The end of summer was drawing closer, and Catherine's last summer with her best friend was coming to an end. At least, the kind of summer they had always spent together. Since the eighth grade, they have been two peas in a pod. Catherine and Bea. The dynamic duo.
But after school resumed, they would be across the country, two best friends separated by thousands of miles. It wasn't anyone's fault that they chose different colleges. Their dreams of going to the same school, dorming in the same dorm came to a close when Bea had determined she was going to college closer to her dad, and Catherine had succumbed to the meager sum of her savings account.
So, come fall, Bea would be moving across the country to attend the University of California and Catherine would stay closer to home, going to the only school she had been given a full scholarship to- the University of Georgia.
They had spent the summer as they had all others, laying on the beach and staying out at all hours of the night to soak up the summer heat. Their upcoming separation had been a taboo, they both refused to broach the subject, each too afraid of confronting a whole four months without her other half.
Catherine laid next to Bea on the beach, admiring her best friend as only a best friend could. Her wandering eyes hidden behind a pair of massive sunglasses, she looked at the curvature of her breasts, sloping down from her collarbones in perfect mounds. They looked massive when compared to her slim waist, a trait Catherine had always been jealous of. Her legs went for miles, every man's wet dream.
Standing at 5'10, Bea had always been the one who looked more intimidating, that and because she was. Never afraid to speak up for herself or for her sister in all but blood, she grew from a loud-mouth girl, to an outspoken teenager, and now lived her life as a strong woman. In every aspect, she was Catherine's better half.
Catherine struggled with her weight all through high school, never quite achieving the perfect slim figure Bea had. Her breasts weren't balanced by her tiny waist like Bea's but were just huge globes perched on her chest like two water balloons ready to burst. Her stomach never laid flat, but held onto a layer of chub like it depended on it. Her thighs were too big, and she didn't even want to think of how big her ass was.
Despite all these shortcomings Catherine seemed to have with her body, Bea had tried everything to get her to see how truly stunning she was. Wherever Catherine found a fault, Bea had spun her words to create something even more beautiful. Her butt was too big? More to love, Bea had said. Her hair was too frizzy? Bea had helped her cultivate her mop of friz into a beautiful head of curls. Her hips curved in an unflattering way? Bea made sure that she saw herself as a curvy model of the Renaissance.
Catherine had come leaps and bounds from that weak and insecure girl Bea had first met to a confident and beautiful woman. She knew she owed it all to Bea, and that's why it had been so hard to accept that she wouldn't see her everyday.
These thoughts ran through her head as she continued to look at Bea's perfect body. She resolved that she was perfect too, just in a different way.
"Cat, do you want to leave? It's getting a bit too hot out here for me." Bea said, the first words that had been spoken in the past half hour.
"Ugh, God yes." Catherine responded, breaking out of her sun-induced daze.
Catherine peeled herself off her towel, brushing a stray curl out of her face and wiping the sweat that had formed on her brow.
"Let's hit Starbucks on the way home."
Bea grinned and responded, "Duh, why do you think I want to leave so bad? I'm dying for an iced latte."
Both girls giggled on their walk back to the car, their feet getting scorched by the hot sand. A couple wolf whistles sounded from behind them as a trio of teenage boys ogled Bea's sun-kissed skin.
Her bikini left little to the imagination. While Catherine opted to cover up the moment she stood, Bea had deemed it too hot and sauntered in her tiny yellow swimsuit.
Bea tossed a look over her shoulder, flipping her sandy blonde hair and rolled her eyes as she caught their stares directed right on her ass.
"So pathetic," she muttered, exchanging a meaningful look with Catherine.
"At least they want you." Catherine muttered back, her good mood being dampened.
"Cat, they just want to sleep with me. If that's all they want, they're not good enough for either of us," Bea's hard tone reminding Catherine that she was supposed to be body positive.
Her alter ego emerged for a moment, "You're not the one going to college as a virgin."
Bea sighed, knowing that while she hadn't been a total slut during high school, she hadn't been completely chaste either. Catherine's new and improved outlook on her body had only started in the last six months, and Bea wasn't sure if her best friend was ready for the kind of confidence it took to be completely vulnerable in front of someone else in that way.
The conversation was swiftly dropped as they talked about the minutiae of their lives.
Once Catherine was dropped off at home, she immediately hopped in the shower, trying to get all the sand off that she could. Her soaped loofa slid between her thighs and down her round calves while she reveled in the feeling.
She let the hot water pummel her for five luxurious minutes before she got out, wrapping herself in her favorite towel. Wandering back to her room, she noticed that in the ten minutes she had been home, Bea had texted her.
B- My mom and Rick are fighting, can I sleepover at yours?
Catherine was well aware of Bea's mom and step-dad's relationship and was immediately sympathetic.
C- You know you don't have to ask. Come over whenever.
Her response was automatic, knowing Bea asking was only a formality.
Not even twenty minutes had passed before Bea's car was pulling in the driveway. The girls, reunited, decided to stay in with takeout and a movie.
The takeout was easy, pizza from their favorite pizzeria. The movie was always difficult. Bea wanted something with some action, while Catherine preferred a mellow rom-com.
They scrolled through the listings before coming across a title, Blue is the Warmest Color. Catherine gestured to the screen, while Bea scrunched her nose.
"This looks too artsy for me Cat, and it's completely in French. You know I hate subtitles."
Catherine rolled her eyes, "If you refuse to watch any movies in different languages, you're never going to see anything new."
Bea wrinkled her nose again, but finally relented. She had picked the movie last time, with minimal complaints from Catherine. The first hour went past without any talking, besides the occasional comment from Bea.
As it ticked past, the graphic scene of lesbian sex had both of them clutching their hands to their mouths, realizing what kind of movie it was.
Both frozen in a half-state of arousal, neither of them moved to pause it or turn it off, the silence between them punctuated by the moans of pleasure coming from the screen.
"Um," Bea started, "I don't think this movie is about what I thought it was about."
Grateful to her for breaking the silence, Catherine reached for the remote to click it off, before Bea grabbed her hand to stop her.
"Don't, I'm interested now."
"Bea, don't you think this is a little weird?" Catherine questioned as the moans in the background grew to a climax.
"No, I'm watching a movie with my best friend, and there just happens to be a sex scene in it. Haven't you ever watched porn?" Bea said, nonchalantly.