I'll never forget the first time I saw her.
I was putting Buddy to bed, as per our usual routine. My little brother loved for me to read him stories at bedtime. We were working our way through Alice in Wonderland, I think. He'd climbed into bed and was ruffling the duvet around himself, and I went to close the curtains. That's when I saw her.
Buddy's window was on the side of the house, and looked across the alley to our neighbour's house which was the mirror of our own home. For as long as I could remember, that room had been empty - full of storage boxes and dust. But tonight, there was a bed, a chest of drawers, and her.
Patricia. Or Trixie, as she preferred; the stuffy grandma name didn't suit her at all.
I found out later that she'd come back home for the summer from college; she'd run out of money so had to give up her digs and move back home with her parents over the holidays while she tried to make some cash for the coming academic year. We hadn't really spoken, other than at the occasional garden party over the years. She was a couple of years older than me, we didn't really have a lot in common. Girls hadn't really interested me. They were hard to talk to, and the ones in my class only spoke to me to tease me. In contrast, computers were easy. They said what they meant. I was quite happy being a keyboard warrior, or to lose myself in the fictional words of my paperback heroes.
But then I saw her, across the alley.
She was standing near the window, facing mostly back into the room. Her blonde hair was plaited and hung between her shoulder blades. She was in tight figure-hugging jeans, topless. I could see the smooth skin of her back, the curve of her hip, and some side-boob. My eyes ran down the slight crease of her spine and then followed the seam of the jeans down and around the swell of her bubble butt and through to places unknown.
"Mike! Story time!"
It must have only been a few seconds, but Buddy was impatient for his story. Reluctantly I drew the curtains, and settled down to pick up on the story. By the time we finished the chapter, and I'd tucked him in and gone back to the window to 'check' the curtains, the room across the alley was empty.
///
I didn't see her the following night, or the next. But later in the week, she was studying when it was Buddy's bedtime. I saw her lying across her bed, facing the window, with books and notepads scattered across the covers. She laid on her tummy and was propped up on her elbows, idly chewing on a pen as she considered some problem or other. Idly I wondered if she needed help with maths or science. My eyes devoured her body. So slim, so trim, with her pert backside again cased and shaped by denim, kicking her barefoot legs in the air. She had a loose scoop-necked top on, and I could clearly see the swell of her pert breasts, as a locket on a necklace swung and bounced off the cleavage.
I found it hard to concentrate on the story that night, and had great difficulty getting to sleep when it was my time to get my own head down for the night.
Over the next few nights I caught occasional glimpses of her. I was becoming infatuated. She wasn't teasing me, she probably didn't even know I could see her. I felt a little bit guilty, but even so I didn't feel like I'd done anything wrong. I wasn't spying. She was leaving her own curtains open. I just happened to be there. And I hadn't seen anything, well, private.
Then came the really hot day. We'd got the paddling pool out and Buddy was splashing around having a great time. A water fight looked in the offing, so Mum took down the washing and asked me to take it up to her room, so that it wouldn't get wet again. Arms loaded with clothes and bedding I went up the stairs to my parents' room at the back of the house. I could see Mum and Buddy playing in our garden, enjoying the afternoon. But I could also see over the fence to next door's garden.
To Trixie, sunbathing. Lying on her back in a bikini, with a towel under her. I couldn't see her clearly, but my mind happily filled in the detail for me. The tight fabric across her boobs and bum. Beads of sweat running over her skin, rolling over her contours and through hidden valleys. She turned over and I saw her pert boobs hang in the bikini top. She looked up - did she see me at the window, watching? - and she untied the top and lay down on the towel, so as not to get tan lines on her back.
I'd had to visit the bathroom after that.
///
"Mum, how about we let Buddy have the big bedroom?"
"Why's that, dear?"
"Well I'll be off to college at the end of summer break. It's gonna be his room anyway. I don't need the space; my computer takes up no room and I can put my books on the box-room walls just as easily. Buddy needs it for all of his toys."
All true. Buddy's room was cramped, he couldn't play with some of his bigger toys properly in that small room - the train set in particular needed a larger area.