I inspect the plastic thing with the sharp blades suspiciously. "Won’t I cut myself doing this?"
"Not as long as you’re careful."
I never thought about my body hair… well,notbeing on my body anymore.It was just there. And since no one has ever seen it, it never occurred to me to shorten it or even remove it completely.
"Do men do that too?
Jules nods. "Some of them do, but not everywhere. They usually don’t shave their legs."
This world is so complicated, it makes my head spin. And I’ve only been away from home for one day.
"Do you want me to show you?" Jules asks, noticing my hesitation.
I lift my head to look at her with widened eyes.
"On the legs," she adds when she sees the look on my face.
Relieved, I laugh and nod.
She unbuttons her jeans and, a moment later, stands in front of me in her underwear. Then she goes to the bathtub, puts one foot on its edge and rubs some foam from one of the cans we bought onto her leg. After that, she turns on the faucet of the tub and reaches out a hand. I hand her the razor and look over her shoulder to see exactly what she’s doing.
"If you shave against the direction of hair growth, it will get much smoother," she explains, running the razor over her leg several times from bottom to top. Every now and then, she holds it in the water stream to rinse it off.
When she’s done, the foam is gone, but I can’t see any difference from the other leg and frown.
"Feel this," Jules says, stroking her hand over her shin.
When I do the same, her skin is soft and smooth and feels like silk.
"Now the other leg so you have a comparison." She takes the foot off the tub and puts the other one on it instead.
Again, I do as she says and immediately understand what she means. "Oh!"
Jules winks at me. "Like I said, it’s totally up to you whether you shave or not. And don’t you ever let a guy tell you that you have to. Because that’s bullshit, okay?"
"Okay," I reply, nodding. "And why doyoudo it?"
She shrugs. "I don’t know. I think I like myself more without the hair."
"And… how does it look…" Faltering, I lower my gaze as I feel the heat rising to my cheeks.
"What it looks like down there?"
Again, I nod.
"It’s been a few days since I shaved, but if you want, I can show you." Before I can say anything else, she has already pulled down her panties.
It’s not like I’m unfamiliar with the female body. After all, I’m a woman myself. But seeing Jules naked and looking there, of all places,still feels strange, since nudity was never something normal in my home. When I spot something shiny, I tilt my head in wonder. "What’s that?"
"What’s what?" Alarmed, Jules looks down before she sighs in relief. "Oh,that. It’s a piercing. Jewelry. Like an earring, just not in the ear," she says as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Doesn’t that hurt?"
"The piercing of the skin did, but now I don’t notice it. Most of the time, I don’t even remember it’s there at all."
"Piercing of the skin?" I ask, looking at her in shock.
"Did you ever get an injection? Or… sew something?"
