Chapter 8: Pool Party

“This is awesome,” said the sandy-haired boy with a grin as he walked past the pool with a bottle of beer in one hand and a White Claw in the other. His gaze settled on the girl sitting in the pool chair wearing a strapless, black, Annie bikini top and side tie bottoms. “Here you go, Nan. One White Claw for the prettiest girl at the party. They have coolers and coolers of them.”

“My hero,” said the girl taking the can and opening it with a practiced motion before taking a sip. “Nobody gave you any trouble?”

“Nah,” said Brad with a shake of his head as he sat down on the pool chair next to her and took a swig from the bottle. “They’ve got guys watching but I look close enough to twenty-one I guess, and there’s like twenty ride-share cars waiting to drive people if anyone gets drunk. How rich are the Glazers?”

Nan shrugged and looked around at the huge pool and lawn where hundreds of kids and adults gathered all around, “Beats me but the fireworks show last year must have cost a fortune.”

“Cool,” said Brad quickly raising his eyebrows up and down. “Fireworks are romantic.”

Nan laughed and licked her lips as she looked over his young, strong body, “You’ll get yours, don’t worry about that.”

“Damn, woman,” he said just staring at her. “I don’t even want to go back to college. I just want to stay here, with you.”

Nan turned her head to the side and shook it slowly, “Are you falling in love with me?”

He shrugged, “Maybe.”

“Well, don’t. I’m a tramp. Everyone knows I never kiss the same guy twice.”

Brad leaned over and kissed her.

“There’s your once,” she said with a smile.

He leaned over and gave her a long, gentle kiss.

“No one tells me who to fall in love with,” he said.

She blushed red, “Fine, then. Fall in love all you want. Don’t expect me to reciprocate.”

“You’ve been in love with me since you were fourteen, tramp. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

“Ha,” she said and stuck out her tongue as she looked at some of the cute young men all around. “So many cute guys to choose from. What’s a girl to do?”

At that moment a group of young girls in almost obscenely small swim suits paraded past, their young breasts high and tight on thin frames. One of them looked over at Brad, smiled, and shook her little booty as she walked away.

“Freshmen,” said Nan with a shake of her head. “I remember when I was that young.”

Brad smiled, his gaze barely moving from Nan, “Speaking of freshmen, where’s your brother? I haven’t seen him yet.”

Nan sat up in her chair and scanned the area until she spotted a couple of figures in tan, long-sleeve shirts all the way at the far end of the huge lawn, “He’s over there, working on the hedges.”

“He’s working on the fourth?” said Brad wrinkling his nose and taking a sip of beer. “That’s nuts.”

“All the rain,” said Nan. “Tommy said Mrs. Glazer is crazy about every detail and they didn’t get a chance to finish up the other day, so they started this morning early, early. I think he brought a change of clothes and his swimsuit so he can join the party later. Why, did you want to ask him something?”

Brad shook his head, “Nah. Honestly, don’t get mad at me.”

“Go on,” said Nan.

“He’s a great little guy, I really like him. And he’s popular with the girls. I was thinking if Sarah sees a bunch of girls flirting with him, she might dump Connor. I hate that shithole but don’t say anything to Sarah about it. The more you rail against Connor the more she defends him.”

Nan smiled, “Sarah’s not going to date a freshman, but,” she added holding up her hands. “I agree, they’d be a great couple. He’s so in love with her, like dad with mom. And she definitely would fall in love with him if she’d give him a chance. He’s just like dad.”

“That’s a good thing?”

Nan grinned, “If you’re Sarah, yeah, a guy like my dad is a good thing.”

“Really?”

“All I can say without breaking girl code is that it’s damn lucky dad isn’t a perv.”

“Interesting. Are we even sure she’s going to be here for senior year?” asked Brad knocking back another sip of beer. “She’s going to the city next week for a shoot with Vogue and IMG has got her setup with an agent. My mom is going with her.”

“Don’t tell Tommy that,” said Nan holding a finger up to her lips. “It’ll break his heart.”

Brad shrugged, “But it could be a good thing. She doesn’t have to walk around the halls with all those mean girls making fun of her dating a freshman and it’ll get her away from Connor.”

“I don’t know,” said Nan with a shake of her head as she scanned the party for signs of Sarah and her brutish boyfriend. “She might meet some hunky male model or a hottie photographer or something. Besides, what am I going to do if Sarah is gone half our senior year?”

“Focus on your golf,” said Brad with a smile. “We’ve got a good team at Stanford. You could get a scholarship.”

She looked at him with narrowed eyes, “You really are in love with me, aren’t you?”

Brad shrugged, “You’re all right, as girls go.”

Nan laughed, “All right, Mr. Cool.” She flipped over on her stomach. “Slather me up.”

Brad looked at her pert little behind, toned legs, and sculpted arms and shoulders, “Yes, my queen.” He leaned over, picked up the spray can of suntan lotion and began to apply it all over her back.

At the far side of the party, near the hedges, a tall man wiped the sweat from his brow with a rag and looked over at his two workers, a younger boy over at a hedge with a pair of hand clippers and a short Hispanic man with broad shoulders shoveling mulch. “Llámalo un día, sí. Disfruta de la fiesta, Tommy.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Ramirez?” asked Tommy taking a few more snips with the clipper. “It’s just getting started. I can help for a while longer if you need.”

“I’m sure. Enjoy yourself. We’re all but done,” this last with a nod at the other man who smiled at Tommy and waved him toward the party.

“Sigue.”

“Gracias, Mr. Ramirez, Hector,” said Tommy with a bob of his head, walked over to a nearby hose and washed off the clippers. He then went to the carryall parked nearby, carefully put the clippers on the rack, and pulled off a yellow and green backpack. He turned back to the two men, “Nos vemos el Miércoles?”

“Si, Miércoles,” said Mr. Ramirez with a smile.

“Ve a hablar con algunas chicas bonitas,” said Hector making an hourglass shape with his hands.

“Si, si!” said Tommy and dashed off toward a little pool house not far away from where they worked. He didn’t get far before running across a group of kids standing near a tree, smoking cigarettes. One of them was a broad-shouldered boy, taller than Tommy wearing a swimsuit and a pair of flipflops.

A dark-haired girl smiled and waved at him, “Hey, Tommy.”

“Hey, Ash. Nice swimsuit. I like that orange color, what do they call it?”

“Tiger!” she said with a grin, lifted a foot, and pointed it at him.

“Grrr,” said Tommy and raised his eyebrows up and down.

She laughed brightly and ran her fingers through her hair.

“Don’t talk to the help,” said the boy pushing the girl to the side and moving to stand right in front of Tommy.

“Vete a la mierda,” said Tommy looking up at the boy who stood a couple of inches taller.

“Speak English, bitch,” said the boy.

Tommy smiled, “I said your dick looks tiny, Billy.”

The girl and another boy nearby both laughed but stopped when Billy gave them a fierce look.

“Bigger than that pencil stick you’ve got,” said Billy with a sneer.

“Your girlfriend didn’t have any complaints last night,” said Tommy with a wink at Ash. “Or the night before that.”

Billy came forward and tried to grab Tommy by the shirt, “Keep it up.”

Tommy pushed the grasping hand aside and Billy’s forward momentum sent him sprawling to the ground and into a little puddle of mud left by the previous night’s rain.

“Did you just knock down my brother?” came a deep voice and a huge young man appeared from inside the pool house. He pulled at the ties on his swimsuit and a very pretty blonde girl with a fantastic figure accentuated by a bright green bikini came out behind him.

“He fell, Connor,” said Tommy. “Hey, Sarah.”

The girl looked at the ground and bit her lip.

“You flirting with my girl?” asked Connor stepping forward and standing over Tommy aggressively. He was nearly a foot taller and twice as broad at the shoulders.

“Yes,” said Tommy realizing there was no right answer to the question so he might as well give the worst possible answer.

Sarah smiled.

“You just bought yourself an ass kicking,” said Connor and pushed Tommy who fell back a step but kept on his feet. Connor then raised a fist and moved toward the boy.

“No, Connor stop!” shouted Sarah.

Tommy shot forward a quick blow with his right fist that caught Connor right in the nose and staggered him back a step. He reached up and felt his nose, “You little fuck!” This time he charged forward, reaching for Tommy.

Tommy hit him again in the head but his fist only partially caught the fast-moving Connor and glanced off his forehead. Then Connor had his hands on Tommy, lifted the boy into the air, and slammed him down on the ground with a crash.

“Connor!” screamed Sarah. “Leave him alone!”

“Connor,” said Connor in a high-pitched imitation of her voice. “Leave him alone, he’s such a weakling.”

Tommy tried to kick out from Connor’s hold but his grip was like iron and he weighed a ton. Tommy tried to slash out with a hand but Connor grabbed it and twisted it around behind his back, then shoved Tommy’s face into the ground. “Like that, bitch?”

Tommy felt like this arm was being ripped off and reached behind him with his other hand to tap on Connor’s side repeatedly.

Connor pushed Tommy’s face into the mud even harder and twisted his arm back almost to the point of breaking.

“Connor!” screamed Sarah.

Suddenly a calloused hand appeared and twisted Connor’s arm away. “Win fight, fight over,” said Hector standing over Connor.

“Let go of my arm,” said Connor with a snarl and a glance at Hector. “Right now.”

Hector shook his head, “Win fight, fight over. Shake hands.”

Connor twisted away from Hector pulling his arm free with a jerk. Then he charged the man but suddenly felt himself flying through the air and landing with a hard thud on the ground. His arm was twisted and the man had his leg wrapped up as well. Connor thrashed but couldn’t move at all. “Let me up.”

“Win fight, fight over,” said Hector.

“Let me the fuck up!” grunted Connor.

Hector made a small movement and Connor screamed.

“Win fight, fight over, say it,” said Hector calmly.

“Fuck you,” said Connor and Hector moved again, an ever so slight twisting of his leg.

“Arghh,” said Connor. “Fight over, fight over.”

Hector immediately let go of Connor and got to his feet. “Now, shake hands. Win fight, fight over.”

Connor stood up and just as another man, in a security uniform, arrived on the scene, “Break it up, kids.”