"Have you noticed anything weird lately?" I ask Sam as we're chilling in our room later, watching tv.
"Weird how?" She asks, putting her pen down from her sketch pad.
I bite my lip and tilt my head. "Like Tre and Trell. Have you noticed them acting different?"
She furrows her eyebrows. "Now that you mention it, yeah kind of." She says. "I mean, Trell's always been a tough guy, but recently he has seemed like he's been on edge a lot more."
"Tre sometimes gets this really serious look on his face that's so intense and I don't know how to handle it," I tell her. "Like that time we were out together for dinner at Taqueria La Perlita and they came back so serious after meeting those guys, but acted like nothing ever happened."
She nods. "Yeah I asked him about that when we got back, but he said he didn't know what I was talking about. Which really irritated me, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer. I've kinda just learned with being with Trell that if he doesn't tell me something, it's probably something I don't need to know yet."
"I don't know," I shrug. "I don't want to worry, but I just think it's really bizarre that all of a sudden this is happening more."
She sighs and taps her pen on her sketch pad. "I'm sure things are fine and they're just going through something. From what I've learned about guys, they're just unexplainable sometimes. They might not even realize that they're doing it. As girlfriends, we always want to worry, but with them two, you have to let them come to you about certain things."
"Yeah," I mumble and look back at the tv that's displaying the evening news.
Breaking news. A half hour ago a corner store on Main Street was robbed. No witnesses besides the owner, who was held at gun point while the suspects took the cash register money that contained over $1800. The two suspects were caught on the store cameras but were wearing masks and and hoods to conceal their identities. Police are currently investigating this case but there are no further leads at this time.
"That's kind of scary," I say as the newscaster turns to another topic. "That was just a couple of blocks from here."
Sam shakes her head and sighs. "Shit like that happens all the time. It's really sad, but here you kinda get used to it after a while."
I grab one of my novels from my shelf and then lay back on my bed while Sam sketches, her pen making clicking sounds every once in a while. Her phone buzzes and I hear her nails tapping on the screen.
"Hey," she says after setting her phone back down. "You wanna go to a party tomorrow night?"
"With who?" I lay the book on my chest and look over at her.
"Trell just asked. It'd be me, you, Trell, and Tre, and then some of their friends. He said one of their bros is having a house party. I'll invite Reina too."
"Um, sure. I guess." I shrug. As long as Tre is there with me then I don't really mind going to a party.
"Cool! Apparently they have a heated pool too so make sure you wear your swimsuit underneath your clothes."
"All I have is a one piece suit," I tell her.
"You can wear that one or you can borrow one of my bikinis if you want. I have one that I haven't used yet."
The bikini she hands me the next day seems like thin black fabric held together by two strings.
"I'm gonna fit into this?" I ask her with hesitation written all over my face.
She looks up from tying her own bikini top. "Just try it on and see how it looks. If you don't like then don't wear it."
I turn my back to her as she's putting on jeans and a crop top over her neon orange swimsuit. I pull my shirt and bra off and try to tie the string behind my back. After a couple of tries, I finally get it and then pull the other strings up and make sure the fabric covers both of my cleavage before tying the other strings behind my neck. I pull the top down more and see that I am covered, just revealing more of my chest than I am used to.
"It's not as bad as I thought," I tell Sam while I look in the mirror and she giggles.
"I told you. You look hot. Tre's not gonna know what hit him when he sees you in it."
The fabric is a dark navy color which contrasts against my pale skin. With my hair flowing down over my shoulders, I almost feel like one of the models I see a lot in magazines. The bikini reveals enough to show that I have a small cleavage and some stretch marks around my waist, but not enough to make me feel uncomfortable.
Butterflies flutter in my stomach at the thought of Tre seeing me in this. I always wear clothes that cover my body in modesty, so he's never seen me wear something so revealing. He's rarely seen me wear a tank top let alone a thin piece of fabric. I don't feel awkward in this bikini, surprisingly, I'm just nervous for anyone to see me like this, especially Tre. But I also am a little bit excited too. Now that I've gotten more comfortable around him, I want to show him more of me. I'm not ready to show him all of my body, but this, right now, I want to show him this.
I put on some jeans and a black long sleeve v-cut shirt over the suit and tie my white converse. Sam plays music as we keep getting ready, me brushing my hair and putting on moisturizer. I'm not wearing makeup since we might be in the pool. I put a ponytail around my wrist in case I need to tie my hair back when we swim and right as I'm doing one last look over in the mirror, Sam turns to me.
"You ready? Reina said that Cooper was going to drive us there."
"Yeah." I put my phone and keys in my coat pocket and we meet Reina out in the hallway.
"Hey!" She says.
"You guys ready?" Cooper asks, car keys in hand.
"Yep, lets go!" Sam exclaims and we all walk out and to Cooper's suv.
"So where is this party actually at?" I ask as me and Sam get into the back seat.
"It's right outside the city. About 20 minutes away." Sam says and gives Reina the address to put in the gps.
Reina take over the aux and blasts music as we drive out of the city. After 20 minutes of being in the car, we turn right into a single road. It's dark besides one street light and there are no houses as we drive further down the road. Once the street light is out of sight, we come upon a single house where the road ends.
"Wow," I say as the huge house comes into view.
It's a three story white house with three stone pillars in the front. There are a lot of windows on each story and there are a lot of cars lined up in the circle driveway. There are people standing outside with cups and bottles in their hands, and neon lights are flashing through the windows. After Cooper parks the car and we get out, we can hear the music blasting and the bass vibrating the whole house.
"Stay close everyone," Sam tells us as we start to walk to the house.
Reina holds Cooper's hand and grabs mine as we walk through the pillars and inside the house that's filled with people. Now the music is even louder and the house smells like weed and smoke. There are people standing and sitting around talking and there are people playing drinking games. There's a big space in the living room where people are dancing and there is a long bar near the kitchen where people are getting drinks.
Sam looks back and says something to me but I can't hear her over the music, so we just follow her and weave through the crowd of people. I cough as we walk through a cloud of smoke someone just blew from hitting their blunt and we finally make it to the back of the house, where a group of people are sitting on couches.
I look around the group and see Tre and Trell sitting and smoking. Bottles and cups cover the table and everyone is taking turns smoking. Trell looks up after handing Tre the blunt and he nudges Tre. He motions for Sam to come sit next to him and Tre looks up. I bite my lip and slowly move to where he is. He smiles at me as I sit down next to him and Reina and Cooper sit beside me.
"Hi baby," he says and wraps his arms around me.
"Hi," I say and give him a kiss. "How are you?"
"I'm good. Just chilling. I missed you today."
I smile and lay my head on his shoulder. "I missed you too."
He takes another hit from the blunt and then passes it to Cooper, who takes it from him. Tre blows the smoke out in rings and I watch the smoky rings fall and disappear in the air.
"Do you want a drink?" He asks after grabbing his bottle and handing it out to me.
"What is it?"
"It's just a beer," he replies.
I take the bottle and have a drink of the watery beer.
"You remember Mikey, DJ, Rashaun, Jamal, and Adam?" He asks and gestures towards the other guys sitting near us.
I nod and look over at them. "Yeah." I remember the guys who laughed at me at that first week party.
"And then there's Bryson, Darius, and Tyrik and their girls." The guys nod when he says their name and the girls smile at me.
"Guys, this is Eva." He wraps his arm around my waist and I briefly smile, but grow uncomfortable with everyone staring at me.
"Do you smoke?" Adam asks, holding out the blunt to me.
I shake my head. He passes the blunt to the girl sitting next to him and the rotation continues around the circle. As the minutes go by, more drinks scatter on the table and I get start to used to the weed smoke and smell. Tre got me some fruity drink in a red solo cup and I've been sipping on that, feeling the alcohol warming up my body. Tre keeps a hold of my hand the whole time we're sitting there and while I don't talk a lot, I observe everything around me.
The house is huge, like a mansion. Some of the walls are all glass and there are neon lights in most of the large rooms where everyone is. There is a big pool outside in the backyard and the reflections of the pool lights dance in the windows. My ears feel full of the blasting hip-hop music and I can only hear what Tre says to me if he's right next to my ear talking loudly.
Sam and Trell stand up and she comes over to me.
"We're gonna go have some alone time," she tells me and winks right after.
My mouth gapes open a little and then I immediately blush.
She laughs and shrugs. "We'll be back!" She announces and grabs Trell's hand and walks towards the large staircase.
"Me and Coop are gonna go play some beer pong," Reina says a couple minutes after Sam and Trell leave and she and Cooper stand up.
"You wanna play?" She asks me and I shake my head.
"No thanks. I don't think I'm that coordinated for it."
"Okay," she laughs. "We'll be right over there." She points towards the living room where there are some long tables with people crowded around them yelling and cheering.
They weave through the crowd of people and I lose sight of them. I turn back to Tre putting out the last bit of his blunt. I finish the last of my drink and he looks over at me.
"What?" I ask him, smirking.
He smiles and chuckles. He stands up and grabs my hand. "Come with me."
Looking only at him, I set my cup down and stand up. He leads me away from the group and we walk towards the back doors. He opens the door and we step out into the back yard patio that has multiple tables and chairs around a fire pit. Further down the patio steps there are more loungers right next to the pool and jacuzzi. The pool has red and yellow neon lights, illuminating the water with an orange glow. There's some steam rising up above the water and into the cool air from the heated water. I follow Tre as we go down the steps and right next to the pool.
He goes over to the side of the pool and checks the temperature. "81 degrees." He looks over at me and smirks. "Perfect temperature."
Butterflies start fluttering around in my stomach and I rub my hands together. "You wanting to get in?"
He walks over to me and places his hands around my waist. "Do you?"
I bite my lip and then nod.
He smiles and squeezes my waist. "Okay, come on."
He walks towards the side of the pool and I slowly follow him. He takes off his sneakers and jacket and sets them on the ground. I unzip my jacket and take it off, goosebumps forming on my arms from the cool evening air. My eyes are on Tre as he lifts his shirt above his head, exposing his muscular tatted torso. I don't even try to hide my hard staring at him. He's like an Adonis. As he goes to unzip his jeans, I break out of my staring.
"Wait!" He looks up, mid zip.
"What's wrong?"
I try to keep my eyes on his face and not on his almost half naked body. "There are no towels."
He chuckles and points to an ottoman that's by one of the lounge chairs. "There are towels in there."
He finishes taking off his jeans and is left in black swim trunks. His abs look as though they were chiseled in and there are deep v-lines that go further down and disappear into the black material. He turns to place his clothes to the side, revealing a swirl of ink on his calf that I've never seen before.
"Is that new?" I ask and he turns to me, looking confused. I point to his calf where the tattoo is.
"Oh," he looks down and then shakes his head. "No I've had this one for a while." He chuckles. "You've just always seen me wearing pants."
He gives me one last look before walking to the edge of the pool and dives in. I'm far enough back to where the splashes of water don't get on me and I watch him pop up from the rippling water.
"Come on! You're not afraid for the water are you babe?" He smirks and I shake my head.
"I'm coming in." I take a deep breath to try and steady out my fast beating heart that feels like it's running a thousand miles a minute.
I hear Tre go under water again, so I first take off my shoes, then my socks. The concrete is cold under my bare feet. I don't hear anymore splashing so I look up and see Tre standing in the middle of the pool with his eyes on me. Feeling his eyes on me, initially, makes me nervous, but I grab the bottom of my shirt and pull it up over my head, revealing the small top. I think I hear Tre intake a sharp breath, but I'm not completely sure if that was from him or me. Now the night air is really cool on my bare torso and I'm sure Tre can see the goosebumps that I now have. Tre's mouth turns up in smirk and I bite my lip. I don't know whether I'm nervous or excited for him to see me, or both. Probably both.
I unzip my jeans and push them down my legs. I step out of them and put my pile of clothes next to his. I try not to think about how naked I feel, even though everything is covered. It's weird. Showing my body to someone else.
Tre's eyes don't leave me as I walk towards the pool stairs. I don't stop looking at him either. Except for when I first took off my jeans, his eyes haven't gone down my body again. He's staring right at me and only me. I notice his body tense, but his face stays the same intense expression he always has. His eyes don't seem like they're full of all lust. They almost seem more curious than anything, like he's waiting to see what I will do next.
I get to the stairs and take the first step into the water. It's very warm, almost like bath water, but it feels great against the cool evening. I smile as I submerge my body in the water and meet Tre in the middle.
"Hi." I smile at him and he laughs and smiles too.
"Hey."
I bend my knees and float, kicking my feet and floating to the other side of him. He also gets down more into the water and we both float for a moment, looking at each other with our faces close to the water but not saying anything. Tre then goes completely under the water and I feel his hands on my waist, pulling me down into the water.
I squeal from the tickling feeling of his hands on my waist and hold my breath as we go underwater. I swim a little away from him and go further down to the bottom of the pool. The pool goes deeper than most normal pools. 10 feet. My ears pop as I get down more and I turn my back to look at Tre, who's right behind me. I place my back to the wall, watching him swim closer to me. He stops a few feet away. Both of us slowly kicking our legs and moving our arms to help stay down and afloat. The neon lights make it look like we're swimming in a kaleidoscope, colors dancing on both of our bodies.
Everything down here is silent, drowned out. 10 feet down and there's nothing else in the world but us. Floating. I wish we could stay down here, like this, forever.
Tre smiles and swim more towards me. He gets in front of me and pulls me by my waist to him. My legs wrap around his waist and he keeps a hold of me as he starts to swim us up to the surface. My heart starts beating fast since my lungs are starting to cry out for oxygen. I put my arms around his shoulders when we get to the surface, us both gasping in a deep breath of air. Once I get my breath, I laugh and place a kiss on the side of his neck.
"I didn't think you could hold your breath for that long," he says and I pull back and look at him.
"I'm glad I keep surprising you."
He smiles and looks down. "You do. Especially when I saw you in this." He lightly tugs on my top string across my back, lightly enough to where it doesn't come undone.
"I mean, you always look beautiful," he says and swallows. "But now that I can really see you, you look," he pauses and then smirks. "Ravishing."
He playfully bites at my neck and I squeal. His tickling bites turn into soft kisses and I run my hands down his back. Even though we're already in warm water, my body feels like it heats up even more. I quietly gasp as I feel his tongue rub against my skin, which feels very sensitive on my neck. I unknowingly clench my legs together, feeling our bodies touch. I can feel his arousal and that only fuels the fire that's coursing through my body. I know we should stop but I don't want to. I like the feeling of his lips against my skin and I like feeling his body so close to mine.
Tre's lips don't go anywhere else besides my neck and my lips. His hands roam my waist and back but he doesn't put them any higher. I notice that while he keeps his hands respectful to me, I want him to run his hands over parts of my body that have never been touched. I now understand what sexual attraction is and why it's so easy to get caught up in someone and get caught up in the moment. It only takes one moment for everything to change.
"Tre," I whisper after our lips part from each other.
"Yeah?" His voice is low and deep, eyes now dark with lust.
I bite my lip. "I like the way you make me feel."
"I can make you feel even better." He smirks and runs his hand down my thighs.
I smile and giggle. "I'll be looking forward to that."
"Oh yeah?" He raises his eyebrows and taps his finger on my waist.
I nod and smirk at him. "Soon."
I think I'm almost ready. All of these emotions and feelings that I've never we felt before, it's a lot to wrap my head around. I feel like it gives me whiplash at times and I can't keep up. But I trust Tre and I know that he wouldn't ever put me in a situation that I was uncomfortable in.
He's broken off almost all of my layers now. He's seen most of my skin and now he's inside, buried in my ribcage, waiting for me to allow him fully into the depths of my soul.