It Was The Sickness Talking! I Swear!

I haven't worked at all this week, I've been pretty sick and now I'm scheduled off for a couple days. I'm feeling better and I want to take Sara out tonight to thank her for 'nursing' me back to health but she told me she couldn't go. I asked her why but she wouldn't tell me! All she said was that she had plans with Billy that she couldn't change.

"Then why don't I join you guys?" I was desperate to get out, I didn't care what they were doing, I just wanted out of my parents house!

"You can't!" Sara stared at me like I just insisted that the world was about to end.

"Why not?" I asked, "Billy won't mind."

"I mind!" She blurted out and then covered her mouth as if that would change what she said.

I won't get into the details but Sara and I had our first fight. She insisted that she loved spending time with me but she did not want me to go with them tonight. I thought that was crazy and I told her so. She didn't like that.

"I'm NOT crazy Tanner!" She yelled at me. "Just because I want to spend some time with Billy over you doesn't mean anything!"

"Well that's GREAT!" I yelled back. Ok, it may not have made any sense and it didn't get me an invitation to whatever top secret event she didn't want me at but I didn't understand why she just couldn't say, 'Tanner I'm doing....' whatever it is with Billy and tell my why she didn't want me to be there. Why be all secretive about where she's going?

FUCK! If I didn't know Billy was gay it would be a BIG fucking deal!

Sara stomped out of here last night. She didn't give me a hug like she had all week and she didn't even tell me if she would come over this morning after work. I tried to call her at lunchtime (3 am) but she didn't answer her phone. I sent her a couple text messages but she hasn't replied.

I think I fucked up!

Too Tired To Write

I have been sick for the last couple days! How stupid is that? It's the summer and I'm feeling so crappy that I can't even stand to be out of bed for too long.

Although, Sara is coming back over around noon today. She has been here every day since I've gotten sick so maybe being sick isn't a bad thing. At least it's not when you have someone as hot as Sara taking care of you.

Something To Sink Your Teeth In

Sara was over at my place, she was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. I was already in bed, waiting for her.

It seemed to be taking forever! I couldn't understand why it would possibly take her ten minutes or so to take off her jeans and bra, brush her teeth and get her cute little ass in here so I could settle down next to her for another night of restless sleep. I don't think I've had a full night's sleep in weeks!

I tried to appear busy when I heard the bathroom door open; I didn't want her to think I was waiting on her, even if I was. I took it upon myself to arrange the bedsheets as she entered my room and closed the door.

"Tanner?" She said my name so shyly, I wasn't sure what she would say when I looked up at her. The second my eyes slide over her, my jaw dropped to the mattress. I was rendered speechless by the sight of her standing in the light of the lamp on my nightstand. She looked so pretty, so innocent yet really, really naughty. "Tanner please say something!"

When she turned to go back out the door, I jumped out of bed in a flash and grabbed her arm. "Don't go," I turned her towards me. "I...I..." Fuck! I couldn't think of anything to say to tell her exactly what I was thinking as I slipped my hand down her arm, all I could manage was a hornball chuckle.

She was nervously biting her bottom lip while I was trying not to pin her up against the door in that little black number that she had changed into. "Is this..." my hand brushed against her bare side all the way down to her hips. "...for me?"

"It's for both of us," she smiled; she was amazing when she smiled.

Chuckling softly, I lowered my head, touching my lips to her shoulder. "I thought you weren't going to touch me anymore?"

"I'm not," she told me.

My head snapped up. "What?" I tried not to seem to crushed as I gazed into her eyes. "Please tell me this isn't just a tease," I begged her.

She just smiled at me and slipped out of my arms.

"Where are you going?" My eyes followed her until I was forced to turn my body around to see her. She had stopped by the side of my bed, holding the corner of the blankets in her hand, she glanced over her shoulder at me and then turned to the bed. I watched her as she slipped under my blankets.

Next thing I know, I'm flying across my room to join her!

There was a space between us, a space I didn't want there. I went to pull her closer but her hand on my chest stopped me. "Sara what's wrong?" I searched her eyes for some sign of what was going on in her mind but she closed them. "Why won't you touch me?" I asked her. "Why would you change into this..." I lifted my hand to her shoulder, I wanted to touch her but damn it! I promised her I wouldn't push her. "...if you didn't want me to tou -" I stopped short and her eyes flew opened. "I can touch you?"

A sexy smile spread across her face. "Yes," she said simply.

OH HOLY FUCK!!! I swear my mouth went dry when she said 'yes'. "I can touch you?" I repeated, I was shocked!

She nodded, glanced down and then looked back up at me. "Yes Tanner, you can touch me."

I kid you not when I say I stared at her for a while, my eyes skimming her soft curves hidden beneath the tight material stretched over her body. I still didn't believe this was happening.

"Tanner?"

"Mmhmm?" I met her eyes.

She laughed and reached for my hand. "I meant with your hands!" Turning a little away from me, she placed my hand against her shoulder. "You want too, don't you?"

My eyes widened as I nodded. "Oh hell yeah!"

I was shaking so badly as I felt her warm skin beneath my fingers. I've never been so nervous in my life!

I'm not sure what happened next. I had flashes of tracing the neckline of her outfit with my fingers and then a few minutes later, with my mouth. I had flashes of kissing her, of touching her through her outfit. I felt her heat and heard her groans.

But the part I remember the most is what happened when I moved above her. I was still wearing my underwear and t-shirt; she had only the thong panties from her lingerie on. I was so fucking horny, I wanted to strip right there and plunge into her body.

I had moved above her with all intentions of taking it to the next level and she didn't seem like she was going to stop me. I kissed her, her hands were trying to remove my shirt and I felt her foot rubbing my leg. She was making those little noises that told me she wanted me.

I moved back from her, despite her groan in frustration. I was kneeling between her legs as she watched me through half closed eyes. "Shirt," I muttered and she shot up in bed; her hands all over my torso as I lifted my shirt up and off.

Once I tossed my shirt away, she wrapped her arms around me, her lips on my skin. "Sara honey," I groaned but reached for her hands to push her away and back down to the mattress.

I was kissing her, my hands were holding hers above her head, she was kissing and sucking on any skin that happened to be close enough to her mouth; it was driving me further and further to the edge, I didn't know if I could take much more. "Sara...I..."

She seemed to know what I was thinking, she paused for a fraction of a second and then her back arched, she pressed up against my hard cock and started to move in rhythm with me. I couldn't believe we were actually stimulating fucking when we were so close to being naked!

But who the fuck cared? I was way pass stopping her, I was seconds away from blowing my load in my underwear.

She bit my shoulder.

And that was the end of me!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I jumped! Rolling over, I cursed as I fumbled for the button to turn off my clock.

I laid there for a moment before turning back to wake Sara up. "Sara -" I stopped in mid reach for her. She wasn't there!

I went to jump out of bed. "What the fuck?" I exclaimed as I stared down at my t-shirt and sweat pants. I WAS WEARING THEM!

I didn't remember getting up to pull on clothes.

Suddenly I remembered, it was Thursday night, Sara didn't come over that morning because she had a doctor's appointment.

I was alone and I was DREAMING!

And my sweat pants were sticking to my crotch.

FUCK!

Bringing You To The Present

I manged to fall asleep, it was fucking hard - I'm not even going to make a smart ass remark about that one - but I managed. My dreams were nothing short of pornographic with Sara as my leading lady. Can I say? If she's half as hot in real life as she was in my dreams that night? Then you will all be reading the blog of one very satisfied guy!

With that being said, it's no wonder I woke up ready to make a mess all over Sara's backside. For a very brief moment, I debated cumming right there, with her sleeping in front of me! But I don't think she would've been too impressed to wake up and find her ass sticky! Maybe it's just me but I think she would kill me.

Instead of shooting my load over her pantie clad ass, I went into the bathroom, stripped down and stepped into the shower. I was already so turned on, I knew it wouldn't take much to 'finish' me off.

Just because I wasn't horny enough - yeah! Right! I decided to get in the shower and do my thing.

There were a million other ways I would've preferred to get some release that morning, other than manually but there I was standing in the bathtub under the spray of the shower with my hard cock in my hand.

Now I'm no porn star or anything, I'm a pretty average guy, I won't even pretend that I'm not. Who really wants a porn star in their bed anyway? Seriously, most guys in the porn that I've watched haven't been anyone I would aspire to be. Maybe I just need to stop watching the really cheap porn!

I got off...topic! HA! I'm such a loser! If you could see me now, you'd see me shaking my head at myself for how lame that was just now but that's not the point of this.

I close my eyes, take a breath and now I'm in my 'zone'. Yes, I have a 'zone', it's a happy place where everything is geared to turn me on and it ends when the tension is gone or at least satisfied for a moment or two. My eyes are closed, my hand is stroking my cock and my mind is daydreaming, fantasising about her. The one sleeping in my bed at that moment, the one who drives me crazy, Sara.

That morning's fantasy wasn't spectacular by no means, it was pretty basic in fact. She was on her knees in front of me, her hands were mine as they stroked me. I didn't need much, I was close enough from sleeping next to her and the porn-type dreams that I had the whole night. I don't even think I lasted five minutes. All I remember is when I finally opened my eyes, I felt a little disappointed, I was actually expecting to see Sara kneeling in front of me.

I cleaned up, wrapped a towel around my waist and ran back to my room. Sara was still sleeping.

I decided to post the entry from...I think it was Saturday now...instead of getting dressed. I was still wearing just the towel when Sara woke up and asked me what I was doing.

"Telling everyone how beautiful and sexy you are," I told her with a smile.

She scoffed and threw the pillow at me while I finished the entry and posted it quickly so I could join her in bed once again.

The towel was forgotten. It wasn't until I had jumped onto the bed next to her and felt my blankets brush against my cock that I remembered I was naked. I didn't know what to do, Sara had slipped her arm around me when I landed on the bed and I wasn't about to move away to put some clothes on. So I did what all guys do, I ditched the towel and joined her under the sheets.

"Tanner!" She gasped when she realized what the white thing I tossed behind me was.

"What?" I pretended that I didn't know what was wrong, I reached for her and tried to pull her near but she wouldn't let me.

"You have to get dressed!" She told me, her voice squeaking a little on the 'dressed'. I told her I was wearing the bedsheets but she didn't seem to find that too funny. I thought I had crossed a line, I was afraid that she would get mad and leave but she stayed there. "Please just get some clothes on."

"Ok," I made a move to get up. "No peeking now."

I got up, went to my closet and grabbed a pair of sweat pants. Before I pulled them on, I glanced over my shoulder and caught little miss Sara peeking. I was going to bug her about it when she asked me to come over.

I wasn't sure what she was going to do when I went over to her, naked as the day I was born, but I was sure that it wouldn't be anything like she did for me in my dreams or in the shower.

And I was right, she didn't immediately grab me or anything sexual at all. No, she asked me to join her in bed.

"I thought you wanted me to get dressed," I said while I straightened out the blankets over my legs as I laid down on my back next to her.

Sara laughed as she curled up next to me. "I don't know what I want Tanner."

In my head, I was thinking what woman does? but I wasn't about to say that to her when she was stroking my chest like she did the night before. "Do you want to touch me?" I asked her. She froze, looking up at me. "I mean like you did last night?"

Slowly a smile appeared on her face and she nodded.

Being the ass that I am sometimes, I spread my arms and legs and said, "Touch away!"

Fuck! Sometimes I wonder why she even hangs out with me, I'm such a moron.

But she did stay with me for a couple hours until my mom came into my room without knocking. We weren't doing anything. We were both lying on our sides, facing each other and talking but still Sara was a little embarrassed that mom 'caught' us like that. I guess the fact that I was still naked under the sheets didn't help much.

I know I want things to move faster with her but I'm really enjoying this stage where she seems to be testing her boundaries, I mean, hell, she touches me and sometimes presses little kisses on my chest as we lay together. But it's not all we do, we talk, laugh and go out together.

Getting to know her, I guess you can say that's what I'm doing. I would say we are friends but I think we crossed that line a long time ago.

OH! And guess what I found out the other night at work!

I was being an ass again, I guess. Sara was running late, we were all at the meeting when she joined us up front. When I saw her coming, I turned to her, spread my arms and legs wide and mouthed, "Touch away!"

Oh fuck! You should've seen the dirty look I got that night. And boy did she turn red!

So what do I do? Every time I see her, I repeat that same action.

Last night she told me if I did it again, she would never touch me again.

Do you all think she's serious?

Between Friday and Saturday

My great idea was to head down to the arcade to kill time until we could head out to the movie, I wasn't sure if Sara would go for it, so I tried to make it sound as exciting as possible. But in the end it turned out that I didn't even need to try, Sara was probably more excited about it that I was!

"I've never been here before," she told me as we walked into Shooter's Place. "This is so cool," she exclaimed as she looked around at all the different games. "What do we do? Where do we start?"

"First we get change," I told her.

"Oh!" She turned away, looking around and then turned back with a frown on her face. "Where do we get change Tanner?"

"Over here," I led her over to the change machine that was sitting next to the refreshment area.

While I pulled my wallet out and removed $20 from it, Sara was giggling. "I didn't even see this over here! OH!" She gasped and I turned to see what she was looking at. "Did you want something to drink?" I watched her pull some money out of her pocket. "They have Pepsi Tanner!"

"Ok," I could help but laugh, she was like a little kid in a candy store and I've never seen her like it before, I really liked seeing her like that. "I'll have a Pepsi then."

Armed with $20 in change and two bottles of pop, Sara and I headed towards the back of the room, she wanted to see all the games before we played any, she wanted to make sure she didn't miss any.

We started out on a couple racing games before she got bored of them and wanted to move on to the shooting games. "I don't like these," she said after we finished the first round. I think she just didn't like that I was kicking her pretty little ass.

We walked around the arcade for a few minutes, talking and drinking our pop when she let out a squeal and took off. "Let's play this one!" She called out to me as she ran up to the now vacant air hockey table.

Air hockey with Sara was interesting. She didn't know how to play at first, she kept going right when the puck was going left, a couple times she pushed the puck into her goal without meaning too and she kept accidentally releasing her mallet every time she hit the puck. But she was determined to win a game against me, even after losing three in a row.

"Don't you dare let me win!" She shouted over the noise of the arcade when she finally got a goal.

"I'm not!" I lied. I wanted her to win because she seemed to be getting a little frustrated with every goal I scored on her.

I lost count of how many games of air hockey we played, she kept telling me 'again' when I won one. "I want to win one," she laughed.

We were playing away, she was actually two points ahead of me and she was having a blast when the owner of the arcade came over to us. "This is going to be your last game," he told us. "I'm getting ready to close up."

I straightened up and stared at him a little confused. "I thought you were open until 11 on Friday's?"

The owner nodded, "It's five after eleven."

"What?" I turned to my watch and sure enough it was after 11 and we missed the second showing of Transformers. I glanced at Sara, she was standing at the other end of the table with a questioning look on her face.

"I'm sorry," I told the owner. "I didn't realize the time, we'll just go now." He told me we didn't have too but at the rate it was taking Sara to actually score some goals, I knew we would be there for a while if he let us continue playing.

"What's going on?" Sara asked when I walked over to her end of the table. "Why aren't we playing anymore?" When I told her the time, she grabbed my arm and stared at my watch. "Oh my God!" She laughed, "I was having so much fun, I didn't even know time was zooming right by!"

We thanked the owner and headed out into the night.

"I had so much fun tonight Tanner!" Sara gave me a quick hug before continuing on to my car.

I followed her to the passenger side, "I'm happy to hear that," I told her as I opened the door for her.

She went to get in but she stopped. "I'm sorry we didn't go to the movie Tanner, maybe we can do it another night."

I gazed down at her, I couldn't speak, I just stared at her. She was so close to me, I wanted to kiss her and if the door wasn't between the two of us, I probably would've kissed her.

"Tanner?"

"Yeah sure," I blurted out, not really knowing what I was saying. "Sounds good." I felt like a complete tool.

For most of the drive back to my place, Sara was talking nonstop about the fun she had at the arcade. "It was such a blast Tanner, thank you for taking me there," she fell quiet.

I told her it was no problem. "I'm just glad that you enjoyed it, not everyone understands the appeal of the arcade, especially now when you can sit at home and play video games all day long. There's just something about playing at the arcade that..." I stopped because I realized I was rambling and she was staring at me. "I'm glad you had fun," I repeated.

We got to my house, I had walked her to her car and had said good night but for some reason neither one of us was moving - she didn't get in her car and I didn't move towards the house. We stood for a while in the driveway not saying anything before she finally spoke.

"It's a shame that we didn't get to watch a movie," she sighed. "I was actually looking forward to a movie..."

"Yeah, me too."

"Yeah," she echoed.

Silence.

"I guess we can always go another time," she offered.

"Yes, we could."

Silence.

I didn't know what was going on but she seemed really reluctant to leave and the conversation above kept going on, every time it was different yet it was all about having missed the movie and wanting to see one.

We were at our fifth silence when she just started to laugh.

So I laughed too.

Then she got serious again. "Can I come in?"

I kid you not when I say I was surprised that she would ask that, I thought she wanted to go home. Both my eyebrows shot up and I stared at her. "Umm..." I glanced towards my house, the lights were still on in the living room so I knew my parents were still up.

"It's ok," she said quickly. "I should really get home, I guess."

You all know that she came in that night, she had too in order to wake up the next morning in my bed while I was writing the last entry.

She came in, we watched a movie in my room and when the movie was over, we were laying in the dark facing each other. We weren't touching but there wasn't that much space between us. I had closed my eyes, I didn't get that much sleep before our 'date' so I was very tired.

I was half asleep when I felt her move. At first I thought she was going to move away from me, I lifted my head to ask her where she was going when her hand slipped around my waist. I wasn't long dropping my head back into my pillow! When I went to wrap my arm around her, she asked me not too. "I just want to touch you," she said softly, her fingers gently rubbing my lower back. I asked her where I was supposed to put my arm if I couldn't put it around her and she sighed, "Turn onto your back Tanner."

Without questioning her, I did what she said and was happy I did when she cuddled right up against my left side. I started to drift off once again, I felt her hand on my chest but I didn't really pay that much attention to what her fingers were doing until I felt the cool air against my bare chest. Sara had unbuttoned my shirt! Not only that, she spread it wide and her fingers were gliding over my skin.

"Sara," I groaned and tried to turn towards her but she stopped me.

"I just want to touch you," she told me.

My heart was beating faster as I laid there with her stroking my skin. I wanted to pull her against me, I wanted to taste her lips but she wanted to touch me; I was determined to let her do it, no matter how much it killed me.

At first her fingers were shyly stroking my skin but slowly she became more confident and then...she was gone. "Sara?"

"Don't move," she told me seconds before she turned on the lamp beside my bed. "I was just turning on the lamp," she said once she was back against my side. "Is that ok?"

I wanted to tell her it wasn't ok, I wasn't sure I wanted her to know what her touch did to me but I didn't tell her no. I told her it was fine and then tried to lay there and not react to her touch. Biggest mistake ever! I swear my reactions were greatly exaggerated because I was trying to not react. Every brush of her finger tips, every time her hair slid over my shoulder as she held herself up on her elbow at my side I was glad that I had my eyes closed.

"Tanner?" She shifted against me, I felt her breath on my neck. "You don't mind me touching you, do you Tanner?" He lips brushed my jaw as she spoke as her hand slid down my side, finding an extremely sensitive spot that I didn't know existed.

Instead of answering her, I sucked in a breath and groaned. "I take that as a no," she told me and her fingers passed over that spot once again, getting the same response from me. She would left that spot, stroke my chest or shoulder but she would find her way back there. I was literally squirming in anticipation every time she started to run her fingers along my side.

She was driving me crazy! I was so fucking horny, I couldn't take it any more, I needed to get out of the rest of my clothes. "I have to take these off," I told her as I reach for the button on my pants.

My eyes flew open when her hand covered mine, I stared at her but she wasn't looking at my face, her eyes were at my waist. "Let me help you," she pushed my hands away and slipped her fingers under the waist back of my pants, undoing the button before moving on to the zipper.

I watched her in shock, I didn't expect this at all but I wasn't about to tell her to stop. She was biting her lip as her fingers worked to release me from my pants. She glanced up at me once, gave me a shy smile. I lifted my ass off the bed and she tugged my pants down to my knees, I took over from there and kicked them off my legs.

Sara had seen me in just my underwear before so I was a little surprised that she seemed unsure of what she was doing, she hesitated and I knew she wasn't ready for this. "You don't have to do anything Sara," I reached out a hand to her, hoping she'd take it. I didn't want to scare her or lose ground that I've gained. "Come here, let me hold you."

Holding her in my arms and not making love to her was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. My body was screaming for her, I was so fucking horny that I debated leaving her in my bed to go and jerk off in the bathroom but when I tried to move away from her, she gripped me even harder.

I don't know how I managed to fall asleep Friday night.

"Date" Night

What a beautiful day! Wondrous even! I don't care that the sky is dark, the thunder is rolling or that the heavens have opened up and seen bound and determined to wipe out life on this earth today. It's a great day regardless! And no you perverts, I didn't get laid! But I am starting to think that Sara will totally blow my mind when we do make it to that point! Fuck! She blows my mind right now and we haven't even gotten naked!

I caught up with Sara and Billy yesterday after work, they were heading to the restaurant next door for breakfast. "You should join us," Billy called over his shoulder as he headed towards his car. "It'll be fun." I glanced towards Sara to see what she thought, she smiled at me before heading to her car.

I thought about not joining them for about 10 seconds before I too got in my car to head over to the restaurant. Once we were inside, the waitress showed us to our table. I slid into the booth, with my back to the door, while Billy sat across from me. Sara had gone to the bathroom to wash her hands but when she came back, she slipped in beside Billy; I was a little disappointed to say the least, I wanted her to sit next to me.

It wasn't until the waitress came over to take our order, that I realized they didn't look at their menus at all. "The regular for you two?" The waitress asked as she took out her notepad and started writing, reciting what they were having as she did so. When she turned to me, I was frantically scanning the menu again because both Billy and Sara ordered burgers and fries, not breakfast! I didn't even realize that I could order a burger at 7:30 in the morning.

Billy was the first to speak after the waitress took my order and left the table. "So what's on the agenda today for you guys?"

"Nothing," Sara said sadly. "I get to sit at home and stare at the walls while my mother heads out to all these various functions with the woman from the social club that she joined just before my father's death."

"Ouch," Billy chucked. "Got to suck that your mom has a better social life than you!" He glanced at me and smiled. "What about you? What are you up to today?"

I told them my plans to grab something to eat later before heading out to a movie. "Did you want to come with me?" I was asking both of them, really; it doesn't matter that I was looking straight at Sara when I said it.

"That sounds great!" Sara said with a little more enthusiasm than I thought she would.

Billy on the other hand? "It does," he said. "But I can't make it."

"Why not?" Sara shot him a questioning look. "What are you doing tonight?"

"I have a date," he said with a grin.

"OH MY GOD!" Sara almost knocked over her water. "Seriously? With Cal?" Billy was grinning ear to ear when he nodded. "OH!" Sara threw her arms around Billy and gave a little squeal. "You finally asked him out! I'm so proud of you!"

"Actually," Billy gave a little chuckle before telling us that Cal was the one who asked him out.

"Yay!" Sara was literally bouncing in her seat! "I can't believe this! This is so great Billy!" She stopped suddenly and grabbed his arm. "OhmyGod! Whatareyougoingtowear? So you want me to come over and help you get ready?"

Billy gave her a horrified look. "OhmyGod!" He mocked her. "You are such a girl! No, I don't want you to come over and help me 'get ready', I can dress myself!" Sara started to pout and he added, "Besides Cal is still a little 'on the fence', I don't want him jumping over to your side when he sees you! You have to let me have this guy!"

Sara rolled her eyes, "Oh whatever Billy! One look at you when you are dressed to impress and Cal won't even remember his own name!"

"That's ok," Billy took a sip of his pop before winking at Sara and saying, "All Cal needs to remember is my name!"

"Can you believe this guy?" Sara turned to me as she rolled her eyes.

"Of course he can," Billy cut in. "Tanner is a guy, he knows exactly what I'm talking about. Even if he likes..." Billy looked at Sara. "Women!" He gave a full body shudder, "That is so unnatural!"

I laughed at that. Sara didn't. Maybe it was only funny to me, I don't know but damn just watching the two of them together was hilarious.

Our burgers came and talk soon turned to work.

Breakfast lasted about an hour and a half before Sara said that she had to get going. We made our way to the front to pay and then walked out into the sunshine.

We were talking about something stupid when we reached our cars, Billy broke from us and headed to his car. Sara turned to me, "I guess I'll see you on Sunday?"

I believe it was that little question that gave me the courage to ask her again about joining me for dinner and a movie last night. "I don't know," she started but I cut her off.

"Well if you want to sit at home while your mom is out living it up, that's your choice." I turned to go, "I'll see you around Sara."

"Tanner wait," she called and I stopped. "What time did you want me to meet you?"

We made plans for her to meet me at my place around 5 since the movie theater was in my town.

At ten to 5 last night, I walked into the kitchen where my parents were seated at the table having their supper. "Oh my!" My mom exclaimed when she looked up at me. "Clean button down shirt and wrinkle free khakis?" She raised a brow. "Does my little man have himself a date tonight?"

Fuck! I hate it when she calls me her 'little man!' "No mom, I'm hanging out with Sara tonight." My mom told me it was the same thing. "No it's not," I told her as the doorbell rang. "That's Sara," I told them. "Please don't embarrass me!"

I managed to get Sara in and out of my parents house in under five minutes and mom didn't saw a word to embarrass me, I thought it was going to be a great night.

Until we got to the restaurant we were having dinner and almost ran into the Bastard and his friends.

That seemed to kill Sara's desire to have dinner and go to a movie. I tried to reason with her but she told me I didn't understand, "he won't let us go without coming over and trying to ruin our night. I don't want that Tanner, I just want to spend the night with you and have some fun."

Just hearing that she wanted to spend the night with me made me feel better. "What did you want to do?" I asked her. "Do you want to go to another restaurant? Do you want to order some take out and go back to my place?"

She stared at me for a while as we drove around in my car. Finally she said no. "No what?" I asked her.

"No, I don't want to order something and go back to your place. I told you I would go to dinner with you and then go to a movie and we are going." She just had one request, that we didn't go back to the restaurant that the Bastard was in. I had no problems with that one at all!

So we ended up back at the restaurant where we had breakfast that morning. We were having so much fun talking and joking around that we didn't even notice when the first start time for the movie we were going to see passed by.

"What are we going to do now?" She asked as we walked out of the restaurant with an hour and a half to kill before the next showing started.

I was lost for what to suggest. I frantically looked around at all the building within sight and finally found one. With a smile, I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards my car. "I have an idea."

And that idea will have to wait until later because Sara is rolling over in my bed as I type. She just asked me what I was doing - I told her I was telling everyone I knew how beautiful and sexy she is. Should I take the pillow that came flying at my head at Mach 10 as a sign that she doesn't believe me?

Attention, Returns and Whatnot

Work! That's all I seem to be doing lately! Between my parents store and my job at the super center, I don't seem to have time for anything else besides sleep. That's why I can't wait for this weekend, my two whole nights off! I don't have any plans but I think I might go to a movie. Probably Transformers since I've been wanting to see that since it came out but I didn't find the time. At least now there shouldn't be any noisy little jerk offs in the theater. Fuck! I hate it when you are trying to watch a movie that you paid dearly to see, only to have some little fucker talk throughout the whole fucking thing!

I've been thinking about asking Sara to go with me. I know! Movies aren't the best place for a date, especially a first one but Sara still insists that we hang out as friends! Maybe if I ask her to go to the movie, she won't say no because she'll know the thing about movie's being a 'no-no' for dates. Of course, if I ask her to go to dinner first, would that be pushing the date line? I supposed if I do ask her to go with me, she'll insist on inviting Billy too. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy, he's fun to hang out with but I don't want another guy on a 'date' with us - even if he is gay.

Fuck! It's never been this hard to get close to a woman before! She lets me in but as soon as I think I'm good to go, she's slamming that wall back up! I know the bastard hurt her, both physically and mentally but fuck! I'm not him! I would never hurt her like that!

Let's see. What else?

It seems that Luke is over Sara. In his own words, "gay boy can have her, she's not that hot anyway." I told him he didn't have a chance in hell anyway, he just laughed and told me that he wished me luck. "I hear she's pretty cold, if you know what I mean."

I wanted to tell him that Sara isn't cold in any way but Luke has a big mouth and I didn't want it to get back to the bastard that something could be happening with Sara and me. I have a feeling he won't take that all that well, especially since by now Shelly's friend Heidi must have told him about running into Sara at the lake.

Speaking of Shelly. Travis called me the other day and asked me if I ever thought about entering the wonderful world of spending time with my nephews alone. In other words, he wanted to know if I would possibly babysit for him one night soon, he wants to surprise Shelly with a night out. "She keeps telling me that I don't pay attention to her! I don't what she means! I always pay attention to her!" I was no help to him, I had know idea what Shelly meant either. Women are a little crazy sometimes, it's best if I don't try to understand them!

AND speaking of woman and crazy! I bet you know where I'm going with this! Yes Crazy struck last night, or at least she tried too. She had been off since Sara came back, I'm not sure why, I didn't really care but I remember her saying something about having planned a trip somewhere before she was hired and since they knew about it and still hired her, they agreed to give her the time off. I didn't really miss her. I was actually hoping that Crazy wouldn't be back but last night she showed up just as I was running - literally - to the store because I slept in! She didn't say anything to me as we walked into the store, which was ok with me.

"Ah! Tanner and Rachael! So nice of you to join us!" Judy stopped in the middle of her meeting to say that to us.

We walked to the back, threw our stuff in the staffroom before clocking in and heading up the front where Judy was handing out our productivity sheets. I went over to Sara and Billy, I was telling them I slept in when Judy got to us and told us where we were working. "Sara, I would like you to concentrate on the front pod, we need to make sure that all the back to school stuff is out and full for family day. I have the unloaders pulling all the skids in from the tent."

When Judy moved on, I turned to Sara and asked her who was doing infants. "No one is Tanner," Sara sighed. "We don't have a truck tonight, so we get to rework all the old stuff in the back. Joy!"

One glance at my sheet told me that I was still in pets for the night. "What about you?" I asked Billy.

"I get to work through the new toys, the modulars have all been set." He looked happier about that than Sara did about working in the front pod.

"I still have housewares," Crazy's voice came from my side. I didn't even know she was close. "Hi, I'm Rachael." She held out her hand to Sara. "I don't think I met you before." Sara smiled as she shook Crazy's hand and introduced herself. "Oh!" Crazy gasped. "You're Sara? Oh my God, I heard so much about you!"

Sara frowned, "You did?"

Crazy nodded, "Yes! Tanner told me all about you when we worked together." She turned to me and I shit you not, she actually grabbed hold of my hand and stood right against me, my arm touching her in places I didn't want to even think about touching on her. "Didn't you Tanner?" But she didn't give me a chance to say anything, she was talking again. "He has been so nice to me. I was working with him for a while, he taught me everything he knew, he made it all see so easy!" Turning to me, she told me I was an 'amazing' teacher.

I didn't look at her once, I was trying to free my arm from her grasp while trying to make sure Sara knew there wasn't anything going on with Crazy.

I don't think it worked, Sara didn't look too happy. "He should be," Sara said kind of coolly as she slipped of the counter. "I taught him everything I knew." I watched helplessly as she headed off to the front pod.

"What the fuck was that?" I snapped at Crazy once I yanked my arm free.

"Oh Tanner," Crazy giggled, "Do you really think you have a chance with the ice queen?"

I grabbed her arm, "You don't know Sara at all! Don't think that your little act has done anything to ruin my friendship with her! She's not stupid, she'll see right through you and you'll be sorry."

"Whatever!" She laughed and headed off to her department.

It took me until lunch to get Sara to talk to me enough for me to explain what happened with Crazy while she was off. I don't think she would've believed me if Billy didn't back me up when she asked him about it.

"You don't feel anything for her?" She asked me as I walked her to her department.

"No," I replied honestly.

"Why not?" We had reached the front by this time, Sara was leaning against one of the shelving units. "She's young and very pretty."

I shrugged, "So?"

"You said before you liked young and pretty girls who were willing....well you know what you said!"

"Sara," I shook my head. "I say some stupid stuff sometimes."

"No kidding!" Sara smiled at me. "I'm glad you aren't interested in her, I wouldn't want to have to hose you down or anything before you hung out with me."

I laughed, "You are something else, you know that?"

"Yes," she nodded. "I know, now if I just knew what that was."

I want to kiss her right then and there!

"Tanner!" Judy came over to us. "Don't you think you should get back to pets?"

So Sara met Crazy and Crazy is living up to her name. I'm hoping she doesn't try that shit again.

Gotta go to my parents' store now. And maybe later, I'll call Sara to see if she's up for a movie tomorrow.

Monday's Ending

In the early morning light last Monday, I found myself watching Sara as she slept. Her comment the night before about wanting to kiss me since the first night she saw me kind of threw me for a loop; I didn't think she even liked me that night. I know that I wasn't here biggest fan; I can't even remember when I stopped disliking her. Maybe it was when she finally saw I wasn't a complete idiot. Or maybe I just had to give her a little time, like Billy had told me that first night.

Even though I would find it creepy to wake up and see someone staring down at me like I was with Sara, it didn't stop me at all. She was lying on her back with her head tilted away from me, her long dark hair spread out over the pillow beneath her head.

While one arm was resting across her stomach, the other one was thrown out at her side like she made a move to slap at something in her sleep. I hope it wasn't me she was trying to slap!

It was warmer Monday morning, she didn't need the sleeping bag like she did the day before which was evident in the way she had pushed it down her body leaving only the area between her waist and thighs covered. Her thighs!

I was trying not to let my gaze travel down there but I couldn't help it. Her legs were parted - her one leg was straight but the other one was angled away from her; she looked like she just passed out but I knew she hadn't had anything to drink the night before.

She started to move as I was checking out her legs, cutting my sight seeing tour short as my eyes jumped to her face once again. Her eyes fluttered, I thought she was going to open them but she didn't. "Tanner," she sighed and turned towards me, the arm that was thrown out from her side earlier, now rested at my waist - or her hand did at least.

A whiny sounding groan came from her throat as she tugged gently at my waist - I took that to mean she wanted to closer. And when I slid up to her, she sighed once again and gave me a tight squeeze.

While I was dying - totally fucking horny - Sara slipped back into her dreams. It would be another frustratingly amazing two hours before she woke up. I had my eyes closed, trying to sleep while I held her tight while still 'dying'. I felt her moved back to look up at me moments before I heard her say my name softly.

With my eyes still closed, I smiled, hugging her tight.

"Tanner!" She gasped but didn't try to pull away from me as she said something that took me a moment to understand. "Model dreams again?"

I laughed. "Model dreams?" I opened my eyes, unintentionally giving her a very heated look.

"I never believed it," she stated, lowering her head but not before I saw her cheeks redden.

She left my tent not long after that. I'm not sure what happened in that moment, I asked her a few times if I did something wrong but she kept telling me that I didn't do anything wrong, she just needed to get some fresh air.

Monday was our last day at the lake since all of us had to work that night (Billy, Sara and me) or the next day (Travis and Shelly) so most of the morning was full of us getting in that last swim, or walk or whatever. In other words, I didn't get to spend that much time alone with Sara.

When we got back to town, she seemed to be in a hurry to get home and check on her mom. "I'll see you tonight," she through over her shoulder as she headed to her car.

"Sara wait," I called out as I made my way over to her. "Is everything ok?" I asked her when I was in front of her.

"Yes Tanner," she smiled up at me. "Everything is fine."

"Then why are you running away?"

"I'm not running..." she sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. And yes! I looked! How could I not? She knew what that did to me and after having them pressed against me many times that weekend, I needed to look. They were just as great as I remembered. "Tanner!" She made a move to hit me but when her hand touched my chest it was more likely to stroke than to hit. "I had so much fun this weekend," she gazed up at me.

"So did I," my hands were on her waist, pulling her near. "Do you really have to go?" My lips brushed against her cheek, I wanted to kiss her so badly but I didn't want to push her.

"I should go check on my mom," she jerked her head in the direction of my mouth but turned away before I could react. "Plus I have laundry to do before work tonight."

I groaned. "Never been turned down for laundry before."

"Tanner," she sighed sadly. "We can't do this."

"Why not?" I softly kissed her cheek. "You want too and I really want too; why can't we do this?"

She pulled back from me until she got me to look into her eyes. "I really like you Tanner and I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't worry about me."

"But I do," she stared into my eyes as if she was trying to get me to understand without her saying it. But I needed her to say it. "I just got out of a three year relationship -" I grunted. "I did Tanner! It may not have been the best relationship but still! I need time to deal with it. I want to be sure that I'm ok before I get involved with someone else." She pulled away from me completely. "I don't want you to be the 'rebound' guy Tanner."

"What about if I want to be that guy?"

Sara shook her head. "I don't want you to be that guy Tanner, rebound relationships barely ever last. I want us to..." she stopped. "I have to go."

I tried to get her to finish that sentence but she wouldn't. It had to be that she wanted us to last, right?

Work sucked last week mainly because it was really warm and there was a lot to catch up on from the three days I had off.

Sara hadn't been avoiding me but she seems to make sure that Billy is always around when she sees me at work.

Meanwhile Billy and I have hung out quite a bit since last weekend, he has been giving me some insight on the wonder that is Sara. To be honest, I think he has a crush on her. I asked him about that one night and he laughed. "If Sara was a guy, I'd be all over her."

I don't know what to do about Sara. How do I handle this situation? I don't want to push her and end up driving her away but at the same time, I don't want to sit idly by waiting for her to be ready, only to have her be ready for another guy.

Sunday's Bright Spot

Last Sunday. Damn! I can't believe it's been a week already! Where the hell does the time go?

It was pretty warm out when I went to bed around 2 am on Saturday so like the night before, I stripped down to my boxers before I crawled under my sleeping bag. I woke up around 6 Sunday morning, just shivering, some time in the three hours that I had been asleep, it had gotten cold. Without opening my eyes, I reached behind me and grabbed hold of my sleeping bag to pull over me but it wouldn't move, so I tugged again but still it didn't move but some thing did. I guess I should say some one, Sara.

I stared at her for a while as I tried to figure out what she was doing in my tent and why on earth she was wrapped up so tight in my sleeping bag as if she were a caterpillar. It took a moment before the fog in my head cleared enough to remember that when I went to my tent the night before, Sara was off in one corner with Billy, they were laughing hysterically about something so I didn't even bother to go over and tell them I was going to sleep. It wasn't even ten minutes later, she came ripping into my tent, totally pissed off.

"Why didn't you say good night?" She stared at me like I just told her I killed her puppy. "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Was it because I was rude to Luke?" She grabbed my hand. "You have to know I was only rude to him because he was being a prick to Billy! He's always a prick to Billy! I don't like it when some one picks on my friends and I..." I held up my hand to her and she stopped.

"I'm not mad at you," I told her. "You seemed like you were having fun so I just slipped in here."

"Oh," she looked a little embarrassed now. "I guess I should let you sleep," she turned to go and since my hand was still in hers, I gripped her hand and she stopped, giving me a questioning look.

"I would like it if you stayed," I told her. She started to protest, saying that I was tired and she should let me sleep. "No, I just needed to lie down. Please stay."

We were both pretty tired, we didn't talk that much. I was drifting off so we decided to get go to sleep. The last thing I remember is watching her slip out of her shorts and remove her bra without removing her shirt.

That's how she came to be in my tent, wrapped up in my sleeping bag while I froze my balls off!

"Sara?" I moved up behind her, I figured that I could work some of the sleeping bag free if I just got her to move a little. "Sara?" I whispered again. "Could you just roll over onto your other side for a moment?"

Her response was a grunt as she held on tighter to the sleeping bag.

"Sara please? I'm freezing here."

She groaned and moved away from me. Not what I wanted.

"Sara -"

"I'm sleeping," she mumbled softly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "I know, I just want some of the sleeping bag to cover up in, I'm freezing."

"No," she sighed.

"No?" I chuckled. "You don't believe I'm freezing?"

"Go away, sleeping," she mumbled as she tugged at the sleeping bag around her. "Not cold."

Fuck Sara is funny when she's half asleep.

"No," I laughed. "I'm cold! Me! Tanner! I'm cold!"

"Tanner?" She mumbled something else along with my name but I couldn't make it out.

"Yes, Tanner is cold." I have no idea why I referred to myself in the third person but I did. Maybe it was the beer talking, I was feeling hungover. But it didn't matter, Sara didn't budge. "Sara?" I reached out and touched her shoulder and she responded with a soft snore. "Fuck!" I was shivering now, I guess I could've put on clothes but I wasn't thinking straight that morning, I wanted under the sleeping bag but since I couldn't do that, I slipped my arm around my little sleeping bag thief and pulled her back against me. That move helped me a little in warming the front of my body but I was still shivering.

"Sara?" I tried again. This time she tore out of my arms and ripped at the sleeping bag until she had an opening then she threw her arm awkwardly over me. But I still wasn't covered up. "Sara as much as I like this..."

"You are cold," she whined and started to retreat back into her cocoon. I don't know how I managed to do it but within five minutes I was wrapped up under my sleeping bag with a sleeping Sara in my arms; it didn't take any time to warm up, in fact I was burning hot for her in no time at all.

I fell asleep some how.

When I woke up, I was alone in my tent, it was still pretty dark out and I thought I dreamt the whole thing.

Sunday was a pretty crappy day for camping, it didn't rain but it was cold and gloomy so we ended up spending most of the day in Travis' camper playing cards and bullshitting.

After supper that night, we were playing the millionth game of crib when Sara, who was watching the four of us because she didn't really know how to play, moved from the table to the back where she sat on the bench seat and stared out the window. She was very quiet all day but whenever I asked her what was wrong, she just told me that she was cold and the weather was bringing her down; I managed to fix one of her problems, I had a sweatshirt in my tent for the cooler days.

When she went to the back, we had just finished a game so I told them I was going to take a break and although they all gave me looks, no one questioned it at all. I got up from the table and went to the stove where I put the kettle on to boil some water to make hot chocolate that I knew Shelly liked to have on hand 'just in case'. As the water boiled, I searched the cupboards for mugs, the packages of hot chocolate mix and tiny marshmallows.

"That's a good idea," Shelly said when she saw what I was doing. "Make me one too?" I ended up making five mugs of hot chocolate.

Taking tow of the mugs and the bag of marshmallows, I headed back to where Sara was sitting. "Hey," I sat down on the bench seat and held out the steaming mug to her. "Hot chocolate?" She smiled as she took the mug from me. "Marshmallows?" I offered her the bag, she laughed as she slipped her hand into the bag, taking a couple out.

"Thank you."

I asked her if there was something wrong and she told me no, she was just thinking. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking about everything," she told me. "I always think about everything when it's gloomy like this."

"That can't be much fun."

"No," she glanced at me. "Most times it's not; this time it's worst though."

"Why's that?"

"So much has happened," she told me. "Not much of it is good." She sighed, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a downer today, we were having a good time."

I glanced over to the table where my brother just shouted out his displeasure at the hand he was dealt. "Don't be sorry," I told her.

She was quiet for a while, she was back to staring out the window. "Want to go for a walk?" She asked suddenly. I told her I would like that and we made our way out of the camper and into the night. "I think it's going to rain," she told me. "I hope it's going to rain, I love it when it rains."

We walked down to the beach, we stood there for a moment before she asked if I would sit with her. I told her I would. "Why do you love the rain?" I asked her once she was seated next to me on the sand.

"It sounds silly," she told me. "But I feel like anything is possible when it rains, like all the bad stuff that happened washes away and I get a new beginning to start from."

"That doesn't sound silly," I told her. "Many people think that about the rain."

"Do you?" She turned to gaze up at me. "Do you believe that great things cam happen after it rains?"

"Well," I smiled. "It rained like hell the day I moved back here and for the most part, the move has been great for me."

"Yeah? You like living with your parents?" She lowered her head and stared at her hands. "Your parents seem really nice, your mom was so nice to me."

"My parents are good people, they care about everyone who is important to them and their family."

Sara's head snapped up, "I'm important?" Just as the last word pf that question left her mouth, her hand jumped to my mouth, covering it. "Don't answer that Tanner, I shouldn't have asked; it's not right."

I didn't answer her question, I just removed her hand from my mouth and lowered it to my lap, where I entwined my fingers with hers. And she smiled! Really smiled!

The first drops of rain soon came spoiling the mood. "Come on," she jumped up, tugging on my hand as she did. "Let's go to your tent."

She didn't have to say it twice, I was up and running with her to my tent. Once inside we removed most of our clothing until we were wearing the same stuff as we were the night before.

In the darkness of the tent, under the sound of the falling rain, Sara held herself up on her elbow beside me. "Tanner?" She pressed against my side, her hand on my chest. "I've wanted to do something since the first night I met you."

"What did you want to do?" I asked her but I already had an idea.

She didn't reply. She didn't move.

"Sara? Is every-"

Her hand trailed slowly, nervously up over my chest, brushing against my neck before coming to rest gently against my cheek. She shifted against me, moving up and then pressing against me as she lowered her head. Sara kissed me softly, her lips moving slowly against mine. I tried hard not to take control, to let her kiss me at her own pace but fuck it was difficult! I wanted to roll her onto her back and kiss her like I've been dreaming about for a while.

I groaned my frustration when she pulled away long before I had enough.

"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I shouldn't have done that." She tried to move away from me but I held her tight. "Tanner please? I'm sorry."

"I'm not," I told her as I moved in to kiss her. "In fact, you can kiss me anytime you wish, I don't mind at all."

Sara spent the night with me again Sunday. Even though we didn't venture pass Sara's shy kisses, it was probably one of the best nights I've had in a long, long time.

Saturday's Outing

I was rudely awaken the next morning by my brother as he stood outside my tent threatening to take my whole tent down with me still inside if I didn't join them all for breakfast in five minutes. "Tanman," he poked his head inside my tent as I rolled my eyes at his use of that old nickname for me. "While you are sleeping away Sara and Billy are making plans to go off walking for most of the morning, do you really want to be left here while she's off with that guy?"

Travis didn't stick around to hear my 'fuck no' response.

But an hour later, I wish I did remain in my tent. We had walked for what seemed like forever, Sara and Billy were ahead of me talking low most of the time so I couldn't hear them. Anytime I tried to walk along side of them, the path would narrow and since they were walking arm in arm most of the time, I was forced back again.

We had finally made it to the cliff they wanted to visit, the one that overlooked the entire lake. Sara wanted to take some pictures of the view so we stopped there for a while. I watched the two of them as they took turns snapping pictures of each other and laughing at the results. They were having so much fun together, I wondered why Sara even insisted that I go with them.

"Tanner come here!" Sara called out to me.

"What's up?" I asked when I reached where she was sitting at the makeshift table that had seen better days.

"Go over and stand with Billy," she said but she didn't look up at me, she was playing with her camera.

"Stand over there," Billy pointed to the other side of the sign he was standing by. "Sara wants to test out the timer on her camera," he told me. "Plus she wants some pictures of the three of us here."

Before I could say anything, Sara came running over to us. "Ok look at the camera and smile!" She said quickly as she moved in between the two of us and slipped her arms around both of our waists. The camera did its thing and soon Sara was running over to check it out. "Tanner!" She looked up at me accusingly. "You didn't smile!"

I honestly thought I smiled.

"I'm setting it up again," she told us as she played with the camera again before she came running at us again. "Smile this time!" She said to me once she was in position again.

I could see her out of the corner of my eye, she was glancing at me. I guess she didn't think I was smiling enough because right as the camera was beeping rapidly, she turned to me and grabbed my sides. If I didn't mention it before, I'm actually very ticklish. So I was laughing as the camera did its thing but Sara wasn't looking at the camera.

"We have to do it again," she pouted when she realized that she messed it up this time. So once again, she set the shot up and came running for us.

"Don't grab my sides this time," I warned her.

"Don't worry I won't," she gave me a smile that made me a little weary about what she would do.

The camera started it's rapid beeping and Sara made a move - I really think she meant to grab my side again but I moved and she was coming in way too low - she ended up grabbing my 'package' as the camera did its thing. "Oh my God!" She turned in horror to look at me when she realized what she was touching. "I didn't..." she stammered but her hand was still on me.

"What's going...." Billy looked around at us. "Oh!" He started to laugh really hard which did nothing to ease the situation at all. "That's one for the books," he said.

"The books?" Sara looked from me to him and then finally at the camera that was sitting across the way looking oh so innocent. "OH MY GOD!" She screamed. Finally dropping her hand from me, she started for the camera, "I'm not keeping that one."

"Tanner get the camera bag," Billy shouted to me as he took off for the camera, grabbing it just before Sara got to it.

"Billy! What are you doing? Give me that, we aren't keeping that one."

"Oh yes we are," he said holding the camera over her head. "Hold her back for a moment," he told me when I handed him the camera bag. "I've been waiting to catch you doing something like that on camera!" He laughed, "I mean how many times have you caught me doing something embarrassing? How many of those have you erased?"

"But that's different!" Sara exclaimed.

"No it's not," Billy replied as he started to run from her.

"Billy get back -" I grabbed Sara's arm. "Tanner please I have too..."

"Let him have this one Sara."

"No...but I...Tanner it was embarrassing."

"Maybe for you," I dropped her arm and headed for the edge of the cliff to look out. "I thought it felt pretty damn good."

"It was an accident," she told me. I told her I knew it was.

Billy soon came back and gave Sara back her camera. "Where are all my pictures?" She asked him after turning on the camera.

"They are safe," he told her with a smile. "I don't think anyone will delete any of them before we get them transferred."

Sara shut off her camera and stomped away muttering something about stupid, mean men. Once she was gone, Billy pulled a small case from his pocket and held it out to me. "She's so easy to annoy," he laughed as he dropped the case into my hand and walked away.

So I had her memory card in my hand and I didn't know whether or not I wanted to give it back to her before I got a copy of that picture for myself.

If I thought the walk to the cliff was bad, the walk back was completely horrible. Sara was pouting because she thought Billy still had her card, Billy seemed to not really care about the evil looks she was shooting him every time he tried to get her to stop so he could take a photo of something. And me? I just hung back, watched the two of them and wondered if this meant that Sara would pay some attention to me when we got back to camp.

She did but yet she didn't at the same time. She would talk to me more than she did to Billy but she kind of went off on her own down to the beach after lunch; she wanted to get some pictures.

While Sara was gone a bunch of Shelly's and Trav's friends showed up to spend the rest of the day with us. Before they arrived though, Travis pulled me aside and told me that Shelly had invited a chick that she was hoping I would hit it off with. "Just humor Shelly please?" He begged. "She had wanted to introduce you to her friend for a while."

"But Sara..." I glanced down towards the lake but she wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"You don't have to date Shelly's friend Tanner, just talk to her and see how it goes." Travis went to walk away but stopped. "Correct me if I'm wrong but has Sara showed you any real interest since we got here?"

She hadn't, she spent most of her time with Billy.

"That's what I thought," Travis said. "Give Heidi a chance, you may like her."

Shelly had just left after introducing me to Heidi, when Sara came running up to me. "Tanner! You have to see this!" She grabbed my arm and shoved her camera towards me at the same moment her eyes landed on Heidi. "Oh!" She paled.

"Sara!" Heidi gave her a smile. "I didn't know you knew Shelly and Travis." I was about to say that she knew them through me when Heidi asked, "So how is Ken? I haven't seen him around in a while, is he here with you?"

"No," Sara said as she dropped her hand from my arm. "We broke up."

"Really?" Heidi glanced at me. "Interesting," she said with a smile on her face.

Sara ended up leaving just after Heidi said that, she went over to Billy who was chatting with a couple of Travis' friends. I watched until she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I always knew that little tramp was cheating on Ken." I turned towards Heidi, I almost laughed in her face.

"Sara is my friend," I told her. "Don't you ever say anything like that about her again."

By the time Luke showed up at 10 Saturday night, I was already on my way to having a wicked hangover. "Maybe you should head to bed," he told me. "I'll keep an eye on Sara for you."

"Good luck," I laughed. "She hasn't left Billy's side since we got here."

"Oh don't worry," Luke slapped me on the shoulder. "I can handle the fag."

I thought I heard wrong. "What?" I asked him but he was already on his way to Sara.

Moments later Billy was standing in front of me. "What the hell were you thinking inviting that creep here? Do you have any idea how much Sara can't stand him?"

"Sara was the one who told me she would learn to deal with him because he's my friend."

"You don't deserve her, you know that?"

"And you do?"

Billy gave me a funny look, "Are you seriously that much of a jerk? You know Sara and I couldn't ever be anything more than friends."

"That's not what it looks like to me."

Before Billy could say anything, Luke was back. "Move along faggy," he was poking him in the ribs with one of Travis' roasting sticks. "Tanner isn't interested in what you are peddling." Billy told him to stop it but Luke poked him again and then stopped. "Fuck! You probably like that, don't you?"

"Of course," Billy snapped at him. "I like to fuck just like the next guy."

Luke poked Billy hard in the chest.

"Stop that!" Sara grabbed the stick from Luke and whacked him across the chest with it.

"Fuck Sara!" Luke rubbed his chest. "Why are you hanging around with this pussy? You should be hanging onto a real man, like me."

"Billy is more of a man than you'll ever be Luke!" Sara screamed at him which turned a few heads our way. "Leave him alone," she poked him like he was poking Billy earlier.

Luke laughed, "More like he's been with more men than I ever want to know about."

And that's when I finally realized that Billy was gay.

Yes sometimes I'm so fucking slow on the uptake. And no matter how hard I tried not to say it, I couldn't help but sound like a fucking moron. "Billy's gay?"

Sara, Billy and Luke all gave me the same 'are you fucking stupid' look but Sara was the only one who said anything. "Yes he's gay Tanner, you knew that."

"No," I stared at her. "I didn't know."

They all started talking at once, I guess they all thought I knew. I had to get away from them, not because I found out Billy was gay, I really didn't care about that. I needed to get out of there because now that I knew there was nothing going on with Sara and Billy, I didn't know if I could stop myself from grabbing her and making an ass out of myself in an attempt to show her that I was falling for her.

I walked down to the beach and sat there for a while, until I had control over my need for her.

When I made my way back up to the party over a half hour later, Sara came over to me as Billy hung back looking really uncomfortable now. "Please tell me you aren't like him," she asked.

"Not like who?"

"Like Luke," she replied. "Please don't let Billy's sexual preference stop you from being his friend, he needs friends just like I do Tanner." I told her I didn't care if Billy was attracted to sheep, I thought he was an alright guy. "Then why did you leave earlier? Luke said it was because of Billy, that no man in their right mind wanted to associate with a...guy like Billy."

I groaned. "I don't know if you noticed Sara but not all guys are like Luke. Billy wasn't the reason I had to get away earlier, you were."

"Me?" She seemed surprised. "What did I do wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," I told her but I didn't tell her the real reason I had to get away. I told her that I was afraid she's start poking me with the stick.

Even though I don't think she believed me, she did laugh and turned to motion Billy over. After he came over and she told him that I didn't care about his preference, she grabbed one of his hands and one of mine and smiled at us. "I am so lucky to have both of you in my life," she said with a giggle.

Billy shook his head at her, "No more coolers for you."

"I'm not drunk," she insisted.

Sara didn't leave my side very often the rest of the night. When everyone was heading out or to bed, she turned to me and asked is she could talk to me alone.

Saturday ended with Sara curled up by my side in my tent.