Author's Note: If you're looking for a story with non-stop sex, this story isn't for you.
When I was able to get out of my housing contract with the University of Kentucky, I was ecstatic. No longer would I have to put up with the mean girls who always managed to end up on my floor. Somehow they always knew that they could be as nasty as they wanted to be and I wouldn't fight back. It's just not me; I am a pacifist to a fault. Finally, after two years of having to put up with it, I was set free when I met the academic requirements to move off campus.
Kelly Landers, a girl I knew from the Catholic Newman Center, had a house that her parents had bought; they rented rooms out to college students that Kelly knew and trusted. It was a pretty sweet setup; Kelly's parents got money and we got a place to stay. It was a nice house off Cooper Drive, pretty close to campus. I could ride my bike to and from campus, and I did when the mercurial weather of Kentucky allowed me to. I was set to move in before the start of my junior year.
I was taking some summer courses, so I moved in during June. Since it was during the summer, most of the house mates had gone home, with the exception of A.J. Bowman, one of Kelly's friends from class. Kelly herself was spending the summer vacation in Spain, on a study abroad trip.
If you haven't been to Kentucky in June, let me tell you this: it's so humid that you could wash your hair on a Sunday and not have it be properly dry until Friday. This is a problem for me, as I have wavy brown hair that extends to the middle of my shoulder blades. So when I moved in that Monday, with the record-shattering heat, I was more than glad to see that my new house included an in-ground pool. I hurriedly unpacked all my clothes (seriously, why had I packed so much? I live one county away) and changed into my bikini and a pair of cheer shorts for a swim. Like a lot of girls, I chose a bikini not because I wanted to show myself off—rather, I'd prefer not to—but because of my build.
Proportionately, I have longer legs and a short torso, so one-pieces tend not to fit; because of that, I often buy modest mix-and-match bikini sets. I've always been pretty modest. I never got in trouble at school for breaking dress code, and I went to a strict Catholic school. I am proud of my looks, as I wear a size 6, have 34B/C breasts, and am a fairly typical 5'5"; I like the curves I have. They may not be Marilyn Monroe curves, but they work for me. My favorite things about me are my smile and my eyes. I have great teeth from years of braces, so I take care of them. They're a perfect white, and my eyes are a vivid teal, which sets off well against my cinnamon brown hair. So overall, I like how I look. However, my body is mine, and I prefer to keep it private.
I padded on bare feet through the kitchen and out the patio door. The patio included several chaise chairs, a fire pit, a grill, and the pool. I placed my folded towel on a chair and quickly stepped out of my shorts, putting them beside the towel. The pool beckoned, and I was not one to keep it waiting. The cool water was so refreshing as I descended the cement stairs. Diving deep, I relished the cool water washing over me before I surfaced. Rolling onto my back, I floated around aimlessly for about a half hour. I didn't have to work for the next few days, I had a very nice in-ground pool, and I didn't have a worry in sight. After a while, I got out and lay out to tan. At my house in Versailles, my neighbor's son is a little too interested in me, so I generally don't lay out there. Finally, I had a place that I could sunbathe in peace.
I fell asleep and woke up some time later to a dog licking my hand. "Hey there, buddy," I said as I sat up. It was a cute light brown and white dog, a corgi, by the looks of him. He jumped up beside me and plopped his head in my lap, so I couldn't help but pet him. A car door shut in front of the house; AJ must have come home. A few seconds later, AJ came out the back door. He was tall, at about six feet two inches, with short black hair. He was pretty cute, with a muscular build and an easygoing smile. He had an ovular face, high cheekbones, and a hooked nose, which reminded me of photographs of Sitting Bull. He wasn't movie-star attractive, but he was handsome in a rugged way.
"C'mere, Bugsy!" He called. Bugsy the dog jumped up and trotted to him, and followed obediently at his heels. He strode towards me and held out his hand. "I'm Andrew James Bowman, but I prefer AJ. You must be Maura." He said, showing two rows of perfect white teeth.
I stood and shook his hand. He had a firm enough shake, but toned it down some for me. "Yes, I'm Maura Davidson. You'll be living here over the summer, right?"
"Yep, I'm taking some gen-eds this summer so I can blitz the architecture requirements in the fall. How about you?"
"I'm in pre-pharmacy, taking physics 300 and chemistry 391 over the summer." I responded as I toweled dry.
"Cool. Sorry about Bugsy, he likes the ladies," he laughed.
"Oh, it's all good. He's a little cutie. I like dogs as long as they're not yappy." I said as I sat down and pulled on my shorts. I held out my hands to beckon Bugsy to me, and he jumped into my arms. I reflexively caught him, but it took me by surprise. He licked my face and neck, and I laughed. I'm really ticklish, and he seemed to know exactly where I was ticklish the most.
"If you're hungry, I was about to make some burgers, if you want some." He offered.
"Sure, I'm pretty famished." I chirped. "I'm going to go get dressed."
"Sounds good. I'll get the grill going, it'll be about a half hour." He was already adding charcoal. I went inside and put on a camisole over my bikini top. I thought about swimming later, so I didn't want to get dressed totally. This would at least keep me a little warmer, as the water had cooled me down a lot, and it would cover me up some.
In the kitchen, I found a butcher-paper parcel containing a couple pounds of ground meat. Figuring I should at least help out with supper, I washed my hands and began pressing out patties of meat. I noticed that it was very lean meat. A few minutes went by, and AJ came in to get the meat.
"Oh, thanks for pressing those out. This is venison, I don't think I told you that earlier. Are you still down with that?"
I thought for a second. I had never eaten deer meat before, and was a little hesitant. Being a city girl whose family lived in either suburban Louisville or Lexington, I never really was exposed to eating such things. If we wanted meat, we ate beef, chicken, or pork; never something like venison. I don't know what took hold of me, but I said, "Sure, what the heck. I'll eat anything once." I wondered if I would regret my words.
About a half-hour later, AJ slid a cheese slice on my burger, waited for it to melt a little, and put it on a bun, which he put on my plate. He sliced a tomato and some lettuce, which I then added. I finally bit into it, with no small amount of reservation, and was immediately glad I did. The meat was different from beef; it was a lot more tender and had a different taste that's hard to put into words. "Oh, wow, this is amazing." I said after I swallowed the bite. "Did you...kill the deer?" Part of me immediately regretted that question.
"Yep, I sure did, Maura. I harvested that deer last fall, and made some jerky, some steaks, and ground some up for tacos and burgers. Let me tell you though, it may taste good now, but it tastes a lot better fresh." He took a moment to savor his burger. "I take it you're not around hunters much?" He asked lightly.
"No, not really, my family is from the city. It seems kind of brutal, all this for food. I mean that for the store bought meat too. It has to come from somewhere. I'm not a vegetarian, but I normally eat pretty low on the food chain." I responded. I tried to eat a lot of fruits and veggies for the health benefits, especially given my family history of high cholesterol. "Grain, fruits, and vegetables don't take a lot of resources. Red meat does, and I try to look after my impact on the world."
To my surprise, he responded, "Yeah, I can dig that. We do have to look after Mother Earth. I prefer to eat meat I've hunted myself because of a couple things. The first is, it's cheaper. I use the bow my granddad made and buy a license every year. I get a lot of meat for cheap. Secondly, it's a moral issue. Hog farms and meat farms of any sort are pretty cruel places; they just fatten them up and kill them. No regard is given to the animal's comfort. When I hunt, I know that the animal I take has lived a good life, out in the open where it belongs. I only take shots I know I can make, and that I know will put the animal down without any undue suffering. I only hunt in season, and I only take the animals I need. I don't hunt for sport, and I try to use as much of the animal as I can, from the hide or feathers to the bones and whatnot."
"I never thought about it like that." I looked down at my burger, thinking about our impact on the world. "You said your granddad made your bow?"
At this, AJ's eyes lit up. "Yeah, he did. He was a Lakota Sioux, and spent a lot of his time on Pine Ridge Rez in South Dakota. He lived there for all of his childhood and adolescence. Some of the older men who lived there remembered how to make bows, and taught him. He made a couple that were flops, a couple that were lighter bows that he could grow up with, and then he made this one. He made it when he was eighteen. Most of his kids—my mom, my two aunts and my three uncles—weren't that much into hunting. They thought it something that had died out with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Then I came along, and I spent all the time I could hanging around him and listening to his old hunting stories. When he got too old to hunt, and when I was old enough, he passed it down to me. He passed on a few weeks after I showed him the first buck I took with it. I think he just wanted to know someone else was keeping the traditions alive."
"Wow. That's really cool, although I'm sorry he died." I said around a bite of venison. "How do you tan the leather?"
He laughed loudly at this. "Trust me, you don't want to know...not while you're eating or anytime shortly after. I'll tell you later."
We finished eating and swam some. His eyes seemed to linger as I took off my cami and shorts, although it wasn't the same as what my old neighbor did. He seemed legitimately appreciative, not hungry like Jonny was. It still weirded me out a bit. Being looked at sexually isn't something I'm used to.
