[LessIsMore]

Part 2: The Mall

"Leave at 11?" my mom asked as she cleared our breakfast dishes the next morning.

"Where are you going?" asked my sister.

"I need to pick up a few thing and your brother needs a new swimsuit."

"Mind if I come too?" my sister asked.

"Of course not," my mom replied. "11 then?" We both nodded in agreement. We hung out at home until it was time to go. My mom wanted to run her errands first, so we stopped at a few places before heading to the mall.

The mall has a huge swim shop. The selection is much better than the usual rack or two at the sporting goods store. When we walked into the swim shop, we were greeted by the girl behind the desk. It was one of my classmates, Katie. She was in the popular crowd at school. I'd always had a bit of a crush on her, but other than being lab partners in 9th grade we never ran in the same circles.

"Hey, Josh," Katie said when she recognized me.

"Hi, Katie," I said a bit nervously.

"How's your summer going?" she asked.

"Not to bad. You?"

"Working," she said gesturing to the shop around her. "At least I don't have to work at night. Maureen's been working every weekend at the restaurant." Maureen is her best friend. She turned to my mom and sister and said, "Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"Yes, do you carry bikinis for men?" asked my mom. I prayed I had misheard her as my face started to turn red.

Katie smiled at me kind of awkwardly then said, "Yeah, I'll show you where to find them."

"I'll be over there," my sister said pointing to the women's section and walking off. Katie led my mom and I to the men's area.

"So, we have a pretty good selection of men's briefs. Are you looking for anything in particular?"

I was so embarrassed, I couldn't have responded if I tried. Thankfully my mom did the talking, though I still couldn't quite believe what was happening. It was like one of those dreams where you show up naked to school. "Something fitted with minimal coverage."

"Well, the brief style definitely has the least amount of coverage," said Katie. She walked us over to one rack. "So these are the water polo briefs. They're made of sturdier material, but don't have a lot of stretch." We continued to the next section which had even more. "All of our standard swim briefs are here." She walked us out to the aisle. "Our new suits are here. We just got these Tyr 2" briefs in stock," she said taking a multi colored one off the rack. "The sides are a bit shorter than usual, so they're a bit skimpier than the other stuff we carry." She put them back. "What's your waist size," she asked turning to me.

"30," I managed to get out only barely.

"You'll probably want a 28 then. It's usually one size below your pant size. Was there anything else you need right now?"

"I think that should be it," said my mom.

"Well, let me know if you need anything. Feel free to try anything on. The suits all have disposable liners. Just bring them back to the front when you're done." Finally, she walked away. I don't know if I'd ever been more embarrassed.

"You two know each other from school?" my mom asked after we left.

"Yeah," I said checking around the store in hopes no one else had seen us.

"Don't be so embarrassed, sweetie," she said probably seeing my flush face. "They wouldn't carry this many bikinis for men if people weren't buying them. These are cute," my mom said picking up one of the brightly colored Tyr 2" briefs that Katie had shown us.

"There's no way I'm wearing that in public," I said looking at the tiny strip of fabric.

"You don't have to wear it in public," she replied. "Just wear it at home if you want. Should we check out a few more designs?"

I nodded. I figured we were already this far. May as well keep going. We browsed the racks, and picked out a few other briefs.

My mom handed me what we'd selected. "Go try these on. I'm going to look in the women's section for a minute, and then I'll come check on you." I took the pile and we parted ways.

I pulled the drape closed on the dressing room and looked at myself in the mirror. The idea of wearing such a small bathing suit was still very foreign, but, I had to admit, was turning me on a little bit. I figured no one could see me, so I got undressed, picked up the first brief, and pulled it on.