High School Sweethearts

Benjamin Coleman watched with unhidden glee as his father pulled out of their driveway, carefully manoeuvring the vehicle around the hedge that acted as their front fence. As the vehicle peeled out of sight, Ben pumped his fist and yelled in triumph, the house was his for the next three days and he could do what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted to do it. Adults, he mused, were sometimes way too serious and needed to lighten the hell up.

Although, his father was usually a pretty cool guy – most times he let him do whatever he wanted - but it’s different when no one else is around and you can be yourself in your own company.

It was only him and his father now, living in a modest two story house in one of the quieter suburbs, and yes, one of the richer and more prosperous ones. Four years ago (he had been fourteen at the time) his mother had been involved in an auto wreck that had killed her instantly. It was the usual story, some drunken guy had decided to drive home and had proceeded to run that inevitable red light. The unfortunate side (is there ever a fortunate side?) was that the light he happened to run had coincided with the green one that his mother had been passing through. And the rest is history.

Ben had moved on, well, as much as any person can after the death of a loved one. He had accepted it and it hadn’t been easy.

He looked down at his watch and smiled. It was just past 11am, all of his friends were in school, labouring over boring notes they had to copy from the board, writing essays and compositions and God knows what else. He’d managed to wrangle the day off from his father, using the excuse that he had wanted to be there to see him off. That was a half-truth, because he’d wanted to see with his own two eyes that his father was indeed leaving and would not, at the last minute, change his mind.

He was taking a small vacation for the weekend, since his mother’s death his father had taken on full responsibility of him and he’d rarely had a chance to have some time for himself. So Ben had urged, hankered and ultimately pestered him into taking a short sabbatical into the city, rent a luxurious hotel room for the duration of his stay and live like a king.

Ben laughed to himself, for all he knew, his father was going to get himself a hooker and have a little quality time. The amount of girlfriends his father had had since his mother had died was a rather small and insubstantial number; surely the pressure cooker was beginning to boil.

He walked back into the house and proceeded to go down into the basement, which was his room. It was nice and cool down there, a stark contrast to the humidity and punishing heat outside.

His room was amazing. To begin with, the space he had to work with was staggering, the room was simply huge. He had a beautiful 76cm widescreen television, surround sound with all the trimmings and two bookshelves filled with DVDs. He loved movies and was hoping that one day he would be able to get into the film business, even if it was as a projectionist, he’d love it, he just wanted to be a part of it all, to be close to it and surrounded by it all day.

He also had a queen sized bed that was positioned perfectly in front of his television. Unfortunately he hadn’t had the opportunity to share his bed with anyone of the opposite sex yet, he was keeping his fingers crossed but it seemed that there were really no girls around worth going for, except, well, one, but he wasn’t going to go there, there was simply too much at stake.

He went over to the bookshelves that housed his DVD collection, all three hundred and seventy-one titles. Carefully looking at each one, starting from the top down (they were all in alphabetical order), he finally chose something he was in the mood for, slid it onto the tray of his player and turned on his television and audio equipment.

Grabbing his remote and whirling away, he took a running jump and dove onto his bed. While in mid-flight, about to press the play button, the doorbell rang with its incredibly dull ‘ding-dong’ sound.

‘Shit!’ he exclaimed as he hit the bed.

He hated being interrupted while watching a movie; nothing got on his nerves more. Okay, technically he hadn’t started watching it yet, but it was still annoying to halt all anticipation for the feature and go and tell some religious nut to go away.

Sighing, he put the remote down and went and answered the door.

It wasn’t who he’d expected.

Standing on their ‘home sweet home’ doormat was his best friend, his confidant and childhood pal. They’d been through all the highs and lows of adolescence together and had come out the other side so close that they were almost brother and sister.

‘Shelly? What are you doing here?’

‘Well someone - I won’t mention his name - skipped school without telling me and left me alone in second period English Lit. So I decided to come looking for the culprit and wring his neck.’

And with that, she launched herself at him, pushing her body against his and wrapping her small hands gently around his neck. Losing his footing, not prepared for her mock attack, he staggered and fell. She went with him, falling and landing on him.

‘Oh no, I didn’t hurt you did I?’ she asked, tenderly touching his face, her body pressed tightly against his.

He blushed slightly at the intimacy of her touch, and the feeling of her body against his was causing a part of him to stir. He uttered a small ‘I’m okay’ while she continued to stroke his cheek.

Boy, on one hand he loved that Shelly was such a touchy-feely kind of person, but on the other hand he hated it. He loved it because quite simply; she was beautiful. His heart melted every time he looked at her, and when she touched him…words couldn’t really describe it. She was an incredibly tender and affectionate person, so he received a large variety of hugs, touches on the arm and when she was worried, she would always caress his cheek. But he hated it because it evoked from him something that he shouldn’t even contemplate, that they could be more than just friends. He couldn’t risk it, what if telling her that she was more to him than just a friend destroyed what friendship they had?

They looked into each others’ eyes for a second, then she smiled and lifted her body off of his. Luckily he was wearing jeans; it all but saved him from her feeling his erection.

‘Sorry,’ she said.

He cleared his throat and smiled back at her. ‘Nah, it’s okay, you just surprised me, that’s all.’

In bed at night, he would quite often call up the image of her face and body. She had lovely honey blond hair that travelled all the way down the middle of her back, sometimes she let it all out but most often, like now, it was in a ponytail. Her eyes were a shade of brown that was quite common, while not unusual themselves, the intelligence behind them was. They told a story of mysteries you could spend a lifetime getting to know and learn, that she was a person of warmth and love, yet they also conveyed an air of melancholy, just enough to make her seem wise and beyond her age. Her figure was lush and head turning, her breasts full and round, though not too big. Her hips were wide and curvy, she was rounded in every department where roundness enhanced one’s beauty. In short, she was a knock-out.

‘Come on in, I was just about to sit down and watch a movie.”

After reaching down and picking up a bag, she followed him to his room. Already out of sight, he wasn’t privy to the fact that she’d bought her overnight bag with her, she’d come with the intention of staying over.

‘What are we watching?’ she asked as she entered his room.

‘Saving Private Ryan,’ he replied over his shoulder.

She made a face at him, it was one of his favourite movies of all time and she’d sat through it with him more times than she could remember.

‘But you’ve seen that movie a hundred times, couldn’t we watch something else?’

‘It’s only sixty-seven actually,’ he grinned, ‘okay, what would you like to do then, it’s obvious you don’t want to watch a movie if you’re not in the mood for this masterpiece?’

She smiled at him and watched his expression as she did so, his face lit up whenever she was around him and when she smiled, she was aware of what an impact it had on him. She also knew that he liked her more than the boundaries of friendship allowed, hell, she knew that he was in love with her. And she loved him too. It had gone on for way too long, ever since they were fifteen or sixteen things had begun to change between them, yet they’d both been too chicken to make the first move. That was about to change, she was sick to death of waiting for him to act.

‘Well,’ she said with a coy voice, ‘it is hot outside and I did bring my new swimsuit with me.’

Two years ago his father had an in-ground swimming pool put into their backyard, and over those two years he’d seen Shelly in an assortment of bathing suits that had achieved a devastating effect on his raging hormones.

Then for the first time he noticed the bag she’d brought with her, it was her overnight bag, he was used to seeing it because over the years she’d stayed over many times, although she’d always slept in the guest bedroom and his father had always been there.

But he wasn’t there now, was he.

Cocking her head, she asked, ‘You don’t mind if we go swimming do you? I know how much you like your movies and all, but I would absolutely love going for a dip.’

And suddenly, much to Ben’s surprise and delight, she pulled her bright yellow cotton t-shirt up over her head, revealing an equally bright yellow bikini underneath. Then she slid her shorts down slowly, revealing a thong that was a matching yellow to her top and it really left nothing to the imagination.

His mouth must’ve dropped open, because quite simply he couldn’t believe that he had a girl, in his bedroom, who was wearing what effectively came down to being underwear.

‘You better close your mouth or you’ll catch flies when you go outside,’ she giggled.

‘Um, ah, yeah, good idea,’ he stammered.

Before going outside to the pool, she stood in front of him for a long moment to let him fully appreciate and appraise her body. She loved it when Ben looked at her, because when he looked at her he looked at her entire body, her face, her legs, breasts and ass...all of it. She smiled, his eyes were doing over-time right now, digesting it all. When they finally reached hers, she blushed and tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear nervously, then walked out of the room before she died of embarrassment. She knew how she looked in the bathing suit, she didn’t believe in false modesty, she was aware she had a great body and she loved flaunting it in front of Ben, although at times his gaze was just too much for her.

He watched as she walked away, her tight firm ass wiggling as she made it to the door and left the room. When he looked down at the crotch of his jeans he could see that he was so hard that it showed even with the thickness of the fabric. He’d never seen her look so gorgeous, she was the epitome of his every fantasy and she was here, with him, and they were alone! That was what got him, they were alone. He shivered, then shook his head. No, she couldn’t possibly like him that way…it was just his overactive imagination going haywire, girls like her didn’t like guys like him.

He quickly got changed into a pair of swimming trunks and rushed out to the backyard. When he came into view of the swimming pool he found Shelly splashing around in the middle, her hair wet and shiny, she was facing him and he did his best to conceal the evident bulge he was sporting.

Their backyard was huge and along with everything else about their house; amazing. The pool was 20 metres long and as per regulations it was surrounded by a fence. There was a protective covering above the pool so that those who were swimming weren’t burnt to a crisp by the intense rays of the sun, wooden decking surrounded it and off to the side, out of the shade, were four deck chairs where the avid cancer lover could catch some tan.

After unlatching the gate and entering, he took a running jump and dove into the cool water, there was no way he was going to stand around in front of her in the condition he was in. He slid through the water gracefully and easily spotted where she was, her fluorescent yellow bikini shone in the water like a target.

“Hey you,” he said as he emerged next to her.

“Hey yourself.” She started to swim around him, playfully splashing water at him while smiling her cute little smile.

“I noticed that you brought your overnight bag, you think you’re staying the night do you?”

“Nup,” she replied. “I know I’m staying the night.”

He laughed and started to splash water back at her, she had this incredible smartass attitude that he found both appealing and refreshing, in fact, it borderlined on being sexy. Most girls, all the ones he’d met anyway, took things way too seriously.

They stopped splashing each other and gazed at one another for a minute, both of them not knowing quite what to say. He squinted his eyes and scratched at his head.

“Well you see Shell, that might not work for me. I have a few of my girlfriends coming over tonight and I was hoping to spend some quality time with them.”

For a moment he had her, her eyes went wide and it was her turn to have her mouth gape open. Then she narrowed her eyes at him and swiped a particularly large amount of water at his face, blinding him.

“I’m blind,” he screamed in mock horror, “Oh no, I’m bliiiiind.”

She launched herself at him shoving him back and underneath the surface of the water, tackling and dunking him. She wasn’t a particularly strong girl but he let her do it. As much as he fought with his feelings about her touching him, he loved having her do it in all aspects and allowed it whenever he could. After a few moments, she pulled him out of the water by the arms, dripping and laughing. He opened his eyes and saw that her face was inches from his own, likewise dripping and a giggle escaping her lips.

“I almost had you, didn’t I?”

“No,” she lied.

“Tut, tut,” he said, reaching out and touching the tip of her nose, “you keep lying and this will grow, not that it isn’t big enough already.”

“Oh is it now?” she laughed.

Then his face turned serious as he realised that they were having a moment. Her face was so close to his that he could feel her breath, her gaze was piercing and her eyes had a peculiar shine to them. She still had a soft grip on his forearms and a smile painted on her lips.

“No, it’s perfect. Everything about you is perfect.”

“You fiend. You insult me and then say that…now how can I stay mad at you when you say something like that?”

Should he kiss her? Oh god, what if he kissed her and she didn’t kiss him back? She was sending him all the signals but what if his receiver was broken? They’d had quite a few moments like this and they were becoming more and more frequent, but he was unsure (he was always unsure!) and he felt that if there were any moves to be made it should be her, he just wasn’t experienced enough. Although it could be argued that they were on an even keel in the experience department, or lack thereof, yet he refused to make the first move; it was just too costly if he was wrong.

She raised an eyebrow at him expectantly, then sighed a tired sigh when she realised he wasn’t going to do or say anything. She let go of his arms and began to paddle away, her sleek body glistening in the water.

He shook his head. If he were like any other sane guy he would’ve kissed her. If he were like any other sane guy he would be rushing after her, grabbing her and kissing her like they do in the movies. He saw himself doing it, making it work and look epic. Instead, like always, he watched her from afar and didn’t do a solitary thing.

For the rest of the day they swam in the pool, he made sandwiches at lunch time and they chatted about trivial things. What they would do later (most likely watch a movie), what they would do on the weekend (he wasn’t surprised by that, she was staying the entire weekend like he’d suspected) and general school chat. They had a few classes together so they talked about assignments they should be doing but they both conceded that they couldn’t be bothered.

Then it became dark and everything changed.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

He brought the freshly cooked pizza down into the basement, it’d only taken him forty minutes to get, but he’d missed Shelly’s presence the moment he’d left her side.

As he walked in he saw that Shelly was sprawled out his bed, she was still wearing her tiny bikini outfit only now she had a beach towel wrapped around her middle. She’d pretty much teased him all day by displaying her body to him, at every opportunity she would bend over and show him the crack of her ass, and when she knew he was looking she’d turn around and give him a flirtatious smile. Twice she’d ‘accidentally’ rubbed her ass up against his crotch and he’d almost kissed her a thousand times, all he had to do was reach over and do it.

He looked at the clock on his bedside dresser as he sat down, 18:36 it read, army time. Leaving about a half metre gap between them, he flipped open the pizza box and steam rose.

“Okay, half has pineapple and the other half doesn’t, two, four, six, eight bog in don’t wait,” he said while pulling out a slice for himself.

She reached for a slice of pizza with her right hand, the remote with her left and pressed the play button. She looked at him with a broad grin as she sank her teeth into her pineapple laden slice. He stopped chewing, he was suspicious.

“What movie is it?” he asked with a mouthful of pizza.

The film began to play and in two seconds he knew what it was, When Harry Met Sally. He almost choked on his mouthful of pizza and she whacked him on the back until it was all the way down. He looked at her, frowning, he wasn’t sure but he thought that he knew why she’d decided on this movie. It wasn’t that he hated it, quite the contrary; he loved it and that was why he thought he understood her choice. Plus, he knew how Shelly’s mind worked, she could be very sly sometimes.

“Thanks.”

She smiled innocently back at him. “Chew then swallow, mister.”

Then he began to get worried. It meant that everything could be about to change, that tonight things could mark the new chapter in their friendship that should’ve been undertaken years ago. He began to get excited, but his stomach was filled with dread all the same. The pizza began to form a large lump in his gut and he looked at the slice in his hand, there was no way he could keep eating.

He threw it in the box and sat back and tried to concentrate on the movie, trying to take his mind off what he thought was going to happen. He wanted it to happen, but he also felt he needed more time to get used to the idea. Ha! He’d been saying that for three or four years.

“Don’t like the pizza, huh?”

There was that sexy, smartass attitude again and he couldn’t help but grin. She grinned back at him and took a big chomp out of her own slice. His stomach turned over.

“No, no, we had a big lunch so I might have some later.”

“Oh, okay then, just checking.”

They sat in silence for a little while and watched the movie. Harry and Sally leave on their road trip, he spits the grape pit at the window, they argue about death, they have dinner at the diner and leave. Then Harry says the words that Ben had been dreading since he realised what they were watching. “Men and women can never be friends.”

He watched Shelly out of the corner of his eye, she picked up the pizza box and put it on the bedside dresser but she didn’t make a move to touch the remote. Onscreen, Meg and Billy go through the whole spiel, “Men want to have sex with women they’re attracted to” “They do?” and then she reached for the remote, he screamed in his mind for her not to, but it was no use.