A Boy's Last Summer Pt. 02

“Loving every minute of it. It’s going to be a shame in a couple of weeks when Roger, Pete, and George go off to school.”

“I’ll still be around, and so will David and Heather.”

“I’m glad not all my friends are abandoning me,” he said, laughing.

“Yeah...friends,” echoed Stacie unhappily.

“How about you? Is this trip everything you were hoping it would be?”

“Oh...It’s been great...really...exciting...” said Stacie distractedly.

“Is everything alright with you? You seem a little...I don’t know...off?”

“I’m fine...It’s just...”

“Just what? Did I do something wrong? Too many short jokes?”

“I don’t mind the jokes, Chris. It’s just...Do you ever...I mean have you ever...thought of me as anything more than just a friend?”

Chris wrinkled his brow, “I...Uh...Well...I never thought...”

“Never thought what?” she pressed as he struggled with his words.

“I guess I never thought you would be interested in me that way. I mean you’re so smart and sweet, and I’m just a big, dumb jock.”

“I don’t think you’re dumb. I think you’re brilliant and kind and funny.”

“Really? I didn’t know you held me in such high regard.”

“Well, now you do you big dumb jock.”

He laughed, making her smile even bigger.

“I just noticed something.”

“What’s that?” asked Stacie, trying not to shake nervously in Chris’s arms.

“I just noticed that you have gorgeous eyes.”

“You like my eyes?” she said in a quiet voice, feeling a burst of warmth spread through her stomach.

“I don’t suppose when we get back to the city you would like to go out sometime? Like get some dinner and hang out?”

“Are you asking me on a date?”

“Yeah...Yeah. I’m asking you out. What do you think?”

“I think I would really like that, Chris.”

They turned slowly with the rhythm of the music, and Chris drew Stacie in tighter to him, letting her rest her head on his muscular chest. She caught sight of Roxy and David on the edge of the dance floor and gave Roxy a thumbs up.

“I think I’m going to cry,” said Roxy.

“Look at you playing Cupid. It’s about time, those two have been dodging each other since middle school,” observed David.

“Romance is in the air,” said Roxy.

David looked into his girlfriend’s beautiful eyes and began to lean in to taste her soft lips when a hand suddenly descended onto his shoulder.

“David, we got a problem!” said George.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Pete. You better come on.”

Roxy and David followed George back through the crowd, and he led them along the far wall of the room to a door they hadn’t noticed before. It opened into what turned out to be a game room with pool tables in the middle and pinball machines down one side. Pete was standing near one of the pool tables surrounded by a group of angry-looking bikers with Todd front and center.

“What’s going on?” asked David.

“What’s going on is your buddy here just lost and owes me a hundred bucks but doesn’t want to pay up!” said Todd in a low, angry voice.

“Is that right, Pete?”

“I think this is all a big misunderstanding. I thought we were playing a dollar a game.”

“It was a dollar a ball, Kid.”

“Yeah, that was the part I might have missed.”

David pulled Pete aside with Roxy joining them.

“I swear I don’t know what happened. I was up two games, and that Todd guy couldn’t play for shit, and then all of a sudden he turns into a can’t miss machine.”

“Pete...Jesus. I wish I had known you were back here. I could have warned you. Todd hustles pool all the time. It’s one of the few things he’s still good at besides drinking. It’s the way he makes beer money when he hasn’t got a job,” said Roxy.

“Shit! Well, still, I promise they didn’t say anything about it being a dollar a ball. At least I don’t think they did, that Todd talks really fast.”

“Is this a private conversation or can anyone jump in?” said Todd joining the group.

“Dammit, Todd! What are you doing hustling some kid? Isn’t this low even for you?”

“Hey, now! No one held a gun to his head! He danced, and now he’s got to pay the piper.”

“See the thing is I don’t actually have a hundred bucks...”

“Well...Now, that is a problem,” said Todd with a hint of menace in his voice.

“Oh! For God’s sake, Todd. Let the kid off.”

“Honestly, I would for you, Roxy, but the thing is I can’t be seen to back down in front of my crew if you catch my drift.”

The rather dangerous-looking men still standing by the pool table made for an intimidating sight.

“If I had the money I would give it to you I swear!”

Todd was just about to say something, but Roxy cut him off.

“I’ll pay for him.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I’ll get you the money.”

“Fine. But the kid stays here until you bring it back.”

Roxy headed for the door, but David caught her before she got there.

“Where are you going?”

“I left my wallet in the tent,” she explained.

David looked nervously back at the bikers and then at Roxy.

“I’ll go get it. I think it would be better if you stay here with Pete. You have a better chance of keeping him safe from Todd until I get back.”

Roxy pursed her lips in thought but realized that David was probably right.

“It’s in my pack in the tent in a pocket on the right side. Hurry back...”

“I will. George can stay with you too.”

“Great...I might get that rumble yet,” said George with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

“Just don’t take too long, and we should be fine,” said Roxy.

*

David moved as swiftly as he dared through the darkened woods holding his flashlight in front of him. The trail was easy to follow, but the ground could be uneven, and he didn’t want to fall on his face. The campground was practically deserted with just about everyone up at the pavilion, and he was thrilled when he finally spotted the familiar tents. Just as Roxy had said, her wallet was in her pack, and he stuffed it into his jacket pocket zipping up the tent as he backed out.

“Fancy meeting you here,” said Heather from behind, startling him into dropping his flashlight.

She turned up the light on the lantern that Chris had left on the picnic table just enough to illuminate the clearing.

“Crap! Heather, you scared me! Where did you come from?”

“I saw you were leaving the hall, and I followed you. I’ve been hoping to get you alone all weekend so we could talk.”

“Look, this isn’t a good time, Pete sort of got himself into a mess.”

“Do you remember when we went on that hayride at the Halloween Fair the fall after we hooked up for the first time?” she asked, ignoring what he had been saying.

“Halloween Fair? Yeah...I remember. What about it?”

“It was a cool night outside, and you told me the best way to warm up on a cool night was with a kiss.”

“Did I say that? Man, that was pretty lame. What can I say I was just a kid at the time. Anyway, I need too...”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about us lately, David. I figured if I gave you some time with Roxy, you would start to see.”

“Start to see what?”

“That she wasn’t right for you. I mean I get it, she’s hot as heck. I can see why you would get sucked in by that, but at the end of the day, you will never have with her what you and I had. What we could still have...”

“Heather, we’ve had this conversation once already.”

“I remember, and you said that we both had a lot to learn. Well...I’ve learned, David. I can see what you want now, and I can be that for you. You never wanted the girl next door, did you? No...You wanted something more.”

Heather rose from the table and started walking toward David, closing the distance.

“Heather...What are you doing?”

“It’s o.k. I’m not angry. You just got tired. I can understand that having to look at the same boring girl day after day. I didn’t keep things interesting enough for you, but I think we can both see that I’ve fixed that problem.”

David froze not quite believing what he was seeing as Heather reached up and pulled the zipper down on her jacket. Apparently, she had taken the time to remove her shirt and bra, because when the zipper hit bottom, and the two halves fluttered open it was nothing but bare skin underneath.

He squinted in the low light.

“Um...When did you get your...Uh...you know?” he said, waving at her naked chest.

“My nipples pierced? Do you like them?”

She reached up to lift her firm young tits in her hands the skin of her dark pink nipples bisected by shiny gold.

“It’s...um...Wow...different...” said David struggling for words.

“It excites you, doesn’t it? I know you still want me, David. I’ve seen the way you’ve been reacting to my new look all weekend, and I’m glad because I did it for you. I wanted to be the sexy woman you deserve.”

“Heather...It wasn’t...I mean you look great....but honestly...”

“My stylist picked this lipstick for me. She said it would make my lips look luscious with this hair color. What do you think?”

“I think she did her job,” admitted David.

Heather moved right up to him seeming to melt out of the semi-darkness, her bright blue eyes flashing in the light of the lantern.

“It’s o.k for you to feel them. I know you want too...” she said, suddenly grabbing his hand and pulling it to her chest.

“Holy shit,” whispered David, so caught by surprise, he couldn’t stop what was happening. Her breast did feel wonderful, all warm and silky soft, but with a hint of cold hardness where the metal of her piercing rubbed on his palm.

“I want you so bad right now, David. I swear I’ve never been this wet in my whole life, and I did what you always wanted me to do. I shaved it bare just for you...” she said, leaning close enough to whisper those last words in his ear.

“Jesus...Heather...” said David, his voice cracking badly.

Her head moved down, and he felt her kiss his neck, her slick lips rubbing on his pulsing jugular. A hand was suddenly between his legs, and she squeezed his cock through his pants.

“Damn...You’re so hard...I knew you wanted me. Take me right now...Fuck me, David...Fuck me hard and deep...Make me yours again,” she begged.

It would be so easy. Three moves, less if he didn’t care about ripping her panties, and he would be inside her again. His whole body was screaming at him to do it. Once again, to feel Heather’s legs wrapped around him, that now slick, bare pussy squeezing his throbbing cock. She was so beautiful, so sexy, so ready for him. There was only one problem...she wasn’t Roxy.

His hands dropped downward toward Heather’s pants, and she tensed ready for him to unbutton them, rip them off her, carry her to the table.

Only his hands didn’t stop at her pants. They continued down to grasp the two halves of her unzipped jacket, fitting them back to each other and carefully zipping it shut again.

“This isn’t going to happen, Heather. I’m sorry. You will always be in my heart, always be my friend, but I don’t want you...not like this...”

He turned abruptly and brushed past her heading off up the trail.

“David! Wait!” called Heather, who took off after him.

The tension in the room was almost palatable, and Roxy had taken to standing between Pete and the assembled bikers in case any of them got any ideas. She glanced down at her watch, wondering what was keeping David.

He should have been back by now.

The door to the room opened, and David appeared with Heather right by his side.

Roxy grabbed the wallet out of David’s hand and turned back to Todd, opening it and counting out the money.

“There! Are we square?”

Todd looked at the cash in his hands and back up at his ex-wife.

“Sure...You win, Roxy. Just like always.”

He left the room with the rest of his crew following behind.

“Come on, Pete. I think you’ve had enough billiards for tonight. How about a lemonade?” offered George, pulling his friend by the arm.

Roxy turned back to her boyfriend, “What took so long? I was starting to worry.”

“I ran into a little trouble...” David started to say, but Roxy was wrinkling her forehead as she came closer to him. She reached up and wiped her fingers on his neck, looking at the shiny color that came off his skin.

A color that matched the lipstick Heather was wearing.

“I think I can see the trouble you ran into...Son of a bitch!” snapped Roxy pushing past David and heading out of the room.

“Roxy! Wait! Please...” called David following in her wake.

His girlfriend was like a bull in a china shop, pushing past people in an effort to make the door with David trying desperately to close the distance.

He reached her just as she hit the wooden walkway out front of the pavilion managing to pull her to a halt.

“Roxy, if you would listen to me! I swear to you nothing happened. I mean clearly something happened, but I stopped it before it went anywhere.”

“How did you stop it exactly? Did you hold her face to your neck until she surrendered?”

“It wasn’t like that...”

“I thought I could trust you, David! After all you know about me and what I’ve been through how could you...How could you do this to me!?”

“I didn’t do anything. I promise you, Roxy. Let’s go back to camp and talk.”

“You know how much you sound like Todd right now? How many excuses I’ve had to listen to in my life? I swore I’d never put myself through that kind of shit again!”

“I’m not Todd. That’s not fair of you to put me in the same category as him. I’ve never given you one reason to doubt my feelings for you.”

“Until tonight!” she shouted, trying to turn away, but David held tight to her arm.

“No! Not even tonight! Yes, Heather came on to me back at camp, and she tried to get me to sleep with her, but I pushed her away. I didn’t want her, Roxy. You’re the only woman I want.”

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why do you want to be with me? What about me makes you want to stay because I don’t see it? I’m quick to judge and filled with all this distrust and anger. Hell! Maybe you are telling the truth right now! I don’t know, and a part of me doesn’t care. This is the kind of crap I was staying away from...you open yourself up, and you leave your heart bare to getting broken all over again.”

Tears were flowing freely down her face now, and David let her arm drop free.

“This isn’t about me, is it?”

“I should go...I want to go home, David. You deserve to be with someone who has something more to offer you than a nice body. Someone you can start fresh with without all the crap that would weigh us down,” she said in a quiet, defeated voice.

“You think you have nothing to offer? Roxy, that’s the biggest load of horse shit I’ve ever heard!”

She looked up shocked at the anger in his tone, an anger she had never heard from him before in the time they had been together.

“You don’t see yourself the way I do. Do you know what I see when I look at you? I see the woman who watched out for me at the plant and protected me from the other guys. I see the woman that was willing to face her fear to help me mend my broken heart and ended up being the cure for it. I see a woman that has never let her problems keep her down. Who put herself through school so she could give her daughter a good life, and worked her way up to managing her department when she was only twenty-nine. A woman that was willing to open her life up to me when she had no reason to believe I was more than a kid with a crush and gave me a chance to prove her wrong. You’re brave, selfless, intelligent, and kind. I can’t imagine a woman I would rather be with than you, but maybe you’re right, maybe you can’t see that and never will.”

David reached into his pocket, jerking his car keys out and tossing them at Roxy’s feet.

“There! Go! I can get a ride back with Chris, but you remember this much, I wasn’t the one who quit on us!”

He turned abruptly and headed up the walkway, making a sharp left and passing a sign that read “Harlow Trail,” his feet picking up speed as he went.

Roxy watched him go with a blank expression, bending down to pick up the keys at her feet.

“David!” she shouted, starting after him.

“I would let him go if I were you,” said Heather.

Roxy rounded on the smaller woman, “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough. I would let him go. David doesn’t lose his temper often, but it’s better to let him cool off when he does. He’ll be ready to talk when he gets back.”

Heather didn’t wait for an answer, but turned and went inside the pavilion leaving Roxy alone in the dark.

“Dammit...” said Roxy.

*

The trail wasn’t hard to follow now that the moon was out, and David only had to use his flashlight intermittently. He practically knew this one by heart anyway, and his feet seemed to find their footing on their own without much conscious intervention. It wound around the edge of the river and eventually brought him back to the place where he and his friends had been diving that very morning. The trail continued past, and he walked on moving upward now toward a patch of high rocky ground that folks had nicknamed, “Lookout Point,” it was as good a place as any to do some thinking and clear his head. He had fully expected to have the place to himself with most everyone down at the pavilion, so he was surprised when he rounded the bend to find a man standing at the edge smoking a cigarette.

“Sorry...I didn’t think anyone else would be up here,” said David to the shadowy figure.

“Huh? Would you look at that! I guess great minds think alike,” said Todd turning around.

“Fuck me...” thought David to himself, “What did I do to deserve this day?”

The two men regarded each other across the distance.

“I was looking for some privacy,” said David simply, not wanting to have a drawn-out conversation with Todd.

He started to turn around.

“What’s a matter? You get into it with Roxy?”

David’s step faltered, and he looked back at Todd thrown by his accurate analysis of the situation.

The other man caught the look on David’s face and smiled.

“I could have guessed. I used to try and put some distance between her and me when she was pissed, spent a fair bit of time looking for a quiet place myself.”

“It wasn’t like that exactly. We had a disagreement, but I think I was the angry one,” admitted David, not sure why he was bothering to explain things.

Todd nodded, took another drag on his cigarette, and looked out at the view of the forest below.

“So you came up here to clear your head? This would be a good place to do it. A man can stand here and get lost in this view. I wish the apartment Roxy and I used to live in had sported a view like this one.”

When David didn’t respond, Todd reached inside his jacket and pulled out a flask offering it to him first. David shook his head, but Todd didn’t seem offended by the gesture just pausing to take a drink himself shaking a little as the alcohol burned its way down his throat.

“Shit! That’s got some kick! You’re probably smart to decline.”

“I don’t drink,” said David.

“Good...It’s best not to start. It can get you by the throat and never let go.”

“Is this where I’m supposed to start feeling sorry for you?”

“Ouch! You got a little Roxy in you, don’t you? Ha! That’s o.k. it almost makes me nostalgic to hear your sarcasm.”

David didn’t know what to say to that and pushed his hands into his pockets, taking a few steps closer to the edge to get a better view of the valley.

“I’m not looking for your pity, Kid. I’ll offer you this much though, whatever her faults Roxy was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I fucked it up plain and simple.”

“I honestly don’t care about your sob story right now, Todd, no offense, but I’ve got my own troubles.”

Todd took another drink from his flask eying the younger man.

“I’ll just bet you do. What’s wrong? Roxy forget to put milk in your cereal?”

“If that was supposed to be a crack about our age difference, you should try harder.”

“Can’t be easy though you just a kid and all, and her a grown woman with all her responsibilities.”