“Your dad sent me out here to tell you to get your … and let me quote him … ‘naked ass out of the pool.’”
I winked at Halle and then pulled myself out and looked straight into Lexi’s eyes, daring her to look down. I heard Halle giggle, and then the sliding door opened. Lexi’s head whipped around, and we saw my dad glaring at us. When he saw I had a swimsuit on, he got that fantastic parental ‘oops’ expression and ducked back inside.
Yeah! A blow struck for teenaged kids with meddling parents everywhere!
Lexi made a beeline back into the house. On her way in, I saw her peek. She gave me a look like I’d done something wrong.
Yet another blow struck—this time on behalf of men wronged in the thoughts of evil girls at all times! After all, I wasn’t the one who’d assumed that just because I was an exhibitionist, I’d joined in the naked pool frolics tonight. I reached down and hoisted Halle out of the pool.
Lexi came back out and handed me my phone. I’d forgotten that she had it from earlier. When I unlocked it, I found I had a text from Brook that said, ‘
I sent her one back.
‘
I included the confused emoji. My phone rang. I looked at the time, and it was late back home.
“I’d rather wait for you to get here,” I said without preamble.
“Halle sent me pictures of everyone naked in your pool. She said you make her feel all fuzzy inside.”
“Maybe she’s coming down with something,” I suggested innocently.
Brook barked out a laugh.
“When I see you tomorrow, I’ll show you exactly what her problem is … in great detail.”
I liked the sound of that.
“Thanks for granting permission, but I’d seriously rather wait for you. I just hope the ’rents are okay with us disappearing for several hours.”
“Send our dads golfing, and give your mom your debit card and point her towards shopping.”
As expensive as that would be, it wasn’t a bad idea.
“Mom has her own debit card,” I admitted.
“Good. Problem solved,” Brook said, and then her voice got husky. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said, and we hung up.
The whole group, minus Bill and Ai, had fun talking and goofing around. There seemed to be a new romance budding as I caught sight of Trip and Teresa making out. Good for him. A good woman in his life would be helpful. I knew Teresa wasn’t the gold digger her mother was. Maybe she could get him out and living again.
Halle had told me that he seemed to just hang at the beach house alone all day. Rosy wasn’t happy because she said he wasn’t eating. Halle said she thought he was having some depression issues after being shot and his best friend killed in Orlando. In my estimation, Teresa would make anyone’s day much better. I hoped Trip would feel the same.
The girls from my J-drama took over the music. The next thing I knew, they had Halle and me learning how to make K-pop dance moves. I guess the best way to describe it would be line dancing with flair. It wasn’t all synchronized. When Halle got into it, the girls all stopped and had her show them what she was doing.
“We need to teach David how to move,” Haru said.
“He moves just fine,” Halle said to defend me and then pointed at me to show them what I had.
I’d picked up a thing or two. Duke and I practiced when I was in a goofy mood. You couldn’t take Brook and the other cheerleaders dancing and not learn a few things. I hadn’t broken out Dancing David around the J-drama cast. Yes, I’d danced some tonight, but it was in too close quarters for anything too wild. Last week, I’d danced with Teresa, but we spent most of our time getting to know each other.
I began to bounce around and shake my booty in a carefree way. Then I heard the song that I’d seen them dance to before. They looked stunned when I remembered most of the moves to the song. Being a good mimic, it was easy for me to remember how people moved. That was doubly true if I was trying to remember the dance steps so I could share them with Brook and her cheerleaders.
“Are you sure you’re not even a little gay?” Trip asked.
“Not even a little,” Halle assured him.
Now that the girls knew that Halle and I could hold our own, they got serious about teaching us. It turned out to be a great time.
◊◊◊
Chapter 13 – Soap Opera Saturday December 17
“You gonna spill, or do I have to tip you over and pour it out of you?” Jett asked me.
I looked up from my phone. I’d been a few minutes early for our singing lesson and must have had a scowl on my face. The gossip rags had come alive when they saw me with Teresa and Halle last night. It seemed I couldn’t make up my mind which girl was for me, so I decided to have both.
