Bleed Read Free Page B

when Maria, Kelly, and I went to a party in the next town over. Maria had been playing eye-tag with this cute college boy all night. Pissed that he hadn’t actually approached her by eleven o’clock, she stormed her way over to him and said all of three words: “Top or bottom?” I don’t remember what his answer was. All I remember is the sight of his clunker Camaro bopping up and down in the supermarket parking lot across the street.
    Not that I would ever want to be like Maria in that way. Sometimes I think if it weren’t for Kelly, Maria and I probably wouldn’t even be friends. It’s just … it would be nice to have her I-don’t-care-what-anyone-else-thinks attitude for at least one full day—to be able to take and do whatever it is I want, and not have to worry about the consequences.
    I take a deep breath and paddle over to the ladder, wondering if Sean will tell Kelly that I invited him over. I decide I should go back inside, put on some dry clothes, and go pick up Maria, so we can start planning for Kelly’s welcome-home. I should even e-mail Kelly later, tell her I really do miss her, and can’t wait until she gets back. I’ll send along that picture of us playing double-deck War so she can keep it by her bed.
    I step one foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, and that’s when I hear it. Him. His voice. In my yard.
    “Is that invitation still good?” he asks.
    I turn around and there he is, standing only a few feet away, by the fence, turning my skin to absolute gooseflesh.
    “Hi,” he says.
    I have no idea how to answer him or what to say. I just stare at him, my mouth hanging open, like I’m the biggest dork ever. I realize I’m doing this, and that only makes it worse, makes my mouth flutter, like I want to say something. Miraculously, the word “hi” manages to squeak its way out.
    Sean shifts his weight from side to side in a nervous sort of dance. “Are your parents home?”
    I shake my head and look away as he peels off his T-shirt.
    “Do you expect ‘em soon? I mean, I don’t want them to get mad that I’m in your pool or anything.”
    “They won’t be back for a while,” I blurt, feeling my heart load up with panic. I take a deep breath to calm myself down, trying to piece together what’s really going on here. I mean, there’s a good chance that Kelly won’t even care. Maybe she won’t even find out. And even if she does, I can just say Sean looked like he was gonna pass out from the heat. I guess he sort of does.
    “Cool.” He twiddles with the strap of his belt for several moments. “I probably shouldn’t get these shorts wet.” His hand is on the zipper of his long khaki shorts.
    I grab the raft for security and begin paddling in a circle. But before I know it, I’m facing him again. A pair of plaid boxer shorts, the cotton kind, I think. A bare chest with that woven stripe of hair right below the navel.
    “Just what the doctor ordered,” he says, making his way in.
    I let out a dorky giggle and begin making waves with the raft.
    Sean pushes his feet off the wall of the pool. The blades of his shoulders slice through the skin of the water as he swims across. “This feels incredible,” he says. He takes a gulp of water and squirts it out between his teeth like a fan. It hits my cheek, and I laugh, a bit too hard, making a weird hiccup noise. I consider squirting him back, but that would definitely wash my lipstick off completely.
    He disappears under the water and swims around me like a shark. The tiny bits of dirt at the bottom make a spiraling funnel around my ankles. He grabs my calf and yanks me under with him. I feel myself laughing beneath the surface, my mouth and nostrils filling up with water. And then our legs touch and I feel those tiny, prickly hairs that I have studied so intently rub against the skin of my knee and up my thigh, and … I freak.
    I break the surface of the water and try to catch my breath. I wonder if the touching was a