Adrienne acts weird in the locker room

The hour seemed to drag on forever, and because Mercy sat out, the other girls each got more than a usual number of turns, so everyone was pretty wiped out by the end.

"Good workout!" Tori said, holding up her hand to high five Adrienne. She didn't go for it, so Tori had to turn to Emily, who happily slapped hands with her.

"Yeah! I'm beat. Showers, then drinks?" She offered the activity to he group with a hopeful tone. The girl always seemed to think the rest of us were going to bail on her or something.

"Yeah, definitely." Tori confirmed.

Adrienne shook her head. "I'll come along, but I'm not drinking tonight."

Tori gasped and made a pregnant belly gesture with her hands, but everyone knew she was just preparing for a photo shoot. For the big ones, Adriene would gradually cut things out of her diet for days beforehand until it was just water the day before and nothing the day of. It sounded awful, but damn if it didn't make her photos look unreal.

"Mercy?" Emily smiled at her encouragingly.

"Oh, alright." Mercy said playfully, as if she'd had any complaints to begin with. "But not until I've had that shower."

So they all went into the locker room and stripped down, chatting about nothing important. Mercy was horrified at how easily her clothes came off. Was she getting sick or something? No one should lose weight so quickly.

Again, Adrienne seemed the only friend to notice something was different. She was watching her from her locker as she pulled her own clothes off.

Mercy hurried into a shower stall to let the hot water ease her worry. Nothing she could do about it now, and a nice hit shower helped everything.

She stayed under the water for several minutes without even washing. Just, enjoying the moment and ignoring everything else. Finally, as the others began wrapping up, she decided to get a move on and start actually showering.

By the time she came out, Tori had gone. Emily said it was to convince Sam to come to drinks with them, but Emily seemed irritated about it.

As a mercy turned the corner towards her locker, she noticed Adrienne there, fiddling with Mercy's phone.

"What are you doing?" Mercy said, bewildered.

Adrienne jumped, startled. That was very unlike her. "Oh, I..." She fell silent for a long time then sighed. "...accidentally sent you a naked picture I meant for someone else. I was just deleting it."

Mercy frowned. Why would she do that? She was naked in front of all of them like ten minutes earlier, and she should have known Mercy would delete something like that if she just told her.

But then it hit her. "You're sending someone naked pictures?? That's huge! Who is it? I thought you had a no-nudes-ever policy! And what boy?"

Adrienne had made a point to not do any nude work in her career, and was a big enough name that real, verifiable nudes would be worth a lot of money. That really was a big deal.

She shifted her feet awkwardly for a moment and then handed the phone, locked, over to Mercy.

"I'm sorry." She turned to leave, but Mercy stepped in front of her.

"No, girl, this is big news. It can't wait for drinks. You gotta tell me!"