Page 59

The last day of summer was something of a holiday in the DeRose house.

Technically, this year it was an actual holiday, but the pool party in the backyard was happening with or without Labor Day.

On September second, Raelyn would be starting her senior year of high school.

She was determined, as were most optimistic seniors, to make this the best year yet.

Junior year had been riddled with dramatic episodes; her first asshole boyfriend, fist fights, rumors, and various arguments and days spent apart from Quinn.

This year was going to be a good one though.

It had already started out with the excitement of Quinn getting scouted by several different colleges.

There had been quite the fight over him, as each school upped their offers and sent tickets to visit their campuses free of charge.

They'd paid for his hotel rooms while he checked out the schools in Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Florida, and Mississippi.

Both Grand Valley State University and the University of Michigan had sent for him to visit their programs, as well.

Since Raelyn had been considering both of those schools, her parents had taken them for a visit together.

So, this end of summer party was now combined with a celebration of Quinn's major accomplishment of receiving a full ride to ASU to play baseball next fall.

Also, his birthday was in three days, so Raelyn's mom had ordered a huge catering spread of Quinn's favorite food, along with a large cake with the Arizona Sun Devils mascot on it.

These extra touches had to be kept a secret, of course, because Quinn was always so reluctant to accept any sort of party or celebration in his honor.

While some people, especially from Northern Michigan, may complain that this weather was too hot, Raelyn absolutely loved it. She was a summer baby, after all. This weather reminded her of her ongoing list of reasons to apply to Arizona State for the next fall semester.

I love warm weather

ASU has a sports medicine program

My best friend is going and what am I going to do without him?

Palm trees

No snow!

The thought of not seeing Quinn for a whole year at a time makes me want to cry until I puke and then start all over

Ranked #2 party school in the nation- Let's make bad choices !

She had a separate, shorter, yet more weighted, list of reasons why not to follow her BFF across the country:

Quinn is going for baseball. I don't want to distract him or hold him back

Does he even want me to go?

I'm sick of being "just friends," but what if he doesn't feel the same?

The decision to follow Quinn to Arizona was primarily predicated on the latter.

Raelyn wasn't about to move to a state based on someone else's dream if that someone was going to hook up left and right with every other girl on campus.

This was college, after all. When people hooked up, that meant sex, not giving over-the-pants handies and going to third base under the gym bleachers.

Okay, so, some people were having sex in high school. Raelyn just was not one of them.

She wasn't completely inexperienced. Her first boyfriend sophomore year had helped perfect her French kissing skills and had gotten to third base.

She'd even let him stick his hand down her panties.

Once. Then there was Liam. Ugh . As much of a disaster as that relationship had turned out to be, Raelyn still couldn't say she regretted it entirely.

Sure, he'd been an entitled jackass, but he'd at least been sexually experienced enough to teach her a thing or two.

Taking the glass-half-full approach, having dated Liam meant she at least wasn't heading into her senior year as a complete nun.

No such thoughts were troubling Quinn, she was sure.

That boy, or man, perhaps she should say- he would be eighteen in a few days- had been by her side for the past ten years.

And somehow he'd managed to get with just about every available girl in their school.

Maybe even T.C. Central, who knows? The rumors ranged from steamy lip-lock sessions, to oral sex, to hook-ups .

The vague term bothered Raelyn because she had no idea if this meant sex or something else.

She never had the guts, nor the desire, really, to ask him for clarification.

Back in December when they'd had their little fight and made up, Raelyn had realized for the first time that she was undeniably attracted to Quinn.

Her body was physically and physiologically attracted to his.

The scent of him at times would send her thoughts swimming around in a haze and she'd find herself daydreaming about kissing him the next time they were alone in her room together so she could breathe in his intoxicating musk up close.

These dreams would leave her hot and flushed with a yearning ache between her thighs.

But Quinn kept her strictly and safely in the boundaries of the friend zone.

At first, she thought this was for the best. Romantic feelings could get messy- What if it screwed up their friendship?

But as the daydreams began creeping into her completely unconscious nighttime dreams, and became increasingly scandalous and heated, she just became frustrated.

It was hard to get a moment at school when girls weren't trailing after him, and after school he was zeroed in on getting scouted.

Raelyn had thought offering to help him with his scouting and even tutoring him on the subjects he felt less sure about was the answer to this frustration.

Setting up training drills, running together, and going to the weight room was certainly one way to get more time with him and to keep him away from all those other girls who, for some reason, thought they had a more important place in his life than she did.

The training drills were fine, and they could run together for miles.

But sweet baby Jesus, she could not keep it together when they were in the weight room.

If she'd thought the daydreams were bad before, they were nothing compared to the actual, physical proximity to him as he benched and curled and lifted all that weight.

Raelyn would zone out and focus on the way his muscles rippled, contracting and extending with each movement.

To make matters worse, he didn't think he had to worry about her feeling attracted to him like that so he often went shirtless. It became a dangerous task when she would be watching her own form in the mirror as she performed deadlifts, and her eyes would wander over to where Quinn was lying back on the bench. Why did athletic pants make it so easy to see a man’s penis even when it was not erect?

The image of beads of sweat dripping down Quinn's chest as he used the fly machine, and watching a stream run down his spine to the small of his back while he flexed, doing lat pull-downs clouded Raelyn's vision. Her body felt hot, and yet a shiver ripped through her suddenly.

"Girl, you okay?" Brandi Davis’s smooth voice snapped her back to the present.

Raelyn blinked several times and looked at her friend.

Brandi's dark skin contrasted with the white bikini she was now wearing, and she pulled her braids into a large bun on top of her head.

Brandi was still looking at Raelyn curiously so she found her voice, "Oh, just thinking about.

..how there's too much AC in this house to comfortably try on a bathing suit. "

"Yeah, about that," said Brandi, wandering over to the cubby drawer where Raelyn stored her swimsuits.

"You have all, like, athletic suits. Like there are some bikinis, but they look like sports bras.

And some tankinis, which I'm not even going to ask why.

Don't you have anything a little more... feminine?"

Raelyn winced and hesitated. She had bought one bikini that was way out of her comfort zone.

She had planned to wear it the last time she and Quinn hung out in the hot tub, but completely chickened out.

She got nervous about what he'd say or felt like he would ask what the special occasion was or.

..just focus too much on just how much of her it revealed.

She didn't want to feel like all the girls at school who threw themselves at him shamelessly.

But she did want him to notice her as a woman, with female parts, wants, and desires.

Inside her walk-in closet, Raelyn sifted to the back where she'd hung up and left that bikini with the tags on. She grabbed it and brought it out to show Brandi, whose eyes went wide and she smiled.

"Yes, girl, that's the one," she nodded .

"Wait, Rae has girl clothes?" Heather Perch interjected, checking out the small pieces of dark and light blue fabric hanging in Raelyn's hand.

"You have all seen me in a dress and in skinny jeans and, I think there was one time I wore a jean skirt. And I always wear skorts at soccer practice. That's feminine!" Raelyn defended.

Heather shook her head and her chestnut brown hair swung gracefully behind her. "Not when you put on shin guards and knee socks."

"There are going to be so many boys here," said Raelyn as she snapped the tag off the cinched bandeau top. "This is strapless. What if it falls and I flash everyone?"

"Then Quinn will finally realize you have ta-tas," Brandi remarked. She and Heather both laughed.

"Do I, though?" Raelyn glanced down at her 32-B's. "It's a good thing I've got a nice butt."

"You've got a whole nice thing going on," Melanie Sun, one of the swim team's best divers, chimed in, gesturing to Raelyn's whole body. "I thought you were aware of that."