Coming Home

"Please don't."

"Come on, you do shit like this, you have to expect a bit of teasing. It's kind of funny."

"It isn't."

"Spoilsport."

"Bec, think about it. It really isn't."

She thought, and decided. "Yeah, actually, you're right. It's actually kind of gross, isn't it?"

He shrugged, like he didn't want to actually agree.

"Maybe I should go," Bec said.

He lay there, and didn't tell her not to, so suddenly slightly uncomfortable she got up and got dressed. She didn't want to be too long, anyway, in case Kelly got suspicious. Not that Kelly had any reason to be.

All the same, when Bec got home Kelly was still up. When Bec walked in, Kelly looked at the clock on the kitchen wall.

"We talked," Bec said, before Kelly could ask. "I think he has a crush on you."

"No he doesn't," Kelly said, and got up and went to bed.

Bec was glad they weren't going to talk. She was sweaty and could taste Rob in her mouth and was pretty sure her skin still smelled of sex. She had another shower, and went to bed.

*

Bec had to go back and get Rob the next morning, because his car was still at her parents' place. She stopped outside, and honked the truck's horn, and then drove most of the way back to the farm in silence.

She couldn't decide if she wanted to keep doing this or not. She would almost have liked one last time, but Rob seemed a bit moody. He was a lot of work just for her to get laid.

She decided she might as well try, and give up if he said no.

"Hey," Bec said, as they reached the farm. "You remember the old swimming hole up the hill?"

Rob nodded.

"Want to?"

He didn't seem that interested. "It's a bit of a climb, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Bec said. "A bit. Do you want to?"

"I don't have anything to swim in."

"So? I don't either."

He looked at her.

She grinned. "So yes?"

He didn't answer.

"I'll assume yes," she said. "Unless you say no."

"You're kind of pushy."

"Just bored."

"Still."

"What?" she said. "I scare you or something?"

"No, not that. Just..."

"I scare you?"

He grinned.

"You're not getting back with Kelly. You know that, right?"

"I don't know that."

"Well you're not. And I'm right here."

"Yeah," Rob said, looking at her.

"So a swim?"

Rob shrugged. "Why not."

*

Behind the house was a steep hillside. The bush had been cleared halfway up, to where low bluffs began and the trees became all tangled and tall. Cleared to the point it wasn't worth clearing any more. The boundary creek began as a spring just below the crest of the hills, and ran through Bec's family's land until it reached the flat and began to mark the edge of their property. It ran into three waterholes, each diverted and dammed when the farm was new and there were ambitions of clearing the top country. The two lower ponds were silted and muddy, were used by kangaroos and dogs and acrobatic sheep that had climbed the hill. The highest waterhole was fenced off, and lined with stone, and had been used as a swimming pool by Bec's grandmother, sixty years ago.

Bec liked to climb up there too. It was hot, twenty minutes walk for someone fit who knew the way. There was enough water most years to swim four or five strokes, and it was deep enough to sit down and go right under in one place. The edge of the pool was lined with rocks, and surrounded by trees, and shaded in summer. There was a black snake that lived in the gully just down from the pool, but Bec was used to it, and it was used to her. It had been there as long as she could remember, and never bothered her.

They parked in the yards, and then followed a path up the hill, beside the creek. It was a nice day. There was a soft breeze, in gusts, carrying the smell of hot dirt and oily gums, rattling the trees when it blew.

Bec undressed in front of Rob. She usually swum naked. It was easier than carrying a bag as she climbed, easier than taking a towel since she could dry herself lying in the sun. Her mum seemed to pretend to think she had a bikini on underneath her shorts and singlet, and Bec never pointed out she didn't.

She undressed in front of Rob, and wasn't sure why she was pushing so hard. She pulled off her top with her tits right in front of his face, then squeezed them gently while he watched. They almost hurt a little. Being turned on sometimes made her nipples ache, and they ached now.

She pushed her jeans down standing in front of him, so she was right in front of his nose as she got bare.

He stared at her for a long moment, then she turned around and got in the water.

Rob undressed. He only stripped to his shorts, and was bending a lot, obviously trying to hide a hard-on.

"Let me see," Bec said.

He ignored her.

"Please," she said. "You're perving at me."

He looked like he might blush again.

"Shit," Bec said, suddenly sorry for him again. "Get in. Look all you want, I don't care."

Rob nodded, then did, then gasped. "Shit, that's cold," he said.

"It's cool. It's not cold yet, mate."

Bec liked it up at the pool. She could sit in the water and look out past the swaying branches, see the valley and farm spread out below, the main road to the north, the neighbors houses, all the paddocks and fences and the secret patterns that tilling and stock movements made in the grass that were only visible from this high up.

"Hey," Rob said. "Is this the drinking water?"

Bec grinned. "Yep."

"Ah, should we be..."

"Yeah, try not to do anything too disgusting."

He kept sitting there, looking worried. Bec had always drunk from the creek up here, even though the stock sometimes got higher than this. The house water came from the same creek though, so it wasn't really worth worrying too much.

"Sweat gets diluted is how I always thought about it," Bec said. "Anything else, just don't."

"Yeah." He didn't seem convinced.

"Or we can boil the water. Mum won't care if you ask her to."

"I might."

She sat there for a while looking at him.

"What?" he said.

"Sit on the edge," Bec said.

"Why?"

"Just do."

He looked at her.

"Sit there so I can suck your cock," she said. "Obviously."

He looked at her, and hesitated, then lifted himself up, backwards, and sat on the edge. She swum over, and stopped in front of him, pulled his shorts down. One last time, she thought, and sucked him off. When he was done, she scooped up a handful of water and drank, washing the salt taste of him out her mouth.

"So," she said. "Do me?"

He nodded, and did, and when she was done, as she lay on the edge drying, she said, "I'm going to fix this Kelly thing for you, okay?"

"Can you?"

"I'm going to. So this is probably the last time for us."

"Okay."

"Is that all right?"

"Of course." He seemed to be thinking. After a while he said, "Are you upset?"

"Nah. Like I told you. Sometimes I just need to get laid."

"Thank you. If you can."

"Yeah, no problem." She sat up. "Let's go back down."

*

Bec and Rob walked down the hillside, slowly. Being more careful going down than coming up. Near the house, walking across the home paddock, Kelly came out and met them.

She looked annoyed. She looked annoyed, and confused, and like Bec had done something terribly wrong, when Bec really hadn't.

"I want to talk to you," Kelly said to Bec, while Rob pretended he couldn't hear.

"Why?" Bec said.

"Because I do. What's going on?"

Bec was going to fix Kelly's life, even if Kelly wasn't going to do it herself. "Barn," Bec said. "Both of you."

Kelly went without arguing. They had always gone in there when they were kids, to talk without being overheard, sometimes smuggling in beer and mates and sitting up the back, behind a wall of hay, where they wouldn't be caught. Rob looked unsure, but wasn't going to argue when his crush and his fuck-buddy were both heading off to talk about him.

Kelly leaned on the wall, and Rob stood uncomfortably, and Bec sat on one of the smaller bales of hay.

"What?" Kelly said.

"Hey Rob," Bec said. "Who has nicer tits? Me or Kelly?"

They both looked at her.

"I'm just wondering," Bec said. "Since you've seen us both."

Rob shrugged, and looked away. Kelly was glaring. She seemed confused, and a bit uncertain, but she was glaring.

"Don't..." Kelly said, then, "Fuck, Bec. What?"

"I'm just asking him."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Kelly said, then added, "And don't. "You're putting him on the spot and he doesn't want to answer."

Bec was pretty sure she'd won right then. Kelly was defending Rob, not shouting at Bec. That meant something.

"I'm just asking, Kel," Bec said. "We were up at the pool, so he saw. And he can tell me if he doesn't want to answer."

Rob cleared his throat. "I don't think I want to answer."

"See?" Bec said.

There was a long silence.

"Hey Rob," Bec said. "See how Kel isn't asking what else we did up at the pool?"

Rob was looking at Kelly.

"You're a fucking bitch, Bec," Kelly said, and walked out.

Rob stood there, and watched her go. He didn't move.

"Well?" Bec said.

"Well what."

"You're still here with me."

He didn't seem to understand.

"Choose," Bec said. "Seriously, mate. Like choose right the fuck now, and go after whoever you choose."

He looked in the direction Kelly was walking. "I should go after her?"

"I'd have thought."

He nodded, but kept standing there.

"So go," Bec said.

"You didn't have to do that," Rob said.

"Yeah I did. She'll change her mind now."

Rob looked at her.

"You might know her, but I know her too. She'll change her mind now I want you. Or she won't, and then at least you'll know where you're at. One way or the other. Then you can get on with whatever."

Rob seemed to be thinking.

"Whatever like me," Bec said. "For instance."

Rob nodded.

"But she'll change her mind," Bec said. "Now someone else wants you. Now I do."

Rob stood there a moment longer, then said, "Thank you."

Then he ran after Kelly.

Bec lay back on the hay and felt its scratchy points jabbing through her shirt. She breathed in the musty dry grass smell, and waited where she was for a while, until Kelly and Rob had time to talk.

She wanted to pretend all she'd done was push Kelly and Rob together, but it wasn't true. She'd wanted to flirt, and wanted to get laid, and this was really for her as much as Rob. A convenient way to tidy everything up without it getting awkward.

She tried to decide if she was selfish or not, and actually wasn't sure.

After a while, she sat up and looked around. Rob and Kelly were over by the old sheds, talking. Kelly didn't seem angry any more, and Rob didn't seem too hopeless. After a while they went inside, so Bec went for a walk down to the road and back, to give Kelly time to calm down.

An hour or so later, when Bec went back inside, Kelly said she was going drop Rob back to his family's place.

She said it looking at Bec.

Bec was pretty sure Kelly was angry still, and that there'd be some shit when Kelly got back, but Kelly and Rob left together and his face didn't look like someone who was being let down.

"What did you do?" Bec's mum said, as Kelly and Rob drove away.

"Nothing."

"Bec?"

"I didn't. I just pushed a little."

Her mum nodded, and watched the car disappear down the drive. Bec watched too, until there was dust out on the road, and she knew they'd actually gone.

She was a little disappointed. She'd hoped they'd stop among the old pines. Maybe it was too soon for that.

The big family Christmas dinner in a few days time might not be much fun, but Bec was fairly sure she'd done the right thing. She would stay outside as much as possible, and Rob wouldn't be here, not now he didn't need to mope after Kelly, and his absence would probably calm things down.

And after that, everything would be all right. Bec didn't see Kelly very often, not any more, only for the holidays. There'd be most a year for everything to calm down.

She'd done the right thing, Bec decided, and she'd got laid too, so everything was good.

She just hoped Kelly wasn't going to shout too much when she got back tonight.