Dress Off: Bryony vs. Maria

Almost on cue, Maria barged through the door, breathing heavily and clearly having run a long distance to get here. Just as with Bryony, Maria's breasts were swaying from the exertions of running, and the dangling, jiggling tassels only seemed to accentuate her embarrassment. Dear God, thought Bryony, is that how I'd looked when I was running?!

Maria came to a screeching halt as she spotted Bryony and then her eyes swivelled up to focus on the box Bryony was holding aloft. Her mouth fell open and Bryony saw a look of absolute horror sweep over her opponent's face.

Maria took a few faltering steps back towards the door she'd just come through, and then went wide-eyed as she felt something happen to her clothes. In shock, she gave a low shriek, and turned and ran. Bryony hesitated, her mind caught in a battle of competing emotions, and then gave chase, throwing the box back on to the table.

As she hurried out the door, she saw a struggling Maria grappling with her dress, one hand clamped across her chest, hobbling along. Her opponent gave up whatever battle she was waging about halfway the corridor, and then disappeared into another side room. Bryony frowned and froze, uncertain of what to do next. The sound of footsteps somewhere in the distance made up Bryony's mind for her, and she sprinted down the corridor and dodged into the same room Maria had just disappeared into. Shutting the door behind her, Bryony found herself in a large changing room, seemingly designed for a group of performers, with mirrors and lights scattered about all over the place, and a motley collection of chairs and boxes scattered around. There were also portable clothes racks, but notably there were absolutely no clothes on any of them. Bryony walked slowly into the middle of the changing room as she looked around. Maria was pressed up against a wall, but with nowhere else to go.

Bryony didn't say a word, but just looked on curiously as Maria's outfit completed its final transformation.

Maria blushed beetroot red as her left hand pressed hard into her crotch, trying to cover up her womanhood while her right arm squeezed across her ample breasts, hiding her nipples but doing little else to protect the final flimsy threads of her dignity. Only a thin belt remained around her waist, along with a couple of bracelets on her wrists and a pair of socks and shoes that did absolutely nothing to help mitigate Maria's predicament.

The tattered remains of Maria's skirt, top and her pom-pom nipple tassels lay on the floor, and Maria tried to retrieve the wreckage of her outfit, only to find the material disintegrating in her hands. With a moan, she gave up and focussed instead on trying to use her hands to provide some faint semblance of modesty and protection.

Bryony stood still and looked on at her defeated opponent, running her eyes over the naked woman's body, lingering slightly on the sight of Maria desperately trying to cover her most intimate parts with her hands and arms.

Then Bryony heard Maria give a strangled yelp, and looked on in amazement as slowly Maria's hands and arms moved. The hand clasped over her crotched edged up, and the way that Maria's eyes went saucepan wide told Bryony that Maria was not a willing participant in what her hands were doing. As Bryony looked on in silent amazement, Maria put up a struggle against the way her hands were now revealing her crotch and breasts, trying to twist and turn so that Bryony wouldn't get a front row seat to her ultimate humiliation in all of its naked glory.

The bracelet on her left hand connected to the belt and then began to be pulled around her side. Beginning to panic, Maria realised that some form of moving magnetic object in the material of the belt was causing her bracelet to be pulled along her waist, and her wrist was being effectively pulled around her back. Her right arm, desperately fighting the strong magnetic pull but losing with every inch, was similarly now almost connected to the belt by the wrist, and as her left hand disappeared around her back, Maria knew with absolute clarity what the future was for her right wrist.

Too late, the mad thought of trying to get the belt off occurred to her. There was a small clasp on the front of the belt, however the bracelets and their continual attraction to the belt meant that no matter how much she squirmed, she couldn't get a finger to the clasp to unhook and relieve herself of the diabolical item. Now her right wrist connected to the belt with an audible sharp metal clink that echoed in her ears. Groaning, she dropped into a squat and tried to hide her sizeable boobs behind her knees as Bryony took a few hesitant steps closer to her vanquished former friend.

Bryony looked on with a strange kind of detached curiosity as Maria's right wrist chartered a similar journey to that which her left wrist had just completed. It was a surreal sight, that of her former best friend and now arch-enemy, completed naked, huddled on the ground, and with both arms pinned behind her back. Maria looked thoroughly defeated, and Bryony saw a look of resigned misery of her face. The full impact of the words they'd both heard at the start of the game, the words that had - in brutal, vivid detail - stated the true cost of losing and the impending experience for the unlucky loser, all hit Bryony like a body blow. She took a step back. And Bryony wasn't even the one who'd have to do it! Bryony looked silently at Maria, and couldn't even fathom what would be racing through her former friend's mind. Would she just run? Surely, Bryony mused, she'd have done that in Maria's place.

"So we've now reached the grand finale of our game, ladies." The voice said, in a tone whose calmness was at complete odds to the mental states of both of the competitors. "There is still the small question of graduation of course. Both of you have worked extremely hard on your studies over the past four years and both truly deserve the accolades you're both about to receive. Of course, in Maria's case, sadly the applause for her academic accomplishments may be overshadowed somewhat by the rapturous ovations for her ample assets. However, Ms Richmond, as the winner, you will find a graduation gown waiting for you in a location I'll shortly divulge. However," the voice stopped for a moment, and a shivering Maria and a mesmerised Bryony both strained to hear more from the stranger who had been their constant companion for the past few hours, "there is still the opportunity for Ms Richmond to show mercy to Ms Higgins."

Maria looked up sharply at Bryony, with an expression that oscillated between hope and fear.

"The game has been won, so Ms Richmond need not fear losing, however should she wish to release the clasp on Ms Higgins' belt, then the belt would instantly release Ms Higgins' bracelets from bondage, and I rather suspect Ms Higgins would have a _slightly_ easier time of collecting her degree, what with being able to cover herself and also not having to ask the President of the University to put the certificate in her mouth, unable as she is at the moment to reach around to take it off him."

Maria groaned and her head dropped, as she mentally pictured having to stumble across the graduation stage, in front of peers, staff and who knew how many other onlookers, naked and hands bound behind her back, having to open her mouth and grasp the certificate between her teeth while a visibly stunned President gawked in amazement at her nude and vulnerable body. In her vision, the certificate fell out of her mouth, and an abjectly defeated Maria had to drop to her knees and struggle to pick up the certificate in her mouth off the floor, while her bare bottom wiggled at the audience and caused an eruption of laughter, mocking and camera flashes.

For a moment, she wildly considered simply not going to graduation, but she remembered what the legal contract had said - the one she'd so foolishly signed only yesterday. Failure to graduate would mean that Maria would have to pay the voice's organisation a sum equal to the full cost of her tuition, and that was a substantial amount indeed.

"Of course," the voice said, sounding a note of caution, "while Ms Richmond need not fear losing her title of ultimate winner, modifying Ms Higgins' outfit by removing the belt would still constitute a penalty, and a penalty would similarly render Ms Richmond naked." Bryony took a deep breath in as she reached the end of the train of thought the voice was leading them down, moments before the voice itself. "And as you'll appreciate, a contestant once naked must remain naked until after graduation."

Bryony gave a short disbelieving laugh. "So," Bryony called out, knowing that the voice would hear her, "I take mercy on Maria and make her humiliation slightly less humiliating, and in exchange I have to parade my tits and ass out for the entire graduation hall to see?"

The voice completed the impressive act of conveying a verbal shrug, and then said "Well, yes, life is full of choices. Leave now, grab the graduation gown, graduate with your degree you've so thoroughly earned, and a new and successful life awaits you. You wanted closure, and I dare say that bearing witness to a bare Maria walking across the graduation stage would qualify as closure."

Bryony rang her tongue over her lips as she took a few steps towards the exit.

"On the other hand, stay, show mercy, help Maria, and you still get the satisfaction of knowing you won. We'll help Maria start up a new life and you'll never have to see her again. We'll naturally help you too if you decide that streaking naked across the stage is the right move for you."

Bryony raised an eyebrow and shook her head in disbelief. Putting a hand up to her forehead, she tried to rub away the confusion that was clouding her mind, but to no effect. "So tell me, O mysterious voice, I'm guessing others have played your game before. How many others showed mercy?"

"None." Was the simple and honest response. Maria's shoulders drooped even further and her face, which for a split second had entertained a mad hope, was crestfallen.

"There you go Maria, no precedents. And remember what I said outside the hotel?"

"Don't... don't expect... mercy." She said, although there was a pleading tone in her voice even as she recited the words Bryony had given her.

Bryony nodded, and then looked at the exit, taking another few steps towards freedom. She was about four last steps away from the door when she stopped, turned on her heels and looked down at the squatting Maria.

"Stand up." She ordered. Maria began to protest, but knowing how vulnerable she was, she begrudgingly hauled herself up, her large swaying breasts no longer partly obscured by her knees, and her wrists bound tightly behind her back so she was afforded no means of protecting herself from whoever wanted to look. Bryony wanted to look.

She let her gaze drift up and down Maria's naked form, seeing the chagrin on her opponent's face as Bryony took the liberty of allowing herself a second and third look up and down, before crossing her arms and pursing her lips. "Why?" Bryony asked simply, the anger she'd felt before now beginning to falter.

Maria looked up at her, shame and embarrassment evident in her face. "Wh... what do you mean?" She mumbled.

"Why send the video to Grant?"

Maria looked to the side, knees locked together, trying to squeeze her thighs together in a futile attempt to block Bryony's clear view of her pussy.

"He... he was bad for you." Maria said, plaintively, looking up at Bryony and making direct eye contact for the first time. "He didn't understand. We were best friends and then he drove us apart." Maria's voice broke for a second, and she visibly trembled as she fought to find the resolve to continue on. "I... I missed you."

Bryony rolled her eyes. "So you showed him that video. You knew what he'd do. You knew who he was." Grant Tremain was a well-known member of a well-known family, however it was a deeply religious family whose beliefs had so far not been moved by the progressive flow that had led to more tolerance in other sectors of society. A video of Bryony and Maria making out - an experimental phase that Bryony had gone through for a short while - even if it was under the sheets with no visible nudity, was simply not something that Grant Tremain was going to let slide. The break-up and the name-calling had all been messy, and a very angry Bryony had turned some of those names back on Maria too when Bryony had confronted her.

Maria nodded, her expression a cloud of regret. "He was bad for you." She repeated, numbly. "He was bad for us."

"There is no us." Bryony retorted, but the anger in her voice was missing and in its place was a definite note of uncertainty.

Maria looked at Bryony again, and Bryony could see a single tear welling in the auburn-haired beauty's eyes. Instinctively she took a step forward to wipe the tear away, before steeling herself and maintaining her distance.

"I was angry. I wasn't thinking properly. I desperately wanted what we had, again," Maria said, still pleading her case, "can... can we go back to being friends at least?"

Bryony sighed and turned her back on Maria, taking a few more steps towards the exit. She looked up at the ceiling and muttered something under the breath. A successful, well-deserved, thoroughly planned out future lay out in front of her, beckoning her, needing her only to take a few final steps out of the room and claim her prize of the nice, safe, respectable graduation gown. Four years of being a proper, respectable, hard-working woman would finally be rewarded with a piece of paper and a handshake. Who knew, perhaps Grant would calm down and finally take her back? Maybe if she asked nicely enough and smiled in the right way...

Then, in the blink of an eye, Bryony jolted as she felt a dam break inside of her. Her lips tingled. She gasped as she felt a wave of emotions and repressed feelings burst over her, stripping away the carefully constructed persona she'd built up for the benefit of others, for the benefit of being respectable. Bryony the exemplary student, Bryony the hard-working intern, Bryony the party-goer who was always fun without ever causing a stir that might unsettle people. She breathed in deeply, and then out, her chest rising and falling as she tried to steady herself. She felt dizzy.

She remembered Grant and how he'd made her feel, how she'd wanted him so much to forgive her for what she had once been, needing his validation, promising to be better in the future. She remembered the break up argument and how _that_ had made her feel, as he cut down her attempted explanations and made it clear that Bryony simply wasn't good enough for him, and how she'd accepted those words at face value. And then she remembered the argument with Maria afterwards, how she'd ultimately blamed her for that night and for how she'd tricked Bryony into enjoying it, and how that had made _her_ feel. Finally, she remembered that night the ill-fated video had been made, and how that experiment under the sheets with Maria had made her _feel_.

"No," Bryony whispered softly, shaking her head, "I'm sorry but I don't think we can go back to being friends. Not after" she waved her hands around the room and tried to take in all of the craziness that was happening in one expansive gesture, "_this_."

****

"Simon Henderson." The name was called out to a round of polite applause and a beaming young man in a colourful graduation gown strutted across the stage to where a much older man in an even more regal outfit waited with a certificate in hand. The older man fixed a smile to his face for what already seemed like the hundredth time this evening as he shook another now-ex-student's hand and resumed a position of polite boredom, waiting for his assistant to the side to call out another name. Another name, another stranger he'd couldn't recall having seen for the past four years, another bout of applause and another handshake. He tried to stretch his neck a little, trying to shift a sore muscle while still conscious of the fact that he was up on stage in front of an audience of hundreds of families. All of whom were going through the motions of politely acknowledging a bunch of strangers they wouldn't have been able to identify in a line up seconds after they'd left the stage, all in readiness for a few moments of manic cheering as a close friend, lover or family member wandered up.

Looking out into the hall, he began to idly wonder if anyone at all was even paying attention to him. He was, after all, an important man - the Vice-President of the University no less - and as the lights in the high ceiling of the auditorium beamed down on him, he felt one of his underlings press the next certificate into his hand. And, he groaned with a barely perceptible sigh, they were only up to the 'H's...

"Maria Higgins." The name rang out through the speakers and the Vice-President turned to face the next graduate. At least it was a woman's name, so he could hold out hope that she'd be rather attractive and of the type to wear something slinky and revealing under the gown. No one was there. A slight frown creased his forehead. If the student wasn't present in the building, then the ushers should have removed her name from the list. He hated when this happened and a student's name was called out and they were a no-show. Made them look like complete amateurs. As he peered into the dark of the off-stage area, he saw a large graduate with unruly black hair and a long beard shrug his shoulders at the head of the line of remaining graduates. The old man arched an eyebrow. Back in his day that wouldn't have been a "Maria", but well, this was the twenty first century he supposed, each to their own.

"Maria. Higgins." The name rang out again, slower this time, as if that would somehow coax out an appearance from someone. The male graduate made no attempt to come on to stage, and instead was making some frantic hand gesture that the Vice President couldn't entirely make out, but that he surmised either meant that the guy in question wasn't Maria, or that the guy in question was choking on a pretzel. After a few seconds of the shaggy haired man not collapsing dramatically to the ground, the Vice-President decided it was more likely to be the former than the latter.


"MARIA. HIGGINS." The name was called out one final time, exasperation evident in the tone. The Vice-President's mouth was beginning to twitch in irritation when suddenly there was shouting from a side corridor in the auditorium near the main stage entrance where the graduates were lined up. Whatever was causing the shouting was also causing a consternation amongst the assorted stagehands, and several ushers and staff seemed to drop whatever they were holding in surprise as a flurry of movement erupted from the side-corridor and a woman sprinted on to the stage.

The Vice-President's jaw dropped to the ground, and the certificate tumbled out of his grasp as a collective gasp went up from around the entire hall. Transfixed, the man watched on stunned, as an auburn-haired fair-skinned goddess dashed across the polished wooden floorboards, her bare feet making no noise whatsoever. On the one hand, his hopes that Maria Higgins would be an attractive woman with an inclination to wear something slinky and revealing under her gown had been technically dashed. On the other hand, that technicality was only on the grounds that Maria Higgins had turned out to be an _extremely_ attractive woman with an apparent inclination to wear absolutely nothing at all.

As the woman got closer, the Vice-President realised - even over the background noise of shocked whispers and amazed laughter - that she was quietly hissing "fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck" to herself under her breath. Maria Higgins had her hands clasped over her naked crotch and breasts for most of the mad dash, although as she hurried over she also occasionally tried to twist her legs to provide some feeble cover, long enough for a hand to hurtle around and try to cover her exposed bottom. With only two hands and at least three major sites of embarrassment to try and protect, Maria was fighting a losing battle.