Pierced Nips

"Yes," Valery said, jumping in to answer Orange-Hair, and pulling out a crinkled piece of paper from her pocket. "We are here for, let me see, Manya, I think."

The girl looked at us blankly and pointed to the room where the naked man was being operated on. "She's busy, as you can see, but just hang on a few minutes and she'll be with you." She looked at both of us from head to toe. Compared to the rest of the people here, we were the ones that stood out because our bodies and clothes were rather conventional. I only had a single piercing in my ears, for goodness sake.

Valery turned back to stare openly at the naked man's ass with fascination. I wasn't sure why, but two young women were now crouched next to Manya who was gesturing and pointing at this man's private parts. We couldn't hear what she was saying but it looked like she was manipulating his dick up and down as she talked to the girls. They seemed to be engaged in the lesson.

I thought at first the two girls were customers, but on reflection it made more sense that they were store staff. Or friends of his. Either way I didn't like the idea that his procedure had become a spectacle of sorts and that this Matrix outfit didn't seem to care about providing privacy for their services. Not that this guy showed any sign of caring; but it made me nervous for what was coming up for me.

"So what is Manya doing with... uh--" Valery said to the counter girl, unable to take her eyes off the naked man.

"You don't want to know," said the orange-hair, with a shake of her head. Zero fucks, basically.

I instinctively put my own hands to my breasts and held them in a protective movement. I didn't know what I was doing here and suddenly felt like I didn't belong. Sure, I wanted this piercing, I thought, but I was being plunged into another moment of uncertainty and I could feel it in my stomach. I didn't know if I could get through this ordeal. Being stuck with a needle in a very sensitive part of my body, by a stranger, with all these weird people around, in this weird place. It was going to be too much for a simple girl, I feared. But to my credit, I held my ground and didn't bail. Yet.

Instead, I wandered the store trying to distract myself, looking absent-mindedly at all the products, picking up a few and putting them back. I didn't even realize I was in the sex toy aisle and had grabbed a black plastic butt plug without noticing. When I realized what I was doing, I put it back quickly and looked around to see who saw my error. But if anybody did, nobody seemed to care. More zero fucks. It was kind of the theme of this place; and it had a certain attractiveness, actually. A small part of the back of my mind was curious. Maybe my life needed more zero-fuck-giving. Was it something I could learn to do?

Eventually I made it to the other back room; the one without the naked guy getting his cock inked. There was a surprise waiting there for me.

"Evgeni! Vova! What are you guys doing here?" I blurted out. Two of my friends from high school were standing behind the counter, which seemed odd. I wondered if there were more expensive products back there, or something unusual or taboo, a thought that was reinforced by how they looked instantly embarrassed, as if I had just caught them at something. I had graduated with these guys and could read them well.

The taller one was Evgeni and he raised his eyebrows and shrugged at me in response. In my zeal over Stas, I'd forgotten about Evgeni's energetic pursuit of my affections earlier in the year. He was a good guy, as well as a good-looking guy, and I felt a pang of regret flood over me that I didn't give him a chance once Stas swooped in to take me as his girl. Seeing him reminded me that I hadn't been the best of friends, pretty much ignoring him from the inception of Stas moment onwards even though he had been kind to me multiple times, bringing me soup when I was ill and helping me with schoolwork.

I took a longer look. Wait a minute, I thought. Evgeni had matured the past half year into a very attractive man, I could see now, except I wasn't sure I was sold on his prominent new feature: a body modification that actually looked like a bone protruding horizontally from his nose.

I had to stifle a laugh because it was such a contrast to his goodie-two-shoes personality. I hadn't kept up with him lately but I never knew that he would end up hanging out at tattoo parlors and getting a nose bone. What the hell? It wasn't unattractive; it was even a turn on in an edgy way--maybe like I was hoping my nip piercings would be for me--but it was a surprise. I wondered if the other girls from school knew about this and what they would think of sweet Evgeni looking all grown up!

He saved the situation by flashing me a warm smile. I was glad to see signs of the same Evgeni, even with the nose bone. "It's nice to see you, Tasha. How is your summer going? Are you keeping busy?"

"Yes, working some at the salon, the one down by the school. But also just being lazy," I said honestly, and returned his smile.

"Well, you deserve it, that was a tough last semester." He gazed at me again, more closely, up and down. My T-shirt was tight and looked good on me, and my breasts were prominent. He added, "Tash, wow. You look beautiful. Seriously."

I blushed at the complement. It was nice of him to say that. And his voice sounded a little strange. Was he nervous talking like this? Shit, I thought. How much did he still nurse his attraction to me? I knew at one point he was pretty head-over-heels, and that when he confessed it and I didn't reciprocate it hurt his feelings. I hadn't thought about him in many months and felt guilty.

But I had another emotion besides guilt. Being settled down in this heavy relationship with Stas, I had forgotten the thrill of having a cute guy flirt with me. I hadn't realized it, but Evgeni's little gift of flattery made me see that Stas didn't pay me that kind of attention. He even had been taking me for granted, you might even say. I basked in the feeling that I mattered to these two boys and that I could make them blush with a simple smile and a "hello" and it reminded me of the fun and newness of dating. I filed that emotion away for later.

"Tasha, she's ready," I heard Valery call out from the other room. I said a quick goodbye to the boys and slinked off to join Valery, not wanting to alert them to my purpose for being at the store. I hoped they didn't poke around later and notice. Having them know that I was here to get my nips pierced was a complication I hadn't counted on and definitely didn't want for several reasons.

We met with Manya and she launched in on what must have been her standard customer pitch about piercings. She was a short and stout middle-aged woman, experienced in the trade it was clear. Friendly enough but not overly gushy. She seemed all about the business of getting her work done.

She asked me some details, about what type of metal I wanted for the jewelry and then she went over how the procedure would go and that it was a moment of pain but over quickly and overall pretty easy, and I was supposed to clean myself very carefully every day for a month after. I was told that I couldn't change the jewelry myself because the holes can close in a matter of minutes if you pull the bar out. But I could come in and have it done any time I wanted after the first week. I nodded to all of this, dumbly. I was in a bit of a haze, still thinking somehow I was going to bail out of this but yet standing there and letting it all happen on Manya's command.

She last told me that she had trainees in the store and would it be okay if they were to watch and even help with the procedure, because she wanted them to learn to do it. I remembered the two girls attending to the naked man's cock and I said no, that I'd really rather not have extra people, especially younger girls like that closer to my own age. It was going to be hard enough to be naked in front of one middle-aged woman, separated from the main room only by that slim curtain in the archway. I didn't want an audience. Plus the less commotion the better, for fear of drawing the attention of my two friends. She seemed surprised and a bit disappointed by my refusal but accepted it.

When she told me the price, though, it was my turn to be surprised.

"Two hundred?" I had only one hundred and fifteen New Belarusian rubles in my pocket. One good thing about the currency repricing was we didn't have to count in hundreds of thousands of rubles anymore. So I understood what she was saying easily enough and there was no confusion about the amount itself. But I still didn't like the number. I turned to my friend. "Valery, you said it was a hundred."

"One hundred per piercing," Manya clarified, pointing from one of my breasts to the other.

"Per side? Valery!" I complained to my friend, frustrated, and it showed in my voice. Valery shrugged and gave a weak smile in apology. Plans and momentum and getting people going on an idea were her strong suit; getting all the details right sometimes wasn't.

"For a hundred you could do one side," Manya said, offering a solution. "You can always do the other later."

"No, I don't want that," I said. Then I realized my frustration was fading into relief. Part of me was glad to have an excuse to get out of this. I let out a breath of air that I didn't realize I'd been holding. Okay, I'll save up and try again. If I can get both the courage to try again and the additional funds before Stas had to leave for his oil field.

"Well, look," Manya said. She sounded like she wanted to make something work for us. "I do need a training piercing for my new kids. If we go to the smaller studs and you agree to have the trainees do it, I can do the whole thing for a hundred. How about that?"

I raised my eyebrows. I thought about my promise to Stas, and my own desire to have the piercings. It would be a long-time dream come true. Maybe I can push through to get this done now, I thought, and it will give me the confidence to start my next idea. I'll be flying planes before I know it, right? If I can do one, I can do the other, I thought to myself.

"Okay," I said.

I thought Valery would be please but she looked concerned and spoke up; always the negotiator. "Wait, trainees? They will do a good job, right? We can't have this botched."

"Oh yes," Manya said. "We will supervise very closely and we guarantee all our work. Go pay at the front and we'll set it up now. Soya!" The last was a call out to one of her employees, I assumed. I wasn't sure about what she said; how they were going to guarantee the results, I mean once you poke a hole in your tit it's just there, right? But at the time I was--irrationally--more worried about the pain of the procedure than a bad result.

Val winked at me and hustled me to the front counter where we paid Orange-Hair in cash. "See? It's all working out. No problem," she boasted as we counted out the bills. I rolled my eyes. Val always got through situations by hook or by crook.

But there! It was a done deal and I felt like I was at one of those roller coaster parks where I was all strapped into the car and it was clicking its way up the first hill. No getting out now. Val slapped me on the back after I put the receipt into a pocket and followed me to the room. The room of hell, where I was going to get stabbed with a hot needle. Well, not hot. But really fucking sharp.

Manya was gone when we returned, though, and in her place stood a tall, slender woman maybe 25 years old standing next to the treatment chair. She was a stunning brunette with long, straight hair and wearing only a thick black bra and thin, stretchy black tights which featured a spider web pattern and clung to her so tightly that I could make out the features of her groin: the little bump above her vagina and the shape of her pussy lips. Everything about her was overtly sexual to me. But somehow her outfit seemed totally appropriate and unremarkable in the context of this shop, even though it would cause heads to spin if she wore it outside on the street. Fuck, she probably did. Zero fucks, right?

As we approached, she turned away from us to position a tray next to the chair and as she bent over her ass bulged in the tights. It was amazing. I had never thought of myself as interested in girls in any kind of sexual way but she took my breath away. I was in a little bit of a state of hero worship, I think, looking back at the situation, but I'm not sure since my emotions at the time were all astir with the upcoming piercing and the whole strange and overwhelming environment of that place. There was something special about the way this woman held herself; her confidence, her beauty. Maybe she was the right person to guide me through this, instead of Manya.

She turned to face us. "Soya," she said, introducing herself and holding out her hand. We shook and gave her our names in return.

Val asked what kind of name Soya was to which she answered, "Slovenian." I could see Val was also taken in by this strong woman and her extrovert self was ready to jump in to engage but I didn't have the time or energy for them to start a whole conversation. I also didn't want the two boys to discover me back here in the same way we walked in on the cock tattoo man. I had to intervene.

"I'm ready," I interrupted, more boldly than I expected. Was I really ready? "Val, can you get the curtain?" I tacked on hastily.

Soya smiled gently at me, oozing confidence and charm. This must have been her little fiefdom under the realm of Manya because she acted like she was the shit here. She controlled this room, no questions asked. Not in a bad way, though. I was quite taken with her.

"Oh, eager to get going, are we?" she teased. "Are you a little nervous, hun?"

I paused, surprised it was that obvious. I nodded. I might have blushed when she called me "hun."

"Do you have the receipt?" she asked and I nodded again and fished it out. She grabbed a pen from the tray, added a scribble to it, then handed it back, her gaze lingering noticeably long on my chest and waist. "Well, hun. You are a cutie. You must have thought a long time about this."

I nodded again. I felt like an idiot, not saying anything all this time. I really was nervous.

"Show us what you got," Soya said simply.

I was confused. I looked over at Val to see if she had understood. "Excuse me?"

"Your top," Soya clarified. "Take it off and let me see your boobs."

"Oh."

Soya smiled; it calmed me. "We've got to get you naked, hun, if we're going to pierce your nipples."

I looked back to see if anyone was watching and started moving to take off my T-shirt.

"Are you gay?" Val asked Soya in a no-nonsense, direct manner. It was often how she behaved, and was a useful characteristic for a friend to have. Sometimes. "Or bi?"

"Val!" I interrupted with my shirt half over my head, shocked. "What--?"

Soya just laughed. Fuck, it was sexy, the gravel of her alto-register voice. Maybe she smoked. The confidence of this woman was like a magnet drawing us both in. "No, hun, I have a boyfriend. I'm just a person who appreciates beauty." She waved her hand in the general direction of my chest. "Call it a perk of the job."

I finished removing my T-shirt and started pulling my red cami over my head. My boobs at first were caught in the fabric of the cami, rising up towards my face, then all of the sudden popped out; I tried not to think about it. You know those "boob drops" that boys watch on porn sites? I must have just done an impressive version of one of those without intending to; Soya seemed taken by it, anyway. I double-checked over my shoulder that at least the flimsy curtain was pulled shut.

Soya went on to Val. While she talked she stared at my now bare chest.

"And I've got to tell you, Valery, your friend here--" and she just whistled and leaned closer. In a soft voice she added, "If what we do is a form of art, let's just say that most of our customers don't have the canvas that Tasha does."

Val laughed, poking me in the ribs. "Fuckin-A, Soya, that's Tasha, right? Check out those boobs. And Soya, she doesn't even know what she's got! That's the crazy thing. This piercing will set her straight. Give her that confidence."

"That it will," Soya mused, swiveling back to her tray to get down to business. She poked around on there counting things and then said back to us, "I think I've got it set. Let me get the boys. You can sit in the chair."

"The boys--?" I started, my voice going to a high pitch; then my stomach fell again in utter panic as I realized in an instant what was about to happen. It all became clear to me and was confirmed as Soya brushed past and I heard her on the other side of the curtain call out, "Geno, Vovy, come on in. You're on!"

Of course my high school friends worked here, and that's why they were behind the counter in that other room and not in front. I was an idiot and couldn't believe I didn't see it earlier. My brain must have not wanted to see it. I clutched my hands over my chest and shook my head in distress as Val looked at me, puzzled.

"What's going on?" she whispered. I closed my eyes and couldn't speak, hoping that I had successfully hidden my boobs. In a minute I heard bodies assembling around me; I didn't have the courage to look at them.

Soya began. "Tasha, these are our newest assistants at The Matrix. Manya said you agreed to be their Guinea pig, I guess." She laughed, and it all sounded friendly but I couldn't open my eyes to face the situation. "This is Evgeni. I just call him Geno. Tasha? Are you okay? I was just joking about the Guinea pig part. I will supervise everything."

She added that last part as I sat there quietly, unable to look at my friends who I knew were staring at me holding my arms over my naked chest. It was my worst nightmare of embarrassment I could imagine. I didn't know if I could run at this point so I just froze up thinking over my options. I was paid up, Soya had signed the receipt. Everything was already in full motion. But I was going to have to get topless in front of a guy who tried really hard to date me, plus his friend. How would I ever do that?

"We know each other," I heard Evgeni say in his gentle voice.

"Yeah, Soya, we went to school together," Vova added more boldly.

"Oh, great. That will make it easier," she said, evidently unaware of the tensions that are part of the fabric of life for a nervous, self-conscious teenager, especially when she is about to be asked to pop her big boobs out for her school friends. Soya probably never had a moment of doubt in her life, I thought. I still hadn't opened my eyes but Soya continued on blissfully ignorant.

She had entered her teaching mode. "Boys, this is your first nipple piercing, right?" They murmured assent.

"Wait a minute... are you guys even old enough to know about girls' tits? Ha ha," she teased and then got serious again. "I've got to teach you some anatomy so you don't fuck it up. Here, let's take a look. Tasha, can you--Tasha?"

I hadn't moved yet. My boobs and nipples in their virgin, pre-pierced state were completely covered--that is, I hoped they were completely covered--by my arms folded tight over my naked chest and my palms covering everything they could. I still hadn't opened my eyes to verify the situation. Unfortunately, I was the main character of this situation.

"Uh--okay--" Soya continued, and by the tone of her voice it seemed like she was catching on to the state of my mind. "Boys, how about we do this instead. We can start with me. Every woman is different, as you already know or you will find out."

I heard sounds that I could only imagine were Soya removing her bra and going tits out for my friends. Did they land the summer job of teenage boy dreams or what? She continued the lecture, explaining her body to them.