Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Discovering Melanie by Cave Discovering Melanie Ch. 13 As Melanie woke up, she stretched and kicked off her covers. It struck her as odd that she was wearing a shirt in bed, as she'd slept in the nude lately, but the memories quickly came back to her. Brian had walked her home and due to the rain, she'd invited him in. She groaned at the memories of how she had behaved. In her mind, her behavior had been outrageous. She had mercilessly teased Brian to the point he had nearly stripped her naked. Somehow he had held back, and she was now intensely glad that he'd shown restraint. The signals she had been sending Brian were all over the place, she realized. Though she had wanted him to strip her naked, that's all that had been on her mind. She guessed that to most people, taking off clothes was a mere stepping-stone. It can be an exciting process, yes, but it leads to something else. However, for Melanie being stripped was intoxicating. It was embarrassing and exciting. She knew from her recent experiences with Josy that it was more powerful than when she did it to herself, such as in her backyard. The problem was, how could she explain this to Brian? How could she explain that her mind hadn't been on sex, but on being exposed, being stripped? Would he even believe it? She guessed that someday in the future, if she met the right person, got emotionally involved with them, then she would take that next step. She liked Brian, but did not, or not yet feel such a connection with him. She thought of Josy and the things they had done together. One could argue they had already taken some steps in that direction. Josy understood her somehow, understood what drove her. Feeling no desire to think of how to deal with seeing Brian again on Monday, she dragged herself out of bed, and still wearing her shirt she went to the bathroom to take a shower. During her shower, her thoughts went back to the way he'd looked at her. How he'd stared at her breasts through the shirt, her exposed skin, and between her legs while she had covered her pussy with her hand. It made her feel hot again and her shower took a bit longer than usual. As she was drying off, her worries again won out over her arousal. He deserved a sincere apology, she thought, though she didn't think she deserved his forgiveness. She wondered if Josy had time to talk. Tomorrow they had their first exam, and maybe Josy was busy studying. On second thought, she didn't know whether she could tell Josy about last night. After getting back to her room, she sent Josy a message. ***** Shortly after noon, Josy came over, but as she stepped closer, Melanie held her back. She didn't want to be stripped naked by her friend right now. Instead, she gave Josy a summary of the study day with her friends, with them having a few drinks after, followed by walking home with Brian, the rain and going to her room. She thought of giving Josy a cleaned up and less embarrassing version of events but decided on a different tack. "So... I treated him horribly when he was here," she said, looking down, "And though I want to blame it on the alcohol, I owe him an apology. I don't know how to face him tomorrow." After a moment, she looked up at Josy, hoping her friend wouldn't dig for details and could give her some helpful suggestions for talking with Brian. "If you want me to help, I need to know exactly what happened," Josy said. After a pause, she continued, "I think it's best if you show me." Josy's suggestion made little sense, Melanie knew that she could just describe the events. She thought of calling Josy out on it. How does it help to re-enact what had happened? On top of that, she didn't know whether she could bear to show to her friend all that had happened. She looked at Josy and thought back on the things they had gone through together lately. Josy knew about her obsession with nudity, had seen her naked multiple times, had pushed boundaries by touching her intimately. As shameful as her behavior last night was, she thought Josy wouldn't judge her too harshly. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to show Josy what happened. "Are you sure, Josy?" she asked, "It may be worse than you think, and I don't know if you're okay with it." "I can handle it, Mel, I promise." "Okay," Melanie said, already blushing. Josy took her phone out of her bag and said, "so you just got to your room, then what happened?" Noting the phone in Josy's hand, Melanie got suspicious and asked, "What are you doing with your phone?" "Pictures will help give you a good perspective of what Brian saw," Josy said. "Not with your phone, you're not!" Melanie was indignant. Josy appeared surprised. "Just what did you show him that I can't use my phone for? Fine, I'll use your phone." She took Melanie's phone and unlocked it. It appeared she still knew her way around and Melanie saw her go into the secured folder they had set up together. "I don't know if you can take pictures of this, Josy," Melanie said. It was embarrassing enough to show what happened, without Josy also taking pictures. "Like I said, it'll help you get a good perspective." "I suppose," Melanie said, unsure. It made sense what Josy said, but it added to her nervousness. Melanie directed Josy to sit where Brian had sat, and then repeated the events of last night as best as she could remember, starting with how she changed into the shirt. Only differences were that one, Josy didn't turn away as Brian had and was taking pictures, and two, everything felt more intense without alcohol fogging her mind. She had just shown Josy how she'd given Brian a side view of her butt after getting the water. "That is so hot," Josy said, taking another picture, and then asked, "How did he react to that?" "He went to the door with our glasses and looked between my legs as he stood there." "He saw your pussy like that?" Josy asked, surprised, as she walked to the door, looking between Melanie's legs. "No," Melanie blushed, covered her pussy with her left hand the same way she had last night. "Like this." Josy stood there, taking more pictures, and said, "If you were holding your hand like that, I think he saw more than you think he did." "What do you mean?" Melanie said. "Here, look at the picture." Josy showed the screen and zoomed in on her crotch. Though she had looked at herself down there in the mirror, looking at the picture was something else. Now she was looking at a zoomed in picture Josy had just taken, and the zoom hadn't even been necessary. She felt the heat in her face increase as she looked at the screen. While her hand was covering her pussy, it wasn't covering much more than that. Leaning back against the wall with her knees up, her asshole was clearly visible in the picture. Melanie cursed under her breath, and said, "I didn't think of that." "That is one hot picture, Mel," Josy said. "I'm surprised he didn't attack you right there and then." She blushed furiously. "That's not helping, Josy!" "Well, let's continue. What happened next?" "I got up from the bed, fixed my shirt and looked outside," Melanie lied, heat rising to her face as she thought back to what really happened. "Hmmm. What are you not telling me?" Josy asked, frowning at her. "I... I..." Melanie knew she was trapped. Josy saw right through her lie. "You what? What did you do?" Josy said, grinning. "I touched myself," she finally said, hiding her face with her right arm. The shame was too much to bear. "We're still re-enacting, so show me." That didn't make sense, she knew, since this was not something Brian had witnessed. However, she couldn't deny how her body was reacting to this entire re-enactment. Just like last night, she could feel she was wet and sensitive beneath her fingers. Did she really want to show Josy all that? And did Josy really want to see and take pictures of such an intimate act? She looked up at Josy but had to turn her head away. The idea of doing this in front of an audience directly fed into her obsession, but it was still a shameful act. She couldn't let Josy see her face. "Please no pictures of this part," Melanie begged. Despite her shame she was unable to deny her arousal, and she slowly slipped first one, then another finger inside. She wanted to lose herself in the sensations, masturbate to an orgasm while Josy watched, but she held back. It took all her willpower to not move her fingers, though the trembling of her hand still stimulated her. "Holy shit, Mel," Josy exclaimed. "And he caught you like that?" "N...no... sorry," Melanie said, taking her fingers out. She got off the bed and fixed her shirt, turning away, and said, "Last night, I got up shortly after. I knew he'd be back soon." She finished her story. Instead of re-enacting, she described to Josy how Brian had nearly stripped her before leaving. Josy had a worried look on her face and sighed. "Melanie," Josy said seriously, "I know I joked earlier about him attacking you, but really it's no joke." She firmly took Melanie's hands. Melanie saw something in those eyes she hadn't seen before. Josy seemed almost painfully worried about her. Brian himself had told her just a few days ago that she should be more careful. It made sense. It wasn't just about her close call with the middle-aged man in the park, but around men in general. She didn't think the typical guy would have shown as much restraint as Brian had last night. "I'm sorry, Josy," she said, throwing her arms around her friend. Josy hugged her back and held her firmly. After they broke off the hug, Melanie thought she saw moisture in Josy's eyes. She hadn't felt these worries as intensely as her friend seemed to, and it made her feel awful. Though she had wanted her friend's advice on how to deal with Brian on Monday, instead they just sat there in silence for a while. After some time, she decided to try to change the subject. "Are you looking forward to my thigh-highs?" she asked. Josy perked up at that, saying, "Oh yes, the outfits we can do. They should arrive sometime this week, so you better prepare yourself!" "Prepare myself?" "Yeah," Josy grinned. "But, ugh, I need to go. Not at all confident about tomorrow's exam yet." Josy left shortly after, leaving Melanie alone with her thoughts. Though Melanie still didn't know how to apologize to Brian, looking back on the events with the help of her friend did help at least a little, as it gave her some perspective. She thought about the pictures Josy had taken and though she feared what they might look like, she had better take a look at them later, so that she knew what Brian had seen. She hadn't even looked at any of the previous pictures and videos, she realized. Not long after Josy left, she went to the kitchen to get a drink. Alani and Paige were there, sitting on a couch. "Hey hot stuff!" Alani said. She froze, staring at Alani. Had she heard that correctly? "Uh, what did you say?" she asked. Alani laughed. She stood up, walked over to Melanie, and whispered in her ear, "You know, the shirt you wore to sleep." Alani saw her while she slept. What did she see? Melanie tried to remember the position she'd been in when she fell asleep on top of her covers. After her orgasm, she must've still been on her back with her shirt raised up to her breasts, leaving the words `hot stuff' just visible. Only after waking up in the middle of the night, she'd slipped under her covers. "What's the joke?" Paige asked. "You want to show her, or should I explain?" Alani asked Melanie. Show? Explain? Afraid of what Alani meant, she shook her head. She wouldn't, would she? Alani turned to Paige, and said, "Ah, well. I got home pretty late last night, and to my surprise Melanie's door was open, so I went to say hi." Then she turned back to Melanie and said, "You were wearing the cutest shirt, Melanie. Come show it to Paige, that's much easier than explaining, isn't it?" Melanie got herself a drink in the kitchen and could feel Alani's eyes still on her. Alani had shown herself to be a tease before, though not to the point of being malicious. Would she really tell Paige what she had seen? As she walked back to her room, Melanie considered the idea of wearing the shirt for them and weighed it against Alani telling Paige what she'd seen. How would Paige react? She didn't know her that well yet, but from her impressions so far, it seemed that Paige was not the type to bully, or even condone bullying. Perhaps Paige would even tell Alani off. Standing in her room, she looked at the shirt on her bed. Would it be all that bad to wear it around her roommates? She wouldn't have to do anything crazy, just wear it, show it to Paige and nothing else. She shuddered. Alani had seen her in that shirt, bunched up below her breasts, leaving the rest of her body bare. Had Alani made a sound and was that what had woken her up? It was possible, but she couldn't be certain. Well, as long as there were no pictures, Melanie was confident she could handle it. Even so, she wasn't going to give in to Alani just like that. If Alani wanted her to go in just the shirt, then tough luck. She took off her comfy sweatpants and shirt, removed her bra and changed into a pair of nice panties. Then she put on the shirt. They wouldn't see her panties unless they looked under the shirt, but she wasn't going out there without them. She walked back to the common room and sat down on the other couch and crossed her legs. It was opposite the one Alani and Paige were sitting on, but it couldn't be helped. "See? She's hot stuff," Alani said to Paige. "I love it," Paige said, smiling at Melanie. "Still not sure what the joke was though." "Never mind," Alani said. "Inside joke, I guess." Melanie forced a smile at that, then took her phone to distract herself and relax. During the next hour, Reese and Julia joined them, and it turned into a relaxing afternoon. As Paige left, she said, "Like the shirt, Melanie, and nice to see you get a bit more comfortable around us." Melanie blushed, remembering that Paige might still think she's a nudist. She went to her own room shortly after, though she stayed in the shirt and didn't change for dinner that evening. Later that evening, as Melanie was getting ready to sleep, there was a knock on the door. After putting her shirt back on, she opened it to see Paige standing there. "Hey, can I come in?" Paige asked. "Uh sure, what is it?" Paige walked in and closed the door. "I thought I'd check in on you," she said. "That inside joke, as Alani put it, can you tell me what that was about?" "It's nothing important," Melanie said. "Hmm... You know, Alani can be a bit much to handle sometimes," Paige said, pausing. "If it happens that she makes you uncomfortable, set her straight. She's not the type to bully, she just doesn't realize when she crosses a line." Melanie nodded. She didn't know what to say to that. "That being said," Paige continued, "it's a nice shirt." Melanie blushed and nodded again. "It may become your nickname in the apartment," Paige winked, then continued in a serious tone, "but if it makes you uncomfortable, let us know, okay?" "Okay," Melanie said. "I'm a bit jealous, actually, how easy you can get away with not wearing a bra," Paige said, moving her hands to her breasts, which were about two cup-sizes larger than Melanie's B-cups. "Not that my boyfriend complains about these." Melanie blushed again, wondering how Paige could be so openly talking about her boyfriend's appreciation for her breasts. "Except for your nips poking through, of course. Anyway, I'm glad to see you be a bit more yourself around us, Melanie," Paige said, as she went to the door, and then said, "Good night." "Good night," Melanie said, looking down at her delinquent nipples and feeling embarrassed as Paige left. Their talk left her feeling amazed and touched. It seemed she was right in her assessment of Paige as the mother hen of the group. Being a bit more herself, Paige had said. Melanie pondered those words as she took off her shirt, leaving her naked in her room. ***** i Monday morning, Melanie arrived at the examination hall just over 10 minutes before the exam started. The hall was open and already filling with students, so she went in to find a spot to sit. She didn't see her friends nearby and was relieved not to have to talk to Brian just yet. Thankfully, she was able to focus on the exam and it felt good about how it went. After the exam, she found Sarah and Cohen in the hallway. "That went well, right?" Sarah asked. "Yeah, our study session Saturday helped a lot", Cohen said. Melanie wondered where Brian was. She'd been nervously looking out for him, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. Was he in the bathroom or still in the exam hall? "We have a couple of hours before the other exam. Let's go sit somewhere," Sarah suggested. "Where's Brian?" Melanie asked. "He left already. He said he was going home between exams," Cohen said. "Did you two get home alright on Saturday?" "Yeah, no problem," Melanie answered. "We heard the rain and were worried you two got caught in it," Sarah said. "Uh, yeah, we did. We hurried to my building and took shelter there." Melanie was unsure what to say next. If she explained that they went to her room, that'd definitely raise suspicions, but she also didn't want to make it seem that she sent Brian off into the rain by himself. "And that's all that happened?" Sarah asked, looking at Melanie. "I gave him my umbrella, and by that time it stopped raining." "That's nice. Meanwhile, Cohen and I were getting nekkid together." "What?!?" both Cohen and Melanie exclaimed in shock. "Just kidding," Sarah doubled over in laughter. "You should see your faces! Anyway, let's go sit somewhere." ***** During the afternoon exam, Melanie focused on the subject matter. When she was done, she looked around to find where Brian was sitting. He was some distance away, but afterwards she saw him again leaving in a hurry. She guessed that he was going home again, perhaps to avoid speaking with her. It worried her greatly, so she decided to go home right away as well, as she didn't feel like talking about it with Sarah and Cohen. ***** The next few days followed the same pattern, and Melanie's worries grew day by day. Several times she wrote text messages to send to Brian, but every time decided against sending them. She wanted to talk to him in person. She didn't go running either, as she wasn't in the mood to go by herself. On Wednesday, the thigh-highs arrived in the mail. Melanie opened them, quickly tried them to see if they were a good fit, and then put them in the wash. Josy's fun would have to wait, but then again, it seemed that Josy was busy every evening. On Thursday, after the second exam, Sarah and Melanie were outside the exam hall. Like Brian, Cohen had left immediately after exiting the hall. "I need your help with tomorrow's exam," Sarah said. "Can we go over our notes together?" "Uh, yeah, of course," Melanie said. After getting a drink from the vending machines, Sarah led the way to the library. "I already scheduled a study room. Thank you for helping." Scheduled a study room? Melanie found that a bit odd, as they could just go to the study hall instead. As they entered the library and made their way to the study room section, they passed Cohen, who was heading the other way. Sarah led Melanie to one of the doors and went inside, after which Sarah closed the door. The blinds had been lowered, hiding the room and its occupant from outside. Sitting at the table, taking his notes out of his bag, was Brian.