Separate Schools Page 12

  Ste-vie, Ste-vie, Ste-vie, Ste-vie ...

  Harrison looked up to see the girls wanting Stevie to take his pants down to show them what he had. Taylor chanted and clapped her hands with the rest of the gaggle. Stevie waved them off, and he was laughing. Colt laughed, too, punching Stevie in the shoulder.

  Harrison had to get down on both knees and take a deep breath. He was split with rage and jealousy. But he couldn’t deny there was something in it that was exciting. Something about seeing his girlfriend being so bad put a thrill inside him that he hated. But at least it was like a relief valve. Maybe that’s all it was. He just witnessed something so terrible that if this were caveman days, he would grab her by the hair and drag her away from there. Probably given her a good clubbing or something, whatever it was the Neanderthals did. But his modern and civilized mind found an escape route. Found appreciation for her femaleness, respected her desire for naughty fun—it was pretty much just like that when he was with the guys. There was even something strangely arousing about it. He pushed it all away, gritted his teeth and struck matches until he got the fire lit.

  31

  With the fire lit and burning stably, Harrison stacked some of the harder wood around the flaming cedar. They popped and snapped, and he was pretty sure this was going to be a good fire tonight. He did this amidst cheering from down at the beach. The game seemed to be drawing near a final score because each play brought louder roars and groans from the players, and taunts and clapping from the beach.

  He stood with his hands on his hips for a moment and watched down at the water. Three guys lining up against three guys, everyone watching and laughing. The play burst out, Stevie falling back with the football cocked. Taylor was down there, sipping a drink then setting it down and raising a fist to cheer. It made him smile. She was having fun. She was having fun and her good boyfriend was letting her. Wasn’t being a nag and wasn’t acting bothered. Cool cucumber, indeed. Fuck you, Kelsey Kay.

  He walked back to the barbecue station, scrubbed the wire brush on the grates to clean them, getting them ready for dinner time. He grabbed a couple of ice cold Rock n’ Ryes out of the cooler, three cans, bringing one even for Kelsey Kay. He probably should apologize.

  Before heading down to the beach, he returned to check his fire—frankly, to admire his handiwork—then shuffled down the grassy, pine needle strewn slope to join Taylor and Kelsey Kay.

  Out in the water, two sets of three players lined themselves up again head-to-head. Pontoon hiked the ball back to Colt, and he jumped and splashed through the thigh-high water while KC ran block for him. Brady Aaron tried to sweep around and Kelsey Kay yelled out a weak Yay, Brady, and it made him laugh. This was Brady’s last day with the group.

  Stevie drew back farther, KC now shoving Brady headfirst, and he disappeared under a wave. Stevie threw the ball like a lightning bolt. Pontoon was there, working his way past Colt and jumping high, the ball tipping off his fingertips and shooting straight up in a somersault. The crowd gasped and laughed, and KC shoved Colt away as Pontoon jumped one more time and caught his own fumble.

  Everyone went out of their minds.

  Stevie roared and shot both his fists straight up in the air. All the girls on the beach were shouting and cheering. Pontoon was gone, high-stepping it with his knees shooting up to his chest as he broke free from the crowd of players and ran along the shore. He was laughing and when he was distant and his touchdown assured, he cradled the ball at his side and taunted with a pointing finger.

  An Oooohhh sound wormed through the crowd, Harrison figuring this was the end of the game and the wager was determined. Stevie was clapping and laughing, KC as well. Pontoon threw the ball back and Stevie caught it.

  KC said, “Come on, guys ...”

  Colt and Rick-Joe weren’t happy about it. They had half-smiles and ambled around in hesitant circles with their heads down. Brady came up out of the water and brushed his hair back, waded over to join them. Rick-Joe gave him a gesturing hand, letting him know that they lost since Brady might have missed that because he was underwater. Brady groaned and threw his head back, dropped down and disappeared under another wave.

  Kelsey Kay laughed now, clapping her hands and saying, “Let’s go, Brady, let’s see it ...”

  Colt shouted, Fuck this, not aggressively but resignedly. His hands disappeared underneath the water then yanked downward on the legs of his shorts.

  Harrison froze where he stood, just a dozen feet behind Taylor and Kelsey Kay. His feet burned in the hot sand. Kelsey Kay and Taylor cheered. Colt’s bare ass was revealed to them. All the muscles in the guy’s back rippled, his paler ass was pert and round and perfect. Even Harrison could see that. He hunched over painfully, but his eyes were glued.

  Rick-Joe threw up his hands as well, but he didn’t have the dramatic flair Colt did. Back turned to the crowd, he shoved his thumbs in his waistband and pushed his shorts right down to his knees. He slapped his own ass, and it drew cheers from everyone. Even Cookie was getting into it, laughing and kicking her feet. Jamie good-naturedly covered her eyes up with an extended hand. She laughed and held it over her face. Brady joined in as well, hanging his head, while he stood up from the water before pulling his shorts down.

  Taylor shouted, “Let’s see them, guys!” and Harrison almost fell over.

  KC pointed at her and said, “Shut up, Taylor. Turn around ...”

  Taylor leaned close to Kelsey Kay and Harrison heard her say, “It’s your stupid wager, KC.” They both laughed and applauded.

  Now the guys began to stride through the deep water, Brady covering up his genitals with his shorts, Rick-Joe doing the same, holding with one hand his wadded up shorts between his legs.

  Colt did not. Taylor had postulated he wouldn’t care because he had a big dick and she was right.

  He strode to the shore with his testicles snug up high from the cold, tucked underneath a huge flaccid penis. It was long and thick and circumcised, and as his feet found the shallower water, he began to jog. It bounced and slapped between his legs. Harrison wanted to scream watching his girlfriend look at this. The guy’s big dick flung around between his legs as the jog became a run in the shallower water, even nodding up and down, getting longer and shorter like a slinky.

  Harrison formed a fist and dug it into his hipbone. He was filled with rage and jealousy ... and lust. And covetousness. He couldn’t deny it. Watching his girlfriend ogle this male specimen made him want to be Colt.

  Colt ran up onto the sand, impressive penis flopping around and everyone cheered. Riley’s circle of friends all watched and howled. Brady came up now, too, falling behind Rick-Joe. All three of the naked football players tossed their sopping wet shorts into the sand as they ran up the beach. Colt was confident, pointing at all the girls as he ran past with an arrogant smile. Brady didn’t seem to care either. And though Harrison witnessed Kelsey Kay buy her boyfriend regular-size condoms, the thing Brady had between his legs looked pretty big. Enough that it bounced and slapped as he ran. Rick-Joe had nothing to be shy about either. His testicles were gone, but while his dick was shrunken from the cold, it was twice what Harrison had. It didn’t go left and right, just bounced up and down like it was very emphatically positive about something.

  Now Colt passed close by Taylor and gave her a special pointing finger and Taylor did a little dance for him, putting her hands up over her head and swaying her hips even though she was sitting on her feet. She hooted louder than anyone.

  Rick-Joe and Brady passed close, heading up the steps at a jog, shedding water while their genitals bounced around. KC hauled back and threw the football. Everyone let out a long Ooohhh again as they watched it spiral high through the air. It smacked wetly dead center in Rick-Joe’s back and Brady caught it as it bounced off his shaking flesh. Rick-Joe hollered then laughed, and he gave everyone the finger over his shoulder as he continued running up the stairs with his muscles jumping. Taylor turned right around—didn’t see Harrison—craning her
neck to watch the naked men run up the steps. Kelsey Kay turned around, too, but she rotated toward Taylor throwing her chin over her shoulder to watch the boys. She saw Harrison.

  Taylor moaned loudly, and bumped into Kelsey with her shoulder, saying, “Oh myyy God. I can’t wait to go to college.” Kelsey smiled thinly, her eyes locked on Harrison’s.

  He stood there with three freezing ice cold Faygos pressed to his stomach. Water dripped and ran off them through his fingers and stained the front of his shorts. He was bewildered. Lost. He couldn’t believe what he’d seen. It was terrible, but wasn’t it fucking obvious? She was a red-blooded young American girl, and those were three good-looking naked guys. What did he expect? He wanted to throw a can at her, hear the sound of it whacking her right between her shoulder blades—a dull thump that would wake her up with its icy cold punch. He’d love her to turn around and he would hate-fuck her with his vision. Blast all the hurt in his heart right now through his eyes and into hers. Something like right out of those comic books eleven-year-old Harrison used to pick up at the WC and read when he came up to this dumb fucking cottage. He felt sick, lunchtime burger taking a few turnovers in his stomach.

  Kelsey Kay still held his gaze. Her face was solemn. Understanding. He hated her face right now.

  Riley jumped up, spilling her drink, and stumbled across the sand in a big hurry. Taylor seemed to know exactly what her sister was up to, and she jumped up to join her. Harrison watched Taylor running in her flossy nothing, showing off her beautiful tan body to anyone who wanted to look at it.

  From the water, KC shouted, “Oh no you don’t!”

  Riley shouted, “Shut up, KC!”

  KC threw up his hands in surrender and smirked. The two sisters ran and scooped up the boys’ shorts. For a moment they didn’t know what to do with them and then it was Taylor making the decision: she shouted, “The boathouse! Quick!”

  Riley thought that was spectacular.

  The two of them ran, pumping their thin legs through the sand and kicking up dust to great applause from everyone else gathered on the beach. Kelsey Kay had turned back now to see what was happening, and she gave her own applause.

  Even from this distance the two sisters’ cackling was brash and arrogant, both of them sprinting up the dock’s steps, running into the boathouse and closing the door behind them.

  Harrison looked behind him, saw the oblivious guys running past the barbecues, going to the right and heading up the slope to the front of the house. He figured the wager was running naked one time around the house.

  Kelsey Kay was watching him again.

  He felt funny. Hurt. But something more. It had been arousing. The whole while his brain was shouting No! No! No! at what he was witnessing, between his legs his penis was kind of interested. It picked up, and he could feel it bulging against fabric. He could feel the wet from the dripping Faygo cans soaking into his plumped out underwear.

  He’d like to turn around and go back up to the kitchen, hide away from all this nonsense and be alone with his thoughts. Instead, he held Kelsey Kay’s gaze for another moment and then he walked the remaining steps and plopped himself down next to her, sitting in Taylor’s spot. He set the cans down then offered her one. “R n’ R?”

  Still holding his gaze, she took the can and thanked him. She popped the top and winced at the burst of carbon dioxide. It was like she wanted to say something but saw that her friend was struggling with their earlier conversation and she waited to see what he would say first. He said nothing. Watched KC and Stevie and Pontoon lingering out in the water. They had no football now, and they waded and talked to each other, their unfortunate opposing players already forgotten.

  Riley and Taylor came out of the boat house laughing, elbowing each other and stumbling around.

  To Kay, he said, “Hey.”

  Kelsey Kay said, “What?”

  “Sorry. For before.”

  “It’s okay. I ought to keep my mouth shut.”

  “You don’t have to. But …” He let it hang. It might be better if she did.

  32

  Taylor spotted him sitting with Kelsey Kay. She smiled but didn’t wave. Riley was still clinging to her, and they got close together again and Taylor whispered something into her sister’s ear behind the cup of her hand. They both laughed so hard they doubled over. The two of them stayed on the beach standing where the shorts should be. It bothered Harrison. It was like they were standing there waiting to see those dongs come bouncing back.

  But then the girls realized they didn’t want to get caught, and pushed each other away and each ran back to their respective beach towels, Riley running and stumbling clumsily onto hers. Harrison wondered about what KC had said earlier about her drinking. Taylor was the same, long legs moving clumsily in the sand before she toppled onto the towel between him and Kelsey Kay. She was laughing and her cheeks were flushed. She smiled, fumbled around and grabbed her sunglasses and slipped them on her face like a disguise as she lay on her back between them. Harrison looked down at her big smile and her white teeth and glossy lips and for the first time in the last two years felt distant from her. She said, “Hey. Where have you been?”

  He said, “Cleaning up. Cooking. I got the fire going.”

  The smile faded a bit as she recognized all the things he did.

  She said, “You’re so awesome.”

  He said, “We’re almost ready for dinner up there. And the fire’s going pretty good.”

  “Aww, Harrison,” she said, and she sat upright now, adjusting her sunglasses and shaking the sand out of her hair. He caressed her back, and she leaned herself against him. He brought his hands together around her middle and rested them in her lap. She leaned against him and he felt good again.

  Kelsey Kay watched both of them, and she said to Taylor, “He’s a good guy.”

  There was a hesitation, but then Taylor said, “He is. He’s the best guy in the world.” Now her hand came up and stroked his cheek while she nuzzled the crown of her head against his neck.

  Behind them, came the huffs and puffs of the guys making their way around from the other side of the house, coming along the stone wall where the firewood was stacked. Harrison looked over his shoulder, but kept Taylor braced against him so she couldn’t see. Sure enough, of course, they were still naked. Jogging along, wangs bouncing and slapping between their legs. He could hear the wet tap-tapping even down on the beach.

  The guys came across the barbecues and began trotting down the steps and Kelsey Kay watched with a smirk. He didn’t know how to feel about it. All these guys with their dicks and balls flopping around and here was this girl that he thought of as his young friend—yet here she was watching. He already knew, but it suddenly came over him again: they were adults now. This was the place where he’d been a kid but they weren’t kids anymore. He could feel Taylor tensing, and he whispered near her ear, “Did you hide their shorts?”

  She giggled and put her hand over her mouth and he squeezed her tight. The three guys came down now, running across the sand to where they’d left their shorts. They’d been bold when they started, but Rick-Joe and Brady cupped both hands between their legs to cover themselves. Colt didn’t.

  It was Brady and Rick-Joe who realized first their shorts weren’t where they should be. They turned around in circles, and started looking at all the faces, waiting to see which person would laugh first. Colt was turning, too, and Harrison playfully slid his hand in front of Taylor’s vision. She laughed, and it made him feel good. He covered her eyes. She put her hands over top of his just like Cookie had done with Jamie. The good girlfriend letting her boyfriend prevent her from seeing something that maybe she shouldn’t.

  Colt turned left and right, and Harrison watched all the muscles in his body move. He had long straps in his legs, a tight round behind. Abs, of course, but big muscular chest and shoulders. And that penis?—it swung around and even he couldn’t stop looking. He would hate it if Taylor could see this.


  Brady said, “Come on, guys.” He looked toward where they were sitting and saw Kelsey Kay. “Hey, come on, where are my shorts?”

  Kelsey Kay didn’t even laugh. She just looked at him like it was his fault. She shrugged and frowned at him. He knew not to ask her again and now he went to Riley’s towel with Rick-Joe coming along. Colt went there as well, seeing Riley unable to stop herself from laughing the closer they got.

  “What’s happening?” Taylor asked, and she moved her hands to pry a gap between Harrison’s middle and ring finger, forming a V that she could peep through. What she would see now was Colt standing over her sister who sat cackling, curled up on her beach towel. Her friends had scampered a few feet back and Colt was threatening her with handfuls of sand that he was going to put in the backside of her bikini.

  “Don’t, don’t, don’t!” Riley kicked and laughed.

  Rick-Joe was yelling “Where are my shorts?”

  His buddies, KC, Pontoon, and Stevie were howling, wading around the swimming dock where Care Bear sat with his feet dangling in the water still. From this angle, with Colt’s back mostly facing them, his cold-shrunk sack bounced around. Taylor would be seeing this and he knew that she would be looking right there, too, catching the occasional glimpse of that big wet penis as it dangled between his legs while he horsed around with her sister. He hated it so much he wanted to clamp his hand completely over her face, but he didn’t want to be a jerk. He didn’t want her to think he was jealous. He didn’t want to think it bothered him. It did, but he couldn’t deny it—for some crazy reason he was aroused from this. His heart was seized up like this was the worst thing that could happen yet between his legs there was a disagreement with that. He didn’t want to be hard, but he was.