The Reluctant Exhibitionist Ch. 05

I knew. It was the picture of me and Becky standing naked in front of my house taken by one of the boys who had given us a ride home after a late night streak had gone very wrong. I also knew now how Mom had found out about Nancy. I had told Becky everything.

"I was willing to let that pass as a silly youthful indiscretion until I found out about your naked college party," Mom continued. "Then I confronted Becky about it."

I had sworn Becky to secrecy but I doubt she'd been able to hold out for more than about five seconds once Mom began pressing her about it. That explained all I needed to know about the reason for Mom's sudden unannounced appearance. I stared glumly out the passenger window as we passed through a residential neighborhood I'd become all too familiar with. We were nearing Nancy's house now.

"Can I ask what you're going to say to Nancy?" I asked.

"I don't know yet. We'll see how it goes."

IV

Nancy looked a little surprised to see me when she opened the door but that turned to wide-eyed shock when she looked over my shoulder to see my mother. She quickly tried to cover it up with a nervous smile. "Hello, Wendy. What brings you here today?"

"Nancy, um...this is my mom. She wanted to meet you."

Nancy plastered a fake smile on her face. "Of course. Mrs. Wilson, it's great to meet you. Come on in."

My mom had an equally bright smile on her face as she reached her hand out to Nancy. "Likewise, but you can call me Jennifer."

We soon found ourselves sitting at Nancy's dining room table with a glass of wine in front of us in a scene that was eerily similar to the day Nancy had revealed her blackmail scheme to force me to act out her nude in public fantasies. I stared glumly at the table and waited for the explosion I knew was inevitable as the two women exchanged pleasant small talk. Finally my mom laid the trap for Nancy.

"So I understand you've become a mentor for my daughter? You've been spending a lot of time with her and helping her with her grades?" I knew this was her ploy to get Nancy to start spinning her lies that my mom would patiently but relentlessly unravel. I'd seen her do it a million times with us kids. She would never reveal at first what she knew, just let us dig our own graves with our responses which inevitably made our punishments worse than what we would have gotten for our original misdeed. It was also one of her favorite tactics during business negotiations to learn how honest the person across the table was being with her. I could almost hear the wheels spinning in Nancy's head trying to figure out how much my mom knew and how to answer.

"Yes, that's true," Nancy replied.

"Do you mind if I ask why you chose Wendy to spend time with?" Nancy stared into her wine glass for a minute before speaking. When she finally did her response surprised me.

"I chose Wendy because she's young and beautiful and was the ideal person to act out my naked in public fantasies for me." Nancy then smiled brightly as she picked up the wine bottle and topped up my mom's glass. "Oh, and she turned in a plagiarized term paper," she added.

I think my mom was also taken aback momentarily by this response. She hadn't expected this either. "You mean the term paper that you had another student suggest she pull off the internet? Aren't you the one who planted that idea?"

"Yes. I didn't think that Wendy would be a willing volunteer to my plans so I wanted to make sure she had sufficient motivation to go along with them. I think in the business world you call that 'leverage.'"

Mom snorted at that. "Leverage? You mean blackmail, don't you? You entrapped her."

Nancy shrugged her shoulders. "Call it whatever the hell you want but your daughter is the one who took the bait. She didn't have to, you know. She committed a breach of ethics that would've gotten any other student at this school expelled if caught. I simply gave her an alternative."

"An alternative?" Mom said incredulously. "Humiliating herself in public is what you consider an alternative?"

"Absolutely! I've never held a gun to your daughter's head to make her do anything. Turning in that term paper she copied off the internet was her choice, just as every time she's taken off her clothes and stepped out of this house has also been her choice. Wendy and I reached an agreement that would allow her to stay in school and get her degree. I admit that I did everything possible to swing Wendy's decision in my favor, but it was still her choice and it always will be."

"And you've been falsifying her grades so you've also been a party to academic fraud yourself, isn't that right?"

"Yes it is," Nancy replied. She wasn't denying anything.

"So what's to keep us from going to the Dean and telling him what's going on? He'd fire you on the spot."

"Of course he would, but then he'd expel Wendy about two seconds later."

"Are you so sure of that? My husband and I know Dr. Amundsen well and have donated a lot of money to this college."

"If you know the Dean well then you know that he would. I've never seen anyone who is more inflexible about cheating. I'm sure he would apologize profusely to you and maybe even offer to refund all the money you've donated, but then he would kick Wendy's cute little ass right out of this school."

Mom leaned back in her chair and stared at Nancy. "Yes, I believe you're right. I think that's exactly what he would do. But are you willing to lose your job over this?"

Nancy leaned in toward my mom. "Jennifer...if I can still call you that, I don't give a flying fuck about my job. This house is rented and there's nothing in it or in this town that I'd miss if I had to pick up and leave. Nothing but Wendy and her naked adventures and I'm willing to do whatever I have to do in order to keep that going. How far are the two of you willing to go to preserve Wendy's future?"

I have to admit that I was stunned as I listened to all of this. I'd expected my mom to completely eviscerate Nancy but it was clear now that she wasn't intimidated at all and wasn't going to back down. Not an inch. I'd never seen anyone talk to my mom like that before and I'm not sure that she had either. I can't remember ever seeing her seem so uncertain about how to proceed. She drained her glass of wine and then slid it toward Nancy. "I think I'm going to need another one of those." A thin smile came to Nancy's face as she refilled her glass.

No one spoke for a couple of minutes as the three of us sat uncomfortably around the table. My head was spinning with all that I'd just heard. Before we got here I was certain that my days of naked public humiliation were over but now I didn't know what to think. Was it possible that Nancy would win this battle?

"You have pictures, right?" Mom asked finally.

"Of Wendy? Lots of them," Nancy responded. "And videos, too."

"I want to see them. All of them."

"Oh my god, Mom! You can't!" I pleaded.

"Wendy, before I make a decision on what to do I need all of the information. I need to see exactly what you've been doing."

"I don't want you to see me like that. It's humiliating!"

"Well, Wendy, if you didn't want everyone to see you like that you should've thought about that before making this deal."

Nancy stood up from the table. "Let's move into the living room, shall we? This will take awhile."

V

I don't think I've ever been so humiliated in my life as I watched my mom scroll through picture after picture on Nancy's laptop. There I was naked in public parks, in supermarkets, in convenience stores, on the street. The high quality ones I recognized as Margaret's work but there were also many photos from sessions I knew that Margaret hadn't been present. "Where did you get those pictures?" I asked Nancy weakly at one point.

"On the internet," Nancy said. "Lots of people take pictures with their phones and post them. You've become very popular on certain websites." I wanted to sink into the sofa and disappear. How many people have seen me naked now? Thousands? Millions?

When she got to Margaret's video of my nude walk at Lake Rutherford I realized with a shock what she was going to see at the end of it. "Haven't you seen enough, Mom?" I asked pleadingly.

"Not yet, Wendy," she replied.

I glanced over at Nancy expecting to see that smirk on her face but she also appeared a little nervous about what Mom's reaction would be. The shower scene on the beach was bad enough but when the video approached Nancy's car and very clearly showed me masturbating furiously in the back seat I buried my head into my hands. Mom then closed the laptop. "I've seen enough now," she said.

She sat back on the sofa for a minute or so apparently contemplating on how to respond to all of this. I kept expecting her to explode in anger at me or Nancy or both of us, but she remained eerily calm. It almost felt like she was impressed by the way Nancy had set up this "deal" with me and had been honest and uncompromising about it with her in their discussion tonight. She spoke now like someone who was just looking for alternatives to a bad business deal.

"I think you have two options, Wendy. The best one is to call Nancy's bluff and simply stop participating in this nonsense and see if she'd really turn you in at the cost of her own career and reputation. I'm betting she won't."

"Mom," I replied, "believe me I've thought about that a million times but the more I've been around Nancy the more I think she just might be crazy and self-destructive enough to carry through with it. I don't want to take that risk."

"Alright then, the second option is to go to Dean Amundsen and self-disclose about the plagiarized paper and the falsified grades and throw ourselves at the mercy of the court, so to speak."

"I thought you said he was very rigid about cheating?"

"He is, Wendy, but these are exceptional circumstances and I doubt he'd want it getting out that his own assistant was engaged in a perverted blackmail scheme with a female student."

"I don't know, Mom, that sounds as risky as calling Nancy's bluff. Can't you just sue Nancy or pay her off or something?"

Mom shook her head. "If we sue her all of this would be made public in discovery. And I have no intention of paying her off. We've made that mistake in dealing with your sister's problems and I don't plan on repeating it."

I was stunned by this. "What? You mean Meredith?"

"Do you have another sister I don't know about?" Mom then glanced at Nancy and seemed to realize she'd said too much. "Never mind about her. I'm not going to buy your way out of this, Wendy. We're going to have to find another solution. You need to either call her bluff or we'll go to the Dean with this."

"There's a third option, Mom."

"What?"

"I stick to my deal with Nancy until graduation." I was almost surprised myself to hear this come out of my mouth, but I felt a grim determination coming over me now. I wasn't going to risk throwing everything away after having come this far.

"You can't be serious," Mom replied. "Jesus, Wendy, you've got photos of yourself naked all over town plastered on the internet."

"Yeah, and they'll still be there whether I graduate or not, and I'd much rather have a degree when this is all over. If I had to go through all this and then got expelled from school anyway that would be the worst outcome possible!"

Mom mulled this over for a minute and Nancy was smart enough to keep her mouth shut now and let things play out. "Alright," Mom finally responded, "for the sake of argument let's suppose I allowed this to continue. Would you really be able to keep up with this for nearly three more years?"

"I've come this far, Mom, which is much farther than I ever could have imagined when I first started. Believe me I've thought about your suggestions many times but if I wanted to take the risk of getting expelled I would've done it a long time ago. I've got so much more to lose now. Everything I've been through will have been for nothing unless I can get my degree." As I thought about it I realized how different I was now from that girl who showed up on campus her freshman year. Back then I saw college as a time of freedom from my parents and a chance to have fun and party. That girl was long gone now and in her place was a young woman determined to come out of this mess with her head held high and a chance at a bright future. As embarrassing as all of this would continue to be for me I knew that a lot of people did stupid crap in college and still went on to live successful lives, and I desperately wanted that opportunity.

Mom looked at me, then at Nancy, then back at me before responding. "Okay, hon, you're an adult now. You were legally of age when you came to this arrangement with Nancy so I guess you're old enough to decide to live with the consequences of it, if you think you can. I'll let it be your decision, but only after Nancy answers a few questions for me."

Nancy nodded. "Go ahead."

"For starters, Nancy, how can you assure my daughter will be kept safe? A naked woman in public? How the hell do you know she won't get raped or worse?"

"The public setting is what helps keep her safe," she replied. "It helps provide a layer of safety. Even if someone wanted to do something to your daughter there are too many other people around to risk it. The more public the setting the safer it is and I won't have Wendy wandering around back alleys in the middle of the night."

Nancy then got up and retrieved a fanny pack that she always carried when she was with me. She unzipped it and revealed a rape whistle, pepper spray, and some kind of electric stun gun. "I have no intention of letting anything happen to Wendy," she said. As she showed us this I couldn't help but think back to that very afternoon when I'd been standing naked in the middle of the city with Nancy nowhere in sight. I guess that was a situation where Nancy figured the very public setting would protect me. There were just too many people around for anyone to try anything. I don't know if my Mom would've considered that adequate protection but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"But you're not always with her when she's out naked are you?" Mom asked.

"No, but Margaret, Cindy or Taylor or some combination of them will be and I'll make sure they're carrying similar protections."

"And how will you keep Wendy from being arrested? Wouldn't that end up being worse for her in the long run than getting expelled?"

"Well, technically, public nudity isn't illegal in this city," she responded.

"It's not?" I asked, surprised by this. "What do you mean?"

"It has to do with a state court case and issues of freedom of expression. They can't arrest you unless you're also engaging in lewd or sexual behavior. It's not well known but, trust me, I've done a lot of research on this. A couple of years ago there was a guy who used to occasionally take naked walks around his neighborhood and when the neighbors called the cops to complain they couldn't arrest him. If they won't arrest a middle-aged naked fat guy they definitely won't arrest a beautiful young coed."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me earlier then? I've been a nervous wreck all this time worried about being arrested!"

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you. It added another layer of tension and excitement to your experiences and that's what I crave." She then turned to my mother and spoke. "Wendy won't have to worry about being arrested except when I have her masturbate in public. We'll have to be careful about the time and setting for that."

"What?" I exploded. "You can't make me do that! You said you would never force me into unwanted sex!"

"Well I guess it depends on your definition of 'sex' doesn't it, Wendy? Personally I think it takes two to tango. Besides, I don't think you can claim that masturbating in public is unwanted sex after getting yourself off in the back seat of my car."

"Yeah, but that was in the car, not in front of other people."

"You knew that Margaret and I would be along any time with a video camera and that didn't stop you."

Mom finally intervened. "You can't seriously be talking about forcing Wendy to masturbate in public are you?"

"Oh, yeah. That's been part of the plan all along. I've just been patiently waiting for her to be emotionally ready to handle it."

"Patiently?" I blurted out with a sharp laugh. "Oh fuck you and your patience, Nancy!"

Nancy leaned in toward both of us now. "Listen, I'm putting all my cards on the table here and I'm going all in on this. I want this resolved tonight and I don't want there to be any false illusions among either of you about what's going to happen if Wendy chooses to continue. I won't force her into unwanted sex with other people but I will push her as far as I possibly can within the framework of our agreement. Make no mistake, what Wendy has done so far is only a taste of what's coming and if she does decide to continue I don't want either of you claiming in the future that I held anything back. So make your choice. Both of you."

I was shocked again by the ruthless honesty Nancy was using to lay everything out and my determination to continue started to waver as I imagined what she had planned for me. I thought I'd been through the worst of it but I realized now that I'd barely even started living out Nancy's fantasies. And as I thought about it an uncontrollable wave of arousal coursed through my body and I had to take a deep breath just to try to calm myself. Damn it, why does my body continually betray me like this? I knew that Nancy could tell what was going on but could my mother? I didn't dare even look at her right now. What's wrong with me?

Finally my mother spoke. "Wendy? It's your call. You're an adult and you said you wanted to make the decision so I'll let you."

I nodded, still trying to compose myself. I knew I had no real choice. "I want my degree, Mom. I want to keep going even if it means doing everything that Nancy is talking about." Nancy gave me a smile and I could detect a sense of relief in her eyes.

"Alright," my mom replied. "I'll respect your decision. But I do have one condition. No more falsifying grades. From now on you earn them."

"Agreed," Nancy said quickly.

"And by earning them," Mom continued, "I mean keeping them up at the level they are now."

"But Mom, Nancy gave me straight A's. I can't keep that up."

"Oh yes you can and you will. You've always been smart enough to be a top student you've just never applied yourself. From now on that changes because if it doesn't I'll pull the plug on this whole thing. You say you want your degree, Wendy, well you need to prove it.". Then she turned to Nancy. "And that means you can't dominate all of her free time with your naked games. You also have a vested interest in making sure she keeps her grades high."

Nancy nodded. "Agreed," she said again, although with a little less enthusiasm this time.

"And I want to see every paper and every test Wendy turns in to make sure she's earning her grades honestly. No more bullshit from either of you."

"Alright," Nancy said. "I'll find her a tutor if I need to. I'll even pay for it myself. And I'll make sure the studying comes first, then the naked games."

"Fine," Mom replied. "You've got her until she graduates and not a day longer. And if anything bad happens to her I'll have your head on a goddamn spike, do you hear me?" Nancy nodded grimly.

Mom then turned to me and spoke in a softer tone. "Let me ask you this, Wendy, has this experience cured you of the desire to try to cheat your way through life?"

"Oh god yes, Mom! I will never, ever do anything like that again, I promise you."

My mother gave me a quick smile and said "I believe you, hon." Then she went silent as if contemplating something. When she finally spoke again I was shocked by what she said.