“Uh uh.” Beth said. “That suit is all wrong.”
“It is?” Trudy asked. Beth nodded.
“You want Jay to drool over you, don’t you?” Beth asked. Trudy’s cheeks turned crimson.
“Jay and I are just friends.” Trudy said.
“Who did some serious ‘good to see you again’ making out last night.” Beth added on for her. Trudy shot her a look. “He told Dylan what happened; I overheard some bits and pieces.” Beth said. She looked around. “What size are you?” She asked.
“Twelve.” Trudy said. She sighed and put the bathing suit she had picked out back on the rack.
“How’s this?” Beth asked, holding something up. Trudy looked up and her eyes bulged. In Beth’s hand was a hanger then held a black two piece bathing suit. The top looked like it could double as a blind fold. It had strings to tie in the back and neck and two triangles of fabric to cover the chest. The bottom looked like a pair of regular black biker shorts.
“I can’t wear that.” Trudy uttered once she was able to speak again. “I mean it doesn’t exactly leave much to the imagination.”
“Exactly.” Beth smiled. Trudy made an uncomfortable expression.
“I don’t know..” She said.
“Just try it on. If you hate it, then we’ll find something else.” Beth insisted. Trudy decided that seemed fair and took the suit to try it on. Trudy stared at herself in the mirror. The top of the suit covered most of her breasts, showing off her cleavage and the inner sides of each breast. The shorts came up to her hips. She came out so Beth could see. She smiled her approval. “Don’t tell me you don’t like it.” She said. Trudy sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.
“It’s nice…I just…I’ve never worn something like this.”
“You’ve got the body for it-the hips and, not to sound like I’m coming onto you-the chest. I say you flaunt the body you’ve worked hard for.” Beth said. Trudy couldn’t help laugh a bit. She went back and changed back into her clothes. The two of them went to the cash register and Trudy paid for the suit. They then met up with the guys and drove back to the apartment complex. Trudy went up to her apartment to change and told them she’d meet them at the river. Jay, Dylan and Beth all got to the river before her and waited. Beth laid out her towel and took off her oversized t-shirt which she wore over her pink one-piece bathing suit. Dylan gave his girlfriend a wolf whistle. Beth laughed and gave him a playful shove. Dylan grabbed her and picked her up, running out to the river. Jay rolled his eyes at the couple and looked off to the distance, waiting for Trudy to show up. After a while, he saw her walking down the hill. She still wore the white t-shirt from before, but now wore cut-off shorts instead of jeans. Her hair was pulled back in a braid and she was no longer wearing her glasses. Jay smiled softly as she got closer. Trudy returned the smile and set her things down.
“How’s the water?” Trudy asked Beth and Dylan, who were splashing each other.
“It’s good.” Beth said before giving a squeal as Dylan grabbed her around the waist and dunked her in the water. Trudy laughed.
“You coming in?” Jay asked. Trudy nodded.
“I’ll be there in a sec.”
“All right.” Jay said. He got in the water and waded in it. He heard the sound of someone getting in behind him and turned around. His eyes fell on Trudy and what she was wearing…or lack thereof…His throat and mouth felt as dry as cotton and he felt himself stiffen…below the waist. Trudy walked over towards him and leaned back, getting her hair wet.
“Wow, Beth was right, the water does feel nice.” She said softly. She leaned forward and swam out a bit, brushing past Jay. Jay watched her.
“Yeah…N-n-nice…” Jay stammered. As the afternoon progressed, Beth and Dylan separated to a different end of the river as they began to grope and kiss each other and Jay and Trudy ended up together.
“Are you okay?” Trudy asked.
“Yeah, why?” Jay asked.
“Well you seem to be having a bit of a staring problem…And it seems to be centered below my neck.” Trudy teased. Jay gulped. He didn’t mean to be that obvious.
“I’m sorry.” Jay said. “I-”
“You know, you’re really disproving that whole ‘gentleman’ persona that you portrayed back in high school. I mean first you maul me last night and now you’re staring at my chest.” Trudy sighed. “You’re such a typical male.” She smirked, telling him she was messing with him.
“Hey, I didn’t maul you!” Jay said.
“Uh huh, sure.” Trudy said. “You’re just a little horn dog, aren’t ya?” She laughed, splashing him. Jay laughed.
“Oh, that’s it, you’re asking for it.” He threatened playfully. He went over to her and gripped her wrists and the two began to playfully wrestle, trying to dunk one another into the water. Jay let go of her wrists and began tickling her sides. Trudy shrieked as she tried to squirm away from him.
“Okay! Okay! You’re not a horn dog!” She said between laughs. Jay laughed and stopped tickling her, but didn’t remove his hands from her sides. Trudy looked up at him as she recovered from the tickle attack. “That wasn’t fair.” Trudy said.
“Oh well.” Jay said, shrugging. Trudy frowned and hit his shoulder. She let her hand linger on his dark skin, indulging in the feel of it under her hand. Trudy looked at her hand and saw the contrast in their colors. Trudy came from a bi-racial background-her mother being African American and father Caucasian-but had taken more after her father when it came to skin color so although there wasn’t a total contrast, Trudy couldn’t help watch the two colors together. She tore her eyes away from her hand only to see Jay staring down at her, his eyes gleaming with such lust and passion that it made Trudy tremble.
Ever so slowly, Jay leaned down and captured her lips with his. Trudy sighed softly as she felt his hands cup her face gently. Their tongues were tangled together as the kiss got deeper and deeper. Trudy wrapped her arms around his waist, her hands pressed against the small of his back. Jay took one of his hands away from her face and put it against her back, right above the back of the top of her swimsuit. He crushed her body against his as they kissed. Trudy felt his wet skin against her own. Trudy tried to make her head clear as she reminded herself that this is exactly what happened the night before. She pulled her head slightly.
“What’s going on?” She whispered against his lips.
“I don’t know.” Jay replied honestly. Trudy turned her head to look over where Beth and Dylan were. They were too busy with each other to notice anything going on around them. Trudy sighed.
“I think I’m going to head back to my place.” Trudy said as she disentangled herself from his body. The air hit her wet skin full force as she trudged out of the river. She turned her head back to look at him. “You coming?” She asked. Jay numbly nodded as he followed her. The two gathered their things and left. They walked back to Trudy’s apartment in awkward silence. Trudy opened the door and they walked in to the apartment. Trudy walked to her room with Jay right behind her. She stood against the wall as Jay walked in. “We should probably talk about this..” Trudy said. Jay nodded, agreeing with her. He sat down on her bed.
“You want to sit?” He asked.
“I think having a little distance would be a better idea.” Trudy said, looking down. She took a deep breath. “Why?” She finally asked.
“Why what?” Jay replied. Trudy looked up at him.
“Why me? Why now?” She asked. “I mean, is this some sort of cosmic joke or something?”
“I don’t understand.” Jay said. Trudy gave a soft bitter laugh.
“We haven’t seen each other or spoken to each other in about a year. And then, you show up and all we seem to do is kiss? I mean, what is this?”
“I…I don’t know.” Jay said.
“Well, how about a simple question-why did you kiss me last night?”
“I was up half the night trying to figure that out.” Jay said. “I don’t know. Maybe I was curious.”
“Curious?” Trudy shot back. “Curious? That’s the biggest bull shit of an answer if I’ve ever heard of one.”
“Well, what do you want me to say? I mean, it seems like no matter what I say you’re going to be pissed.”
“Well don’t I have a right to be?” Trudy asked. “I poured my heart out in that notebook last year and you didn’t feel the same. Now you can’t seem to keep your hands to yourself. Forgive me for being a little bit suspicious of your motives.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, let’s see. Last year I was the same person I am now except with an extra forty pounds. You do the math.”
“You think I’m that shallow?” Jay asked.
“No, I don’t. That’s why I felt that way about you. You were the only guy I knew of who was completely genuine. But now I’m not so sure.”
“Fine. Do you want an honest answer?” Jay asked.
“That would be nice.”
“Fine. Last year, I thought you were a pretty great person. The weight wasn’t the issue. Do you know what the issue was?”
“What?”
“The fact that you couldn’t give me the notebook yourself. The fact that afterwards the closest you came to talking to me about it was that message in my yearbook. ‘Thanks for being so cool about everything after the notebook thing’.”
“First of all, I was too scared of rejection to give it to you myself. In retrospect I guess I was right, huh? Second of all if you wanted to talk about it, why didn’t you?”
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