This story is about a theatrical play. Four main characters each have a role in the play.
Holly plays Wendy
April plays Crystal
Brian plays Kevin
Garry plays Rob
Holly took a quick shot of tequila to calm her nerves. She listened to April's voice on the theatre's PA system, warning the audience of adult content in the upcoming performance.
Plays such as Hair and Six Degrees of Separation had been delivering nudity to theatregoers for decades. The Vagina Monologues had put explicit sexual discussion on stage. April wanted to take the next step.
Holly had agreed to be a part of the production in order to earn some extra credit in her Theatre class. She had helped with the script, painted sets, and put costumes together.
The spirit of the daring project had infected her and when April had asked her to understudy, Holly had agreed. It had never occurred to her that might have to actually perform.
She'd watched every rehearsal. She'd enjoyed watching. But this was opening night and Carol had appendicitis. Holly was now expected to step up.
The first act started in a college locker room. Holly stood at sidestage as the curtain rose and the lights came up. She watched in wide-eyed appreciation as ten brawny men stripped to the skin before putting on football uniforms.
She was amused to hear the gasps from the audience as the penises came out. The audience had been warned to expect adult contact, but perhaps they hadn't paid attention.
April's play was about two young men who discover an unexpected attraction to each other. Once they were dressed out, Rob and Kevin sat on a bench facing the audience. Four other players stood casually nearby. The guys talked about girls, cars, girls, sports, and girls.
Eventually, the other four broke off and went to other parts of the locker room and the two main characters had a more personal conversation regarding family and futures. When the scene ended, as the coach called the team together for a pregame pep talk, it was clear that Rob and Kevin were close friends.
The actors left the stage, and Elmer Gantree's voice went out over the audience, calling out game action highlights. The stage lights dipped between quarters to convey the passage of time, and several cheerleaders came out to do a half-time routine.
Meanwhile, the actors playing the football team quickly changed from clean uniforms to dirty, grass-stained duplicates. The next scene began when the triumphant players returned to the locker room, whooping and hollering. They stripped down again and half of them sat around in towels while the others headed for the showers.
It had been difficult installing a shower onstage. A hose was carrying water from the women's backstage restroom to the pipes feeding the shower heads. Another hose led from the shower drains to a trapdoor in the stage.
Adding to the difficulty, simply wetting the actors wasn't good enough. April wanted the audience to see a real shower, and the water had to be comfortably warm. Cold has an unfortunate effect on male anatomy, which would defeat the purpose of this scene.
A pane of glass protected the audience from being drenched by the spray, but they could clearly see Kevin's naked body as he soaped and scrubbed. Just offstage, less than two feet away from the shower set, but outside the view of the audience, Holly watched in admiration.
Not only did Brian have a body any straight female would drool over, but he'd been brave enough to be in April's edgy play. The role not only required blatant nudity, but the fiercely heterosexual Brian had to portray bi-curious Kevin.
Beyond Brian's delectable wet body, Garry was playing Kevin's friend Rob, sitting on the locker room bench centerstage, wearing only a towel. And on the far side, hidden from the audience on the other side of the stage, was the writer and director of this play, April Dabney, wearing only a bathrobe.
April opened the robe, displaying her own nude body. The audience couldn't see her, but Brian could. He reacted predictably. April was Playboy gorgeous. Few men on Earth could look on her and not get an erection. Which was exactly the point. Brian was staring at April, growing hard as he ogled her. From the audience's point of view, however, it would appear as if Kevin was popping a boner while looking at Rob.
And now it was Holly's own turn. She couldn't get the knot undone on the robe's belt. She was forced to pull it up and off over her head. Blushing deeply, trying not to hyperventilate, she stood naked among her fellow students, a deliberate object of lust for Garry to look at.
Garry stood up from the bench. His eyes went up and down her body. The towel fell off. He grabbed for it, but not before his own solid erection was revealed. He hesitated before wrapping the towel back around his waist. For a long moment, the audience saw Kevin and Rob staring at each other, both naked and hard. The scene ended.
There was little point in putting the robe back on. The entire cast and crew had already seen everything she had. But Holly could not make herself walk naked to the dressing room. She stood there at the side of the stage, working the knot in the belt.
A large hand gently removed it from her grip. Brian was standing in front of her, still naked himself, still wet, still erect. He unraveled the knot and held the robe open for her. Holly allowed him to help her into it, but could not meet his eyes.
"Thanks," she mumbled quietly. This was a nightmare. How could she possibly get through the rest of this performance. Damn Carol's faulty appendix!
Holly went to the dressing room as the second act started. She put on her own clothes, jeans and a t-shirt, but left her underwear in a cubby. There was more nudity and more than nudity coming up, so it would be a waste of time to put on the bra and panties.
Speakers mounted in the room allowed her to follow the progress of the play. She wouldn't be needed for a little while, but the underwear would be unnecessary for even longer.
Rob and Kevin were behaving oddly. They seemed to be avoiding each other. Their friends thought the two must have had a falling out. Kevin finally made half a confession to Lucy, a girl he knew.
Without admitting his own disturbing reaction to his best friend, Kevin said he was afraid his buddy might be gay. Lucy, not fooled by the 'buddy' story, suggested that Kevin find a willing girl and get his 'friend' laid.
"If he has it in him to put it in her," she said, "Then he's probably not gay."
"What girl will agree to such a test?" Kevin asked.
"Don't look at me. Try a call girl."
That line was Holly's 'get ready' cue. She stood up and headed toward the stage.
April was waiting for her, also dressed casually, but in a denim skirt rather than jeans. Together, they stood in the wings as the stage went dark and the set was quickly rearranged. A door in a wheeled frame was moved into position just in front of where Holly and April stood at the side of the stage.
"Why didn't you cast two gay guys to play the two gay guys?" Holly asked quietly.
"Shh," April whispered back. "Gay guys would be iffy in the next scene."
That was kind of why Holly had wanted to know. The play would be very different, and her own participation would be much tamer if the next scene were not a part of the play.
As the lights came up and the scene began, Rob and Kevin were in a motel room. "What are we doing here?" Rob asked.
"We need to deal with this situation."
"What situation?"
"You know damn well what situation. We've known each other too long to start lying now."
"All right," Rob acknowledged. "Fine. How do you suggest we get past this?"
"I hired two hookers. We fuck them, that should straighten us out, in every sense of the word. They'll be here soon."
"Where'd you find hookers?" Rob asked
"They advertise online these days. It wasn't hard."
