Before the Summer's Out...

The next day, Enid and I went to the lake. I didn't know for sure if Heather was going to be there, but it was a hot, sunny Saturday so there was a good chance she would come. We spread out our beach towels and propped the small cooler of snacks and pop between us.

I peeled my Doors shirt off and plunked down and slid on my shades. I sprawled out and put my hands behind my head. "Ah," I said, at peace.

Enid never, ever goes out in just her bathing suit. Not at the beach, not in a swimming pool. She was wearing an over-sized linen coverall, a scarf to hold her hair back, and huge wraparound prescription sunglasses. Enid was slathering an armour load of sunscreen on her white skin. I have a terrible habit of not putting on sunscreen. I'm lucky in that I never burn and just bronze. Enid gets the absolute worst sunburns in the very smallest amount of time. She pulled out a well thumbed poetry book from her bag and adjusted her sunglasses.

I propped myself up on my elbows to look at the water. It was tantalizing clear, a dark crystal blue. Sort of like Heather's eyes, without the sex factor.

"You want to swim?" I asked half hearted.

"Maybe later," Enid said, reading her book.

I lay back, relieved. Sometimes, Enid and I are on the exact same word on the exact same line on the exact same page.

"What are you reading?" I asked, my eyes closed.

"The Sex Lives of Vegetables,"

"Liar,"

"'Carrots are fucking; the earth. A permanent; erection, they push deeper-'"

"Oh sweet! I don't believe it," I interrupted.

"I know, right? Do you think I could write something like that?" Enid asked.

"Heather is here! She came. Wow, I didn't actually think she would..." I said, propping myself up on my elbows again.

"Where is she? I don't see her," Enid said. I could imagine her squinting through her sunglasses.

"Over there. She's right down near the water by the dock. She's with Kaitlin and Amanda and Nanci and Olivia and she's wearing a white string bikini with-"

"K, I can see her now. You don't need to monologue about her flip flops," Enid interrupted me, peering around me at Heather. "... I like her swim suit," she said and then looked back at her fucking carrots poem.

"Do you think I should go down and talk to her?" I asked and looked at Enid.

"Sure. While you're doing that you can take a picture of the unicorn that's with her," Enid said without looking up from her book. She implies that I'd never have the balls to go over and talk to her. Isn't Enid just a stitch with that unicorn bit?

"Fuck you. I'm going to do it," I said. I felt confident that day, hott and alluring. I actually stood up then, surprising myself.

"You're really going??" Enid said, looking up at me and scrunching her nose.

"Yeah. I think so," I said. I didn't like that I sounded bewildered.

"K I'll document it," Enid said and pulled out her cell. She was serious, which is a good thing because I would have asked her video it for me anyway and expected a very snappy decline.

"Ok. Here I go," I said and my legs started walking. When I was half way there, I looked back. Enid was holding up the cell and I was pretty sure she was actually recording this moment.

I walked up to the group of girls. "Hey girls," I acknowledged all of them, although my shades were looking directly at the diamond in the cubic zirconium of females.

"Hi," Kaitlin and Heather replied. The other three ignored me and kept talking with each other.

"Benj, sit, sit," Heather said waving her hand and gesturing for me sit between her and Kaitlin.

I sat and bent my legs and rested my arms on my knees. Heather leaned closer to me. I felt like I was dreaming.

"How's it goin?" She asked me. She smelled like cinnamon and coconut sunscreen.

We looked at each other through our sunglasses. She was wearing silver trimmed Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses. Heather. Looked. Stunning. Her bathing suit fit her golden body perfectly.

"Pretty good. It's a gorgeous day at the lake," I said and gestured to the water.

Heather grinned. "I like your board shorts," she said and touched my thigh. Ok I was dreaming. I would wake up soon to my cell alarm and then have to call Enid and tell her to come pick me up so we could go to the lake-

"Thanks," I remembered to grin casually at Heather. My dreams are a good place to practice being charming with her.

"... you want to go get something to eat?" Heather said and stood up. Her legs were slim and had just the right amount of muscles. It's that athletic grace. I stood immediately.

"You guys want anything?" she asked her friends. They waved her away.

Heather and I walked up the sandy hill to the concession stand. I hoped that Enid would follow us, but even in my dream I knew better.

We were standing in line at the concession stand for our ice cream when my dream became the best dream ever. Heather leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Ugh. Benj, you left the party way too early," she moaned. She smelled so hott, it was strong and sexual and potent even in my dream.

"I did?" I asked her.

"Mhm," She hummed melodically. "It got really boring. And Joey, you know my boyfriend? He started flirting with that slut, Lydia," she leaned away from her my shoulder to look at me.

My mouth dropped open. How anyone could even conceive the thought of flirting with another girl when Heather was theirs was beyond me.

"Really?" I managed to say sympathetically.

"Yeah. I mean, not that I'm judging her or anything. It's just I know that Lydia has slept with like four guys on the basketball team. I don't know what she's trying to accomplish," Heather finished with a sigh.

I wonder sometimes what career path Heather will choose. I've contemplated super model (obviously), singer, fashion designer, president… and right now psychologist. Her wonderment at Lydia's behaviour was endearing and intriguing.

"An impressive roster?" I offered her jokingly.

I suddenly wished that I could have Enid's brain so that I could have given Heather an impressive, smart answer instead of a stupid joke. Heather smiled kindly anyway and slid off her sunglasses. I stared at her blue eyes; they were so incredibly gorgeous, somehow associating sapphires with sex.

"Anyway. I didn't want to talk you about Lydia. I wanted to ask you something Benj," Heather said lightly, looking away from me in front of her.

My eyes were bulging out of their sockets, only being held back by my sunglasses I'm sure. My throat caught and sweat began accumulating on my nose.

"Um what is it?" I asked curiously. My voice cracked but Heather graciously didn't laugh at me.

She looked at me again. "… you know, if you let your hair grow out, it would look so emo cute," she said suddenly, frowning her lovely eyes.

I was a little confused, since this wasn't a question. But my confusion evaporated when Heather reached up and very lightly shooshed my bangs. Although the touch was barely there, having Heather's hands in my hair was great. I could just imagine her running both her hands through my hair as she pressed herself against me and then knotting her fingers in my hair passionately, pulling my face down to hers…

"OW!" came a yelp from near a garbage can, shocking me out of my revelry. In fact, everyone in the vicinity turned to see Enid sprawled on the gravel next to the garbage can, her cell phone dusty and broken in two a few feet away.

"Enid?" I said in surprise at her.

She scrambled to her feet and snatched up her cell, looking over the pieces frantically in her hands for a moment and then dropping her hands to her side as if she suddenly didn't care about her cell phone.

"Oh, uh, hey. I was just, um, getting some napkins," Enid said.

"From the garbage can?" Heather pointed out, crossing her arms and smiling.

Enid floundered. "Um. No. I got the napkins, used them, and was just throwing them out. I um stubbed my toe and dropped my cell and… Yeah," she said and then turned abruptly and walked back to the beach.

I stared after her, feeling bewildered as shit.

"No offense to you guys or anything, Benj, but Enid's a little weird," Heather said widening her eyes and looking ahead.

I turned back to her. "Um. Yeah she is. No doubt," I agreed willingly. Normally I don't talk bad about Enid behind her back… but c'mon it was Heather. And besides, it was true.

Heather bit her lower lip, thinking. Oh god how those full raspberry lips drove me crazy.

"So, um what did you want to ask me?" I brought up, unwilling to let that drop.

Heather looked at me and smiled. I committed that smile to my memory. It made the sun brighter, I swear to god.

"Well I needed your expertise on what ice cream to get," was her answer. We were up next in line at the concession stand. I'd forgotten why we'd been standing there.

I'll admit, I was disappointed that this was the question she'd wanted to ask me. But I was far from hopeless. We'd had an actual conversation, in which she'd actually confessed something to me. This would make for good dissection and analyzing later.

I returned to Enid after Heather got her ice cream cones. I would have walked with Heather back to her spot, but half way there she turned to me and grinned and said good bye. I had no choice but to return to my spot.

Enid had her arms tucked against her bent up knees and her nose in the sex lives of vegetables. I plopped down next to her and rested my arm on my knee.

"Enid," I prompted impatiently.

She looked at me through her sunglasses. "What?" she asked back just as impatiently.

"What happened?" I asked.

Enid sighed shortly and put down her book. "Look, I'm sorry I intruded on your conversation with Heather. I still got most of it on the cell-"

"No. I mean are you ok? You fell face flat on gravel," I interrupted.

Enid stopped and I could tell she was staring at me through her black sunglasses "Oh… um yeah I'm ok. I've had worse. Some shallow scratches on my palms are nothing to get hung up about." She seemed flattered by my concern.

That kind of offended me, since she was acting like it was a surprise that I cared about her well-being. Still, I let that go and was glad she was ok.

"K that's good. So what happened to the cell? Is it broken?" I asked.

"No. The battery just came away. Everything saved," Enid said and reached into her woven tote back and handed me the cell. She picked up her book again.

I quickly flipped through her video files. I found one I thought was it but it wasn't. It was a video of Enid and me in my mom's jeep on our way to this interactive science museum for my birthday. Enid is filming, so it's mostly of me, but she occasionally manages to get shots of her face when she's asking a question. I laugh a lot in the video.

The documentation of my excursion with Heather was split up into a bunch of parts, since Enid's phone can only capture thirty seconds of footage at a time. I couldn't hear anything either I or Heather said and, in fact, it was hard to tell it was me and Heather at all since Enid was filming from a distance. I only got a good video shot of Heather when Enid was behind the garbage can. But that lasted for half a second before Enid, presumably, leaned too far and fell over, dropping her phone. You can hear the start of her yelp before the phone breaks.

"Haha! Nice. That was timed perfectly, comedy-wise," I laughed at her.

Enid snarled at me and snatched her phone away. I snatched it back.

"Hey I want to look at Heather some more," I protested.

Enid aggressively folded her book, forcing the pages to stay open. "Stalker," she muttered under her breath.

I ignored her and, I admit a little creepily, replayed the videos of me and Heather, mostly repeated the one that got a good shot of Heather's fantastic legs before Enid wiped out.