The toes, polished a bright red, appeared in his line of sight just as Matt finished changing the oil on his car. He slid out from under the chassis and grinned when he recognized the long, tanned legs of Julie, one of the neighbor girls that he'd known since first grade. He wrapped his oil-smeared fingers around her ankle, an act which made her squeal, and dragged himself the rest of the way out. Her shimmery tube top and tiny white short shorts did little to hide her curves, and he winked at her before reaching out to swat her butt. She jumped away just before his hand made contact.
"You're all oily," she complained. "Don't touch me."
Matt raised his eyebrows at that. He didn't think those three words, in that combination, were even in her vocabulary. Usually she was begging for him to touch her. And more.
"We came over to say hi," Julie said, tossing her dark hair off her face. "This is Elizabeth. You can call her Lizzie, everyone does. She just moved in. Lizzie, this is Matthew. You can call him Matt."
Matt turned to smile at the other girl standing on his driveway. Unlike Julie's more revealing outfit, she wore a faded purple T-shirt with a spray of flowers and a pair of cut-offs that ended mid-thigh. The corners of her lips curved up slightly before she dropped her gaze to the ground. She was slender, not nearly as curvy as Julie, strawberry blonde, and, if first impressions were anything to go on, painfully shy.
"Nice to meet you," he said, extending his hand, then pulling it back before she could touch it. "Uh, guess you don't want grease all over you, either."
She shook her head, still staring at the ground. Matt mentally rolled his eyes. Julie's incessant chattering could sometimes give him a headache, but it was better than awkward silence.
"So, I'm showing Lizzie around," Julie told him. "We thought you might want to go to the Dairy Pop with us."
"What, and buy your ice cream for you?"
"Of course." Julie giggled. "You're the one with the summer job."
"And the one paying college tuition," he reminded her. "Mommy and Daddy aren't subsidizing cosmetology school for me."
"You're in cosmetology school?" Lizzie lifted her head and looked at him as if he'd dropped out of the sky from another planet.
Julie's laugh tinged on the unkind side. "No, stupid. He thinks he's being funny. I'm the one going to be a beautician. To the stars," she added, sticking her tongue out in Matt's direction.
"And her mom and dad are footing the bill. Don't they know you're not going to meet your millionaire sweeping up clippings?" Matt wiped his hands and the rag he had in his pocket, then tossed the greasy towel on a shelf in the garage. "I'll walk you two to the Dairy Pop. But you can pay for yourselves."
"Walk?" Julie repeated, her hand resting on the hood of his car. "No way, hoser. Drive us."
Matt shot her a steady look. Gas finally had gone to over $1.00 per gallon. "It's two blocks. I'm not wasting gas on two blocks."
"Cheapskate," Julie muttered under her breath. She flounced off down the driveway, turning at the bottom to holler, "Come *on*."
"Just be forewarned," Matt told Lizzie as they followed the dark-haired girl. "She likes to boss people around."
"Like you?" Lizzie peeked at him from the corners of her eyes.
Matt laughed. "No one bosses me around, little one. Not even Julie."
The walk to the ice cream stand took just a few minutes. As they stood in the parking lot, licking at their vanilla cones dipped in a hard chocolate coating, Matt managed to find out that Elizabeth would be leaving for her freshman year of college in August.
"I'll be in the class of 1984," she said proudly.
Matt smiled and tried to give her pointers about what to expect, things he'd learned in his own first two years, but, Julie fidgeted every time the conversation turned to college and studying.
"You guys are boring," she complained. "Let's go do something fun."
"We're talking about college," Matt remarked. "If you don't like it, you can leave."
"Why, so you can take Lizzie back to your house and fuck her?"
There was the sharp gasp of in-drawn breath from Lizzie as Matt glared at Julie. "Jealous?"
"What, that you want to stuff your pitiful cock in her?"
"I think I need to get home," Lizzie whispered.
"No!" Julie and Matt turned to the girl in unison.
"Julie's just being a bitch because she's jealous that we go to college and she doesn't," Matt said, just as Julie added,
"I was just teasing, Lizzie. Jesus, can't you take a joke?" The group feel silent for a moment, until Julie added, "We should take Lizzie to the park."
Matt opened his mouth, as if to say something, then shut it again. He gazed at Julie for a few moments before repeating, with no inflection, "The park."
Julie caught his gaze, and he thought he saw a bit of a smirk playing on her face. "Yes, the park. I bet she would like it. "
"No."
"Why . . . are you . . .disfunctional?"
"What--," he started, then shook his head. "I don't think so."
"Yes." He recognized that light in Julie's eyes. Thirteen years of dealing with his neighbor had made him aware of her stubbornness and insistence on getting her own way. A personality trait that had gotten her bottom paddled more than once. And by more than just her parents. Despite his annoyance, Matt's cock twitched just a little at the remembrance of the last time his bare hand had smacked Julie's ass. Had it been almost a year?
"It's okay with me," Lizzie said in her quiet voice. "I mean . . . if Julie wants to go."
"Why do you want to take her . . . to the park?" He put a separate emphasis on each of the last three words.
"Because . . . I . . . feel . . . like it." Julie stood toe to toe with him as she spit out her words.
Shit, Matthew thought. She's in one of those moods again, and wants to take it out on Lizzie. The other girls he'd played with had all been fairly submissive. But Julie had taken a liking to the other end of the punishment, and occasionally, when there were other people around, had insisted on administering some of the spankings herself. He glanced at Elizabeth. The poor thing hadn't done anything but talk to him about college. And now Julie was going to get her revenge. Matt turned back to the brunette with a frown, and wondered if he could distract her somehow.
Julie pouted, "I want to go to the park."
Lizzie jiggled from foot to foot as she watched discussion. "Let's go. I don't mind," she said again, sounding a little anxious.
Great, thought Matt, now she's trying to placate Julie. No telling what this girl will agree to.
"See." Julie gestured at the Lizzie. "She said she doesn't mind. Though, I suppose, we could walk over alone."
"No." God knows what Julie would do to the poor girl if he left them alone. He didn't want a crippled college freshman on his conscience. "I'll go with you."
Maybe he could somehow talk Julie out of whatever she was planning. Or . . . his cock surged at the thought . . . send Lizzie on her way and bend Julie over a tree limb and fuck her senseless.
The park, as the kids in the neighborhood called it, was little more than a heavily wooded area, with a small clearing that held a rusty, twisted hunk of jungle gym that every child in a ten-block vicinity had sliced a body part open on. A couple of elementary school kids were climbing on it, and calling each other names.
"Little kids," Julie scoffed. "Let's show Lizzie the camp."
She led the way down a path that was barely visible, ducking under low limbs, and stepping over rocks and broken branches. After about ten minutes, she halted before a small stream. A half-moon of hard dirt, about six feet across, stood to one side of the path, and remnants of a fire lay in the middle.
Lizzie looked at the mound of ashes circled by stones. "Do you guys come here a lot?"
"We used to," Julie said. "But since Matt went away to I hardly ever get him out here."
Lizzie stepped over and kicked at one of the loose rocks, then turned in a circle, her head tilted back as she gazed up at the tall trees. The breeze lifted her hair away from her face and the freckles across her nose stood out against her pale skin. "It's very peaceful."
"And private." Julie chuckled with an evil undertone. "No one can hear you scream."
Lizzie jerked her head toward Julie, startled.
"She's teasing," Matt hastened to assure the younger girl. Then, he couldn't resist adding, "You'll only scream if we want you to."
Lizzie took a slight step back, her glance swinging toward the place where they had emerged from the woods. Matt grinned and moved to block her escape with his body. Surely she couldn't imagine they really intended to hurt her. Lizzie shifted uneasily, a myriad of emotions crossing her face, from confusion, to worry, to relief, then fear. Matt followed her gaze.
She had seen the ropes.
"I need to get back," she whispered. "My mom . . . she's expecting me."
"Nunh unh. She said you could hang out with as long as you wanted." Julie followed Elizabeth's gaze and laughed. "Oh, come on. Are you scared? These are Matt's ropes." She danced over to the tree and bent to finger the heavy cords.
