Material Girl

Katy pulled the mask off the stand and gave Bob a questioning look.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked skeptically.

“He’ll love it, trust me,” came Bob’s confident reply as he lit a cigarette and settled back in his chair.

Katy shrugged. She was sitting in Bob’s bedroom dressed only in her bra, panties and a pair of thigh-high stockings held up by a garter belt, but it wasn’t her rather risqué outfit that was bothering her. After all, Bob was one of her oldest friends. Plus, he was gay, so Katy assumed he was totally unaffected by scantily clad women, even in his own boudoir. What she was having trouble with was the plan he had hatched for her to get back together with her ex-boyfriend, David. She held up the soft, rubbery mask and looked at it blankly.

She didn’t get it herself. She didn’t understand how meeting her ex lover disguised as somebody else could possibly rekindle his love for her.

She could see how it would turn him on, since David had always had a kinky streak. In fact, he once bought a set of latex lingerie for her to wear that included a black latex bra, panties, stockings and a garter belt. When she put them on he became fiercely aroused, and they ended up making love for more than an hour.

But she couldn’t figure out how wearing a rubber disguise would make him want to get back together with her, despite his mild perversity. At least, not for anything other than a quick roll in the proverbial hay.

She sighed raggedly. The way she looked at it, Bob knew David better than anybody else she knew. After all, they had roomed together in college for two years and for another year after graduation. Plus, Bob had originally introduced Katy to David, saying that he thought they were just perfect for each other. Which they had been. At least for a while.

There was also the fact that Bob knew her -- about as well as any man could. And certainly better than she could have imagined any gay man could.

She took a deep breath and pulled the mask on over her head, like a complicated latex stocking cap that covered her entire head right down to the bottom of her throat.

It was made of very finely molded rubber that seemed highly elastic, so the mask stretched to go over the top of her head and slide down -- with some steady pulling -- until it completely covered her skull with a thin, pliable film of stretchy material.

She felt a moment of panic when the mask hung up part way down her face. She had always hated being in confined places, and with her vision blocked, she felt a moment of classic claustrophobia.

But then the mask continued to slide on, and the elastic features of the molded face settled into position over her own, covering them tightly but once more allowing her to breathe through the delicately formed nose and see through the eyes.

She exhaled, hearing the slight whistle of air through the mask’s rubber nostrils, and blinked to get used to the edges of rubber “skin” that now rimmed her eyes in a remarkably precise fashion.

“Huh!” she said, flexing her mouth and feeling the mask’s lips move with her own. “It’s more comfortable than I would have thought it would be.” Turning to Bob, she added, “How does it look?”

He smiled broadly. “Fantastic,” he said, taking another drag on his cigarette. “See for yourself. Look in the mirror.”

She blinked and did as he suggested, turning to examine her reflection over Bob’s dressing table.

What stared back at her was a perfect replica of Madonna -- except that Madonna, so far as Katy knew, had never shaved her head completely and appeared in public bald.

She opened her mouth and the darkly painted lips of the mask opened with them. She smiled and the mask replicated the expression, making a dimple at both sides. She looked at her reflection in silence as she mimed anger, boredom (a yawn), and a big air kiss. The mask copied the facial changes precisely.

“Holy shit,” she said finally in a quiet voice. “This is really good.”

Bob, his smile now a lascivious grin, laughed out loud.

“No kidding!” he said. “If I didn’t know who was hiding under that rubber face … Well … I would have no idea who it was,” he added weakly as he realized his comment was both unnecessary and totally inane.

Katy rose, still staring at her reflection in the mirror, and walked over to him. She took the cigarette from his fingers and puffed deeply on it herself, then exhaled the smoke through the mask’s latex nose and lips in a stream that commingled in the still air of Bob’s apartment.

“How do you think he will react?” she asked, leaning against the wall and another lungful of smoke slide through the mask’s molded rubber nostrils.

“He will be totally turned on,” Bob chuckled, lighting another cigarette to replace the one she had appropriated. “Trust me. I know your man.”

Katy thought a moment then smiled herself.

“Well, whatever it takes to resolve our relationship, one way or the other,” she said, taking another puff and exhaling a thin stream of smoke. “I’ve been at sixes and sevens since we broke up.

She turned to the mirror and stared at her bald rubber Madonna head with a dubious expression. “But I still don’t see how this is going to help,” she added. “I mean, is he going to want me to masquerade as his favorite singer even after tonight’s costume party? This whole thing is pretty hard to get my brain around.”

Bob spread his hands: “Honey, he needed a change, you needed a change. You both still do. You’ve been apart for about three months now, and I think this little caper will turn things around for you. It’s radical. It’s daring. It may be the change that will change your life.”

He smiled again. “At least I hope so,” he said. “And I am sure that the change is going to be for the better.”

Katy/Madonna rolled her eyes with skepticism and sat back down behind Bob’s dressing table. She took a close look at herself before stripping the curly Madonna hairpiece from the foam wig stand there and tugging it on over her bald rubber head. With the wig in place, she took another puff on the cigarette and turned back to look at Bob.

“Madonna doesn’t have dimples,” she said with a smile.

Bob laughed. “Nobody is going to notice your dimples,” he said. “Despite them, you are the spitting image of the Material One. When you get zipped into that PVC cat suit with the openings for your breasts, nobody is going to be looking at your dimples, anyway. Not even me.”

She chuckled. “I see what you mean sugar,” she said, finishing the cigarette and watching Madonna exhale smoke through her nostrils in her reflection. She turned back to Bob with a grin. “Thanks for helping me out, honey. You really are my best girlfriend, you know? My other girlfriends all were happy David had decided to end it. None of them really like him very much anyway.”

Bob crossed his arms. “I know how they feel,” he said. “He was really mean to you the last four or five months before you broke up. And he seemed to be getting worse in the last few weeks before he told you he was leaving.”

Katy sighed. “Actually, I am not really sure about getting back together with him, myself,” she said. “I don’t know why I want him back. I have been mooning about it for weeks, but I can’t come up with any really good reasons why I feel that way.”

Bob stood up and moved behind her, looking at her latex face and curly blond hair in the mirror. He placed his hands gently on her shoulders and lightly kissed the top of her head.

“I know, honey,” he said. “I thought you two were a perfect couple when you first started going out together, but I should have realized David would screw things up. The fact is, you are too good for him. I’ve felt that way for a long time now, especially when you started to grow apart. You just haven’t been able to get him out of your system because of the way he walked out. You need to have another crack at him, It’s the only way you will ever really be sure you are over him.”

Katy rose and hugged him, resting her masked face on Bob’s shoulder. “That’s sort of how I feel, too,” she confessed. “I’m not really sure I want us to be a couple any more. But I just haven’t reached the point where I can really let him go. Maybe it will happen tonight. I feel ambivalent about the whole thing.”

She sighed and snuggled against him then looked up regretfully. “It’s too bad you aren’t into girls,” she said, giving him a gentle kiss on the mouth. “You are so much nicer than David ever has been, even at the very beginning. So much easier to talk to. So much more fun to just hang around with.”

He gave her a playful shove. “Well. I am already your best girlfriend,” he said. “If I was your lover, you would have to be a lesbian, I guess. That would never do. People would talk!”

She laughed. “I might be able to learn to like that,” she said. “After all, you were the one who said I needed a change.”

He gave her a gentle push. “You finish up with the catsuit, gloves and boots and get going,” he said. “I haven’t started getting ready for the party myself yet. And I want you out of here before I do.”

She shrugged into the tightfitting catsuit and pulled the zipper front up. Then she stepped into the calf-high fetish boots of black shiny plastic and zipped them shut. Her breasts protruded from the round openings in the PVC suit, which had an underwire to make them jut out at a provocative angle.

She pulled the black PVC gloves on over the longsleeves of the catsuit, her breasts jiggling sexily with the motion, and gathered up her shoulder bag with her money, ID, lighter and cigarettes.

Bob watched with apprecition as she got ready to leave.

Slipping into a black nylon raincoat to cover her exposed breasts, she belted the garment loosely and slung the bag over her shoulder. “What are you going to go as?” she asked. “You never did tell me.”

He grinned and shook his head as he escorted her to the door. “Uh uh,” he said. “Not even a clue. It’s a surprise. You’ll see later.”

She stopped at the door and impulsively gave him another kiss. “Thanks again, honey,” she said with a wistful smile. “However this works out tonight, I am glad you are my friend. Good ones are hard to find.”

He laughed and gave her a pat on her bottom. “I always thought that a hard one was good to find,” he said grinning. “See you later at the party.”

The drive to John and Jeri’s place took only about 20 minutes. Katy found that she could almost ignore the mask on the brief trip. The rubber falseface was remarkably comfortable, and her vision was completely unrestricted through the well-designed eyeholes. Her biggest problem was that sometimes when she turned her head too far in either direction, she caught some of her own eyelashes in the corners of the openings. But a couple of blinks freed them every time it happened.

A bigger source of discomfort was walking the last block to the couple’s house in her high-heeled boots: the cracks and uneven clumps in the pavement over tree roots forced her to keep a close eye on her path in order to avoid taking a header on the irregular surface.

The front door had been propped ajar and loud dance music flowed through the opening to greet her as she climbed the porch to enter. Inside, the party was already in full sway. Costumed couples bobbed in the center of the living room, which had been converted into an impromptu dance floor with outsized speaker cases blaring a tune by Do Doubt” into the gyrating tangle of revellers.

Jeri greeted Katy as she entered. The hostess for the evening was dressed as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, a costume that was calculated to show off the cleavage from Jeri’s large, pale breasts.

“Hey, honey! Come on in,” the mock vampiress said with a laugh as she stepped forward to give her a hug. “Wow! You look just like Madonna in that outfit. Who the hell are you really?”

Katy smiled and Madonna’s face transmitted her pleasure perfectly. “It’s me, Jeri, Katy,” she said, planting an air-kiss in space next to Jeri’s ear. “Just let me strip off the raincoat and you will see the resemblance is remarkable.

She swung off the coat and struck a mock pose with one hip forward, her round breasts protruding flirtatiously from her skin tight PVC catsuit.

“Holy shit!” Jeri grinned. “Welcome, Material Girl! How in the hell did you get your face such a perfect match for Madonna’s?”

Katy spread her gloved hands. “Bob came up with it,” she said. “It’s really a mask. It’s too much trouble to put on and take off, though, so I am pretty much stuck wearing it for the rest of the evening.”

Jeri touched her cheek with a look of amazement. “It feels just like a real face,” she said in wonder. “It’s even warm. Amazing! It moves so naturally when you smile and talk. Is it uncomfortable?”

Katy shook her head. “Not at all, though it was a little weird putting it on,” she said. “I had to pull it on over my head. It was kind of like putting on a bathing cap -- only a really big bathing cap that covered my entire face down to the base of my neck.”

Jeri smiled with admiration. “Well, it is really great,” she said. “It’s like we have Madonna at our dumb little Halloween Party. You will have to lip synch a couple of her numbers later on. Give the crowd a thrill.”

Katy laughed and lit a cigarette. “Hell, get enough drinks in me and I will sign a couple of her songs for the crowd in my own voice,” she said, exhaling smoke. “Speaking of which, which way is the bar, honey?”

Katy made herself a drink and moved among the other party-goers, making small talk and fielding a stream of compliments on her remarkable face. As she circulated, she kept an eye open for David. By half-past ten, she was beginning to lose hope that he would appear. Oddly, she didn’t feel too disappointed by it.

As she rested from dancing at the back of the living room and lit another cigarette, she could feel a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a matador7800as, in complete bullfighting regalia, standing just behind her.

“Our costumes are perfect for each other,” he said grinning under a black domino mask. “Except we seem to be from different videos.”

The bullfighter’s voice was very familiar. She looked closely at his jaw line, lips and nose and smiled back. “David?” she asked tentatively. “It’s me, Katy. I should have worn the peplum suit, black hat, veil and gloves from ‘Take A Bow,’ I guess. Or you should have worn the black latex catsuit from ‘Skin.’”

The toreador’s face registered surprise. “My God,” he said. “I wouldn’t have recognized you in that face!” Then he stole a glance at her exposed breasts and added, grinning, “But I might have found the nipples familiar after a while.”

Katy laughed. “Yes, I suppose you might at that,” she said.

“You look fabulous,” he said, taking her hands. “Who did your makeup? It’s really remarkable.You are the spitting image of Madonna.”

She smiled. “It’s a rubber mask,” she said, touching her cheeck self-consciously. “I thought it would be uncomfortable, but to be honest, I have almost forgotten I’m wearing it.”

“Isn’t it hot?” he asked, peering at her face closely. “It certainly makes you look hot -- in the sexy way, not the physical heat way. You know, Madonna has always turned me on.”

Katy’s smile broadened. “Well, here’s your chance to spend some time with her,” she said, adding gently, “that is, if you really want to, now that you know who she really is.”

He simply pulled her close and gave her a long kiss. “Is that enough of an answer for you,” he said in a husky voice when they drew apart. “I can’t think of anyone I would rather be with.”

The rest of the evening went almost exactly as she had dreamed it might. They chatted about nothing in particular, drank cocktails, socialized with other party-goers and danced together for the rest of the night.

David was almost too ardent in his attentions to her. His kisses -- which came more and more frequently as the night wore on -- were softer and more enticing than they had been before he had broken up with her. He seemed more romantic and tender, and she began to wonder if it was Katy that had kindled his passion or the exotic Madonna costume she was wearing. She wondered if he was falling for her again, or simply responding to her remarkably sexy rubber face.

Most troubling of all, however, was the fact that she found herself comparing him in many ways, large and small, to Bob, who had yet to appear at the party. The comparisons were not at all flattering. David was on his best behavior tonight, but he had said and done too many hurtful things in the not-so-distant past to stack up well against he former roommate. She couldn’t help but feel that David was finally treating her the way she had always wanted him to -- with tenderness, solicitude and charm. She realized that the more he treated her that way, the more he reminded her of Bob.

“Just my luck,” she thought to herself at one point. “When the man I thought I loved finally behaves the way I always wanted him to, I realize my best friend -- his gay ex-roomie -- was already doing it.”

By the end of the evening, she had decided that starting over again with David wasn’t going to work after all. She had to wear a kiny rubber face and latex costume to get David’s complete attention; Bob gave it to her all the time, without reservation, and didn’t need to see her in an erotic disguise.

At midnight, the party reached its climax with a costume competition. David and Katy were judged the crowd favorites in their unique outfits (Katy’s breasts, certainly brought lusty shouts of approval from the inebriated men present!) and they won a door prize that Jeri and John had purchased for the occasion: an all-expenses paid stay in the Venus Suite at the Tryst Inn, an adult motel on the edge of town.

The Inn was a notorious spot that was popular with Japanese tourists on expense account, and well-to-do execs who were boffing their secretaries. It had in-room adult videos, spas in every suite and beds with “magic fingers” massage units built in. Sex toys and other paraphernalia could be obtained at the front desk, and each room was equipped with a bottle of fairly good champagne and a pair of stems glasses. Sometimes, three, depending on the tastes of the guests.

When David suggested that they take advantage of the unexpected prize right away, Katy realized she didn’t want to waste it that way. She pulled him aside instead of answering immediately and took him to Jeri and John’s study where she closed the door for privacy.

“Honey, I thought I wanted to get back together with you, but now that I have spent the evening with you, I realize you were right to break it off,” she said gently as soon as they were alone. “You’ve been really wonderful tonight, but I keep finding myself thinking of somebody else. To go use this room tonight would be cheating you. I would be thinking of another man the whole time we were together.”

David’s face beneath the domino mask was impassive. “Who is this dream guy?” he asked. “Don’t worry -- I am not going to do something stupid like pick a fight with him or something. I just want to know.”

She smiled ruefully. “You are going to laugh when I tell you, because I don’t have a chance in hell of getting together with him anyway. I’m not his type -- I don’t have the right plumbing, so to speak. You see, I realized tonight I actually have fallen in love with Bob.”

Katy waited for the guffaw of laughter she felt sure would greet her confession. Instead, David simply smiled broadly.

“Are you serious?” he asked. “You aren’t just saying that to blow me off, are you?”

Katy shook her head. “I know it’s crazy, but I finally figured out tonight that of all the men I have known, he is the one I am most comfortable with,” she said. “I feel more connected to him than any other guy I had ever known. We can almost finish each other’s sentences a lot of the time. He treats me exactly the way I want to be treated -- not in some artificially chivalrous way, but almost as if he thinks I deserve it. When I talk to him about my problems, he really listens. And he doesn’t try to solve them for me like I am some ditz that just needs male guidance to straighten things out. He always remembers my birthday, and always has something for me on holidays. He is just . . . perfect. Except for liking boys more than girls.”

David sighed, still smiling. “This is better than I could have ever hoped,” he said finally after a moment of silence.

“What is?” she asked.

“Never mind,” he said. “Would you still feel that way if he played a trick on you?”

Puzzled Katy nodded. “Yes, I would,” she said. “I’m sure of it. But he has never done anything of the kind. Why do you ask?”

David took off his matador hat and removed his domino mask. He untied his string necktie and unbuttoned his collar, spreading it wide open. Then he reached under it with the tips of his fingers and peeled his face and hair up and away from his head with a rubbery plop, like dishwashing gloves being turned inside out.

David’s face -- and his short brown hair -- now dangled from one hand. She could see that it was a latex mask much like the one Katy wore. Under it was the face of -- Bob!

“Ohmigod!” she exclaimed in stunned disbelief. “You had me completely fooled.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. “I did it because it was the only way I could think of to spend an entire evening with you as a sexually attractive man,” he said quietly. “I am really bisexual, not exclusively gay. I have been in love with you since the first time I met you, but you always treated me like somebody who was sexually unapproachable. Like . . . well, like your best girlfriend. You couldn’t get past the notion of me as a gay man. I didn’t think you would ever take me seriously enough to date me. Plus you were in love with David.

“When you two broke up, I hatched this plan to try and win you over, even though I knew you would think I was your ex-boyfriend. I never dreamed you would end up rejecting him -- because you really wanted me. . . “

Katy stripped off her own wig and slid the Madonna mask off her damp head. She looked at him sternly.

“I should be incredibly angry at you,” she said breaking into a smile. “But I delighted instead. I wondered why ‘David’s’ kisses were so tender and sweet. I thought that it was just because he was turned on by my costume.”

Bob shook his head “Every time I kissed you, I was imagining us kissing without these rubber faces,” he said, jiggling his mask. “It was Katy I was kissing, not her Madonna outfit.”

She pulled him close. “Here I am,” she said with a gentle smile. “The time for imagining is over. Don’t tell me how you feel about me, darling -- show me.”

He did as he was told -- with pleasure. His lips made Katy weak with pleasure and desire. The warm feeling spreading throughout her body told her they would be using that room at the Tryst Inn tonight after all.

END