"Come over to my place"

Meadow's words brought an abrupt end to whatever humor her previous joke introduced into the room.

”How exactly am I supposed to get to your house?” - Danica hugged her knees timidly as she asked the question.

Her friend pinched her calf lightly in response and motioned toward Dani’s legs - “with those, Silly”

”I can’t even go downstairs, Meadow, people will see me, the neighbours will see me, your parents will see me”

Meadow sighed and glanced at the ceiling, leaning into the bedframe next to Danica - “One, my parents aren’t home right now. Two, nobody cares that you’re naked” - she smiled, before adding - “Well, they do care, you wear this outfit well” - and gave Danica a playful nudge.

This time around joking resulted in embarrassment rather than laughter, as Danica - with a renewed blush - swung her head toward Meadow and weakly whined “stop”

”Ok, ok, I’m sorry” - she scooted closer and put an arm around the nude girl, sending a light shiver over her skin - “How about we take the scenic route instead of the road, you know, the windy path behind all the houses. Nobody should be there this time of day, how about it?”

Danica nodded meekly but wasn’t yet convinced - “There’s still some people”

”Look, I think your sister and your dad left by now and your mom is about to leave I believe. We’ll sprint into cover as fast as we can and I’ll be with you the whole way. Come on!” - with that Meadow got up and offered a hand to her friend - “I promise, you’ll be fine”

Finally Danica gave in, she dismissed the hand, spun around on the carpet and got up, careful to only show her back to Meadow. “You go first” - she proactively ensured some dignity.

Meadow was gentle and respectful of her best friend’s newly developed shyness, she didn’t look back even once as the two slowly descended the stairs and made their way to the front door, only using the sound of bare feet taking hesitant steps to confirm Danica was following her.

Danica, meanwhile, did her best to not fall too far behind, as the stairs, although less scary than before breakfast, were still daunting. Her perseverance was rewarded as they got to the entryway, there, next to an umbrella stand, sat a few pieces of normalcy - a pair of sneakers and flip-flops, both belonging to Danica. She headed straight for the sneakers, those would feel a little like clothes, with the material fitting snugly around her feet. She slid her toes in and began kneeling down to guide her ankle in when she was interrupted.

”You girls going somewhere?” - It was her mother, who was about to leave for work.

”We’re just going to my place”

”It’s such a nice day, don’t just sit inside, ok?”

”Absolutely, I actu…

Danica was completely naked and stuck between two people talking like normal, she wanted this to be over and discarded the sneaker for her flip-flops, giving Meadow an urging look.

”Well, we’ll be off then” - Meadow ended the conversation for her friend’s sake and the two were about to step outside when Danica’s mother stopped her

”You’re not going out like that are you?”

Danica was delighted to hear those words. Did her mother come back to her senses? Was everything about to be fine again? Was her mother about to scold her and bring her some clothing?