The Game of Seduction

It was the day after St. Patrick's Day and we are still experiencing a freakish Californian heat spell. The sun had already started to set but it still felt like 30 degrees Celsius outside.

Kia was crouched down behind a brush, wearing just a large blue T-shirt over her purple bikini. She had a clear view of the huge rectangular pool. Jess and a couple girls from her basketball team were playing in the pool with Greg, Ryan and Nathan.

The boys were all close friends of Kia, Jess and Rachel. They’ve known them since elementary school. Greg's a fun guy to be around, but a bit shy and has a bit of a height complex. It was obvious to everyone that Greg liked Jess –except for Jess– but they always fought. It bugged him that Jess had out grown him by 4 inches. Jess, 5'10", was adamant about dating a guy that was taller than her. To make matters worse, Ryan, Greg's one-year younger brother, was 6 feet and was way smoother with the ladies than he was. He was on the basketball team and would be considered popular. Nathan is Ryan's best friend, same grade, and is on the soccer team with Devin and Jeremy.

From Kia's hiding spot, she scanned the backyard of Jeremy’s big white house. It was gigantic: a wide deck, a gazebo, elaborate gardens and plenty of hiding places.

She spotted Devin not too far away. He was hiding behind a shrub with his back to her. Inconspicuously, she crept up behind him and poked his bare back with her water gun. "Hands up, boy," she demanded.

"Crap," Devin muttered and slowly raised his hands. He was just wearing his plaid swim trunks and his toned body was glistening with water droplets.

"That's it, just surrender," Kia said, smiling smugly.

“Fine…” Devin said, sounding disappointed, but then he abruptly turned around and grabbed the end of Kia’s gun.

Kia fired, but missed him. Devin already had it pointing away from him.

“Shit!” Kia wasn’t all that slow. He was swinging his gun around to aim at her, but she caught his gun in time, holding the end of the barrel away from her.

They stood in a stalemate, both of them smiling mischievously as they held each other’s gun by the barrel. Kia’s arms were starting to get tired of trying to hold his gun back while trying to point her gun at him at the same time.

“Come on, give up,” Devin said. “You’re weak and nowhere near stronger than me.” That was true. He was almost twice Kia’s size. Devin wasn’t crazy muscular but he was strong. Kia on the other hand was really skinny and had no muscles.

A devious thought came to mind. Kia twisted her body towards him and with the arm that she was holding Devin’s gun, she elbowed him in the stomach. Devin staggered back, wincing in pain, but Kia knew it wouldn’t have hurt that much. She quickly ducked away with her gun still in her hand and ran away.

“You brat,” Devin called after her, chasing her down.

Kia shrieked when he shot at her in the back with the cold water. There was no way that she wasn’t going to retaliate. She spun around and they both squirted water at each other, but to Devin’s dismay, his water gun was the first to run dry.

Devin ran away, but Kia chased after him. Kia’s t-shirt was drenched and it clung to her body as she ran. Kia kept aiming at his head. In a desperate attempt, Devin charged at Kia and hoisted her up onto his shoulder.

“Fuck, Devin. Put me down.” Kia dropped her gun. It nearly empty and it wouldn’t help in this situation. She started pounding her fists into Devin’s bare back.

“That hurts, Ki.”

“Yeah, well, put me down before I start kicking,” Kia warned, knowing how easy it would be to kick him in the crotch and making him tumble over.

“Oh yeah?” Devin shifted Kia into a cradling position in his arms. He did so with ease considering that Kia was no more than 105 pounds. “I think someone needs a little dip,” he said with a big grin and headed towards the pool.

“Oh, no… no, no, no,” Kia started freaking out. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Kia hated being thrown into pools.

Devin stood at the edge of the pool.

“Devin, I will kill you,” Kia threatened him.

“Dude, she probably would,” Greg said from the side of the pool, looking rather amused.

“Devin, stop being mean to Kia,” Jess tried to help.

“Nah,” Devin disagreed and tried shaking Kia off, but she had a death grip around his neck.

Kia struggled to hold on. “If I’m going down, I’m going to take you down with me,” she hissed.

“Okay, sure.” He shrugged and jumped into the pool with Kia in his arms.

Under water, Kia immediately released Devin and scrambled like crazy to reach the surface. Kia was fuming as she coughed up water and wiped water from her eyes.

Devin was just laughing and Nathan actually gave him a high five.

Kia shot a glare at Nathan before she turned her attention to Devin. “You’re dead!” She swam towards him, but damn, he was a fast in water. He hopped out of the pool before Kia even reached the ledge.

“What happened?” Chelsea ran up to the edge of the pool, water gun in hand. Kyle was running up from behind her.

Kia had totally forgotten that they were in on the water fight as well. “That bastard threw me in!” Kia yelled, pointing at Devin who was dancing around, provoking her to chase after him. It was working.

Kia tried to prop herself over the ledge of the pool but failed miserably. She never did have much upper body strength.

“Just let it go,” Ryan said from behind her.

“What? Are you crazy?” Kia said, spinning around to meet his handsome face.

“You’re not going to get him. Not today at least. Water is not your forte,” Ryan said with an adorable smile and a careless shrug of his shoulders.

Kia pouted at him, crossing her arms.

“And you’re kinda wimpy,” he said with a bit of a frown. “He’s like twice your size.”

“Hey,” Kia splashed him in the face. On a second thought, it was probably not such a good idea.

Ryan splashed her back right in the face and she gawked at him. He held a hand to his cover his mouth, pretending to be shocked at his own actions.

Kia gridded her teeth and started to splash water at him vigorously. Before they knew it, a full-blown splash-out had erupted between everyone in the pool.

--

The sun had set and it wasn't so hot outside anymore. Everyone had calmed down a bit as they started to get hungry.

Kia had forgotten about revenge on Devin for now, but she did make a mental note to get him later.

She and Jess were sitting on the lounge chairs by the pool with some pizza and margaritas. They had both toweled off. Kia wore a blue ruffled sundress over her bathing suit while Jess was in short shorts and a tank top.

Jess was just saying how she thought Nathan had gotten hotter recently and Kia had to agree. It was noticeable that he’d been working on his abs.

“Oh shit, Kia,” Jess said suddenly, eyes fixed on the patio.

“What is it?” Kia was just about to turn and look but Jess stopped her.

“It’s Ian, don’t look,” she warned.

“Ian Foster?” Kia asked, her voice squeaking a bit.

“Yeah, your make out buddy from last night. He’s looking this way.”

“What?” Kia was about to turn and look.

“I said don’t look,” Jess half hissed at her.

“Well… what am I suppose to do?” Kia said, getting frustrated.

“Don’t look, act cool and pretend like he’s not there.”

“Well, I could have done that perfectly fine if you hadn’t pointed him out. What is he doing here anyways?”

“Isn’t he like Jeremy’s best friends?”

That’s right… “Yeah,” Kia answered dully.

“Kia,” Jess gripped her arm tightly. “No matter what, you must avoid him like the plague.”

“Like what kind of plague?” Kia asked innocently.

“Any kind of plague, Kia,” Jess exclaimed.

Right... a plague is a plague. “Sure,” Kia agreed, but she was pretty sure that he’d forgotten about last night. He’d probably left, got more wasted and made out with some hotter, sluttier girl –not that I’m slutty in any way to begin with, or maybe just a little. Whatever, Kia huffed, he’s the manwhore.

“It’s not a good idea to get involved with someone like him,” Jess warned