Chapter 6: Girl Talk

“Mommy!” Holly Graham screamed in delight and tore through the open gate into the back yard. She tackled her mother around the knees, hugging her fiercely. “Mommy!”

Heather Mackenzie looked at Lauren curiously as she wheeled her bicycle into the yard, Jimmy in tow. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Why aren’t you working?”

Lauren smiled and reached down to wrap her daughter in a tight hug before sending her off. She dropped the reel of hose she had been wrestling with and answered, “Somebody dug up an electrical line going into the office. No lights, no phones, no air conditioning - no work! We all got sent home early.”

“And now?” asked Heather. She turned to Jimmy and asked, “Aren’t you going to give your mother a hug, too?”

Jimmy looked mortified. “Yuck!” The youngster attempted to run inside past his mother, but Lauren made a long arm and pulled him to her, giving him a sloppy kiss on the cheek in the process. “Gross!” he yelled, and then escaped, as Heather and Lauren laughed.

“Lose the bike and put on something light,” said Lauren. “It’s too hot to go inside. I’m going to turn the sprinkler on and sit outside.”

“Deal!” answered her young protégé. Heather wheeled her bike back through the gate and into her own yard. She normally would ride to the school to pick up the children and then walk home with them. She put on a conservative one-piece swimsuit and walked back next door.

Lauren had already changed into a bikini top and shorts and was positioning the sprinkler and hose in the back yard. She took one look at Heather and said, “What, no bikini?” then instantly regretted her words.

“Mom won’t allow me to own one. This is the only swimsuit I’ve got,” the teen admitted sheepishly.

“Sorry, hun. How is it going?”

“Not good,” replied Heather. “Mom is really getting wacky, and she and Dad are fighting constantly now. I just want to last long enough to graduate and leave!”

“You know, if you ever want to leave, you can always stay with us, in the family room in the basement, okay?”

Heather didn’t know what to say to this, so she simply helped her mentor set up the sprinkler and then turned on the water. Jimmy and Holly immediately appeared as if from nowhere and wanted to know if they could play in the spray. Lauren agreed, and the children scampered off to change into their own swimsuits. Almost immediately Goldie made an appearance and began jumping through the spray herself. Lauren and Heather sat down on a pair of lawn loungers and Lauren pulled forth a bottle of suntan lotion.

“So, how’d your weekend go?” asked Heather. “Have fun?”

Lauren blushed. “We had sex, which was even better! God, the man is insatiable! It was wonderful!” Lauren described Friday evening and Saturday morning. “Then he wanted me to go with him to a club in a halter top, miniskirt, and my high heels, and nothing else.”

“So?”

“No, you don’t get it. A top, a skirt, my heels, and nothing else. Nothing, get it?”

It took Heather a second to understand, then her eyes opened wide, and her mouth gaped open. “Oh my God! You didn’t!”

“No, I didn’t,” said Lauren. “I chickened out. I did dress up and we did go out for a few drinks, but I simply refused to go there. We did, however, go up to the reservoir late that night to see the submarine races. My God, I haven’t done that since I was your age!”

Heather laughed at this. Innocent that she was, even she knew this was slang for going parking up at the lake. “See any periscopes?” she asked.

“Just one, but I saw it several times,” replied her laughing friend. “Now, what about you? How was your date Saturday?”

“Uh, okay. We went to the mall and saw a movie, then went over to McDonald’s afterwards.”

“Have fun?”

Heather shyly admitted that she had, nodding more than speaking.

“So, what happened?” pressed Lauren.

Heather blushed, then looked up and smiled. “Well, nothing like what you did, that’s for sure! We just sort of held hands.”

“Did he kiss you good night?” asked her older friend.

Heather smiled dreamily. “Yeah ... he asked me out again on Friday night.”

“Going?”

“Yeah,” replied the dreamy teen.

“Is he a good kisser?” teased Lauren.

Heather looked up at this and laughed. “How should I know! He’s the first guy I’ve ever kissed!”

“And are you the first girl he’s ever kissed?”

Heather shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think he’s really been out on many dates either. He only got his license at the end of school, so, well, I don’t know...”

Lauren laughed. “He slip you any tongue?”

“Gross!” protested Heather.

“You’ll learn, you’ll learn,” teased Lauren. A moment later she asked, more seriously, “So, I guess you were a little too worried about having to have sex at the end of the date?”

Heather laughed at this. “I guess so. Still, I liked that kiss. I think I might like to get kissed again.”