Chapter 15: End of Summer Pool Party

We pulled in front of Christy's house just before eleven that night. Having Mom and Christy at the game was fun, but a lot different than taking Mike, Sparks, or even Tom. Usually the guys sat in the cheap seats, kept score, and were really into the game. Between innings, we would talk baseball, and point out some of the hotties. With Mom and Christy, there was a lot more talk about the aesthetics of the ballpark and the quality of our luxury box. Along with Mom and Christy, two other families from the TV station had shared the box with us, and most of Mom's time was spent talking shop. Christy and I spent the first three innings walking the concourse, and checking out the gift shop. By the time we settled into the box and made our way through the buffet line, the Reds were up 4-1 on the Dodgers.

Christy and I did spend a couple of innings watching the shortstop and the second baseman, to see how the professionals handled their positions. As a casual observer, it's just the result of the play that was important, but after listening to Boyd and Doug for a couple of hours, I found I was watching more than ever their preparations before each pitch, and each batter, to see how the fielders adjusted. More than a couple of times, the plays that were made by the infielders had as much to do with positioning before the pitch, as their talent to finish the plays. That meant there was a lot of advanced scouting and metrics in determining where that fielder should be for each batter, and even for each pitch. I found all of this to be fascinating. Christy? Not so much, but she humored me.

In my mind, that's what separated the real fan from the casual observer. Spectacular plays and home runs were not that common, considering the number of pitches in a game. To someone used to constant action, baseball was boring. As with any sport, the true fan appreciated the spectacular play, but also found the layers and depth of the sport just as alluring. That was what I was trying to teach Christy, as we watched the rest of the game. Mom was a lost cause. With the number of co-workers attending with their families, she was the consummate entertainer.

By the eighth inning, the game was essentially over, with the Reds expanding their lead to 8-2. We said our goodbyes and headed to the car, hoping to avoid the majority of the traffic leaving the area.

I walked Christy to the door and gave her a sleepy goodnight kiss. The day had certainly been full and a lot of fun, at least from my perspective. I got a nice kiss from her, and I promised to call her the next day.

"Not," she insisted, "before ten."

"She's a very pretty girl, Phil, and smart. She's good for you right now."

That was Mom's opening as we pulled away from Christy's house. Mom was being complementary, but I thought I caught something else in her statement.

"Right now?" I questioned.

"Don't take that the wrong way, Phil. I really like Christy. She has a lot going for her."

"But she's only good for me right now."

"You're fifteen years old, Phil. Are you telling me you think that the two of you are going to get married and live happily ever after?"

I paused a few seconds before I answered...

"I haven't really thought about that."

"Right. You're thinking a little more short-term, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"To be blunt, you're thinking about what it will take to have sex with her."

"Christ, Mom!"

"Tell me I'm wrong, and I'll shut up."

I was just staring at her, incredulous. I was feeling like our pact to have total honesty was quickly reaching a crossroads. It didn't bother me, before, because I didn't have that much that I felt needed to stay private. But things had certainly changed. This was making me more than 'just a little uncomfortable, ' especially since I was doing the majority of the sharing. If I was going to be honest, that was the subject I wanted to address.

"I don't like where this is headed, Mom."

"I understand that, Phil. Talking about sex at your age can be uncomfortable. But you don't have a dad to turn to and sometimes I have to wear both hats. It's a fine line I walk in trying to encourage you to 'sow your oats, ' and yet, at the same time, tell you to 'keep it in your pants.'"

I know I was blushing. My best defense was the easiest: shut up and listen.

"I won't push too hard, but we need to have a discussion about how to take of yourself, and the girl, without worrying about consequences down the road."

I groaned. This ride home could not be over soon enough.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to the store. I'll pick you up a box of condoms."

I was up the next morning, just before six thirty, to get in my morning run. Mom's bedroom door was open and her bed empty, so I knew she was downstairs waiting for me. I could smell the fresh coffee as I made my way into the kitchen. There I found my mother sitting, dressed in her running clothes, asleep. Putting my hands on her shoulders, I leaned in and kissed her just behind her ear.

"Missed you on the morning run, Mom."

She groaned and stretched.

"Are you serious? You didn't wake me to go?"

I couldn't hide the smile on my face and just shrugged my shoulders.

"Fucker, you aren't even sweating. You didn't go."

I wasn't about to wait for my punishment. I turned on a dime and headed out of the door to the garage, feeling Mom's footsteps close behind. She snagged my t-shirt for a second, but I quickly escaped. It wasn't until two blocks later that I slowed enough for her to catch me.

"I told your dad we needed a condom, but noooooooo."

Most of the morning was spent getting everything set for the pool party. I was responsible for skimming the pool, making sure there were plenty of towels and sunscreen available, cleaning the pool house, and setting up a table for the pot luck dishes. Mom covered food prep for our contribution, and made sure the blender was in full operation for what would prove to be a busy afternoon. She did slip away for a little while, saying she needed to get something from the drug store. She returned and unceremoniously dumped a box of twelve condoms on the table.

"Geez, Mom. A little discretion maybe?"

"Are you really embarrassed by this, Phil?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I might be in shock."

"So, I can have you get tampons for me, but you cringe if I get condoms for you?"

"Yeah, I just remembered something I need to take care of by the pool."

"Take that big box of CONDOMS to your room first."

She had an evil grin on her face!

All the prep work had been completed by the time Maria and Carlos arrived, just after twelve-thirty. It didn't take long before the conversation turned to Samantha.

"Samantha didn't tell us what happened between you and Tony at the game, Phil," Carlos began "I had to hear it from one of my guys at work. His son works the concession stand during the games."

"I couldn't believe Samantha would do that to you, Phil!" Maria added.

"Well, it wasn't really her fault, Maria. I had no idea she was on a date."

"I told her that she owes you an apology."

"That's okay, Maria. Tony's the problem."

"If she were my daughter, I would..."

Maria cut Carlos off at the knees.

"She's NOT your daughter, Carlos!"

"This is where Maria and I disagree in disciplining Samantha."

My Mom tried to cut this portion of the conversation short, as both Maria and Carlos were clearly becoming agitated.

"Who is Tony?" my mom asked.

"He's the guy I had an issue with Friday at the game." I responded.

Carlos folded his arms and nodded. "He's some loser wannabe, who thinks he's some sort of bad ass."

"Does he belong to a gang?"

"I don't think so. From what I hear from the guys, he is trying to get into one, but he's just a pretender."

"I feel like he is controlling Samantha," Maria said, a defeated look on her face. "I just don't know what to do."

Mom gave Maria a tight hug. Maria's eyes were becoming moist.

"I'll talk to Tom," I offered. "Maybe he has some connections who can give us a little more information."

"That's not a bad idea, Phil. Tom does have a lot of connections, Maria. I'm sure he can find out something."

Maria took my hand and gave it a squeeze. "I hope so, Phil. She's my little girl and I'm afraid I'm losing her. The people around her now are not good for her." Maria wiped her eyes. "I wish the two of you were close like you used to be."

I couldn't just walk away from Samantha. We had been really close, once. Although she had drifted away from me over the last couple of years, what kind of friend would I be to just abandon her that quickly? The problem was, I needed to have a real chance to talk with her, but how? If she didn't want to talk, what could I do? What would I do?

The Baker's arrived just after one, with Wendy following Jessica in the door. As she had always done previously, Jessica simply nodded her head in acknowledgment on the way to the pool. Alice and Mike were holding hands as he walked her over to the pool area. Tom and I already had the grill loaded by the time Sparks and Heather showed up. Heather may not have been the prettiest girl in school, but she had a really nice body, with a tight ass and larger than average breasts. Sparks could not wipe the shit-eating grin off his face.

I didn't realize Christy had arrived until she hip bumped me. Man, she was smoking hot! She was wearing a white bikini which was a wonderful contrast to her nicely tanned skin. Her eyes told me that she was excited to be here. The nice kiss she gave me just confirmed my assessment and made me want to forget all about the burgers now burning on the grill.

What I hadn't noticed was that Christine had brought a friend with her, and not a fellow cheerleader, as I had assumed. His name was David McCormack and he was the starting quarterback for the JV team. I had heard Mike talk about him, before. If Mike's assessment was correct, David should have been the starting quarterback for the varsity, not Bill Dolan, but having your dad as a coach was a little too much for David to overcome. With Bill graduating this year, David would still have two years to prove himself. The guy was genuinely nice. I could find no fault with him, except that he was apparently dating Christine. I couldn't figure out why I was suddenly jealous, especially with Christy at my side. I chalked it up to the idea that I viewed Christine as the sister I never had and my brotherly instincts were kicking in.

Our planning session for the treehouse took place at the picnic table during lunch. Carlos had inspected what was currently remaining of the tree house and was satisfied that the base was in good enough shape. He took us through the details of getting a permit and then blew us away by showing us detailed plans for the treehouse. It wasn't necessarily complicated, but it had all the features we wanted, including electrical. Carlos also suggested a ceiling fan for the treehouse to help with the cooling.

"After I reviewed the plans, I only made a couple of modifications based upon code restrictions. I have plenty of leftover materials to build it, all we have to do is start scheduling it."

"How long do you think it would take?" Tom asked.

"Depends on the labor. I'm estimating about 25-30 labor hours to complete all of it, including electrical. That's taking into consideration your skill level. I don't think you could have more than a couple people working on it at a time, so figure maybe three or four working days to complete it. I'm headed to the permit office tomorrow, so I'll drop it and the materials here sometime this week. At that point, you can start at any time. I'll leave a project schedule with you as well, to give you an idea when each task should be completed and how long it should take."

"Crap, this looks like a lot of work." Sparks said. "And a project plan to boot?"

"Get used to it." Tom countered. "In the real world you can't go to lunch without a damn project plan."

I borrowed Tom for a few minutes and brought Carlos in to talk about Samantha and Tony. Tom said he could do a background investigation of Tony and check his sources. He wasn't sure there was much more he could do until he checked with his sources. He said he would have the investigation results by the end of next week.

Carlos said he would talk to a couple of guys at the job site to see if there was anything more he could find out. Tony had moved to the area within the last year and had been trying to act like a gang member. He wasn't sure why he wasn't actually in a gang, but maybe some of the guys could tell him. His feeling was that Tony was nothing but a pretender, but he was still dangerous for Samantha. Other than Tony, Carlos was unaware of any other of Samantha's friends.

David was getting the lion's share of the girl's attention while the planning session had been in full swing. The poor guy looked like a wounded gazelle being stalked by a pride of hungry lions in the shallow end of the pool. Wendy, Christine, Christy, Alice and Heather were all ganging up on Doug and dunking him.

Mike, Sparks and I stormed the pool, and it was on! The next several minutes were a free-for-all. It was 'dunk or be dunked' and I wasn't going down without a fight. I know I got Christy more than once, as she was my primary target going in, but I'm also pretty sure I dunked Sparks somewhere along the way. Oh, well ... collateral damage. As you might expect during this game, there were some roaming hands. I was indiscriminate when I knew I had Christy in my clutches, but I typically gave as good as I got. I had been groped quite a bit, too. The big surprise was when I dunked one girl and grabbed a nice handful of luscious booty. When we both broke to the surface, I found myself face-to-face with ... my mom! She had an evil little grin on her face, and took advantage of my shock to dunk me, my face pressed in her chest.

I must have swallowed half of the pool while I was underwater. My mom helped me to the edge as I coughed up pool water.

"You need to be careful, Phil. You might find yourself in over your head. Maybe you should go back to the shallow end where the kiddies belong." With that, she gave me a wink and turned to swim away.

Oh, but it wasn't over. I caught her hips and dragged her under, this time giving her breasts a quick squeeze as I broke for the surface. She emerged a second later, sputtering and coughing. It was my turn to drag her to the edge of the pool.

"I'm okay here in the deep end."

I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and swam away. She had a beautifully shocked look on her face, and her chest was flushed.

Again, Wendy surprised me. I think she actually pissed Christy off a couple of times, as aggressive as she had been towards me. I was glad I had worn a rather baggy swimsuit as it went a long way in hiding how much I was appreciating the attention. Wendy was taller than Christy and had longer legs, with smaller breasts that still felt wonderful.

It was interesting that Jessica had chosen to participate, although on a limited basis. She took turns dunking all of the guys, but I noticed she really only did so in tandem with another girl, and her hands were certainly not roaming. She looked very hesitant, but at least she was there. I did get a chance to sneak up on her, grabbed her around the waist and pulled us both under. I refrained from groping, but I did tickle her ribs a bit as I released her. She shot me a look that likely would have killed weaker souls, but when she saw it was me, her face softened ... a little. Apparently, that was enough for her. She climbed out of the pool, indiscriminately splashing me on her way out.

When we weren't in the water, the groups segregated themselves by age. Mom, Misty, Maria, Tom and Carlos were sipping margaritas or have a beer and laughing quite a bit. I knew Tom had a good sense of humor, but it was obvious that Carlos was up to the challenge. Maria laughed and generally looked happy to be here, but I could detect the growing bags around her eyes and a worry line in her forehead I hadn't noticed, before.

The rest of the gang pulled the deck chairs into a circle and the conversation covered football, school and possible upcoming parties. David said that the next football party at the Gentry's wouldn't happen until the next home game, a week from Friday.

When Sparks asked what I had planned for tomorrow, I told him that was the day we were going to shut down the pool for the season. Immediately, I knew I had said the wrong thing. By the time that particular conversation was over, another pool party was planned for the next day (as it was a holiday). In return for having the party, they would all volunteer their services to help get the pool closed.

I could see the looks being passed from person-to-person: Scott and Heather, Mike and Angie, Christine and David. You could almost see the light bulbs go off in their head. Tomorrow would be just as nice as today, with one rather big exception...