8: I Need a Hero

I'd like to say that everything was great between Betts and me from that point on, but—damnit!—she's a bitch. She was honest about not seeing Eric again, though. He called the next day and asked her to go to the beach with him on Labor Day and she just hung up on him. Well, after screaming "Not in a million years!" Then she levied a fine of three days mucking out stalls for not cleaning up my breakfast dishes. I guess nothing really changes.

Labor Day, though. That was ... interesting. The Barnes had already reserved the pavilion after the success of last year's party, but they really didn't want to host it and answer people's questions about their missing son. Mom and Dad took over the hosting responsibility and I suggested they call Brenda's parents for help. Brenda's dad sells real estate and always has money, it seems. Mom and Dad were reluctant until I explained that we'd invited all twenty of our friends.

Brenda's dad said they'd love to help and they contacted a couple other parents who chipped in. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes decided not to go at all and when I went over to offer Joanne a ride—she'd just got home from modeling school—she said thank you but she'd already accepted a ride with Bill and Carl. I was a little hurt, but she said she'd see me there and we'd have fun. I hadn't seen her at all this summer, she just got back, and she wasn't going to ride with us to the beach? It just proved to me we lived in different worlds. I was just the runt kid next door. What did I matter?

Mom took mercy on me and let Betts drive to the lake. Mom sat in the back seat so I could just relax. When we got there, Betts took off as soon as the car was in park, but I got stuck carting load after load of stuff from the back of the station wagon to the pavilion. Two ice chests and two big bags of groceries and paper plates. Everybody I knew was already in the water by the time I finished. I'd gotten used to scanning around the area before I left one area of safety and headed for another. I wasn't quite sure why I attracted bullies, but at least I also seemed to attract some good friends. That's why I was surprised when hands grabbed me around the waist and lifted me about six feet off the ground.

"And he dunks it!" a strange voice called. I came down on my feet a little hard and stumbled, but turned around to look at my attacker.

"Geez, Lionel! Did you grow more this summer?"

"Yeah. Coach says I'm six-eight now." And his voice had dropped about two octaves. That's why I didn't recognize him.

"You scared the bejezus out of me."

"Brian! Are you all right?" Dad yelled as he came running up. I guess he'd never met some of my friends.

"Yeah, Dad. Everything is cool. This is my friend, Lionel. Lionel, this is my dad, Mr. Frost."

"Hey, man. Nice to meet you." Dad is six-two and he was looking up at Lionel.

"Nice to meet you, too, Lionel," he said. I think Dad thought I'd been attacked. He watched as Lionel turned back to me.

"Hey bro, we gotta get in the water. There are some hot swimsuits out there." He took off toward the beach and I waved at Dad and followed about as fast as I could move.

He was sure right about the hot swim suits. Almost all the girls were in two piece suits. And those pieces barely covered the essentials. I got in waist deep as quick as I could. Chicken fights started almost immediately. Samantha jumped on my back and crawled up to my shoulders.

"Hey Sam! Where's Simon?"

"We broke up. Am I too much for you?" She had grown over the summer and it was in all the right places. Too much?

"Hell, no! Hang on and let's go get us some chickens!" I wrapped my arms around her legs and had a sudden realization of how incredibly smooth they were. There was no hair at all. I'd never really noticed Sam's legs before. Now they were all I could notice. We quickly discovered that Lionel's height was as big a disadvantage as my lack of it. Whitney had jumped up on his shoulders and as tall as she was, her feet didn't touch the water unless Lionel went out deep enough that everybody else had to swim. Instead they came charging straight at Sam and me. Whitney had to lean over so far that she was off-balance and Sam pulled until she'd fallen in the water. "Woohoo! We're a team!" I yelled. That was a mistake. Carl and Brenda, Doug and Rachel, Jackson and Sugar all closed in on us at once and not only was Sam pulled into the water, but I went with her. I sort of forgot to let go of her legs.

"Naughty boy," Sam said as we came up for air. "You just couldn't let go of my legs, could you?" I shook my head. To clear the water out of my ears. "I got that stuff you smear on your legs and it dissolves all the hair. There's no stubble. Do you like it?"

"God, Samantha. Your legs are like silk. Don't think I'm a pervert or anything, but you want to get up on my shoulders again so I can hold them."

"Let's hear it for the boy!" she sang and climbed onto my back.

I was distracted because every once in a while she'd put both hands on my head and wiggle herself up higher on my shoulders and then slide down. We went for revenge and Sam caught Brenda from behind and hauled her by her shoulders off Carl's back. I was worried for a second that Brenda wasn't coming up. Then she started crawling up my front.

"Woohoo!" Sam screamed, sliding off my shoulders. "I win Carl." She kissed me on the neck and I got chills all down my spine. Then she was off and climbing up on Carl's back before he knew what hit him. I was glad Sam broke up with Simon. She hadn't been this much fun since fifth grade. Brenda continued her climb until she wrapped her legs around my waist and pressed her bare tummy into mine.

"Well, look who I got," Brenda cooed. "I need a hero," she sang. She wasn't moving around to my back. She started to slide down. "I'm slipping. Hold me up!" she demanded. I reached around and grabbed her with both hands. "That's better," she whispered. "I feel so safe now." She kissed me. It wasn't a fantastic sexy kiss—just a little peck on the lips—but I'd never kissed Brenda before. Crap! I leaned back and kicked a little and we floated a few feet before my feet dropped back to the bottom. With her changing my center of balance, my head hardly got wet. I kept kicking and floating across the shallow part of the lake. She kept her legs wrapped around my waist, looking at me like I was dinner.

"You're playful today," I said. "Are you and Carl back together?"

"Sort of. We're just having fun. He's pretty happy to have Samantha's legs wrapped around his face right now." I glanced over at them and Sam had one foot crossed over her other knee which sort of put the back of her knee against Carl's mouth. Yeah, I bet he was happy. Brenda leaned forward and kissed me for real—right there in the lake with everyone around. Our tongues just barely touched and then she jerked back. "Oh, no. I'm not going to give you my virginity either," she whispered. "But it's tempting."

"Oh god, Brenda. Don't say things like that. It's hard enough as it is."

"Bri, you know we all like you a lot, don't you?" I nodded. "It's just not quite in that way. I hope you're okay with us teasing a little. Just don't let us get carried away, okay?" I nodded again and felt her loosen her legs to push away from me. "I hope you didn't leave fingerprints," she giggled. Then she was gone.