Chapter 2

Dawn pushed me out of line of sight from the glass patio doors. She pulled her sweatshirt off and kicked out of her shorts quickly. She half covered her tits and looked up at me.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s it?” she pouted. Her head fell forward and her bangs covered her eyes.

“You look lovely,” I said. “But I’ve seen you in that swimsuit a half dozen times this summer.”

“Oh? Shit!” She looked down at her green striped bikini. “Goddammit!” She twisted and looked at her butt. She grabbed her nose. “I was totally going to wear a slutty one. Promise.”

“Oh, why?”

“‘cause you like slutty girls,” she snarked at me.

“No, I like one slutty girl. Emi,” I laughed. “You’ve never been slutty, Dawn.”

“Good,” she said. “This one’s still OK?”

“No. Take it off.” I beamed. She laughed brightly.

“Is that tequila?” she asked.

“Yep, c’mon, first drink’s on me,” I said.

“Damned straight!” She followed me over to the snack table and watched me pour what I guessed was about a shot into a couple of red solo cups. She picked up the salt shaker. I had cut the limes and wrapped them in saran wrap. She pulled the plastic apart and grabbed a wedge.

“To--”

“To happy birthday,” she interrupted me. She grabbed my wrist and pulled the cup I was offering across her chest. I was almost touching her boobs. She hit me in the nose with the peel.

“What?” I asked looking up.

“Hold this in your teeth,” she spoke rapid-fire and looked over at the patio doors six times. I almost managed to grab the lime from her fingers with a bite before she snatched it away.

“Hey you two!” Emi singsonged as she led the three other girls out into the back. “Drinks! Hell yes!”

“Is that tequila?” Iggy asked. “I never had tequila.”

“Yeah, it’s, uh--”

I stopped talking as Dawn shook salt onto my wrist. She sloshed back the shot. Her face twisted. She dove in and licked the salt from my wrist and stuffed her face with the lime wedge as she pulled up.

“Cool, I know where you can throw the salt when it’s your turn, Lucas,” Emi hugged.

“What? Your boobs?” Iggy asked.

“No, Anna’s boobs,” Emi reached over and grabbed Anna’s elbows and shook Anna’s top half wildly. Anna turned a deeper pink.

The girls were all stripped down to their bikinis. I was in heaven. Dawn’s green and white one was cute, showed off her cleavage and broadly covered her butt. She sucked in her belly whenever I looked her way. She was cute, if a little more cuddlier than the others. Plus it just made her but one size better! Her skin was fair all over. She was only really tanned on her arms and legs. I’d seen her in the bikini a few times this summer, but she had caked on the spf 1200 because otherwise she’d have been a tomato.

Anna was tall, willowy, wearing a smaller bikini than her usual. She was tanned and the clear lines varying from a centimeter to a couple inches wider than the triangles on her perky tits or the thong bottoms were amazing. Anna was probably fourth in asses. Holy shit I loved that ass. She blushed, down to her navel, the untanned area around her boobs lighting up like fire. Drew the eyes. Even Emi was happy to look.

Emi had covered her great breasts with a white bikini top. By the look on her face, she had another surprise coming for me. I couldn’t wait. Emi was dark, olive skinned naturally, and I had been distracted from seeing her breasts. Now, I had the moment to look on, to scrutinize, if you will, and I could see the slight difference in tan lines around the bikinis she had worn all summer and the one I was looking at her in now. She wasn’t wearing a thong like Anna (and that was making Emi frustrated that she wasn’t the bravest tonight) but her butt popped out and she had happily waved it at me once or twice.

Iggy had let me come out here with Dawn. She had let Anna and Emi step out in front of her and only popped around the side of Anna after I had drunk in all of the other girls. She was short, probably just as curvy as Anna but on short it looked thicker. She bit her lip, lifted her arms straight up, kinked her wrists laying her hands palm up and spun.

Her bikini was purple and blue. The bottoms didn’t match the top. The bottoms were her standard simple great for her butt but matched the tanlines bottoms I expected her to wear. Her top was different. Her tan was a little more red than bronze. Also, her tanlines showed the rectangle wrap she normally wore over her perky tits. Today she showed off a great deal of cleavage. I had never seen her wear a shirt with a neck that low before, even the few times I had caught her in her underwear, well she hadn’t been as old and developed as she was today. I smiled. She looked nervous. I stood taller. More than anything, I wanted her to be giggly, be excited, be Iggy.

“We’re not going to do anything that crosses the line, Iggy,” I said.

“Really?” she asked, in a tone that was less than thrilled. She blushed. “Oh, I mean, your jokes cross lines all of the time.”

“That’s why they’re funny,” Emi said. “I want a shot!”

“All jokes are OK!” Iggy barked out, before joining in Anna and Dawn in “Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!”

Emi skipped over as I poured a little bit of tequila for everyone. My wrist was the designated salt lick. Emi licked sloppily all the way up to my elbow. Before, twisted face, chomping madly on her lime wedge to cut the alcohol taste. It took Anna four attempts to drink her shot, her face getting more and more gargoylish with every taste of liquor. Finally, she dove into my wrist and Dawn fed her the lime.

“That was gross,” Anna said. “My lips feel funny.”

“Alright! My turn!” Iggy danced up. Anna handed her the cup. Dawn liberally salted my wrist. Emi grabbed the wedge. Iggy held out her right hand to Emi.

“Nope.” Emi said.

“All of you got to bite the lime!” Iggy said, a little hurt.

“All of us weren’t as fun as you,” Emi smirked.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s not what your mouth is for,” Emi laughed. She grabbed my jaw and banged the rind of the lime off of my lips. I opened and bit the bitter skin on her second slap.

“Oh, this is what Dawn wanted to--” I started to speak, garbled around the lime. I don’t think anyone but Dawn knew what I was saying. I stopped because she kicked me in the shin as she blushed like Anna.

“What?” Iggy asked.

“You can bite it out of his mouth,” Anna said, only a light shade of pink now.

“It’ll be like a kiss,” Dawn murmured.

“No,” Emi said. “It’ll be cute and fun, but it won’t be a kiss.”

“And hot,” I said. I expected no one to understand me, but that came out clear as day.

Iggy glowered at me. Then she smiled brightly. She popped up her shoulders. “No, can’t do it!”

I was about to spit out the lime. Do it the way she wanted. Emi’s question stopped me.

“Why not? Be brave.”

“He’s too tall!” She lifted herself up on her tiptoes and still could only kiss my chin. My eyes went wide and I climbed down onto my knees. Iggy smiled bigger than I had ever seen her. She licked her lips and giggled: “Dammit!”

“No excuses now,” Anna laughed.

“No excuses.”

This was everything I needed. I know Iggy liked me. Loved me. We wouldn’t say loved yet. But I loved her. That’s why I needed her. She felt it back. Every problem we had in love was all about not being able to get to where we wanted to go because we wanted to take different paths to get there.

It hit me. Dawn had wanted to me to hold the lime in my mouth as well. My eyes flicked to her. She smiled wanly. Anna was watching, biting her lip. Emi was bouncing around. She started the chant.

“Shots!”

Iggy lifted the rim of the cup to her lips.

“Shots!” Dawn added.

My eyes were totally on Iggy as the bottom of her cup went straight up.

“Shots!” Anna was pumping her fist as she chanted.

The empty cup clattered across the deck.

“Woo!” The onlookers erupted.

Iggy grabbed my hand and elbow. She motorboated the salt off of my wrist.

“Get ‘im!” Emi cackled.

Iggy grabbed my head and bit the flesh of the lime so that the juice splattered all over our chins and shoulders. Cheers erupted. I felt the softness of Iggy’s lips slide over mine. I didn’t realize they cut off until I spit the lime out into my hand and looked into Iggy’s bright eyes and sloppy smile.

She poked me in the nose. “Happy birthday.”

“Myoa tahn!” Emi garbled.

Iggy turned around. She yelped, happily, as I grabbed her hips and climbed up to my feet. She dropped her head backwards until the top of her head hit my chest and she looked straight up my nose.

“That’s a lot of drink,” she said.

“Sels on buhbs...” Anna’s voice shriveled up. All three of them had wedges of lime in their mouths. Dawn had bitten too hard through the rind and her face was twisted up in the sour drip onto her tongue. Anna pointed to her boobs. There was a salt lick on each of them. Emi grabbed the saltshaker and wiggled it in Iggy’s face. She looked down at everyone’s boobs.

“Really guys?” she asked, nervously.

Emi nodded frenetically. Dawn bopped Iggy on the nose with the next lime wedge. She then squeezed a bit so that a few drops of juice fell onto Iggy’s boobs. Emi liberally salted Iggy’s boobs.

“OK, but then it’s friend stuff,” Iggy said to me.

“Yeah!” I burst out gleefully.

Iggy couldn’t say anything else because Dawn shoved the lime into Iggy’s mouth. Anna waved at the line of four solo cups. Their ideas of an ounce of tequila were less than mine. Even with all four, I was probably not drinking triple what I had given each of them.

“So, I guess, line up?” I said lifting the first cup.

Emi grabbed Iggy’s shoulders and set her right in front of me. Dawn jumped in shoulder to shoulder with Iggy. Anna wasn’t so close to Dawn and Emi muscled into the third spot. I smiled and turned my eyes onto Iggy. I guess I grinned a little threateningly. Her throat wavered in excitement and nervousness. She squealed around the lime and wedge and dragged Dawn out of place and shoved the almost-redhead into the first position.

Dawn lit up like a Christmas tree.

I dove for her tits. She shrieked as I licked across the salt.

“You’re supposed to drink first!” Iggy said with her hands on her hips.

“Maybe.” Anna frowned. “What if we were doing it wrong?”

“Does it matter?” Emi asked. “Think Iggy will giggle that much when it’s her turn?”

Dawn was shaking with laughter when I raised my head. I barely dodge the squirt of lime juice from the fruit she squeezed with her teeth. I slung back the liquor, dropped the cup, and chomped the lime in her lips.

Dawn had thicker lips than Iggy. She also leaned in deep as I flushed the alcohol taste from my tongue.