First Nude Shoot
Last night was a haze. She recalled arriving at the beach house and spending some time explaining to her friends how lost she had gotten. They started giggling and poking fun at her when she mentioned a cute boy named Ricky that gave her directions to the beach house. Her friends were already three-fifths of the way to drunk, so she only had to endure their interrogation for a few minutes before Carla reminded them of the beer and boys awaiting them on the beach.
Carla had drunk too much, too quickly.
Thank God I passed out so early,
she thought. Even so, she had only awoken with enough time to shower, pop a couple ibuprofen, and jump in her car.
******
The reality of posing nude was only now beginning to sink in, standing outside Ricky's office door.
Am I really doing this?
Carla thought.
She would be on the internet. Forever.
What if my friends see it?
she thought.
What about my parents?
But there was no backing down now. There was no way she could explain things to her father at this point, a day after the accident. She resolved to follow through. A week of modeling nude for a middle-aged stranger.
Things could be worse, right?
Carla took a deep breath and knocked.
A moment of breathless waiting. "Come in."
The room was different today. The lights were still there but two video cameras were positioned around a wooden stool. And the changing stall was gone. She stared at the empty space where it had been, her eyes drawn to it's absence.
They greeted, she signed a set of model release forms, then Ricky gestured toward the wooden stool in the middle of the stage. "Go ahead and sit down," he said. "The cameras will capture anything I miss with this." He lifted same camera he had used yesterday.
The stool sent shivers up her, cold wood touching bare thigh. "It's cold," she said, smiling nervously. She wore a white tank top and a black lace demi bra underneath, the edges of which peeked out from the white top. She had thought it daring and sexy this morning, now she felt foolish. Her denim shorts were cut just below her ass. Her feet were covered by Chuck Taylor's and white ankle socks.
"It'll warm up," he said, smiling. "So, are you ready for this Carla?"
"Yeah, I think so," Carla said
.
Ricky changed positions and made eye contact with her. His expression was serious. "You're getting naked today, and none of that nervous crap you gave me yesterday, you understand? I'm paying you what I would pay a professional, so I expect a professional."
Heartbeat rising. "I understand."
"Good," he said, his demeanor relaxing. "Good. I'm going go interview you for the video first." He gestured to one of the two cameras. "Look at that one when you answer my questions."
Carla angled herself on the stool to face the camera. "I'm ready."
"State your name and age, please."
"I'm Carla," she said. There was a too-long pause, then, remembering the second question, "Oh, and I'm eighteen."
The change in Ricky's face was almost imperceptible. But Carla glimpsed the impatience in his eyes. She could barely contain her nervous energy without fidgeting.
"When did you turn eighteen?"
"About three months ago."
"You told me yesterday you're Mexican, is that right?"
"Yeah."
The interview continued with mundane questionsβwhere she wanted to go to school, what she wanted study, what she wanted to do after collegeβby the end, she was finally warming up to the whole process again when Ricky, as casual as a walk in the park, said, "Take off your shirt."
"Right now?" she asked, dumbly.
Ricky smiled at her, the impatience simmering to the surface. "Of course."
Carla licked her lips, which suddenly seemed very dry.
Okay, you signed up for this, now it's time to follow through.
She pinched the waistline of her tank top and pulled it up over her head before dropping it to the ground.
That's not so bad, right?
The demi bra covered more of her body than the bikini she had worn yesterday. And the black lace material did a decent job of camouflaging the erect state of her nipples.
"Your breasts are very small," Ricky said. "What size bra do you wear?"
"32 A," Carla said, cheeks burning at his assessment.
"And your weight?"
"Um... ninety or ninety-five pounds."