Liza pulled up on her car in front of Sophie's house like it had become the usual on their weekends. As usual, she was already dressed on their new dress code. Sunglasses and flipflops, nothing more. She honked, but Sophie didn't come out.
That was weird. She was usually waiting just on the other side of the door. She acted like she wasn't, but Liza could tell. She checked her phone and Sophie had just left a message.
"Not going today. Not feeling well. Sry for not telling b4."
She could see something was wrong. She left the car and walked straight to the front door. She didn't know what to expect. There was clearly something wrong with her friend.
She knocked, and Sophie answered. Liza had to take a second to understand what she was seeing. Her friend was completely dressed. Sweatpants, t-shirt. Even fucking socks.
"Hey, Liza." She looked embarrassed by being caught dressed by her naked friend.
"Sophie..." her voice lowered as she took it in. "What happened?"
Sophie opened her mouth to speak. No sound came out. She closed them. Opened again, and started crying. A fury of incongruent speech came out of her between her cries.
Liza did the only thing she could. Hugged her, brought her inside and sat down with her. She hugged her friend until she could put together a coherent sentence.
When she did, she told everything. About her encounter with her mom, what she did, how she reacted.
"It was a good thing, actually." Sophie said, now more composed. "I don't know what I had in mind. This plan is ridiculous."
"Are you saying I look ridiculous?" Liza asked, gesturing to her own nude body.
"No, of course not. But it makes sense for you. That is you. That has never been me."
"It looked very much you when you were walking around, feeling on top of the world, babbling on and on about how it made you feel amazing and empowered and this and that."
"It was a feeling of the moment. I can't be walking around naked all the time." Sophie couldn't keep her gaze at her friend.
"Of course you can. You were doing just fine. There is nothing stopping you but yourself."
"I... I can't. It was stupid. I can't."
"I'm not here to convince you. You have to decide for yourself. But I'll say this. These last days have been the best I've seen you in years. And you don't owe anything to anyone. You just have to decide to be you, whatever form of you that you think you need to be. I'll be waiting for you outside. When you make up your mind, you can come out or not."
With that, Liza left, leaving Sophie alone with her thoughts. She closed the door behind her and set on the stairs on the front porch. Some people came and went. The ones who noticed her took only a little peek, seeming unfazed. Guess they were getting used to it already.
"I can't do it!" Sophie thought to herself. "And I'm bringing my friends into it with me. I can't do it to them. This is a stupid idea."
When she woke up, she was certain to put an end to her plan. But what Liza said kept bringing ideas to her mind. How powerful she felt on these last couple of days. How herself she felt. How all of it seemed so right.
Why couldn't she do it? Of course, it wasn't normal. But she didn't need to be. There was nothing amoral or illegal in what she was doing. There was no need to feel shame.
But she was dragging her friends to it. They have also been spending more and more time naked, even outside. But that was not her fault. They were the ones who decided to do it. And they seemed to be having a great time with it. And so was she.
After almost twenty minutes, Sophie finally came out, ready for the beach, already dressed for the occasion.
"It's good to see you back to yourself." Liza said, looking at her friend's re-undressed body. "You already look more confident."
She didn't. This whole thing reawoke some of the early feelings of going out naked. She felt hyper exposed, wanting to cover herself and hide her body away.
But she couldn't do that. She had to push through this once again. And she was, actually, feeling amazing just from trying it again.
"Let's get going." Was all she answered. She wanted desperately to hide herself on the car until she felt that her confidence was back.
The two drove to Marcos' house. They turned the radio on but mostly talked over it. Marcos ran from his front door. He was wearing a small beach short with, as far as it looked, nothing under it. As far as looks go, he was your usual frat bro. White skin, short dark hair, kinda buff. He was actually a huge dork back in the day, with a rather recent glow up.
"Hey girls!"
"Hey boy!" Said Liza.
Marcos spent most of the drive talking about his new job as delivery man. He lost his job once the company he worked in fell under and he haven't managed to stop on a job yet.
Next was Jenna. She was wearing only a sarong, which was a step up from the usual beach dress she wore. The two of them hadn't adopted Liza and Sophie's style yet, but they got the idea of wearing something as easy to take out as possible.
"Get over there!" She said as she got in from the left back door, pushing Marcos to the side with her right butt cheek. Jenna's Venezuelan heritage really showed. She was tallish, light brown skin, straight black hair, wide hips and big breasts. Sophie envied those a little.
"Don't push it!" Marcos complained.
"Then get to the side!" She said, as she pushed and almost sat on his lap.
"I will if you let me!" He said, as he grabbed her waist and started tickling. These two had always been very close, but they have got very touchy with each other recently. Liza and Sophie shared a glance and rolled their eyes.
Last one was Trish. She was definitely the most dressed of the three, with blue bikini top and loose pink shorts. She walked her usual walk. A little slow, shy. She noticed how overdressed she was as soon as she got on the car.
"Hey guys!"
"Hey girly!" Marcos said.
"Only we can say that!" Jenna said, as she pushed Marcos and made space for Trish.
They went their way, listening and singing an impromptu road trip themed Karaoke. Singing with her friends made Sophie forget why she was even doubting her decision on the first place. It all felt absolutely natural.
When they got to the parking lot, Sophie had to take a second to come out. She could feel every glance on her body. She pushed and faked her confidence as best as she could.
They walked to the trail and the two naked girls got the usual reactions, and Trish looked uncomfortable with that. She seemed scared of the thought of undressing on the end of the trail.
"That's common, unfortunately." Said Sophie. "But I'm not doing anything wrong, so fuck them."
When they got to the end of the Rock Maze, Jenna quickly removed her sarong and yelled "Race you to the cave!" before darting off.
"Not fair!" complained Marcos and he struggled to remove his shorts while running and fell over.
Trish was standing at the edge of the beach, looking at all the naked people, and to herself. Noticing how silly she looked, being the only one dressed, and getting the courage to take the next step.
"It's easier to get naked now. It's only us."
"Yeah, ok." She said, nervously, and started removing her clothes.
Sophie saw that Marcos had caught up to Jenna and tackled her from the back, hugging her and making contact with the full front of his body and falling with her to the ground. They could hear her laughing as they rolled.
"They should just deal with it already." Said Liza, also watching the two.
Trish had finished undressing. She was a small girl, but not super thin. She actually had curves, her boobs were big for her size and her ass was very shapely. Sophie should probably stop thinking about her friend's ass and boobs. She blushed a little as she saw her.
"Let's go?" She said, with a confidence she clearly was still trying to muster.
"Yeah, lets." Liza said and they began their walk.
Trish's walk was more robotic than usual. She eased up when she realizes no one was really paying attention to her. But Sophie remembers how her first minutes felt.
They made it to the "cave". It was actually a concave the size of a medium bathroom carved into the cliff's rock face by the wind and tide. It was a beautiful formation and shielded them a bit from the sun when inside, but allowed to tan on the front of it. It also gave them a little bit of privacy. They always tried to arrive early to get this spot.
Jenna and Marcos were already there, setting their stuff down.
Sunscreen applied, the five of them laid down on their sarongs for some tanning, changing the sides here and there. Trish was the only one with bikini marks of the three. The conversation went everywhere and nowhere. Trish still seemed nervous about her nudity.
"So Sophie!" Liza said, all of a sudden. "Now that you are proudly showing yourself around, catch the eye of anyone in particular?"
