1.
Beth had been the girl of Michael's dreams for about as long as he had been interested in girls.
She broke into his consciousness in middle school. Beth was coming out of the AP math classroom talking and laughing with a friend, and she plowed right into him. His books scattered. He was scrambling to grab his belongings when he saw them ... her legs. Beth Anderson had the best legs in the whole school -- in the whole world, as far as Michael was concerned. He was so entranced that he momentarily froze just staring at them.
He was snapped back into reality by Kim Carson's, "Nice move, Emo!"
Red-faced, he stood up and found himself eyeball-to-eyeball with the owner of those legs. Beth wrinkled her nose in embarrassment and said, "Sorry! Maybe I should try actually looking where I'm walking. Do you need some help?"
"Uhm ... no ... I'm ... it's okay. It was just an accident."
She gave him a cockeyed smile. "Yeah. I'm good at that." Michael just grinned. He was having a hard enough time keeping his breathing going.
"Well ..." she said to break the awkward silence, "Guess I'll be off to wreck someone else's day."
"Yeah. That'd be good," he blurted, so captivated by her beauty that he was paying no attention to her words.
Her gaze turned quizzical, and she just answered with a slow, "Okay. Well ... off to English." Madison King, with whom she had been talking, was on the verge of rupturing an internal organ as she looked at Beth and took in this whole debacle.
They continued down the hall, and Michael stared after them. He slowly came out of his fog long enough to recall the conversation. "That's be good!?" he said to himself in horror. "Jesus, what an asshole!," he remarked as he banged his forehead with his notebook. His classmates were walking past him, laughing and making numerous rude comments.
It was certainly no surprise to him to discover at the opening football game that Beth was a cheerleader. One look at her leaping on the sidelines, and Michael knew he was never going to miss a game. He always planted himself in a prime Beth viewing area as he cheered on the mighty Hurricanes. He may not have been able to tell anyone the final score, but he could tell intimately describe every freckle, curve, and muscle on those incredible legs.
For the next couple of years, Michael could only watch her from afar. The only class they managed to have together was biology. When Mr. Patterson, the teacher, began calling out lab partners, Michael actually started a silent prayer. It didn't work. He got Mason Speck with his chronic sniffling and world's largest braces.
The summer between Michael's freshman and sophomore year in high school was the summer he discovered that God heard his prayers after all. Beth's family was suddenly in need of a bigger house because her grandmother was moving in with them following the death of her grandfather. Of all places, they picked the vacant house right across the street from Michael's family.
Since Beth liked to run and Michael was on the track team, they started going on runs together. They'd talk and laugh. Michael gradually loosened up around her, and they became friends. In fact, their families also got to know each other, and they would frequently get together for barbecues or pizza. Michael's dad was an ex-Marine, and Bill Anderson followed him around like a little kid asking him questions and listening to his stories. Beth's grandmother reminded Michael a lot of his own grandmother, who lived so far away that he rarely got to see her. Michael bonded quickly to Grandma Carrie and vice versa. Beth adored her grandmother and would often just sit in the background and watch Michael talk to Carrie. He was so kind and caring toward her, that Beth was deeply touched. Over that summer, they became best friends.
Once school started, Beth certainly didn't suffer from a lack of companions. Such was the life of a cheerleader, but none of her girl friends really held a candle to Michael. She learned to trust him, to admire him, and he became the one person with whom she could share any thought or feeling and know he wouldn't judge her.
They shared friend stories and school stories. They also shared dating stories, but Beth had a lot more stories than Michael. Beth at one time or another had dated Scott, the starting quarterback; Ben, the starting point guard; Kelly, the star pitcher on the baseball team; and a host of other assorted jocks. The top athletes in the major sports were high school male royalty, and the cheerleaders were the female equivalent. Michael was on the tennis team and ran track, but since he wasn't one of the studs in one of the major sports, he always figured Beth was just way out of his league when it came to dating.
Michael's longest-term girlfriend was Katie French. She was cute and funny and a talented actress and musician. She had dreams of working on Broadway some day, and Michael thought she might just have a chance.
They dated for about a year but just seemed to drift apart over the summer. Michael was a little sad, but, frankly, every girl came up short when compared to Beth anyway. So, he really wasn't all that heartbroken.
Still, Beth invited him over for a night of chocolate chip cookies and movies as soon as she heard about it. She was always there when he needed her.
The best and worst time for Michael came during summer pool time. His family put in a pool in the spring of Michael's sophomore year. So, his house basically became Beth's house in the summer. They even gave her a key of her own to the gate around the pool. She never used it though. She didn't feel right going swimming without Michael there, but she appreciated the gesture.
Beth had three bikinis and all of them were killers. She would usually come over around noon. The routine was basically the same. They'd lube themselves up with sunscreen, decide on their music for the day, put together some snacks and drinks, and spend the rest of the day sunning and splashing. Michael was truly in heaven, but it wasn't uncommon for him to find the need to dream up some excuse to go inside and secretly "relieve himself," before his package delivered an embarrassing surprise. "Great. I've become Judge Reinhold," he said to himself, in reference to the famous Phoebe Cates scene in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
Though Beth's legs would always be Michael's favorite feature, every inch of her was now vividly burned into his memory. She had silky, straight chestnut hair that cascaded down to the bottom of her shoulder blades. It was peppered with highlights of both coffee and honey. She usually kept in a pony tail that often stuck out of the back of a Cardinals baseball cap, which had been her dad's passion since he was a kid.
Her skin was naturally a light peach color, but she always tanned easily. So, in the summer, it turned a deep, golden brown. She had long, dark eyelashes; almond-shaped, milk chocolate eyes; topped with thin, slightly arched eyebrows. When she embarked onto one of her stories, he would get so lost in them she would sometimes have to snap her fingers and announce, "Earth to Michael," which was always followed by a smirk and an eye roll.
She had an angular face with high cheekbones and a buttery complexion. He couldn't ever remember seeing a single blemish on her. Her nose was pert ... straight and narrow and fit her face perfectly. Her lips were lush and full, carnation-colored, and virtually always in some stage of a smile. Beth was not only funny; she was one of the happiest people he knew. Michael never tired of watching her face explode into a sunrise whenever she laughed.
Beth had a long, feminine neck and a sleek, toned body. In addition to cheering, she had spent a few years studying gymnastics and ran five miles every day. Trim broad shoulders; toned, muscular arms; and a strong back led down to chiseled abs. Her hips sloped into a classic hourglass shape. Her ass was firm and smooth and rounded either a bikini or jeans to equal perfection.