By Emi Tsuruta
Like most of my friends, I've always tried to be a good girl, be modest, careful, not do anything too crazy. What changed I guess is over the summer, I'd met two girls, Minori and Nao, Japanese like me, at one of the language exchanges on campus. Not that they were out of control or anything. Around me at least, they tended to dress, and act sensible enough. There was something different about them though. While my friend Satomi was often trying to stop me from going overboard, and our other friend Asuna just kind of follows my lead, Minori in particular likes to push the envelope, push guys' buttons. She has been kind of hinting that I should head in that direction too.
I guess I should have known they were different just by the way that the guys at the language exchange were flocking around the two of them, trying to hit on them or whatever that first day. At first, I thought Minori and Nao look like many other girls at the exchange, cute faces, a bit petite, dressed in shorts and a blouse or tank tee, fairly normal for the summer in southern California.
As I looked closer though, I did notice things. With Minori, maybe it's the way she looks at guys, eyes wide, her eyelashes neatly done, spiking out accenting her big black pupils. She carries herself with this quiet confidence in her own sexiness. She does have fairly big breasts for such a small girl, and I guess guys can tell even through her clothes.
Nao is even harder to explain. She's small too, and without make up, she looks a pretty normal. She does put a lot of effort into dyeing and styling her hair. It's kind of lustrous, and curls just a bit at the ends. I guess I could get my hair like that, but it takes a lot of work, so I don't do it every day.
Anyway, the two of them presented a bit of a puzzle, but we got to talking, and soon became friends. I ended up inviting them to volleyball, and after, some guys took us out to this restaurant. We three girls sat separate from the guys, and Minori leaned over, and quietly suggested we go check out some strip clubs. That's strange, right? Don't you think? I wasn't sure quite what to make of it at first, but it turned out she was quite serious, and we ended up going. At first, I thought it was just her way of being racy, but I began to suspect that maybe Minori or both of them worked in a strip club or something like that in Japan. I didn't want to pry, but it would explain a lot.
Anyway, this one day, the three of us happened to be up north outside the city limits shopping for clothes at an outlet. When we came out, Minori pointed to this bar across the street.
"What's that?" she asked.
"I don't know. Some kind of drinking place?" I guessed.
"Let's check it out."
I don't think I'd ever been in that particular bar, but it looked familiar, wooden interiors, a jukebox, a small dance floor and billiard tables. The crowd was in their twenties or thirties, guys and girls, dressed sort of casual, jeans and t-shirts. I wasn't all that dressed up either--just tightish blue jeans, a red white and blue striped crop top and a beige zip-up hoodie. I did have on black platform ankle boots which look kind of nice. Minori and Nao were wearing breezy summer dresses, their hair beautifully styled as usual. We sat down at one of the tables, and a waitress came over, and took our order. I wanted something light, so I ordered apple cider. Nao and Minori got beer.
Minori asked if we could meet some guys. In the language exchange, the two of them are kind of the center of attention, but out in American society, all these tricks they use don't seem to work as well. They looked to me as the one who'd been in California the longest to get us some guys somehow. I'm not really an expert. I go to dances and stuff, but I dated Ryosuke for quite a while, so I might be a bit rusty. Anyway, they asked me to try.
There were quite a few guys there, Anglo-Americans, tall, rugged and a bit folksy, not the surfer types I knew from the beach. I got up, and went over to the jukebox to see what kind of songs they had. They didn't have any Japanese music, but they did have a Korean song 'Gangnam Style.'
I fed some quarters into the jukebox, pressed the button, and started dancing. In my platform boots, it was a bit hard to balance. I tried to dance like in the Gangnam video, cowgirl style, but without really meaning to, I was mixing in some of the moves Monique the stripper had taught us, rocking my hips back and forth.
Before long, a guy at one of the tables sat up, and took notice, pointing me out to his friends. At first, they were all just sitting there, but soon, I got them laughing with my bucking bronco routine, and they came over to dance with me. I smiled at Minori, proud that I'd found some guys for us to talk to.
These guys were funny too. I lassoed one, a big guy, with my imaginary lariat, and he pretended like I was tying him up, making everyone laugh. After the song, they got their stuff, came over, and joined us at our table.
Two of them were Anglo-Americans, Jeff (my lassoee) and Tim. There was one shy Asian guy, Ben, maybe Chinese American. They weren't that drunk, but Ben was wrapped in yellow and black safety tape, the guest of honor I guess.
Tim sat next to me. He was maybe the handsomest of the three, brown hair, long sideburns, kind of rugged-looking but with sensitive eyes. He didn't talk so much, but I could tell he liked me. He would peer over at me with this light in his eyes, but ultimately back down from saying anything. I found his reticence cute. Jeff, their leader, sat next to Minori, and Nao sat with Ben, clearly the shyest of all.
"So what brings you girls to our neck of the woods?" Jeff grinned. Jeff was a big guy, a joker with bushy hair and a beard like a lion's mane.
"We're just on our way back from shopping," I explained. "What about you?"
"Benny boy here is getting hitched next week, so this is like his bachelor party," Jeff told us.
"How do you guys know each other?"
"Oh, we all work at a big box hardware store near here, The Big Bench. Ever been there?"
"No, I can't say I have," I admitted.
"Anyway, if you're looking to buy some garden gnomes, drop by, and we'll set you up."
I laughed. Jeff was pretty funny.
Tim was still kind of gazing over at me with these smoldering eyes.
"So, Ben, this is your bachelor party?" I went on. "That's nice of your friends to set this up."
"Yeah, I told them not to make a big deal..."
"What do people do at bachelor parties?" Minori asked, wanting to get in on the conversation. Jeff looked reluctant to answer, so I let slip,
"They usually have strippers."
Tim and Ben looked a bit shocked I would come out, and say this. Having visited those strip clubs with Minori and Nao so recently, it was hard not to make the connection.
"What? It's true, isn't it? That's what people do here," I protested. Jeff nodded, backing me up.
"Where's your stripper?" Minori joked, tipsy from her beer.
"I told these guys to skip all that," Ben told us. "I just wanted to hang."
"Why don't one of you girls strip for him?" Jeff suggested. Minori, Nao and I all looked at each other, and laughed. It seemed like a crazy idea. Just for a joke, I pointed to Minori as a potential stripper since she was the one who suggested it. She does probably have the biggest breasts of the three of us. I'd never seen her dance, but I could definitely see her being good at it.
"Who? Me? No, I could never...," she tittered coyly, covering her mouth with her hand.
"Nao? What about you?" I switched, turning to her. I'd seen Nao naked too in the locker rooms when we went swimming. I knew her body was much sexier naked than when she was dressed. Nao blew the hair out of her eyes, laughing and coughing, dismissing the very notion.
Jeff was maybe a bit drunk. He raised his voice, clapping, calling for one of us to,
"Take it all off."
Minori told them straight out,
"Emi was just learning how to strip the other day!"
"No! What are you saying? It wasn't like that," I rushed to deny.
"What do you mean?" Jeff persisted.
"It was Minori's idea originally," I corrected. "We went to a strip club with guy strippers and then another club with girls."
"Wow! Hot!" Jeff breathed, visibly excited. I was trying to slow things down, but I might have been getting a bit excited myself. Tim was glaring at me, his eyes sparkling now.
"We met this French stripper named Monique, and she showed us a few moves."
"Like what?" Ben asked, showing more interest. I tried to laugh the whole thing off, but Jeff was super-keen, begging for me to show them.