Page 13 of The Girl Who Was Taken

At Matt’s urging, Megan and Stacey, along with three other cheerleaders, had floated out to the raft. Jessica, Nicole, and Rachel also took the swim, and together they made up the group of eight girls. Now, with the twenty kids sitting around, legs dangling in the water and the raft ebbing with the subtle waves of the bay, they broke off into separate conversations. Megan sat next to Matt and they talked about Duke. He, too, was headed there in the fall and they were each happy to know a familiar face would be close. They had never formally dated, although last summer they got together a few times with mutual friends and had gone to seeThe Martiantogether, which was termed a date onlyafter they kissed in Matt’s car. But as popular as they each were, they somehow never managed to be comfortable with each other. So senior year passed with them as friends, both waiting for more to happen, but never getting there.

“So who’s doing it?” Nicole asked the group after twenty minutes on the raft. “Didn’t we all swim out here for a reason?”

“You go first,” one of the guys challenged.

“Please,” Nicole said with a dismissive smirk. “I’m not worried about me, I just don’t want to be the only naked person in the lake. I want naked guys with me, but you’re all too scared to drop trou.” Nicole looked at Jessica and Rachel. “Shrinkage? It’s so dark, we won’t be able to see your little guys anyways.”

Jason Miller stood up and walked over to her. “You go, then I’ll go.”

Another ugly face. “Right, I’ll get naked so you can watch me jump in. Then you’ll sit down with your buddies, too scared of the woody in your shorts to jump in yourself.”

“You’re all talk, Cutty. We’ll do it at the same time.”

The debate went back and forth about who would remove their swimsuit first and in what order. Then came the rules about where to place the discarded clothing, and that no one could touch the suits or there would be hell to pay.

During the back and forth, Megan turned to Stacey. “Let’s just do it.”

“Really?” Stacey said with a smile.

Matt joined in. “Let’s just friggin’ do it, shut them all up.”

“Yeah,” Tyler Elliot said, looking at Stacey.

“Fine,” Stacey agreed, and in one unified movement of twisting arms and legs they each dumped their suits onto the deck of the raft before anyone knew they had done so.

“See you, suckers!” Matt yelled as they all jumped in the lake. When the group looked over, they saw a brief glimpse of bare butts, shadowed by the night, until the splash erased everything from view. The four of them laughed as they swam away from the raft, protected by the dark water.

This sent the others onto their feet, all straining for a better view of the four who had finally done it. A mass disrobing began, as guys dropped their shorts and jumped into the lake. Nicole was naked a few seconds later, but in no hurry to find protection in the water. She shielded her breasts with her arm as she jostled Jessica and Rachel to join her. The remaining guys who stayed on the raft whistled at the show. Jessica and Rachel quickly undressed and jumped in. Nicole slowly turned to the guys who stood staring at her, uncovered her chest, and stared back at them for a few seconds, her eyebrows raised. It shut them up quickly as the boys blinked and could think of nothing to say.

“Only ones left,” Nicole said. She began to fall backward off the raft. “Must have the littlest guys in the group.”

A splash followed and she was gone.

In the end, two guys who never dropped their shorts claimed the beer was running low and wanted to keeptheir buzz going. Megan and Matt, after taking a lap around the perimeter and treading water, grew tired and swam to the safety of the raft, holding on to the side and placing a foot on the bar that ran underwater and encircled the float. Megan was careful to stay underwater, keeping just her head visible.

“That was crazy,” Matt said.

“It’s senior year, we had to do it eventually.”

“I love that we started it.”

The water splashed between them as kids swam and kicked around the raft.

“I’m really glad we’ll be at school together next year,” Matt said.

“Yeah? Me too.”

He leaned his face toward hers, careful not to get too close—not to get too much skin-on-skin contact—and kissed her. Megan, balancing with her right hand on the raft and right foot supporting herself on the bar, kissed back, rubbing her left hand through Matt’s hair. Without warning, Megan felt a hand run up the back of her thigh and grab her butt with a hard squeeze. She pulled away quickly.

“Take it easy you two,” Nicole said. “Grabbing ass in the lake? Get a room, already.”

Megan pushed Nicole’s hand away. Matt laughed because he wasn’t sure what else to do. Nicole swam off as quickly as she had appeared.

“That wasn’t me,” Matt said as soon as Nicole was gone.

“No kidding.”

Spent of energy from treading water, everyone slowly reconvened at the raft. Awkward and shy now thatswimming away was not an option, the girls mostly congregated on one side, boys on the other. Matt reached up and grabbed Megan’s suit.

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