My Best Friend's Nude Scene Pt. 01

She caught me by surprise as I stepped out of my last class and started toward my car; she was waiting in the hallway.

"Let's go out to drink."

"No way. Why?"

She just scowled at me, then said, "I probably didn't get the role in the Oddberry play. They kept saying they wanted someone 'sexy'... and they did it in that way to let me know I wasn't sexy... so I need to commiserate."

"Man... that sounds nice. But I really--"

"Let's go. No excuses. You already screwed me once," said Liz, and I swallowed uncomfortably. "Come on. I've had a tough week and I need someone."

One beer, I thought. I did need to get home to Emily, but she wouldn't make me feel as bad as Liz if I stayed out a bit. Together in my car, we drove to Lorenzo's, our favorite out-of-the-way bar. She insisted on shots first, though I couldn't say why. After I had two of them, at her insistence, I swore off the rest. I recognize she was trying to loosen my lips. Liz once joked at the Christmas party that I revealed all of my darkest secrets after I had drank too much; I can't even remember what it was I had told her. Tonight, I was determined to hang on to my secret, so I switched to beer as I had intended.

After going through the story of her audition, which included showing the producer and director what she looked like in a bathing suit, Liz changed the subject. She probably had noticed I was burning red when she talked about being inspected.

"So what the hell happened to you? Why are you acting so weird?"

"I'm not. I'm not. I'm... everything's good."

"Don't kid a kidder, Mike," she said, then sighed. She ordered another couple of shots and said she would drink both if I didn't drink with her. That didn't change my mind, so she did as she threatened. Then she moved on to a worse ultimatum. "I've got a dollar in quarters... and if you don't tell me what's wrong, why you're acting weird... I'm going to play 'Loving You' four times in a row." I shuddered at the prospect. "Think about it, Mike. Four plays Minnie Riperton... your ears will crack by the end of it."

"Go ahead. Do what you gotta do."

She didn't follow through, though. As she finished the last shot, she stared at me and seemed to get depressed. As awful as I felt, I didn't watch her too closely. If I did, I felt like she would read the guilt in my face and figure it out. Liz moaned and laid her head on her crossed arms.

"So it's pretty bad... and even the Riperton threat can't pry it out of you." She drew a breath and sighed, staring at me. It made me feel worse. "If it's about Emily, you know I won't say anything to her. I won't tell anyone. And I won't laugh. I might even know what's bothering you."

"It's not Emily. Not at all," I said, feeling an ache in my stomach as I sat there and stared at my beer. I scratched my head and thought I definitely shouldn't tell her. At the back of my mind, a voice kept telling me it would be better if I did. Tried to talk me into it. But I swore I wouldn't. I knew it would mess things up.

By the second beer, I had changed my mind. She had slipped another shot in there, and she was barely able to stand after all of those she had downed and the last one she matched with me. I sipped the beer and stared at her, feeling worse. Like I had let her get that drunk.

I asked her, out of nowhere, "Have you ever worked on a movie?" She didn't open her eyes, head still lying on the bar, but she grumbled that she hadn't. I swallowed as I thought about how to continue. I asked, "What about... Bare Hunt? I thought you were in that?"

"No," she said. Then, after a moment, she opened her eye and looked up, maybe seeing if I believed it. "I guess I told you I was in it."

"Yeah."

"It's just a... dumb little part. Nothing major." She continued watching me, and I was giving something away. Liz lifted her head, still a bit dazed. "It's a bad movie. I hope you're not trying to find it. Nobody has it. I look... every once in a while."

"I found somebody that has it, actually," I said, then looked back to my beer. "It's, um... it's somebody on eBay who is selling it."

"Oh," she said. She couldn't hide that she was more interested, but she did her best. "Why don't you... send me the link. If you don't mind. I might buy it. Not that I want to see it... but it might be cool to have a copy."

I scratched just at the back of my head and took a nervous breath. "I kind of... I already bought it."

Our eyes met again. In spite of how drunk she had gotten, I could tell she was instantly alarmed. Not the regular kind of anxiety, but almost a panic. Her heart was plummeting inside, I could detect. She hung her head a bit and then got up from the bar and headed toward the door.

"Liz!"

The bartender called out for her, too, just calling her "sweetheart." Liz called back that I would pay the bill--since I had so much money to spend at eBay.

I gave him my credit card and waited to sign the receipt, tipped him a couple of bucks--a bad tip--and then rushed to follow Liz's exit.

Catching up with her took some running.

"Liz...!"

"I'll see you tomorrow, I guess," she yelled back, not looking my way. I ran ahead, having better balance than her since I had drank less.

"Please... can was just talk?"

"Only if you haven't watched it," she said, stopping in place and crossing her arms over her chest. She sniffed--she was really a wreck, close to crying. "It's not funny to me, Mike. Did you tell anyone else?"

"No. I swear."

"Not even Emily?"

"Em..." I panted out a frustrated breath and shrugged. "I didn't tell her... but she caught me watching it."

Her eyes welled with tears and she covered her face. Only somewhat more composed, Liz confirmed, "So you did watch it?"

"I... yes. I watched it."

"Emily, too?"

I had to admit she had. I thought my friend my throw up. I tried to assure her, "It's alright. It's a better movie than... you know, than it looks. And I won't tell anyone else. I promise. Just your secret and mine."

"Fuck off, Mike," she said, then started past me. When I reached to stop her, she pulled her arm free and stared at me again. I worried she might fall, so I stepped closer. She defended, "I was young and dumb, man. Just... it didn't seem like a big deal."

"I thought it was something like that," I said. Then I smiled and told her, "It's not a big deal. Really."

That was the worst kind of lie--obvious and gigantic. If it hadn't been a big deal, I wouldn't have spent the week hiding from her. I never should have told her. That much was dawning on me.

"The director really was a friend of mine. A boyfriend, actually," she said, then she sniffed and stared at the sidewalk. "He needed someone for the role who could act. All the girls he found willing to do it were... I don't know. Strippers. Stuff like that. He found one ex-girlfriend. I got kind of... jealous. He kept telling everyone that it was only going to be on video in Europe. The whole company financing it was German. So... I kind of thought I could get away with it."

"I can understand that."

"Well... thanks for being so understanding," she said, pulling her purse up tighter on her shoulder and sobbing quietly. She almost turned away, but looked at me again to say, "You know how I know it's every bit as bad as I knew it would be?" I opened my mouth, but she had the answer. "You didn't bother making fun of me. And I know it's stupid--and funny. The kind of thing you should make fun of me for doing. But you're too sick about it."

"Liz, I'm not. Please don't... let me drive you home..."

"I'll be alright, Mike. Go on. I can't stand the sight of you right now." As I called out for her to come back to my car, she replied, "See you tomorrow!"

Was that a good sign? Probably not. But I walked along with her, letting her stay ahead of me and ignoring me, just to make sure that she made it to her building. Not only was it a bit of a long walk, but once she was inside, I had to walk back to my car. But it gave me time to recover a bit from the beers I had. I could only hope I wasn't over the limit anymore as I drove back home, slowly and focused on the road, and trying not to think about how bad I had messed things up with my best friend. At least I didn't have to lie to her anymore.

* * *

The next night was Emily's night to hang out with the girls from work. Her friend Leona was getting married in a month, so everyone had been staying out later and getting drunker and drunker. I didn't mind, even when Emily would stay over at Cassandra's instead of coming home. In truth, my bigger worry was that Emily would open her mouth about me and the DVD and Liz and all that. Not that these people had anything to do with my life, but I still didn't want that information out there. I already felt like I had betrayed Liz by seeing the DVD myself.

I was watching a videotape of a show we had done the last year, a comedy where Liz and I had no scenes together. I recalled standing in the wings and watching her on stage, thinking she was fantastic. We were only getting to know each other at the time and I already liked her better than I should have. All night I had been telling myself to call Liz and try to make things right again, then telling myself it was better to let her sort things out on her own. I kept worrying that things were over between us, though.

The buzzer went off and I stopped the video tape. Liz had come to see me. I couldn't have been more surprised. She had decided to come over after hitting a bar down the block, so it was strange, like I was seeing her in basically the same state I had left her in. She sat on the arm of the couch when she came in and took a minute to settle while I brought her a glass of orange juice I had offered.

"I might've overreacted. I feel a bit bad about that. I asked myself why was I mad. You know? Because the only thing you really did... was find out my secret. If I had just been honest with you about what the movie was... instead of trying to play it cool... you might have known how much it would bother me if you found that DVD."

"I'm sorry, Liz. I am. I thought it was just going to be some small role... a little embarrassing."

"Well, I guess you saw... it wasn't a small embarrassment at all." She finished taking a drink and swirled the juice. "I thought this would have some vodka in it."

"Do you want some?"

"Not yet. I'm still trying to... explain myself." As I assured her she didn't have to, she hushed me and continued. "Nando was the director. We were dating at the time. I liked him a lot. He had these German investors in his film... we shot it in English, but it was going to be dubbed. They promised me it wouldn't play outside Europe..."

I said to her, "You told me most of this already."

"I don't remember how much... so here's all of it," she said, smiling before taking another drink. "Nando needed an actress. Not just a girl willing to be naked on camera, but a real, you know, actress. And he talked me into doing it... because I wanted to help him out and I thought it would be a secret."

"Yeah."

She finished another sip. "You can tell now that it didn't really work out like that. I don't know for sure if Nano was lying or was lied to, but the movie had a VHS release and limited DVD release, too, here... stateside. You can imagine how humiliated I felt. I mean, you've asked why I came to Gates... this is why. Too many people knew about the movie I did back home."

"I'm sorry, Liz," I said. "I had no idea."

"I felt so stupid. You saw what it looked like on screen. I only know how it felt while we filmed it." She crossed her legs over the shins and supported herself with one hand while leaning back. "You've got to be wondering why I would agree to all that."

"No," I said, just looking to make her feel better. "Like you said... your boyfriend talked you into it. Some men are pretty convincing."

"I did have a weak spot for him," she admitted, blushing. "That's not the whole story, though. I mean... I've reflected on it before. After I went through all that, I asked myself if it was all Nando to blame. Maybe it wasn't. You see, Mike... I had this weird pituitary gland problem when I was younger. Between about 12 and 16. I was gaining weight. My mom thought I was filling out, just... getting bigger. Maybe something I inherited from dad. At 16, though, a doctor noticed I had a weird formation and gave me a scan. I had this tumor, a benign tumor, thankfully, but it was pressing on my gland. Causing this weird weight gain and appetite issues and even stunting my growth. They operated and removed it. I started to sprout up, reaching my mom's height. Then, all the weight began dropping. Really fast. I turned so thin my mom began to worry about that, but the doctor said it was just the effect of removing the tumor. So I had kind of... filled out really fast."

I looked her over, not that I needed a closer look, and tried to imagine how Liz had looked before.

"If you're wondering what this has to do with anything, I don't blame you," she said, smiling self-consciously. "I had a low opinion of myself and a lot of the crappy kids at school made me think I was right. That I was ugly or at least not good enough to be attractive. All of a sudden, people were telling me I looked great. I thought I looked better, but I had a hard time believing them. When I went to college, I finally pursued my dream of acting... all because I was looking better than I used to. Nando kept telling me how sexy I was and how incredible... he made me feel like it would be nice to be seen... to let everybody see everything. I kind of... I didn't hate the idea."

Liz lifted the glass, but found it empty. She handed it to me and then told me it needed vodka this time. I smiled and went back to get some more orange juice. She moved to the counter and sat on the side looking into the kitchen.

"I mean, I asked him about a million times, 'Are you sure people won't laugh at me?' And of course, 'Are you sure this won't be seen here in the States?' Maybe you could say my ego got the best of me. I probably deserve all the embarrassment. He made it sound like it would just be a quick scene. Next thing I know, I'm spending the whole day naked, His friends are seeing me, all of his crew buddies. It was driving me crazy. I couldn't believe what I had gotten into. Then, we were done, thank God. I managed to forget about it. Two months later he says he wants to rent a theater and have a premiere, like for a big movie--right there in Los Angeles. I freaked out and told him he couldn't. All of a sudden he's telling me he'll do whatever he wants with the movie and I should just accept all of it. It already happened. He admitted the company had changed its mind and were releasing the film on videotape here in the States. I just lost it. Rumors started going around that I was in this movie, but I don't know if anyone I knew saw it... outside of Nando and his friends. I had one more year left to finish, and I just decided I needed to get out of L.A.... before all of that caught up with me. I moved to Chicago and stayed with my cousin. Then I decided to get back into acting and finish college. That's... well, I'm here. But I guess... that stuff ended up following me."

While she told me her story, I poured myself a screwdriver and slipped it slowly. I nodded along with her. Finally, I had the nerve to ask her, "All of this... I hope it doesn't mean you're going to move on again."

"Leave Chicago? I have to admit I've thought about it a lot in the past 24 hours," she said, then sighed. I held onto my breath as I waited for her to continue; she noticed and smiled a little. "I don't think I'll be running again."

"I'm really glad to hear that."

She glanced down as her smile grew. "I'm not really sure what scared me so much that I just uprooted my life and left Cali. I guess I had thoughts... kind of nightmares... that everybody would be staring at me. Making fun of me. When I think about it, all of that stuff isn't so bad. Actors give each other crap all the time for... bad performances. Stupid costumes. Terrible shows they were part of. I can stand a critic. This would be tougher than some others, but the more I think about it, the more I think I can deal with it."

"Actors also give each other a lot of support," I told her. "For every person you've got making you feel bad, you'll probably have 10 making you feel better. We've all been through it."

Liz said, "The most heat I took about the movie was from some close friends of mine. They were more prudish than I thought they would be. I mean, Mike, they didn't even see the movie or hear about my scenes in it. As soon as I told them I was nude in Nando's movie, they just stopped talking to me."

"I guess I did the same thing," I said, my guilt burning.

Shaking her head, smile coming back, Liz said, "You actually saw the movie... I can understand that throwing you off. Hell, it's throwing me off... just knowing you've seen me... like that." We both looked away, though she laughed. "It's embarrassing. Definitely. But I can probably live with it."

For seconds, we just stared at each other. I opened my mouth, but realized I had nothing to say. She drew a trembling breath and smiled.

"So I should probably get to see you naked. Right?"

My mouth hung open as I stared at her, unsure what to say. She just broke out into laughter.

"You know I'm kidding, right?" she tried to drink again but laughed into the glass, then shook her head. "Man, the look on your face."

"Yeah. You got me."

"I got to think that would just make things weirder."

We stood there for a moment I drank probably half of my vodka and juice during those seconds. At last, she handed me her glass and asked for a refill. I could tell she was a bit wobbly on her seat.

"How about I switch it to juice?"

"How about you trust me that I'm good for more vodka?" she said, laughing a little bit. I shrugged and went back to the kitchen. "I'm just teasing, you know."

"About the me being naked thing?"

Reddening a little, she said, "About the vodka. I'm glad I got you to look out for me."

I shook the bottle to show her this would be the last batch of screwdrivers for us. As I poured, a thought came to mind, and maybe the smell of the alcohol as much as the effect encouraged me to say what I probably shouldn't have.

"I think you were serious about seeing me naked."

"I wasn't. Listen to you!"

"You've thought about it at least." As she argued, I smiled and said, "You wanted to see how I would react. If I would jump at the chance or something."

"No, I didn't." I just made a smirking face while handing her the drink. She took another sip and groaned. Then, she dared to say, "What if I actually wanted you to do that?"

"How would we do it? You want me to do a nude scene... crawl around in the basement while you film--"

"God! Stop!" Liz laughed, shaking her head. "I'm just kidding you anyway."

"I know you are," I said doubtfully. "What is it you had in mind?"

"I don't have anything..." She broke up laughing as I stared at her. I wasn't half as lit as she was, I'm sure, but I could feel a minor lightness in my head. "I wasn't looking for anything fancy. Nothing kinky. No... roleplaying."

I took another sip. "So if I went in through that door..." I gestured with the glass toward my bedroom. "Came out again... no clothes on? You would consider us even?"

"I'm just kidding you," she said again, but her smile slipped.

"I'll do it," I told her, then shrugged again, as if it were really no big deal. "If it makes things right between us, Liz, I'm cool with it."

"No, Mike. You're sweet. But you don't have to. I'm not sure I can handle it anyway."

She was laughing, but both of us were pretty red-faced as we pretended we were having a normal conversation. Both of us went to the couch together and sat down. I told her Emily would be back soon, maybe as some strange protective measure, but I had no idea when Em would return if she was out with friends. Liz just wanted to finish her drink and stay long enough to be okay to drive, but neither of us knew how long that would be. I turned on the local TV, leaving the sound down as we put words into the mouths of the late-night movie, and we kept laughing. I'm not sure if it was the screwdrivers to blame or my guilt over the whole business, but I was taking her joke about seeing me naked more seriously.