Shelly Part 1 The Good Girl

The sun still hovered out over the ocean when we arrived in downtown santa Barbara and parked the car. “The Palace” looked like nothing exciting from the outside, but I’d been told on the way that it was a local favorite. Megan took a seat next to mine, with Araceli on her other side. I could tell by now that Casey and Darren were definitely an item by the looks they flashed each other. It turned out that The Palace served Cajun food, which turned out to be incredibly flavorful and well worth the price we paid. I began to get more relaxed as I sat there, listening to the others talk about the things they had seen and the people in their lives.

“Alright,” Megan said, standing up. “On to the next adventure.” It was becoming clear to me that she was the leader of our little group.

We walked for a few blocks together, and stopped at an alleyway. “Hang on,” Megan said. She dialed her cell phone and walked a short distance away. After a very brief conversation she returned. “Okay. Jason’s propped open the door for me. Just come one at a time and don’t let anyone see you as you go in.” She hurried down the alley and disappeared behind a corner.

She was really going through with it. This was my chance to bow out if I wanted to. “You better go second,” Rachel said, giving me a push. I found myself walking on in spite of my doubts, reluctant to break from the group now that I seemed to have achieved some small amount of acceptance. When I reached the back door of the club, I saw that someone had put a wooden block there to stop the door from closing. I pulled it open and stepped into a dimly lit world, full of blaring music and the caustic scent of alcohol. Megan met me a few steps inside and guided me through the dark hallway, past the bathrooms and on into the main room. We sat at a table where we could see the raised dance floor.

The others streamed in one by one, every few minutes. I desperately hoped that no one had noticed that we had all seemingly returned from the bathrooms at about the same time and that none of us had been present in the room before. Megan leaned close to me. “Have you ever had alcohol?” she asked, her voice barely audible over the music.

I shook my head no.

“Try a margarita,” she suggested.

A waitress soon came to take our orders. I was certain she would call us on our ages, but she simply wrote down each drink and went on to the next table. When she came back with our order, I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet, fruity flavor of my drink. I could taste the alcohol, but it didn’t make me want to gag like each time I had tried drinks in the past. On seeing the others ordering another round, I did the same and sipped it more slowly. By the time I had finished my second drink, I had began to feel pleasantly dizzy and was fanning myself with a scrap of paper to fend off the heat in my face and neck.

The song that was playing was coming to an end. “Let’s go up on the dance floor,” Megan suggested, taking hold of Araceli’s hand and pulling her to her feet. The Hispanic girl gave her a wide grin. Suddenly, I made the connection in my head. They were more than just friends.

“I think we’ll sit this one out,” Darren said, putting his arm around Casey’s shoulders.

“Me too,” I put in quickly.

Megan looked at me and nodded her head. “Okay.” Rachel and Laura locked arms on either side of the other two girls and they all went up together. Before the girls were halfway there, Casey and Darren stood up and slipped away. I set my elbow on the table and let my head rest in my palm to watch.

The song, Fatboy Slim’s “Rockefeller Skank” began to play. As the beat kicked in, driving the repeating, sampled lyrics, Megan and Araceli began to dance, keeping time with the sinuous rhythm. Laura and Rachel danced nearby but separately, and soon Rachel had attracted a male partner. Giving her a seductive look, Araceli turned and backed up against Megan. The taller girl put her hands on her waist and moved with her, grinding the front of her body against her as they danced. Without turning, Araceli reached back and ran her fingers up and down along the outside of Megan’s thighs.

As I watched them, the feeling that began to stir in me was envy. I wanted what they had: companionship, passion, and the confidence to go out in public, and damn the consequences. Sitting there, sipping my drink alone, I knew that I could never be like them. The world expected me to live a certain way. I didn’t have the courage to do otherwise.

They stayed on the floor through two more songs before they came running back to the table, Rachel’s new companion in tow. “God, that was great,” Araceli said breathlessly, her accent more pronounced than before. She grabbed hold of Megan and gave her a kiss. It quickly changed from an excited peck to something much slower and more passionate.

Rachel cleared her throat. “Come on, guys. I paid too much for that dinner to puke it back up again.”

Megan broke away and threw an arm around her neck. “Aw, does my little Rachie want some too?” she asked, pursing her lips.

“Lay off me, succubus,” Rachel protested, putting the flat of her hand against her cheek to push her away. “Oh great!” she said, noticing that her new man had turned tail, seeking out calmer waters. “Hey, uh, guy,. I’m not with them!” she called.

“Shameless!” Laura scolded her.

“But fun,” Megan said, raising her finger in the air for emphasis before throwing back the last of her beer. She suddenly looked intently at me. “You, my dear, are not having enough fun.”

“I’m fine,” I shrugged.

“She just needs a few more drinks in her,” Araceli said, patting my arm. “Order another.”

I shook my head. “I better not.”

“Where’s Case and Darren?” Megan asked, looking around.

“They went back there somewhere,” I said, gesturing.

“Fuck, I hope she doesn’t try to do him in the lady’s room again,” Megan said, covering her face with one hand. She looked at me through her fingers. “Darren’s a virgin, in case you didn’t notice. She’s been trying to get him to do it since a week after they hooked up. She calls him her ‘project’.”

I laughed.

“There, she does know how to smile,” Megan said, pointing. She turned to Araceli. “You owe me ten bucks.”

“I do not,” Araceli shot back. “Don’t listen to her, Shelly. She gives everyone a hard time.”

“Oh, let me tell her what I give you.” She turned to me and cupped her hand around her mouth to whisper loudly. “I’ll give you a hint. It starts with an ‘O’ and ends with a ‘gasm’.”

“Shut up, you perv,” Araceli snapped, her face turning red. She took a sip of her drink. “You see what I have to put up with?”

“It must be hell,” I said wryly.

It was at that moment that Darren stumbled back to the table. “Hey guys.”

Casey followed about a minute later, sitting down next to him as if nothing had happened. Megan peered at her closely. “Is that a hickey on your neck?” she asked.

“Nope,” Casey sighed. She crossed her arms on the table and dropped her head onto them.

“Didn’t let it go very far, did you, stud?” Megan said, poking his shoulder. “Okay, that’s all but one. How’s Rachel doing?” She pointed back over her shoulder with her thumb.

I looked. The guy she was flirting with was not the same one from a few minutes earlier. “Oh, he is so wrong for her,” Laura said, shaking her head.

“Cool!” Megan said, standing. “We’re all going to the beach. You’ll want to watch this, kiddies.” She walked up behind Rachel and peered at her, “That’s amazing, Ken. I don’t think that guy even realizes you’re in drag.”

The guy put up his hands. “Whoa, I’m not into that,” he said. He threw down a bill for the bartender and walked away.

“You are the biggest bitch I know,” Rachel accused, spinning around on the bar stool to face Megan.

“I know, I know. If you didn’t love me so much, you’d kick my ass.”

“I think I’ll just kill you,” she said, putting up her fists.

“Save it, honey. We’re going swimming. You can try to drown me if you want.” She started for the back door, with everyone trailing. It was dark when we stepped outside, but even though it must have been well on the way to midnight and late October, the air was still pleasantly warm.

We were halfway to the street before I caught up to Megan. “Hey, I didn’t bring anything to swim in.”

“Perfect.” She smiled. “I brought enough towels for everyone.”

“You mean—“

“Told you it was going to be a fun evening.”

Well, no one had caught us at the bar, and it seemed like Megan knew what she was doing, but getting naked in front of a bunch of almost-strangers was just not something I was used to doing. “You know, you guys go ahead. I’ll just wait in the car.”

I expected Megan to pressure me into going, but she surprised me. “Hey, no problem.” After a few seconds, she added. “If you want, though, you can just sit on the beach and stare at our naked butts. That’s what Darren is going to do.”

Darren put his hands in his pockets. “No, I’m not.”

“Yay!” Casey said, clasping her hands together girlishly.

We got back to Araceli’s car and drove down to the beach. A road ran from a pier along the edge of the sand and past a slender park. Araceli drove some way onwards, parking the car along a stretch of beach that was very dark and lower than the road, so that people on the beach could not be seen by passing cars. Megan distributed towels to everyone and they walked down a slope to the sand. Megan and the other girls spread out their towels and began to strip at once.

Casey got down to her underwear and noticed that Darren was standing there, staring at her. “Come on, you prude,” she growled, stalking up to him. I had to laugh, seeing a scrawny girl less than five feet tall in panties and a bra put her hands on her hips and look up at a guy who weighed at least twice what she did. “You said you would.”

“I’ll come in just a minute,” he said.

While they argued, the other girls continued to undress. Megan caught my eye and gave me a little smile. She reached behind her back and unclasped her bra, sighing and rolling her shoulders. She slipped it over her shoulders one at a time, keeping her eyes on me the whole time. Slowly, she let the lacy white fabric slide away, baring her breasts for me. I began to feel the heat rise again in my cheeks and I knew that this time it wasn’t the alcohol. I turned to look at the water instead and the moonlight glittering off the tops of the waves, like stars twinkling in a second sky.

“Take those off too,” Casey said.

I turned to see Darren standing in nothing but a pair of black boxers. He had his arms crossed in front of his waist and was staring at Casey, to be precise, at Casey’s chest. She had doffed her bra.

“Come on!” Megan called. She was running down toward the water, hand in hand with Araceli. Both were totally nude.

“Let’s go,” Rachel said, and she and Laura began to walk down to the water.

“Alright, fine!” Casey shouted, stepping closer to Darren. “Then you have to take mine off!”

Darren saw himself suddenly thrust between the proverbial rock and hard place. “Uh,” he said.

Without warning, Casey grabbed the band of his underwear and pulled it down, causing Darren’s erection to spring loose. Before he could react, she drove her shoulder into him, pushing him over onto his back, and came up holding his boxers. She turned and ran for the ocean, holding the purloined underwear aloft and screaming. Darren did not disappoint, and gave chase at once.