Caught on Camera
Chapter 1 -- Completely Honest
Then
Alison Day had always been open with her body. On their very first night in the freshman dorms, she'd unbuttoned her dress shirt and revealed her braless tits to her awestruck roommate. "You like?" Alison said. Casey Carroll, lost for words, could only give a meek nod.
Alison and Casey been inseparable since rooming together freshman year, and when it came time to leave the dorms they didn't even question whether they'd stick together. Over time, Alison began to wear less and less around their apartment. Most days she didn't even bother to put on pants, and would walk around post-shower with nothing but a towel wrapped around her hair. Casey relaxed her own dress code, opting for camisoles and yoga pants. Alison had seen her roommate naked a handful of times, but it was never more than a glimpse through a half-open door or a bare back when Casey turned away to change. Until...
* * *
Six months after moving into an apartment together, Casey and Alison were marathoning the
Yuletide Massacre
series, halfway through a bottle of spiced rum. They cuddled together on the couch, Casey in her Christmas pajamas, Alison in shorts and a tank top. The room was silent as they waited for the next movie to load. The winter storm outside had already knocked out the wifi twice so far.
"Case?" Alison rested her head in the taller girl's lap. She ran her nails down Casey's leg, tracing the silhouette of a moose on the patterned flannel.
"Ali?" Casey said. Normally she would stop Alison when she got flirty like this, but in that moment it felt too damn good. "Keep doing that."
"Casey?" Alison said again. "Do you think I'm pretty?"
Casey caressed Alison's short, self-cut hair, dyed neon orange the week before. "Of course you're pretty. You're always bringing somebody new home, guys and girls. I had breakfast with three of your... conquests just this week."
Alison flipped onto her back, looking up. "Not what I meant. Do
you
think I'm pretty, CiCi?"
Casey's hand paused, resting on Alison's head. They only called each other by their private nicknames when they were being real. Intimate. "I don't... I'm not sure what you mean, Adie. I mean, you know I do."
"'Cause I think
you're
pretty," Alison mumbled, her words running together. "So pretty. Tell you the truth... I'm kinda jealous of you."
"Of me? Why?"
Alison closed her eyes. "It's like you don't even notice how... how sexy you are. I'm cute, sure but you, you're beautiful. You don't see it. You live inside your head, burying yourself in your work, hiding yourself under all these clothes, your ponytails and your button-ups." She tugged at Casey's pajama top. "But I see it. I see you."
Casey shut the TV off. The room was dim, lit only by Christmas tree lights and the streetlamps outside. Snow had been constant since noon, and the streets were pleasantly quiet.
"Ali?"
"Hmm," Alison hummed, half-asleep.
"I know," Casey said. "I know how I look. How people stare at me. Even before I got these... boobs."
"Don't say boobs," Alison slurred. "Issa stupid word. For stupid babies. Stupid babies," she yawned, "need the most attention..."
"Fine. My breasts. Happy?"
"Eh. I like tits better." Alison opened one eye and prodded the underside of Casey's breast with her index finger. "Boop."
"Stop that!" Casey playfully batted at Alison's hand. "I guess... I don't like being seen," she continued. "I don't want to be just the pretty girl. I can't get through office hours or a coffee date without someone trying to look down my shirt, or go to the gym without feeling their eyes on my butt."
"Yeah, but... I do that stuff too. Ogle you. That doesn't sound right. Oogle? Oggle?"
Casey laughed. "I don't mind when
you
do it, you horndog. You're the only person I can really talk to, besides Cal. You're my friend, Adie. I don't..."
Alison sat up and put her arms around Casey's middle, laying her head on her friend's chest. "I know, CiCi. I don't have a lot of friends either." She sniffled. "I'm drunk."
"Me too. I thought that was the point."
"It is. Gotta get you outta that shell."
"Hey Adie?"
"CiCi?"
"I really don't mind when you look at me like that. I... I like it, even, if we're being completely honest. Is that fucked up?"
Alison shrugged. "A little, maybe. I don't mind fucked up. It's not like I'm not. Although if we're going to do 'completely honest'," she said, reaching for the rum, "I think we have a ways to go yet."
* * *
"Your turn, Case."
"My brother? I think he has a crush on you."
"Boooo!" Alison said. "You're supposed to tell me something I
don't
know. Drink!"
Casey finished her rum and coke. "You know?"
"Of course I know! He's not exactly subtle about it. Besides, you think I'm hot, ergo, he thinks I'm hot. Transitive property."
"That's not how that works," Casey said. She let out a small burp and covered her mouth. "'Scuse me. Like, at all."
"Definitely would, though."
"Would what?"
"With Cal. Would bang. Y'know, if he wasn't your brother, and if he wasn't dating that... harpy... woman. He's a good-looking guy."
"Ew. Stop talking! He's my brother!"
"Like you haven't noticed! You're twins! You've got the same hair, the same eyes. You're both sexy, you both act like you don't know it, you're both huge dorks--"
"Hey!"
"The only thing he's got that you don't is..." Alison ran a hand up Casey's inner thigh, then squeezed.
Casey jumped. She grabbed a throw pillow and and hit Alison square in the face.
"Alright, alright!" Alison said. "Truce! Enough about me and your brother."
"Let's hope so," Casey said, and hiccupped. "You're up."
"Completely honest? Your brother? I think he has a crush on
you
."
"Oh come
on
, Ali!"
Alison shrugged. "Wouldn't say it if it weren't true." She swallowed her drink. "Remember when he helped us move in? I was prancing around in cutoffs and a crop top, and he barely noticed me. You, though? Every time I looked over he was watching you. Hell, even his devil-woman girlfriend noticed. Remember how she pretty much dragged him out of there?"