Claire turned off the water into her bathtub and tested the temperature with a swipe of her fingers. Cool, refreshing: just what she needed in this 95 degree dry heat of southwest Oregon. She peeled her sweaty t-shirt off over her head and tossed it carelessly into a corner. The cool air of her bathroom felt good against her bare breasts. She shimmied out of her panties and carefully got into the tub. As she sank down into the cool water, she shivered. But “fuck”, she groaned, the coolness felt so good against her hot skin.

Claire had just sunk her head back against the folded towel at the end of the tub when her phone buzzed at her.

She shook her head and groaned. Just my luck, I get a work call the minute I slip into a tub of cool water she grumbled to herself. She should have turned the damn phone off. She sat up a little so she could retrieve her phone from the chair next to the tub. Caller id was not her work. She pressed the ‘accept call’ button and put the phone to her ear.

“Hi Angela! What’s my bestie doing in this heat?”

“Fucking melting, Claire,” her friend lamented. “Aren’t you glad you came home from ... where were you last? Alaska?”

“Yeah, I do miss the snow about now,” Claire chuckled.

“Oh please,” Angela griped. “Snow is a four letter word, do not even go there.”

“So what’s up?”

“Are you still on for the first big camping trip of the season?” Angela asked.

“Yep,” Claire replied, scooting her ass down so that she could once again lay her head back and relax. The water swirled around her. “Got my camping boots and my tent out yesterday.”

“Guess who is going?”

Claire smiled at Angela’s penchant for mystery ... and gossip. “You already told me who is going,” she said. “All your friends from high school.”

“Not all of them,” Angela snorted.

Claire had to chuckle at that. “True,” she retorted. “All of your friends from high school would fill ... well, the whole high school gymnasium.”

Angela giggled. “And they are your friends, too.”

“Yes, they were ... are,” Claire said. “You made sure to include me in all your fun stuff. I think you said there were seven of us going, including me?”

“Well, there is now one more addition to the list of who is going,” Angela piped up. “Guess who it is!”

“I barely remember anyone from high school, Angela,” Claire chuckled. “Just spit it out. Tell me.”

“You went to the prom with him,” Angela giggled.

Claire sat bolt upright, splashing water over the edge of the tub with her sudden movement. “Eric?”

“Mmmmhmmmm,” Angela laughed. “He has only gone on like two of these camping trips over the last six years but this time, he ... called ... me ... about it.” She said those last few words slowly, dramatically, with significance.

Claire licked her dry lips, took a few steadying breaths, swiped at the water around her. “And?” she asked as casual as she could muster up.

“Girlfriend, he actually asked if you were going to go!”

Claire closed her eyes. “No fucking way,” she breathed.

“Yes, fucking way,” Angela laughed. “And when I told him you were a confirmed go, he said he would be there, too.”

Claire let her head fall back against the towel, her eyes still closed.

“Are you still there, sweetie?” Angela asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Claire breathed. “I’m just ... thinking.”

“Don’t you dare back out on this now,” Angela barked. “You’ve been back home for what? Eight months? And you’ve said no to all the times I’ve invited you out.”

“You know I’m just not the party kind of person,” Claire groaned.

“You are not going to overcome your shyness unless you get out there and mingle with the opposite sex,” Angela chided her.

“You’re right, I know that,” Claire replied. “And no, I’m not going to back out of the camping trip.”

“Good!” Angela said. “Look, I gotta go, Bennie is walking up the sidewalk here, looking all sexy and all, so I’m going to let you go. I just wanted you to know the good news. Hugs!”

Claire disconnected the call and set the phone back on the chair. She sank further under the cool water, her mind whirling with this new information. She opened her eyes and spotted her baby-oil, shaving cream and pink shaver on the shelf at the other end of the tub. She bit her bottom lip for a moment, then shrugged and sat up to retrieve both items.

The morning of the big camping trip, Claire had her open backpack on her bed, which was in her living room, in a basement apartment in her dad’s house. Her rolled up tent, sleeping bag and pad were just outside her back door, along with a small blue and white cooler and a small box of food supplies and her well-worn clunky big hiking boots. The upstairs deck provided shade so they didn’t all bake in the sun. Small windows at the tops of the stone block walls let in bright sunshine. It was 65 degrees outside and only 9am in the morning. Forecast for the whole weekend was mid 90’s during the day, so shorts and tank tops and sun hats ... with hiking boots ... so sexy, she thought ruefully...

She stood naked in front of her dresser, opened the top drawer, pulled out several bras and matching panties. She chose her favorite white lace set and put it against herself, wondering what Eric would think. Would he like the white lace? He could almost see her boobs through the bra ... but maybe he would like that? Would he like the high cut panties, showing off a little bit more flesh than the regular cut panties? She sighed back her apprehensions. She put this set on, then tossed another set onto her bed in a medium blue lace fabric.

She opened the third drawer, pulled out a pair of khaki shorts: almost knee-length, baggier, good for hiking and sun protection, and plenty of pockets. She threw the khaki shorts on her bed and pulled out another pair of shorts: shorter, mid thigh, more form fitting jean shorts. Ok for hiking, definitely more skin ... all the better to possibly attract a certain pair of eyes.

She tilted her head, then shimmied into the jean shorts and stuffed the khakis into her backpack. She wanted to be prepared ... for whatever happened.

She pulled on a form-fitting white ribbed sleeveless t-shirt and packed four more in her bag along with two short sleeved, cotton, button-front plaid shirts, for when it cooled down in the evenings.

Claire dashed up the inside stairs to the upstairs of the big rambler house, found her dad in his favorite recliner, watching baseball with her brother in the living room they shared. “All ready to go?” her dad asked.

She wrapped him in a hug from behind, kissed his head. “Yep, Angela should be here any minute now.”

“Make sure you take loads of sunscreen,” her brother said. “You remember how burned you got the last time you were out in the sun for like more than five minutes.”

“You make sure to give dad his meds, three times a day, dear brother,” she retorted.

“I can make sure I take my own meds,” her dad griped.

“That was an out!” her brother exclaimed. “How the fuck can they call that safe?”

Claire shook her brother’s shoulder and gave him an evil eye.

“Yeah, yeah,” he growled at her. “I have the meds all sorted out, in that little pill thing, I’ve got it covered.”

Claire looked up at the sound of tires on the gravel driveway. Her dad and brother were glued to the baseball game. She chuckled, shook her head, gave each of them a kiss on the cheek and dashed back downstairs.

Angela blasted the hard rock from the radio in her new Ford truck the whole two hour drive down hot and dusty roads. Claire breathed a sigh of relief when they finally turned onto a one-way dirt road that split a ten acre meadow in half. At the end of the quarter mile road ahead, she could see deciduous trees with full canopies in a line that stretched a mile in each direction, shading the perfect camping spot.

“We are so lucky that Adam’s uncle owns this whole hundred acres,” Angela told Claire as they bumped along slowly on the dirt road. “With a lake, even! And very, very private,” she added, with a wink.

Claire blushed, chuckled and shook her head. “Always the party girl,” Claire laughed.

“Life is a party!” Angela whooped.

Four vehicles were already parked at every conceivable angle just under the shade of the canopy. Claire spied a familiar yellow beat up 4x4 jeep and had to smile.

Angela had barely pulled on the emergency brake before she was out of the truck. Her friends ran out from the relative darkness of the shade to surround her and it was one big group hug, complete with screeches and hollers.

Claire scanned the faces as she approached but was enveloped in hug after hug from people she had not seen in seven years. Familiar faces, just a little bit older.

As the last one turned away from a welcoming hug, there was Eric. At 6’ tall, he was half a head taller than she was with a slender build and broad shoulders. The light blue t-shirt he wore showed a hint of chest muscles and barely fit his upper arms. He had definitely filled out in the last seven years. He still had the boyish face of the 18 year old she remembered. How could seven years have gone by and he still looked just the way she remembered?

He nodded at her, smiled just a little, then gave her a light hug ... and added a quiet soft little kiss on her cheek just before he pulled away. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “Good to see you again, Claire,” he murmured.

“Good to see you, too, Eric.”

He smiled, nodded, then joined everyone as they scrambled to get all their gear out of Angela’s truck bed.

The bare ground under the trees was already littered with tents in a very wide circle around a central fire pit, which couldn’t be used because of the hot, dry conditions. Someone had playfully stacked wood in the fire pit and placed fake flames into the top, cut out of cardboard and painted red, orange and yellow. Two long folding camping tables were set up to the left with coolers and boxes of food already filling up one table. Half a dozen folding camping chairs were set up around the fire pit.

Angela claimed the last cleared tent site close to the fire pit and declared she intended on being way too tipsy to make it far from the fire pit to her tent. That got whoops and hollers. Claire prefered privacy so she ventured further from the main circle of tents, away from the maddening crowd, with her tent bag over her shoulder, her sleeping bag roll in her hand and her pillow under her arm. She found a cleared spot but it was just a few feet from another tent. She turned to the group that was gathered around the tables.

“Whose tent is this?” she yelled, pointed to the khaki splashed tent beside her.

They all looked up and one hand in the crowd went up.

She bit her lip as Eric approached her.

“Do you mind if my tent is so close to yours?” she asked. “If you need more privacy, I can find another spot.”

He shook his head. “Absolutely, it’s fine,” he said. “I actually think this may be the last good tent site available.”

She nodded, smiled and dropped her tent bag at her feet. “Happens when you are the last ones to arrive!”

“Would you like help setting up your tent?”

“Sure,” she replied. “It’s always nice to have a partner ... a helper,” she quickly clarified.

Both of them knew what they were doing so they silently worked together; her tent was up in just a few minutes. She threw in her sleeping bag. He picked up her pillow, dusted the dirt off with his hand and smirked at the pink rosebuds on her pillowcase.

“Roughing it?” he chuckled.

She snatched the pillow from him but smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “Roughing it but I do need my pillow.”

Someone yelled it was day hike time in ten minutes, be there or be square.

Blue sky, meadows with tall grass waving in the slight breeze, heavy woods that allowed them to breathe in cooler air. The group of eight hiked single file, chattering amongst each other. Claire was the second to the last in the line, with Eric behind her, bringing up the tail end. They stopped at a waterfall in the heavy woods for a short, five minute water and snack break. They resumed the hike and this time, Eric was in front of her in the line and she couldn’t help but admire the way the fabric of his shorts moved on his hips and ass as he hiked and how his slightly muscled thigh and lower leg muscles flexed with each step.

The last part of the hike was along a rocky ridge. Close to the top, they were all scrambling up a rock stairway. Eric got to the top ahead of her and turned to offer a hand to Claire. She reached up and he grabbed her hand in a good, strong grip, just as she started to lose her footing. Small rocks tumbled out from under her boots and her heart leapt but Eric actually pulled her all the way up to place her feet on solid ground next to him. She teetered and reached out with both hands to grab his waist, to steady herself. And he reached out to take hold of her arms, to steady her. She looked up at him. He was smiling at her ... and she was reminded of the many times they studied together in high school ... she would look up to see him looking at her, with that same shy, sweet smile. They would both blush and put their noses back in their books. This time, however, the smile was accompanied by a strong, warm touch between them.

The hold lingered until they both realized there really was no need for them to be holding on to each other any longer. And, like so many years ago, they both blushed, and came back down to earth.

It was a 360 degree view down into valleys all around them. They all gathered at the edge for a group photo. One guy put the camera on a rock, facing the group. Eric managed to stand next to Claire and when they were instructed to move in closer together to get everyone into the photo, their arms naturally moved from their sides to wrap around each other’s back waist so they could move closer together, hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder, as everyone else was doing.

“Smile for the camera, say cheese!” The one guy set the five second timer, darted to join the group. They all yelled ‘Cheese!” The timer went off but of course he had to take one more just to make sure. He darted back to the camera.

Claire felt Eric’s warm, solid body pressed up against hers, his hand around her waist. There was a barely-there squeeze of his hand as they all stood there, waiting. She bit her lower lip and gave him a sideways glance and caught him doing the same. When she felt him start to withdraw his hand from her waist, she caught her breath and tightened her hand around his waist.

Shy, quiet message sent ... She smiled when he moved his hand back and squeezed lightly again ... And message received.

They put daypacks back on and made the trek back down to their camping spot.

At the end of the trail, everyone threw off their daypacks, screeched and hollered as they stripped off every piece of sweaty clothing on their bodies, tossed clothes everywhere and plunged into the cool waters of the lake. Naked.

Everyone but Claire, who stripped down to her lacy underwear. She was now glad she chose to wear the nicer, lacy underwear.

“Oh come on, Claire!” a girl laughed. “Off with it all!”

“You’ve got the goods,” a boy exclaimed. “Show ‘em off!”

“Still shy as ever, Claire!” another girl giggled.

Claire waved off their comments, her face warm as she waded into the cool water.

Eric waded into the water behind her. He’d stripped off his sweaty t-shirt to reveal his softly toned chest and arms but he still wore his boxers.

“You, too, Eric?” a girl lamented.

“Mighty fine physique there,” another girl giggled.

“Eric! Dude! It’s time to party!”

Eric just shook his head, waved off their comments and joined the group up to their thighs in the cold water. He returned splashing from two girls; there was some good-natured shoving around amongst the boys as they tried to dunk one another. Two pairs of naked boys and naked girls immediately hooked up together, bodies pressed hard against each other, kissing. Oohs and aahs ended in splashing the two sexy couples and screeches and hollers. Eric dove into the cool water, came up far away, in the sparkling sun on the lake. He began to swim out to the floating dock. Others followed him, including Claire and he once again gave her a hand getting up onto the dock.

Water drops on his well formed chest and hard nipples, soft hint of abs, wet boxers sitting low on his hips, water drops clinging to his long straight eyelashes and mouth. Lacy low cut white bra, cold water making her nipples erect and very noticeable, hip hugging white lace panties, cut high on the hips, slight muscles showing in her upper arms and long curvy legs to die for due to all her bicycle riding.

Definitely showing more skin than she had shown in a long time.

But not nearly as much skin as everyone else, except Eric.

The dock now had three naked girls and three naked boys walking around, sitting down on the edge to kick at the water.

First Eric then Claire dove off the deck, swam down deep, twirled around each other in the greenish murky depths, like merman and mermaid, their oxygen bubbles sparkled in the undulating water, shafts of soft muted sunlight from above. They slowly floated to the surface and poked their heads up above the water, reaching out to hold onto the edge of the deck as they bobbed in the water.

“God, that felt so good, didn’t it?” Eric said, wiped the water from his face.

She nodded. “I forgot how much I love to swim,” she replied.

“Especially after a long hike on a hot day.”

She nodded, chuckled and dove back into the water. He grinned as her cute ass was the last thing to disappear under the water and he dove in after her. Others dove off the dock, rough housed in the water; some sat on the dock. Naked. boys and girls. She was not a prude, by any stretch of the imagination; but it still felt weird when a completely naked boy she remembered as a geek from high school reached down to give her a hand up the ladder to the dock.

She sat down on the edge of the dock, Eric sat down on her right, the naked boy on her left and to his left, sat his naked g/f. The couple started kissing, fondling each other. “Let’s go for a swim,” the naked boy said into their kiss.

“No,” the girl replied but he laughed, wrapped his arms around her, leaned forward. She squealed and he laughed as they both hit the water together with a big splash. Claire smiled. It was good to see people having fun with each other.

The sun was now below the tree line, casting moving gold colors amongst the green leaves of the trees.

She kicked her feet in the water. Eric’s thigh was up against her thigh; his bare shoulder against her bare shoulder. They sat in silence for a minute while the party went on around them ... Some jumping off the dock, splashing everyone, some pushing off the deck in screams of laughter, one couple making out as they sat on the opposite edge of the deck.

“Have you been on many of these camping trips?” Claire finally broke the silence and asked.

“A few,” he replied, kicked the water so it splashed her legs. “I work a lot of weekends.”

“What is it you do?”

“I’m a surveyor for the county.”

“I thought you wanted to be a lawyer.”

“No, my father wanted me to be a lawyer. First quarter of community college, I met geeky naked boy who was taking surveying classes. It piqued my interest, I took one class and the rest is history. Geeky naked boy switched to computer programming and is now working for Microsoft ... big bucks. Surveying, not such big bucks.”

“Do you enjoy it?”

“Best job ever. Out in the middle of nowhere, nature ... hardest part is lugging all the equipment around.”

“Time to start dinner everyone!” Angela called out from the shore.

“Time to get the party started!” someone hollered on the deck behind them. Whoops and hollers, followed by splash after splash as people dove off the deck and headed for shore.

“One more dive?” Eric suggested.

Claire nodded enthusiastically. They each leaned forward and dove into the cool water at the same time. They dove down deep into the depths, then turned to make the return trip to the surface, swam slowly around each other in a seductive dance. He reached out with one hand. She reached out and touched his hand but they remained apart, just their hands touched as they came to the surface.

“Let’s go!” a guy exclaimed as he swam in between them.

“Where’s the beer!” another guy said as he followed the first guy.

Eric and Claire just chuckled, turned and followed the two naked guys back to shore.

Hard Rock music pounded from two big speakers set up in the bed of one of the trucks. Everyone had put minimum clothes on; everyone was dancing around, making drinks, drinking beer, rearranging gear on the two tables to make room for the meal prep, laughing, telling stories.

Claire was assigned the task of slicing up all the fresh fruit for a salad so she sat on the bench on the far side of the tables, facing towards the party. She moved a little to the beat of the music as she sipped her first drink: orange vodka and 7up over ice.

Eric enjoyed an ice cold local brew. As he assisted two other boys with combining all the beer into as few coolers as possible, they argued over which local brew was the best. The three of them poured fresh ice over the beer in the coolers. Eric put four huge bottles of wine into a separate cooler and poured iced over that.

Dusk was already filtering over their little campground so someone hung up strings of battery powered fairy lights in a circle around the fire pit. Several of the girls gave him kisses for his romantic touch.

The BBQ was fired up. Hamburgers and hot dogs were put on the grill, the smell and smoke of charcoal drifted in the air, the sizzle of the meat, the drinks, the good company, the music, the sharing of current life amongst everyone.

Claire was the new kid on the block so they had lots of questions about her gypsy lifestyle, her travels. She answered all their questions as they all sat around the two tables, gorging themselves on all the good food. Eric had volunteered to man the grill so he listened from the sidelines, his right side to the party so he didn’t miss out. Angela sat on Claire’s right. They listened intently to her stories about the different places she’d been.