Chapter 7
In the Pool
It's the middle of the afternoon on the day after my KFC outing with Misty, and I decide to give her a call because I keep remembering how much I've enjoyed spending the last few days with her. Since I'm now starting to feel like a part of Misty's life, I'm sure she won't mind and won't feel like I'm interrupting any of her daily activities. With that in mind, I pick up my phone and dial her number with confidence.
“Oh, hey there! How are you doing today?” she answers in a genuinely happy tone.
“I'm doing pretty good. I've just been thinkin' about you and how much fun we had together, especially yesterday at the beach and dinner at KFC.”
“I know—I had a great time too! Hey, I have an idea: Do you want to go to the swimming pool? The weather is really nice right now.”
“Actually, that sounds like a splendid idea.”
“Great! Then I'll come by and pick you up real soon. I just want to finish doing my laundry here,” Misty explains.
“Yeah, that's fine. Looking forward to seeing you soon.”
When the call ends, I suddenly remember that going to a pool will probably mean that I'll have to take my shirt off. The problem isn't really so much that I'm extremely out of shape or anything, but it's more of an inside fear. I'm not yet sure if I'll be comfortable enough to be without my shirt in front of Misty, but I know that it's a silly thing to be afraid of because I have nothing to hide from her anyway.
⁂
About forty minutes after our conversation on the phone, I hear the sound of Misty's car nearing.
“So… What've you been up to today?” I make small talk as I take a seat.
“Not a whole lot. I went out to buy some groceries early this morning. Later, I went to the gym, and of course, as you know, I just did my laundry. What about you?”
“Yeah, I haven't done a whole lot today either. Right before I decided to call you, I was playing some Quake co-op in my favorite online server. It automatically downloads a new, random map for me to play when I finish one, which is always a good thing.”
We talk some more about each of our days, and I begin to realize how boring everything seems when Misty isn't around with me. From the description of her day, I can tell she's in a similar situation as well.
“Is it okay if we stop by Target first?” Misty asks. “I have to run an errand to get a few things. It won't be too long,” she adds.
“No problem. Go for it.”
While at the store, I see something that could make our pool trip even more fun.
“Hey, we should get one of these inflatable inner-tube things. It looks kind of cool,” I suggest, pointing at a box with a picture of one on it.
“The transparent yellow one looks pretty,” Misty says.
“Yeah, I also like that one. Speaking of colors, which one is your favorite? Mine is definitely orange.”
“Hmmm… I'd have to say my favorite color is probably purple, but I also like sky blue and hot pink. Hard to say—I love colorful things in general!” she answers after thinking about it for a few seconds.
“I like colorful things also. I think the transparent yellow material of that inner tube would look awesome on the blue of the pool water.”
We get the inner tube, and Misty finishes acquiring the other things she needs before we leave Target.
⁂
When we arrive at the pool, we find that there's nobody else around, meaning we can be alone together. I always enjoy spending time with Misty when we're by ourselves and there's peace and quiet. The scent of chlorine from the aquamarine-blue swimming pool together with white sunlight reflections that move with the water perfectly capture the essence of summer.
“I'm going to change into my swimsuit. Be back in a minute,” Misty says.
“Okay, go ahead. I'll start by opening and inflating this inner tube.”
I sit down on one of the lawn chairs and begin opening the box of the pool toy. I'm impressed by how neatly the item is folded up into a little square out of the package; it's definitely one of those sorts of things that you'd never be able to figure out how to get back to its original state once you undo it. As soon as I start handling it, I can tell it's made of vinyl plastic by its smooth, rubbery, shiny texture.
While I'm in the middle of inflating the inner tube, Misty comes back, and my attention shifts to her mesmerizing attractiveness. She's wearing a lovely light-purple bikini that has dark-purple sparkly beads in it.
“Whoa. You look really… hot!” are the only words I can muster.
“Awww, thanks, sweetie!” Misty responds, smiling and giggling.
She takes a seat next to me, and I remember that I'm still holding a half-inflated inner tube. Once I finish inflating it, I roll it on its side into the swimming pool, and it makes a small splash when it falls in. I like the way the vibrant blue of the swimming pool and the bright yellow of the torus combine to make a deep shade of emerald green.
“Let's sit by the pool for a little,” Misty suggests.
She walks over to the pool, dips her toe into the water, and then sits down on the edge, waiting for me to join her. I'm already wearing my swimming shorts, so all I have left to do now is take my shirt off, which I place next to the towels on the lawn chair.
“Awww, you look kind of nervous. What's wrong?” Misty asks, turning her head to look at me.
“You caught me there. It's just that… I've never taken my shirt off in front of a woman before. I've never even kissed or touched a woman until you came along, for that matter,” I confide to Misty as I sit next to her.
“Awww. Well, you can kiss and touch me whenever you want to,” she replies, winking at me, moving herself closer to me, and looking at me with sympathetic eyes.
“Really? Wow, no one's ever told me anything like that before,” I reply whilst moving my legs around in the water without really knowing what else to add in response to her kind words.
“Of course! In fact, do you wanna apply some sunscreen onto my back right now?”
“I can try…”
I retrieve the item, which is sitting on the lawn chair near the towels, and sit down behind Misty. I squirt some out into my hand and begin slowly rubbing it onto Misty's smooth back. She moans lightly as I continue to massage her, applying the cream in circular motions until there's a nice, even coating all over her back.
“Can you also put some on my front?” she asks kindly.
“Anything for you, sexy,” I oblige.
I squirt out more sunblock into my hand and begin spreading it around Misty's sides and front.
“The way you touch me feels so good, baby,” she says as I rub her belly.
“There we go. I'd say that's a pretty good amount,” I declare when I'm all finished with the sunscreen. I put it back on the lawn chair and return to the poolside, sitting down next to Misty once again.
“Now… Do you wanna try kissing me on the lips?” she asks in a playful tone, her eyes half closed.
Although Misty has kissed me a few times before on the cheek, I've never taken the initiative to give her a kiss myself. She leans toward me, closes her eyes, and puckers her lips. At first, with some caution, I slowly move closer to her. My worries all but disappear as soon as I press my lips onto her soft, juicy, shiny, plump pink lips, and we share a wonderful quick kiss.
“Whoa. Your lips taste like strawberries,” I say in a trance, my face only an inch away from Misty's.
There's no way I can resist those delicious lips right in front of me now, so I go in for another kiss. The passion intensifies into a full-blown make-out session at the poolside as I move my hands down to Misty's waist and she moans in approval. She presses her hands up against my chest, and we indulge in our oral delight for another minute before our lips separate.
“Mmm… That was magical, baby,” Misty says, looking at me with a dreamy expression.
“I wanna know something: What's such an amazing woman like yourself doing hanging o
ut with a not-very-interesting guy like me?” I ask after thinking about things for a while.
“Awww, babe, don't say that about yourself,” Misty says, looking at me with sad eyes. “I like you a lot because you're cute, sweet, and just fun to be around,” she adds.
“It's nice to know that I'm spending time with someone who likes me for me.”
We continue to sit closely next to each other on the edge of the pool for a few more minutes, since we're still adjusting to the temperature of the water. Misty splashes her sexy legs in the pool, and I notice that she has very pretty feet and little toes that are painted light pink, matching her fingernails and her lipstick.
“Let's get in the pool now!” Misty says with excitement before hopping into the water. I watch as she submerges her head in the pool for a second, making her hair dripping wet, and then I join her as well.
“The water is really nice,” I remark.
“It feels sooo good against my skin in the sun's heat,” Misty says.
I swim toward the doughnut-shaped pool toy, which I've almost completely forgotten about up until this point, and poke my head through the object's central hole, entertaining myself by using it to float.
“Any room in there for me?” Misty asks in a silly tone.
“Of course, beautiful—there's always room for you wherever I am.”
She then joins me in the pool toy, which has just enough space for the both of us to share it. The two of us are so close together in there that her whole body is pressed up against me, and her wet skin feels incredibly good on mine. I can also smell the sweet fragrance of shampoo coming from Misty's hair. After relaxing for a little while, I suddenly get an interesting idea.
“I bet you I can roll this thing from one end of the pool and make it come up to the ground on the other end, all while standing in the water.”
I grab the inner tube and, standing inside the pool near the very edge, try to roll it like a wheel. It barely makes it half of the way across the pool before falling over.
“Hey, let me try that. I bet I can do it better than you!” Misty says playfully.
When she tries to do the same, she gets it to about three-fourths of the way across the pool—better than I did, but that's still not making it all the way to the other side, as per the original goal.
“First one to roll it across completely wins the game. My turn now!” I say, retrieving the toy.
We continue playing this game for about another thirty-five minutes before either of us wins. It turns out to be much more difficult than we could've anticipated. In several of my attempts, I had the inner tube hit the edge of the pool, but it didn't quite come up and out of the water. Eventually, Misty is the first to do it successfully, and shortly afterward, we decide to get out of the pool. We lounge on the lawn chairs for a little while before drying ourselves off with the towels and heading out. I deflate the transparent light-yellow torus and do the best I can to stuff it back into the box for safe keeping.
“Do you want to come back to my place so we can have some lunch? I can heat up that chicken we saved from the other day,” Misty offers.
“That sounds like a plan to me. I am getting kind of hungry, now that you mention it,” I reply.
⁂
Once we arrive at Misty's house, she places her purse and other belongings on the table next to the couch and begins microwaving the chicken after removing it from the refrigerator. I set myself down onto the couch and then Misty joins me as we wait for our food to heat up. I put my right arm around her and pull her close to me.
“I really like having someone so adorable to squeeze and keep close to me,” I say quietly into her ear.
“Awww, you're just so sweet,” she says softly, resting her head on my chest.
We relax in our embrace for three more minutes before the microwave makes several loud beeps, letting us know that our chicken is ready. We sit at the table in the kitchen and start eating.
“This is still pretty good,” I remark. “Though it's not nearly as good as it was fresh out of the bucket at KFC,” I add.
“I know—that chicken was just something else when it was at KFC,” Misty reminisces.
“The only problem is that I think I'll still be hungry after just one piece of chicken,” I say.
“Do you wanna make some peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches together?” Misty asks.
“Great idea! PB&J sounds fantastic right about now.”
When we're done with the chicken, Misty brings out all of the supplies needed for the sandwiches: fresh white bread, creamy peanut butter, and a jar of jelly. Misty and I both take four slices of bread, enough for each of us to make two sandwiches, and we get to work spreading as much peanut butter and jelly onto the bread as we desire.
“Yum!” Misty says as she bites into one of her sandwiches.
“Peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches are so simple, but yet they just work so well,” I say.
We then drink a glass of water, agreeing that we're now full, and retreat to the couch. I put one of my arms around Misty's slim waist and hold her hand in the other, feeling the smooth surface of her fingernails.
“I really appreciate you sharing your food with me like that,” I say, looking Misty in her eyes.
“Awww, there's no need to thank me. I'm always willing to share with you, hon. What would be the point of having nice things if there was no one special around to share the delight with?”
“You have an excellent point there; success means nothing if you have nobody to share it with,” I add.
“So what do you wanna do now?” I ask once our stomachs begin settling down and not feeling so full anymore.
“Hmmm…” Misty says, thinking about it for a moment. “We could play a computer game. Didn't you say you like playing Quake or something?”
“You'd be willing to play that with me? Not many people usually are.”
“Well, first-person shooters aren't really my thing, but I'd be more than happy to play with you.”
We go upstairs to Misty's room, where her computer is, and I gather all of the necessary files before installing the game and showing her how the controls work. I lie back in her bed and start a local server on my phone for Misty to join from her PC.
“Which difficulty do you want to play on?” I ask when we both enter the starting map.
Misty walks directly forward from the start, stepping into the hallway that prints, This hall selects normal skill.
“Let's do the normal difficulty. That way it won't be too easy or boring.”
“Yeah, that's a good idea. Whenever you're ready, just turn to the left and enter the slipgate. That'll start the first episode for us.”
We enter E1M1 and begin navigating the game's dark hallways together.
“Ooo, this game is spooky,” Misty comments while we're in the middle of the level.
“It definitely is, but my favorite thing is the ability to explore and look around the levels.”
After about forty-five minutes, we get through eight levels—the first full episode—of Quake together.
“That was cool. We should play more of this some other time,” Misty says once we've been teleported back to the episode-selection map.
“I'm glad you enjoyed it, babe,” I say as Misty comes by to sit next to me on her bed.
“Do you wanna go out for ice cream a little later?” she asks, looking at me.
“Ice cream would be perfect on a hot day like this. I think I'd like to take a little afternoon nap first though. Just wake me up in about an hour.”
“Okay, hon. You can even sleep right here if you'd like,” she offers me her bed just as I'm about to stand up and go to the guest bedroom.
I lie back down, and Misty massages my back with her slow and soothing touch.
“That feels really good, baby,” I tell her quietly.