Chapter One

The Party and the Pool

It was a week before Halloween; a Friday; a week before my thirteenth birthday. It wasn’t exactly a Halloween party, but you were supposed to dress up. Jimmy Harris was an avid reader and vampire novels were his current poison. He wanted the five of us to have a vampire theme. We all agreed except Sarah, who said she’d surprise us all.

The party was Vicki’s. His parents had gone through a messy divorce five years back and a custody battle that would make anyone cringe, and his mother had had countless boyfriends and two illegitimate children since. His mother’s current beau was a fine young jackass named Charles, whom Vic liked to call Chuck. Chuck was the richest to date and owned a nice little house in a part of New Haven we like to call The Hills, where all the wealthier people lived. Chuck had taken Valerie Moyerson Abernathy and her troop of hellhounds on a nice little weekend trip to Lake Tahoe. Vic didn’t live with his mother anymore; currently he was residing with his father and elder brother in Faith, the poorer part of town. It was originally the section set aside for immigrants. They were the ones that had named it Faith. If those hopefuls that had settled the place could see it now I’m sure they, too, would find the name ironic. The sad part about the custody battle was that the only reason either of Vicki’s deadbeat parents wanted him and his brother was to get money from the state.

Anyway, ole Chuck was out of town and Vic had taken it upon himself to break into the luxurious house and throw a party at “Uncle Charlie’s.” After all, the man might be his stepfather some day, right? The poor guy should know what he was getting himself into before he popped the big question, not that Vic thought that it would actually get that far.

I was standing in front of the full-length mirror attached to my closet door wearing the Victorian styled dress I had bought and altered specifically for this night debating on whether or not I should go to the party.

Since my mother died my father had gone through many a girlfriend. Two years ago he had actually married one, and she was about as different from my mother as one could get. She had a head of gorgeous brown hair and big brown eyes and a generous mouth with pearly white teeth that was always smiling or frowning—my father usually the cause of the latter. Her name was Joanne Dennison and she was wonderful to my sisters and me, even though she was only eight years older than myself; my father liked them young. Lately she and my father were fighting a lot, especially about why he hardly ever came home until the midnight hours. One didn’t have to be a genius to figure that one out. He had done the same thing to my mother before the doctors told him she was going to die. They had had a bad fight the night before and my father had stormed out and had not been home since. And now he had Joanne worried sick about him.

I’ll just come home early, I decided finally. Of course, I was already going to be half an hour late. Parties never were a big thing with me. Not then, anyway.

I was looking at my figure from both angles, wishing my chest would go away when I heard the door open and my elder sister Genni sauntered into the room. She was two and a half years older than me and thought herself every bit better. She was a beauty, though, no one could deny that. At fifteen she was five feet six in heals, her skin flawless and smooth, her black hair rich and silky. She had deep blue eyes that had the ability to look extremely cold or extremely innocent depending on her mood; her lips also shared the ability. She had a natural pout. And pouting she was as she strode into my room and helped herself to lay on my bed. Vicki once told me that we were both beautiful, just in different ways. In his words, Genni looked like a Playboy model while I looked like a porcelain doll, one of the really expensive ones.

“What do you want?” I asked as I struggled to pull my unyielding curly hair into a French twist on top of my head. I was never very good at hair stuff. Or makeup stuff. Or just plain girl stuff. I would’ve much rather have been a boy. Boys are so much more interesting than girls. Girls are just…stupid. The ones I grew up with, anyway. Most of them; there were a few exceptions.

“Do you need help?” she asked with a taunt.

“No, I am quite capable of handling myself, thank you.”

“So you are going to this little function of Vicki’s tonight?” she asked.

“Yeah, why? Do you care?”

“Bobby told me about it. He said I could go if I wanted. But I don’t think I will. I just wanted to know if you were going.”

I stopped and stared at her reflection incredulously in the mirror. “Why?”

She sighed and I saw her eyes look to me in the mirror. “I just thought maybe we could talk and do the whole ‘sister’ thing. You know?”

I stopped and met her eyes in the mirror. “No, I don’t know.”

“Well, it’s not like we’ve ever been close, and with all that’s going on I thought it might be nice to have someone to talk to. And you’re the closest to my age.”

“Then talk, if that’s what you want,” I said, reaching for another bobby pin.

She stood and headed towards the door. “I knew you wouldn’t understand, you’re such a child!”

I ignored her and continued with my hair. I couldn’t quite get it and eventually asked my aunt, Lesley, to do it for me. Soon afterward I was on my way to the Hills, which was a couple mile walk, by the way, to Vic’s party. On the way I ran into Richie Dickerson, a friend of Vic’s older brother who I had known practically my whole life. He offered me a ride, which I gladly accepted.

“How you doing tonight, Richie?” I asked him as I got in. “Where’s your bike?” Richie was well known as a motorcycle freak and was the only kid in town who actually had one.

“It’s in the shop for the moment,” he said, taking a drag on his cigarette. I guess if I had ever had a crush on a guy I had had a small crush on Richie when he was going out with my sister. He and Genni had been going out on and off for about four years before she started with Bobby. More off than on in recent months. He always treated me like I was his equal and not just some kid even though he was a good five years older than me, which was something I appreciated very much.

Richie was tall, almost six feet. Of course, just about everyone was tall to me and my grand 5”1 stature. He had pale complexion with a head full of shaggy black hair and matching eyes that loved to devour women. Richie was a good guy. He was always smiling and if he ever saw anyone sad he would do his best to cheer them up. But above all else he loved to have a good time.

“I kinda borrowed Clyde’s car for the night,” he said with a wry smile, leaving me to believe he had stolen the thing.

“Who’s Clyde?” I asked.

“Just a friend. He’s more a friend of Snake’s than of mine, though.”

I smiled at him. “You don’t like him?”

“Shh. He might hear you.” Richie took a swing from his can of beer and offered me some.

“No, thanks, I can’t stand beer.”

Richie mocked looking shocked. “It’s the drink of the Gods, my friend. What’s wrong with you?”

I giggled, I think Richie and Vic were the only people I did that in front of. “Nothing. It’s not my fault if I don’t like to drink something that tastes like piss water.”

He thought that was funny. “And how do you know what piss water tastes like, Kell? Have you tried it?”

I socked him in the shoulder. “Certainly not. Leave me alone!”

“You’re too easy to get a rise out of, Kella, you need to toughen up some.” He smiled at me again. “Have you ever driven?”

I took a cigarette out of my purse. “My father taught me how to drive a stick,” I told him proudly as I attempted to light the cigarette. The wind from his open window was giving me a hard time.

He nodded. “I don’t care for automatics. They make everything too fucking easy. I like Clyde’s car. I’m tempted not to give it back to him.”

“Did you steal it from him?”

He looked insulted. “I don’t steal, Kell Bell, I borrow, there’s a difference. If I was stealing, I would’ve taken it without any intention of giving it back. So let’s just say Clyde would probably try to have me killed if he found out I took it. Or if anyone took it. That guy doesn’t let anyone near his precious baby. He won’t even let Snake borrow it.”

xXxXx

The house was quite full by the time I showed up. The music was blasting from within and the walls seemed to be shaking. I said bye to Richie and headed inside. I spotted Jimmy’s shaggy brown headd immediately standing by the refreshments table looking bored, but cute in his white dress shirt, black slacks and cape. “Hello, my love,” I said as I stalked up to him, slurring the words a bit due to the fangs I had just placed in my mouth. “And how are you this fine evening?”

He took a sip from the punch, staring across the room. “I think I’m going to break up with Xena Louise tonight.”

I nodded. “That’ll be good for you, I never liked her anyway.”

He smiled slightly. “If I get married and you don’t like her, are you going to speak when the preacher says speak now or forever hold your peace?”

“Probably,” I told him, reaching for a glass of punch.

“It’s spiked,” he warned.

I smile at him. “Good. Maybe it’ll loosen me up a bit.”

“Do you think I should dump her now, or wait until later and make sure she catches me cheating on her with one of her friends.”

“You’re cruel.” I smiled brightly. “Cheat on her.”

Xena Louise was one girl I absolutely could not stand. She was tall with long blond hair and big blue eyes, the stereotypical “All-American” girl. She was a snob, too, and she only lived three doors down from where we were, which meant she was pretty well off. What really always got me about her is the pronunciation she insisted on using for her name. Xena La-Wheese. Soft, like a rose petal, using her words. Once in fifth grade a substitute had mutilated her name during roll call and I’d called her Eczema every since.

“Vicki gave me an idea and if I get drunk enough I just might do it.”

“Well have fun with it, whatever you choose to do.”

I noticed Sarah Carsen making her way to us. I smiled a little and waved to her. Of all the things to be while the rest of us were vampires she was Wonder Woman. Not only was she Wonder Woman, but Wonder Woman with a couple peaks of femininity bulging from her chest—that she didn’t actually have, by the way.

“What are those?” I sang to her, pointing to her new breasts.

“Do they look real?” she asked me instead of answering, and stuck her chest out for me to judge.

“They don’t look like silicone.”

She smiled. “They’re water balloons. Vicki says they’re too jiggly, though.”

I just nodded. Sarah was a “late bloomer,” meaning that at thirteen she hadn’t gotten her period yet. I didn’t see why she was complaining. I’d happily rather not have a “woman’s figure” than a week of bleeding every month. I don’t know, I always thought there was something disturbing about the fact that girls bleed for five days out of the month. That was one of the many differences between us.

Then I saw a hand slide around her middle and a head full of blond hair rest on her shoulder. Vic smiled at us and grabbed one of Sarah’s “breasts.”

“Vicki, don’t do that!” she squealed, laughing in spite of herself.

“But they’re oh so enticing. They make you look the part of the seductress, Wonder Woman. You can save me any time,” he said softly, kissing her gently on the cheek. One thing about Vicki, he definitely had a way with women. Sarah had the biggest crush on him, and I had to wonder if he knew. Sarah had never said anything about it, but I could tell. A blind person could. “Would you do me the honor, lover, of giving me the next dance?”

She smiled shyly and nodded and Vic led her towards the dance area. I’d gladly see them together, Vic would make Sarah happy and she would keep him out of trouble, but Vic had a girlfriend. A girl who, thankfully, would not be attending the party. I didn’t like her.

xXxXx

About eight months earlier Genni had thrown herself a birthday party and I had invited my friends to crash. That was a big mistake. Not only did Genni snag Bobby at that party, but Pamela Young snagged Vic. Or, should I say, Vic snagged Pam. It’s not that I mind my friends finding girlfriends, but why do they all have to have such god-awful taste in women?

Genni had ditched her own birthday party and was nowhere to be found—later on I found out she was upstairs making out with one of my best friends—and I had gotten stuck restocking refreshments. I was coming out of the kitchen with a bowl full of chips in my hands when I saw Vic standing by himself leaning against the wall beside the refreshment table, drinking some of the punch that I was pretty sure was spiked. There was never a punch bowl in the presence of Bobby Valentino that didn’t get spiked.

I was about to walk over to say hi when Pamela Young came up to him. Now, normally I really wouldn’t care, but Pamela looked nervous so I kind of kept out of site around the corner near the kitchen, but I could hear every word they said.

Pamela’s another one of those people with the “All-American” good looks. My God, the whole town was full of these blond haired, blue-eyed freaks. But Pam wasn’t just pretty, she was gorgeous. And she was talented. She could sing, she could dance. She could’ve done something with her life. Maybe that’s why I hated her so much. She threw her whole life away.

“Hi, Vicki,” she said in her soft, sultry voice that most the guys I knew seemed to find irresistible.

“Hi, Pam,” he said quickly, sizing her up. Vic was not a shy boy. “You look nice.”

She smiled, trying to look the part of the sultry seductress, and not doing a very good job at it at the age of thirteen. “I feel nice. Are you a virgin?”

“Where did that come from?”

She started to play with one of his sleeves, smiling sweetly at him. It was enough to make me sick. “I’m just curious, Vic. We’ve known each other for a long time, and I just thought I’d like to get to know you better. So tell me, have you ever had sex?”

He smiled back at her, playing at her game. “Is that really any of your business?”

She smiled slyly. “You’re a virgin, I can tell.”

I think that insulted him. “How can you tell if someone’s a virgin?”

“Your eyes are too innocent.” She giggled and went on. “Now tell me if I was right.”

He glared at her. “No, I’ve never had sex,” he said evenly.

She giggled again. “That’s all right. Neither have I. Not with a guy, anyway. Not really.”

He sized her body up once again—a body no thirteen-year-old should have—and smiled when he reached her face. “Interested?”

She didn’t say anything; just toyed with his collar. “Why don’t you ditch this party and come over tonight. And we can have some real fun.” Then she leaned over and licked his ear. She licked it!

Well, Vic was definitely looking interested. “Sounds like fun, Pamela. Just let me go tell Kella I’m leaving. All right?”

She pouted them. She had a pout that could almost rival Genni’s. “Why do you have to tell that stupid bitch anything?”

Vic didn’t like that.

I smiled. I mean more to Vic than you ever will, Pammy. I lingered a moment more to hear Vic’s response.

“Don’t call her a bitch, Pamela. She’s my friend.”

She shrugged. “Whatever. And you can call me Pam, Vic. All my friends do.”

I stepped out with the chips and forced a fake smile in Pamela’s direction. “Hello and what are you two up to this lovely evening?” I asked Vic.

“We were gonna go out for a little while,” Vic said with a small smile and kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll catch up with you later.” He brushed past me and Pamela followed, smiling at me like she had just made a conquest.

xXxXx

About two weeks after Pamela made her “conquest” the two of them were involved in a car accident in which an old woman had been seriously hurt. Vic had apparently been driving the stolen car when it rammed into the old woman’s Buick. And he’d been drunk as well. That little skirmish had wound up with Vic in juvenile hall for six months—though he should’ve been there for at least a year—and Pamela had walked away scott free. And I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been the one driving.

Vic wasn’t the same after that. When he was a kid his mother would never cut his or his older brother’s hair; she thought it was against nature or something. As a result, Vic wouldn’t let anyone go near his hair with a pair of scissors, except for when he got it trimmed. At the age of twelve his long blond hair reached passed his butt. But when he’d gone to juvenile hall they’d cut all of his beautiful hair off. Nice people that they were, they let him keep it. He had it in a cigar box he kept on top of his dresser.

xXxXx

By midnight I had retired to the couch with Jimmy, nursing a glass—a big glass—of punch in my hand as we watched Vic and Sarah dance to the evil that was Disco Inferno. Jimmy and I shared the belief that disco was created by the devil and he used it on the weak-minded to do his bidding; like dancing like idiots and wearing ugly clothes. Well, most disco, there were a few songs I liked, and that Jimmy liked, though he would die before he would admit it. I had caught him singing along to ‘Turn the Beat Around’ more than once, you know. He had abandoned his cape about an hour earlier; people kept tripping on it.

The party had died down and there weren’t too many people still there. Sarah and Vic had the floor to themselves and were starting to get particularly frisky when Vic leaned on Sarah a little too hard and…her right boob popped. I almost choked on the punch I was drinking as Jimmy and I both collapsed on each other in laughter and Sarah screamed and ran towards the bathroom. People stared and a few laughed as she ran passed them. Sarah looked absolutely mortified. It was a horrible thing to laugh at, but I couldn’t help it.

Vic smiled and looked towards us. “I guess next time Sarah oughtta get those helium strength balloons.” He pulled his wet shirt away from his body and headed to the kitchen.

“Shall we go be mean?” Jimmy asked with a sly grin.

“She’ll never forgive us.”

Jimmy sat up, leaving me to fall in his vacated space and put a hand on my arm. “She’ll have to forgive us. We’re her only friends.” He stood and helped me to my feet and together we headed toward Sarah. I could hear people talking about my poor friend. She was never going to live this down.

“Sarah,” I said tentatively as I knocked on the door.

“Go away!” she yelled.

“Can I come in? Please?”

There was a pause before she answered me. “Do you absolutely swear on your mother’s grave not to make fun of me?”

“I swear,” I told her without any hesitation.

She slowly started to open the door when a voice out of nowhere started to sing, “A penny for a spool of thread, a penny for a needle, that’s the way the money goes, POP goes the weasel.”

The door slammed shut.

I whirled around to see Bobby standing behind me smiling maliciously. “You jerk!” I yelled at him and socked him in the shoulder. “Go away! Both of you!” I cried when they didn’t get the message.

Vic hurried over then, rubbing his shirt with a towel. “Let’s go tell everyone else to get out and then we’ll cheer Sarah up,” he said to the other two.

“Jerks,” I muttered as they walked away. I turned toward the bathroom again and knocked loudly. “The evil men are gone! It’s just me! Let me in!”

She didn’t say anything but the door opened a crack and I hurried in, closing the door behind me. She looked a mess. Her blond hair was disheveled and her big brown eyes were bloodshot. She’d been crying. She quickly rubbed her tears away. It wasn’t her style to cry in front of anyone. It wasn’t mine, either. We had some things in common.

“It’s not that bad,” I told her, knowing exactly how lame I sounded.

“It’s not that bad?” she mimicked. “How would you feel if one of your boobs exploded in front of everybody?”

It was very hard to keep a straight face at that but I did manage to do it, I’m proud to say. “Well,” I began, “I, personally, wouldn’t have fake boobs to begin with, but—”

Sarah started to say something but I quickly held my hand up to shush her.

“But,” I continued, “If it was me, I really wouldn’t care. Do you really give a damn what those shits at school think, anyway?”

“Kella, what do you think?” She glared at me and crossed her arms across her chest. It was then I noticed her left boob was still there, and sinking towards the middle. I couldn’t keep a straight face through that, not when Sarah was trying to be intimidating.

She made a disgusted sound and grabbed it out of her bra and threw it to the floor. It broke at my feet.

“You got my dress wet,” I said softly. “This thing was expensive.”

Sarah’s angry demeanor left and she began to laugh. She sat on the toilet and laughed till tears ran down her cheeks.

I leaned down and took her hands in mine. “Sarah. Next weekend someone’s gonna do something just as dumb and then they’ll forget all about you,” I told her reassuringly.

She looked hopefully up at me. “Do you really think so?”

I nodded. “Vicki’s getting the rest of the people out of here and then the five of us can have our own party. A fun one. Besides, Sarah, none of us gives a damn how big your breasts are.”

She smiled and looked down. “I feel so stupid. Is Vicki mad at me?”

I shook my head. “Why would Vicki be mad at you?”

“I got his shirt all wet.”

I just shook my head again.

xXxXx

Together, Vic, Jimmy, and Bobby herded out the rest of the party-goers by telling them one of the neighbors had phoned the police, so we could have the place to ourselves. We finally got Sarah out of the bathroom and into the living room where we all sat in a circle—I was sitting between Jimmy and Bobby—and Jimmy asked the infamous question.

“What do you guys wanna do?”

The Dream I’d had the night before came rushing back to me, filling me with that feeling of dread I get when I think about them. I had almost forgotten about it. I wanted to go home. I wanted to talk to my father. But he wouldn’t be there. He was probably off partying with Jimmy’s mother or some other woman that was willing. I could suggest talking, but I hated talking to them all together. We always wound up talking about sex. Now matter what the subject was originally about. Talking just didn’t work.

“Wanna play Truth?” Bobby asked nonchalantly.

Sarah smiled brightly and clasped her hands together. “Can I go first?”

“I guess that’s a yes?” Bobby asked, taking a drink of his spiked punch.

“You wanna go first?” Sarah asked, looking at Vic.

He was laying on his back staring at the ceiling. He rolled his eyes toward her. “Do I have a choice?”

“No,” Sarah said smiling wickedly. “What’s the kinkiest thing you’ve ever done?”

“What the hell kind of question is that?” Vic asked from the floor, flicking a strand of his flaxen blond hair out of his face.

Jimmy poked him with the butt of his cigarette. “You gotta answer.”

“Yes. Do tell,” I added.

Vic sat up and swung around so he was facing us. “Okay,” he said with a knowing smile, “I didn’t do it, but I got to watch Pam have sex with her friend Courtney. That was weird.”

Jimmy laughed and crushed the remains of his cigarette into a very expensive looking plate we were using as an ashtray. “You just watched?”

Vic shrugged. “It was supposed to be my welcome home present when I got out of juvy. I didn’t want to ruin it for them.”

Bobby just stared at him for a moment, like he knew there was more to the story. “That’s some welcome home present. I wouldn’t have just watched.”

“I was more interested in just watching at the time.” He took a deep breath and looked around at all of us. “Now, who should my victim?”

Sarah smiled—my, her mood had changed quickly, though she wasn’t too fond to hear about Vic’s sexcapades with the biggest slut in New Haven Jr. High—and leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

“Okay.” He looked at me with feigned innocence. “Sarah wants to know if you have a crush on anyone. And if so, who?”

“I don’t have a crush on anyone,” I said flatly. Honestly, I didn’t. Sarah looked disappointed. “Next subject?” I set my gaze on Bobby. Now was my chance to find out how involved he really was with my sister. “Bobby. What’s going on with you and Genni?”

He groaned. “I knew you were going to bring that up. Or somebody was.”

“Have you had sex with her?” Vic asked brightly.

“Is that all you ever think about?” Bobby said, annoyed.

“It’s all I ever try to think about.”

Bobby nodded, then smiled slightly. “Yeah, we’ve had sex.”

Sarah leaned in closer to him. “What was it like?”

Bobby sighed dreamily and glanced up at the ceiling. “It was like bowl full of warm pudding.”

“Eww,” Sarah said softly.

I covered my ears and glared at him. “I don’t want to hear about sex with Genni. She’s my sister!”

“How long ago did you two do it?” Jimmy asked. “Was it the first time you went out with her?”

“She’s not that easy!” Bobby cried.

Bobby definitely cared about her. He wouldn’t stick up for her otherwise. And he hadn’t bragged about it before this. But what did I care anyway? It was none of my business. Bobby would just get hurt in the end, I knew. That’s what always happened when guys let themselves get involved with sluts.

Their relationship—sometimes non-relationship—reminded me of Vic and Pamela in a lot of ways. But somehow I knew that things would end very differently for the two couples.

“We had sex about five months ago,” Bobby continued. “For the first time. We’ve done it eighteen times so far.”

“Eighteen!” Sarah exclaimed.

I just groaned and leaned back on the floor so I could ignore them. Or try to.

“How come you never told us?” Jimmy asked.

“It just never seemed the right time.”

“How come you guys never bugged me for details when I told you I had sex with Pam?” I heard Vic say.

“Because you’re a liar,” I answered.

“She’s right,” Sarah agreed.

“Have you guys ever tried drugs?” Bobby asked out of nowhere.

That caught my attention and I sat up immediately. Too fast. Everything went white for a second.

Sarah shook her head, as did I.

“No,” Jimmy said. “Why?”

Bobby shrugged. “I’ve got some pot with me and I was wondering it you guys might wanna try it.”

Sarah’s dark brown eyes went wide and she put down her drink. “No, shit! You got drugs!”

Jimmy was kind of fidgeting. “I don’t know about this.”

“Once won’t kill you,” Bobby told him. “Not pot.”

I noticed Vic hadn’t said anything. I glanced over at him and he was glaring at Bobby. I knew Vic’s older brother Snake was into drugs a bit, but I had no idea if he himself had ever tried them. It struck me then how little I really knew him. Vic was an enigma.

“I want to try it!” Sarah demanded.

“What about you, Kella?” Bobby asked me.

“Hell, I’ll try anything once,” I said, sounding a lot more confident than I actually was.

“Bobby…” I heard Vic say softly.

“What?” Bobby replied, taking the pot out of his pocket. Vicki didn’t say anything and Bobby proceeded to roll the little brown herb looking things into a couple cigarette-like things called joints.

“Is it like a cigarette?” I asked.

“Kind of,” Bobby told me. “You’ll get the hang of it.”

He lit it and took a puff. “That’s good shit,” he said and handed it to Sarah.

Sarah took a drag and started coughing. “What are you talking about? That’s bad shit.”

Vic laughed and took the joint away from her. “Don’t inhale so deep.” He took a drag. “Like that.”

Sarah reached out for it. “Let me try it again.”

“Wait a little while. I don’t want you getting sick.”

Sarah just lit up like a candle when he said that and he handed it to Jimmy.

Jimmy coughed a bit, but not too much and handed it to me.

I didn’t cough, but I didn’t feel a damn thing.

xXxXx

I never bought that “peer pressure” shit they tell you about in school. I always thought if you really didn’t want to do something no one could force you to. I hate it when people make excuses for themselves and the things they do. I never did. The reason why I tried drugs was because deep down I wanted to. Granted, I doubt I would ever have gone out of my way to attain drugs if I had not been given the opportunity, but the fact is, I could’ve said no. It’s as simple as that.

After a few minutes of us sitting in an awkward silence, Sarah started giggling. And we stared at her, then started laughing ourselves, except for Vic. Yeah, maybe I was a bit buzzed. But I can’t say I felt different.

For some reason just then I noticed the gorgeous black grand piano in the next room. My mother had taught me how to play before she’d died and I’d had weekly lessons since. I was no musical genius but I could play pretty good. I’d always wanted a grand piano, but all we had at home was an old upright one. It was a genuine antique and the keys were actually made of real ivory.

I stood up a little shakily. I felt more like I was drunk than anything. “I wanna play the piano. Anyone have any requests?” I asked as I walked over there.

Vic smiled up at me. “How about ‘All You Need is Love?’”

The Beatles, of course. They were his favorite band.

“No!” Jimmy groaned. “No Beatles. Something else.”

I smiled. “I’ll play ‘All You Need is Love,’ but you guys have to sing. I can’t sing and play at the same time. Not like this.”

“I like the Beatles,” Sarah said, jumping up and running toward the piano.

We all filed in there and I started banging out a tune that at least resembled ‘All You Need is Love’—I could almost see my piano teacher, Mr. Morgan, wincing—but my friends didn’t seem to care. And neither did I.

I guess Jimmy got sick of me mutilating classics and sat down beside me and began playing the harmony, while I just stuck to the melody. Jimmy played the piano, guitar (acoustic and currently learning electric), and the flute. And he had told me once that he wanted to learn to play the harp.

Don’t ask me.

After a few groans and Beatles song’s later I turned my back to Jimmy and asked him to unzip my dress.

“Why?” he asked.

“I’m hot,” I replied, holding up the loose tendrils that had escaped the prison of the French twist.

“Ok,” he said slowly, pulling down the zipper even slower. I could feel how much his hands were shaking and smiled slightly. I could’ve said something mean, but I didn’t. I guess I have some tact.

“You gonna strip for us, Kell Bell?” Vic asked me, a smirk on his pretty face.

“Wouldn’t you like that?”

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

I tried to kick him in the shin, but he was too fast for me.

When Jimmy finally got the damn zipper down I stood and discarded my gown. The others were simply looking at me with surprise. I didn’t normally act like that. I swear.

“There’s a pool out back, right, Vicki?”

“Yeah. Going swimming?” he asked, vaguely amused.

I nodded, smiling like a fool, standing there in nothing but my slip and my bra and underwear. “Yep,” I stated cheerfully and headed for the back door. I stepped outside onto the patio, pulled the slip over my head and jumped into the water without hesitation.

Bobby came in right after me, the creep. “Vampires like to swim, too,” he told the others before he dived in the deep end. After stripping to his boxers, of course.

The water felt good. It was cold and refreshing. Honestly, it was a little chilly to be swimming, being late October and everything, but I was high as the moon and couldn’t care less.

Vic stood by the ladder, looking down on me. “What? We’re not skinny dipping?”

I swam to the side and yelled up at him, “Are you coming in or not, you perv?”

He squatted down so he didn’t have to talk so loud. “If I go in, what’ll you give me?”

“A big kick in the groin,” I told him, giving him a sweet angelic smile.

He smiled back. “Only if it’s with your hand.”

“Shut up and go to hell!” I screamed, splashing him before he could get away.

“Well, now that I’m all wet…” he began, gesturing to his wet garments, and instead of finishing jumped in, shoes and socks and everything.

“You idiot,” I heard Bobby say behind me.

I turned to face him and splashed him in the face. “You talking to me?”

He splashed me back. “No. The idiot who just jumped in wearing my clothes.”

Vic hopped over to us and jumped on me. “I thought these were Jimmy’s.”

“Get off of me!” I yelled, pushing him away.

“I lent them to him and he never gave them back,” Bobby went on as if I weren’t there. They did that a lot.

“Speaking of…” Vic trailed of, looking over on the patio where Sarah and Jimmy were standing watching us. “Aren’t you two coming in?” he called, going over to the side. “Or are you just going to be pussies and sit over there all night long?”

Jimmy took a seat in one of the lounge chairs. “It’s fifty degrees out, Vic. There is no way in hell that I am going in that water.” Jimmy always was the smart one.

“Oh, come now,” Vic began in a bad English accent, “you’re exaggerating my dear friend. It’s more like…oh…fifty-five.”

Jimmy just shook his head and leaned back to look at the stars.

“What about you, Sarah? You gonna be a pussy, too, or are you gonna join in the fun? It’s really not that cold when you actually get in.” He gave her a reassuring—and dare I say flirtatious—smile.

Liar. The water was freezing.

Sarah came over and sat by the edge to talk to him. He had to have known how much she liked him. He couldn’t have been that dense.

“I’m not stripping,” she told him.

“Why not?”

She pointed at me. “Because I don’t look like that.”

“You’ll get them someday!” I yelled to her. “And then you’ll wish you’d never had ‘em!”

“I don’t care, Sarah,” Vic said in his most angelic and innocent voice. “It’s not quality, it’s quantity!” He paused. “Wait, that came out wrong.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Sarah cracked a smile and began to take off her tennis shoes.

“I’m leaving my clothes on.” She slipped into the pool over the side and let out a high pitched squeal. “It’s cold!” she squeaked. She waded in a little more till the water got to her waist, still squeaking every couple of seconds. Vic swam up behind her and pushed her down.

She started screaming bloody murder and he let her go while Bobby and I were laughing. Jimmy looked over.

Vic let go of her and she popped up and headed straight for the side.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.” He grabbed her arm. “Sorry. And if you and Kella don’t quit screaming one of the neighbors really will call the cops.”

“It’s fucking cold.”

“No shit, Sarah,” I said. “You’ve made that point very clear.”

She splashed me.

“Vic,” Jimmy called, “you’re wearing my shoes.”

“I sure am.” He held up on of his legs to show us that he was indeed wearing Jimmy’s nice dress shoes that were a few sizes too large for him.

He pulled them off underwater and set them by the side of the pool, water seeping out of them. “You can have them back now.”

Jimmy just closed his eyes and leaned back again.

The four of us played in the pool together for a few minutes, then I silently slipped out. Bobby noticed, but I put my index finger to my lips, gesturing for him to be quiet. I crept silently towards Jimmy, keeping low to the shadows. I’d caught Sarah and Vicki’s attention as well, but I guess Bobby told them to be quiet. I crept up to the side of the lounge chair as silently as I could. He didn’t notice a thing. I counted to three in my mind and pounced.

Jim jumped back, but I held on to him getting him soaked. “What the fuck are you doing?”

I smiled up at him. “Getting you wet.” That’s not all I was doing to him. I could feel it poking into my stomach. I could hear the others laughing at us.

“Get off me!” he yelled and pushed me off as hard as he could.

I groaned in pain as I hit the patio elbow first. “Ow. You could’ve just said please.”

He stood and helped me to my feet. “Are you all right?”

I held my elbow to his face so he could see the blood gushing out of it. It was my right arm, too.

He shifted his eyes to the ground. “Sorry.”

“What happened?” I heard Sarah yell.

“Jimmy beat me up!” I yelled back to them.

“Jimmy’s a Kella-beater!” I heard Bobby cry.

“Sorry,” Jimmy repeated.

“What are you sorry about? This or that?” I pointed to my elbow and then to his crotch.

He turned as red as an apple and I walked away towards the house, leaving him to wallow in his embarrassment. Though it probably should’ve bothered me that one of my friends was sexually attracted to me, I liked that I could make the ever so calm and collected Jimmy blush. I walked through the screen door into the house to go wash my arm off and looked back. Jimmy had gone over to the pool and the others were making fun of him. I went back outside to watch.

“Bow before me,” Jimmy said, his usual nonchalant confidence back in place. “For I have achieved what you could not.”

“And what would that be?” Vic asked.

“Has Kella ever felt you up?”

I had to crack a smile. Bobby started laughing and Vic just looked annoyed. Sarah was just floating around on her back, something I could never manage to do.

Jimmy went on. “As I was lying in harmony staring at the glorious black ocean above, a song came to me, as if I were inspired by a divine presence.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Sarah asked him.

“Yes,” Vic said, “please speak in English.”

A slightly annoyed look crossed Jim’s features. “None of you have any sense of literature.” He cleared his throat. “Since we were singing those awful Beatles songs—”

“Music today would be nothing without them!” Vic cried and Jimmy promptly ignored him.

“A song I think fits the occasion has been stuck in my head for the last half hour.”

“Sing it!” Bobby yelled.

“I need to feel the love,” he said, reaching out his arms as if he were Jesus. “Bow before me. Be my slaves. Love me. Adore me. Worship the very ground I walk on.”

“Just sing it or we’ll pull you in here!” Sarah screamed.

Jimmy cleared his throat and began. “What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on meeeeeee?”

I had to laugh as he sang ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ completely out of tune and danced around the side of the pool. And an evil plan was hatched in my mind. I was rather mean to poor Jim that night. That’s not how I am. Really.

I snuck up behind him once again and when he reached the high pitched chorus I pushed him as hard as I could and he fell into the pool and screamed as he hit the icy water.

“You bitch!” he swore.

I laugh and placed my hands on my hips. “Watch me,” I told them and walked around towards the deep end and got on the diving board.

“You gonna do a trick for us?” Bobby asked. “Like take your top off?”

“Shut your dirty mouth,” I told him and began to bounce. I wasn’t done being mean yet.

“You’re going too high, Kell!” Vic called.

No I wasn’t. I knew exactly what I was doing.

“Kella! Stop! You’re not supposed to bounce like that!” Sarah yelled.

I took a deep breath and dived head first into the water. I had grown up with a river in my backyard and was a strong swimmer with a healthy set of lungs that could hold my breath for over a minute. But they didn’t know that.

It was dark out there you could barely see with the one pool light out of the water, forget underneath it. They couldn’t tell where I was. I could hear them calling for me though.

I felt someone near me and grabbed onto them and popped up out of the water. It was Vicki. “Worried?”

“You fucking bitch,” he said evenly and pushed me back under the water. I wasn’t prepared for it and took a big drink of the disgusting chlorinated water.

“What’d you do that for?” I screeched when I surfaced.

He didn’t say anything, just swam to the side and got out and went inside.

“Well, that killed my buzz,” Bobby said and followed.

“I think you made him mad,” Sarah told me and got out as well.

No shit. Sarah had the wonderful talent of stating the obvious. But I didn’t say anything. The others didn’t look too thrilled with me, either.

Jimmy followed her after giving me a long look and I was alone in the pool. I swam a lap and quickly got a cramp. The cold water had finally gotten to me. I got out, picked up my slip and headed into the house. It was cold. Damn cold.

I didn’t see anybody when I came in, but I followed the wet footprints on the carpet up the stairs and to the master bedroom where I heard voices.

I walked in to see Vic and Sarah wearing matching robes and Bobby and Jimmy adorned in towels, all of them sitting on the king sized waterbed. “Having a slumber party?” I asked.

Jimmy threw me a towel. “We’re drying off.”

“Our clothes are in the dryer,” Sarah told me.

Bobby stood and headed towards the door. “I’m gonna go watch TV.”

Vic sat up. “What time is it?”

Bobby looked at the imaginary watch on his wrist and with a fake smile said, “Time for one of us to get a watch.”

“That was bad, Bobby,” Vic told him and smacked his wrist. “Very very bad. Never do that again.”

The two of them left with Sarah bouncing behind him. “I wanna watch, too.”

I sighed and layed on the bed.

“Tired? Bored? Guilty?”

“None of the above.”

He layed down beside me. “That was a really stupid thing to pull.”

“I know.”

“You ever do that again I think Vic will kill you.”

I was surprised. “Is he that mad at me?”

Jimmy paused. “Affirmative. You really pissed him off.”

“Oh. OK.”

We sat there in silence for a few minutes. Jimmy never liked silence. “Do you think my mom and your dad are screwing around again?”

There I was, happily finding patterns in the ceiling, and he had to bring that up. “That kind of came out of nowhere.”

“Not really. I’ve been thinking about it all night.”

“I figured.”

“Have you been thinking about it?”

“I try not to. Then people like you just have to bring it up.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

I let out an exaggerated sigh and continued staring at the ceiling, but Jimmy wasn’t done yet.

“Do you think they’d ever get married?” he asked me in a rather sad tone.

“No.” His mother was an alcoholic and Daddy would never ever put himself in that position. I didn’t dare say that to Jimmy, though.

“It would be kind of weird, wouldn’t it, if they did? You’d be my sister.” He chuckled softly. “We could have pillow fights and pull each others hair.”

I smacked his stomach with the back of my hand. It made a funny slapping sound that made me laugh. “You’re stupid.”

“No more than you.”

Silence again. I always thought when you can sit in silence with someone and not feel obligated to say something then that meant you were comfortable with them. That ideal would soon be shattered to hell.

“Does your arm hurt a lot?” He sounded concerned.

I sighed and sat up. “No. But my back does. Would you rub it for me?”

“Sure.” He sat up and began giving me a nice massage. His hands felt warm and soothing.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” His hands were wandering in forbidden territory, but since I had embarrassed him so much and pushed him in the pool I didn’t pull away.

I smiled. “Making you horny.”

“Oh, God,” he groaned and pushed me away. “Please don’t bring that up.”

I turned around and grinned at him. “Oh, come on. Tell me your deepest desires. Breath sweet nothings in my ear.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “Tell me how much you love me.”

He tried to push me off him but somehow we wound up tumbling to the floor, me on top of him. “Or not.”

He groaned a little and was about to once again escape my clutches, but stopped. “Isn’t this awkward.”

“A little. But we could just stay like this. Have our meals brought here. Be given sponge baths. Get those little tubey things from the hospitals for our excrement. I’m sure eventually we’ll get used to it.”

“You’re weird.”

“So are you. You’re the one who’s not kissing me. Any normal guy with a half-naked girl on top of them would’ve been—”

He kissed me.

I punched him in the stomach.

“What the hell’d you do that for?” he grumbled, clutching his abdomen and curling up in the fetal position, me still on top. “I thought you wanted me to kiss you.”

I got off him. “I didn’t think you’d do it.” I looked down at him. “Don’t ever do that again. It’s gross.”

“And you’re a cockteaser.”

“I’ll punch you again. In the face. And then you can go home and tell your mother and sister that you got beat up by me and why I did it. Won’t they be proud?”

Bobby walked in then. “What’s taking you so—” He stopped. “What happened?”

I stood up and went to the dresser to grab a shirt. “He fell off the bed when he tried to get up. He’s pretty wasted.”

“Are you all right?” Bobby asked him and helped him to his feet.

“I’ll be fine.”

I picked out one of Val’s nightshirts—one with a teddy bear on it—pulled it over my head and headed downstairs. Bobby and Jimmy weren’t far behind me.

We sat down there watching the late shows till Sarah, Jimmy, and Vic’s clothes were dry, then we headed home. We walked in silence. Bobby didn’t have far to go and he was the first to leave us. Vic was spending the night at Jimmy’s and we left them at Jimmy’s doorstep, neither of them had much to say to me. Then it was just me and Sarah walking down the dark, old road to my house. (She was spending the night because her parents would never let her stay out that late. I really couldn’t say if my father gave a damn where I was or not.)

“Why are they mad at you?” Sarah asked, finally breaking the ominous silence.

I shrugged. “I have a talent for pissing people off.”

“That’s for damn sure.”

There was only one reason that Sarah and I were friends. We were both very direct people, and could be brutally honest with each other and not get insulted. Otherwise we had almost nothing in common.

It really wasn’t that late. It couldn’t have been later than eleven-thirty when we finally got home. And I had decided to come home early, too. Well, there was one plan foiled.

A glance in the living room showed Joanne laying on the couch reading, waiting up for my father again. I gave her a quick “I’m home, goodnight,” and we got some drinks and headed upstairs.

“Do you think Vic likes me at all?” Sarah asked me as we were getting into bed.

“Well, yeah, you guys are friends so he must like you to some degree.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.”

“Nevermind.” She got into bed facing away from me and pulled the covers up to her chin.

I turned the light off and joined her under the covers and looked outside. I had French doors that led out to a second-story veranda (all the second-floor bedrooms did). It had started to rain. I used to love watching the storms when I was a kid but now they only gave me a bad feeling.

“Goodnight, Sarah.”

“Night, Kell.”

I went to sleep.