At the lake

I hear a voice.

“Nia wake up!” Correction, I hear an excited voice.

“Come on Nia!“The voice I hear is Katy who can hardly contain herself. If I remember my days right this should be Saturday. There should be no school today and my body doesn’t want to get up.

“Katy” I say in a low groggy voice. “I don’t want to get up.”

“But today is the day we’re going to the lake!” She says with barely contained excitement, “Everybody is ready! Come on!”

I open my eyes and see Katy dressed in a one piece swimsuit. I drag myself out of bed. Katy has already taken the liberty of getting my one piece swimsuit out for me. I change into my bathing suit and put on jean shorts and a T-shirt over it. Nia’s body is a serious distraction and I’m wondering how many minor accident’s it is responsible for.

I’ve never been to a lake before and once the idea sets in I’m actually looking forward to it. I grab a glass of orange juice and we head out for the day. I don’t know why I didn’t notice this before but there are no automobiles. There are streets here that an automobile can drive on, but there are no cars anywhere. Nia’s family each has a bicycle. I’ve ridden a bicycle before but it’s been a long time. I suppose though if you’ve done it once you should be able to do it again. I get on Nia’s bike and follow the rest of the family to the lake.

Once we get to the edge of our village, the street ends but a path continues out into the country. After riding for what seems like forever we finally reach the lake. Behind Nia’s father’s bike there is attached something like a wagon that he pulls behind his bicycle. In this wagon there is a blanket, a basket with food and some assorted items for swimming. When we get to the lake there are already a lot of people here. It’s like the whole village came out to the lake together as some kind of planned event. I wonder if there will be any games and prizes. Nia’s parents find a nice spot on the grass (there’s a huge grassy area here) and lay out our blanket. Katy runs down to the lake to cool off in the water. I look around to see if there is someone Nia is familiar with.

“Hey pretty girl.” I hear a familiar voice coming from behind me and I instantly know it’s Bobby. I turn around. He’s wearing swim trunks and is shirtless. I notice the tone and definition of his muscles and I have to admit I’m jealous. If I looked like that I’m pretty sure I’d have girls lining up outside my door and down the street.

“Hi Bobby, isn’t this great. It’s such a beautiful day.” I comment.

“I saved a dance for you last night but when I looked around I couldn’t find you.” He says.

“I’m sorry about that. Lidia had a breakdown and I took her home. Maybe next time.” I offer.

“It doesn’t look like she’s too upset to me. I saw her earlier and she was glowing.” Bobby explains. This doesn’t sound good.

“Really? Last night she was heartbroken.” I say.

“Well, she’s not heartbroken now. It looks like she’s rebounded.” Bobby continues.

“Do you know who with?” I ask excitedly.

“Well, I haven’t seen her with anyone. So I don’t know.” He says.

“Thanks a lot, now I’m going to wonder who it is.” I say playfully.

“You’re her best friend, just go on and ask her.” He says impatiently.

“Yeah, I think I will do just that.” I say and I leave Bobby standing there to go find Lidia. As I’m walking it really does seem like the whole village is here and everyone looks like they are having a blast. I notice several kids from Nia’s school and when I spot Lidia, Bobby was not wrong about her glowing. She looks like she is infatuated with someone and I am thinking it is probably with Nia. I walk up to her.

“Hi there.” I say warmly.

“Hi” she says with a smile on her face. She gives me all of her attention and it makes me feel like I’m the only person alive in the whole universe. I start to feel self-conscious for the first time since I sat in the front of the class that first day.

“You look really good.” I tell her.

“I feel really good” she responds giggling.

“Want to take a walk” I ask.

“Sure” She says and with that we both start walking away from prying ears.

“Do you want to talk about last night?” I ask her.

“Do you want to talk about last night?” She mirror’s back.

“Yeah, I do. You’re my best friend and I don’t want anything to ruin that.” I answer. I really want to let Lidia down gently.

“I don’t want anything to ruin that either.” She says back, “but I liked kissing you. I feel safe with you and I know you would never hurt me.”

“Lovers always get hurt.” I say back in a tender voice, “and I couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt.” I can tell this is going to be really hard.

“Lovers don’t have to get hurt, maybe we can be different.” She pleads.

“We would have to keep it a secret, do you really want to be my secret lover?” I ask.

“Yes, oh yes I do!” she confesses,” I want to be your secret lover.” Lidia looks like a weight has been lifted off of her shoulders with this confession. I am trying to let her down gently but it’s not working out so great.

“What about boys?” I ask, “You were just all broken up over one.”

I still like boys,” She says, “I just like you more.” This is not going well at all and I’m silent trying to think of how to respond. After several minutes pass Lidia speaks again.

“Nia, are you okay?” She asks.

“It’s just a lot to take in.” I say, “You’re my best friend and I would do anything for you ....” After a long pause I continue, “Even be your secret lover.” I just can’t do it can I? I’ve always been horrible at making tough decisions and I hate hurting people’s feelings. Now I’ve gotten Nia into a relationship with her best friend. There’s no question I’m going to enjoy it, but when Nia gets back into her own body she sure is going to be in for a shock.

I can’t help but wonder where Nia is right now and what she is doing. Will she just wake up X number of days from now like it was a moment after she went to sleep 4 days ago?

Lidia’s face lights up when she hears the news.

“Are you sure about this Nia? I don’t want you to feel pressured into doing something you don’t want to do.”

“I’m not, I promise.” I answer, “You know me better than anybody and I know you and I enjoyed kissing you as much as you enjoyed kissing me.” When she hears this her face literally beams. I’ve just made her the happiest girl on the planet. Good job me.

“I wish we could hold hands.” She says as we walk back to the lake and the crowd.

“I know, I want to hold your hand too” I respond. I wanted to hold her hand so bad. I can see there’s no way this ends well for Nia but there’s nothing else to do now but ride it out until it crashes and burns.

When we get back to everybody, several children are playing in the lake. In the huge grassy area people are playing games. I see Frisbee’s and sack races and several people are sitting on blankets watching everybody else. Everyone is having a great time. I get back to Nia’s parent’s blanket and take off my shorts and t-shirt and Lidia goes off to talk to some other girls. The sun is out and it feels really good on my skin. Nia’s mother takes out some skin protectant and insists that Nia apply it to her exposed skin. I guess there is no skin cancer in Nia’s future along with no nice tan either.I go down to the lake and dip my foot in the water. It feels a little cold but I figure it won’t take long to get used to it.

“Did you get roped into babysitting?” a voice says from behind me. The voice belongs to a girl from Nia’s class that I haven’t really spoken to before. I look around and notice that all the kids in the lake are smaller children. The older children Nia’s age are all hanging out in groups.

“Yeah” I replied. I had that deer in the headlights look because I didn’t want to ruin Nia’s reputation and I didn’t know what else to say.

“Well, have fun” She said and walked toward one of the groups of older kids. I feel a splash and when I turn around I see Katy laughing. I get a big smile on my face and I splash her back gently. She laughs some more and the splash fight is on. After a while I notice that I’m use to the water and it feels pretty good. Katy is having a great time and I feel good that Nia is keeping her promise by playing with her. I lose track of the time.

After some time passes somebody blows a whistle and everybody stops what they are doing. All the children in the lake get out and go to their parents. All the older children stop talking to each other and do the same. All the parents that were visiting with each other return to their blankets. Katy and I go to Nia’s parents.

When I get to Nia’s parents blanket. Nia’s mother gets out some sandwiches and chips. In a bottle she has some cool lemonade. I get the idea very quickly that it’s time for lunch and I guess everybody eats lunch at the same time. It’s kind of creepy. It’s like one of those tv shows where everybody in a town is perfect but they are all hiding some dark terrible secret.

Once I started eating lunch however, I forget all about my conspiracy theories because my sandwich is really good. It is some kind of tuna salad type of thing. It goes very well with the patato chips and lemonade and when I finish eating I feel very satisfied.

After lunch I decide to lay on our blanket and soak up some rays. I already know I’m not going to get any benefit from it but the sun feels good on my skin.

“So did you find out who Lidia’s new crush is?” a voice says. Bobby has come back around.

“No” I answer.

“You’re such a liar” Bobby says playfully.

“I am not” I shoot back in an irritated voice.

“I saw the two of you walk off together. I know she told you who it was.” Bobby says.

“Well if she did I’m not telling you.” I shoot back.

“Why not?” He asks.

“Why do you want to know?” I counter. Then I thought that maybe Bobby wanted to get with Lidia. Since Nia turned him down he wants to get with her best friend for revenge. I was pretty sure that Bobby really had it bad for Nia.

“I just want to know” Bobby explains.

“You like her!” I say with the kind of face someone makes when they’ve put two and two together. It felt really good to mess with Bobby like this.

“No I don’t” Bobby protests.

“Yes you do! Why else would you want to know who she has a crush on” I reason.

“Your crazy!” He says and walks away. I could tell that Bobby was going to try and put the move on Lidia. I couldn’t wait to see how that turned out.

I played with Katy some more and after that I gossip with some girls from school. At dusk we see the fireflies come out and when the sun goes down there is this huge camp fire where people roast marshmellows and eat smores. They also sing campfire songs which I have never heard before.

That night Katy asks me to tuck her into bed.

“I had so much fun today.” She says, “The best part was playing with you.” Her face beams and for once I don’t feel like a complete jerk.

“I had fun today too and you know what?” I ask.

“What?” She answers back.

“The best part of the day was playing with you too.” I finished. Katy smiles.

Katy falls asleep fast and once I say goodnight to Nia’s mom and dad, I drift off to sleep as well.