Jena and The Beach Weekend Trip

Jena and Clara had shared a flat for almost a year, and attended the same psychology lectures for longer. When a one-day symposium in a coastal town appeared on the department board, it was easy to agree to turn it into a long weekend. Lexie, who studied psychology at another university, and had become a close friend after Jena dragged her out on a couple of early dates, readily agreed to join them

Jack, Jena's younger brother, found out about their plans, and eagerly told them that Elliot's weekend away had fallen through, and that his friend was considering applying to Jena and Clara's university. Elliot could have stayed home, and had never met any of the three girls, but Jack persuaded him that the symposium would be a good opportunity to meet some psychology students and researchers, and see the grounds. He was reluctant to come, and even more reluctant when he found out that the symposium was in a coastal town, but Jack reassured him that the three women were incredibly nice, and that he would have a good time.

They set off in Clara's car from the early hours, the sky remaining stubbornly grey. They chatted about the symposium, and whether the weather would clear enough for them to visit the beach, and the perennial argument over whose playlist was least horrendous. They stopped off for coffee, which was prohibitively expensive, and sandwiches that tasted suspiciously of plastic. Elliot sat in the back, taking in his first sight of Jena - a woman with a practical ponytail of dark hair, and a small, neat face that attracted his gaze without particularly holding it, but it was the way she spoke that held his attention. Direct, with a sharp wit that made no attempt to conceal itself, and little interest in filling conversation with superfluous words. He found himself more interested in her than he expected by the time they saw the coast for the first time.

The symposium took place in a building near the harbour, and the subject matter was oddly compelling; how to interpret an LLM's thought processes, and persuade it to obey. They all enjoyed the talks, Elliot chatting to several students, and two researchers, and feeling more and more positively disposed towards the idea of applying. They ate a light supper, and spent the evening at a local guesthouse, the website of which promised spectacular scenery, and an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors.

The first thing Elliot saw as they pulled into the car park of the B&B was a small wooden notice board, on which was a single sign; Clothing-optional premises.

Clara read it twice, before letting out a short laugh. Lexie made a surprised noise, and Elliot blinked, dumbfounded. Jena simply said,"Okay"

They stood by the car. "How the hell did we miss that?"

"Buried it in three paragraphs about vistas and breakfast," said Lexie, shrugging. "I only skim read the important parts."

Elliot was still staring at the notice. He was not sure what precisely clothing-optional premises meant in terms of what he would be expected to remove, and was not looking forward to the possibilities suggested by the reverse. Clara, seeing his expression, said,"You don't have to take anything off.

"It's optional," said Lexie. "Nobody's going to make you."

"It's just allowed," said Jena, shrugging, as if the whole affair was hardly worth discussing.

The woman at the B&B reception was fully clothed, and entirely unalarmed. She gave them four keys, showed them the communal room and the footpath leading to the beach, and wished them a pleasant stay. It was all a bit much to take in at once, even for Elliot.

Jena shed her clothes almost instantly upon arrival in the room, leaving Elliot to sit in his clothes for the rest of the evening. Clara and Lexie remained clothed as well, though neither seemed particularly concerned. Later, they gathered in the communal room, playing card games, chatting, and drinking from a bottle of wine that Clara had brought with her, while a waiter took orders for more drinks. He was completely naked, save for a small apron that covered his lower front from the waist downwards. Clara and Lexie barely seemed to notice. Jena showed no reaction at all, and Elliot took several long moments to stop staring at the man before he was able to look elsewhere.

Their conversation meandered from the symposium to university to nothing in particular. Elliot found himself focusing less on the game, and more on Jena. She was the easiest to talk to, in many ways, despite her straightforward manner. As she sat on the settee, chatting to the others, her gaze fixed on whatever it was she was listening to, Elliot felt an increasing fondness for the woman. There was an attraction there, one that might have been inconvenient at a later date, but he had no illusions about what caused it. He liked the way her mind worked.

That evening, in the privacy of his room, Elliot found himself lying awake for rather longer than he intended, his thoughts circling the same topic. He had barely slept at all, and his brain was working overtime. The thought of seeing Jena naked the following day was the most worrying prospect he had faced in a long time. He was fairly certain that at least some of the clothes he wore would be removed at some point, and rather less certain about the reverse being true.

Breakfast the next morning followed a similar pattern to the previous day. Jena was naked, while her roommates wore various items of clothing. The woman who brought them their food was also naked, save for the small apron Elliot had seen the waiter wearing the previous evening. He focused on his toast and the reassuring presence of the tablecloth as he listened to the others chatting.

The weather had cleared, and after breakfast, the sun was shining, and the sea winds had died down. They followed the footpath from the B&B to the naturist beach, which Jena apparently did not find particularly surprising, as she was completely naked. Elliot, Clara and Lexie wore trunks and bikinis.

Once they had cleared a space on the sand for themselves, and laid out their towels, Clara took off her top and laid back on her stomach. Lexie hesitated, but eventually gave in to Clara's teasing and followed her shortly afterwards. Elliot kept his trunks on, and tried to maintain a casual posture.

It was difficult.

Jena walking up and down the beach was one thing, but the sight of her bare skin was distracting in a way he had not expected. She had a boyish figure, with narrow shoulders and hips, and small rounded breasts that moved with every step she took, but it was the strip of dark hair between her legs that Elliot found himself watching most often. He found himself staring at her breasts when she bent to put her bag down, and at her thighs when she stood up, before he forced himself to watch the sea instead.

They swam in the sea, which was cold enough for Lexie to swear, and for her bikini bottoms to loosen in the current and nearly fall off. She eventually took them off, waded back to the beach, and left them with the other clothes with the rest of their things, before returning to the water completely naked.

"Looks like you're going to get a tan line," said Jena, looking amused as she spotted Elliot's trunks. "From all that skin exposure."

There was a definite teasing edge to her voice, and Elliot managed a short laugh in response. Lexie, floating on her back some distance away, was watching him and Jena with an unfocused expression. She was used to Jena attracting unwanted attention, but she hated seeing it directed back at her. It was not that she did not want Elliot to look at Jena - far from it, in fact - but it was embarrassing to see it happen so openly, and she hated it more than she expected. She pushed the thought away, shaking her head slightly.

The warm sea, the heat, and the general lack of concern for other people's reactions gradually wore Elliot down. After a while, still in the sea, he peeled his trunks off and held them in one hand, intending to take them to the beach, but a large wave came towards him and snatched them away. He dived after them, but it was no use; they were gone.

They searched the beach and the rocks for what seemed like ages, but Elliot's trunks did not appear again.

He stood at the water's edge, completely exposed, and suddenly felt rather self-conscious. There was nowhere to look that felt safe, and nothing to cover himself with. He stayed close to the water's edge, arms awkwardly folded across his chest, but after a while, the novelty of the situation wore off, and he was suddenly painfully aware of how exposed he was. Jena walked along the sand for a while, and he was right there beside her, chatting to her and asking how she was, but he could not seem to think of much to say in response.

Jena was watching the water, her arms folded across her chest, when she said,"You could always get a rash guard."

It was the most casual remark Elliot had ever heard, delivered with only the barest trace of sarcasm. He could hardly object to the implication that he was going to continue wearing nothing at all, but he found himself saying, "I'm not exactly used to this, you know." I'm not a nudist."

"Neither am I," said Jena. "Doesn't mean I can't swim."

That silenced Elliot. He knew better than to argue the point. It occurred to him that he had barely taken in anything she said, and he suddenly remembered that it was only yesterday that he first saw her, completely naked. He felt rather embarrassed about it.

When it was time to return to the B&B, Lexie and Clara gathered up their things, and put their bikinis back on. Elliot pulled on the only clothes he had, his T-shirt, and followed them up the path, wearing nothing else. Jena stayed naked, as she had been since they arrived at the B&B the previous evening. She did not seem particularly fazed by Elliot's predicament when he told her. "You were swimming in them this morning," she pointed out when he told her. "I don't see the difference."

It was not easy to explain the difference between swimming in the sea bare-skinned, and walking to the B&B wearing only a T-shirt, but Elliot did not seem to think it was necessary.

They showered off the sand and salt at the B&B, before dressing for dinner. The B&B having made arrangements to host their party, the dinner was impossible due to what no one could explain as a booking error. In addition, the weather had turned wet and windy, so they ordered food to be delivered to the room, and borrowed a couple of board games from the communal room. They ended up in Jena's room, sitting on the floor and on the bed, eating out of takeaway boxes and discussing everything and nothing in particular.

Jena reached out to take a card, or to move her legs out of the way, or to look more closely at the board, in ways that left Elliot's gaze briefly and unwillingly fixed on her breasts or her thighs, but she did not seem to notice. He looked away each time, rather embarrassed, but he found himself unable to stop thinking about her. He was distracted enough that he barely registered what was happening until the conversation got to the symposium, and what Elliot wanted to study, and why Clara had chosen psychology. Lexie talked about her own university, with a mixture of affection and exasperation. Jena asked more specific questions about everything, as if she really wanted to know the answers. She had a curious mind, and an unassuming way of asking questions that made Elliot feel as if he was being interrogated rather than courted.

At one point, as Jena stretched out on the bed, her arms outstretched in such a way that Elliot had an excellent side view, the card he was holding asked for the name of the Transylvanian nobleman from Bram Stoker's novel. "Cunt," he muttered, before realising what he had said and correcting himself furiously. "Count. I mean Count Dracula," he said hastily, but the others were laughing anyway. Jena only grinned and said, "Close, but not quite."

When the food was finished, and the games were over, Elliot found himself thinking rather less about Jena's body, although he was still rather acutely aware of it. He liked her. That was not a surprise, and it was not particularly inconvenient. The realisation left him a little nonplussed, but not unwelcome. Jena, for her part, found herself enjoying Elliot's company more than she expected. She did not feel the need to pretend to be anything other than herself around him, and appreciated that he was willing to listen and answer honestly, rather than fill up empty spaces with uninteresting conversation. She did not know how long she would have continued, if it had not been for the following morning, when she woke up to the sounds of breakfast being prepared.

They ate breakfast in the same manner as the previous morning, Jena completely naked, while Clara, Lexie and Elliot ate their food with cautious glances at the waitress who brought them it. After breakfast, they set off on the coastal path, and Jena assumed the same attitude to it as she had to everything else, stripping to her skin. The B&B was clothing-optional, and right next to the naturist beach, so she made no particular fuss about it, but was relieved when she eventually found someone willing to confirm that the paths were also clothing-optional.

They took a wrong turning after the first headland, and spent considerably longer wandering up and down narrow tracks than they would have done otherwise, until they eventually found a wider path that led back to the main trail. As they walked along it, they met two fully dressed hikers coming the other way, who paused when they saw the three people in front of them, and gave them directions. They were polite about it, even if they seemed unsure quite how to act when talking to a young woman who was completely naked and did not seem the least bit concerned about it. Their eyes kept flickering away and back again, as if deciding whether the situation was funny or not.

Jena answered their questions and thanked them politely, before commenting as they walked on, that people could manage directions without the extra theatrics. Elliot, walking beside her, had to admit he was glad to see that most of his previous embarrassment had been misplaced.

They finished the day at a pub in the town, where Jena wore a summer dress. Sitting across from her in a completely ordinary room, with most of the other people in the room also completely ordinary, Elliot was surprised to find that the absence of clothing did not detract from his feelings in the slightest. He simply liked being with her. They talked about the symposium, and the strange ideas in it, and about university, and the peculiar things people were supposed to do there. Jena simply observed that many of them existed because people expected them to be there.

The return journey the next day was uneventful, Elliot making plans to visit the university again in the future. He had not come intending to fall in love, but he left knowing that the weekend had been considerably more than he expected.

Outside the house, Jack was waiting to greet them as they returned. "You're still thinking about applying here, aren't you?" said Jena to Elliot.

"Definitely."

"You should come to the psychology society meeting next week."

Elliot hesitated,"Is that an invitation?"

"No, that's an opportunity.

She looked at him directly, and Elliot's face went red

"Would you fancy going out for dinner with me? This is an invitation."

"As a date?"

"Yes. What else would it be?"

"I thought I was supposed to ask you."

Jack made a noise like he was choking, and pretended it was a cough. Jena shrugged.

"Why?"