Gabriela, a blogger trying to film a daring new video.

“You said it would be fun.”

“That was past me. Present me isn’t such an idiot.”

“Argh,” Hannah scoffed, watching her friend’s fingers twiddle with the hem of her towel. She lowered her phone. “If you are going to act so nervous about it, why don’t we cancel the video? I mean, what to do if you are locked naked out of your room? Really? Who searches for this stuff?”

“According to our research, at least 1.000 people a month.” Gabriela breathed heavily. That’s right, she had to do this. All the top answers were from a Lonely Planet video and some Reddit posts, they could snatch first place in Google easy peasy. “This could be our most trending video yet!” she admitted, fearing being right.

Gabriela peered at both sides of the empty hallway, rubbing her feet on the plush carpet. She tightened the towel over her chest, not that it would stay there for very long. She glanced down at her long legs and gulped. Sooner rather than later, she would be showing off far more of her skin.

Yep, Gabriela was naked save for the towel. She was a tall and curvy girl with smooth chocolate skin and straight black hair, her usual picture-perfect smile somewhat muted considering the circumstances.

Her friend, and editor, Hannah, was still filming her. The geeky girl was pale, had curly blonde hair, and had round glasses around her narrow brown eyes. She was also wearing a full set of somewhat baggy street clothes, something that Gabriela was immensely envious of.

Gabriela’s heart was drumming, but not only out of fear. A weary smile was glued to her pretty face. This could be fun too, streaking around a hotel… it felt very naughty. Or so she thought before she actually had to lose the towel and go naked for real. “It’s going to be fine, right? You are going to censor the video, right?”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “For the hundred time, yes. I’ll put a blurry mosaic so big that it might as well be a jacket.”

While Gabriela was fidgeting with a strand of her dark hair, Hannah tapped her feet on the ground. The shoot should have started ten minutes ago! It’s not like she could not understand Gabriela’s hesitation, but if she wanted to change her mind she should have done so before they wrote the script and walked a whole hour to reach this fancy-ass hotel!

Maybe her friend needed a push. Hannah gathered Gabriela’s discarded clothes and placed them into her backpack, zipping it close. Standing up, Hannah aimed her phone at the nervous woman in front of her.

Gabriela could no longer see her clothes, there was no easy way to get dressed if someone found her. She bit her lip as a powerful wave of vulnerability shook her spine. She only had a flimsy towel to cling to any notion of decency and dignity, and soon, she would lose that too…

“All right, let’s start! Ready? Action!” Hannah lifted her phone, aiming straight ahead. Gabriela grabbed the hem of the towel and stopped, she was hesitating. “For crying out loud... Cut! You know what? Keep the towel. It gets the idea across and saves on editing time…”

“No! We’ve been over this Hannah! The hallmark of my brand is…”

“OUR brand,” corrected Hannah.

“Right, whatever, the hallmark is authenticity. Why do people watch our video on how to eat a whole ghost pepper in under a minute? Because I wolfed down that bad boy in two gulps!”

“Yeah, and then you screamed for hours. I recall you even saying that it felt like you drank all the lava from a volcano.”

“Same with our guide in how to survive a snake attack, we show the real thing, every time. That’s our most-watched video to date! Why? Authenticity! Without my genuine screams of terror, without the fear in my eyes or the shock of betrayal on my face, no one would have watched it!”

Was Gabriela throwing shade? “Listen, you said, "throw it at me", so what was I supposed to do? Not throw the snake?”

“Well, at least don’t aim at my face!” Gabriela stomped on the carpet, pouting at her camerawoman. “…enough, let’s start this video. Roll the camera… but focus on my face, ok? I know you are going to blur it, but I don’t want any shots of my ass that aren’t vital for the video.”

Hannah gave Gabriela a thumbs up and then aimed the cellphone once more. “Action!”