This story is written for the 2020 Summer Lovin' Contest.
All sexual activity is among those older than 18 years of age.
It's a slow burn (with a little taste early on) and not excessively graphic, but I hope you'll find it worthwhile in the end.
Thanks for reading and for your feedback through any votes, comments, favorites, or follows!
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The note on the student union bulletin board was short and to the point.
WANTED
Farm hand for summer position.
Strenuous manual labor required.
$3.60/hour plus room and board.
It was 25 cents an hour over minimum wage, but it didn't look like it was drawing any interest. None of the little tabs at the bottom had been ripped off and other notices, mostly selling furniture and books that people didn't want to haul home for the summer, had already started being placed over it. In another day, I probably wouldn't have seen it at all.
No, I didn't have a job lined up for the summer of '83 and was having no luck finding one, so I ripped off a tab and stuck it in my pocket. A friend called out to me just moments later and I promptly forgot about it. Fortunately, the little slip of paper reappeared late that night when I pulled it, my last twelve cents, and an unused meal ticket out of my pocket. The little paper only had "Farm hand" and a phone number written on it.
"Hey, Ron, ever spend any time on a farm?"
"Nope. And wouldn't want to," said my roommate, looking up from his engineering text. "You ever smell pigs and what they wallow in? Gross! Really, really gross!"
Ron packed up his backpack and headed out to meet his study group, so I tried to study for a while but had little success. There was too much on my mind.
I'd grown up in the suburbs, working as a regular stock boy, sometimes bagger, and occasional cashier at the local market. Unfortunately, my position was taken by another high school kid when I left for college, and Mr. Wampler, the owner, didn't have another opening for me for just the summer. I was practically desperate to find something at home since I needed the money to pay for expenses during my upcoming junior year and since I expected Carla Pittini to be home from college.
Carla and I had been in the same class in high school, living just a few houses apart in the same subdivision. We'd been friends since shortly after her family moved in when we were in junior high and I'd always been quite taken by her. I'd helped her with her homework at times and we'd been lab partners on more than a few occasions. I'd even attended some of her tennis matches, at home and the state tourney when she was a senior, but I'd never worked up the courage to ask her out.
Therefore, it was a surprise when Carla called me at the end of the previous summer. "Eric, will you come to my pool party?"
"Pool party?" I squeaked out in surprise. "Ahhh...sure! When is it?"
"Okay, great! It's Saturday night, 9 PM. Whatever you do, don't tell a soul. My parents are going to be out of town so this is going to be really small, just a few of us. Wear your swim trunks, bring a towel, and walk over. I don't want any cars out front since they might alert Old Miz Nosy. She'll blab to my mom if she sees anything."
After a week that seemed about a month long, Saturday night finally arrived.
I walked up the drive without seeing Mrs. Nosler across the street and hoped she hadn't seen me. Carla met me at the front door, and after pulling me inside, gave me a hug. With her dressed in a red bikini, probably the smallest I'd ever seen, I was at a loss as to where to put my hands, so I smiled like an idiot with my hands by my sides until she politely broke off the embrace. More than a little embarrassed at my ineptitude, I tried to reset the situation, asking how she'd been since we'd last seen each other. We spoke for a couple of minutes before she took my hand and led me through the house.
Out back, the party was even smaller than I expected. There were three of her sorority sisters from their prestigious college for women in the northeast, a date for each of them, Carla, and me. It was only then that I realized that I was Carla's date and that, if I wasn't an idiot, it would be a great evening.
I didn't know any of the others, though. Carla's sorority sisters had attended private high schools in the city and she hadn't known any of them until they met as pledges. Now they seemed to be best friends. Their dates were strangers to us, too, with them looking as shocked to be there as I was.
The girls were great friends, but the guys were a bit reserved. As a result, the girls did almost all of the talking for the first little while. However, when the ladies went inside for a few minutes, we started talking and found we were a lot alike. After that, we had a great time with the girls, swimming, dancing (with the volume of the music down low to avoid bothering Carla's neighbors), and drinking. With the legal drinking age still eighteen, we had more booze than we could use. I wasn't a big drinker, but I had a couple of beers and the girls made several mixed drinks that we all tried.
Therefore, I was feeling pretty good later that evening when Carla and I ended up in the pool together, looking at each other and smiling. We'd talked more that evening than we had in years, and the distance between us had shrunk, little by little, throughout the evening until now we were only inches apart. I'd tried to avoid getting excited as we'd moved closer and as the temperature seemingly rose, but on seeing the other guys with similar problems and their girls just grinning, I finally decided to enjoy myself, ignoring my erection, somewhat hidden as it was in the water. Still, it was tough looking into Carla's eyes and trying to focus on them rather than her breasts in that little red bikini. Her boobs didn't appear to be quite as big as those of her sorority sisters, but I was quite impressed.
"Eric, I have a question," she said quietly. "Why didn't you ever ask me out in high school?"
I was shocked at the question and didn't know what to say. It took a few moments but I finally forced out a version of the truth. "I was afraid if I asked you and you said no, you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore."