Toni and Paddy had been friends since forever.

They were born a week apart, their parents were close neighbours, and their mothers bonded immediately, sharing the load of raising the children, sharing tips learnt from TV or other parents they’d met, sharing cars for trips to the supermarket, and sharing the cost of holidays to Pontins and Haven after their husbands left.

Cathy, Toni’s mum, suspects their husbands left because they felt they couldn’t compete with their friendship. Ant, her husband, had become increasingly needy, demanding her attention when she was feeding Toni. She mentioned this to Isla, Paddy’s mum, and Isla agreed, her husband, Jerry, was the same, he’d been jealous of the attention she gave to Paddy, and suspicious of her friendship with Cathy.

Their husbands left a few weeks apart, Jerry going first, then Ant.

Being single mothers put a strain on the women financially, it meant they had to go back to work earlier than either of them would have liked, but they were fortunate that there was a very good school nearby with a childcare provision that accepted both kids as soon as they were a year old.

Toni and Paddy were so close, the nursery staff thought they were twins, although they looked nothing alike, which was weird.

Anyway, they played together so well, the staff just left them to it, devoting their attention to the other kids who weren’t quite so independent.

The nursery manager was a little concerned they didn’t play much with the other kids, and would often shy away if any approached them, but they were also the most well developed kids in the school, walking before the others, building the most stable and advanced structures with the play bricks, they were the only children who were unafraid when the therapy dogs visited, and they were very careful when one of the staff brought in some chicks so they could watch them grow.

Toni was the first of the group to be able to read and write, Paddy was slower academically, but ahead of most of the group.

By the time they sat their Key Stage One tests at the end of Year 2, Toni was top of the class and Paddy was in the top third and getting better all the time under Toni’s tutelage.

The first time the school became seriously concerned about Toni and Paddy’s closeness, was when a child pushed Paddy out of the way in the playground and Toni punched the child.

Staff noticed a pattern, where Toni protected her friend to the point of fighting his battles.

When they called their parents in, Toni’s mum was a little concerned, but mostly proud of her daughter.

Toni enjoyed watching the older children play football in the park and asked her teacher if she could join the Year 4 team. The teacher was concerned because Toni was the only girl who wanted to play, so she’d have to join the boys team. They checked with Cathy, and she was fine. She very quickly learnt the rules and was soon running rings around the other children, she even outpaced Paddy, and football became the only time when they weren’t practically joined at the hip.

When they moved up to secondary school, Toni was mildly annoyed when she was forced into a girls team, but this did mean she was instantly captain, because she was by a long way, their best player.

Secondary school introduced Toni to proper athletics events, and the teachers soon found out she could run as fast as all but the two fastest boys, and she excelled at cross country running.

The pastoral team had studied the paperwork that came from the primary school and were a little confused about the relationship between Toni and Paddy. Like the nursery staff, they thought the pair acted like twins, but they thought it was more than that, they thought they acted like twin boys. Toni showed no romantic affection towards Paddy, or towards any of the other children, boys or girls.

By Year 9, Toni had propelled the school football team to the finals of the county championships, and she regularly finished in the top five in county level cross country events.

Toni was a pretty girl, tall for her age, slender with a round, open face and a beautiful smile. Her hair was jet black and shoulder length.

A fantastic win at the county cross country championships, winning the girls race and beating boys two years older, brought her to the attention of the whole school.

She began to fend off a stream of boys, some more politely than others. She was also approached by some of the braver girls, these were all rebuffed politely, and left with smiles, not tears.

The pastoral staff put the rejections down to Toni’s laser-like focus on sport, but they checked in with Cathy, just to be sure. Cathy assured them Toni was aware of relationships and sex, it’s just that growing up with Paddy as her closest friend, she’d always been a bit of a tomboy, enjoying boy’s sports and games more than girl’s.

During the long summer break between Years 9 and 10, the families spent their usual two weeks at a holiday village in Tenby, South Wales. The kids loved the village, it had a pool, a swimming lake surrounded by woodland walks, cycle trails, beautiful beaches, and it was totally secure, so parents could let their kids roam, safe in the knowledge they couldn’t get out, and strangers couldn’t get in.

One day, Toni decided she was going to do a triathlon, 4 widths of the swimming lake, a cycle ride twice around the woodland cycle path, followed by running two laps of the whole park. She asked the girl behind the desk at the cycle hire shop if anyone had done this before and she wasn’t sure. This pleased Toni immensely, as she would instantly hold the world record in her newly invented event.

Cathy and Isla handed over the money to pay for the security deposits on two bikes. Paddy would accompany Toni, but he was only willing to do half the distance.

It had been a few months since Paddy had been swimming with Toni, as he’d joined the school band, and their practice sessions were the same evenings as Toni’s swim team. For this reason, Paddy was surprised to notice that Toni’s normally flat chest now had prominent breasts, not big like his mum’s, but nicely rounded, like Cathy’s.

Toni’s breasts were sufficient distraction for him to miss the starting bell, and Toni had a two stroke advantage over him by the time he entered the lake.

In reality, even without giving Toni an advantage, there was no way Paddy would win any race against her, as evidenced by her neat tumble turn at the far side of the lake before he was even half way across.

She finished her 4th width and was climbing onto her bike as Paddy walked out of the lake after his second width.

More than anything, Toni was a fair person, so she waited for him to get his breath back and climb on his bike before she set off along the mountain bike trail that wove through the woods. It was a good course, she’d ridden it the previous year, it was mostly flat, but there were a couple of reasonable hills, one of which had a great dip at the bottom, so if you got up enough speed it was almost like a roller coaster.

Last year, she’d ridden a child’s bike with a big padded seat, this year she was on a proper mountain bike with a narrow saddle, and she found the bumpy sections did very interesting things as she bounced on the saddle.

Her mind started to wander, and she thought back to watching Paddy as he stood beside the lake in his swimming trunks. It had been a few months since she’d been swimming with Paddy, as his band practice sessions were the same evenings as her swimming club sessions. In those few months he’d developed a bit. He had a nice chest, with muscular arms, and his trunks looked a bit fuller.

“Oh shit!” Toni cried as she had to turn sharply to miss a tree, her strong legs pedalling hard as she scrambled across the rough ground littered with fallen branches and pine cones. She managed to power through the bend, then sped past Paddy, who wasn’t much of a cyclist even on flat roads, and really didn’t enjoy downhill mountain biking.

Five minutes later, she finished her second lap, and rested a while, letting Paddy finish his lap.

As Paddy pulled up next to her, Toni climbed off her bike and handed it to her mum, before jogging down to the road that looped around the park and started her first lap of the site.

The holiday village manager wasn’t sure when she’d asked him last night, but he thought the road was a little over 2.5km, so her two lap run was 5km, about 3 miles. After the 1,500 metre swim and 6km cycle, Toni wasn’t totally sure she could run the full site twice, but she would give her all, then her mum could help her back to the caravan, where she could have a soak in the bath ... oh my god, she’s so glad their mums paid for a bigger caravan this year, with a nice bath and a more powerful shower.

As she passed the start / finish line, she was beginning to struggle, she tapped her smartwatch and checked her time, she was ahead of schedule, which was good, she tapped it again and changed to her running playlist; as soon as she heard Dua Lipa, Toni lengthened her stride and pulled away, waving at her mum and Isla, who were drinking cider outside the bar.

Her mind cleared, Dua Lipa had given her second wind, she was running free, a gentle breeze cooling her face.

She thought about Paddy, even though she was only a week older, Toni had always thought of him as her little brother. She helped him with the subjects where he struggled, she taught him how to play cricket, she taught him how to play pool. She’d taught him how to summersault off the high diving board, she taught him how to light and cook on a fire when they went wild camping without their mums during the Easter holidays. She even fought his battles in school, although his bullies had generally backed down when they were in danger of being beaten by a girl.

Until about, she checked her watch, 90 minutes ago, she’d never thought about Paddy as anything other than a friend or little brother, she’d never thought about his body, or the contents of his pants.

She shocked herself by being excited about seeing Paddy in his trunks again when they go swimming next ... and maybe they could go cycling again, together this time, maybe they could ask their mums if they can cycle off site and have a picnic.

Oh my, she was feeling a bit moist thinking about Paddy, she felt like she had when riding through the woods, and like she does at night, when she’s all alone and touching herself. Her mum called that masturbation, and she said it was natural, but her Year 7 RE teacher told her it was sinful when she mentioned it. She still did it sometimes, but never mentioned it, even to her mother ... maybe she could speak to Isla, get a second opinion.

All this thinking had caused Toni to slow her pace; she could see Paddy ahead, as much as she loved him ... and she did love him, as a brother, as a friend, and maybe ... oh, don’t start that again she thought ... she didn’t want to let him win, even when he’d only covered half the distance.

Digging deep into her reserves, she pushed hard, lengthening her stride, picking up her pace, she felt the wind against her face as she moved more and more quickly.

She closed in on Paddy as he neared the finish line, their mums jumping out of their seats to cheer them on.

Toni spotted the line, calculated her steps, lengthened her stride ever so slightly then grabbed Paddy’s hand as they crossed the line together.

She’d over-stretched her stride and started to wobble. Still holding Paddy’s hand, she fell sideways, pulling him with her. They ended up on the grass in front of the bar, close to their mums. Toni pulled Paddy into a cuddle and kissed the top of his head, surprising them both, and their mums.

Cathy pulled Toni to her feet and gave her a bottle of ice cold water, “thanks mum,” she panted, “I don’t think I’ve ever run that fast before.”

“I thought you were going to pass Paddy at the end.”

“I wanted to, then I decided I wanted to finish at the same time as Paddy. He’d worked hard, he didn’t deserve to lose.”

“But you did twice the distance he did,” Cathy replied.

“Yeah,” Toni agreed, leaning forwards, hands on her knees, sucking in as much oxygen as she could, “but I’m twice the athlete he is. He’s strong, I like his nice chest, he’s been working hard in PE, but he’s not a runner. I’m sure he’d beat me if we were doing bench presses and stuff.”

Cathy smiled, “I wouldn’t bet against you, honey. When you set your mind on something, you’re unbeatable. Now, I think we’ll get back to the caravan so you can have a bath.”

“Remember when me and Paddy shared a bath when we were little?” Toni asked.

“Yes, you can’t do that now, you’re both too big to fit in the same bath.”

“Yeah,” Toni sighed, “I used to play with Paddy’s willy, he giggled when I pulled it.”

“He might react differently if you did that now.”

I wonder how he’d react, Toni thought, because he treats me like a sister ... just like I treat him like a brother.

Toni was in the bath so long, her legs aching from all the effort, that Isla popped next door and asked if Paddy could use their bath. Even though he’d only done half the distance, he was aching just as much, because he simply wasn’t used to running more than 100m at a time.

At dinner that night, their mums treated their kids to double cheese burgers and ice cream sundaes.

As Toni wiped up the last of the chocolate sauce with her finger, she turned to Cathy and Isla.

“Could we borrow the bikes again tomorrow?”

“Nooo!” Paddy sighed, “you’re better than me, you don’t need to prove it again!”

Toni smiled at him, she hoped it was a suggestive smile, sending out secret signals, telling him her plan, “it’s OK Paddy, I don’t want to do that again, at least not for a few days ... I was wondering if you wanted to go for a ride off site. There’s a nice park a little way along the coast path, I looked at it on Google Maps; there’s paths through the woods, and a picnic site. We could go a bit further along the coast after our picnic, there’s a hidden beach, you could treat that white belly to some sunshine.”

“Says you, who dresses top to toe in jet black all year,” Paddy groused in reply.

“If you go sunbathing, so will I,” Toni told him.

“Topless?” Paddy asked.

“Bikini,” Cathy replied before Toni had a chance.

“I don’t have a bikini,” Toni replied.

“Yes you do, I packed one for you,” Cathy replied, “it’s OK, it’s black.”

“So, can we go for a ride off site?” Toni asked.

“Of course you can,” Cathy replied, “Isla and I might go for a trip, there’s a nice beach I heard about in the other direction, we could have our own picnic, which will be similar to yours, but with added wine.”

The next morning, Cathy and Isla made up two picnics while the kids collected their bikes. The kid’s picnic was spread across two daypacks, one was a little heavier, as it contained the drinks, Cathy was sure Toni would take that pack, even after she’d said Paddy was stronger yesterday.

As well as food and water, the bags held towels, sun tan lotion and a change of clothes in case they went swimming.

Isla was loading their grown-up picnic with wine into the back of her car as the kids returned. Cathy smiled as she watched Toni check both bags then lift the heavy one onto her back.

Toni was wearing her bikini, Cathy was pleased with how she looked. Like Paddy had said last night, she was usually covered head to toe in black; mostly boys clothes, baggy jeans, baggy t-shirts, baggy hoodies. Looking at her now in the bikini, one of Cathy’s old ones, she looked so pretty. Her tummy flat, a little 6-pack from so much sport, and nice, budding breasts, bigger than her own had been when she was 14. If Toni was lucky, she’d have more than her own B-Cup when she was full grown.

She watched as Toni helped Paddy into his backpack. She knew a lot of people confused them for brother and sister, but watching her now, Toni’s movements were tender, she wasn’t helping her brother, she was helping her boyfriend, even though he probably didn’t realise yet.

Cathy and Isla had sat up late last night after the kids had gone to bed, they shared a bottle of chilled Villa Maria on the deck outside. They’d talked through their thoughts about the kids’ developing relationship.

Isla had the idea first, she’d correctly reasoned that the kids were together too much, they needed time apart, time to look at other children their age, and compare them to each other. As soon as she realised Band club was the same night as Swimming club, Isla suggested Paddy might like to develop his artistic side.

This had a double effect, because while Paddy found a love for playing guitar, he’d not noticed Toni’s body developing, so he got a wonderful surprise on holiday - a win win.

“Do you think Paddy feels the same way about Toni?” Cathy asked.

“Did you see his face when Toni pulled off her jumper by the lake? I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. She’s developing some great curves, takes after Ant’s mum, I think.”

“Yes,” Cathy sighed, “me and mum are not blessed with boobs.”

“Maybe not, but you are by a long way, the most beautiful woman I know,” Isla replied as she leaned across the table and kissed her friend, “and Toni has definitely inherited your beauty.”

“Do you think they’re asleep yet?” Cathy asked breathlessly.

Isla put her ear to a window, “no sound from Toni’s room, she’s either asleep, or playing on her phone with her headphones on.”

“Headphones is good,” Cathy replied as she grasped Isla’s hand, leaning her back into the caravan, and to their bedroom.

Toni rode slowly along the coast road, enjoying the sun on her body. She liked this feeling, and she also liked Paddy watching as he rode behind.

Maybe she should wear fewer clothes in future ... not a bikini all the time, that wouldn’t be appropriate, but she’d seen girls from school wearing crop tops that showed their tummies when they were in the park. Some girls had tops that were cut so high they showed the swell of their boobs, she’d seen it walled underboob online. Her breasts weren’t big enough yet, but maybe if she let her body have some sun, her boobs would grow like flowers.

Phoebe, the prettiest girl in her class, has a stud in her belly button, it looks so nice. If she wears crop tops, maybe her mum will let her have a piercing.

It only took about 15 minutes to reach the woods, Toni hopped off her bike and opened the gate, letting Paddy ride through, before rolling her bike into the woods and closing the gate behind them.

Toni had looked at every inch of the woods using Google Maps on her iPad last night. She had a route planned that would take them twice around the woods on different paths, finishing at a small clearing with a picnic table.

She took it easy, not wanting to lose Paddy. She had his phone in her tracker app, but she wasn’t sure if it would work amongst the trees.

Paddy kept up well, even when she couldn’t resist building up speed to jump over hill crests. He looked very tired when they reached the picnic site, Toni was a little sorry for him, as she was barely out of breath. She needed to take charge of his exercises, he needed to build up his stamina.

While Paddy recovered, Toni put out the sandwiches, crisps, apple pies and chocolate milk their mums had packed. She set the food up in such a way that Paddy would have to sit beside her, rather than opposite, as her plan required proximity.

Paddy was a couple of feet away as they started eating. Toni soon fixed this by edging ever nearer each time she reached for food, until their legs were touching as she poured the last of the chocolate milk into Paddy’s tumbler.

Toni leaned into Paddy as he finished his drink. She kissed his cheek as she slid her arm around his waist.

Paddy stiffened as Toni;s lips caressed his cheek, he may even have tried to escape if she hadn’t been holding onto him.

Eventually he relaxed a little, Toni turned his head slightly, and moved her lips to his, he relaxed further as her kiss grew ever more passionate, her tongue parting his lips and slipping inside his mouth.

While they kissed, Toni’s arm slid down Paddy’s body, her hand moved to his lap, she felt a pleasing bulge in his shorts, a bulge that grew and hardened with her touch.

“What are you doing?” Paddy asked breathlessly as they eventually parted.

“I thought that would be obvious,” Toni replied, licking her lips to taste even more of Paddy.

“But ... why?”

“Again, isn’t that obvious? I like you Paddy, I always have and always will. Now I think it’s more than like, and I think you feel the same way. I saw you staring at my boobs earlier, and I would feel your eyes on my bum as we cycled here. I’m wearing a bikini, not for sunbathing, but so you get to see as much of me as is decent in public.”

“So ... you like me?”

“Good god Paddy, I credited you with more intelligence! Yes, I like you, I love you. I’ve loved you as a friend, almost as a brother for my whole life, but now I really think it’s more than that. Since yesterday ... mmm ... since arriving here on holiday and being in a room next to you instead of a different house ... I’ve felt a tingling. I saw you at the lake yesterday, your hard tummy, your broad, strong chest, and I felt weak. Then mum told me how you reacted at the lake, you were staring at my boobs and missed the starting bell when Isla rang it. Do you like me, Paddy?”

Paddy blushed, he stammered, he eventually managed to whisper “yes”, at which point Toni pushed him off the bench and climbed atop, her legs either side of his body, her arms on his shoulder, her lips pressed against his, kissing him hard as she ground her pussy against his groin.

“Oh my god, Paddy! Why haven’t we done this before?”

“I don’t know...”

“That’s because you’re a boy ... you should have noticed how pretty I am years ago...”

“But ... you only just noticed me!”

“I know, you should have flaunted yourself more often,” Toni told him as she brought her lips to his again and screamed into his mouth as her orgasm hit.

“Oh shit! What was that?” Paddy asked after Toni stopped writhing on him.

“That was me cumming!” Toni replied, gasping for air like she had after their race the day before.

“Like, an orgasm?”

“Not like an orgasm, an actual orgasm,” Toni laughed. “I’ve been watching films ... I can give you one if you take your shorts off.”

“Here!” Paddy cried.

“Yes, here.”

“But ... someone could see us.”

“There’s nobody else here, Paddy. Nobody. I checked as we cycled around, I didn’t see or hear anyone.”

Paddy realised Toni was right, he also realised the contents of his pants were desperate for him to strip and let Toni do whatever she was about to do.

Unlike most boys Paddy’s age, he wasn’t obsessed by sex. He liked football, he liked music, he liked films, and he liked Toni. He avoided sex chat at school, mostly because it was all bluster. Most of the boys hadn’t done any of the stuff they claimed, a lot of them got a girl’s basic biology wrong for a start. Unlike the other boys, Paddy had seen Toni naked loads of times ... not recently, sure ... but in the past, they played together naked in the paddling pool, in the bath, in bed when they shared a room on holiday. It was nothing sexual, just normal kids’ behaviour. Toni was fascinated with Paddy’s penis, he was fascinated by the empty space between Toni’s legs.

Maybe being so close to an actual girl all his life had spoiled Paddy, he didn’t need to obsess about getting a girlfriend, because deep down, he felt that Toni was his girlfriend.