Summer, early summer. June to be precise. Liz had just graduated from High School and the summer stretched out before her.
Well, not really. Certainly not in a good way. At least, that's how it seemed on that sunny day in early June.
Her schedule was full, more than full. After working as a stringer for two local newspapers both junior and senior year, she'd been offered a full-time summer position with one, and the other still expected her to attend every local sports event over the summer and submit copy for that.
And then, there was her mother, who had decided the day after graduation was the perfect time to rope Liz into helping clean their entire 4,000 square foot Victorian house, top to bottom. Old toys, furniture, minutia, all needed to be sorted and gotten rid of before Liz left for Marquette in August.
"Shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks or so." Her mother had commented blithely, offhandedly, as Liz gazed around at the number of boxes and bins in the attic alone. Not to mention the other 3 floors of her mother's 'collectibles' and odds and ends. "I'll help, when I have time." Her mother continued and Liz wondered bitterly if her parents would still pay for college if she ran away from home.
It was Saturday morning, and Liz was glumly chewing on a granola bar for breakfast, contemplating which of the two pages of tasks would be easiest to tackle, when the phone rang. Her parents had packed and left for a weekend in the city the day before, but not before her mother had handed her that list of what she expected Liz to accomplish in the three days they would be gone. In addition, she had a baseball game in Crystal Lake to cover in the middle of the afternoon today, which left her with no ambition whatsoever to start cleaning now.
"Hello." She answered the phone, fully expecting it to be her mother with more directives.
"Hey, you doing anything tonight? Even if you are, you have to come out to the pit for a party." The perpetually excited voice of her friend Kelly blasted from the earpiece directly into Liz's brain. "It's Steve's birthday and they're having a kegger. You know how that goes, 10 guys for every girl so I said I'd round up every girl I knew and make them come over."
Liz sighed morosely and said, "I can't. I have to work this afternoon and you know my mom; she left a list of house cleaning stuff for me to do this weekend. I'll be, like, grounded for the whole summer if I don't do it all."
"You're 18, she can't ground you!" Kelly was outraged on her behalf. "C'mon, it will be fun. Lots of guys hitting on you, beer, what's better than that?"
Clearly, they had different ideas about what constituted a fun time as Kelly lived for the adoration and worship of as many members of the male population as existed. Of course, she was a heavy breasted, voluptuous, dark blonde with a body that made adult men as well as incoming freshman stop and stare wistfully as she strolled by. Her boyfriend Scott certainly had his hands full with Kelly, but apparently, according to Kelly anyway, they were getting married soon and traveling the entire 50 states before returning home to work at Scott's parent's farm. Liz had long given up trying to understand her friend's social life.
They'd become friends in the fifth grade when Liz's parents upended her world by moving from the big city to the absolute end of the earth because her father decided that he'd rather live in a town rife with fellow Pilots and commute back to the airport. Being an only child, Liz was shy around strangers and the move along with attending a new Catholic school left her eager to sit in the back of the classroom and melt into the scenery. Kelly had other ideas.
She immediately involved Liz in her group of vocal, social and theatrical friends. Liz still hung in the background, as she had no interest in any of those activities, but her parents bought her a horse as a consolation for the move, and Kelly also had horses, so they became obsessive riders and 4H members. Showing their horses together bonded them in a different way than Kelly's other friends, but the group continued to get along all the way through high school.
Liz's parents encouraged her athletic drive by insisting she join a softball league, then track in middle school. High School meant tennis, softball, track as well as ski club in the winter. Becoming editor of the school newspaper kept her after school and busy during the school day. This occupation led to the stringer position covering sports events in the entire county. Her days were full, as were her weekends, and along with Church activities, Liz had little time to develop natural high school female social skills.
Other than a kiss or two, Liz was happily stuck in the land of virgins. Sex frightened her and she figured that eventually she'd get married and resolve the mystery then. When she tried to explain that to Kelly, her friend rolled her eyes and said, "Girl, we will get you laid at some point, trust me. First, though, you have to acknowledge the male population."
What Liz had never mentioned to Kelly is the Senior who caught her eye back when they were freshman; a gorgeous tall, dark and lean basketball player, with the most amazing smile, but he had a girlfriend and never noticed her. Such was Liz's life, daydreaming from the sidelines.
At 18, she had a curvy, but muscular body, "Those thighs could crack a walnut" one of guys in their group had commented when they were at the beach and Liz's cheeks turned red with the sexual innuendo. Summer sun always made her natural white-blonde hair glow and the sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks went along with the emerald green of her eyes. She was an attractive girl, and Kelly was always trying to get her to dress in ways to enhance her innate beauty, but Liz was content with jeans and t-shirts, hair up in a ponytail.
Liz snapped out of reminiscing to hear Kelly ask, "You still there?"
"Yes, I am." Liz answered. "Seriously, I have so much to do."
"Please, please, please." Kelly begged, knowing that Liz would bend, she always did. "You know Scott will abandon me and I'll be left all alone, by myself."
Liz scoffed aloud. They both knew the minute Scott walked away from Kelly, she'd be surrounded by plenty of other guys, and she'd enjoy every minute of the attention.
"Fine, I'll see if I can get a ride with Ben, if he's going." She mentioned her next door neighbor, whom she figured would be going to the party as he hung out with that group of guys.
"Awesome, see you there". Kelly was rapturous with thanks and Liz hung up, a wry grin on her face. Kelly could always convince her to do the fun thing rather than the responsible thing.
