Lottie and Tom Ch. 01

I smiled back. "You'll do fine, mum."

She smiled in response. I knew that smile well. It said 'I know I'm going to ace it.' She was always too modest to say the actual words. "Your father and I will probably be home late tonight. He's taking me out for dinner to either celebrate or commiserate."

"Most likely celebrate." I butted in as she paused.

She smiled that signature smile again, before looking at me seriously. "It'll mean you're going to have to fend for yourself I'm afraid."

"Mum!" I complained, "I'm 18. I can look after myself!"

She raised an eyebrow. "I've seen your attempts at looking after yourself. God help you in September when you go off to university." I pulled a face but said nothing. "So I've left some money on the table in the hallway – next to the phone. It should be plenty so feel free to invite a friend round. Lottie, perhaps?" She smiled at me.

"What?" I accused.

"Don't you mean 'pardon'?" My mum said sharply.

"No I mean 'what'." I said, "As in, what was that smile for?"

"What smile, honey?" She said in a very motherly tone accompanied by another smile. But before I could press the issue her phone buzzed on the table. She checked it quickly. "Shit! Is that the time already? Christ I need to go." She jumped up from the table, threw her phone into her handbag and flung it over her shoulder in one smooth action. She crossed the room, bent down and kissed my cheek quickly. "Would you mind doing the washing up, dear? Thank you."

And with that she was gone. I heard the door slam a couple of seconds later and her car rev to life in the driveway. Through the window I saw it back out onto the road and then she was gone, leaving me in blissful silence. I looked at the clock on the wall above the cooker. 08:37. For five minutes or so I sat there not knowing what to do with myself. Lottie wouldn't be around for at least 2 hours and I wasn't really that hungry. I refilled my mum's glass with orange juice and downed it before quickly doing the washing up. It wasn't much, just a couple of plates and glasses. Then I went for a shower.

I let the water run for a few minutes as I went to the toilet so that when I stepped into the spray it was perfect temperature. I didn't do anything immediately. I just let my mind wander as the water cascaded over my body. It felt nice and I was in no rush.

It wasn't long before my thoughts strayed to Lottie and our conversation last night. Christ! I'd have to explain myself to her. I felt sure that the first thing she was going to ask about was those texts. I could feel myself blushing just thinking about it. I needed a distraction. Luckily as a man, I come equipped with the right tools for just that. I didn't go out of my way to think about Lottie as I jacked off, I just went with the first thing that came to mind – which was her. After cumming on the tiles I washed them down quickly with the shower before setting about washing myself. Ten or so minutes later, I was wrapped up in a nice clean towel and after patting the top half of my body dry I unlocked the door and padded out to my room.

The way my room is laid out is that when the door is open, the desk and my chair are concealed behind it. If you just stare into my room, you don't see them. I walked into my room and didn't bother closing the door. Why did I need to? I was the only one home. I walked over to my chest of drawers and sprayed myself with deodorant as I looked out of the window. It was a glorious day. The sun was out and I couldn't see a single cloud. I stretched and undid the towel from my waist. Letting it fall away behind me until I just held it in my hands.

"Ahem."

I span around to see Lottie sat in my chair staring at me with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Fuck! Lottie!" I breathed, trying to stop my heart from bursting out of my chest. "What-? How long have you been here?!" I demanded. Luckily as the towel was still in my hands it was covering my private parts. I quickly wrapped it back around myself.

She shrugged and made no attempt to hide her wandering gaze as she looked me up and down. "Not long. About 5 minutes. I used the spare backdoor key your parents hide in that old dog kennel. Clearly I came at just the right time."

"I err..." I honestly did not know what to say to her. She wouldn't stop staring. "I thought you weren't coming round 'til later?"

"Oh yeah." She shrugged, "I was going to have a lie in but I woke up early." I shouldn't have been surprised. Lottie and I were often on the same wavelengths. "Anyway," she said brightly, as if this were a perfectly normal situation. "What do you fancy doing today?"

My composure came back. "You want to talk about that now? I'm practically naked!"

She shrugged. "No more naked than you will be later."

"What?" I asked, confused.

She stood up and started slowly walking towards me. She was wearing another one of her floaty dresses; but I didn't recognise this one. It went to just below her knees but had a lower neckline than the one she had worn yesterday, showing off just a hint of cleavage. "We should go swimming!"

I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Urgh! Do we have to?"

She kept on coming towards me and I took a couple of steps back until I felt myself cornered by the chest of drawers. She walked right up to me so that our faces were only inches away. Her body was touching mine through the towel. I was both turned on and terrified of getting an erection at the same time. Thank goodness I'd had that wank in the shower.

"You said that we could do anything so long as we spent the day together." She pouted.

"I did..." I conceded slowly.

"And look!" She pulled the neckline of her dress down, revealing more of herself to me. "I'm already wearing my bikini."

I had to look. And she was indeed wearing her bikini, but I didn't see that. I saw everything else. Her boobs looked amazing. "I... I err..." Was all I could get out of my mouth.

She fluttered her big green emerald eyes at me. "Pleaaaaase?" She dragged the word out.

I didn't know where to look. She still held her dress down, giving me a great view of her full tits, and her face was so innocent. My heart was doing somersaults in my chest. "Fine," I huffed out in the best 'I'm not happy about this' voice as I could muster. "If it's what you want."

"Eek, thank you!" She let go of her top and hugged me tight. I didn't know what to do so I just stood there for a second. I could feel my cock growing and I hoped to god that the towel was thick enough to stop her feeling it too. She let go of me and backed away a few steps, before turning and walking to the door. She stopped and looked back at me, "And honey, you have no idea what I want. Don't keep me waiting too long." Then she disappeared down the hall and I heard her skip down the stairs as she hummed to herself.

I collapsed on my bed. What the hell had just happened?! I processed our brief encounter while I waited for the tent I'd unwillingly erected to go down. It took much longer than it should have done considering I had just unloaded not ten minutes previous. I just couldn't get the image of her pulling her top down for me out of my head. Even if that was all that happened today. It had been productive in my eyes.

I dressed quickly. Opting to wear my swimming shorts under normal shorts so that I wouldn't have to change when we got to the pool. I found a towel and wrapped some boxers and shower gel up inside it then wandered downstairs to get a carrier bag. Lottie was waiting casually by the front door like the events upstairs never happened. The rucksack she usually used for college was lazily hanging off one shoulder.

"Where are you going?" She asked as I turned away from her and headed for the kitchen.

"To get a bag." I stopped and answered slowly, as if her question was wholly unnecessary.

She jumped forward and grabbed the stuff out of my hands. "Don't bother," She said as she swung her rucksack off of her shoulder, unzipped it and stowed my towel away inside. As she looked up at me, she clearly felt the need to explain herself, "well, I don't see the point of taking two bags when it will all fit in mine. I can just give you your stuff when we get there."

I shrugged. Her logic made sense. "Okay. Let's go." I grabbed the money my mum had left on the side for me and put it in my wallet. Then we left. It was only a short 10 minute walk to the pool from my house so we elected not to take a car as the weather was so lush. We made idle small talk but I could sense there was something on her mind.

"Lottie, are you alright?" I was a little concerned after a pause in our conversation.

"What?" She said as if snapping out of a daydream. "Oh, yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, I've decided to be considerate."

I could tell she was hastily trying to change the subject by the way she said 'anyway', but not to be pushy I let it go. She would tell me in her own time. "Do enlighten me."

"Well although we are going to the pool. I don't plan on swimming for that long. Maybe half an hour tops. Then I thought we could go to the health suite? Sit in the steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi for a while." She looked at me sceptically, trying to gauge whether or not she had won me over. Seemingly she must not have been certain as she added, "It'll be really good for our skin."

I was already won over. Half an hour of swimming I could handle if I got to sit in a Jacuzzi afterwards. Especially if I got to look at her while I was in it. That sounded like time well spent to me. "Sounds good to me, babe." I said without thinking. I stopped horrified and looked at her. It was one thing to say it over text but another thing completely to say it in person. She had stopped too and was staring at me. She didn't look angry or upset. She was just studying my face. "I'm sorry," I said quietly, probably much later than I should have. "That just slipped out."

"No. It's fine." She replied, her features unreadable. She motioned with her head, "shall we continue?"

"Yeah." I muttered and we continued walking, but this time in a stony, awkward silence. I couldn't believe one word had so much of an impact. I peeked at her in my peripheral vision constantly but her features were odd. She seemed conflicted. Great. I thought to myself. She's onto me already and is trying to think of some way of letting me down without ruining our friendship. We didn't speak for the rest of the journey; she was deep in thought and I trying to think of every variation of the phrase 'fucking idiot'.

When we arrived, we paid for entry to the pool and health suite and got changed quickly. We put our clothes in the same locker and I strapped the key to my wrist. We conversed minimally, and she gave me a small fleeting smile before we went swimming on our own. She is a much better swimmer than I am. Although I can do every stroke except the butterfly – seriously, who does that? – I prefer to do either the front crawl or breaststroke at a slow leisurely pace, whereas Lottie goes off like a bullet from a gun.

I swam around sullenly for about twenty minutes, not really in the mood anymore before I sloped off to the health suite. It was a password protected room. When you paid they gave you the four digit code which you entered into an iPad set into the wall, the screen changed from yellow to green, (or from yellow to red if you got it wrong) and the door opened.

I headed for the steam room first. Figuring that I would go in there, then to the sauna, then finally to the Jacuzzi. The latter being where I would spend most of my time. After about five minutes I had developed a nice sheen of sweat on my skin and was just contemplating moving onto the sauna when the door opened and Lottie walked in. She sat down opposite me.

"Hi." She said as she sat. She had her long legs pressed firmly together and her arms by her sides, gripping onto the long marble bench that ran around the small room, acting as the seat.

"Hi," I replied. Trying to put as much effort into not sounding depressed as I could. She didn't say anything else and we sat in an awkward silence for several seconds before I could no longer bear it. "Look, about what I said before. I'm sor –"

"Don't!" She half shouted, taking me by surprise. She clearly shocked herself as well because as she continued, her voice was much more level. "Don't say anything. Let's just sit in each other's company for a bit without talking."

I nodded my reply and we sat there for what seemed a long time but in reality was probably only a few minutes. In that time she never took her eyes off of me. They studied me with their emerald green stare as her hands idly played with her red hair – now slightly darker as the wetness plastered it down over her left shoulder. I tried to figure out what she was thinking but the steam was making it hard for me to read her face too clearly. It really was quite thick.

Eventually I'd had enough and broke the silence. "Wanna go to the sauna?" She nodded and we got up, I held the door for her and we walked into the main room of the health suite. The cool air felt glorious on my skin and as we passed the Jacuzzi I couldn't help but stare at her back. The way it arched down beautifully and disappeared into her bottoms as it morphed into her ass. Her hips swayed hypnotically. Had she always walked like that? I didn't know but my eyes were glued to her ass. She looked over her shoulder as we reached the door to the sauna and caught me staring. I immediately raised my gaze but she didn't chastise me. There were many emotions in those eyes but anger, irritation or annoyance weren't among them, and as she turned back to walk in before me, I could've sworn I saw the ghost of a smile on her cheek.

The sauna was much hotter. The temperature gauge read almost 80oC. I didn't know about Lottie but I wasn't going to be able to sit in there for long. The benches were made of wood this time – like real benches, but they were so hot to my skin. Almost scaldingly so. Again we didn't speak much, but because the air was thick and muggy to breathe I didn't mind so much. I did enjoy ogling her though when she closed her eyes. Her legs were athletic, toned and shapely and her stomach although bunched up as she sat, barely had any fat on it at all. But my eyes were mainly drawn to her breasts, in her current position, they looked magnificent. I could trace every curve with my eyes. In that moment she was the most beautiful, exquisite creature I had ever seen.

The clock on the wall said we had been in there 7 minutes. Which I thought was pretty good going and was about to suggest we get out when Lottie opened her eyes and spoke. "Fuck me, I've got to get out of here!"

"I'm so glad you said that." I said relieved. "I was only in here this long because you were and I didn't want to seem like a pussy."

She laughed at this and we left. Her laughter was like medicine to my soul and I felt ten times better already. As we got into the Jacuzzi, the water was both warm and soothing on my skin. Lottie pressed the button for bubbles and within seconds we were surrounded by bubbles and jets of pulsing water pummelled our bodies. It was bliss. As I sat opposite her, I decided I couldn't man up for the silence anymore and had to talk to her.

"Lottie," I said, grabbing her attention. Her eyelids fluttered open and she looked at me. I swallowed. "I just want my best friend back."

She frowned at me, confused. "I'm right here."

"You know what I mean." I started, knowing it was now or never to confront the issue between us. "We've been distant lately. I don't just mean this morning but over the last few weeks and months I've really started to notice it. It feels like I'm losing my best friend."

"We have had a serious amount of work with our A level exams." She conceded. "And don't worry about this morning. You're a goof but you're my goof."

"Is that really all it is?" I said, unable to keep the disappointment from my voice. In the sauna I thought I had worked her out. That I had finally put the puzzle pieces together from the last few months and seen the big picture that was Lottie's inner thoughts and secrets. Perhaps I was wrong and perhaps it would strain our friendship too much, but I had to know.

"What is it?" She asked, suddenly worried.

Knowing her as I did, it would be much easier and much less time consuming to act physically. With my heart beating at 100 miles an hour I pushed off of the Jacuzzi wall and slowly crossed the small space between us. Her legs were pressed together but as I approached I gently guided my hands between them and spread them apart. She offered no resistance. I knelt in front of her, with my stomach touching the inner thigh of each leg and paused.

Her eyes danced in front of me as I gazed at her. In that moment, a bomb could have gone off in the room next door and I wouldn't have noticed. She was my entire world. I gently placed my hands on her waist and leaned in closer until we were as close as we had been that morning in my room.

"Tom, I'm scared." She said softly, her voice full of confliction.

"Me too." I whispered.

Then I leaned in the final few inches and kissed her. And a split second later she kissed me back. It was a soft kiss, but heavy with tenderness and affection. As if the entire 14 years we had known each other was merely the build up to this moment. It filled me with a happiness that I had never experienced before. With exceptional will power, I withdrew back a few inches to stare at her face. Her eyes were closed and she had a look of pure bliss on her face. After a moment she opened her eyes.

"Wow!"

I grinned. That was exactly my thoughts. "Still scared?"

"Like you wouldn't believe!"

"I know right?" My heart was going like a jack hammer but I could also feel her pulse racing.

She threw her arms around me and kissed me again. I leaned into her once more. This time she was more forceful. More adventurous and passionate. Her tongue flitted across my lips and I parted them to allow her access. I felt her tongue invade my mouth. Exploring it for the first time. I let her do her own thing for another few seconds before engaging her with mine. She retreated and it was my turn to explore her lips and mouth. Her tongue was warm and velvety and up for anything that I could give her. We jousted together like that, going back and forth between her mouth and mine before I eventually broke it off and came up for air.

Neither of us moved. Her sat there with her legs spread wide and me kneeling between them. Both panting hard. I grinned at her and to my surprise I saw tears start streaking from her face. "Lottie!" I felt my eyes go wide as I panicked. "You're crying!"

She laughed. "I know, stupid!" She untangled an arm from me and wiped her face before looking at me again. She laughed for a second time. "It's just... I've waited for this for so long you wouldn't even believe and now..." She trailed off. "I mean we..."

"What?" I asked her as butterflies suddenly took flight inside my stomach, knowing finally that she felt the same way.

She laughed again and tears streamed down her face. "I've fantasised literally hundreds of scenarios of you finally realising how I feel about you. But none of them were in a Jacuzzi."

"Well I hope it lives up to your imagination." I chuckled.

She shook her head. "It's ten times, no a hundred times better than all of them." She threw her arms around me and pulled me tight to her. Although she had hugged me thousands of times before this one felt different. As if it were our first real embracing hug. I moved my hands around her back and hugged her tight.

"Is this why you have been distant for so long?" I whispered into her ear. I felt her nod next to me. "Well," I said softly, "You don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm right here." She squeezed me tighter and it was some time before I disentangled myself from her. I moved back so that I had a clear view of her head and shoulders. We had definitely been there a while as the parts of her hair that were out of the water had started to dry. "So," I said casually, "does this mean I get my best friend back."