Chapter 16: The Neighbor

For anyone not already familiar with the character Amber, she is from my story "The Book of David". The rest of this will make more sense if you've already read that story, but it's not a requirement.

-- SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2005, SUMMER BREAK --

"So, how well do you guys know your neighbors?" I asked innocently enough over Sunday brunch. And then I immediately stuffed my face full of omelet so that I wouldn't have to elaborate.

Lynne shrugged. "Uh, well enough I guess," she explained. "I think you ran into Joe and Ella once next door to us."

I nodded with a full mouth. Joe and Ella were a married couple of Stanford Seniors whom I'd met once while school was still in session. But they'd moved out after the school year ended, and the apartment had yet to be filled. I assumed residency rates were down in the summer, and the place would be occupied again in the fall.

Kady though, wasn't buying my innocent act. Arching an eyebrow, she gave me a look and then grinned. "You ran into Amber, didn't you?"

My blush was all it took. I really was a horrible liar. Frowning, I stared at my plate and shoved my hash browns from side-to-side. "Has she always been living there? I was just wondering why I'd never seen her before."

Noelle shrugged. "She's a doctor or something. Keeps really weird hours. She's friendly enough..." Noelle immediately blushed after that, and shared a curious glance with Kady.

I caught the glance, and now it was my turn to glare at Kady. "What?"

The impish redhead laughed and waved me off. "Amber's a viper. Coldest sexual predator I've ever seen, and she's into girls, too. The week after we unpacked the apartment, she put a move on Noelle and nearly swiped my girlfriend out from under me." Despite the somewhat serious statement, Kady laughed in amusement.

"I wouldn't have let her seduce me," Noelle pouted.

"Sure, honey. Keep telling yourself that," Kady drawled. "Anyway, I talked to her and straightened her out. She respects our relationship and has butted out. In the meantime, the walls aren't perfectly soundproofed and we've heard a few things. She'll come home late at night with some guy, or some girl, or sometimes both. The sounds they make will rival the stuff we've been hearing from you two downstairs." Kady waggled her eyebrows, causing Lynne to blush.

Lynne was now eyeing me carefully. "So how did you two meet?"

"It was just this morning, actually," I said after swallowing my latest bite. "You'd just gone off running, and she was coming down the stairs. I was still just in my pajama bottoms and she gave me a pretty good once-over."

Lynne rolled her eyes. "I'll bet you gave her quite the once over. I've talked to you about your type, and Amber is definitely it."

"Hey," I protested defensively. "I haven't done anything. I'm still with you."

Lynne shook her head, taking a deep breath and then covering my hand with her own. "No you're not. We're just friends, remember?" She patted my hand and then let go, picking up her fork once again and resuming her meal.

I sighed and leaned back into my chair in resignation.

"Yeah, what's that all about anyway?" Kady asked with a frown, gesturing back and forth between us with a piece of waffle on the end of her fork. "No holding hands. No little kisses. What gives?"

"Nothing," Lynne said, not looking at me. "We just agreed to maintain the boundaries of our friendship."

Noelle blinked quickly. "You two broke up?"

Lynne took a deep breath, readying to defend herself. But before she could, I spoke up and got everyone's attention. "It's not a breakup if we were never together. We all talked a long time ago about why it's not a good idea for Lynne and me to get into a romantic relationship or anything. Well, quite obviously we started getting a little too close to just that. We're stepping back, ensuring that we don't get our emotions too wrapped up in this. We're friends, really good friends. And we want to keep things that way."

Beaming at me, Lynne reached out and patted my hand once again. We shared a bittersweet smile, and then returned to our meals.

Kady and Noelle gave each other significant looks. But then shaking their heads, they simply shrugged and dug back into their food.

I felt proud of myself for sticking to the plan. Obviously, both Lynne and I wanted more than being 'just friends'. But we were also smart enough to be aware of the romantic pitfalls, especially with the specter of Dawn hanging over us. And I valued my friendship with Lynne enough to make this work.

But despite my tough talk, I still felt a pang of longing in my heart. Lynne had done a wonderful job of filling the void left behind by Dawn. But now who was going to fill the void left behind by Lynne?

"Hey, the weather's great. Wanna come hang out by the pool with us?" Kady asked Lynne as we returned to the apartments.

"You know what? I think I'm going to go out, do some shopping. We need to stock up on food and other things," Lynne replied.

"Ugh, shopping?" I grumped.

Lynne shook her head. "No, just me. Why don't you go with the girls to the pool?"

"And leave you alone?" I complained. "Besides, if you're shopping for food, then I need to pay my part. I'm still your roommate."

"You can pay me back later." Lynne took a deep breath, giving me a measured look. "I'll be fine. You know what, I'll call up Marcy. I haven't spent nearly enough time with her lately. I'll see you tonight."

With that, Lynne pecked my cheek and then waved to the girls. Twirling about, she fished her keys out of her purse and returned to the parking lot.

"So what'll it be?" Kady sidled up to me. "Come hang with a pair of dykes by the pool? There are worse things you could be doing with your time."

"Oh, you guys don't want a male around, ogling your nubile bodies and making you feel all uncomfortable."

"Who's uncomfortable? I, for one, get turned on knowing a guy only dreams he could mount me, knowing that I won't ever let him," Kady snarked with a smile. "Why do you think I always kept flaunting my ass at you in High School?"

Speaking quietly, I leaned in and replied, "If you'll remember, I actually did mount you."

Kady was breathing a little hard now in excitement, and as she looked up at me with sparkling dark blue eyes, she murmured, "I remember. And if you play your cards right, you just might get to do it again."

That surprised the hell out of me, and I jerked my head back with wide eyes. Giggling, Kady started up the stairs, with Noelle shaking her head in disbelief at her girlfriend's antics.

"So see you at the pool in fifteen minutes?" Kady called over her shoulder. She then stopped and blocked Noelle from coming up, taking her girlfriend's arm and turning the busty dirty-blonde to face me. "Oh, and Noelle's got this new, really sheer bikini. I think I'll make her wear it just for you."

"KADY!" Noelle hissed while blushing pink.

"Oh, you'll love it," Kady drawled, whether to me or Noelle I'm not sure. Laughing gaily, she then dragged her girlfriend up the rest of the way and into their apartment.

Breathing heavily myself, I decided, what the hell? Kady was right: there were worse things I could be doing with my time.

Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the apartment complex's pool. Though it was almost noon, it was still pretty early on a sleepy summer Sunday, so there weren't very many people around. I used the resident card that Lynne gave me to get in through the security gate. And with a towel hanging over my shoulder, I walked across the pool deck with my flip-flops flopping until I arrived next to two lounge chairs where Kady and Noelle were sunning themselves.

Kady was right again: I loved the view. The auburn redhead herself wore a navy blue bikini with white trim and little snowflakes over her nipples. The top was cut like a bra with deep cups and a front-clasp that rode low on her chest, making her tits look bigger and rounder. The bottoms were attached at the hips with strings tied into loopy-knots, just inviting me to tug on a loose strand so that the whole thing would come undone. And her nearly-naked body was the personification of trim athleticism.

Noelle, on the other hand, was just a stunningly attractive young woman. Her bikini was an electric blue, shading toward aqua, that brought out the color of her light blue eyes. The fabric was some sort of sheer, satiny material that reflected the light unevenly, making it appear even wispier than it was. The top molded skin-tight to her D-cup breasts, meaning it wasn't difficult to imagine what her tits were shaped like unsupported. And the bottoms were basically a thong, tiny triangles of fabric that proved she had to shave her nether regions completely bare.

Lynne talked about how my 'type' tended toward tall, busty, blue-eyed blondes. I still thought her face was more "cute" than drop-dead gorgeous, like Adrienne or Dawn. But otherwise, Noelle fit that type to a T.

Still, Kady and Noelle were good friends, and I was perfectly aware of their homosexual orientation. Sure, Kady had dabbled in switching sides with me once upon a time, and she'd made reference to possibly doing it again more than a few times in the past month or so. But I chalked that up to Kady's typical teasing and vowed to respect the girls' lesbianism.

But that didn't mean I couldn't look. Girls didn't wear skimpy bikinis like this to cover themselves up and prevent people from looking. And as long as they were fine with lying there within a few feet of my roving eyeballs, I was content to let my eyeballs rove.

We weren't the only ones by the pool. After all, it was still a July Sunday around noon. Most everyone within sight was college-aged, with a mix of guys and girls that ranged from the attractive to the fugly and everything in-between.

The three of us chatted for a little while. When the conversation seemed to wane, I suggested that we hop into the pool and swim around. Noelle kept her sunglasses on and tied her hair atop her head so that she wouldn't get it wet. The three of us basically hung around in the relatively shallow end, chatting amiably until Kady got it into her head to splash Noelle and get her precious hair wet. She roped me into splashing around as well while Noelle shrieked and complained. Finally, Noelle just gave in, bull-rushing her girlfriend and then lifting the slender redhead into the air before throwing her a couple of feet across the pool. I went to assist Noelle, as payback against Kady was always fun. But when faced with a common enemy, the girls teamed up and proceeded to do their best to drown me.

Oh, my head got dunked alright. I probably could have fended both of them off if I really wanted to, as I had several inches and a ton more strength than either of them. But where's the fun in that? I let the girls climb all over my body in their attempts to submerge me under the only 3 and a half feet of water. And in return, I copped MORE than a few feels of their nubile bodies. It was just like being in high school again.

Kady didn't bother to protest every time I grabbed her ass or squeezed a boob. She just laughed and kept pressing her attack. Noelle, on the other hand, objected at first, squawking in surprise that "safe Ben" would actually fondle her, but then she just got into the fun of things and grabbed at my package a few times herself.

"Enough!" I finally bellowed, brushing water out of my eyes and tugging my swim trunks back up to my waist. I hadn't quite been exposed, and there weren't any kids in the pool, but it was better safe than sorry.

Noelle, on the other hand, escaped relatively unscathed. I had been careful not to be too aggressive with her, with only fleeting touches and nothing strong enough to actually dislodge her skimpy attire.

Kady, though, had to tuck a breast back into her bikini. Blushing, she made sure that her body had been turned to me as she did so, and so only I got to see the dusky, erect nipple before it was put out of view. She quickly glanced up at me as she did so, and popping my eyebrows, I quickly stuck my tongue out and licked it across my lips with a teasing grin.

Perhaps I was imagining it, but I thought I saw Kady smile enticingly before she'd turned away.

We all got out of the pool at that point, returning to our lounge chairs and waiting towels. Drying off, the girls sat back down and began to reapply the sunblock we had worn away in our roughhousing and waterplay. And I just sat there with a dumb look on my face as I watched them lathering up their breasts.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Kady snarked with a smile.

"Maybe we should go into the apartment and I'll do that for you," I shot back.

"Well if you're nice to me, I just might let you," Kady drawled.

"Maybe you two should stop flirting before I get jealous," Noelle laughed, with no actual malice in her voice.

Kady and I grinned at each other. And then we went back to reapplying our sunblock.

"Hey Ben, can you do my back?" Kady then offered, reclining her lounge chair flat and then rolling over onto her belly.

I arched an eyebrow at Noelle questioningly.

She smiled and waved me to her girlfriend. "Go right ahead and do her. As long as you do me next."

Arching an eyebrow, I said, "You girls really have to come up with phrases other than 'doing her' and 'doing me next'."

Kady laughed. "Why, are we making you uncomfortable?"

I leered down at her, dragging my hand up her thigh and over the exposed part of her buttcheek before taking the sunblock out of her hand. "Not at all. But if you keep inviting me to 'do' you, I might end up doing just that."

"Mm, better clear that with your girlfriend, first," Kady shot back while unhooking the front clasp of her bikini top and then shrugging to let the material slide up toward her neck.

I grinned and shrugged. "Lynne and I are just friends, remember? I can have you fucked into unconsciousness before she gets home from her shopping trip." With a twinkle in my eye, I reached up and pulled away Kady's bikini top entirely, dragging the shoulder straps down her arms and dropping the wispy material off to the side so that she was completely topless, albeit with her chest pressed down against the lounge chair.

"Tough talk," Kady said a little more quietly. And when I looked down, I saw that she was rubbing her thighs together. "But are you man enough to back it up?"

This was getting a little bit serious, so drawing away, I looked over to Noelle. "I don't think your girlfriend would approve."

"You might be surprised," Noelle said softly, staring at her girlfriend and then flicking her eyes to me.

I didn't know how to handle that, and neither did Kady. We looked at each other in momentary shock, not sure what to do. But searching for some way to move on, I simply uncapped the sunblock, poured a generous glob into my hands, and started rubbing them together. "One sunblock/backrub combination, coming up."

As usual, giving Kady a sunblock/backrub combo required that I do the same to Noelle. The dirty-blonde's D-cup tits were squished out to the sides as she lay on her stomach. And while Kady kept up a constant stream of verbal sparring, she also threw in more than a few comments about how I needed to go lower and make sure her girlfriend was properly covered.

Feeling horny, I went ahead and swiped my middle and ring fingers across the side of Noelle's left breast, causing her to inhale just a bit and flash me a look. I blushed in embarrassment for a moment, feeling guilty for letting Kady goad me into it. But Noelle smiled and said quietly, "Do it again."

Emboldened, I got some more sunblock on my hands and rubbed Noelle down a little further. I let my fingertips dip lower and lower across her sides and lower back, until I was literally fondling the sides of her lush tits. Noelle kept her eyes closed and sighed dreamily. And then Kady had to go and blurt out, "Looks like something is trying to crawl out of your trunks."

Noelle tensed and my hands froze up in the safety zone of Noelle's shoulder blades. I peeked down and found that I indeed was pitching quite the tent in my swimwear. And I announced while leaning back to sit on my own lounger, "I think you're done."

Noelle nodded and reached behind herself to re-fasten the back clasp of her bikini, even though she probably wasn't done sunning just yet. I decided that jumping back into the cool water was probably a good idea, but just as I turned to face the pool, a mermaid exploded up from somewhere deep below the surface.

Gouts of water flew up into the air with her before splashing back down into the roiling pool, with several large droplets impacting on the deck as well. This mermaid had long blonde hair, now darkened by moisture. Standing fully upright in the 3-foot depth, she ran her hands over her forehead and smoothened out her hair to slick it back against her scalp. Piercing sky blue eyes stared right at me as she ignored the beads of water streaming down her face. And with a crooked grin, she planted her hands on the swimming pool's edge and then pushed herself up to swing a distinctly non-mermaid foot onto dry land and elevate up onto the deck.

Amber's bright yellow two-piece actually had about twice as much material as Kady's. The thing is: it was made of some sort of cotton-like fabric that clung to her body like a wet T-shirt. The boyshort-cut bottoms molded themselves around her hips and the top clung to every crevice of her tits, making it appear as if the buxom blonde bombshell was completely naked and wearing only yellow body paint, albeit a thick layer of body paint that extended off her skin by a quarter of an inch and completely obscured her nipples.

Still, it wasn't difficult to envision a totally nude Amber as she stood, dripping wet, less than five feet away from me. And with a little smirk, the statuesque blonde kept her gaze right on me the whole time that she waltzed over to a chair by the security gate, picked up a terrycloth bathrobe, sunglasses, and her slippers, and then sashayed her way right back over to me.

I couldn't help it. My eyes were glued to her as she approached. Her hips swayed left and right in a way that made my already hard dick begin to throb. Her big tits wobbled enticingly, as her bikini top seemed designed more to seduce than to support their massive girth. And I simply couldn't stop myself from yo-yoing my gaze down to those glorious mounds before settling my eyes onto her exquisitely beautiful face.

My heart was pounding. My breath was heavy. Sweat that had nothing to do with the air's temperature trickled down my spine. With my hormones already battered by the flirtation with Kady and the fondling of Noelle's tits, I simply didn't have enough self-control to stop myself from gawking quite obviously at this gorgeous creature. In simple fact: not since Adrienne Dennis in High School had the simple movement of a girl walking so completely overwhelmed me with powerful lust.

"Is this seat taken?" Amber asked in a melodic voice while drying herself with the terrycloth robe.

Thankfully, I wasn't a 16-year-old boy gawking at Adrienne Dennis anymore. I was a 21-year-old young man with all the experience in the world. Blinking just once, I reasserted my self-control and shrugged nonchalantly. "Looks free to me."

Flashing me a smile, Amber opened up her terrycloth robe and bent at the waist to drape it across the lounge chair. This caused her big tits to sway down and forward, offering me an enticing view of her cleavage. I was looking, and she knew that I was looking, but neither of us said anything as she finished and then turned around to sit down atop it.

"Hey Kady. Hey Noelle. How's it going?" Amber asked sweetly across me.

Kady had a little fire in her eyes, a jealous rage I wasn't expecting. Somewhat calmer, Noelle sat up and replied in a friendly tone, "Lazy Sunday. We can't complain. How are you?"

"I'm great, I'm great. I've got a rare day off today," Amber replied with a smile.

"Oh, that's right. You normally work Sundays," Noelle commented. "Change in schedule?"

Amber nodded. "New job responsibility. I start tomorrow. So I'm just going to lay out here, soak up some sun, and enjoy the view for a while." That last part ended with Amber raising her sunglasses onto her forehead for a moment before tracking her eyes up and down my half-naked body rather appreciatively.

I wasn't a muscled behemoth. I didn't even go to the gym. But sex is an extremely cardio exercise, and pounding a girl missionary-style is a great way to develop one's pectorals. Doggy-style really works the abs. And holding up a girl against a wall while thrusting into her really developed my glutes and hamstrings. The point is: I had an extremely toned body by now, and six-pack abs. Even though I considered myself rather ordinary looking, many of the girls I'd been with found me quite sexy once out of my clothes. And as hard as I'd been ogling Amber just a minute ago, she was now carefully eyeing me.

"Those are gunshot wounds, aren't they?" she asked, flicking her eyes from my left side up to my left cheek.

Blushing, I immediately raised a few fingers to trace over the cheek scar. "Uh, yeah."

"You from a rough neighborhood?"

I grinned, thinking of quaint O.C. "Uh, not exactly."

"Defending the woman you love or something?" she teased with a smile.

Caught off-guard by the accuracy of her question, my eyes popped open in surprise.

So did hers. With wide eyes, the gorgeous blonde gave me a frank look while I just blushed in further embarrassment. "Wow, really?" She whistled, clearly impressed.

Kady coughed somewhere behind me, drawing my head around. She flashed me a dark look while pinching her lips together. So I took the opportunity to calm myself down a bit while looking over at my redheaded friend and giving her a helpless shrug. Clearly, Kady wanted my attention back, but what could I do?

Just then, the wet sound of flesh squishing against itself drew my attention right back. Amber had popped open a bottle of sunblock and had started to lather her upper chest. Looking at me innocently as if she wasn't currently fondling her own tits, she asked, "It's Ben, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. We met just this morning."

"I remember. Lynne's 'friend'." Amber nodded with a sparkle in her eyes. "I saw you rubbing sunblock into Kady's and Noelle's backs. Can you please do me as well?"

I felt my cock twitch as a girl again asked for me to 'do' her. At first, I felt an impulse to turn her down. It was one thing for me to rub sunblock into Kady or Noelle, who were both friends and both girls I'd already laid hands on over the past several weeks. My sense of loyalty told me that Lynne probably wouldn't approve of me doing the same to a total stranger, and especially not such a beautiful stranger like Amber.

But then my rational brain reminded me that Lynne and I were 'just friends', in actuality now more than just name. For me to turn down a simple sunblock-rub would imply that Lynne and I were still boyfriend/girlfriend. And I remembered quite vividly how Adrienne would get pissed at me for turning down the flirtations of someone like Helene McGregory over our 'not-relationship'.

"Um, sure," I replied to Amber after the slightest hesitation, reaching my hand out for the sunblock.

But before she could hand it to me, Kady quickly chirped, "Actually, we need to get going." She swung her legs off the lounge chair and made a big show of checking her watch. "We're meeting up with some friends this afternoon, and we still need time to clean up. Come on, Ben."

I blinked in surprise, clearly unaware of any such plans. But the fire in Kady's eyes brooked no dissent, and Noelle was already moving to follow Kady's lead. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, Amber," Noelle said apologetically. "We'll see you around next time."

"Do you have to go right now?" Amber pouted playfully. "Who's gonna get my back?"

Kady rolled her eyes. "I know you're pretty damn flexible. You can cover it yourself." Then Kady jerked a thumb behind her. "And if not, I think there're a half-dozen guys who all intently watched you climb out of the pool a few minutes ago. I think any of them would be happy to assist."

Amber smiled thinly, clearly not pleased with Kady's rather blunt reply. But that was Kady being Kady.

"C'mon, Ben," Kady practically ordered. "Let's go meet our friends."

"Fucking predatory bitch," Kady muttered as the three of us walked back to the apartment.

"Hey..." Noelle soothed gently, stroking her girlfriend's back.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I'll remember in the future that Amber is off-limits. I didn't realize that you girls didn't like each other. From the way you described her at brunch this morning, I thought everything was cool."

"What?" Kady popped her head up. "Oh, it is, it is..."

"Uh, sure didn't look like it," Noelle ventured.

Kady glanced back at the pool, then over to me with something strange in her eyes, and then finally back to Noelle. Shaking her head, she stopped walking and grimaced. "Ugh. I must look like such a bitch right now."

"No you don't," Noelle soothed.

"Yes, I do." Kady just frowned. She looked at me and explained, "Once I told her to back off Noelle and she did, everything has been fine. Amber's a great neighbor, actually. She doesn't judge us for our relationship, and we've been able to borrow things back and forth more than a few times over the last year. A cup of sugar here, a busted vacuum cleaner there. We're friendly. We get along great."

I raised my eyebrows and glanced back at the pool. "So ... what then? Are you protecting me for Lynne?"

Kady grimaced again. "No, no. We've talked to Lynne about that, actually. When you two got... 'nottogether' ... I told her we'd help shield you from other girls who might come onto you. But Lynne expressly told us not to interfere. 'He's not my boyfriend' she said more than once."

"But we didn't have to do anything anyway," Noelle explained. "You did a pretty good job of waving a big sign above your head screaming 'I'm taken, so don't bother trying to come on to me.'"

I blinked in surprise. "I did?"

Kady smiled and nodded. "Yeah, you did. It was sweet. We were happy for Lynne."

Her comment brought back the anguish of my 'not-breakup' with Lynne this morning. Yesterday, I'd thought I was happily enjoying the intimacy of a budding relationship with a dear friend. Today, I was told flat out that I was still single and that we had no future together. I sighed and shook my head to clear it, wondering just how two extremely short encounters with a hot blonde had gotten me so screwed up so fast.

"Never 'actually' together with Lynne or not, it doesn't change the relationship that we really had. I guess I'm not honoring that memory very well if I'm flirting with another girl this fast. I'm sorry. Thanks for bailing me out," I said to Kady.

"Uh, sure," she chirped in surprise. Clearly, the thought of honoring Lynne hadn't crossed her mind.

I frowned. "Uh, so if this wasn't about Lynne, and you've been friendly with Amber up until now, then what was that all about?" I gestured back to the pool. "If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were acting all jealous."

"Jealous, what?" Kady snorted. She reached out and grabbed Noelle's waist, drawing her girlfriend against her side. Noelle herself was strangely silent, eyeing the clearly angry redhead.

"Kady..." I said with a confused frown. "What's going on?"

Kady sighed in resignation, glancing over to her girlfriend. Noelle just held her gaze, raising her eyebrows slightly. And setting her jaw, Kady shook her head in annoyance before nodding to the apartments ahead of us. "Let's go inside. I don't want to do this out here."

I'd thought the three of us would go into the girls' apartment and talk, but I thought wrong. Instead, Kady ordered me into my own apartment to take a shower and clean up. And she told me in no uncertain terms not to come upstairs until she called me.

So I went and took a shower, cleaning away the chlorine-grime and dressing myself in shorts and a polo shirt. I then flopped onto the couch with my laptop, catching up on email and other surfing just to kill time.

Ten minutes passed by, and then twenty. I heard people walking around in the living room above me, and twice I nearly went upstairs to knock on the door. But if there was anything that a lifetime of living with multiple girls had taught me, it was that trying to talk to a girl before she was good and ready was a one-way ticket to hell. All I could possibly accomplish by doing that was to piss Kady off even further.

So I waited ... and I waited ... and I waited.

It was over an hour later when my phone finally rang. But to my surprise, the display did not read "Kady Jacobsen". Instead, the phone read "Lynne Arian", and I quickly flipped the clamshell open. "Hello?"