Falling Down полностью

“You will.” He smiled, tilting her chin up, and kissed her softly. “Let’s get you home.”

“I’m afraid you can’t top Kenny Wayne Shepard and an orgasm under the flight pattern of an F-16.”

She loved making Zach laugh-it was deep and genuine and made her feel as warm and wiggly as a happy puppy every time she heard it. He’d called every night this week, and she couldn’t seem to get enough of him, or vice versa.

“At least give me a shot at it.”

“Maybe.” Lindsey twisted coils around her finger. Hers was an old-style phone, the kind with a twisty white cord. She wasn’t supposed to have a phone in her room at all, and had to keep coming up with new places to hide it. “What did you have in mind?”

“I’m not doing anything tonight…”

She smiled, remembering her parents’ reaction when Zach dropped her off last Saturday night. “Okay.”

“You’re so easy.”

She snorted. “You have no idea.”

“Oh, I think I do.”

The pause that followed hung there, and she pulled the cord tight, making the tip of her finger turn so red it was almost purple. Downstairs, she heard the side door, and knew her parents were home from shopping.

“I’ve gotta go.”

“Tonight at seven?”

“See you then.” She didn’t even bother hanging up the phone-she just unplugged it from the wall and wrapped the cord around it, looking around her room for a place to hide it.

“Lindsey!” Her stepfather called from the bottom of the stairs. “Come help us carry in groceries!”

“Coming!” She shoved the phone between her mattress and the wall, putting her pillow there and pulling the covers up. He was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs and frowned as she padded down in bare feet.

“You should put some clothes on.”

“These are clothes.” She rolled her eyes, looking down at the red bikini she put on before Zach called. Her plan was to walk down to the community pool, because it was hotter than an oven in the house, especially upstairs in her room, even with all the windows open. The air conditioning had been on the fritz for three days.

“Lindsey, I got you some Twizzlers.” Her mother came in the side door, carrying two plastic grocery bags. “They were on sale.”

“Cool!” She slipped by her stepfather and took the bags from her mother, going to put them on the kitchen table to sift through them. “I’m going to walk down to the pool.”

“Good day for it.” Her mother wiped stray hair out of her eyes and reached into one of the bags, pulling out a package of red licorice. “Why don’t you just go? Your father and I can handle this.”

“He’s not my-”

“Lindsey.” Her mother sighed, holding the package of red candy out like a peace offering. “Please. Just go.”

She looked between the two of them, her stepfather now looming in the doorway.

Then she shrugged. “Okay, whatever.” She got a beach towel out of the linen closet and slipped on her green clogs, heading out the door. Her stepfather dug bags out of the trunk of the car and she didn’t wave as she walked past.

It was a short two blocks and around a corner to their community pool, a big outdoor affair with a diving board at the deep end and a hundred kids playing in the shallow water. You were supposed to shower before going in, but no one ever did.

Lindsey went through the women’s dressing room, the tile floor perpetually damp, the smell of chlorine strong already. There was a small steam room near the bathroom stalls that she never saw anyone use, but she peered in as she passed just out of habit.

She’d meant to bring a book, but had left the house so quickly she forgot. She signed her name and address on the clipboard on the table and looked around for a sunny spot. Forgoing the wooden lawn chairs stacked in a corner, she spread her towel out near the fence, away from most of the moms and kids, and stretched out on her belly, opening her Twizzler’s package.

Already, beads of sweat ran in little rivers down her sides and between her pale breasts. She glanced down at them and smiled. I can definitely use the color. That made her think of Zach-not that she wasn’t already thinking about him, always thinking about him lately, in the back of her mind. Just remembering the concert, and the night they spent afterwards, when she spread herself out on the hood of his car under the stars and watched the planes take off, made her whole body feel even warmer.

She had to admit she liked Zach, and part of her really didn’t want to. All sorts of bells and whistles went off in her head about him. He was dangerously safe, someone she was entirely too likely to get close to, and she didn’t need that. She liked her relationships-if you wanted to call them that-loose, fast, and with no attachments.

Hookups, that’s what they were. She hadn’t ever really “dated” anyone before like she suddenly found herself with Zach. She didn’t know if she liked it.