Feeling the blood suddenly rush to me face, as it was beginning to elsewhere, I said “Wild night you guys have got planned out. Those kids look like real heavyweights in the drinking department,” in an attempt to avoid any awkwardness.
She laughed and the strange look disappeared. “Sorry, but dad doesn’t know any of your friends that well and you know how he is with inviting strangers into our house.”
“They wouldn’t be strangers to us,” I mumbled. Then I glanced up at her and smiled. “But I actually wanted a small send off anyway.”
She smiled back. “Good,” she said, “now pass me one of those towels. I need to go make sure dad remembers there’s more than just meat for dinner.”
Over the next few hours I made small talk with the other adults and played cards and drank with them, just beer because I had to be in driving condition the following day.
When dinner was ready we all went inside to sit around the large dining table and, once everyone was seated, Steve stood at the head of the table, beer in hand, and said, “Thank you all for coming tonight. As most of you know, Joe here is leaving us tomorrow. Moving across the country to where he will be starting college in a few weeks time, studying medicine. And we’re all very proud of him, especially Helen, who will be needing his expertise when her liver finally gives out.”
Everyone laughed including my mom, who hadn’t been without a glass in her hand all night.
“Shush, Steve, like you’re any better!” my mum cried from her seat next to me.
I looked across the table at Nera, seated next to her dad, and shared a look of second-hand embarrassment. Steve shrugged and turned to me, raising his beer.
“To Joe,” he said, “who is always welcome in my home, and who has always been like a son to me.”
“To Joe,” the group echoed with drinks raised.
I could feel my chest fill with gratitude, but I couldn’t formulate the words, so I raised my own drink and nodded towards Steve in return.
He smiled knowingly before turning back towards everyone and saying, “Let’s eat!”
Dinner was great and I spent most of the time filling in the other guests about my future studies and plans, and telling my mom to go easy on the wine. In between which I would steal occasional glances at Nera, still in her navy bikini but wearing an unbuttoned oversized white shirt over the top, and catch her looking at me while talking to someone else, that strange look in her eyes once again.
Soon after dinner it got dark and the temperature dropped so Steve brought out a fire pit for people to sit around in camp chairs, along with sticks and marshmallows for the novelty. I sat next to Nera, supervising the kids attempting to cook their marshmallows while we reminisced about old times. I watched her laughing in the firelight and I became mesmerized by the shadows that danced across the curves of her body. Her hand drew her beer up to her lips where she rested it, before lightly pushing it against her bottom lip and slowly rolling the tip across it. I blinked, moving my gaze up to meet her eyes. They were staring intensely into my own. I felt my face growing red yet again, and was thankful to the fire for hiding it.
“I– I think my mom’s having a bad influence on me,” I laughed awkwardly.
She said nothing but took a drink from her beer, eyes still locked on mine. Trying to find a natural excuse to break the intense eye contact I looked down at my own now empty beer and turned it over, pretending to read the back of it for several moments.
“Why do you think our parents never got together?”
Huh.
I looked back up to see Nera now leaning forward on her knees, staring over the fire to where both my mom and her dad were talking and laughing.
“I’m not sure,” I said slowly, not knowing where this topic was coming from but grateful to be talking about anything after she had caught me ogling her just now. “I guess they just became too good of friends before anything could happen.”
She nodded and had another swig of her drink.
Now that I thought about it I recalled a few occasions when I heard her coming home at an odd hour after claiming she was going out without having taken the car anywhere, which was then followed by some odd behavior by Steve in the following days after. It wasn’t my business though so I never brought it up.
“Is that why nothing ever happened between us?”
The question broke through my train of thought like a starting pistol. I whipped around to see her eyes staring at me once again, but with a hint of sadness that took me off guard.
“Well– I– we just– I didn’t want to ruin–”
I was cut off by a marshmallow hitting me square in the forehead. Nera had dropped her beer bottle and jumped to her feet giggling.
“I’m just teasing you, loser. That was too easy. Y’know college is gonna be hell if you’re not careful,” she said with a wry grin.
I stared at her, a little confused and hurt.
She held up two more marshmallows in her hand, one which she popped in her mouth and the other she tossed towards me, which caused me to drop my own beer in order to catch. “C’mon, the parents can watch the kids, let’s jump in the pool before it gets any colder!”
And with that she took off running. I jumped to my feet, still a little confused, crammed the marshmallow into my mouth, and ran after her.
Nera had tossed her shirt over the back of a deck chair and dove into the pool by the time I came through the gate. She resurfaced, brushed her hair back with her hands and grinned at me.
“So slow. I wonder if you’ll ever keep up with me.” I flipped her the bird this time and then rested both hands on my hips.
“I don’t mind if you’re the brawn in this duo, but clearly that means I’m the brains.”
She splashed water at me and I took a few steps back.
“Hey, you two!”
I turned around to see Steve smothering the fire pit, making a hand gesture towards the house.
“Everyone’s going home. And I’m going to help your mother home, Joe. She’s had a little too much fun,” he called out. Looking past him I could see mom stumbling towards the house, thankfully without a glass in her hand for the first time the whole night.
I waved back in acknowledgment and turned around just in time to see Nera grab my arm and pull me, as hard as she could, into the pool.
Splash.
“Fuck, it’s cold!” I yelled as my head broke through the surface.
“You’re such a baby,” she said, treading water next to me.
“You’re lucky I don’t have my phone on me,” I responded with a hint of irritation.
“Or what?”
We stared at each other for a few seconds, floating only a couple of feet apart, silhouetted by the pool lights around us.
“Punk.”
“Loser.”
I splashed her, and she reached out and grabbed my shoulders, pushing me down. But my feet touched the bottom even before my head completely submerged, so I popped back up, smirking up at her as she gave a cry and giggled. I gripped her underneath her arms and pulled us both down. She squirmed but couldn’t slip away. I then braced myself and pushed with my legs while simultaneously throwing her up and out into the water ahead of me, creating a big splash where she landed. Her head popped out of the water and she coughed while laughing.