Chapter 9

Nicole Ballard squeezed into her black competitive one piece and walked out of the locker room onto the concrete pool deck. It was seven o’clock sharp, Monday morning, the last day of June. She was at swim team practice, just like she had been every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning all summer long.

It felt very different today. There was Abby Frank, tall and gangling, bullied and undaunted, standing alone waiting for practice to begin. All summer she’d bullied the poor girl to look tough in front of her so-called friends. Her cousin Laura talked to Crystal and Gina and all knew about the bullying, and perversely approved of it. Nicole supposed she had no moral high ground herself, she was almost 18 now, she’d done the bullying of her own free will. Part of her even got a sick thrill from it, sparring with the eccentric tomboy, making Abby mad, making her fight back. She’d known from that first afternoon at orientation Abby that would never back down and might be more than she could handle, but that had only excited her. It was like playing with fire.

Nicole wasn’t going to bully the girl anymore. Perhaps Abby would agree to keep up the act so no one suspected, but Nicole didn’t have the stomach for it now. Or perhaps she wouldn’t even be able to make it believable and would start laughing, or crying, as she tried to fake being mean to that girl in front of the cool kids.

It didn’t matter. When Abby said they were girlfriends, Nicole knew she was would never bully her again. She’d just ignore her at practice and tell everyone she got tired of messing with the awkward redhead, or that she was afraid of Abby’s gargantuan brother, which was not the most implausible story. She’s heard he’d had fought off Todd and Brian in town, and none of the male lifeguards dared fight him even though he’d embarrassed guys in the clique. If she could point to that, maybe everyone would accept that messing with Abby and her friends was more trouble than it was worth. There was certainly lower-hanging fruit at Summer Lake.

It was still risky. Laura would probably find out she wasn’t bullying Abby and was less likely to buy the excuse. She wasn’t as dumb as Crystal and Gina, and she knew Nicole didn’t back down from a fight. Maybe she could tell Laura that Abby was threatening to report the assault on the stairs.

At any rate, she found it hard to care about that nonsense. Having a summer fling with Abby Frank was just too much fun. Making that girl lusty was a hundred times better than making her angry. It was dangerous, it would probably end badly, but Nicole couldn’t stand being a fake, pretend heterosexual Miss Perfect anymore. She needed to have a girlfriend again.

After kissing on Saturday night she’d had to get back anything much more could happen. Abby was probably disappointed Nicole hadn’t contacted her on Sunday, but they could hardly just start openly dating, or even obviously being friends. Abby would have to understand if this was going to work.

Laps, laps, laps. So many laps. Coach Fleetwood barked orders and corrections to their form, but he didn’t have much to say to Nicole or Abby. He’d given them some guidance privately, but he knew they needed a higher level of coaching than they could get from a Summer Lake lifeguard who’d stayed on staff too many seasons and become aquatics director.

Practice ended and she went to change with the other girls. Abby kept glancing at her subtly. The girl was probably wondering what was going on, and if Nicole still wanted to see her. She could hardly go talk to her flirtatiously now though, in the locker room with all those awful girls around. Nicole appreciated that Abby hadn’t said a word, despite knowing the secret that would destroy Nicole, but she had the impression that there was a code of silence among gay people. Nicole could out her too, after all.

After changing, Abby slinked away. Nicole made some excuse to her friends and ran after the girl as discreetly as she could, catching her at the elevator and sticking her hand in to stop the door from closing, then slid into the car with Abby. As soon as the door closed, she took her hand and felt a rush of adrenaline.

“Oh, so the beach wasn’t just a hallucination,” Abby said wryly.

“Nope, you’re stuck with me,” Nicole said. “Is your room empty? We can’t just hang out in the lounge obviously.”

Abby shrugged. “Lacey’s asleep in there. What about your room?”

“That will never be an option,” Nicole said flatly. “I live in a cottage with Laura.”

“Yikes. Well, we can use my brother’s room,” Abby said, “He’s at work and Nick had to go to town today.”

“Oh yeah,” Nicole said, “With my cousin, that’s right.” Laura had said something about being gone until early afternoon taking Nick to the city to pick up special equipment for the Fourth of July spectacular. But even with her cousin gone, she could never bring Abby to the cottage. Uncle Mitch could come in, and Laura liked to pop in when she wasn’t supposed to be there, just to try to catch Nicole.

Abby walked out into the landing and sighed when she realized Nicole was still in the elevator. “It’s clear,” the redhead said softly and Nicole followed her.

She walked a few feet back in the hallways. Everyone here knew her and Abby, they had to be discreet. Abby unlocked the door to a dorm room on the boy’s side and went in. Nicole looked around then quickly followed her, and closed the door.

She looked around the room and it was typical boy stuff, except the sound system was large and had the wires completely hidden.

“Nick Sanchez and my brother are roommates if you didn’t know,” Abby said as she turned on the room lights.

“Geeze, you just hang out in your brother’s room like this?” Nicole asked curiously.

“Yeah,” she said, sitting down on the less tidy bed, “We have a very close relationship. You should understand that. And who says geeze? I thought you were super-cool, Nicole.”

“What do you know about being cool? Anyway, your girlfriend says geeze. Deal with it,” she said with a grin as she walked over. She held a bottle of Evian water, which she opened up now to sip.

Abby grinned herself now. “So it really wasn’t a dream, huh? I actually woke up yesterday thinking it was. Sometimes I think my dreams were real ... like once I dreamed Eric fought with ninjas in Milwaukee and broke his leg. I woke up and was all worried about him for five minutes until I figured out it was a dream. It was so unrealistic though ... my brother would never lose a fight to ninjas!”

Nicole cackled. This girl had such a great sense of humor, she’d realized that the first night in the lake, when Abby had joked that she’d have to just let swimmers drown rather than rescue them from the off-limits part of the lake.

“Did he teach you to fight then?” Nicole asked.

“Not exactly, I was on the middle school wrestling team with him,” Abby said, “Before the boys hit puberty I could pin them all.”

“Of course,” Nicole said. She didn’t think anything this woman could say at this point would surprise her, she already accepted that Abby was the most amazing girl she’d ever met.

“Who taught you to wrestle?” Abby asked.

“My cousins,” Nicole said, “But not in a nice way. Laura and my boy cousins made me wrestle with them, growing up. Laura did it to be mean, I think my boy cousins liked it for other reasons. I got good so they couldn’t pin me.”

“Ew,” Abby said.

“Yeah.”

“But um, even still, I was really wondering if Saturday night was a dream,” Abby continued. “I was trying to kick your ass, not become your girlfriend.”

Nicole laughed. “Oh you’re such a concrete thinker, Abby,” she said, “But that’s part of why I like you.”

Abby smiled, then got up and went over to the stereo. “God, I hate to say it but you might as well know ... I was going out with Nick, this is his equipment obviously,” she thumbed through the albums but then put a homemade cassette into the tape deck. “We were trying to have a date Saturday night ... he put the moves on me, and I freaked out. Then I ran to the beach and saw you ... so I thought I’d kick your ass to blow off steam.”

Abby put the record on and Sweet Jane by the Velvet Underground started to play.

“Well that sounds very Abby, very logical, clean lines,” Nicole said warmly, patting the bed next to her. “What were you doing with a boy though? You’re as queer as a three-dollar bill. I learned that expression from my ex...”

Abby blushed as she sat down. “I know I am,” she said, “I thought I could, you know, learn to enjoy him. He’s a great guy. This is his music, by the way, he turned me onto this song.”

“Oh, I like it. But it doesn’t matter if the guy’s nice,” Nicole said, realizing now that Abby was a year younger than herself and perhaps hadn’t thought through all of these things. Last summer she’d still entertained similar thoughts. “What we are ... lesbians ... we can’t just will ourselves to change that. I’ve tried, too.”

Abby said softly, “I just thought I could date Nick as a friend, and have a fun summer. Our group of friends was going so well, but now I’ve gone and messed it all up. He’s pissed at me.”

“Oh dear,” Nicole said, putting her arm around Abby. The girl leaned into her easily and felt so good. “Well, you’ve gotta look out for #1. But it’s nice that you have friends worth caring about. I don’t.”

“Aww you mean the flunkies aren’t really your friends?” Abby said playfully, and Nicole just laughed. “Well you can join our group. If I haven’t destroyed it.”

Nicole sighed wistfully. “Your friends all hate me though, and for good cause,” she reminded her.

“I mean, I hated you, and look at us now,” Abby said. Nicole wrapped her arms around the girl and kissed her on the cheek. “I still can’t believe you actually want to be my girlfriend. When did you start liking me?”

Nicole smiled softly. “At orientation, when you told me to eat your pussy.”

Abby burst into a laugh. “Well I didn’t mean it literally at the time! I was just trying to piss you off.”

“Well obviously,” Nicole said, “But still, I was intrigued by you right away.”

“You could have skipped the being a colossal bully thing and gotten straight to the girlfriend part,” Abby said playfully, “This is much better.” She squeezed Nicole and they leaned against the back wall kissing softly on the lips for a while.

“I feel bad about that,” Nicole said after breaking the kiss, “Look, you might as well know. My family knows I’m a dyke, I got caught at boarding school in bed with a girl...”

Abby asked, “She was the ex you mentioned?”

“Yeah. Anyway, I’m still 17 and under my family’s thumb. They’ve got my whole life planned for me, and me being a lesbian obviously isn’t a part of the plan. I’m afraid you’re dating a closet case.”

Abby shrugged. “Not like anybody knows I’m a dyke either, well I kind of blurted it out to Nick but maybe he thought I was joking. I think we could tell my friends. They’d be your friends too if we tell them.”

“Not yet, baby,” Nicole said. “Maybe though. I’ve never had real friends. It’s pathetic.”

“I didn’t really either before this summer, other than my brother,” Abby said.

“God I still can’t believe we’re doing this in your brother’s room...”

“You really have to live with your cousin? She’s a psycho.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Nicole said, “But living with her is part of my family’s plan for keeping me from being a lesbo.”

“Wow that’s awful,” Abby said, then grinned. “It looks like the plan failed, though.”

Abby put her hand on Nicole’s thigh and squeezed. Her ex had been so timid, all those nights in the completely dark dorm room when they had to make as little sound as possible, but Abby was bold now that she knew Nicole wanted it. It felt amazing to feel real feminine desire like this.

“Looks like,” Nicole said with a grin, then put her lips on Abby’s. They kissed warmly, slowly opening their mouths and again Abby didn’t resist when Nicole pushed her tongue forward. She could feel Abby’s heart thumping when her chest pressed against the girl’s.

This girl, this feisty tomboy who joined the boy’s wrestling team and fought her tooth and nail all summer, Nicole was risking everything to be with her. She didn’t care, it was worth it to kiss Abby, to hold her.

She guided Abby onto her back and was on top of her now, reversing their position from the beach, kissing her hotly and meeting no resistance. The speakers played David Bowie’s Space Oddity which sounded so strange yet appropriate.

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

Nicole didn’t even like old music usually but she found herself crying from the emotion. She felt like she was floating, and everything did look very different today. She could look at Abby and see her girlfriend, the girl for whom she’d risk her supposedly perfect life.

“Geeze what is this music?” Nicole couldn’t help asking.

“Oh god,” Abby said with a cringe, “It’s a tape Nick made to seduce me.”

“Well, it’s working ... just not like he intended huh?” Nicole slid her hand up Abby’s shirt confidently, pushed her bra cup off and began rubbing her nipples. The girl shivered and gasped.

“Yeah,” Abby said, “I guess it is.”

She played with Abby’s hard nipples and kissed her again, still meeting no resistance and hearing only her heavy breathing and feeling her thumping heartbeat.

She slid her hand down slowly, dancing her finger’s on Abby’s goose-bumped skin, looking into her eyes now intensely as she slid her fingers under the elastic band of her shorts. Abby smiled softly. “Wait, that girl from boarding school ... the one who was in your bed...” she asked.

“Don’t worry baby,” Nicole said, “We broke up over a year ago. I can see you’re the jealous type ... good, I like that.”

Abby gave a goofy grin. “Have you ever done this before?” Nicole asked.

“No,” Abby said, “Not even close.”

“Well, you’re about to,” Nicole said confidently as she pushed her hand into the girl’s panties. Abby sighed contentedly and closed her eyes. Nicole found the girl’s clit and started to flick it back and forth between her thumb and forefinger. She kissed her on the lips sloppily, pushing her tongue into Abby’s mouth easily now.

Breaking the kiss, she kept rubbing the girl’s button passionately. “Yeah, Abby fucking Frank, you’re my girlfriend now,” Nicole said, and Abby slowly opened her eyes with a smile.

“I guess so, Nicole Ballard,” Abby said, moaning softly now. “I hope the world’s ready for it.”

“The world’s never gonna be ready for it, but I don’t care,” Nicole said. “Cum for me, baby.”

Abby moaned loader now as Nicole leaned over her, looking at her with confidence as she frigged her clit. She felt the girl’s wetness with her other fingers and slid her finger inside Abby’s vaginal opening, rubbing her clit now with her thumb. Nicole could smell her sex now. If there was any doubt that Abby was gay, it was gone from both girls now.

Abby started to shake and moan louder and Nicole knew she was having her first orgasm with another person. Nicole kept her finger on the girl’s clit, making her cum for as long as she could, then lay next to her, looking up at the ceiling, their bodies crammed next to each other on the little bed.

“Do you want me to...?” Abby asked softly.

“Next time,” Nicole said, looking over at her watch. “I’ve got a shift starting in 15 minutes. Besides, the first time you go down on me, I want it to be somewhere way more romantic than your brother’s room. This room smells like boys.”

Abby blushed. “I just wanted to be alone with you somewhere, anywhere...”

“I understand,” Nicole said, “But we’ll find a better place. Maybe I’ll kill Laura so we can use the cottage.”

“Ooh let me help,” Abby said playfully. Nicole loved actually being able to joke with someone like this – Crystal and Gina would have thought she was serious. She lay there for a while anyway, not wanting to stop holding her new girlfriend.

“So this could end really badly huh?” Abby said.

“For me, yeah,” she said, “My parents have mentioned sending me away for ‘therapy’ if I get caught with a girl again. There are places that turn lesbians into straight girls, you don’t even want to know how.”

“Yikes,” Abby said, “Now I see why you were such a cunt to me. No one would ever have suspected you’re a dyke...”

“Exactly,” Nicole said, “But I feel bad about even that. Oh well, what’s done is done.”

They lay there for a while. Nicole could feel Abby’s body heat. Her girlfriend’s toned body felt surprisingly soft in her arms like this. She wanted to make the girl go down on her now, but there just wasn’t time. “I really have to go, baby, I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh.

“Well,” Abby said, “Don’t forget to wash your hands.”

Nicole laughed and rolled on top of her, kissing her just one last time.

“My girlfriend is quite a character!”

Nick Sanchez sat behind the steering wheel of the Summer Lake box truck. Laura Ballard was in the passenger seat as she was way too snooty to drive such a working-class vehicle. Nick only had a learner’s permit, but that was enough with Laura there. Growing up poor in the south he’d had to drive before here and there, even when it wasn’t quite legal, but even still he had been a little uneasy at first driving such a large vehicle on the winding country road and then the interstate.

They had driven south to the nearest city of any true size, almost 90 minutes away, to pick up rental equipment for the Fourth of July festivities – a laser lighting system which Nick was excited to learn how to operate, additional speakers, even some pyrotechnic equipment for the firework show. They’d gotten so much that the truck’s cargo area was stuffed to the rafters now. The bill had come to over $5,000 and Laura casually paid it with the Summer Lake charge card. That was not much less than what Nick would make (after taxes) all summer working like a schmuck, but he tried not to think about that.

Now, driving back north, he felt comfortable in command of the big truck. Laura had put in a classical music tape, so at least the music was pleasant. But he still had to sit with her in the giant truck’s tiny cab for the ride back and he wasn’t excited about that.

She had slept the whole way up but now she was awake and said eventually, “Why so glum? Girl trouble?”

Nick frowned. He didn’t really think this was appropriate, since she was his boss, but he doubted that pointing that out would go well.

“Well,” he said, “If you must know, yes.”

“Awww I knew it!” Laura said gleefully. The woman was 23 or 24 now, having graduated college a year ago. She still looked youthful with her shiny blond hair in a ponytail and straight bangs in front. Her body was that of a former head lifeguard and competitive swimmer, tall, toned and tanned. “Who is it? Lacey Larue?”

“Oh god no,” Nick said impulsively.

“Well I’ve seen her with your group this summer, you and that huge landscaping boy. And your sister. Oh, and Raggedy-Anne! I mean, Abby Frank.”

Nick sighed.

“Oh it is her!” Laura said, clearly enjoying another chance to make Nick squirm. “Geeze, you sure can pick them. She seems very tough.”

“She is,” Nick said, “But it’s not happening. She turned me down.”

He didn’t know why he was telling her this, it was certainly none of her business, but he figured she’d probably pry it out of him eventually anyway. Deep down, he had to admit, he was still reeling from how Abby had run away from him that night, and even if he figured Laura’s friendliness was just an act, he found himself wanting to open up and talk.

“Aw that’s too bad, it’d be nice to have a summer girlfriend I’m sure, even if it was her,” Laura said snootily, then opened up her bottle of Evian and took a swig. “I’d say there will be other girls, but there probably won’t be other girls like her.”

Nick sighed. Laura was probably just teasing him but she was actually quite right. There’d never be another girl like Abby.

“Aww don’t be so sad, it’s just now July, there’s still two months left to have fun,” his boss said. At least she wasn’t being mean about it. For a moment he even thought about saying how he honestly felt, how much it hurt to be rejected once again and this time by a girl who was truly perfect, to again be sad and lonely with nothing to do but jerk off. And worse than that, this was presumably the end of the group. How could they hang out with him awkwardly pining for the group’s leader?

But he didn’t say anything. Not to Laura. He had to preserve at least some of his dignity here.

“Aw well, at least you’ll have fun setting all this fancy equipment huh?” she asked.

“I will,” Nick said.

“Then we don’t have to pay you, huh?”

“I’m not that much of a nerd,” he said with a laugh.

They parked the truck at the hotel’s loading dock and Laura mercifully said he could go while some guys from maintenance unloaded the equipment. Nick wouldn’t have been much help to them anyway, and it was all packed properly in sturdy cases so he didn’t worry about them breaking anything.

He went to the sprawling lakefront terrace and saw his sister leaving the concession stand, as he’d spent all morning on the errand with Laura and it was already afternoon when Esmie’s shift ended, and he saw her walking slowly from the concession stand toward the hotel.

“Esmie!” he said, walking up behind her.

“Oh, there you are,” she said, “How was the city?”

Nick shrugged. “Three hours in the truck with Laura Ballard ... at least I got to practice driving. Anyway we need to talk.”

“Uhh okay,” Esmie said, then added obnoxiously, “About Aaaabbbbyyy?”

Nick winced. “Well I guess about that too,” he said, “Come on, want to get a late lunch at Lacey’s restaurant, on me?”

“Oooh since when do you spend money?”

“Quiet, you,” Nick said.

“I should really wear something nice ... I can’t be seen in a high-class establishment wearing just my lowly concession stand uniform.”

Nick sighed. He seriously doubted that the cheesy restaurant off the hotel’s lobby could possibly qualify as high-class, but he knew better than to argue with his sister, so he took her to her room and waited outside for her to change into a black dress which looked pretty nice. He was in his usual jeans and flannel, and they made an odd pair, but he hardly cared.

“So how are things with Abby? I must know every detail,” Esmie said after they were seated, leaning over the table in the dimly lit restaurant. It was so ridiculous with its leather padded booths and dinky glass chandeliers over every table. He’d sulked in his room all day Sunday and not given anyone a full update yet.

“Well this wasn’t supposed to be about me,” he said, “But if you must know, things are through. Abby’s not into me. I failed.”

“Did you do something stupid?” his sister asked.

“Ummm, I really don’t think so, well, not at first,” he said, “I got mad when she said she wasn’t into me. I guess I screwed up then. I just don’t see why every girl thinks I’m chopped liver. But I guess we did fight because I was whining like that.”