Jewels

She was embarrassed. "Don't be embarrassed," I said. "You asked me an embarrassing question, so turn about it fair play. I'm not trying to be rude or mocking you. I just want you to see yourself for who you are. You've had the wrong idea of what a real woman, a sexy woman, is all about."

Jewels took a long shuddering breath and looked into the mirror. "I see a skinny girl with little boobs and long hair. I don't see anything beautiful or attractive at all."

I knew I had my work cut out for me. Her image of herself had been so torn down by what she had seen in that magazine that she had hid herself from her own view. Her clothing demonstrated that in itself.

"I'll tell you what I see. " I said quietly. "Will you be willing to go along with me on this? I'll not ask anything indecent or immodest, I promise."

She nodded her head meekly. "What I see is a beautiful young woman who has been programmed by media into thinking she is lacking in beauty and sex appeal. Does that sound about right?" She nodded slightly. I took her hair and bunched it in my hands and draped it across her right shoulder next to her face. "I see a beautiful young woman with gorgeous shining, flowing hair that accents her face. I see high cheekbones that highlight an almond shaped face with grey/green eyes that offset a cute button nose. I see full, but not over big lips that have a sweet upturn on the corners and a soft smooth neck that goes down to your shoulders. With that bulky shirt on you hide most of those, and hide your figure, and those baggy pants do the same for your long legs. You have beautiful legs and a wonderful figure. I paid close attention to that when you were getting into the water earlier."

"I noticed", she giggled, starting to relax a little with me now.

"I'm sorry." I said. "I tried to be discreet." Now, will you trust me and let me show you what I really think?" She nodded hesitantly. "I'm not going to ask you to do anything indecent, and I'll keep my hands to myself." I promised. She nodded again.

"I trust you. After all, I asked you."

"OK, here is what I want you to do. I'm going to go out of the room, and I want you to find a tee shirt or something that doesn't hide you so much, and I want you to put on some shorts. Will you do that for me?" She nodded again.

"Could I have another glass of wine? I'll need some courage."

"All right, I'll get you one more glass, but that is all. I don't want you getting tipsy on me." She giggled, and I went out the door carefully closing it behind me. I went down to the kitchen and poured her another glass. I sincerely hoped I was doing the right thing for her self-esteem.

I gave her a few minutes while I pulled some steaks out of the fridge to warm up to room temperature before grilling them for dinner. When I knocked on her door she was ready for me. I went in and said, "Wow!" I handed her the glass of wine as she blushed and hid her face. She took a big sip and set the glass down on her dresser. She was wearing a pair of booty shorts and a loose crop top. "I'm glad you didn't go to school like that! You would have disrupted every class every day!" She shook her head and smiled.

"I had to use what I sleep in", she said, blushing again. I don't have anything else with me that is not big and baggy.

"That's OK, I said. " This will do very well, and I'll loan you a couple of tee shirts for the rest of the week if you like." "Now, I want you to stand in front of the mirror again." She picked up her glass of wine and took another rather large sip. "Be careful with that! I don't want you falling out on me!"

Jewels took a deep breath and stepped over to the mirror again. "I hate looking in mirrors." She said.

"Give me a chance, and I'll have to be careful to keep you from being a narcissist. I want you to face the mirror, then turn slowly while looking at yourself and tell me what you see." She turned slowly to her right looking critically into the glass.

"I see a plain looking girl with long black hair and no figure to speak of. I don't need to hide myself, because I don't really have anything to show. I look more like a little girl who has gotten tall."

I shook my head no. "Let me show you what I see, OK?" She nodded her head, but there was no conviction behind it. She had been so marked by the magazine she had looked at she had not noticed, nor appreciated the changes that had taken place in her body in the last two years. It was a pity the way the media had ruined her perception of what a real woman should look like. "First of all, I want you to look at yourself as a whole, not as a collection of parts." She nodded. "I've already talked about your hair, your face, and your neck. Now I want you to see how your neck flows into your shoulders and on down through your graceful arms. Raise your arms up over your head like a ballerina."

She giggled and raised her arms, twirling her fingers around and around each other.

"May I gather your top together a bit in the back?" She nodded. I took a pinch of her shirt at her bra level and pulled it snug. "Now, turn slowly again." She did so while I reached with her to keep her shirt tight. "What do you see now?" I asked. I was trying hard not to look too closely at her myself, as I felt myself harden slightly. I was wishing I had worn underwear!

"I see a skinny girl with little breasts." She still couldn't see it. She had been scarred deeply. I didn't know if my attempted psychology was going to work or not.

"Look at the whole," I said. "Look at the symmetry. Do you see how your figure flows in proportion to everything else?" "Let me tell you what I see." I see a slender woman with an awesome figure that looks amazing. I see long, smooth legs that come up to wide, but not fat hips with a bubble butt that people pay money to work for in a gym, yet isn't sticking out and looking ridiculous like some have had surgery to achieve. I see a flat, tight abdomen that pulls in smoothly from the hips and then swells out again at the ribs and to the bust line. I see breasts that are balanced with the rest of the body and look like they are just waiting to be caressed and loved. This is all topped by the face and hair I mentioned earlier." "Can you see that?" "If you had those artificial breasts you looked at in that magazine do you know how ridiculous and unbalanced you would look? Besides, they get saggy and droopy and ugly very soon. Yours will never do that. In my opinion, yours are perfect." By this time my cock was as hard as it had ever been. I was trying to turn away from her enough to hide it, but I don't think I did a very good job. "By the way, do you wear a padded bra?" She nodded and blushed. "I thought so. You don't need it! In fact, it detracts."

Jewels nodded again and picked up her wineglass. She drank down the last of it in one swallow and said, "Thank you for being honest with me. I really appreciate it. Was that hard for you to do?"

"Honestly?" She nodded. "Yes, it was as hard for me as it was for you. Your beauty has always intimidated me, just like everyone else. To stand here with you, looking at you, and talking like this has not been easy, but I loved it. It isn't every day a guy gets asked to look at a beautiful woman's body like this and talk about it without getting slapped silly!" She giggled, breaking the tension, which I had hoped for.

Jewels looked down at my shorts and saw the bulge. "Did I cause that?"

It was my turn to blush. I turned crimson and tried to cover myself and said, "Yes. You did that." "I think I had better go start the grill. I think we'll have steaks tonight."

"OK, I'll come down in a minute and make a salad."

I walked down the stairs and out on the back patio to start the grill. I fully expected Jewels to put more clothes on before coming down. I knew she had been embarrassed to be dressed as she was, but when I walked back into the kitchen she was coming down the stairs still wearing those booty shorts and the crop top. My cock had started to deflate, but at seeing her again it hardened again. She had a great body, and taking all that time looking at it and talking about it had it very fresh in my mind! I tried thinking about Dad and Brad and how they were doing trying to get my boner to go down.

Thinking of Dad must have worked, because my cellphone went off. I was Mom. "Hi, Mom, what's the good word?"

"Hi, Son, your Dad is doing OK. They had to put a pin in his collarbone because he broke it in two places. The Dr. doesn't want him traveling back up there tomorrow. Will you two be OK for another day by yourselves?"

"Oh, sure, we'll be fine. You know Jewels and I get along together."

"OK. I'm sorry to have to do this. Brad's car is there if you really need it, but we'd rather you didn't go anywhere."

"Not a problem. We don't need anything. I'm just now putting steaks on the grill, and we're going to have supper. How is Brad doing?"

"He's alright. His break wasn't as bad as your father's, but he hit his head, and the Dr. thinks he has a little bit of a concussion, so they don't want him to travel tomorrow either. Sandy and I can come back out for tomorrow if you need us to."

"That won't be necessary. We're big kids now. We can take care of ourselves."

"Alright, then, we'll talk again tomorrow."

"OK, Goodbye."

Well, that worked. My cock had finally gone down, although the inside of my shorts felt a little sticky. I put the steaks on the grill and went into the kitchen to put a couple of potatoes into the microwave. They aren't nearly as good "nuked" as baked, but I didn't have time to put them in the oven. When I walked into the kitchen I was just in time to hear Jewels talking with her Mom.

"Yes, Mom, we'll be fine. Jason is a good cook! We'll take care of everything, and keep things cleaned up. Is it still OK if Jennifer and Susan still come up tomorrow? I can call them and tell them not to come. . . . Cool! . . . . Yes, we'll behave! . . . You know we aren't the party type. . . . No, we won't invite any boys up here. Jason will just have to fend for himself. . . . OK, tell Daddy I love him. Bye."

I had forgotten Susan and Jennifer were planning to come up for the day. Dad and Brad sure picked the wrong time to get hurt. (Boy was I wrong about that, but that is a different story.)

Jewels asked if she had time for a quick call to Jennifer before the steak was done. I told her sure if it was a quick one. When I asked what she needed she just smiled and said it was girl stuff. I got the hint and went back out to tend to the steaks. When I looked back inside Jewels was talking rather animatedly, but very softly, and she kept looking out at me and smiling while she was talking. She was nodding her head and waving her hands around, all the while trying to toss a salad. It was almost funny to watch. I forked the steaks off of the grill, put them on a platter, and went into the kitchen with them. I heard, "Here he comes with the steaks. I'll talk to you tomorrow. See you then"

The microwave beeped just as I set the steaks on the table. Jewels had a salad put together, had dressing and butter set out, and the table set. I also noted she had poured us each a glass of red wine. I hadn't planned on more wine tonight. I asked, "Wine again?"

"I thought a good red wine would go well with the steak. We aren't going anywhere, so a little more won't hurt us."

"All right, I guess. I don't want to make this a habit. We've already gone through a bottle and a half, and you aren't used to drinking."

"I'll be OK. I'll make sure I'm eating with it."

We sat down to eat, and that is when I noticed it. When I had thought she wanted me to come on downstairs before her so she could change, she really had wanted me to come down first so she could take her bra off! She noticed my eyes go wide and giggled excitedly. "You said I should get rid of the padded bras! Don't you like?

"Oh, I like all right! That isn't what I meant though!"

"I know. Maybe it was the wine courage after all, but I decided I wanted to be able to act like other girls, and you seemed to like things earlier. I know I can trust you, and you won't tell anyone about it."

I shook my head. Had I unleashed a monster? I hoped I hadn't changed her too much. Sitting there facing her while eating supper, watching her breasts wiggle and jiggle as she cut her meat didn't do anything to keep my cock calm! I sure didn't need to be sporting a hardon in front of her all night!

We got through dinner without anything else happening, although she thought I was being a spoil-sport when I only let her have the one glass of wine. The kitchen was easy to clean up, and working together we made short work of it.

One thing about the cabin is there is no television. My grandparents wanted a place to get away from things, and as they said, if you take everything with you, how can you get away from it? There was an awesome stereo though, and a goodly collection of CD's. My taste ran heavily to Classical, particularly of the Romantic Period, so I put in a CD of Tchaichovsky's Romeo and Juliet concerto and sat down to enjoy it. Jewels wasn't as big of a fan of Classical music as was I, but she could put up with it. A whole lot better than I could handle the Country stuff she listened to!

"Want to play cards?" She asked.

"OK" "Poker?"

"No, Poker is no fun with just two. How 'bout Rummy?"

"K. got any matchsticks?"

"No, let's play for something bigger tonight."

I raised my eyebrows questioningly.

"No, not THAT!" "I was thinking more along the lines of Truth or Dare, except we could ask questions about things we are curious about, and we would have to answer."

"Oh, OK, I think I know where you are going. I'm game to try it." I didn't know if it was the wine, or just the release she obviously felt about my talking with her about her misperceptions about her body, but something had flipped a switch in her. This was going to be interesting.

One thing about our friendship over the years was our competitiveness. I couldn't compete in sports, but I did not like to lose at anything else. She was always a competitor as well, and some of the battles we had had over the years were almost legendary. I could see this could blow up in our faces if we weren't careful. "We have to set some strict ground-rules. First, we each get one freebie if we don't want to answer or do something, and second, we each can call an end to this at any time if it is going in a direction we don't want to go. No recriminations, and no hard feelings, and we don't do anything that will harm our friendship."

"That works for me," she said. "Let's play out on the verandah. It's too nice out to be cooped up inside."

I handed her a deck of cards and we went outside and sat at the table on the verandah. It was nice out there with a cool breeze alleviating some of the heat of the day. Jewels dealt the cards and I picked them up and looked at mine. The first hand I remember, but I'm not going to pretend to remember all of them. It was one of those hands you only see once in a very long time. She had dealt me a book and a straight, so all I had to do was lay my cards down. "Rummy!" I said. Now what was I to ask? I wanted it to be something good enough to make it worth her having to pay for losing, but I wasn't sure how far she wanted to go with this game. I surely didn't want to hurt her feelings, or go too far too fast. I could see the trepidation on her face as she looked at me with big eyes. She didn't expect to be in this position so quickly! It is one thing to think about the game when there is nothing on the line, but this is where the rubber met the road. What to ask? Do I give her a dare? I decided to do something mild. "What are your measurements and your cup size?" Jewels blushed and said, "I don't know. My bra size is a 34B."

"Ah Hah! We'll have to measure, then!"

"With what?"

"Mom has a sewing kit up in her room. She always keeps one in case of accidents. I'll run up and get her measuring tape." I had a big grin on my face as I got up and hurried upstairs.

Jewels said, "I'm not taking my clothes off for this!"

"That's OK. This is close enough." She stood up and waited for me to measure her. "Put your hands up like a ballerina again, I said with a big smile. I felt myself beginning to stiffen a little bit. I knelt down in front of her and reached the tape around her hips, then pulled it snug. "34 ½ inches." "Not bad at all." Next I slid the tape up around her waist, feeling her skin beneath her crop top. It was soft and smooth. I saw goosebumps pop up as she giggled and jumped. "That tickles," she said. "I'll have to remember that! 24 ½ inches. Very good!" I started to slide the tape higher as she dropped her arms and said, "I already told you, 34B."

"I know, but as President Reagan once said, 'Trust but verify.' This is your penalty for not knowing. I get to measure everything." She put her arms back over her head as I pulled the tape around her breasts. I measured from the middle, so I wasn't touching her, but it was so tempting. I thought it better to keep it kind of mild for the first one though. "34 1/2 inches. Not bad at all! If we subtract ½ inch for your clothes that makes you thirty-four, twenty-four and a half, thirty-four! Do you have any idea how many girls would kill for that figure? WOW! And by the way, a B cup is the most common size out there. You have nothing to be ashamed of." One of the reasons I had chosen this question was as reinforcement of our discussion earlier. Jewels had a pleased expression on her face as she sat down.

"OK, smarty. Deal the cards." I don't remember how the hand played out, just that it was one of those hands that neither of us could finish out until we had gone through almost all of the deck. Jewels won the second hand and looked at me triumphantly. "How far have you gone with a girl on a date, and give the details."

"Oh, that's easy. About ten miles. We went to the theatre in the mall."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

"That's what you asked." I smirked at her. "Deal the cards."

"Not until you answer the question the way you know I meant it."

"OK, OK. It's not that big of a deal. I haven't dated all that much, and a goodnight kiss is as far as I've gone." I blushed a little bit at this, feeling somewhat inadequate.

"Really? Why?"

"I've just not dated much. The ones I was interested in dating were either dating someone else, or they weren't interested in me. I never really found anyone I was all that interested in."

Jewels looked at me sympathetically and said, "You are going to make some girl very, very happy. Just you wait." She gathered up the cards and shuffled them while she was talking, then dealt out another hand. We played several hands with neither of us getting much ahead of the other as far as wins. The questions stayed fairly mild, with just a little bit of suggestiveness to them. It was just fun with a good friend. Of course, I kept a pretty close eye on her breasts as they wiggled and jiggled across the table.

It was starting to get dark and the mosquitos were making their presence felt, so I suggested we move inside.

Jewels asked if we couldn't have one more glass of wine for the evening. I teased her that she was becoming a lush, but I assented. I poured us each another glass and we sat down at the game table to continue our game. It was my turn to deal, and I could not be accused of stacking the deck by a blind man! That was the worst hand I've ever started with, and my draws did no better. I lost big time. Jewels smiled really big and asked, "Are you hard?" I nodded. "Good! I want you to stand to play the next hand. You've been staring at my boobies all night, and I want to see your bulge in your shorts for the next hand."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to stare."