All that Matters is that They Fell- Chapter Four
Prologue: The Dirty ((Big)) Secret
Chapter One: The Road Taken
Chapter Two: The Pick Up
Chapter Three: The Hurricane
Chapter Four: The Boys and Girls
Summer equaled heat, and heat equaled sweat, and sweat equaled a teenage boy’s insatiable need to stare at attractive females in bikinis.
That was really the only reason Billie wanted to go to the pool, Mike was pretty sure. He was positive when they got there, and Billie whistled after they walked through the fence. His gaze moved around appreciatively at the few attractive girls lying on chairs and tanning around the pool.
“It was worth forking over two bucks for this.”
“Is sex all you ever think about?” Mike asked, amused, and suddenly self conscience. Maybe he could wear his t-shirt in the pool after all, he thought, pulling the orange beach towel closer to his frame.
“Yes, buddy, it is.” Billie put his hand on his shoulder. “And I can’t wait ‘til you hit puberty and we can share the wonders of it together.”
“Ha ha.” Mike laughed, not sardonically. “Let’s just go swimming.”
Mike didn’t come up with a response before Billie cannon-balled into the pool in front of them. He came up to the surface with blue lips and chattering teeth.
“Fucking. Cold.”
“You’re the moron who jumped in; I feel no sympathy.”
“You’re a heartless bastard.”
“Maybe I’ll get a heart when I go through puberty.”
“Bitch.”
Billie got out of the pool, then, and returned to Mike.
“I’m hungry.”
“We’ve been here two minutes, Billie.”
“I think I’m gonna get a hot dog. You holding my wallet?”
“Yes, here it is.”
Mike watched his friend jump over to the concession stand and even watched in practical awe as he struck up a conversation with a pretty girl who was also in line. Billie talked so animatedly, with his hands waving and big grin on his face. He looked so genuine. That’s probably why people liked talking to him.
“Where are you from?” Billie asked the girl named Maria.
“From Florida. I’m on vacation at the moment.”
“What the hell would you come here for vacation for?”
“My brother goes to college here. I’m visiting.”
“Oh. It must be crazy living that far from your brother. But I guess I understand. I’ve got siblings scattered all over the place.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yep.” Billie nodded, but then looked over his shoulder. “See that guy over there?” He pointed to Mike, who was still clutching his towel to him for the life of him and staring intently at a limb in the tree directly above him.
“Yeah.”
“He’s like my brother, he’s pretty cool. My substitute for not traveling all over the place to see my blood ones. Damn. It’s me already.” Billie stopped speaking to order his hot dog and then returned his attention to the girl once his order was placed.
“What kind of stuff you into?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you like to do to pass the time?”
“Oh. I, umm, I read, I guess.”
“Ughhhhhhh.” Billie clutched his chest like he was having a heart attack and laid his head down on the counter in front of him. Little did he know Mike about sprinted over to him to render aide.
“Ugh?” She chuckled.
“Well, reading’s all right. Every once in a while. But it can’t be your favorite thing to do. It just can’t.”
“And how do you know? You don’t even know me.”
Billie looked her up and down, raising an eyebrow and saying ‘Mmmhmmm,’ every few seconds or so until the girl was thoroughly blushing.
“Will you please stop looking at me!” She slapped him on the arm playfully. Billie went back to looking at her face.
“You have an athletic build. You like sports?”
“I like volleyball.”
Billie leaned his head in and placed a hand behind his ear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. I think you said that you liked to do something that wasn’t reading?”
“I never said that reading was all that I liked to do, but yes, it ranks quite high up in the pleasurable-for-me zone.”
“Here’s your hot dog, kid.”
“Why, thank you, kind sir.” Billie acknowledged the man with a head nod. “And you,” Billie smiled at the girl, “I’m trying to find out what else you think is pleasurable.”
Mike lost his concentration on the tree branch above him when he heard Billie exclaim, “Damn!” and then saw the girl he’d been speaking to moments before stalk off angrily. Billie was holding a hand to his cheek and Mike walked over to him, half-worried and half-entertained.
“She slapped you.”
“I wasn’t being sleazy, I swear.”
“But she slapped you.”
“I was just trying to make friendly conversation.” Billie muttered, rolling his eyes, but he was staring pretty intently at the ground and seemed anything but unfazed.
“You sure you’re okay? You’re blushing pretty profusely.”
“I’m not profuse in anything, shut up,” he snapped, but Mike just sighed.
“You wanna go swimming?”
“Yeah. I’m not a sleaze, though. I can’t believe she hit me.”
“Well.”
Mike didn’t say anything else, and led Billie to the edge of the pool. Mike delicately took the steps in, groaning as the water inched higher up his body.
“It’s summer! It’s supposed to be warm! The cold water should refresh me! Not make me feel like I’m being tortured!” After a few more yelps, he realized he wasn’t being followed.
“Billie? What the hell are you doing?”
“Eating my hot dog.” Billie was sitting on the edge of the pool, feet dunked in. Mike almost reprimanded him, you’re not supposed to eat near the pool, but was beaten to it by a megaphone wielding life guard.
“Hey, kid, get the hell away from the pool!”
“Why?” Billie stood up and yelled. Several people turned their attention to the exchange, including the girl who’d just slapped him. Billie turned a bit red, but decided not to let it ruin his time.
“No food in the pool area!”
“I bought this fucking hot dog here!”
“I can see that! But why don’t you just eat it over at the tables!”
“I’ll---eat----wherever---I---want---!” Billie took a bite in between each word and finished his hot dog with a triumphant look on his face. He looked kind of silly, Mike thought, with his lip sticking out because he’d just shoved a lot of bun in there and had yet to swallow it.
“Good. You’re finished.” The guard continued speaking in the megaphone, though it wasn’t really necessary. “Now I can go back to my post.”
“Asshole,” Bille said as the guy left, but he didn’t hear him. Billie didn’t know if he wanted the life guard to hear him or not, so it was okay. He jumped into the pool then, and when he came back up, Mike was frowning at him.
“You fucking splashed me, dude.”
“Don’t be such a pussy. Where’d you sit our shit down?”
“On a chair, don’t freak. Though, they are kind of close to the tables…”
“What the guard did was uncalled for, creating a scene.” Billie frowned and seemed to want Mike to agree with him, but Mike shook his head.
“He was just trying to enforce the rules. You created the scene.”
Billie’s eyes went back over to the girl who slapped him. “I kind of like her, I think.”
“She thinks you’re a dick.”
“Yeah, I know, but she hit me and that’s kind of ballsy.”
“I didn’t know you liked balls,” Mike joked.
“On a girl, yes, very much so.” Billie didn’t turn his attention to Mike and reached out and dunked the blonde unexpectedly.
“Jesus Christ, I wasn’t ready for that, Billie!” Mike shrieked upon breaking through the water again.
“Well, do you want me to fucking advertise it next time? Okay, Mikey, in five seconds I’m going to push you underwater!” Billie’s voice had taken on a lame TV announcer’s tone. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, the least you could do is tell me you’re going to do it, just not when, and then I’ll be forced to live in suspense.”
“I prefer spontaneity.” Billie looked at his fingernails and yawned before jumping on top of his friend and forcing him back underwater.
“Billie!” Mike whined. “Don’t do that!”
“He really is like your brother.”
Billie and Mike turned to see the girl Billie had had the incident with looming above them, standing on the pool’s edge.
“You just beat the shit out of me, and now you’re trying to have a conversation?”
“I didn’t beat the shit out of you.” She frowned. “You said something crude.”
“I didn’t realize how it sounded until it came out! I’m sorry.”
“Maybe we should start over again. I’m kind of lonely.”
“Is your brother still in school?”
“He doesn’t get out of class for a half hour.”
Mike watched the exchange between the two with wide eyes and didn’t understand what he was seeing. Hadn’t she just slapped him?
She got into the water then, sliding so gracefully Mike almost would’ve sworn she had to have been part eel or something, just to slide off the ledge and into the water like that.
“What were you two doing?” she asked.
“I was dunking Mike,” Billie explained and did it again just to demonstrate.
“That does it, Billie!” Mike yelled after bubbling up. Taking a breath and diving back into the water, he grabbed Billie by his legs and pulled him underneath, too.
When both boys reemerged, Maria was gone.
“Great, you scared her off, Mike!”
“Don’t accuse me. You were ‘crude’ to her.”
“You wanna know what I said?”
“Do I want to know what you said?”
“No, you want me to dunk you again!”
-Splash-
“You’re an asshole for doing that, you know!”
-Splash-
“Hey, you dunked me!”
“I think you deserved it, Billie.”
“Er!” Billie growled, throwing himself against Mike and forcing both boys to crash into the pool wall.
Mike dropped to his knees, and his head was floating just on the surface. “Damn,” he wheezed.
“You okay, man?” asked Billie.
“You just knocked the wind out of me is all.” Mike stood up then, and Billie went to help, wrapping his arm around Mike’s waist and pulling him. “You don’t have to,” Mike said, but Billie paid him no heed.
“Hi!”
Billie turned then to see a group of girls waving at him. The front most one, with exceptional red hair and exceptionally larger breasts spoke.
“I liked your little display back there.”
“With the life guard?” Billie asked.
She nodded, as did the other girls, who broke into giggles.
Billie nudged Mike, hoping that he’d understand the meaning of that- How hot is she!
“Well, I’m Billie, and this is Mike.”
“Hi, Mike.”
Mike didn’t say anything.
“You’re not going to say anything, dude?”
Mike whimpered.
Billie absentmindedly ran his hand along Mike’s stomach.
“You okay?”
He turned to Mike then and saw that his friend was turned on.
“Well, shit, man, go to the bathroom.”
Mike, unusually pale, and he was usually pretty pale, just nodded and slithered out of the pool, pulling himself over the edge and then hopping away to the restrooms like the ground was on fire.
“What happened to your friend?” the red head asked, and Billie shrugged.
I think he got a good look at your breasts, he thought.
“He just had to piss.”
“Oh, okay. Well as long as he’s okay.”
“Yeah.”
He’s just going through puberty.
Chapter One: The Road Taken
Chapter Two: The Pick Up
Chapter Three: The Hurricane
Chapter Four: The Boys and Girls
Summer equaled heat, and heat equaled sweat, and sweat equaled a teenage boy’s insatiable need to stare at attractive females in bikinis.
That was really the only reason Billie wanted to go to the pool, Mike was pretty sure. He was positive when they got there, and Billie whistled after they walked through the fence. His gaze moved around appreciatively at the few attractive girls lying on chairs and tanning around the pool.
“It was worth forking over two bucks for this.”
“Is sex all you ever think about?” Mike asked, amused, and suddenly self conscience. Maybe he could wear his t-shirt in the pool after all, he thought, pulling the orange beach towel closer to his frame.
“Yes, buddy, it is.” Billie put his hand on his shoulder. “And I can’t wait ‘til you hit puberty and we can share the wonders of it together.”
“Ha ha.” Mike laughed, not sardonically. “Let’s just go swimming.”
Mike didn’t come up with a response before Billie cannon-balled into the pool in front of them. He came up to the surface with blue lips and chattering teeth.
“Fucking. Cold.”
“You’re the moron who jumped in; I feel no sympathy.”
“You’re a heartless bastard.”
“Maybe I’ll get a heart when I go through puberty.”
“Bitch.”
Billie got out of the pool, then, and returned to Mike.
“I’m hungry.”
“We’ve been here two minutes, Billie.”
“I think I’m gonna get a hot dog. You holding my wallet?”
“Yes, here it is.”
Mike watched his friend jump over to the concession stand and even watched in practical awe as he struck up a conversation with a pretty girl who was also in line. Billie talked so animatedly, with his hands waving and big grin on his face. He looked so genuine. That’s probably why people liked talking to him.
“Where are you from?” Billie asked the girl named Maria.
“From Florida. I’m on vacation at the moment.”
“What the hell would you come here for vacation for?”
“My brother goes to college here. I’m visiting.”
“Oh. It must be crazy living that far from your brother. But I guess I understand. I’ve got siblings scattered all over the place.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yep.” Billie nodded, but then looked over his shoulder. “See that guy over there?” He pointed to Mike, who was still clutching his towel to him for the life of him and staring intently at a limb in the tree directly above him.
“Yeah.”
“He’s like my brother, he’s pretty cool. My substitute for not traveling all over the place to see my blood ones. Damn. It’s me already.” Billie stopped speaking to order his hot dog and then returned his attention to the girl once his order was placed.
“What kind of stuff you into?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you like to do to pass the time?”
“Oh. I, umm, I read, I guess.”
“Ughhhhhhh.” Billie clutched his chest like he was having a heart attack and laid his head down on the counter in front of him. Little did he know Mike about sprinted over to him to render aide.
“Ugh?” She chuckled.
“Well, reading’s all right. Every once in a while. But it can’t be your favorite thing to do. It just can’t.”
“And how do you know? You don’t even know me.”
Billie looked her up and down, raising an eyebrow and saying ‘Mmmhmmm,’ every few seconds or so until the girl was thoroughly blushing.
“Will you please stop looking at me!” She slapped him on the arm playfully. Billie went back to looking at her face.
“You have an athletic build. You like sports?”
“I like volleyball.”
Billie leaned his head in and placed a hand behind his ear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. I think you said that you liked to do something that wasn’t reading?”
“I never said that reading was all that I liked to do, but yes, it ranks quite high up in the pleasurable-for-me zone.”
“Here’s your hot dog, kid.”
“Why, thank you, kind sir.” Billie acknowledged the man with a head nod. “And you,” Billie smiled at the girl, “I’m trying to find out what else you think is pleasurable.”
Mike lost his concentration on the tree branch above him when he heard Billie exclaim, “Damn!” and then saw the girl he’d been speaking to moments before stalk off angrily. Billie was holding a hand to his cheek and Mike walked over to him, half-worried and half-entertained.
“She slapped you.”
“I wasn’t being sleazy, I swear.”
“But she slapped you.”
“I was just trying to make friendly conversation.” Billie muttered, rolling his eyes, but he was staring pretty intently at the ground and seemed anything but unfazed.
“You sure you’re okay? You’re blushing pretty profusely.”
“I’m not profuse in anything, shut up,” he snapped, but Mike just sighed.
“You wanna go swimming?”
“Yeah. I’m not a sleaze, though. I can’t believe she hit me.”
“Well.”
Mike didn’t say anything else, and led Billie to the edge of the pool. Mike delicately took the steps in, groaning as the water inched higher up his body.
“It’s summer! It’s supposed to be warm! The cold water should refresh me! Not make me feel like I’m being tortured!” After a few more yelps, he realized he wasn’t being followed.
“Billie? What the hell are you doing?”
“Eating my hot dog.” Billie was sitting on the edge of the pool, feet dunked in. Mike almost reprimanded him, you’re not supposed to eat near the pool, but was beaten to it by a megaphone wielding life guard.
“Hey, kid, get the hell away from the pool!”
“Why?” Billie stood up and yelled. Several people turned their attention to the exchange, including the girl who’d just slapped him. Billie turned a bit red, but decided not to let it ruin his time.
“No food in the pool area!”
“I bought this fucking hot dog here!”
“I can see that! But why don’t you just eat it over at the tables!”
“I’ll---eat----wherever---I---want---!” Billie took a bite in between each word and finished his hot dog with a triumphant look on his face. He looked kind of silly, Mike thought, with his lip sticking out because he’d just shoved a lot of bun in there and had yet to swallow it.
“Good. You’re finished.” The guard continued speaking in the megaphone, though it wasn’t really necessary. “Now I can go back to my post.”
“Asshole,” Bille said as the guy left, but he didn’t hear him. Billie didn’t know if he wanted the life guard to hear him or not, so it was okay. He jumped into the pool then, and when he came back up, Mike was frowning at him.
“You fucking splashed me, dude.”
“Don’t be such a pussy. Where’d you sit our shit down?”
“On a chair, don’t freak. Though, they are kind of close to the tables…”
“What the guard did was uncalled for, creating a scene.” Billie frowned and seemed to want Mike to agree with him, but Mike shook his head.
“He was just trying to enforce the rules. You created the scene.”
Billie’s eyes went back over to the girl who slapped him. “I kind of like her, I think.”
“She thinks you’re a dick.”
“Yeah, I know, but she hit me and that’s kind of ballsy.”
“I didn’t know you liked balls,” Mike joked.
“On a girl, yes, very much so.” Billie didn’t turn his attention to Mike and reached out and dunked the blonde unexpectedly.
“Jesus Christ, I wasn’t ready for that, Billie!” Mike shrieked upon breaking through the water again.
“Well, do you want me to fucking advertise it next time? Okay, Mikey, in five seconds I’m going to push you underwater!” Billie’s voice had taken on a lame TV announcer’s tone. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, the least you could do is tell me you’re going to do it, just not when, and then I’ll be forced to live in suspense.”
“I prefer spontaneity.” Billie looked at his fingernails and yawned before jumping on top of his friend and forcing him back underwater.
“Billie!” Mike whined. “Don’t do that!”
“He really is like your brother.”
Billie and Mike turned to see the girl Billie had had the incident with looming above them, standing on the pool’s edge.
“You just beat the shit out of me, and now you’re trying to have a conversation?”
“I didn’t beat the shit out of you.” She frowned. “You said something crude.”
“I didn’t realize how it sounded until it came out! I’m sorry.”
“Maybe we should start over again. I’m kind of lonely.”
“Is your brother still in school?”
“He doesn’t get out of class for a half hour.”
Mike watched the exchange between the two with wide eyes and didn’t understand what he was seeing. Hadn’t she just slapped him?
She got into the water then, sliding so gracefully Mike almost would’ve sworn she had to have been part eel or something, just to slide off the ledge and into the water like that.
“What were you two doing?” she asked.
“I was dunking Mike,” Billie explained and did it again just to demonstrate.
“That does it, Billie!” Mike yelled after bubbling up. Taking a breath and diving back into the water, he grabbed Billie by his legs and pulled him underneath, too.
When both boys reemerged, Maria was gone.
“Great, you scared her off, Mike!”
“Don’t accuse me. You were ‘crude’ to her.”
“You wanna know what I said?”
“Do I want to know what you said?”
“No, you want me to dunk you again!”
-Splash-
“You’re an asshole for doing that, you know!”
-Splash-
“Hey, you dunked me!”
“I think you deserved it, Billie.”
“Er!” Billie growled, throwing himself against Mike and forcing both boys to crash into the pool wall.
Mike dropped to his knees, and his head was floating just on the surface. “Damn,” he wheezed.
“You okay, man?” asked Billie.
“You just knocked the wind out of me is all.” Mike stood up then, and Billie went to help, wrapping his arm around Mike’s waist and pulling him. “You don’t have to,” Mike said, but Billie paid him no heed.
“Hi!”
Billie turned then to see a group of girls waving at him. The front most one, with exceptional red hair and exceptionally larger breasts spoke.
“I liked your little display back there.”
“With the life guard?” Billie asked.
She nodded, as did the other girls, who broke into giggles.
Billie nudged Mike, hoping that he’d understand the meaning of that- How hot is she!
“Well, I’m Billie, and this is Mike.”
“Hi, Mike.”
Mike didn’t say anything.
“You’re not going to say anything, dude?”
Mike whimpered.
Billie absentmindedly ran his hand along Mike’s stomach.
“You okay?”
He turned to Mike then and saw that his friend was turned on.
“Well, shit, man, go to the bathroom.”
Mike, unusually pale, and he was usually pretty pale, just nodded and slithered out of the pool, pulling himself over the edge and then hopping away to the restrooms like the ground was on fire.
“What happened to your friend?” the red head asked, and Billie shrugged.
I think he got a good look at your breasts, he thought.
“He just had to piss.”
“Oh, okay. Well as long as he’s okay.”
“Yeah.”
He’s just going through puberty.