Separate Schools Page 7

  “Get a picture of this,” Care Bear said and his two giant hands gripped the narrow of Roxie’s waist. She screamed and laughed as he lifted her right off the ground and held her high, her long brown legs kicking, one of her slides spiraling off.

  Pontoon called out, “You’re lucky it’s too far to the lake.”

  Stevie laughed and added, “And lucky KC doesn’t have a pool.”

  Taylor laughed and stumbled around taking pictures while Care Bear walked with Roxie held up in the air, her feet planted on his thighs, her two hands grabbing and holding his big wrists. Roxie had bundled her long hair on top of her head and it came loose now and completely covered her face as she laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe.

  Care Bear lifted her even higher, peeking around her now but not spotting anywhere really fun to put her he headed to the patio set.

  “Hey, whoa, hey,” Taylor called now, and she plopped Roxie’s phone down on one of the barbecue’s side tables, trotting to intervene. “It’s glass, it’s glass, don’t break it, my mom will shit.”

  Care Bear disregarded her, setting Roxie’s bare feet down on the table—she’d lost her other slide—saying, “Relax, it’s acrylic, it’s fine.”

  Roxie’s laugh was now a high-pitched cackle that made Harrison wince as he flipped the patties one last time, saying, “Food’s up, bring me your plates.”

  Without a word, working like a team, Care Bear turned his back to the table and Roxie hiked her long legs over his shoulders, climbing aboard to ride on top of them, one arm held up, hands clutching the overhang of the patio umbrella for minute adjustments in her balance.

  As Stevie and Pontoon both came to get their burgers, Taylor tugged her top off and shook her hair out. The two guys stared at her almost bare back while they walked. She folded up her shirt loosely and left it on the table, no one sitting at it, everyone choosing to sit down by the lake to eat. She unzipped her shorts.

  On top of Care Bear now, Roxie straightened her legs out and called out Hey to Taylor. When she looked up, Roxie wiggled all her toes and made an exaggerated sad face, pooching out her lower lip. Harrison watched, too, burger held out on a spatula. Taylor let her shorts drop around her ankles, standing now in front of everyone wearing only the tiniest bikini. Harrison’s stomach tumbled, and he held his breath; the burger quivered on his extended spatula.

  He’d already seen her in this—her private show up in the bedroom—but out in the bright, sunny daylight in front of everyone, especially lecherous college dudes, it was startling and outrageous. Taylor’s body was flawless. Tall, thin, tanned, not even an ounce of fat, but swelling still with youthful pertness. She squatted down and retrieved the two slides that had fallen off Roxie’s feet, and Harrison’s eyebrows raised so high it felt like his scalp scrunched up. Taylor stood then, turned away from her audience and plopped the slides onto Roxie’s held out feet. Pontoons, Stevie’s, Harrison’s, and even Cisco’s eyes watched her bare ass, just a string woven between her narrow but round and bouncy ass cheeks.

  “Holy fuck,” he whispered, then swallowed dryly. His cock swelled up suddenly, still eager to solve previously unfinished business. His heart surged in his chest and he was at once insanely jealous and yet strangely proud. That was his girlfriend. That smoking piece of ass belonged to him. And there she was, slim and narrow threads away from being totally naked in front of strangers, showing off to everyone those things that were his.

  Pontoon and Stevie definitely liked what they saw, both of them eyeing her up, eyebrows high with awe. They looked away, then looked back again almost instantly, male eyes drawn to that perfection, as helpless to it as moths to a flame.

  Pontoon had wandered close enough that Harrison was able to plop a hamburger patty on to his bun even though the guy’s head was turned. Even though he felt a jealous spike, it was pride that washed upward through his legs and into his heart now, almost liking that these college dudes were gawking at something so fine that belonged to Harrison.

  Stevie pulled his eyes away from that perfect and almost bare ass to see one patty on Pontoon’s bun and brought up a peace sign, saying, “Two patties.”

  “For both of you?” Harrison asked. They both nodded now, and Harrison obliged, turning each of their burgers into double-burgers.

  When he looked up, he saw Roxie using her hand to hold an imaginary glass and tip it up to her mouth repeatedly, her eyes locked with Taylor’s. Some sort of secret and quiet communication. As Harrison lined up the next patties to be offered he watched Taylor. She caught this drink-miming that Roxie did, and gave her friend back a knowing nod.

  From inside the house, coming out the lower level French doors right behind him were Riley, her best friend Cookie, and Cookie’s boyfriend Jamie. With Pontoon and Stevie already served, and Taylor, Care Bear, and Roxie otherwise engaged, the three of them lined up to get their burgers. Harrison made small talk as he served them, but his eyes were glued to Taylor who now picked up her jumbo Solo cup and poured some of her drink into Roxie’s. Harrison was sure the drink was spiked. One of KC’s friends, or even Riley, had let Taylor get an alcoholic beverage. Or perhaps she’d even slipped into the kitchen when no one was looking and helped herself.

  Care Bear was next in line now, but it was Roxie leaning forward, still up on his shoulders, holding out her plate with a prepared bun, saying, “Server, please, my burger, if you will.”

  Harrison plopped her patty down on her ketchup-soaked bun, his eyes regarding Care Bear’s huge fingers pressing into her tanned thighs. To him, Roxie was the little kid who he’d known since Grade Five, and to see her with a much older guy, a huge older guy, made his stomach feel a little sick.

  “Thank you, peon,” she said in jest, and then it was Care Bear holding out an empty plate looking to get served.

  In his deep baritone, he said, “Three patties, kid, no bun, no condiments. Get your buddy to throw some dogs on there, too.”

  Harrison looked over his shoulder to see if Cisco heard that or not. He did, his face vacant but intimidated as he prepared some wieners to be thrown on the big guy’s plate.

  “Hey,” Harrison called out to Taylor now as she got close and handed up an assuredly spiked beverage to Roxie. “You want in here? I’m running low ...”

  Taylor smiled and said, “No, let the others go, I’m going to hang out up here, anyway.”

  “Okay,” he said, but she wasn’t listening now, instead walking away with Care Bear and Roxie up on his shoulders, taking a swig from her cup.

  He served Cookie and Jamie some burgers, then said to Cisco, “I better grab some more patties, you watch the grill for me.”

  Cisco saluted with his tongs and Harrison squeezed past him to get to the French doors and into the house. Even though his mom’s hamburger patties were stored in an Igloo cooler, he’d put the cooler inside the house to keep the sun off it. Now he was in the cool finished basement, walking on the carpet in the quiet. The cooler was inside the door, just behind the window where Pontoon and Stevie sat, their backs pushing against the screen. It was noisier outside on the deck and they couldn’t hear him moving around behind them in the house. He popped the cooler open, pulled out a dozen raw burgers and put them on the platter.

  Pontoon was trying to talk low to Stevie, but Harrison could hear him clearly. He said, “That Roxie looks like a good fuck, huh?”

  It chilled Harrison’s belly to hear someone talk about his friend so base.

  “You think the Bear’s gonna fuck her?” Stevie asked.

  “Don’t know. He’d be crazy not to ...”

  Stevie confessed: “Fucking KC’s sister is driving me crazy.”

  Pontoon exhaled a loud exhalatory burst indicating he knew exactly what Stevie was talking about.

  Stevie said, “You see that body? I mean, holy shit.”

  Pontoon said, “KC would fucking kill you, bro.”

  Stevie laughed, said, “What?”

  “That’s his little sister.”

/>   “So? He lets that skinny dweeb fuck her.”

  Now his hands went cold, and he felt a tingling in his fingertips.

  Pontoon said, “Yeah, but they’re the same age.” He took a bite of his burger, and then, with his mouth full of the food Harrison had prepared, he added: “And that kid doesn’t fuck her.”

  They both enjoyed throaty and deep laughs, elbowing each other and getting off on how they didn’t think Harrison could please his girlfriend.

  He hadn’t even eaten, hadn’t at all sampled his own wares—too busy trying to please others—but whatever he had in his stomach right now wanted out, and he right-faced as an unexpected esophageal tidal swell washed up a spicy mash of Dunkin’ cronuts. It lodged somewhere behind his breastbone. He went down on his knees and clenched himself tight, hugged his arms to his stomach and stared at the pink discs of his mother’s mashed cow flesh on a pure white platter right under his nose.

  It took almost a full minute before the swell steadied itself and the gastric acid fell back to the protected surfaces of his stomach lining. He swallowed a lump of bile that had squeezed up and then gathered more patties onto the platter.

  21

  On the way back to the barbecue, holding the platter of uncooked patties with frail and shaking arms, the nameless dread that swirled through him came into focus.

  It was fear.

  Fear that his girlfriend would be away at school next week, thousands of miles distant, and she would be surrounded by guys exactly like Pontoon and Stevie. Hot guys, athletic guys, older guys; all of them looking to put their dicks in his unsuspecting girl. He dumped the platter down on the stand next to the grill with a porcelain clatter and rested his grip on the edge of the trim that surrounded the barbecue.

  Across from him now he could see Care Bear gorging on meat, Roxie sitting next to him on a seat at the patio table. Taylor sat with her bare butt on a railway tie ledge a few feet away, her thumbs firing off text correspondence on her phone.

  As he licked his lips and prepared himself to get back to his burger duty something attracted his attention. On the barbecue’s side table, right next to his hand, Roxie’s iPhone sat face up where Taylor had left it. The screen lit up with the life from an incoming text. He touched the corner of her grubby green case to straighten it so he could read. The message to Roxie was incoming from one Taylor Brooks, and the words typed out chilled him further, and his breath heaved out of him.

  Taylor: Stevie’s body is giving me palpitations! I think I’m in love!

  She’d added shocked emojis, round yellow faces with big white eyes bugging out of their heads and a few rocket ships as well. His eyes roamed up from Roxie’s phone to catch Taylor sitting now with her phone flat on one thigh, her hands curled over the black edge of the railway tie retaining wall, her eyes cast sideways to Harrison, watching the muscular Stevie talking with Pontoon. His girl was almost bare, her long tanned body striped with thin strings of turquoise fabric. And she was posing; wanting Stevie to look up and see her, see her bare body, see her staring at him ...

  His own body dipped a little, a momentary haziness coming across his consciousness and his watery knees almost letting him drop to the deck.

  Never in his life had he been more happy to see KC. Big brother showed up, coming down from the garage side of the house to join them—his presence would sort out his friends’ lechery and maybe curtail some of Taylor’s naughtiness. Still, Harrison’s damp fingertips made streaks in the stainless barbecue lip as he clenched his hands, his stomach tightening further recalling his girlfriend’s text. His eyes went down as KC came up with a plate, saw Roxie’s phone had returned to blank, Taylor’s words hidden from his eyes but not from his thoughts.

  “Hey, look at the chef,” KC said, “Command Central,” his eyes moving around the grills. “You got it all under control.”

  “Do I?” he chuckled, feeling all his stitching coming loose.

  “Sure looks like it, Harrison. Your mom make these burgers?”

  “Yup,” he said, struggling to make eye contact for fear of exposing his inner turmoil.

  KC flashed up two fingers, indicating the number of burgers he wanted. “Your mom makes the best burgers.”

  Behind KC, Harrison could see Taylor sitting on the tie still, her posture more erect, her arms coming up, hands tangling her ponytail into a loose knot up top of her crown. Her pert little breasts were upright and flexing against the thin swimsuit material. The Wayfarers had come down and he couldn’t see her eyes, but he wondered if she watched Stevie behind the dark of the lenses.

  “Coming, uh, right up,” he struggled to say around his too-thick tongue.

  Riley had broke from her group of friends and saw Taylor sitting by herself and moved to sit with her.

  After finding Taylor up in KC’s room, he went downstairs with them and all three siblings had a touching reunion in the hallway. But all the guests were caught in a confluence in the crowded front hall and they didn’t spend much time together beyond hugging and cheek-kissing.

  Riley had brought along Cisco and her friend April; Jamie and Cookie came together. It was Jamie driving the Charger, and Taylor told him that things between Jamie and Cookie were getting serious, like maybe Cookie might be the first among Riley’s friends to get hitched. That was an intimidating thought. Such a big step, and to know someone close to your own age who was looking to leap that hurdle was a reminder that life just kept chugging along and you better keep your hands on the wheel. He’d grip his wheel tight because he knew for absolute certain Taylor would be the girl he would marry.

  He inhaled deep and sharp, held it, smiled, flipped two cooked patties onto the buns on KC’s plate and said, “Hey, look at this, all the Brooks’ together, someone ought to take a picture.”

  KC turned to see behind him, his two sisters sitting together, Roxie with a plate of food on her lap. Taylor overheard, and she held her hands out to KC and made grabby fingers. Perhaps her chagrin over his alcohol-denial had been lessened—another sign she’d probably procured what she wanted in another way. Bygones were bygones when you got what you wanted through circumvention.

  A photo op was his own method of circumvention—a reminder to Taylor of family and all the love and honor that came packaged with it. A reminder to be a good girl.

  KC held his plate in one hand and his other searched his cargo shorts’ pocket, pulling out his phone. He looked wistfully to Harrison (he could feel his plan working), said, “Would you take it, Harrison?”

  “Man, I’d love to,” he said with a curt nod that showed the oldest Brooks sibling he understood the duty and was honored.

  He took KC’s phone and nodded to Cisco, passing off grill duty for the moment. Riley and KC hid their plates behind them in the flower garden and KC sat down next to Riley and threw his arm over her shoulder, rested his hand on Taylor. They squeezed together and Riley darted KC a quick kiss on his cheek. Harrison was lucky to catch a picture in time, and they all laughed.

  KC said, “We have time so Taylor can put a shirt on?”

  Riley wagged a finger and said sternly: “Oh, don’t you dare. You don’t tell a girl what to wear.”

  KC dropped it, smiling still but definitely showing a burden in his features. He posed, looked up.

  “Say cheese,” Harrison told them and they did, and he stuttered off a whole bunch of pictures of their three good-looking faces. Riley was so much like Taylor but she’d dyed her hair black since the last time he saw her, which was at the beginning of the summer. Harrison handed back the phone to KC and the two sisters told him to send them copies.

  Riley looked to Taylor now and the sweet family moment seemed to get to her and she put her arms around Taylor and sobbed, “I can’t believe my little sister is going to college next week.”

  Taylor patted her sister’s back and said, “We’re getting so old.”

  “Stop it,” Riley said and laughed, clearing a tear from her eye.

  “What’s with this?
” Taylor asked, holding a lock of her sister’s hair on either side of her face, examining the color change.

  “You like it?” Riley asked.

  Taylor thought for a second, said, “Yeah. I do.”

  Riley made a funny face, exhaled slowly from puffed-out cheeks, then said, “Are you ready for this?”

  “What?” Taylor said, fearfully puzzled.

  Riley looked over her shoulder to see KC had turned his back, and she stood up. She wore very short shorts, a baggy T-shirt with a wide neck that showed bikini straps, and flip flops on her feet. She doffed the T, and a girl undressing got the guys’ attention, all male eyes on her now. Harrison saw it first.

  Riley turned and dipped a shoulder to show her sister the black tattoo of a scorpion that worked up her shoulder blade and over the top of her arm.

  Taylor’s mouth dropped down as far as it would go and her eyes rolled wide with wonderment.

  “What do you think?” Riley asked tentatively.

  Taylor’s hand came up and her long fingers traced the drawing. She said, “It’s awesome.”

  “You think so?”

  “I really love it,” Taylor said breathlessly.

  KC turned and saw it, slapped his hand over his face, but Harrison could see he still smiled. He made a paternal groaning sound.

  Taylor continued to ogle it with green envy, asking now, “How much did it cost?”

  “Like, seven-hundred.”

  “No way, Taylor,” KC said, and she acted like she didn’t even hear him.

  “Taylor, your burger’s up,” he called to her, back at his command post.

  Taylor and Riley looked in each other’s eyes for a moment, then Taylor rose and walked across the patio to the barbecue. KC watched her bare body and his brow furrowed. Harrison didn’t check, he was too busy watching the way her tight tummy moved as she walked, but he was sure the other guys had their eyes glued, too.

  She took a plate and plopped an egg-sized dollop of potato salad on it and presented it to him.