Gaby Book 18 - Summery

 
“You alright?”
“I'm here,” I pointed out.
“You had us worried last night.”
“I don’t do alcohol very well, alright.”
“You were drinking it like cola,” Max advised.
“Really? I mean I wasn’t was I?”
“Well you had more than me.”
“Sugar.”
“Stop teasing her, Max,” Con suggested, “you weren’t, Gab, he’s having you on.”
“Your face, Gab,” von Strechau grinned.
“Why you!” I slapped at him, “I thought I was a right lush for a minute. So how come you’re here, who else have you got?”
“Well we all sort of planned it last night, Jorge, Marty, Moni.”
“She was out of it by then, Max,” Con noted.
“You never said anyone else was coming,” I accused my BF.
“I forgot.”

If I'd known before I'd have worn something different.

We were soon joined by a bunch of others from the graduating class, several of whom hadn’t been to P’s party. Instead of the close friends I thought I was here with it had escalated to a boisterous group of about twenty. At least I should get out of volleyball with this many of us.

I'm not really one for sunbathing but today, well maybe last night was still having some effect on me. The lads disappeared en mass taking several of the female contingent with them I'm guessing to the pool or the volleyball court. It didn’t take long to organise ourselves with music, snacks and removal of outer clothing down to assorted ‘swimwear’.

For my part it was the white bikini again, I seem to fill it out more than I remember from last year. Then of course it was the sun block ritual before everyone settled down on their towels and the goss could start properly. I faded out quick quickly, the accumulative effects of warm sunshine, a light breeze and a general feeling of Heimat having their effects.

I'm not sure how long I was asleep, maybe thirty minutes? Some squealing and laughing nearby returned me from Nod.

“You awake, Gab?” a voice I recognised as Steff enquired.
“Hmm.”
“You want a drink?”
“Got one thanks,” I hadn’t even opened an eye, I was comfortable and just wanted to savour the afternoon, “what’s the time?”
“Ten for four,” Pia called over.

Loads of time yet.

“You need more sun cream, Gabs?” Con’s voice enquired.
“Sure,” I agreed.
“I'll do you,” Steff offered.
“’Kay.”

It wasn’t a chill as such, rather a lessening of the heat on my back that told me Steff was behind me, dropping down to straddle my legs. I’d been expecting a chill from the lotion but when contact was made it was warm and smooth and hmm-mm. Her hands gently spread the cream before lightly massaging it across my shoulders and back – ooh I could get used to this.

She worked down my back, sheer bliss, before shuffling to gain access to stuff a bit lower. I squirmed a little as her attentions to my thighs tickled a little, there was a pause.

“Keep goin’,” I mumbled into my arm.

Another shuffle, more tickling but not where the sunblock was being applied, clearly I'm a bit over sensitised. Thighs, calves, ankles, I couldn’t help it at the touch to my foot.

“Steff!” I squealed snapping around whilst trying to shake my foot free.
“What?” the voice came from the wrong direction.

It took a moment for my brain to fully engage and my eyes to properly focus.

“Max!”
“’S me,” the figure knelt by my feet confirmed.
“What the heck are you doing?”
“Nothing now,” doing his best but ineffective innocent impersonation.

I shook my foot free, Max still had it in his hands, there was a peel of laughter from my ‘friends’, clearly I've been set up.

“Okay guys, you got me.”
“It was too tempting,” Nena offered.
“We thought you’d notice much sooner,” Moni added.
“You swapped after my back,” I prompted Steff.
“Not close,” she giggled.
“Legs?”
“She never started,” Con told me.
“Then who did?” the realisation came as the words formed on my lips.
“Guilty,” Max allowed with a grin.

I wasn’t quite sure who to kill first, the girls or their enthusiastic assistant.

“Why you!” I flung the first thing that came to hand in his general direction, note to self, hastily grabbed shorts don’t make the best of missiles.

“You need your front doing?” Jorge offered with a smirk.
“I'll do it myself thank you,” I snapped.
“Keep your hair on, Gab,” Pia put in.
“It wasn’t you being groped by a hairy ape.”
“Looked like you were enjoying it,” Steff observed.

Okay it wasn’t the worst thing ever, for an oaf Max has a good pair of hands and, look, I get to choose who puts their hands on me. Hmm just thinking about it has got me a bit tingly in places I'm not telling you about, that’s not the point though.

“I thought it was you.”
“I didn’t think you swung that way,” Con said with a barely straight face.
“You know what I meant,” I huffed, “and as for you Max, getting mixed up with this lot.”
“Eis?” he offered with a slight shrug.

Well what girl could possibly pass ice cream up?

“Your face though,” Max noted as we stood in the line for ice cream.
“It was mean,” I huffed.
“You aren’t telling me you didn’t enjoy it,” he pressed.
“Never said I didn’t.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem? I, I just was taken by surprise.”
“Like this?”

I found myself leaving the ground and those lips engaging directly with mine. I reflexively wrapped my legs around Max’s waist and joined the lip lock with some enthusiasm.

“Put her down!”
“Gross!”
“Get a room!”
“There are children present!”

The sun block might be protecting me from getting burnt but by the time my feet were back on terra firma I looked like strawberries and cream, my white bikini the cream to my head to toe pink blush. Where the heck did that come from?

It was heading towards six when we set off to return to our valley, warm, maybe a little more tan but certainly happy. Almost certainly this will be the last such gathering – oh I'm certain the Angels will continue doing stuff and we’ll see the others about too but we’ll all being doing different stuff, attending different schools, different new friendships. I'm sure I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit wistful, I know I wasn’t, Mart’s suggestion of hitting Maccy D’s was unanimously agreed on just to stretch the moment.

“I don’t know where you put it,” Chrissy opined.
“She has the hollow legs,” Pia supplied.
“And very nice legs they are too,” Max grinned stroking my thigh under the table.

You’d think I'd ordered a lot, I mean it was only a large Royale Menu with a Waldorf salad and Max nicked half my chips after eating his own. Well he had paid so I could hardly complain could I?

“Give over,” I half heartedly suggested although in truth I was enjoying the sensation.

Eventually though our return to the Ahrtal could be put off no longer and we trekked back around to the bahnhof and Gleis vier. The Express rolled in and we poured on board with the late commuters, the joy and playfulness of earlier replaced by melancholy. At each successive stop there was another round of hugs as we made our farewells.

“Good day?” Dad enquired when I eventually got home.
“Okay I guess, where’s Mand?”
“Out on the bike, should be back shortly, so what’s for dinner?”
Shitza, I forgot that I was cooking tonight.
“I erm, spaghetti?” I offered.
“You’ve caught the sun a bit.”
“So much for factor thirty,” I allowed, “I'll get a shower then do dinner.”
“I'll put you some water on.”
“Thanks.”

“Ow!”

The water stung as it hit my back, I really did catch the sun, I'll have to put some after sun on. Considering we’d been to the pool I'd somehow managed to avoid getting wet at all. Oh most of the others had at some point ended up in the water, but I hadn’t really been in the mood and I was comfortable on my towel so why move.

I pushed the spaghetti down into the bubbling water before turning my attention to the pan of Sauce Milanese simmering alongside.

“Spag bol?” Mand suggested glancing at my efforts a minute later.
“Nope, meat balls,” I advised sipping at my cordial.
“Tinned?”
“Get real, they had proper Swedish ones in Penny® the other week, just need to pan fry them.”
“Yum, where we eating?”
“In here I guess, good ride?”
“Er yeah, bout fifty K, got a bit lost in Neuenahr on the way back mind.”

I poured a dash of oil in the skillet before retrieving the meatballs from the freezer.

“Yeah I think I went along every road in the valley my first couple of weeks here, spent more time lost than training!”
“At least you could ask the way.”
“Not back then, I could hardly speak any German when we moved here, just a bit from Mum.”
“And now you’re like the super linguist.”
“Hardly,” I suggested pushing the meatballs into the pan, “I'm crap at English!”

The contents of the pan spat and sizzled, providing counterpoint to Mand’s strangled laughter.

Maddy Bell © 17.12.16