It wasn't as though I didn't have a normal childhood. College was the best, and between sports and classes, I made a lot of really, really close friends. I guess Brianna was my best girlfriend. She was kind of going steady with Joshua and I was hooking up with Allen pretty regularly for movies and Coke dates.
Allen's folks were also the nicest people in taking the gang out to the lake in the summer. It was kind of an isolated swimming pond really, not a tourist attraction or anything. I guess it was the summer after I started college because I was still getting used to my body and going through the gossip and new social gambits of the mating ritual.
His dad had done up terrific barbecued ribs and we had made an extremely large sand castle when Allen said maybe we should take a walk. But it was more an unsaid invitation, a raised eye and a nod to the trail that led around the lake. We were still in our swim suits because it was so hot that summer, even at night with a breeze.
"I hooked some vodka," he said when we were away from his folks' house. "Want some?"
I said I could do that and took the bottle from him. Well, I'd had a few drinks at frat parties and holidays, but that raw whiskey really went down to my belly like a thunderbolt. Joshua took the next hit as we walked, and then Brianna grabbed the bottle, pulled a swig and ran off down the trail laughing. I could see her buns in her blue bikini disappear around the trail as we followed at a dead run.
We were all laughing when we caught up to her where she'd thrown herself down in a mossy, open area. She was laid out like a snow angel, or the summer equivalent, with her belly heaving and her long brown hair all spread out behind her head like a blanket.
I fell down with Joshua on top of me in a tangle, and felt his hand go up under my bikini top to grab a nipple.
"Cut it out," I said in mock horror, but I didn't resist too much. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Allen was on top of Brianna, kissing her belly button and making her giggle.
"I need a drink!" Joshua announced loudly. "It's been such a fucking hard day at the office, I need to get off! Honey, where's the booze?"
That broke us all up and we passed the bottle around some more.
"You know," Joshua said as we lay in a pile and looked up at the stars, "it's good to be an American."
"American man," Allen countered.
"Yeah," he said. "Too bad you're girls."