Shelly Part 1 The Good Girl

Watching them zigzag along the edge of the water, the girls egging her on, I laughed so long and hard that tears came to my eyes. Darren was just steps behind Casey when she screamed again and threw his boxers up into the air.

Darren stopped his pursuit and backtracked to his fallen underwear, much to the disappointment of all of the girls in the water, who kept urging him to “go get her.” He ignored them and paused to put one foot and then the other through the legs of his boxers and pull them up. He started walking back up along the beach toward me, Casey jogging to catch up with him.

I looked out at the girls in the water again to see them huddled together. They waited until Darren’s line brought him closest to them, then surged up out of the water, running straight for him. He didn’t realize what was going on until they all started to scream, but by then it was too late. They closed around him, a mob of wet, naked bodies, and dragged him to the ground. It was hard to tell what was happening for a moment, but then Megan came up from the pile with his boxers, yelling, “Woo hoo!” at the top of her lungs. She ran for the water with the other girls close behind and this time, Darren did not try to chase after them. He lay on the ground staring up at the sky, a man suffering from a mortal wound to his pride. 

Casey stepped out of her panties as she drew near and came to stand over him, her feet planted to either side of his torso. “Hello, cutie,” she said. She sat down suddenly on his chest, pinning his arms to the ground with her knees. “You’re all mine now.”

I looked out at the ocean, where the four girls were cavorting in the water. “Now you die!” Rachel screamed, grabbing Megan beneath the arms from behind and dragging her under.

I wanted to be out there with them. I was tired of being the good girl who never broke the rules. I wanted to be accepted. More than that, I wanted Megan to notice me, to like what she saw. I stood up and began to undo the buttons of my dress. My heart was racing with both fear and exhilaration. I kicked off my shoes and wriggled out of my dress. There was a bit of a chill, I realized, probably because the water was colder than the air. I paused in the act of taking off my bra, my self-confidence starting to buckle.

“Yeah!” Megan shouted to me. She had just surfaced from her dunking and pushed dripping hair back from her eyes. “Come on, Shelly! You can do it!”

I couldn’t disappoint her. I took off my bra and dropped it onto my towel, getting whistles and cheers from the girls in the water. Even Casey, bent over Darren in the act of kissing him, looked up and gave me an encouraging wave. My panties were next. I couldn’t believe that I was actually doing this. It was almost as if some other girl was there at the beach, a girl with the courage and strength of will to live her own life, to make her own decisions, whether they were good ones or not.

I hurried down to the water, unable to help a bit of self-consciousness, feeling skinny and plain next to the other girls.

I cried out as my feet touched the chilly water, but it was too late to stop now. I pressed on, wading through a shallow wave that lapped toward shore. I suffered another shock as the water closed around the lower part of my torso. This time I did stop, and stood with my arms crossed, covering my breasts. The other four girls were waiting a bit further out, where they could stand upright with the water to their shoulders.

Megan approached, rising out of the water with each stop. The water ran down her front and glistened along the curves of her breasts. When she reached me, she put her hand on my shoulder. “It’s not as cold as it seems,” she said. “Notice how your legs don’t really feel cold anymore?”

I nodded.

“Good,” she said. She encircled me with her arms and began to pull me further out. I uncrossed my arms, needing them now for balance. I gasped as a wave brought the water higher on me, but it become tolerable after only a moment. A few more steps, and the water was lapping at the base of my chest. Suddenly, Megan’s hand, concealed beneath the water, slipped down from the small of my back to cup my bare bottom.

I didn’t say anything or otherwise react, mainly out of shock, I suppose. She slid the other hand down after a moment and lightly caressed my skin with her fingers. “There, now that’s not so bad,” she said. She squeezed me closer, bringing my chest up against hers. For just a moment, I felt the stiffened flesh of her nipples pressing against me. She broke apart the strange embrace and swam over to Araceli, making me wonder if I was making more of it than I should.

“Guys! Guys!” Laura hissed. “She’s about to do it!”

I turned to look at the beach, where Casey was locked with Darren in the same embrace she had seen them in earlier, only now she was slowly edging herself down along his body. My breath caught in my throat. I had never seen people having sex before. My mother’s sheltering had allowed no room for that. But just as she was getting into position, Darren suddenly sat up, causing Casey to fall back on her bottom in the sand.

Megan sighed. “That boy protects his virginity better than a bear protects her cubs. Girls, I’m afraid that our dear Casey may be doomed to a life of celibacy. Hmm, sand in the crotch, too. Ouch, that really sucks.” Sure enough, Casey was staggering bow-legged back to her towel. Darren looked at them out in the water, shrugged, then lay back down.

“Hey, watch it!” Rachel suddenly yelled, spinning around. She squared her shoulders. “Megan, you have grabbed my ass for the last time. Now it’s payback time.” She raised her fist. “Pow! Right in the kisser.”

“Oh, but I need that,” Araceli protested. She went to Megan and proceeded to demonstrate exactly what she meant. The kiss went on for several minutes, like before changing in mood from light and playful to deeply passionate. The tops of their arms moved suggestively, and the rest of us could only imagine what was going on below the waterline. Laura and Rachel moved off a bit, but I watched, fascinated by a fantasy I had never really even allowed myself to think through this far. Suddenly, Araceli arched her back, her eyes closed, and then buried her face in Megan’s neck. She gave a long, shuddering exhale.

Megan slowly opened her eyes and looked right at me. There was an intensity in her gaze that made me wonder if I had upset her. I felt a knot of worry in my stomach as I turned away and went to see what Rachel and Laura were talking about as they squatted in shallower water. The next time I turned to look, Megan and Araceli were making there way arm in arm up onto the beach.

“There they go,” Rachel observed. She shook her head. “Sometimes Megan goes a little too far, you know. I can’t believe she fingered her girlfriend to orgasm right there next to us.”

So that was what I had seen. I had somehow gotten it into my head that women always cried out loud when they climaxed. Romance novels, I decided. That’s how it always happened in romance novels. They were my only guide to sex other than Cosmo magazines.

“Oh, don’t be such a boob,” Laura said. “If you were going to begin criticizing Megan, you should have started a long time ago.”

“Actually, I never stopped.”

“I think she’s nice,” I said, moving in to join the conversation.

“Oh, I like her, too. Don’t get me wrong. But, for example…” Rachel stopped and looked at me. “Now, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Shelly, but are you a lesbian?”

“No! No,” I blurted out, then laughed.

“Alright, then maybe you didn’t notice, though I can’t see how you couldn’t have. Megan was flirting with you tonight.”

I looked at her, wondering when she was going to tell me she was joking. “You’re not serious?” I said. “She had Araceli there the whole time.”

“It’s how Megan is. Araceli just doesn’t want to see it. I saw Megan go through four girlfriends last year, all but one of them desperately in love with her right up until the moment she gave them the boot. The other one figured out her game and broke up with her after a month. Megan picked up Araceli less than a week after the year started. She loves hard and fast, but never too deeply. My advice to you is to try not to encourage her. You’ve seen the way she flirts with me. It’s just a bit more than play. She’s convinced that I’m bi.”

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to believe ill of Megan. She definitely had a playful streak, but she seemed so committed to Araceli. I caught myself up short at that. In just a few hours, I had gotten used to the idea of having a lesbian friend and had accepted her lifestyle. My mother would be furious if she knew.

“I’ve had enough,” Laura said. “Let’s go dry off.”

As we walked back, I found myself peeking at the other two girls’ bodies, noticing imperfections that I hadn’t seen before. Why did I feel so much shame about my own body? I quite deliberately uncrossed my arms from my chest and stood straighter, as if daring criticism.

We found Casey sitting on a towel, fully dressed once more. “Where’s Darren?” Laura asked.

She looked back toward the street. “He’s probably hiding in the car. He got his boxers and then came up to tell me he was sorry. I told him it was okay and tried to give him a blow job. Big mistake.”

“How’s your other problem?”

Casey affected a wince. “Sand and vaginas do not get along. I’ll need to take a shower when we get back, but I’ll be alright.”

“Did you see Megan and Ara?”

“They got their towels and went down the beach together. They’ll be back in a little while, I expect.”

She let us pile our clothes onto her towel so that we could dry off with our own. A bit of sand did somehow get into my underwear despite my best precautions, and into my shoes, of course, but I decided that it was a small price to pay for one of the most liberating moments of my life.

We waited for close to half an hour before the pair of them came walking, holding hands, naked except for their towels hanging over their shoulders. I could tell that the others hadn’t noticed them yet. When I looked back, I saw them come to a stop and press slowly together for a kiss. Emotion swelled in my chest, bringing tears to my eyes at the beauty of it, two people so happily in love, overcome by the need to stop and share each other’s touch one last time.

I wanted that so badly. I ached with the longing for it.