One summer Sunday afternoon (2001), I was over at my best friend, Julie’s house. She was living at home this summer and her parents were out of town visiting her older brother and his family for a long weekend. Julie had invited me over for the afternoon to hang out. It was just she and I and we were skinny-dipping in their pool and sun bathing and being just generally lazy and care free. Of course, we never run out of things to talk about no matter how much time we spend together.

As I mentioned in an earlier story, Julie’s mom had discovered and been surprised to find that Julie slept nude. This happened shortly after she had moved home for the summer. Julie explained to her mom that spending time nude was something she found relaxing and enjoyable. Her mom didn’t really understand, but was OK with it as long as she didn’t do it around the house in front of her dad or visitors. That was a reasonable request that Julie had no problem honoring.

Julie and her mom had a few subsequent discussions about Julie’s penchant for nudity and Julie had mentioned that she had skinny-dipped in the pool and sunbathed nude when no one was around. Again, her mom didn’t understand, but could see no real harm in it as long as it didn’t get out of hand. Somewhere along the line, Julie had mentioned that I was a kindred spirit, also. All I’m trying to say with all this explanation is that by the time these events that I’m writing about took place, Julie’s parents knew we skinny-dipped in their pool and they were OK with it as long as we didn’t turn it into some kind of a big party or anything. We respected their wishes.

Julie’s parents’ pool, pool deck, and patio were in a very private back yard that was not visible from anyplace else. It was a beautiful setting and perfect for enjoying a nude summer day or evening and forgetting about all your problems and worries for a while.

We had been hanging out here like this for a couple of hours or so. I had completely lost track of time because I was free for the whole afternoon and evening. We had spent our time alternating between skinny-dipping and sunbathing – whatever the spirit moved us to do. We hadn’t spent much time together this summer – at least not as much as we were used to – because we both had erratic schedules that didn’t allow our time off to coincide very often so we were getting caught up on our talking.

At this point we were in sunbathing mode and lying on a couple of lounges on the patio. I was lying on my stomach and the sun felt so good on my back. Suddenly Julie announced that her glass was empty and that she was going to run inside to refill our glasses. She hopped up, grabbed the glasses, and was gone.

I continued to lie where I was in total relaxation without a care in the world. I must have instantly started dozing off, because I have no idea how much time passed before Julie came back. But the next thing I remember hearing was the sound of Julie’s voice saying something like, "…Sunny and I are just hangin’ out out here. Come on over and sit down."

I didn’t experience instant panic, but it came on pretty fast as the drowsiness cleared from my mind and I began to understand that someone unexpected was among us. I raised my head and turned to look in the direction of the voice. I saw Julie and…April? What was she doing here? And what was Julie doing bringing her out here without warning me like this?

OK, time to pause here and give you some background, so freeze frame with me lying there looking dumbfounded, Julie with a towel wrapped around herself acting like everything was totally normal, and April suddenly seeing me and looking rather dumbfounded herself.

April was a friend of both Julie’s and mine from high school. She was in Julie’s class and we had played sports together and used to hang out together sometimes. It’s hard to describe April. She was kind of strange with a rather unusual personality. She liked to hang out with us but at the same time she always acted like she didn’t like us very much. She was always cynical and sarcastic and critical of us. But it wasn’t just with us – she was that way with everyone and she didn’t have many friends because of it. I always felt sorry for her because I didn’t think she realized how she came across to people so I tried to befriend her. Julie didn’t like her at all, but because of me, Julie put up with her. After high school, April went to college in another state and I only saw her occasionally when she was back home visiting. In fact, I hadn’t seen her at all since the previous summer. Now out of the blue, here she was sizing me up and wondering what was going on here. I had a pretty good idea what she was thinking and what she was going to say, but I had no idea why Julie had brought her out here without giving me any warning so that I could get dressed.

OK, now back to the story.

Julie said to me in her chipper, enthusiastic voice that only I could tell was false, "Hey, look who stopped by."

"Hi, April," I said with a certain amount of reservation as I turned over and sat up on the side of the lounge I had been lying on.

"Hi, Sunny," she replied with a certain amount of reservation in her voice, too. She came over and sat down in a chair near me.

"Haven’t seen you in a while," I said. "I heard you were staying at school this summer."

"Yeah, I just came home for the weekend," she said. "I was driving by and saw your car here so I decided to stop and see what’s up with you guys."

"I’m glad you did," I said hoping I wasn’t falling into the sarcasm trap myself.

"So-o-o…" began April and I could tell from the tone of her voice and the look on her face that the cynicism, sarcasm, and criticism was about to begin and it was going to be directed right at me.

As she gave me another quick look up and down, she continued with, "…that private school tuition must be breaking you. Looks like maybe you’ve fallen on hard times."

I tried to laugh it off, but probably wasn’t very convincing. I glanced over at Julie and caught her eye to see if she was going to offer any support or at least a clue as to what was going on. With her towel still wrapped around her, she just glanced back at me without an explanation. Why was she leaving me hanging out here like this?

I replied to April, "I guess you’re wondering why I’m nude."

"Oh, the thought had crossed my mind," she replied in a tone dripping with sarcasm.

In my discomfort, it had crossed my mind to either wrap up in my towel or get up and put my clothes back on. I guess I was feeling ashamed for being nude in April’s presence. But then just as quickly, I realized that I shouldn’t feel that way. I was Julie’s guest here and she was perfectly fine with me being nude (or least she had been up until April’s arrival) so I decided I was going to stay that way. I knew I was right even if I it didn’t feel comfortable. It probably wasn’t going to do April any good for me to be an example to her, but I was going to continue with it anyway with or without Julie’s support! I was going to stay nude and I was not going to apologize for it.

I said to April, "I know this probably seems a little unusual to you, but I just enjoy skinny-dipping. It’s something I do whenever I get the chance."

"I don’t know, Sunny," she said. "I’ve always wondered about you."

"Hey, lighten up," I said beginning to get irritated by what was becoming more and more of a personal attack. "There’s no harm in it. So chill. To each her own."

April laughed sort of derisively and said, "Sunny, you have totally lost it. You’ve always been a little weird, but this is way over the top – even for you. Don’t you think so, Julie?"

I was really feeling angry now, but fortunately before I could respond, Julie stood up facing April, unwrapped her towel, and dropped it to the patio. Then standing there as nude as I was she said in the same chipper voice she had used earlier, "I really don’t know what you mean."

Then she immediately turned around, walked to the edge of the pool, and dove in. The look on April’s face was priceless. This was her second opportunity of the day to look dumbfounded. I was immediately disarmed of my anger as I enjoyed the sudden turn of events. I was thinking, ‘Go, Julie, but what the heck took you so long?!’.

It wasn’t my intention to get revenge on April or make her feel bad, so I thought that the best thing to do was just blow on by all this and try for the three of us to have some fun together. So I said to April as I stood up, "Julie’s got the right idea. Come on over to the pool."

I walked to the edge of the pool and dove in, too. I immediately swam over to where Julie was and dunked her. She of course knew exactly why without me saying anything. But hey, it was all in the name of good, clean fun!

April came over to the pool and sat down dangling her legs in the water. I started asking her questions about what all she had been doing since we last saw each other. I wanted her to feel at ease and not think that I held any kind of grudge against her for the things she had said just minutes ago. The three of us began to catch up on what we had all been doing over the past year and about our high school classmates that we knew about and lots of other small talk like that. Typical conversations for long time friends that hadn’t seen each other for a while.

Soon we were all three sitting on the edge of the pool with our legs dangling in the water. Julie and I sitting there dripping with April between us.

Pretty soon, I said, "So April, it’s pretty hot today. Why don’t you swim with us?"

Without thinking, she immediately replied, "Oh, I can’t. I don’t have my suit."

Julie with no tact at all immediately burst out laughing. April immediately realized how silly her response sounded in light of the circumstances and smiled in embarrassment. I tried not to laugh, but couldn’t help it with the way Julie was carrying on.

Then Julie said amidst her laughter, "Obviously I’m not using mine. You can use it if you want."

"Uh, that’s OK," April said rather sheepishly.

I steered the conversation toward other things after that in an effort to make April feel more comfortable. We talked some more until April said she had to go home and get ready to drive back to school that night. Julie and I dried off while April put her sandals on and then we wrapped up to walk April through the house to the front door. We said good-bye to her and she left.

As we headed back out to the pool I started in on Julie, "OK, so what’s up with bringing her out there without warning me?"

"I don’t know. I just did it."

"Well, it wasn’t a very considerate thing to do – to me or her."

"Sorry. I just figured she’d be OK with it. It was just the three of us. And anyway, I didn’t think you’d want to have to bother with getting dressed."

"You need to be careful in how you introduce others to the idea of nudism. It’s quite a shock to most people. You’ve got to consider their feelings. It would be better to talk to them about it first."

"I know. But it just seems so normal to me now. Like it’s the only way to be. And like everybody should feel that way. I mean, look at me. You didn’t think I’d go for it, but I did. I love it."

"I know, but the reality of it is that most people are like our friend, April. They aren’t ready for it, aren’t open to it, and are probably never going to get it."

"You mean your friend, April."

"Hey, be nice."

At this point, our conversation slipped into our typical bantering back-and-forth mode that we use to crack each other up and have a good time.

Julie started in by asking in her cute little coy manner, "Sooo…are you mad at me?"

"Yeah. Now that you mention it, I am. Why did you leave me hangin’ out there for so long before you decided to get in the game?"

"I don’t know," she said laughing. "It was kinda funny watching you struggle."

"Oh, so that’s your idea of fun? Having it at my expense?"

She laughed again without saying anything as we got rid of the towels.

Then I said, "Maybe my idea of fun would be seeing you get thrown in the pool."

"We haven’t played that little game in a while."

"Then maybe you need to be taught another lesson."

"If you think you’re woman enough."

"Whoa-ho! First, April. And now I have to endure insults from you, too? I don’t think so!"

"What if I said I was sorry?"

"I’d probably accept your apology and forgive you."

"OK."

"OK what?"

"I’m sorry."

"Then I accept your apology. See how easy that was?"

"Yeah. (pause) Hey, I didn’t have to mean it, did I?

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