom of her shirt carelessly until it emptied out from the other end, with the rapt of attention of all of us.

"You seemed like you needed to cool down a little bit. Poking out and all." Renee had gotten her revenge for Kismet flirting with her boyfriend, maybe, but it wasn't thought out very well—if she had a complaint about the girl's nipples stealing attention from her, they weren't any less jutting when they were freezing cold in a soaked pink shirt. Renee only laughed and said, "You're part of the Polar Bear Club now."

"Maybe if I was naked," said Kismet. A couple of us gave her confused looks and Kismet, still drying out her shirt by flapping it away from her skin, said, "They're the ones who jump into the lakes and rivers and oceans naked, right?"

"They're not naked," Ecks said. Ricky and Renee agreed, I just stayed out of it.

"They're all wearing speedos and shorts and shit," added Renee.

"Well, if they're not naked, why do they call themselves the 'Polar Bare Club'?" It took a few seconds to figure out where the confusion was. I was happy to point out her error.

"It's not 'bare' like you're naked. It's 'bear,' like a polar bear. You got to know what a polar bear is..."

"I know what a polar bear is! I'm not an idiot. I just thought it was a play on words." Ugh, even her way of arguing seemed sweet and friendly. I put my hand on the doorknob and figured I would head back into the house.

"Everything has to be naked with Kismet. Of course she'd mistake 'bear' for 'bare.'"

"Have you ever jumped into a frozen pond naked?" asked Ecks. I hesitated to leave him out here alone with the shivering 'polar bare' girl. The way she smiled, I thought she was going to say yes.

"I feel naked now," Kismet said, flapping out her shirt higher, more carelessly. She's going to flash him her tits right now, I thought with great aggravation.

"I'd dare you to jump naked into the lake right now... if we had a lake."

Ecks seized on Ricky's suggestion in a disheartening way. "There's plenty of snow to dive into. Why don't you dive into the snow?"

"No way. What do you mean, naked? No way..." Her refusals had about as much staying power as my first boyfriend. I felt the impulse to retreat, to get the hell out of here before this got any nauseatingly sexier—but what kind of ex- and possibly future-girlfriend would I be if I abandoned him to her wiles?

"She's too shy to do it," I said. I wasn't thinking about the consequences of those words, I was just taking a lazy stab at her. I didn't want to be a bitch, but she was so transparent, it was frustrating.

"I'll do it if you do it, Penny," said Kismet, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised. Both Ricky and Ecks were overcome with excited laughter. I turned as red as my thick cotton socks and shook my head definitively. "See? I'm braver than you."

"No doubt."

"Somebody do it," Kismet told them all. She was waiting for someone to surrender, to volunteer. "One of you does it, anyone, and I'll do it. I'm just tired of being the only one people see naked."

Could stop taking your clothes off, I thought. I kept my mouth shut, though, my last snide remark put me on the spot.

"You'll take all your clothes off? Like a lunatic? Then... what? You just, you make naked snow angels?"

"Perverse," Ecks commented on Renee's question.

Ricky said, "I'll do it," but Renee hit him on the shoulder. It wasn't all that playful a punch.

"C'mon, Penny, you haven't got anything I haven't seen before," Ecks said. It wasn't a whisper, that much was sure. I stared at him feeling betrayed and, disturbing enough, complimented at the same time. I pulled my sweater away from my body a bit to leave my small chest less pronounced. I muttered in a quiet voice that I wasn't drunk enough for streaking. Ecks looked back to Kismet and shrugged, then told her, "I'll join you."

"Goody," she said. Some of the meanest things I've ever thought about another woman came to mind right then, made me feel a little guilty, somewhere under all of my outrage. I was already wondering if I should have gone against all instincts and stripped naked. "Desperate" was too mild a word for what I was feeling for him.

The two of them stared at each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move, Renee and Ricky laughing along while I watched like an outsider. Finally, Ecks stepped on the heel of his shoe with the other one and pulled his foot free, then did the other. Kismet pulled off her furry snow boots and made a shocked face when she put her bare feet back on the ground. I smirked a little at Ecks as he hopped from one foot the other. He took his shirt off. There was a memorable sight for me, his tight stomach, not quite a washboard, full pecs, mesmerizing brown nipples—I would have milked him if it were possible to get anything out of them. The last time I had seen him shirtless he had been paler, but he had spent a lot of time outdoors over the summer, and was still wearing a pretty good tan.

He started unzipping his jeans, probably anxious to force her naked, and Kismet whipped her shirt up over her head. If her tits had changed any from her days as a girl gone wild, I couldn't tell. They were still frustratingly large, round, but it looked like she had had her nipples sharpened. I liked to believe they were fake, but by the way Ecks was staring, I didn't believe he cared either way. I wondered if he would stare at me the same way if I took off my shirt. For the third time in my life, I thought about how I might look with implants of my own. Nothing I'd ever do, but it was hard to never feel like a little enhancement might make me feel better.

"God, you're tasty!" said Kismet, then laughed at herself. I glanced back to Ecks—how had I let her keep my attention so long?—and saw him standing there in his underwear. My eyes turned into giant moons. In his black jockeys was a pointed swell that even embarrassment couldn't take my eyes away from. I must have smiled and blushed at the same time. He shook his head when he looked to me. I had seen his cock before, but I couldn't believe how much I wanted to see it again. It couldn't have grown in the time since we last fucked, could it? I put a hand on my cheek and tried to wipe the smirk off my face. Then, my rivalry came back to mind as Ecks looked to his half-naked partner again.

"Same time?"

"Oh man, I can't believe I'm..." Kismet nodded, finished stepping out of her shorts, leaving her in a red thong more appropriate for Valentine's Day than a skiing retreat. She put her fingers on the easy-to-miss straps, gave Ecks another nod, sucked in a breath, and they both stripped at the same time. I only looked long enough to see that she was shaved bald between her legs before I turned my head back to Ecks.

His missile was almost fully loaded, tinged red to stand out as darker from his pale, untanned pelvis, waving up and down with each movement. The head was swollen, its eye looking toward the girl who had inspired his stiffness. Right then I thought it might not have been too bad to be the naked girl who had done that to him. Renee was applauding him as Ricky made a noisy, shrill laugh. Funny how I wanted to defend Ecks against that humiliation.

"Oh, I'm so fucking cold!" squealed Kismet, bouncing up and down. That probably didn't warm her up any, but she did keep eyes on her. "Let's hurry up and get it over with! I need to get back into the fireplace."

"Wait, what are you guys doing... exactly...?"

"I guess I'm just supposed to freeze my ass off in the snow," Kismet giggled.

Ecks gestured to his stiff cock, just a couple of notches below full mast, and told us all, "I want everyone to mark this bad boy now before I start swimming in the snow." I laughed louder at that than anyone else. "Just for the, you know... for the record. This is why they do the weigh-in before the fight."

I didn't know what that meant, but it had me laughing until I was sick. Renee asked if I was going to survive. I should have kept my mouth shut, my cackling drew every set of eyes back to me.

"C'mon, Penny. Go for a swim with us."

"No!"

"Why not?" asked Kismet. She kept bouncing up and down on her heels, those breasts of hers jiggling like Jell-O. "Don't be so shy. You don't have anything the rest of us don't have."

"It's what I don't have that I don't want to show," I said. My smile didn't make them laugh with me. I put my palm to my forehead. I felt feverish. I actually wondered if I was sick.

"Nobody likes a self-conscious girl, Pen," Renee told me with a fake scowl. I filled with anger as I stared at her, then shook my head.

Having no other defense, I said, "I'll do it if you do it."

If she was put on the spot, her twisted grin didn't say so. She looked to Ricky and raised her eyebrows. "If you do it...?"

My mouth is so fucking big sometimes. I watched in growing terror as Ricky and Renee started undressing right in front of me. They stared each other in the eyes while wearing great big goofy grins. I realized while I saw more of their skin come out into the cold that I would have given anything to be her—if I couldn't be Kismet, at least I could be the other girl who had a guy's attention. Being naked suddenly didn't seem like the worst thing about being out here. I would be the naked third wheel. I've always hated being the third wheel.

Renee clearly hadn't gotten dressed with the thought that strangers would be seeing her in her underwear, wearing a black bra and colorful panties that reminded me of a stick of Fruit Stripe gum. I looked away, but couldn't keep my eyes off them as they kept stripping. Ecks was making some melody with his mouth—was it supposed to be a porno soundtrack? It was hard to focus on it. When Renee removed her bra, I could see her tits weren't much bigger than mine, a firm B cup maybe. Her nipples were huge, though, like cherry pink breasts on top of her breasts. My eyes strayed away from her, of course, when Ricky took his black pants down to his knees and then, with neither ceremony nor any sense of suspense, just dropped his boxers to meet his slacks. His faint brown cock was cute. It had probably filled out from excitement but had yet to even get semi-stiff, hanging close to his testicles, which had tightened up into a rust-colored pouch between his legs; the cold had probably done him no favors. I'm sure guys don't want to hear their dicks are cute, but I like cute ones as much as the drool-worthy ones.

"You have a new fan," Renee told Ricky. I looked to her with embarrassment, realizing I had been staring at her boyfriend's tool, and I caught her right as her panties dropped down her hips to her ankles. She wasn't tan all over, I noticed, most of her body was as pale white as mine, especially her breasts and pelvis. I was also a little glad to see another girl didn't shave, although she obviously did a fair share of maintenance on the dark brown curlies between her hips.

"Not my finest hour," laughed Ricky, flopping his dick up and down with two of his fingers. It was gaining a little bit of girth—I caught the slightest impression before shame made me look away.

"Why are you still shy, Penny?" asked Ecks, slapping his hands together. It popped back into my head that I had put Renee and Ricky on the spot, made them get naked, and they had done so to get me naked. If I had had time to think it through a little more, I might have started stripping while they were doing so. Now I was left as the only one dressed, all eyes on me.

"Hurry up, girl!" said Kismet, giggling with a shaking breath. "I'm about to get frostbite out here! And I don't want frostbite on some of these places."

I could have gone back in the cabin. I thought about it during those infinite seconds while I just stared at them and thought about what I was about to do or not do. I lifted my arms, held them close to my head like I was trying to protect it from a falling rain—or the glare of others—and I pictured myself wimping out, going back inside, welshing on the bargain I hadn't meant as a bargain. I would probably have to give up on my plan to get with Ecks. Then again, I wasn't sure stripping my clothes off and standing next to my competition was going to get me anywhere.

Fuck it, I thought, even mouthed the words before I reached down and peeled my sweater up. I trembled all over, not entirely owing to the cold, as I held my sweater on one arm and pulled the jersey I wore underneath up as well. I had on a black sports bra underneath, but it was the feel of the bitter chill on my skin that held my attention and not revealing so much skin outside.

"Guys, do you hear a ranger coming?" asked Ricky. Renee slapped him and they all laughed at my expense as I slowed down stepping out of my fuzzy socks. I kept on, unbuttoning my khakis, sucking in an anxious breath, and working them down my thighs.

"Are those Victoria's Secret? Nice," Ecks said. They all kept laughing and I nodded like it didn't bother me. Nothing to do but fake it.

"I think they're Victor's Secret," said Renee, making them all laugh more, but Kismet told them to be nice. They weren't ugly panties, but they looked more like Ecks' underwear, laceless, dark black, and covering more, than Kismet's girly garments.

"You're hanging onto your clothes?" I looked back to Ecks and didn't know what to say. All of my clothes were still in hand, and I never let my khakis touch the ground. They had worked my mind to paranoia and defensiveness so I didn't even know what to say.

"She's smarter than we are," Kismet told them. "All of our stuff is wet. I just threw it in the snow like an idiot."

"Fuck, so did I," chuckled Ecks. I stole another glance at his stiffy while he looked at his wet clothes lying on the white ground—although "stiffy" was quickly losing its accuracy as the cold leeched the lead out of his girder.

I had bundled up my outer clothes and held them like a bulky pillow between my knees as I reached behind me, burning hot in spite of the temperature, and removed my bra. This was it, no doubt, always the moment of terror when undressing for a boy for the first time—these tiny tits of mine. I had always assumed they looked better in a bra or under a sweater than out in the open, even if the shape was kind of attractive, and out here I had no dark room to hide the truth about them, nothing but sunlight for another couple of hours. I let my bra fall away and kept my eyes on the snow under my bare feet while their faces tried not to look surprised or disappointed. Ecks already knew I had small breasts, he had had his hands on them enough times, but in the same way I had remembered his cock being smaller until I saw it again, I assumed he was probably remembering my tits as bigger. Girls like Kismet had melons, I had crab apples. It's all a roll of the dice.

My self-indulgent body issues didn't last for another few seconds, though, since Ricky began to wonder out loud, "Did I lock us outside? Shit... can you try the door, Pen?"

All of us went ghost-white, and outside naked in the freezing snow, that was quite a feat. Renee told Ricky that wasn't funny, but I hobbled to the door, topless and wearing just my underwear, while I wrapped my bra up with my other clothes, to try it anyway. Thank god, it did open. Ricky laughed loud while Renee thumped his arm a few times, jiggling all over for her audience.

"That would have been so funny—"

"Oh, fuck you. I would have made sure your dick was the first thing to freeze up and fall off."

"I think it's too close to the body," said Ecks. Kismet gasped as she smiled. I threw my clothes inside and turned the handle, making sure the door wasn't locked, as I closed it again. Ecks told Ricky, "I've seen them small before, but I didn't know they made 'outies' and 'innies.'"

Ricky looked down at himself while trying not to laugh, then shook his head. "It's getting there. Renee, vouch for me here... I would say 'fuck you,' dude, but I never say that to a naked man. That's my policy."

"Girl, you're still overdressed," Renee told me, brushing her straight dark hair behind both ears. She seemed astoundingly lacking in self-consciousness, just standing there with everything on display, not toying with the boys like Kismet, just comfortable as she was. There was no way I could be her. "I suggest you just do this and then we can initiate ourselves in the snow... then get back inside. Before someone does show up."

"'Initiate'? Damn, I love the way you talk, baby."

"You know, my brother actually might strike out with his babe and come back... any time now..." Ecks said.

I hadn't planned on going any further—I hadn't planned on being called out on it either. I stood there, caught in the headlights, my trembling fingers just hanging at my side.

"C'mon, you guys, you're putting Penny on the spot," Kismet said. Of all people, she had to come to my defense. "I think she's plenty brave already. Like you said, Michael, the Polar Bear Club doesn't do it naked."

Michael? Everybody called him Ecks. Something about the fact she called him by his name, like that was their special intimacy, it just... argh.

"I was just stopping to figure out if I had locked the door or not," I said. Pride or jealousy, something was pushing me forward, taking all of the responsibility out of my hands. Besides, I told myself, I wouldn't be the only one naked—only the last one.

I thumbed my panties down a little, fumbling more than enticing, and they bunched together until they were like a black loincloth wrapped around my hips. Every freckle on my body seemed to stand out like dots left by markers on my white skin. Every hair stood straight up, and if my brown coif hadn't been cut like a emo band's lead singer, it probably would have stood straight out like I had been filled with electricity. I looked up, looked all of them in the eyes, as I slid my panties down over my ass, down my thighs, and let them fall. I tried to stand casual, but the joke was on me; I was just not a "casually standing around naked" girl. The way they were staring, they made me look down in case my pussy was glowing red, but it was just as white as the rest of me. My black pubic hair was grown out a little more than I liked, all twisted together like a Brillo pad, but it gave me a little more cover down there than Kismet had.