Veronica at the Beach

I really shouldn’t be telling you this. It took Veronica a lot of courage to tell me the first time, and I know I’m violating her trust. But how many college girls do you know that still blush when they admit to not being a virgin, and get horny every time they talk about a particular night?

Veronica had been shy and awkward in high school. In her high school prom pictures, her long, dark hair swept softly over her bare shoulder; her dark, wide-spaced eyes sparkled at you; and looking at her honest smile, you never would have guessed she how worried she was that her strapless dress might slip down. The chemistry geek with her needed his plastic frame glasses pushed up on his nose, and despite the strategic placement of Veronica’s bouquet, you could still see where Big Jim had splashed something pink on the geek’s white tuxedo jacket.

Big Jim played football like Bill Clinton played politics. Big Jim won the state title for the school, scored more touchdowns than any other running back, and notched each win with a cheerleader. No wonder he was always grinning. He was Prom King. He splashed the chemistry geek at the Prom so he could move on Veronica, who had surprised everyone by being elected to Prom Court.

Big Jim had taken Sally, Veronica’s best friend, to the prom. It used to surprise me when a nice girl like Veronica had a best friend like Sally, but not any more. Nice girls like to be pushed into doing things they really want to do, but hate to admit it. Think of a typical California beach babe, and you’re thinking of Sally. Long, sun-streaked blonde hair, skinny legs, washed out blue eyes and a tanned face with laugh lines etched around her open mouth. Since then, she’s had her nose shortened and her breasts enlarged, but she and Veronica haven’t spoken since the day at the beach. I don’t know how the photographer missed it, but in Sally’s prom picture, her hand is right where Big Jim would want it most, and from the look on Big Jim’s face, he loved it.

Not long after the prom, Sally invited Veronica to the beach. “Big Jim really wants you come with us,” she said. “He can’t stop talking about you.”

“He’s your guy, Sally, isn’t he?”

Sally laughed at that one. “What makes you think that I would want him? It’s college next year. Not that I won’t miss him. Or parts of him,” she winked. “We all move on. And he wants to ‘move on’ you!”

“Not to the cove, though. If that’s what you have in mind, you can forget that.” About 500 yards from the beach was a secluded cove that was used for wilder parties and nude sunbathing. Veronica had never been there, had never even been asked to go there, but she didn’t like the idea of it. She couldn’t tell you why, but it made her uncomfortable.

“No, just the beach,” Sally said. “I think you’d be a big hit at the cove, but it’s not for everyone.”

Veronica agreed to come, though she didn’t like the way everyone just assumed that she was Big Jim’s for the day. She had just turned 18. For all but a semester in high school, she had been the gawky, thin, quiet girl in the back of the class who walked through the halls looking down, her books pressed to her unremarkable breasts. Then suddenly, pow! Her hips swayed when she walked. When she walked students, and some teachers, watched her, and she liked it. She smiled more, and sometimes she gave a shoulder wiggle, a bounce or a hip wag. She didn’t even have to try – it was like her body was showing her what to do.

She woke up knowing that the trip to the ocean would be the biggest day in her life. “I was still scared,” she told me, “but a part of me knew this was the day. I thought about Big Jim, how experienced he was, and how I wasn’t, and how it might happen.” Her parents, a Catholic dad and Jewish mother, had split the year she was born. Her dad got custody, and gave her a Catholic school education, praying that would be enough. Over his daily newspaper, he watched her grow beautiful, in a panic, wishing she could just be his little girl forever, but unable to talk about sex with her.

So, her mother taught her the facts of life. Her mother had accumulated three divorces, and five or six Mercedes, so far.

“Ronnie,” her mother said, “boys are no big deal. You can hold them in the palm of your hand. Really, the palm of your hand.” And she would laugh in a way that made Veronica nervous. “Boys only want one thing, Ronnie. You put him in the palm of your hand, and you can save your best for Mr. Right.”

“Mother, please!”

She chortled, and cleared her smoker’s throat. “Okay. I forgot; we’re in the 21st Century now, and you children know more than when I was a flower child, if you can believe that. So, you really want to please your boy friend. . .” She paused, licked her lips. Then ran her fingers around her lips, giving a knowing leer, and licked her lips again.

“Disgusting, Mother. Ughh.” She thought of sweaty Big Jim, and she thought of her own lascivious mother, and somehow the two thoughts crossed, and it was even more disgusting. “God, Mother! Gag much? Ewww.” Her mother shrugged her shoulders, chuckled, and muttered something like, “Ask me again when you’re 39.”

The morning started out cloudy with a dry south wind, and when the kids got to the beach, it was pretty empty. Big Jim brought Veronica; Sally was forced to bring her cousin Jeff visiting from Alabama. Other kids showed up with beer, music, some weed, a volleyball net, towels, chairs, umbrellas. They settled in for the day, and it seemed like they had their own little city, with the rules made for young adults, which is to say, no rules whatsoever.

Big Jim plunked down right next to Veronica and Sally. He didn’t say two words to anybody, but let his fingers wander towards Veronica’s leg. She pushed his hand away like she would an insect. She had been listening to cousin Jeff talk about his home, and school, and his hopes to play baseball in college as a walk-on. Big Jim scoffed at that, and his fingers started grazing on Veronica’s hip. She recognized what he wanted now.

“Now? In the morning?” she thought. “Here was this cute Southern boy, drawling his sentences, but smiling in the most curious way. And next to me, the Moose With Hands. I’m trying to listen to Jeff, but my Mother’s advice keeps poking like Big Jim’s fingers.”

When Big Jim slipped his hand between Veronica’s thong and her bare skin, she jumped, and without thinking, slapped him right in the face. He looked like he’d never been slapped before. “I’m sorry, I slipped,” she said, and wondered why she said it. “Come on, sit down.” she was curled on her knees, but Big Jim had had enough.

“Forget you, bitch. You think you something special? Don’t kid yourself. This is something special,” he pointed to his own crotch, “you’d be begging for it, if you knew what’s what.” He looked at Sally, as if for confirmation. Sally’s mouth was open and moving but not saying anything. She raised herself, and slid along side Big Jim.

“She didn’t mean it, Big Jim,” Sally said. She motioned for Veronica to come make up with Big Jim too. Veronica didn’t move, though. Sally didn’t see that Jeff’s hand was comforting Veronica’s knee, telling her that she didn’t have to put up with Big Jim. “Where you going?” Sally asked, as he started to jog down the beach, though she knew exactly where he was going.

“I’m going to the cove. You can come too. We’ll have some fun without Miss Prude Danish.” About 500 yards away, over some rocky walkways on the other side of the beach, was the nude beach, secluded from the rest of the area.

The others saw Big Jim running toward the cove, and like he had given the okay, they started packing up and following him. The hoots and screams followed as well, until only Veronica, Sally and Jeff were left of their little city. Sally started packing up her towel and bag, and shoved her clothes to Jeff to carry.

“I’m not going,” said Veronica.

“I’ll stay with her,” offered Jeff.

Sally turned angry. “You’re my cousin, and you’re supposed to stick with me. I’m not leaving you on an empty beach with that stick-in-the-mud. I’m mean, you’re my best friend, Ronnie, but you still wear your towel in the girls locker room. Jeff, come on.” She pulled him up and away toward the cove.

That Jeff left made Veronica even more confused. She had lost both boys that had shown interest in her. She tried to compose herself, glad that her sunglasses hid her angry tears. She would have to wait hours until the group came back for her ride home. She was tempted to walk over to the cove, but she realized what a dirty trick Big Jim had played. If she went now, she’d be caving in to him. Her black bikini was small, but it provided some defense. If she followed him and removed it now, he would have her completely defenseless. And yet, a part of her wanted to experiment with distracting and tempting boys. She wanted to go there, but couldn’t without a good reason.

“Hey, where did everybody go?” It was Nick, a troll of a kid with more cases of beer than his arms could carry. He was stumbling through the sand, his baggy trunks barely on, helped by his hard-on. Nick’s hard-on was infamous at school; it never seemed to go away, and he didn’t seem to care. Nick’s Knockwurst. “My God, they’re at the cove! Right? Oh, my God.” He began to run faster, and dropped a case of beer. “Pick that up and bring it, will you?” He was so anxious to get to the other side of the beach that he probably didn’t know that it was Veronica that he had asked to bring the case. “Come on, quick, let’s go!” and he was running. His trunks slipped off and he left them in the sand, Nick’s knockwurst pointing the way.

Veronica picked up the case of beer, and mustering up her dignity, marched to the cove. She climbed over the rocks, and thought that there would be some kind of hushed silence when she showed up; a blast of trumpets, applause, or at least some hurried whispers. Instead, she saw her friends having fun, splashing in the surf, rubbing suntan lotion, reading, playing catch. Their city had moved from the old spot to the new; the only difference was that no one here was wearing any clothes.

Sally was in the water, jumping up and down, and egging both Big Jim and Jeff to get into the water. Even from that distance, Veronica saw that Sally was tan all over. “How does she do that?” she wondered. She saw that Big Jim and Jeff were not tan all over, although she only saw them from behind. She saw that the muscles of a baseball player were lean, long and sinewy; the muscles of a football player were rock hard, bulging and powerful. She felt a flutter between her legs; she was short of breath.

Veronica found Sally’s stuff and dropped the beer there. “I brought some more beer,” she called to Sally. Sally called to her, and waved for her to join them, too. Jeff looked back, and smiled, blushing. “Or maybe it was sunburn,” Veronica said. Big Jim wouldn’t turn around, just showing her his large back.

She looked quickly around -- “Nobody is looking at me,” she told herself. In a quick move, she removed the thong first. “Nobody is looking,” she kept repeating, but something told her that it wasn’t true. “Hmm. Naked from the bottom down.” Her tan lines glowed white hot it seemed to her, but so what? She fought the urge to sit down, to make herself small. “Nobody. . . Oh, who cares?” She had a little trouble removing the top, and she thought she heard someone snicker. “Nobody?” Her breasts came free; they seemed painted with a white triangle over each nipple. She licked her lips nervously.

Sally ran out of the water, and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her to the water. A Frisbee landed by her foot, and Veronica stopped to throw it to the guy running toward her with a big goofy grin on his face. “Want to play?” he asked. Sally just pointed to Big Jim, and the guy backed off. “Later.”

“You won’t believe this,” she told me later, “but all the nervousness I felt just left me. I felt light, uncomplicated, happy. If people looked at me, I thought they were looking right through me, like I was glass. I never wanted to wear clothes again. Silly, huh?”

They started to play again, and it was innocent fun. Big Jim tried not to look at Veronica, he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. Veronica, with her new confidence, took it as a challenge, and worked to get his attention. She dove into the water near him and ran after a ball that he could have picked up; she tripped over him sunbathing, and rolled quickly away; she combed her dark hair with her back arched, like she didn’t know what she was doing to him.

Big Jim spent lots of time on his stomach. Even Sally got in on the fun, crouching over him and dripping salt water in puddles on his lower back. Although Sally and Veronica didn’t intentionally tease Jeff, he spent a lot of time on his stomach as well. Nick lay not far away, on his back, proud of his small flagpole.

“Oh, my God!” Sally said. “You’re burning, burning up!” She spurted lotion into her hands, and slapped it on Veronica’s bottom, quickly covering it. “Turn around,” she ordered, and slathered some more on her trimmed patch.

“Now I felt embarrassed,” Veronica told me. “I felt naked now that Sally was rubbing her hands on me. It felt okay, but I was very aware that we were out there with lots of people. I didn’t stop her, and she slowed her rubbing. I know I was blushing. When she stopped, I just stood there.”

Sally poured more lotion into the palm of her hand, and dipped her fingers in it. “Sit.” Veronica leaned back on her arms, anticipating the touch of her fingers on her breasts. She pulled back when Sally touched them. “Come on, Ronnie. You’ve never had a nipple burn, I can tell. You need this.” Veronica looked at Sally’s breasts. A nipple ring with an aquamarine pierced the tip. Veronica wondered if it hurt to have that done, and if her own breasts might arouse a guy who must have done a thousand of these. Like the all-over tan, Sally had time to pamper her body and surprise Veronica again. She closed her eyes as Sally touched her breast again. She hadn’t noticed the nipple ring before.

Sally took forever on the breast, and that was alright. The sun had come out, the wind was still dry, and the lotion made her nipple supple, and stiff at the same time. She felt lotion on the other breast, and the fingers working the lotion in. The fingers rolled the tip of her nipple and she made a small gasp. The sun felt good on her eyelids. She imagined that Big Jim, and Jeff, and Nick, and even the chemistry geek were watching Sally taking care of her, and they were wishing they could do what Sally was doing for even a second. She hoped Sally needed lotion too, but later.

The fingers squeezed again, and it hurt a little. Then she felt fingers on the first breast, gently again, but at the same time. Veronica opened her eyes, and saw Sally on her gentle side, but the troll Nick drooling on the hurting side. When he saw that Veronica was on to him, he rubbed faster and gave her a painful squeeze on the right breast, until she knocked him over with her fist. “What are you doing!” She asked them, and covered herself with her arms. She shivered at the thought of Nick touching her. He was rolling on the sand, shouting “I got to first base with Ronnie!” and the whole crowd was laughing at her.

Except Jeff. Except Sally. The look on Sally’s face looked a little haughty, like “you think you’re so hot. You think you’re better than us? You’re just a piece of meat like the rest of us, aren’t you?” It scared her.

She was too embarrassed to look at Jeff.

“I should have just laughed it off. You know, big deal. But I was no good at social situations. I thought Sally was my friend, you know?” She looked like she was going to cry in front of me, and this all happened maybe four years ago.

Still angry, Veronica moved her towel away from the city, but call it pride, whatever, she wouldn’t put her bikini back on while at the cove. She swam a little, read a little. She thought a lot. When the Frisbee landed at her feet this time, she agreed to play catch.

She knew she looked good; why didn’t they like her? She stretched out her arms with each throw, and tossed her hair in the setting sun. Sally, Big Jim and Nick kept watching her all afternoon and into the evening. Jeff had fallen asleep. Lots of people were watching her. So what? She even caught Nick secretly using his own hand to keep his erection firm. She wondered what her mother would say about that?

The groups were breaking up now. She nodded goodbye to several of them, and wondered about going back near Sally to get her clothes. There was a bonfire going now, and its heat was strong enough that no one else thought of dressing yet.

What made her do it? To this day, Veronica doesn’t know. Some instinct that makes women want to drive men crazy; to let them know, this is special, and you can’t enjoy it. Anyway, she saw the moon rising large on the ocean, and walked toward it. She carried lotion and a sand bucket. At the edge of the water, she filled the bucket, and silhouetted by the moon, poured it over her head. She repeated the action, over each shoulder, her back, her hips. The moon gave slight color to her dark brown skin, and pinkish triangles showed over her breasts. Her bottom seemed golden, and her front patch dripped after each dousing.

Then she began with the lotion. She was lost in thought, and all alone. She knew she wasn’t. Her skin looked moist, then wet, then oily. It reflected the moon, and the movement of the waves. She kept applying lotion until the bottle was empty. She rubbed her legs, her arms, her stomach, and of course, her breasts.

Then she turned and looked at them with the same dark sparkling eyes I had seen in the prom picture. They glowed in the dark, reflecting the bonfire. As she walked toward them, the flames seemed to dance around her skin. She walked like a queen, right into their circle of logs around the fire.

It was Nick that burst first. He held his flagpole as if to strangle it, but it had begun a dance of its own. Nick screamed in ecstasy, and fell over behind the logs, cursing as he fell. Veronica paid him no mind. She had to step over Big Jim, and heard grunting breath come from him. Jeff had a bemused smile. Sally lay lengthwise along the fire, holding Veronica’s clothes. “You looking for these?” she asked, and threw them were Nick had fallen over the logs.

Veronica gave her best enigmatic smile. She picked up her towel, her top, and her clothes bag. The thong was over the log, near Nick. She could imagine what he was doing with it. She reached to snatch it away, and Nick caught one of her wrists, and pulled her across the log. She saw his ugly smile as he caught her other wrist, and planted his feet against the log. Her face positioned near his crotch, and if Nick had been able to control himself earlier, Veronica might have been forced to use her Mother’s second strategy for controlling boys.

Sally pinned her shoulders with just enough weight so that she couldn’t stand up. “Aren’t you special? What are trying to pull, Ronnie? My God, I don’t blame them one bit.”

Big Jim behind Veronica, and suddenly she realized how vulnerable she was. Her ass was high in the air, her shoulders were pinned, and her arms were outstretched. She was covered in oil, but couldn’t wiggle free from either Nick or Sally.

“You missed a spot,” Big Jim said. She heard him, squeezing the end of a bottle into his meaty hands. He slapped his palms together, and rubbed them noisily together. Then held the bottle over her backside, and she felt warm drips falling onto each buttock cheek, the backs of her thigh, and then into the crack itself. Big Jim threw the bottle into the bonfire, and it hissed and bubbled into plastic ooze.

Big Jim leaned over her, and his mitts ran down her sides. Sand particles scratched her with every stroke, and she began to struggle to escape. His hands stopped on her ass, and a finger traced the valley from her lower back to a place between her legs. Veronica tightened involuntarily, squeezing hard with her butt. Big Jim laughed, and slapped her backside, hard. With the slight sunburn, it stung even harder.