Summer Song

"And FYI," Gabby said, "I get that calling me a hippy is convenient shorthand for people but I don't like it."

Dex looked over at Gabby and, Gabby thought, looked genuinely worried that she might have upset her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I like what you're saying, you know, I've been kind of a wanderer myself all my life and I think your whole thing is actually really cool."

"Sorry," Gabby said, feeling like she'd maybe snapped too hard at Dex for something she was, admittedly, sensitive about "Just, you know, I think when people call me that it's like they're accusing me of, like, cosplaying what I think people did in the 60's, you know? Like I'm trying to fit into some movie I saw. Like I went out to the mall and bought a bunch of clothing to fit an image. But you know, I bought this shirt because it was five bucks at a thrift shop and I liked it."

Dex looked down at the shirt. Gabby noticed that it was something Dex had done more than once. Gabby looked down too and realized that, between going bra-less and it still clinging to her because of the heat, the thin cotton of her blouse was not leaving a ton to the imagination.

"It's a nice shirt," Dex said with a sly smile.

"Thanks," Gabby said, unsure of how she felt. She often left herself a little exposed like that and sometimes got really creeped out by how guys would stare at her. Gabby, to her surprise, found she liked the looks Dex was giving her. Still, every second left her in that charged awkwardness and she moved ahead.

"Anyways," Gabby said, "I'm not trying to be anything. I'm just me."

Dex smiled,

"Well," Dex said, "If it means anything, and trust me this isn't something I say a lot, I think I'm starting to like you."

Gabby smiled. The words meant a startling amount to her. She didn't want to parse what they meant specifically or why she was saying them or how much it had to do with the way Dex had admired her...shirt but either way, she liked Dex. She was smart and sarcastic and cynical in a way that, Gabby thought, was both charming and transparent. Revealing a real vulnerability beneath the tough exterior.

And again it was an incredible exterior. Sitting closer to her, Gabby could take better look at her lean, sinewy arms and the incredible artwork on them. Gabby had never gotten a tattoo, she'd always been afraid of the needle, but looking at Dex and the beauty and permanence of what she had inscribed on her flesh, Gabby began regretting her cowardice.

Gabby again felt her nerves overtake her and her eyes whipped from Dex's body to the road. She tried to distract herself with the passing scenery, the long expanses of brush and desert and gorgeous rocks in the background and even managed for a while. It was stark but beautiful country.

"So, you're from the West Coast then?"

Gabby looked back and smiled,

"Yeah, kind of," Gabby said, "I lived with my mom in Reno sometimes but mainly with my Grandparents in California."

"Huh," Dex nodded, "And is that where you got all of this free spirit stuff?"

Gabby chuckled.

"Not really. I mean my mom is just a mess. She'd just ship me to the coast whenever she got a new boyfriend who didn't want to deal with a kid around or just got bored or whatever and my grandmother is pretty strict about stuff. But my grandfather..."

Gabby paused for a second. It had been a year since her Grandfather had died and she really hadn't talked about it much. Not even with Fin. Still, she somehow felt able to do it with Dex.

"My grandfather was this awesome guy. Like, not at all a hippy or anything, he was an electrician and he'd been in the army and all that and he was actually kind of conservative but the one thing he was always about was not letting other people tell you what to do, you know? Like in a town full of people who were all about football and hunting and stuff he was, like, super into gardening and bird watching just because it was what he loved."

Gabby thought back on those days and a very warm feeling came over her.

"I remembered we'd go into the woods where he'd built this blind and we'd just sit there quietly for hours, he bought me my own binoculars and I'd have the little note pad and when he'd see something he'd say 'Quick, Little Blue Jay', he called me Blue Jay because of my eyes and he'd tell me to look and then I'd write down what it was and..."

Gabby stopped. She realized that if she said another word about her Grandfather she'd probably start crying. It had been a year and she still wasn't entirely over it. Now there was a different sort of silence in the car. One that Dex broke.

"That's funny," Dex said,

"What is?" Gabby asked, relieved at a change in subject but not sure what was funny about her favorite memory.

"No, it's just, I've got a sort of similar story. My dad's a useless prick and my mom died when I was 8 and so I got sent to live with my Grandfather up in Washington."

"Oh," Gabby smiled, it was a coincidence.

"Well," Dex said, some of the sarcasm finding her again, "I say my Grandfather but it was really my Great Aunt. She was a nice lady, took in both me and my cousin. My Grandfather was around, though, he was this tough old guy, Full blooded Chinook Indian. Didn't have much patience for us but he'd sometimes get hammered though and tell us these stories about the old legends. Used to call me and my cousin Little Bear and Little Crow Girl."

"Why?" Gabby said, unfamiliar with what Dex was referring to,

"Just in the old stories, the animals had all these personalities and stuff. Doug, my cousin, he was always big and sweet so he was Bear. Me, I've been a shit disturber my whole life, always being a headache for someone or another and apparently Crow was the ultimate trickster and prankster and such."

"Oh," Gabby said, smiling at finally getting the joke. Blue Jay and Crow.

"Yeah, you see this," Dex said and, taking one hand off the wheel, reached back to the collar of her shirt and pulled, revealing more of the wing on her back. Gabby looked intently as the copper-skinned girl revealed more of what she eventually saw was a gorgeously lifelike depiction of a Crow in flight, "I got this cause of that."

"Oh." Gabby said, feeling sad again, "So he's gone?"

"Who my Grandfather?" Dex said with a laugh, "Fuck no. He's still up there. If Death does ever come for him Gramps will probably just kick the old spirit in the nuts and fuck Death's wife."

Gabby laughed too. Dex looked back at her shoulder briefly before letting her shirt fall back and retaking the wheel.

"Nah, but the night before Doug left for basic training the two of us got crazy fucked up and I got the Crow done and he got the Bear."

Gabby nodded. She wondered if every tattoo had a similar story. She started looking at Dex's arms again, wanting to ask her about each one. Especially, and with an interesting feeling that if Gabby didn't know better she might describe as Jealousy, the heart that read "Mary". Gabby decided to take things in a different direction.

"So how'd you end up here?" Gabby said as Dex pulled the truck off the main road. Clearly they were near their destination.

"Well, I took off at 18 and spent a couple of years just, I don't know, getting into all kinds of shit when all of the blue I get tracked down by this lawyer, right? Remember the useless father I told you about?" Dex said, "Well, he had a mildly less useless father. My other grandfather."

"And he lived here?" Gabby said, still not entirely sure where "here" was.

"Apparently." Dex shrugged, "I never met the guy and he was apparently kind of a prick but he did know about me and so when he died I was his last living relative so he left me the house he had and his little garage in town. Like I said, I'm no mechanic so I was about to sell the place for what I could get but then Doug got discharged and found me and he's fucking crazy about cars so I let him have the business."

"Oh," Gabby said, "So you stayed,"

"Yeah," Dex said, sounding conflicted about it, "I know it's not much and not where I thought I'd end up but, like I said, I had a free house and Doug's the only real family I've got so I stuck around and I do odds and ends for the shop. Doug's really built it into a legit business too. We maybe did some shady shit at the beginning.

Gabby looked over at her. For a second she wanted to ask what "shady shit" entailed but thought the better of it.

"Now, though," Dex continued, "It's mainly just fixing SUV's for soccer moms and towing the cars of hot chicks before taking them back to my place and seducing them."

Gabby paused at that. For a second she thought that maybe she'd heard things. That maybe it was her imagination playing tricks on her. But she looked over at Dex and Dex was looking at her and there was absolutely no doubt in Gabby's mind that she'd heard correctly.

"Sorry?' Gabby said, brushing some of her hair behind her ear as she thought about the idea of being seduced.

"You heard me," Dex said confidently as she pulled onto yet another smaller road. Gabby couldn't help but smile. She couldn't even begin to process the actual realities of what Dex had said but there was something undeniably thrilling about just having Dex acknowledge that what Gabby had been feeling all day was, well, real. Still, Gabby wasn't sure how she felt about being confronted with the reality of it and tried to play it off.

"That happens a lot, does it?" Gabby asked, hoping she was sounding coy while inside a dozen little fireworks of excitement and apprehension and nerves were going off. It felt like she had butterflies in her stomach, only if the butterflies had been set on fire and were jet-powered.

"Nah, you're going to be the first," Dex said as the car came to a stop. Gabby hadn't even realized they'd arrived but she saw that they had pulled up in front of a garage attached to a small ranch-style house. Gabby watched as Dex shut the car off, her dark eyes practically sparkling back at hers, and got out. Gabby sat in the car for a bit to contemplate how the last few moments of their conversation had been dropped like atom bombs. True, Gabby realized, all they were were an acknowledgment of the tension that Gabby, and apparently Dex, had been feeling all day. Still, it was something for it to have been said out loud. And so casually.

For a second Gabby resented that. The casualness of it. Dex had simply assumed that she would seduce her. That if she had simply taken Gabby home that the two would end up in bed together. But then Gabby realized, it wasn't a prediction at all. It was just that Dex had a deeper awareness of what was going on than Gabby did. As Gabby admiringly watched Dex's lithe, lean, inked form walk around the front of the truck, seemingly as calm as Gabby was nervous and her step full of that same Don't Give a Fuck swagger that she'd shown all day, Gabby knew it wasn't a question of whether she was about to be seduced.

She already was.

"You coming?"

Gabby was snapped out of her thoughts by the pretty dark haired girl's voice, holding her front door open and looking expectantly out at her. Gabby hesitated. She thought about all of her nerves and about Fin and about the fact that she knew what would happen if she spent the night at Dex's house and how it both terrified her and excited her more than she'd ever been before. So much so that she could feel it inside her. Her already heated body getting more so, feeling a slickness between her legs that spoke to just how much her imagination was already running away with her.

"Well," Gabby thought as she opened her passenger side door, "You did say you wanted new experiences."

5.

Dex was a good kisser. And a fast one.

Almost as soon as Gabby had crossed the threshold into Dex's front room and had seen Dex waiting for her, the two had been in each other's arms. It was a hungry kiss on Dex's part. Fierce and insistent. Her pale pink lips soft to the touch and her hands strong and firm on the back of Gabby's back. Gabby, who typically liked the softer side of things when it came to the bedroom, was stunned by how much she liked what was going on. Usually when she was kissed hard, it was done poorly. Too roughly, with very little concern for her own sensation. Just someone jamming their tongue down her throat with little regard for the build-up.

Dex, however, was a wonderful mix of the slow and the hungry. Her tongue playful and letting Gabby's own tongue respond and caress. In fact, Gabby was surprised to discover, soon she was a very equal partner in the kiss, the tension of the day spilling out of her in unexpected ways. She bit at Dex's lower lip and felt her hands gripping Dex's firm butt tightly against her. In response Dex positioned her leg between Gabby's legs and Gabby surprised herself by spreading them slightly, wrapping herself around Dex's strong leg and finally filling a desperate need by rubbing herself against Dex's muscular thigh. She groaned as she finally felt some pressure against her sex, even if it was just a leg and there were two layers of clothing still separating them.

She felt Dex's hand slide up her shirt and cup at her breasts and felt how stiff her nipples were only when the center of Dex's palms pressed against them and squeezed, eliciting a moan from Gabby. Dex's hands were strong and, like the rest of her skin, hot to the touch. Again, Dex seemed an incredible mix of the strong and the soft. In the past many of Gabby's lovers had thought that, because her breasts were large they weren't sensitive, that they could be kneaded like dough. But Dex's touch was soft and skilled while still being firm. Still betraying a desire for more.

But it was Dex's hand on her breast that also caused Gabby to pause. To feel self-conscious. Enough so that she broke the kiss. Dex took this as an encouraging sign, apparently, and began kissing at Gabby's neck. Again the feeling was amazing but Gabby's mind began to wander as she felt Dex's hot breath and lips on her and how Dex seemed to want to lick every part of Gabby's body.

"Dex, wait," Gabby said, "Could we slow down for a second?"

Dex stopped although, Gabby could tell, there was a great deal of reluctance there. The taller girl took her face from the blonde's neck and even took a bit of a step back so they weren't quite so pressed together.

"What's wrong?' Dex asked, clearly surprised. Nothing Gabby had done, she'd known, indicated she didn't want things to go further. In fact, she did want things to go further. Much further. She just wanted a break.

"Look, I know this is strange but is there anyway we could just pause this for a second?" Gabby said, "I meant what I said about the shower. I haven't had a decent one in days and I feel pretty sticky and gross and, I don't know, if I'm going to be with you I kind of want to be at my best."

Dex exhaled. It was clearly one of frustration but, Gabby noted, unlike sometimes in the past when she'd told a guy to slow down, it wasn't an angry or disappointed frustration. Dex just clearly wanted Gabby very much. Something Gabby had to admit she liked a a lot.

"Yeah, I mean so you know, I would still bang you if you were much, much dirtier than you are right now," Dex said, "Like, without a second thought but I get it. Follow me."

Gabby nodded with a smile. She really appreciated the gesture. She followed Dex through the house, noting that for someone who had apparently lived there for years, it looked nearly empty. There was some nice old furniture but almost nothing on the walls, the small TV in front of the couch was on top of a milk carton and the video game system beneath it was inside said milk carton. It looked like one of the many off-campus apartments Gabby had been in over the years.

"Yeah," Dex said, "As you can see, I never really settled. I don't know, I always expected to be moving on, I guess."

Gabby nodded. But more than just receiving an answer to what she was wondering, she liked that it seemed like Dex knew what she was thinking. Some part of Gabby's brain knew that Dex simply must have had to say that to anybody she brought home but Gabby always liked it when there seemed to be a sort of unspoken connection between her and who she was with. Like they were on a similar thought wave.

It was a small bathroom near to what Gabby thought looked like a main bedroom that Dex showed her to. There was a modern looking shower inside and Gabby really did enjoy the sight of it.

"Want me to join you?" Dex said in a low, suggestive whisper as she wrapped her arms around Gabby's waist from behind, her lips nuzzling at Gabby's ears. Gabby again let herself relax into Dex's arms as she felt Dex's hands both reach up for her breasts and moaned at the sensation.

"I'll just be a minute," Gabby said, doing her best not to listen to the instinct that was telling her to simply do whatever it was that Dex wanted, "And I've always found shower sex to be trickier than it was sexy."

"Yeah, me too." Dex said, sounding genuine even though it had another exhale of frustration with it. She gave Gabby a quick peck on the cheek before letting her go.

"I'll be out here if you need me," Dex said, "You can see the towels."

Gabby smiled back at Dex as the door closed. Quickly, she pulled her shirt over her head and pulled down her shorts and underwear, glad to finally be rid of them. She could feel her wetness though with every step and she knew she wanted to make it a quick shower. Just enough to feel a little less dirty and then get right back to where she left off.

Dex's shower was relatively simple, something Gabby was thankful for as she remembered from various sleepovers and nights out how she hated having to try and work out a new one and always ended up burned or freezing. The water rushed out of the new looking shower head with a lovely coolness and Gabby decided to enjoy it. The heat of the day finally getting to her as she felt instantly refreshed. She let the water cascade down her body, soaking her hair and running down her back. She felt ten degrees cooler within seconds.

But she didn't dawdle. She didn't want to be in there long. She wanted to be with Dex. She wanted to feel Dex's hands on her and her lips and she wanted the shower to be over. Confident that she'd washed the accumulated few days of travel off of her. Gabby got out and grabbed one of the clean white towels Dex had pointed her to. As she dried, Gabby couldn't help but admire the curves of her own body. She wasn't tall, no, but her legs were long and well shaped.. She had a generous swell to her hips that tapered off to a narrow waist and flat stomach before swelling again at her large, jutting breasts. Two grapefruit sized teardrops, the same lightly tanned color of the rest of her with small brown nipples that seemed even harder now as the cooler night air ran over her damp skin.

Gabby didn't know why she was assessing herself so. To her it was just her body. Something she knew well and was used to and didn't worry about much. But, she knew, it was the same reason she'd wanted the shower. She was so attracted to Dex, her copper skin and expressive eyes, the curve of her strong arms and the silky black of her hair and, well, everything about her. Gabby couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious. She was more attracted to Dex, Gabby thought, than even she'd realized. Gabby just wanted Dex to find her equally sexy and, to Gabby, that meant being at her best. For a second she wished she had something frilly and lacy to wear. The kind of thing that girls in the movies would come out in after they said they had to slip into something more comfortable. But Gabby didn't have anything other than her dirty shorts and grimy shirt.

So Gabby, after taking a deep breath and steeling her nerves, opened the bathroom door and simply walked out naked. Not lingerie, she thought, but it would do in a pinch.