Chapter 7: Our last summer, things are as they seem

The week after the party, it was official. Cam and I were an item, and so were Conor and Virginia. And Maureen had even gotten Luke's number. Our trio was doing good, I was glad. Thinking about all the triple-luck we'd had gave me shivers, and Cam was also my very first boyfriend. More shivers. We weren't like Virginia and Conor, kissing and cuddling and fondling each other in public. We more just stood next to each other, talked a lot, stood up for each other, flirted when we weren't weirded out by the whole situation.

And when I had nothing to do and I was trying really hard to turn off my brain, I thought about Cam. I wanted him, in a way that I wanted to be with him all the time and I wanted to just get through the awkwardness and be affectionate. But also there was a part of me that wanted him in a heavier way, and Virginia said it wasn't easy to resist. Apparently, it was hard to stop once you'd started making out. I was holding out as long as I could, but I knew Cam was a boy, and boys have their urges.

But I still wanted to believe he was a perfect gentleman, who wouldn't even try to kiss me until the third real date. I imagined him bringing me flowers and cupcakes and sneaking up behind me, looping his arms around my waist and leaving sweet kisses up and down my arms. But alas, no, he just invited me to hang out with him and the guys and sat next to me when we ate dinner. We didn't want Jill and Winifred to know, but it was hard with Jer and Conor blurting it out every five seconds.

I couldn't wait to tell Cora, because even though she was only turning eight at the time, she was very intrigued by love. I wished she had e-mail, so I could tell her all about it on the computer they had in Jerry's study, because he apparently wasn't so hillbilly that he didn't know how to work a computer. Surprise!

Now being at the beach house was a whole different issue, and every time I wore my bikini, I knew it meant more because I had to be aesthetically pleasing to my boyfriend. And in the morning I had to spend half an hour doing my makeup just so I looked acceptable at breakfast. Maureen told me, even though she thought Cam was a bad choice for me, that if he liked me before when I didn't do all that, he'd continue to like me just the same. But just to be careful, I went the extra mile.

“You guys are all buzz kills. I am not spending my Friday night watching the waves. Entertain me.” Conor groaned loudly, and Virginia patted his arm sympathetically, cooing at him lovingly.

“Virginia, that's your cue to start your strip-tease. As his woman, it's your duty to entertain him.” Jer laughed, using Garrett as a human shield when she tried to smack the back of his head.

“Sexist, much? I am entertaining just sitting here. I'd be entertaining even if all my hair fell out.” She announced proudly, snuggling herself up against his chest. She was in his lap, sharing one lawn chair, which I was just waiting to break.
“Oh, honey, he's not looking at your hair...” Jer gave a knowing glance to her chest, and her jaw dropped.

“You are a true d****e, you know that?” She spat back.
“Hey!” I exclaimed.

“What?” Cam gazed at me attentively. Him and I, the less perfect couple, were in seperate chairs, and we were leaned over just a little bit closer to eachother.

“Why don't we go skinny dipping?” I asked. Maureen set down her book quickly with wide eyes.

“No. No discussion.” She replied.

“Come on. You're such a brute!” Jer rolled his eyes. 'Brute' had become our word a few weeks ago. It could replace any words. Mostly it meant that the person you were talking to was annoying or stupid.

“I'll do it.” Virginia shrugged.

“Me too.” Tess agreed. I was surprised Tess hadn't gone home since her and Conor's breakup, but she'd made out with a guy at Stephie's party and decided to stay just to hang out with him. It was quite awkward, but her and Maureen got along pretty well. All the guys nodded in anticipation, waiting on Maureen's response.

“Fine. But we all have to close our eyes until we're fully covered. I don't want to see anything and I don't want to be seen, kapeesh?” She raised her eyebrows expectantly. We all agreed, and jumped up, racing to the shore where the cold waves caressed our toes.

“Who's first?” I asked quietly, suddenly hesitant. I stepped away from the water.

“I'll go, because I'm the bigger person.” Jer announced.

“Close eyes, now.” Tess called, and even though it isn't for sure, I think we all closed our eyes. I heard Jer throw his clothes to the side and then him quietly swimming out.
“Done!” He exclaimed. Then Conor went, and then Garrett.
“Me, me!” Virginia exclaimed to my surprise once those three boys were all in water up to their shoulders. We all closed our eyes, and she took a bit longer then the boys, but surely she ended up in the water near them, and the whole game changed. Now there were naked girls and boys in the water, and it was hormones city. Virginia, for the only time that summer, kept her distance from Conor, who was blushing just like the rest of us. Cam was next, and then it was my turn. Tess refused to go with only one other girl in the water, so it was me by default.

“Hands to yourselves!” I called as everyone closed their eyes. I slipped off my blue sweatshirt and skinny jeans. Then it was the hard part. I grabbed my towel, covering myself carefully as I pulled off my bra and then my underwear. I covered myself until my feet were in the water. I took a deep breath and flung the towel away, charging into the water as fast as I could. The water was cold against my bare skin, and it tickled. I shivered, covering myself underwater with both hands just in case. I waded over to Virginia, who had probably gotten a glance at my parts by accident in the girls' locker room, and she shot me a coy smile.

“This is so bad.” She laughed, and we both giggled wildly. Next was Tess, and she came over to us reluctantly, because though she didn't like us, we were better then her ex and his friends.

“I don't want to. Can't I just go inside?” Maureen whined.

“Come on, it's gonna be so much fun once we're all in the water.” I prodded.

“Yeah, and we're not gonna look. We'll close our eyes and turn around, okay?” Virginia persuaded. Maureen looked uncomfortable in her own skin, squirming around by the chairs.

“Okay...” She murmured slowly, walking to the shore cautiously. We turned around, and I closed my eyes tight. In a minute, she came splashing into the water, straight over to Virginia and I.

“Yeah!” I gave her a high-five. She giggled, rubbing her arms up and down to warm herself up.

“Now what?” Tess asked quietly.
“Tag?” Virginia shrugged.

“Wouldn't you like that? Reach to tap on the shoulder and accidentally get a grip on poor, innocent Conor's junk!” Jer teased.

“Yes, that is exactly what I want, because I'm almost as perverted as you.” She laughed.

“No, but seriously, we should play tag. And if anything goes wrong, we'll stop.” Conor agreed.

“I'm it!” Virginia smiled. Maureen screamed as Virginia began swimming with all her force toward us. It was so dark that even though she was at the surface of the water, you couldn't see anything but a bit of her face. Maureen and I did front-crawl as fast as we could, and we got away. Virginia went after Garrett who was lingering around her. She grabbed his hair, pulling him back. Then he got Cam, and Cam, for once, didn't think about his actions and just started chasing everyone around. I liked him better when he was mellow. When he was all uptight it was hard to have fun. All of us but Maureen got a chance to be 'it', but only because she hid behind me every time anyone came around. Tess was splashing around, giggling, when we heard footsteps.

“S**t!” Virginia exclaimed, edging closer to Conor. We all ducked down, everything beneath the surface of the water but our eyes. No one moved, and the night was silent.

“Kids?” Jill's voice called, and her and Winifred walked up to where our lawn chairs were.

“Where could they have gone?” Winifred asked, confused as she gazed along the beach. Her eyes stopped on the pile of clothes and she nodded knowingly without looking over at where we were all huddled.

“Hey. I can see you.” She called, and her eyes zeroed in on us. Jill squinted, and then laughed like we were such goofballs.

“Skinny dipping?” She asked, eyebrows raised as she observed our pile of clothes as well.

“Damn right!” Jer exclaimed loudly, bursting out of the water so his chest was showing, but not his... lower half, and I was so glad. He was barely even attractive to me anymore. The whole thing blew over, and it was a relief. Enough of the sexual tension, screw it! One by one, we all got out and wrapped our towels around ourselves, rushing inside to avoid the cold ocean air. I met up with the three other girls in our bedroom, and we brushed our wet hair that was dripping with salt water and changed into our pajamas. I tucked myself into bed, wishing my Mom was there to kiss me goodnight and to say not to let the bugs bite. It hit me that I had been putting off all my emotions. I missed my Mom. I missed Cora, Stephen and Owen. I missed my house, and I hated myself for ruining my perfect night with thinking too hard. But still, I wished I didn't have to grow up. That I could stay fourteen forever, and never have to see Cora get her heartbroken, or ever to have to take on responsibilities and get a job and become serious and boring. And I began to cry softly, because the thought of my Mom dying came into my mind. And my Dad. I feared seeing them, frail and old, counting down the days to their time to go. I wished I'd cherished my sandbox-training-wheels days. And my first day of school, and my first school dance. I wished to go back, do it all the same but soak in the glory while it was still mine to hold. And then I cried myself to sleep.

“Tomorrow's our last day. That's friggin' crazy.” Tess remarked, gazing at all of us, awaiting our reactions. Our smiles molded into frowns, with a tint of meloncholy-bittersweetness to them. She dipped her tortilla chip in the salsa, scooping it all in her mouth with a soft crunch. I popped one of the shrimp in my mouth, sighing quietly as the lemony taste lingered on my tongue.

“It is.” Conor finally said, squeezing Virginia's hand. She looked like the whole mix of emotions had just set in. Overwhelmed, sad, vulnerable. Tonight we were having a group thing, with all the people we'd met, which wasn't many. We had to enjoy each others' company, because tomorrow we wouldn't have it anymore.

“I don't want to go. Grade nine is going to suck.” I sighed. I was mostly upset because they had demolished our school over the summer and put in a bunch of town houses. Which meant we all had to transfer to Bell High School, where there were tons of new faces that I didn't want to become familiar. I am not a fan of change, and I never will be. I like schedules, predictability.
“It's not going to be so bad. Everyone from our school is going to be there, it'll just be a different building.” Virginia shrugged, hugging Conor's arm tightly.

“Grade nine is beast. Except the initiation, of course.” Conor gazed at Jer proudly. They were both going into grade eleven, which made them the initiators not the initiated.

“I still can't believe you're in eleventh grade. So sexy.” Virginia beamed, shooting Conor a coy look beneath her eyelashes. Initiation was a tradition, where the eleven and twelve graders got to do mean things with a get-off-free-card to ninth and tenth graders. Examples, writing all over peoples' faces with permanent marker, egging people, throwing food at them... Owen had told me all about it.

“The saddest part is that Garrett and I are never going to see Virginia and Peyton again!” Conor exclaimed. It made me feel special deep down inside that Conor was actually going to miss me.

“I know.” Virginia whimpered, closing her eyes tightly. Garrett glanced at me and sighed, like we'd come so far.

“I don't wanna go!!!” I yelled, banging my fists on the couch. Cam reached around me and pulled me in against him. He entangled his hand in mine and I rested my head on his shoulder. Everyone stared at us for a few seconds before talking again. Cam inhaled deeply, his nose pressed against the top of my head. The doorbell rang, and Tess jumped up eagerly. She ran to the windowsill, leaning over it acrobatically.

“It's Joey!” She squealed, running to the door. She swung it open, and jumped onto the familiar boy from the party, squeezing him tightly.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed, wrapping his arms loosely around her. She let go, smiling up at him as he gave each of us a friendly nod.

“Hey.” He said.

“Sup?” Jer replied, and we all observed him closely as Tess dragged him over to the couches.

“Why don't we go outside? It's all set up, we've just been waiting for someone to get here.” Tess suggested, picking up the bowl of chips and the ring of shrimp. She scurried outside, him tagging along quickly behind her.
“Nice guy.” Virginia remarked, and Maureen giggled. She was all dolled up, because Luke, the guy she'd danced with at the party, was coming too. Yay.
I wore a loose tank top over my green bikini and light denim short shorts. Jerry, Winifred and Jill were all already lined around the campfire, roasting hot dogs while the hot sparks shot around them. The smoke engulfed them and they looked at peace with the entire world. And for all I knew I could be that way too, for one night.

Reviews

[J.A.N]

I read this last night.
My review didn't submit! D:

I have this strange feeling about Maureen,
like for some reason I feel like something bad is going to happen to her.
Peyton seems more, happy, better now that she's not hanging out with Jenna.
I love this story, I can't wait to read the next chapter!
ilysfm