CHAPTER 4 – PRIVATE PARTY
Marc and Jeff have been getting a little peeved at me for not being around much lately. Between working at Pizza Depot, and fucking- I mean, working, with Renee at the apartments, I can see their point, I’ve probably been a little scarce. Today, I have the day off and I’ll make sure to spend some time with them.
We want to go swimming again today, but not at the community center pool, so we ride our bikes out to Tucker’s Pond. The pond is a hidden away, deep swimming hole, just past the outskirts of town, affectionately known as, “Fucker’s Pond” by us locals. It’s pretty easy to figure out why, considering some of the activities that have been known to take place there. My parents don’t like me going to Fucker’s Pond because of its known reputation as a rowdy party-spot, I just don’t tell them when we go. It’s about a five-mile ride out, but we have the whole day and nothing better to do.
“Glad you could hang-out with us today,” Jeff tells me.
“Yeah, what the hell, dude? How many hours do they have you working?” Marc asks.
“About four days a week, the Pizza Depot owner also owns Fairlawn Apartments and I’ve been helping with painting work on the side.”
“You gotta be saving up some good dough now, huh?” Jeff asks.
“Yeah, a little bit.”
Feels good to be out, riding with the guys, it’s one of those summer things the three of us have been doing for years now.
If you’re not looking, you will miss it, the entrance to Fucker’s Pond is a little, non-de***********, two-track, dirt road that winds into the woods. It winds to the right, and then left, until you come to a clearing. There’s a small overgrown field with a half-dozen cars already parked. Beyond the field, is the large swimming pond.
Whoever the Tucker’s are, they sure don’t seem to mind everyone using their pond as our town’s secret make-out and party spot. I’ve only come here with my friends to swim, we’ve never taken part in any of the legendary bonfire bashes we occasionally hear about.
The nice side of the pond has is a little beach and big rock nearby for diving, but it is already occupied by a group of jocks and popular girls from Maplewood. The side we are on is okay, just not as much of a beach, but still fine for swimming.
“Do you think those guys will give us a hard time?” Jeff asks, nodding over at the group.
“Nah, I don’t think so.” I tell Jeff.
“Yeah, I’d sure hate like hell to think we rode all the way out here for nothing,” Marc adds.
We jump in and it is the perfect temperature for swimming. Being that it’s pretty deep, the farther down you go, the colder the water gets. I think it’s fed by an underground spring or something because the water stays nice and clear, not very much weedy plant growth.
Feels great to have a good swim, we have fun. The group on the other side doesn’t even seem to notice us, which is good, I really don’t need any of their bullshit today.
The jocks at our school can be real assholes, they take that whole alpha-male mentality thing way too far. If you’re a pumped-up, brainless muscle-head, then you are okay with them, if your just an average nobody, then they feel entitled to shove you around and treat you like shit.
Yes, I know I’m painting with a broad brush, not all of them are that bad. The worst of the lot is Dirk Larch and Justin Blaine. The others may not resort to physical pushing around, but don’t get me wrong, they all look down on the rest of us. The chicks that chase after and hang around with the jocks can be just as bad, usually it’s the cheerleaders and the clique of popular girls.
This is where my friend Tiffany Hammond fits in. When we started high school in 9th Grade, it didn’t take long for her to gravitate to this group and do everything she could to become accepted and fit-in with them. I really don’t understand what her whole attraction to the in-crowd is, she was nice and easy to get along with before.
She still occasionally talks to me and a few of her original girlfriends, but I’ll be honest, part of me feels a little slighted that she devotes so much time and energy to those, self-centered, idiots.
What she gains from associating with that group is a mystery to me, it seems she is always having issues when it comes to dating those guys. I know this because she usually comes to me for advice when one of them pisses her off, or breaks her heart.
Tiffany is here today with the group across the pond and from what I am seeing, I have a feeling she will be soon texting me for advice. It looks like her and her quarterback boyfriend Blake are not getting along very well, big shocker there.
They are too far away for me to hear what is being said, but body-language speaks volumes. It looks like Blake is trying to explain his way out of something that Tiffany is not buying.
“What’s going on over there, Kyle?” Jeff asks.
“Oh, he’s just dreaming of his Tiffany again,” Marc rolls his eyes.
“Oh, knock it off, Marc,” I reply.
“Dude, she just ain’t into guys like you… or us. Can’t you see that?”
“Looks like she’s having a fight with Blake,” I say.
“Well, now’s your big chance studly, go for it,” Marc jokes.
The argument between Tiffany and Blake seems to be escalating, I can hear their voices getting louder, even from over here. The rest of jocks are watching the show, but they aren’t reacting too much, spats like this must be common occurrences in their group. I feel like some exotic, wildlife observer, deep in the jungles of Africa, documenting the behavioral habits of some new species of apes or something.
Blake stands up, whips his beer bottle into the bushes and stomps off. At the same time Tiffany turns and starts to walk away from the group. She’s coming around the pond towards us closer, to where all the cars are parked.
I get up and walk over to Tiffany, “Are you okay? What happened over there?”
“Not now, Kyle! Can you just give me a ride home?”
“We rode our bikes here...”
“Isn’t that just fuckin’ great,” she says, exaggerating her accompanied eye-roll.
Here comes our picture-perfect, golden-boy, Dirk, with his wavy blond hair, jogging towards us. He’s not one-bit shy about showing everyone how he’s all built up, perfectly toned, perfectly tanned and every girl’s dream guy. “Hey, Tiff, I’ll give you a ride.”
“Thanks Dirk.” They hop into Dirks dark blue Camaro. I know the reason Dirk came over here, heaven forbid, one their own should be talking to a dork like me.
On their way out, Dirk makes sure to flash me a nice, wide, shit-eating grin and flip me off. Just to be an asshole, he hits the gas so his tires spin and shoot-up dirt and grass all over me. Today is a day I really wish I had my own car. I can’t wait for the day to come when someone puts that stupid fucker in his place. I jump back in the pond to clean the dirt and crap off.
Ten minutes later, we hear several cars approaching, they enter the area from the dirt path and park in the field. The newcomers are a group of college-age guys; I recognize one of them as Eric from work. They unload two large coolers filled with ice-cold beer and leave their car doors open to start blasting loud heavy metal music; there’s no mistaking, they’re here to party.
Eric sees me and waves, “Hey, Kyle! How’s it goin’ man?”
“Alright, I guess,” I answer with a shrug.
He notices that I don’t appear to be in the best of moods, “I could be wrong here, but something tells me you could use a cold one, come on over man, your buddies too.”
“Who’s that?” Marc asks.
“Eric, he’s from work.”
“Should we?” Jeff asks. I don’t answer and walk over to join my co-worker and his friends, a cold beer is exactly what I need right now.
Marc and Jeff follow. “When did you start drinking?” Marc asks me.
“Help yourselves guys, plenty to go around,” Eric offers.
Marc and Jeff exchange looks and each hesitantly take a beer. Jeff has a hard time trying to twist the cap off. “You gotta pop it off,” Eric tosses him a bottle opener.
“Yeah, yeah… I knew that...” Jeff tries to hide the fact that this is (probably) his first beer.
“So, Kyle, I gotta ask, what’s up with you and Renee at work?”
Okay, now he has my attention, “Uhhh… Nothing. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know man, she seems to have taken a real liking to you.”
“Really? I never noticed,” I nonchalantly lie through my teeth.
“Awww come on, you haven’t noticed she how schedules you in every time she’s working?”
“Nope, never noticed anything like that,” I take a good long sip, avoiding eye-contact.
“You gotta tell me, is there anything going on?”
“Dude, she’s Bill’s daughter. We just get along, that’s all.”
“Whatever you say, Man…” Eric is skeptical, but drops the subject. I better watch how I act around Renee when we are at work; the last thing she wants is it getting around about what we’ve been doing at the apartments.
Eric motions to the group across the pond, “You know them?”
“Just a bunch of asshole, jocks from school.”
“I remember those type, nothing ever changes with them.”
Jeff lets loose with a huge beer belch, “That beer was damn good! Can I?” he motions to the cooler.
“Help yourself, Man,” Eric obliges.
The three of us stick around with Eric and his friends and down few beers each. It’s pretty cool hanging out with these guys in their early twenties. They talk about wild keg parties and loud-ass rock concerts they’ve been too. Banging girls and getting busted. Exactly the kind bad influence, fun-sounding, stuff my parents forbid.
It doesn’t take long for us to feel like part of their group. It has the odd effect of making those popular people from high school over there seem like such kids to me, even though I am their age.
Only a few beers down and we are starting to feel a buzz. Marc, Jeff and I figure we better start heading home, it is a five-mile trek after all.
-----
Things are going good at Pizza Depot. They are having me help with making pizzas more often. I think they would like to move me into the kitchen, because I have heard rumors about the possible hiring of another person to help with the general clean-up duties I’ve been doing.
The employees have been planning a going-away party for when Renee leaves to return to school. I’ve been kind of depressed knowing she will be leaving soon, and not just because of all the sex, because I really do like spending time with her. Even though there is a few years age difference between us, we get along great together.
A week into August, on a Tuesday evening, the employees at Pizza Depot have the going away party for Renee after the store closes at 10:00. Bill okay’s us to have as much pizza and pop as we want and sets up tons of free credits in the arcade games. We crank up the music and all have a great time.
Renee motions me aside and whispers that she would like to paint the last apartment on Thursday and have our “own little private party”.
-----
Thursday morning, I ride my bike over to the Fairlawn Apartments and find Building #8, apartment #4. I see the door is cracked open, knock lightly and let myself in.
“Hello? Renee?”
“Come on in, Kyle.”
The first thing I notice is that this apartment has furniture in it. A TV, couch and recliner in the living room, a table and chairs in the dining area... I take another look at the number on the door, am I in the wrong apartment?
Renee comes from around the corner. “Hey Sport!” Right away, I notice she is wearing nice, cute summer clothes other than her regular painting garb.
“Hi, Renee.”
“Well, do you notice anything different?”
“Yeah, there’s furniture in here.”
“Yup, we rent this one as a furnished apartment. Anything else?”
I don’t see any painter’s sheets, brushes, rollers, or buckets of paint. “This apartment looks like it’s just been painted?”
“Right again! My Dad and I wanted to spend some time together before I go back to school, so we painted this unit ourselves a few days ago.”
“But, I thought you wanted me to come by to help you paint today?”
“I wanted you to come by, but I won’t need your help painting today,” she says with a sexy grin.
“Okayyyy…”
“Come look at this,” she excitedly leads me to the apartment’s single bedroom where I see a very comfy looking king-size bed. Renee strikes a pose like she’s presenting a prize on a corny game-show, “We have this…”
She grabs my hand and leads me back to the living room area and points out the big couch, “…and we have this, but do you want to know the best part?”
“What?”
She leads me into the bathroom where there is a large Jacuzzi style water-jet bathtub, “We have this!”
“Wow!”
“Oh, I’m not done yet, come with me...”
With my wrist still in her hand, she pulls me into the kitchen. “I know it’s still morning, but take a look at this!” She opens the fridge and inside there is a dozen chilling beers and a bottle of champagne. She opens the freezer and there are two big bags of king-crab legs chilling in there. “Lunch today will be these!”
“Wow! Renee, this is all very nice, but I wore my crappy painting clothes…”
She slides her hands up under my shirt, leans in and whispers, “I figured we could spend the day… without our clothes?”
THIS, is going to be a GREAT day!
We start off by getting naked and climbing into the king-size bed. We lay, snuggle and giggle, touching and caressing which leads to some amazing sex. I learn just how much nicer sex is in a real bed, no lumpy painter’s sheets or rug-burned knees.
There is no rushing of anything today, no paint job to get done. We spend all morning in that bed just being together, enjoying each other’s company, enjoying each other’s bodies, enjoying sex… and making wet-spots.
I want to try out that Jacuzzi tub, so we fire up the water jets, grab a couple beers and settle in to relax. The water-jets feel so good on our muscles releasing all our tensions and worldly cares. We even have sex in the tub; that was fun and interesting.
Feeling a little hungry, we get out and dry off. In the kitchen, I help Renee find a large stock pot and we get some water boiling for our crab legs. While we are waiting, Renee pops the tops off a couple more beers.
I playfully smack her across her bare ass with a dish towel. We chase each other around the apartment, screaming and carrying on like a couple of silly kids. What fun!
We finish off both bags of crab legs, leaving a huge pile of empty shells, and drink about half the bottle of champagne from coffee cups we find in a cupboard. I’m not that crazy about champagne, but it seemed to go good enough with the crab legs. Starting to feel a little buzz from the beer and champagne I go into to the living room and lay on the couch. Renee comes in and lies down next to me.
“I’m really going to miss you when you leave.”
“And I’m going to really miss you too, Kyle,” she kisses me and whispers, “My sexy, Sport.”
“Thank you, Renee, for everything. This has been thee best summer I’ve ever had.”
“Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“I hope I am not breaking your heart, because that is the last thing I want to do to you…”
“It’s okay... Yeah, I’m bummed, but I knew all along that you had to go back to school at some point.”
She props herself up and looks me in the eyes, “We’ve had a lot of fun together and I’ve especially enjoyed all the great sex.”
“Me too.”
“Do you know what will always be extra-special to me?”
“What’s that?”
“You, experiencing your first times with me. Thank you for letting me be that girl to you Kyle.” She pauses and then laughs, “We did have some funny times too, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, we did! Like the time that old couple heard everything we were doing.”
“Hahaha, Good ‘ol Mr. and Mrs. Kransen. God, I hope they didn’t complain to Dad!”
“Hahahaha.”
Renee adds, “And, that time I had to explain to you what a wet-spot was?”
“How about that time we were going at it super-fast and I learned about popping out?” Renee laughs remembering incident. “On second thought,” I add, “That wasn’t so funny, it really hurt,” but, she keeps laughing.
All I have to say is the word, “Queef” to really put Renee over the edge. It’s these silly little things that I am sure we will both remember for a long time.
When our laughing fits die down, Renee tells me, “When I am gone, we can stay in touch all you want, text, call, face-time, whatever, but I also want you to move on, and I mean this in a good way. Go after the girls in your dreams, even that Tiffany what’s-her-face. Do you understand what I am saying?”
“I think so…”
“Kyle, right now, you and I are years apart; at this time in our lives, our age difference is a big deal. You’re still in high school and I already have a few years of college under my belt, but as we get older, that gap will become less significant. If by some chance, down the road, we both find ourselves single…”
I understand what she’s saying, and I find that I’m at peace with this. Our summer is ending and a new chapter is about to begin. A chapter I can now enter with a new sense of confidence that I never felt before, thanks to Renee.
We lay on the couch the whole afternoon, even dozing off at various times. These last hours we’re together are rather quiet; I think we’ve both had enough sex for today…
-----
Renee returned to school early the next week and I needed to get a few things squared away for my upcoming 12th Grade school year. Mom took me to a photographer to get my Senior Pictures done. For not normally liking how I look in pictures; I think they came out nice. We also spent a morning at the high school to get my class schedule, ID badge, locker assignment, prepay for lunches and my yearbook.
I’ll spend the remaining couple weeks of summer hanging out with Marc and Jeff in my free time. We find it hard to believe we’ll be big time Seniors in a week.
Today, Jeff and I are hanging out at Pizza Depot playing some games. We see Tiffany come in with Dirk, he has his arm around her waist. “I guess she’s done with Blake and moved on to Dirk now,” I tell Jeff.
“Sure looks like it.”
It must have been a quick switchover, because this time I never heard from Tiffany wanting my guy’s perspective advice about what went wrong with Blake. Advice given, but never taken, as it usually goes with her.
“Dirk is more of asshole than Blake, in my opinion. I wonder how long this one will last?” I ponder.
“Probably not long. When are you going to make a move and ask her out? You two have been friends for forever.”
“I don’t know Jeff; she just doesn’t see me as a guy to date.”
“Hang in there, Dude, things may work out.”
“Thanks, Man.”
-----
At the end of August, I’m working an afternoon shift and Bill Moore calls me back to his office. “Come on in, Kyle. Close the door, will you?” Closed-door meeting, I wonder what’s up…? “I just wanted to pull you aside for a minute to let you know how much I appreciate all the help you gave Renee painting those apartments this summer.”
“Oh, no problem, we had a lot of fun together.”
He looks at me and gives a wink, “Oh, I’ll bet you did.”
Okay… this is weird, now I’m getting a little bit nervous, “Ah, wh-what do you mean by that sir, I mean, Bill?”
Bill laughs, “Kyle, I know all about what was really going on when you two were painting; even before that crotchety Mrs. Kransen gave me an earful.”
Uh-oh! I feel myself breaking into a cold sweat. Am I about to get fired? Is Bill about to knock my head off for messing around with his daughter? He gets up and walks out from the desk. Putting his hand gently on my shoulder, he says, “Relax, let me explain…
“My daughter works harder for me than anyone I know. Sometimes I feel she’s missing out on fun times she should be having with friends, but she’s the one who offers to do everything she does. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I tell her she doesn’t need to.
“I’ve found that there’s no changing Renee’s mind once it’s made up; so, what I do, is try my best to keep-up with what makes her happy. Do you know what was making her happy this summer?”
“Um, I’m not really sure.” I nervously answer.
“What was making her happy more than anything this summer was you! She took an instant liking to you when I hired you on. When I gave her the okay for you to help her paint, I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen. Why do you think I always texted first before stopping by with pizza?”
Whew… but just to be sure, I ask for clarification, “So… you’re totally okay with this?”
“My daughter is a grown woman with a strong will, just like her mother. I figured spending time together might be good for the both of you. Was I right?”
I nod in full agreement.
“You’re a good kid and, believe it or not, I was once young too,” he laughs.
He pats my shoulder, “Kyle, I think this will probably be a summer you’ll remember for a long time.”
“I think so too.”
Bill sits back down at his desk and continues, “I understand school will be starting back up soon, so I’ll have to reduce your hours a little bit, but I want to move you up in your duties here. How does working in the kitchen as a regular pizza cook, along with a dollar raise, sound?”
“That sounds great! Thank you!”
“You’ve been a wonderful addition to our team here.”
-----
This story concludes here... for now. Thank you for reading!
