New England Summer, pt 1

Chapter 1. Day at the Beach

It was summer after my freshman year of college. I’d gotten a pretty cushy internship with the company owned by a friend’s dad and my buddies and I spent a lot of time just relaxing, going to the beach and generally catting around. It was July and it was getting hot, even in lower New England. While the ocean was pretty much always cold, the sun and sand was as hot as anywhere along the coast and laying out was a common feature of many people’s summer.

My buddies and I were spending one hot afternoon out on the crowded beach. It was a Thursday, so it was mainly tourists and a few locals like us. There were lots of families and children running around, playing and yelling. The four of us, Ryan, Michael, Chad and I, arrived around 1 and, after finding a piece of fine sand real estate, parked our towels in relatively good view of several groups of attractive females. There were two pairs of very attractive females, and one larger group, with six model types, all with blond or light brown hair, tall, thin, early 20s. I kept my eye on one group in particular though.

It was actually quite hard not to notice them. While most of the groups of people our age were quietly sunbathing or chatting, this group was quite loud. There were four girls, about our age, maybe just younger. They had a cooler on the beach, which you weren’t really allowed to do, but no one really enforced it. They were drinking from 20 ounce bottles of Diet Coke and laughing and joking. They would talk to strangers walking by, make fun of little kids playing in the surf, and generally disrupt people trying to have a quiet day at the beach. Not that others let on to their perturbation, for that’s not the New England way. One other pair of girls actually got up and moved down the beach at one point due to disturbance, at the great regret of Chad, who’d been eyeing them in particular. I however had been watching this louder group of girls.

The four were not the most attractive girls on the beach, yet were quite good looking in their own way. While the other girls might have been more model-like, these girls were more real and attainable. The loudest of the group was a relatively tall brunette, with slightly longer than shoulder length hair in a pony tail, a rather small light blue bikini, and slender body. Another had black hair pushed back by a headband, a black and white polka dot halter-top with black bottoms, and a curvy body. She was thicker than the brunette (though not fat by any means) and seemed a bit on the Emo side. The third was an athletic looking blond with short hair, a yellow bikini top with blue bottoms, and an ass to die for. The one that I’d really kept my eye on though was a short blond with a pony tail. She was maybe 5’2” and 100 pounds, but she was very cute in her brown bikini, which barely covered her ass. She had a flat stomach and looked fairly athletic, much like a cheerleader. She was the quietest of the bunch, mainly just laughing along with her friends.

We laid out for about an hour. We all subtly watched the girls around us and generally tried to play it smooth. After a while the guys got bored and decided to throw around a football. I played along, trying to look smooth as I kept an eye on the girls over my shoulder. They were about 25 yards away and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to us. I noticed the short blond glance at me once and decided to try and do something really cool. Ryan threw the ball a bit long and I attempted an impressive athletic dive, which simply landed me face down in the sand, a few feet away from where the ball actually landed. As I spit granitic sand from my mouth I could hear my group of girls guffawing at me in the distance. Ignoring them for the moment, I passed a few more times then headed to the strip to find something to wash my mouth out with.

I ended up in line at a hotdog joint, really just looking for a soda and a break from the beach. There were a few people in front of me, including a mom with several children whom she was trying to collect orders from so I knew it would take a while. I felt someone get in line behind me and I contemplated moving down the street. Suddenly I felt the person behind me tap on my shoulder and move closer.

“That was quite a move you made down there,” said the short blond from the beach. I couldn’t believe that she was standing behind me, much less that she had followed me up from the beach.

“Yeah,” I said as I turned and looked at her. It was one of those moments where I knew saying just that was stupid, but I couldn’t really think what to say. I knew that I looked taken aback, even though I was going for cool and collected. I didn’t have to suffer long as she kept on with the conversation.

“It’s ok, I was a cheerleader in high school and most of the guys on the team couldn’t make a catch like that either.”

I smiled at her and she continued on.

“It’s a nice day out.”

“Yeah it is,” I said, finally seeing a way into the conversation. “Not too busy and pretty nice weather.”

She smiled at me now and stepped a bit closer, so that she was only about a foot from me, well within what would normally be considered personal space.

“So are you just here on vacation or do you live in Connecticut?”she asked.

“I’m working here this summer,” I said.