Chapter 6

Yes, things were definitely looking up, I would say. It was still the first week of summer, and I already had an official first date scheduled with Nicole. On top of that, it could be argued that we'd had a first date already, when we went out for ice cream. Either way, one thing that was definite – I'd had my first kiss. Last night, we'd even done a little public making out at her car, at the end of the night. I did have one thought that I figured was a good idea – not bragging to others about anything I might do with her. That was obviously jumping ahead, though. All I'd done with Nicole so far was a little kissing and making out. Enjoyable, yes, but not exactly headline material in any gossip circles.

Gossip circles, I was starting to find out, were very prevalent in high school age social groups. I'd seen an example of just the type of gossip that was going on, based on people, who had talked to me, about taking Nicole out, which I hadn't told directly. I didn't really mind, though, since everything that was being passed around about it was factual. It wasn't like people were saying anything bad about either one or both of us.

Those were all thoughts that went through my mind upon waking up Monday morning. The night before, I had considered calling Nicole before going to bed, but since I'd just seen her, and didn't want to seem like I was crowding her, I'd held off. I thought it also might not be a bad idea, since her family might have wanted to do something family-wise, since it was a Sunday. This morning started out easy, I was woken up by the furry face of Grizz, giving me a lick as his way of letting me know he was up and that he wanted to go out.

Summers in my family tended to be fairly low key during the day. My parents had taught their summer classes for a few years now, and had started again today, so they were both already gone. I'd found out, the night before, that both my sisters were staying with friends, so I was on my own. Once I'd taken the dog out, I changed into workout clothes and started with some pushups and sit ups, followed by my run after that. It would've been easy to not go; I knew I didn't have the build that even if I had just stopped running over the summer it wouldn't change much.

I took my running seriously, though, so if I kept it going through the summer, by the time fall came around for cross country, I'd have a good base to build back up on. The thing that did change in my workouts was that my mileage went up and the pace went down. Since I didn't have to worry about races right now, I didn't worry about the speed aspect of my running, just maintaining the endurance base I had. I wasn't the type of runner that it came easy to me. I'd run track for four years total now, so I had turned myself into a distance runner, but at my height I had to work harder at it than did a lot of the taller runners. It always felt good to me when I'd finish ahead of a lot of taller runners, especially when they were older, as well.

Running did have other advantages, of course. With as much as I ran, I never had to worry about looking any kind of fat at all. I didn't have the build to look like I had a lot of bulk, but what I could do was show good muscle definition. My legs, especially, had it right now, since track season had just barely finished. There was also Tenille and Tanya's opinion to consider as well. They'd both already told me they thought I had a nice ass.

Recent events were starting to make me consider myself a little more. I'd always been a nice guy and personally considered myself about average, as far as looks went. However, I'd started getting more attention this past week. Maybe there was something more than average about me. I was in shape and it showed, so I knew I had that going for me. The way things were going recently, I was even starting to be able to flirt a little back and forth. It wasn't just with Nicole, either. I thought that the way things were going with Tanya, as well, could be called a little flirtation; maybe even the same with Tenille.

With the family gone doing various things for the day, there wasn't much going on at home. Today was like the previous days had been, so far as the work schedule went; I was closing again. It wasn't much of a surprise. They'd told us the summer would probably start like this, and then on busier days we'd end up working longer shifts. I did have a few hours, though, so I turned my radio on to one of the local rock stations to listen, as I made myself some hamburger scramble for lunch.

Hamburger scramble was something of a family recipe we had. It was easy to make and actually one of my favorites as well. I started by putting a little pot of rice on to steam, and then browned the hamburger meat. Once the meat was browned I'd add a can of corn and a can of cream of mushroom soup into the pan, mixing it together. When the rice finished, I had a plate out, putting the rice down and then the mix of hamburger scramble on top of it. It was simple which worked for me, since I definitely wasn't the type to be much of a cook, otherwise.

Once I finished eating, I cleaned my mess up, rinsing everything off before putting it into the dish washer or back where it belonged. At my house, leaving a meal out like that was a good way to end up getting yourself assigned to dish duty for the week, so it was self-preservation as well.

With lunch out of the way, there wasn't much else that was still keeping me at home, so I got into the shower, to get cleaned up, and then was headed off to work, a little early. I ended up still having about an hour before shift started, when I got there, so I went into the park in uniform to walk around a little. I was walking by one of the water gun games, when I suddenly felt one of the guns get turned on me; the water hitting me across the chest. I stepped back, and to the side, to get out of the direct spray, turning to see that Tanya had turned one of the guns on me, and was now chuckling; a grin on her pretty face.

"That'll teach you to not be on the lookout for me, Ryan." There were of course a few other people around as well, several of whom were chuckling at what she'd done. Although she'd made the tactical error of keeping the water gun turned on.

My eyes narrowed a little as I took a few quick steps to close the distance between us. With her being such a petite girl it wasn't much of a challenge to wrestle the water gun out of her hand and start turning it on her. Since she'd hit me in the chest with it, I figured turn about was fair play, and ended up doing the same with her. Unfortunately, the shirts we wore were a dark color, so it didn't make it look like a true wet t-shirt contest, but it definitely started to help show what Tanya did have under that shirt.

Instead of backing up, once the water was turned on her, she advanced, closing the distance between us and then lunging at me. I moved the gun behind my back, to keep it out of her reach, and when Tanya discovered she couldn't reach it, she changed tactics and just plastered herself against me. I'm sure she was thinking she'd spread the water that way. I wasn't really going to complain, though. It was obviously a little flirty but I didn't think it was anything that could be thought of as more than just playing around.

While I had her still plastered against my chest, I took a few steps back, turning to move into her game, and reaching a hand out to flick the button, which would turn off the water pressure. Once the pressure was off, you could hear the water pump turn itself off, and at that point, she'd taken a step back, looking down at the two of us and our slightly damp shirts. "Well, on a good note, I don't think it'll take too long for this to dry." She reached a hand up to brush her bangs out of her hair. It looked like it could've been an unconscious motion, and she looked cute in doing it.

I looked over at her, chuckling a little bit, and nodding my head. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'm sure you knew I wasn't just gonna let you get away with it. I had to get my payback, after all." Tanya's response to that was probably fairly typical: she simply stuck her tongue out.

"Yeah, I'm sure that was the only reason you had for gettin' me with the water gun." She was chuckling a little as she said that.

"Well, maybe not only, but it was the biggest of the reasons." Our discussion was interrupted when a couple of people came up, wanting to play the game, so Tanya had to turn her attention back to that. Raising her hand, she gave me a wave, as I started moving down the midway. I'd be at the south end of the park when I heard my name.

Turning around I saw Josh walking across the way towards me. "Hey man, I tried callin' you yesterday, but you weren't home yet. Figured we'd get Wednesday squared away, as far as plans go. My thought was we'd pick up, say KFC, since that's something we can take out to the island with us easy enough, have a few blankets, and stay out there for however long we decide to. From there, we can figure out if we want to catch a movie or something after the park closes." I nodded my head in response to that. It sounded like a good plan so far. "I think that'll work, yeah. You want me to get my date, and then just meet up at your place Wednesday afternoon, then? Would give us some time to hang out, maybe bring out like a football or something like that while we're out there, too." "That's not a bad idea, either. You bring a football and if you've got one a glove and a baseball or softball. We'll have a couple things to play catch that way, if anyone decides they want to, while we're out there. Adam ended up having to bail on us, he got stuck working that night, so I think it'll just be the two of us and our dates." "Since we're planning on KFC, how about we meet at, say 4:00, at the KFC in Layton, then we can head out from there?" I'd have to head out to Salt Lake to pick up Nicole, but meeting in Layton would be on the way towards the lake, so it would work. If we did end up deciding on a movie afterwards there were a few, that looked to be good ones, out this summer: Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, The Lion King, and Clear and Present Danger to name a few.

"4:00 sounds good to me. Make sure with Nicole that it'll work for her and gimme a call if you don't see me again tonight, to make sure everything's cool." Josh gave my shoulder a friendly pat and then was turning off, heading back the other direction. "I've gotta split, though. I'll talk to you later." I gave him a wave of my own, as he headed out. A look at my watch let me know I was down to about twenty minutes, before the start of work, so I headed back towards the center of the park, and the games office. I'd only been in for a few minutes, when I felt a pair of hands reach over my shoulders and come to rest across my eyes. "Guess who?" The voice sounded playful and feminine, familiar as well.

"I think she's a short little brunette, very sexy, has a date or two here in a couple days to go out to Antelope Island, and her name's Nicole." The hands were removed from my eyes and I turned around to face her, my hands moving to her hips. "Speaking of Wednesday's date, Josh was thinking we'd meet up at about 4 in Layton. So if that'll work for you, that'd mean I'd pick you up probably about 3:30. How's that sound?" She ran a hand along my forearm; a familiar and warm touch. "Yeah, 3:30 will work for me. I'm still looking forward to it. I haven't been out to the island before." At that point we had to turn our attentions to work, since the work assignments were getting handed out and shifts were starting.

I'd been assigned to a game called Toss It, and, unfortunately, Nicole was at the other end of the park. On a good note though, it would mean I'd be able to focus on the work and do well. as far as that went. "I'll see you in a little bit, baby. Hopefully we'll have the chance to spend dinner break together." "That would be nice, yeah. We'll just have to see how it goes. If we don't, then I'll just see you at the end of work." I gave her hand a squeeze, unfortunately, right here close to the office, we weren't supposed to have any type of PDA really, so we kept it to just simple touches.