Tori Kelly: Each Other's Backs

Tori Kelly had been eagerly anticipating her performance at MTV's Artist to Watch event. The opportunity for exposure that it provided was one she felt strongly was worth taking. In addition to her excitement, however, she felt nervous about playing her music to a wider audience, especially at an event with such big names in attendance. She was at least confident in her outfit, which was the first thing she decided on for the event before even the choice of songs she'd play.

Her pants clung tightly to her, all the way up to her waist. The thick white stripes that ran down each leg bent noticeably in sync with her figure. Her black top was also very form fitting; she had a big dimpled smile on her face when she looked at herself in the mirror. Once she had her choices of songs finally selected, which she saved for last in case she had a hard time choosing, she was most of the way to being ready. All that was left was to let her nerves settle.

As she was making her final preparations, she asked one of her people if they'd heard back from Ariana Grande. She and the former Nickelodeon actress were going to perform a duet of the latter singer's song "Right There." The two being mutual fans, Ariana's team had replied with much more punctuality than expected.

"Good to go," she heard from behind her, a dainty well-manicured hand tapping her shoulder.

Tori took a deep breath and prayed before getting on stage. Most of the performance would be of just her singing and playing the guitar by herself, with Ariana coming in some ways into the set.

Tori played and sang with all her heart, hoping the crowd loved every second. She was so engrossed that she didn't even think to notice the cameras behind her that captured an incredible view of her ass. That would be a problem for another time. She played and sang some more, stopping after one song to take a photo on stage. She spoke to the audience about it and laughed, as she often did. She had such a good time.

Before she knew it, it was time for the Ariana duet. Tori played guitar while she and Ariana sang. To Tori's surprise, the song, and by extension the entire show, went by strangely fast. A big part of that was due to how enjoyable playing a concert was for her. Soon the show drew to a close, and as she stepped backstage, several people congratulated her. The most meaningful statement Tori received, however, was from Ariana herself.

"We should hang out sometime," she said.

"I'd love that," Tori replied.

The next day, Tori had some time left in town before she had to leave. So she stopped by a local gym for a late morning workout. Well into her routine, Tori was set to start on some leg machine when some familiar faces walked in. Ariana, her half-brother Frankie and two members of her entourage entered the facility.

Tori immediately flagged them down and exclaimed "Hey! You're up early. I figured you'd be up late after the show."

Ariana hugged Tori excitedly, ignoring the sweat she had accumulated.

"Blame Frankie."

"Well, it's still so good to see you again," Tori replied, still lingering in the sweaty hug. "Thanks for jumping onstage with me."

"Don't mention it. I swear, he will never shut up about you."

Ariana asked what workout Tori was about to do next. While the guys wanted to do weights, Ariana wanted to try and spend more time with Tori.

"I was actually about to do my last exercise on that leg machine there," Tori pointed to the machine in question."

"Mind if I go first?" Ariana inquired.

Tori courteously obliged her request.

"What are you doing after the gym?" Ariana asked while adjusting the weight.

Tori shrugged and confessed that she didn't have anything planned until she had to leave much later in the day. Tori then left Ariana to her workout after a few minutes and headed to the showers. Since the gym was usually not crowded at that time of day, there weren't that many people in the locker rooms. Tori got her shampoo and other necessities out of her locker and turned the water on, looking forward to a good hot shower.

The shower stall quickly filled up with steam, which made the hair over Tori's forehead cling to her skin. The hot water worked wonders on her tired muscles. She was so transported that she had completely lost track of time. She basked in the warm water on her skin and the post- workout bliss really set in. Tori ran her hands over her body one more time. The thought of the camera behind her on stage popped into her head. Her hands froze in place when she realized the implications; once they regained motion, her hands traveled slowly down her stomach and behind her.

Putting her hands on her body felt different on that day, like she just wanted to do it more and more. She thought of what the cameraman must've felt while filming her. Maybe he was a professional and didn't think anything of the angle. Or maybe the view of her ass made him want to ravage her right there on stage. The latter option strangely got her wet.

She continued rubbing herself in the shower. An aroused moan escaped her lips, which upon hearing made her immediately back up against the wall and press her hands against it. Feeling the red on her face, Tori turned the shower faucet to "cold." Her chest heaving, she breathed deeply. The steam from the hot water gave way to the icy aura of the cold water.

As she slowly closed her eyes to enjoy the calming sensation, something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She turned to look and briefly met eyes with someone who quickly backed out of sight. Tori faintly heard an "oh shit."

At first, Tori couldn't see enough of the other woman to identify her, but her voice unmistakably belonged to Ariana. Tori opened the door to see Ariana covered in a towel, scurrying off into another shower. Tori chuckled nervously to herself, feeling somewhat flattered by the way Ariana had looked at her just then. Wrapping a towel around herself, Tori followed suit.

She spoke in the general direction she saw her go, "Ariana? Are you there? How was your workout?"

"I'm sorry, I should've known better," Ariana confessed.

Tori giggled and waved her apology away, mentioning that she was a bit flattered. Ariana noticed then that Tori was blushing just a little. Ariana had difficulty understanding why Tori would react that way. But Tori seemed willing to forgive, so Ariana nervously began answering her previous question. Ariana described her routine, her breathing still a bit labored as she was still covered in sweat from her workout. It had been a short but highly intense session with her team.

"Sorry, but if you don't mind," Ariana added, "I'd like to get started on m-"

Tori's attention had been drawn away from her towel. It wasn't wrapped especially securely, so while she held it in front of her, the portion wrapped around her back fell to the floor. Ariana stood in awe, frozen. Tori puzzled over why Ariana had stopped speaking. When she noticed her towel had fallen, a panicked yelp escaped her lips as she scrambled to cover up with her arm. Tori had caught the towel with her other hand, but her full, round breasts were exposed before her arm could get in the way.

Now Tori was full beet red blushing. Ariana looked to the side, figuring that looking directly at Tori would make the situation worse. That gave Tori time to cover back up with her towel.

"I'm so sorry about that," she blurted.

"All is forgiven," said Ariana. "I'll just... be in here."

Tori nodded and made her way back into her shower stall to get more cold water on her. She could never have imagined the embarrassment she felt in front of Ariana paling in comparison to what she would feel in a few seconds. She heard the water running but she swore she had thought of shutting it off before she darted out to check on Ariana. To add to her embarrassment, after Tori shut the door, she turned back around to find another woman had taken the stall while she was out.

Tori instantaneously covered herself and stood paralyzed in humiliation. The other woman - a tall, slender, bleach blonde with small, perky tits and a tiny star tattooed on the left side of her torso - stood unfazed with a neutral expression on her face.

She tilted her head a bit as she asked "Can I help you?"

Tori remained silent, her eyes desperately glued to those of the other woman, who was enjoying the warm water pouring on her skin.

"You weren't using this just now, were you?" she continued. "Sorry, I didn't realize."

Tori was dumbfounded. Part of her wanted to calm down because of the other woman's apparent calmness, but all that did was make her wonder how she could be handling the situation like that at all. As Tori stood there naked, the red returned to her cheeks.

"Um, I... yeah, kinda wasn't expecting anyone to get in here before I got back."

The woman smirked, thinking about the "back" Tori got that she glimpsed on her way in.

"I'll just look for another shower, then. Sorry about the confusion."

"No, no, if you were already here, I'll go," the blonde moved to squeeze her way past Tori in the stall. The process proved slightly challenging with Tori's breasts being the size that they were.

"Hey, you look familiar," Tori said as the other woman brushed past.

She smiled back and replied "I get that a lot" before leaving.

Something compelled Tori to take a quick glance at the woman's naked backside. Tori finished her shower with its curves already embedded in her memory. Though she was still unable to shake off her embarrassment of the incident, she managed to get dried off and dressed without trouble. She headed out to the lobby of the gym, watching the TV while she waited for her ride. A cooking show on one screen drew her attention, but her enjoyment was hampered by the sudden return of the thoughts that started the incident in the shower. A stern look then appeared on her face, and she closed her eyes trying to push out the thoughts.

Just then, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, wanna do something later? I'm still in town for a bit."

The hand and voice belonged to Ariana. Tori opened her eyes and quickly turned her head to face her. She told Ariana she would love to get lunch.

"It would have to be a late lunch, but that sounds perfect," spoke Ariana as she took out her phone.

"Yeah, that's great. You have my number, right?"

"Checking that now... yep."

"Awesome. I'll see you then. Text me."

Ariana promised she would and waved goodbye, then met up with Frankie and her crew before heading out.

Tori turned her head back to face forward, the stern expression returning to her beautiful face.

"Cheer up, you look way better naked than her."

That phrase jolted Tori out of her doldrums. She turned to look as the stunning blonde from earlier was standing next to her, this time fully clothed in a hoodie and jeans. Tori didn't know how to react to the woman's statement, but the smile on the woman's face suggested she was meant to take it as a joke.

The woman held out her hand to introduce herself, "I'm Taylor."

"Tori."

She extended her hand to meet Taylor's, and as she did she realized why she looked so familiar.

"Ah, now I see it. You're in showbiz, aren't you?"

Taylor nodded, "Always have been, one way or another. Hey, sorry if this is out of the blue, but if you're up for it, I think we should see each other again."

Before Tori could say anything, Taylor slipped a piece of paper into her hand.

"I know it sounds weird. I just figure if the first time we saw each other was when we were completely naked, it's only fair."

Tori decided to go with it. She put the paper into her pocket and smiled. Though she didn't know quite what was in store, she was curious to find out. Taylor bid her farewell and left. Tori said goodbye, then found herself unusually transfixed by Taylor's denim-clad ass as she walked away.

Back in her hotel, Tori was in the process of texting Ariana to make plans for later. She held the phone in one hand and Taylor's number in the other. She couldn't shake the image of Taylor's perfect backside, almost completely lost in the visual when her phone vibrated with a message from Ariana.

"How much time did you say you had before you left?" the message read.

"My flight got delayed," Tori texted back, "so I have another day."

"Oh perfect! So we're not in a rush."

With that, they finalized their plans to meet for lunch at a place in West Hollywood. It was a small sandwich place, the kind that preferred to sell tea instead of coffee. One upside to the area was that celebrity sightings were so frequent that it just became a regular part of the average week, so Ariana going into such a small place wasn't the cause for alarm that it would've been anywhere else.

When they sat down after placing their orders, Ariana asked Tori, "Not to sound needy, but it took you some time to text back. What's on your mind?"

Tori thought of how best to describe what happened after they parted ways in the gym showers. She immediately decided against doing that out of fear of reconjuring the image of Taylor's denim-clad derrière.

"I was, uh... talking to my team about the... flight that got delayed."

Ariana nodded in understanding. Their time together flew by. They went over the performance from the other day, shared a few laughs and generally had a good time. Tori asked how long it took before Ariana was comfortable playing with cameras surrounding her, "just out of curiosity."

"Well, I acted before, so I'm used to it. You learn to work with them... or better yet, make them work for you," she winked.

Tori leaned back in her chair and replied, "There's an old home video of me telling my mom I wouldn't be nervous if I sang in a bathing suit. I realized recently that I definitely don't have the courage to actually do something on that level."

"I'm sure you know that in this business, there's always going to be pressure to take it there."

Ariana took a sip of her tea. Tori slowly nodded her head.

"You're asking because they put a camera behind you, aren't you?"

"Yeah, that was new territory for me," she nervously smiled.

"You didn't say anything in soundcheck?"

"I didn't think they were going to seriously shoot from there during the actual performance. I thought the camera person was joking during the soundcheck."

Ariana took another drink and said, "Well, I guess what you do about it now depends on how comfortable you are being seen that way. And with that in mind, I have the perfect activity for the two of us."

"Alright, got nothing but time today. What did you have in mind?"

Tori raised a curious eyebrow as she watched Ariana take out her phone.

"What's your dress size?"

"Uh...," Tori was confused by the question. "4?"

Ariana began a phone call and asked the person at the other end to "bring some clothes for a size 4" to her hotel room.

"Girls' night trying on clothes and makeup?" asked Tori.

"More like a girls' late afternoon, but yeah, exactly."

"Sounds fun. I'm in."

When they arrived in Ariana's hotel room, Tori was presented with three outfits to try on. She picked up the outfits and was about to head off into the bathroom to change when Ariana said "You can do it here. I've already seen everything anyway."

Tori did a double take, then considered that Ariana had a point. She quickly looked around for the security camera before taking anything off.

"Listen," Ariana attempted to assure her, "it's not a big deal. On tour, I'm always changing outfits between songs, and I'm pretty sure everyone in my crew has seen most every inch of me."

"Yeah, but that's your crew."

Ariana shrugged. Tori finally found the camera, and with that information, located a spot to change clothes where the camera couldn't see her. She picked up the first outfit and went over to a mirror. She held the outfit in front of her to admire it: a pretty black top and silver skirt for formal occasions. Satisfied with what she saw, she stripped down to her underwear. Ariana leaned against the wall and watched as Tori slipped the skirt on, followed by the top before turning to face the mirror again.

"I like how it looks," Tori spoke, "but the top feels a bit tight."

Tori turned to Ariana to get her feedback.

"Tight in the arms?" inquired Ariana.

"No, in the..."

Tori gestured to her bust; Ariana tried and barely succeeded to hold back a laugh.

Ariana remarked, "It's got potential, but let's try the other two."

The second outfit was a blue dress, one that wouldn't look out of place at a red carpet event.

"Ah," Tori spoke eagerly, "I think this one's more my style."

Tori had stripped back down to her underwear and put the previous outfit on the bed. As Tori returned to the mirror and held the dress in front of her, Ariana had a brief moment of difficulty trying not to stare at Tori's figure.

She struggled to say "Y-yeah, um... let's see what it looks like on you."

Getting the dress on was simple enough, but then Tori needed to have the zipper closed. Ariana stepped up behind Tori, taking a moment to just linger there and notice the pleasant smell of Tori's hair. She then reached down to take hold of the zipper. Ariana pushed Tori's hair out of the way so it wouldn't get caught, and when her eyes followed the hair, Ariana caught herself looking at Tori's butt sticking out through the dress. Her hand slowly pulled the zipper up to the top of the dress, her eyes staying on Tori's butt. Ariana slowly stepped away to let Tori turn around and look at herself. Once again, Tori seemed unsettled by something, though it didn't appear to have much to do with the dress

She could feel Ariana's eyes glued to her; they felt different than before.

"Ari?" Tori asked, a tone of concern in her voice. "Is something wrong?"

Ariana suddenly caught herself, not realizing how that dress would look on Tori.

"No, nothing's wrong. That dress looks really great on you."

Tori thanked her. Ariana went up, put her hands on Tori's hips and pulled her closer. The mood changed discernibly to such an extent that Tori began losing interest in trying on clothes.

"Really, really great."

"Ari?" Tori questioned, stunned. "What are you doing?"

Ariana pulled Tori closer, looking directly into Tori's eyes as she answered "I wanted to thank you for having me join you at your show."

"Do you need to put your hands on me to do that?"

"Yes, to do this,"

Ariana then wrapped her arms around Tori for a hug.

"That was a lot of fun."

Tori wanted to feel some sense of relief, but what Ariana was doing now combined with what she did in the gym showers made that difficult. She started wondering what the most polite way to excuse herself would be.

"Ari, I don-"

Ariana pressed her finger to Tori's lips and stopped her mid-sentence.

"Wait, we have one more outfit for you to try."

"Oh right... yeah..."

There was an audible shakiness to Tori's voice. Ariana let go of her and pointed her to the last set of clothes.

Just then, a noise came from Tori's phone. Tori retrieved it, trying her hardest not to look relieved. The sound was a notification for a text from her agent asking her where she was. Tori texted back that she was trying on clothes, and that she was just getting ready to head out.

"I'm so sorry," Tori told Ariana, acting as apologetic as possible. "My agent needs me."

"Oh, alright. Do you need to head back? Can I get you a driver?"

Ariana sounded let down, but she did her best to remain diplomatic.

"No, thank you," replied Tori. "It's not that far of a walk. Thank you so much for the outfits."

"Thank you for inviting me to sing," Ariana replied. "I'll see you around"

With that, Tori put her clothes back on and headed out. She couldn't help feeling the slightest bit guilty about her little white lie. It would take something strong to make the guilt go away; perhaps, she thought, it might end up being the phone number she had in her pocket. On her walk, she stopped periodically to pull the paper out and glance at it. She couldn't quite understand what kept her thinking about it. But each time, she was one step closer to actually calling the number.