The Girl Next Door

Nera's voice called over to me as I made my way up the driveway. I lifted my eyes up toward the waist-high hedge divide between my family's house and our neighbours to see her standing before it on our side, smiling that full and familiar smile that always made my heart flutter even after all the years we'd known one another.

"Don't forget to remind your mum to bring the potato salad to the barbecue tonight!" she yelled before leaping gracefully over the hedge, her rear foot barely grazing the top of the rough foliage.

She landed like she had done this a hundred times before, which she had, and turned striking a bicep flexing pose and sticking her tongue out in my direction.

"Yeah, and I'll bring over a helmet and a first aid kit just to be safe!" I replied, taking out my headphones and taking a few steps onto the lawn towards her, adjusting the bag on my shoulder in the process. "I know your dad must go through them like wildfire."

She flipped me the bird on both hands before backing up towards her house. "See you at seven, loser!"

"See you then, punk!"

And with that she turned and skipped up her front steps and into the house, her dirty blonde hair bobbing from left to right the whole way. I took a deep breath and shoved my headphones in my jean's pocket. That girl, I thought to myself. I'm going to miss her.

"I'm home," I sung out as I closed the front door behind me and went about removing my shoes.

"Hi, Joe," my mom's voice echoed back to me. "I'm just about to jump in the shower, I'll be down in a little while. Remember we're going next door to Steve and Nera's for dinner."

"I know," I said to myself as I walked into the kitchen for a glass of water before heading upstairs.

The stairs creaked with each step as I climbed them, and when I reached the second floor a question came to mind.

"What did Nera want, mom?" I called down the hall, knowing my mother had a habit of never closing the bathroom door.

"She wanted to ask what meats we'd like for the barbecue, and to drop off a gift for you. I left it on your bed."

Huh.

I continued down to the other end of the hall where my bedroom was. And sure enough, sitting in the middle of the bed was a square shaped box wrapped in blue wrapping paper. I threw my bag lightly on the carpet, dug out my headphones and phone, placed them on my desk, and then slumped onto the bed. Picking up the gift and turning it in my hands, I frowned. Nera definitely wrapped this, because it was done so terribly. But it's rare to receive a gift from her on a birthday let alone something like this. I tore off the wrapping paper to reveal a jumbo box of condoms. Wow. I could feel my face get a little flushed. I hope mom doesn't know she got me this, I thought to myself. The last thing I need is an awkward talk with mom about sex before I leave. I put the box in my closet behind a sports bag. I slid the closet door closed and stared at my reflection in the mirror on the outside of it.

"Always giving me weird signals," I murmured out loud pulling off my shirt and jeans, and looking myself up and down.

I wasn't a bad looking guy, and I was tall and fit which left a good first impression on girls. Unfortunately I tended to ruin things when I opened my mouth. I just wasn't incredibly confident to say the least. Sigh, time to get ready for tonight.

"Honey, it's time to go! Can you carry the cooler? My hands are full with the wine and towels."

Of course your just taking over the necessities to make the most of their hot tub, I thought, rolling my eyes. "Yes, mom."

Nera's dad owned a really nice house and paid every expense to make a fun house for her to grow up in. After all it was only the two of them. Nera lost her mom at a very young age due to cancer, and her dad never remarried. Which I guess is why him and my mom got on so well. She having divorced my dad shortly after I was born, and over the years he ceased being a part of our lives altogether, but at least my mom got a generous payout for selling her half of the business they started together. Coming from broken homes, I suppose it was very natural that when my mom and I moved next door, Nera and I would become close friends.

Mom began twirling the bottle of wine she was holding after knocking, obviously in eager anticipation for the evening to get started. I rolled my eyes again when the door swung open widely and Steve stood there grinning with arms out, ready to give welcoming hugs in typical Steve fashion. Mom gave a little greeting cry and walked into his embrace, keeping her arms out holding the wine and towels to her sides.

"There's glasses already on the patio table, Helen. Go right through, I think the others have started without you."

"How impatient!" my mom exclaimed in fake irritation before she strutted her way into the house. Steve then turned to me with a big grin.

"The man himself!" he said, and gave me a firm but familiar hug and clapped my shoulder as he did. "Glad you could make it, Joe. I think Nera's in the pool, could you grab her for me? I need her to help with a few more things before she completely forgets she's supposed to be helping me host this thing."

"Sure thing," I said and motioned to the cooler in my hand.

"Put it on the kitchen counter and I'll take it from there."

I nodded and made my way through the house towards the backyard, passing the kitchen as I did.

I stepped out into the backyard to the sound of laughing voices. Mom was already deep into gossip with a few other neighbors and coworkers that Steve had invited around the patio table, a couple of their young kids were playing with toys together not far away. I waved at them when they called out to me, and continued down the grass towards the pool.

Nera was doing laps when I opened the gate and plopped myself down on a deck chair to watch her. I was always impressed by the way she glided through the water effortlessly. She'd always been a very athletic person and excelled in most sports she participated in. When we were younger she would always want to wrestle with me because she was two years older and had the upper hand, until I hit puberty and grew almost a full foot taller than her. After a few more laps I picked up a foam pool noodle lying beside the chair and tossed at her.

"Hey!" she cried out as it struck her perfectly on the head.

"Hi to you too," I responded with a smile.

She swam over to the pool ledge closest to me on top of which she places both her arms and rested her chin on them, looking up at me with mischief written all over her face.

"Are you coming in or do I have to drag you?"

I laughed. "Not yet. Your dad asked me to come get you for him."

"Lame!" she exclaimed, kicking her feet in the water in tantrum. "Can you at least help me out?" she asked, reaching towards me with both hands.

"Not a chance," I said knowingly.

"You're no fun," she sighed, before bracing her hands on the ledge and hoisting herself out.

Nera stood in front of me, glistening in the late afternoon sunlight with the water dripping from her slim but toned figure, her lightly tanned skin emphasizing the definition on her flat stomach, her perfect handful sized breasts clad in a navy blue bikini top and her firm ass, that made my cock stir, in matching bottoms. She was ringing out the excess water from her long dirty-blonde hair when I realized she was watching me watch her. Our eyes met and she had a strange look in hers.

Feeling the blood suddenly rush to me face, as it was beginning to elsewhere, I said "Wild night you guys have got planned out. Those kids look like real heavyweights in the drinking department," in an attempt to avoid any awkwardness.

She laughed and the strange look disappeared. "Sorry, but dad doesn't know any of your friends that well and you know how he is with inviting strangers into our house."

"They wouldn't be strangers to us," I mumbled. Then I glanced up at her and smiled. "But I actually wanted a small send off anyway."

She smiled back. "Good," she said, "now pass me one of those towels. I need to go make sure dad remembers there's more than just meat for dinner."

Over the next few hours I made small talk with the other adults and played cards and drank with them, just beer because I had to be in driving condition the following day.

When dinner was ready we all went inside to sit around the large dining table and, once everyone was seated, Steve stood at the head of the table, beer in hand, and said, "Thank you all for coming tonight. As most of you know, Joe here is leaving us tomorrow. Moving across the country to where he will be starting college in a few weeks time, studying medicine. And we're all very proud of him, especially Helen, who will be needing his expertise when her liver finally gives out."

Everyone laughed including my mom, who hadn't been without a glass in her hand all night.

"Shush, Steve, like you're any better!" my mum cried from her seat next to me.

I looked across the table at Nera, seated next to her dad, and shared a look of second-hand embarrassment. Steve shrugged and turned to me, raising his beer.

"To Joe," he said, "who is always welcome in my home, and who has always been like a son to me."

"To Joe," the group echoed with drinks raised.

I could feel my chest fill with gratitude, but I couldn't formulate the words, so I raised my own drink and nodded towards Steve in return.

He smiled knowingly before turning back towards everyone and saying, "Let's eat!"

Dinner was great and I spent most of the time filling in the other guests about my future studies and plans, and telling my mom to go easy on the wine. In between which I would steal occasional glances at Nera, still in her navy bikini but wearing an unbuttoned oversized white shirt over the top, and catch her looking at me while talking to someone else, that strange look in her eyes once again.

Soon after dinner it got dark and the temperature dropped so Steve brought out a fire pit for people to sit around in camp chairs, along with sticks and marshmallows for the novelty. I sat next to Nera, supervising the kids attempting to cook their marshmallows while we reminisced about old times. I watched her laughing in the firelight and I became mesmerized by the shadows that danced across the curves of her body. Her hand drew her beer up to her lips where she rested it, before lightly pushing it against her bottom lip and slowly rolling the tip across it. I blinked, moving my gaze up to meet her eyes. They were staring intensely into my own. I felt my face growing red yet again, and was thankful to the fire for hiding it.

"I-- I think my mom's having a bad influence on me," I laughed awkwardly.

She said nothing but took a drink from her beer, eyes still locked on mine. Trying to find a natural excuse to break the intense eye contact I looked down at my own now empty beer and turned it over, pretending to read the back of it for several moments.

"Why do you think our parents never got together?"

Huh.

I looked back up to see Nera now leaning forward on her knees, staring over the fire to where both my mom and her dad were talking and laughing.

"I'm not sure," I said slowly, not knowing where this topic was coming from but grateful to be talking about anything after she had caught me ogling her just now. "I guess they just became too good of friends before anything could happen."

She nodded and had another swig of her drink.

Now that I thought about it I recalled a few occasions when I heard her coming home at an odd hour after claiming she was going out without having taken the car anywhere, which was then followed by some odd behavior by Steve in the following days after. It wasn't my business though so I never brought it up.

"Is that why nothing ever happened between us?"

The question broke through my train of thought like a starting pistol. I whipped around to see her eyes staring at me once again, but with a hint of sadness that took me off guard.

"Well-- I-- we just-- I didn't want to ruin--"

I was cut off by a marshmallow hitting me square in the forehead. Nera had dropped her beer bottle and jumped to her feet giggling.

"I'm just teasing you, loser. That was too easy. Y'know college is gonna be hell if you're not careful," she said with a wry grin.

I stared at her, a little confused and hurt.

She held up two more marshmallows in her hand, one which she popped in her mouth and the other she tossed towards me, which caused me to drop my own beer in order to catch. "C'mon, the parents can watch the kids, let's jump in the pool before it gets any colder!"

And with that she took off running. I jumped to my feet, still a little confused, crammed the marshmallow into my mouth, and ran after her.

Nera had tossed her shirt over the back of a deck chair and dove into the pool by the time I came through the gate. She resurfaced, brushed her hair back with her hands and grinned at me.

"So slow. I wonder if you'll ever keep up with me." I flipped her the bird this time and then rested both hands on my hips.

"I don't mind if you're the brawn in this duo, but clearly that means I'm the brains."

She splashed water at me and I took a few steps back.

"Hey, you two!"

I turned around to see Steve smothering the fire pit, making a hand gesture towards the house.

"Everyone's going home. And I'm going to help your mother home, Joe. She's had a little too much fun," he called out. Looking past him I could see mom stumbling towards the house, thankfully without a glass in her hand for the first time the whole night.

I waved back in acknowledgment and turned around just in time to see Nera grab my arm and pull me, as hard as she could, into the pool.

Splash.

"Fuck, it's cold!" I yelled as my head broke through the surface.

"You're such a baby," she said, treading water next to me.

"You're lucky I don't have my phone on me," I responded with a hint of irritation.

"Or what?"

We stared at each other for a few seconds, floating only a couple of feet apart, silhouetted by the pool lights around us.

"Punk."

"Loser."

I splashed her, and she reached out and grabbed my shoulders, pushing me down. But my feet touched the bottom even before my head completely submerged, so I popped back up, smirking up at her as she gave a cry and giggled. I gripped her underneath her arms and pulled us both down. She squirmed but couldn't slip away. I then braced myself and pushed with my legs while simultaneously throwing her up and out into the water ahead of me, creating a big splash where she landed. Her head popped out of the water and she coughed while laughing.

"I didn't know you could do that?!"

I shrugged.

"Have you finally gotten in to the gym?"

"When time allows, yeah, a little."

She gave me a small smile and then swam over to me slowly. When she reached me she suddenly wrapped her arms around my neck, which startled me and I went to back away.

"No, hold me up. I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder when you threw me."

I stopped and carefully spotted her hips with my hands as her body floated dangerously close to mine.

"Sorry," I said.

She shrugged, "Not every girl is going to be as tough as me you know."

For some reason the red was returning to my face so I looked away.

"You also want to protect yourself out there, Joseph," she said in a mocking impression of my mother.

I laughed and turned back to her.

"So what IS the deal with the condoms?"

She looked at me with mischief written all over her face. "I'm just looking out for you," she said, pulling her body slowly against mine.

"I don't want you to get serious with some slag just because you had sex with her," she whispered in my ear.

I felt my cock stirring in spite of the cold water.

Nera moved her head until it was an inch from mine. "I don't want you going and falling for anyone else."

And with that she sunk her lips into mine and kissed me, deeply. My mind seemed to melt, but my arms wrapped around her on their own, pulling her closer as I kissed her back hungrily. Her lips were velvet, and her tongue felt like heaven against my own. My dick was at full attention now and pressing into the front of her bikini bottoms, and for a second I worried it might be a bit much, but she pressed back against it encouragingly.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes we broke the kiss, both of us breathing heavily. We stayed for a moment there in the water just watching each other, when Nera broke into a grin and snaked an arm down between us and placed it over the bulge in my shorts.

"In fact, I think it's best that we have a practice session to make sure you don't embarrass yourself in college," she said in a sultry voice as the palm of her hand pressed hard against my now straining cock.

I groaned in anticipation and she giggled.

"I think we should go inside and dry off first, don't you think?"

All I could do was dumbly nod in agreement. I've never felt so out of my depth, and horny.

Getting out of the pool was a complete blur, and the next thing I knew I was on my back in Nera's bed; both of us still damp and Nera straddling me with lust written all over her face, untying the strings of her bikini. It fell away, revealing no tan lines around the sexiest dark and aroused nipples I'd ever seen, and I couldn't help whisper "Holy shit," to which she laughed, reaching out and bring my hands to her perfect tits. I ran my fingers around the soft tanned skin and rolled my thumbs over her already hard nipples, to which she elicited a small moan of encouragement. Acting on the encouragement I sat up and enveloped her left breast with my mouth; tasting her skin which still held a hint of chlorine from the pool, but I didn't care. I moved to her right one and she pulled my face firmly to her chest and ground her hips down against me, to which I slid my hands around and into the back of her bikini bottoms and gripped her ass to increase the pressure of her grinding.

"Ok, hang on," she said gasping, pulling my face away from her. "I don't want this to be over before the good part."

She pushed me back down onto the bed and slid her hands down to the waistband of my shorts, and tugged them gently over my now throbbing cock, down and off. Bringing herself back towards me, her eyes not leaving mine, she slowly dragged her fingertips up the insides of my thighs; making my body twitch and my mind hazy. Then her right hand moved up and gripped the shaft of my cock and I thought I was going to cum then and there. But she just held it and watched me playfully as I struggled to control my breathing.

"For how long have you wanted me to suck your dick?" she asked with a big grin.

HUH? I couldn't help but laugh.

"Does that matter right now?"

"It could." And she made a show of flicking the head of my cock with her tongue.

I sighed. "A while."

"Hm." She began running her thumb over the underside while she held it.

"And you?"

She turned her gaze to the twitching rod in her hand. "A while."

And with that she wrapped her lips around me, and pushed down until I was poking her throat.

I came immediately.

I groaned as I felt myself pulse in Nera's mouth, and she didn't let me go; just kept me enveloped in her until I finished. She swallowed before taking my still hard cock from her mouth, and proceed to lick up any residue that might've escaped her. I was just staring at her in what felt like intoxicated awe. She looked back at me with a proud smile, while absentmindedly stroking me.

"Just a tip: the girl should come first, and in the case that you do, you should always return the favour."

I hesitated and blink for all of two seconds before pouncing on her and throwing her giggling figure onto the bed where I had been.