'Care for one more run?'
I looked up to find Cassie standing over me, snowboard in hand.
'It's late.' I said. I wasn't really in the mood, if she'd asked an hour ago I'd have said yes in an instant.
'Ow, come on.' She tipped her head to the side. 'Thought you were a big growed-up girl now or is it past your bedtime?'
'Alright.' I rolled my eyes in acknowledgement of her jibe.
She smiled that sun kissed smile, albeit faded from the last month working indoors at the Snowdome.
Cassie was gorgeous, Cassie was the girl I wanted to be: beach blonde surfer girl, blue eyes, soft slightly freckled cheeks, that pale pink lipgloss they all wear and one of those lithe, toned bodies that only comes from the outdoor life.
I picked up my board and followed her to the lift. We'd already shut it down but she turned the key and pressed the start button and the warning siren wailed. I looked around even though I knew we were alone. It was nearly eleven; the dome had closed an hour ago and we were left behind clearing up.
It was Cassie's last shift, tomorrow she was off with her surfer friends down to Cornwall to spend the summer on the beach: surfing all day, campfires and...well, all that other stuff that I would never experience. Maybe I could have been a surfer girl if I didn't live about as far from the sea as is possible in England. For the last month, she had been the only bright thing in my life and now she was leaving which explains my sour mood. In fact, she seemed a little low too and, unusually, we hadn't spoken much as we'd ferried kids up the lift and taught wobbly adults to stand up on their boards. Even in summer, there were people who wanted to learn to snowboard even if the temperature was thirty Celsius outside.
When I thought about it I tried to forget the carbon footprint of a building this large producing real snow and keeping it frozen.
I watched as she clipped one foot into her board and grabbed a button, sliding it between her legs with practised ease; then she was off up the slope. I followed suit and we glided up to the top. I knew we really weren't supposed to be on the slope and I was pretty sure there were security cameras somewhere. I could probably get fired for this.
She slid off at the top and clipped in her other boot and a moment later I was there next to her.
'Ready, TG?' She gave me that infectious grin and I couldn't help smiling.
TG was short for Tamworth Girl, the nickname she'd given me when I'd been detailed to show her ropes on her arrival. I'd thought her bratty then, rolling her eyes as I talked through the safety gear and the evacuation plan but even then there had been something about her - adventure, excitement and, if I'm honest, she was probably the prettiest girl I'd ever met up close. Pretty, not beautiful.
And then suddenly we were friends. 'Yo, TG.' she'd greet me at the start of shifts and on the slopes, telling her class of snowboarding ducks that I was the best boarder in the Dome. It wasn't true nor course, that was her - though I was a pretty close second.
'I was born ready.' I grinned back and powered down the slope.
The rules of these races were clear, eight turns and you had to skim both sides with your board at least once. I'd fallen the first time we'd done this, tumbling on the snow as I caught the side too hard and she'd laughed. 'Come on TG, you'll have to do better than that if you want to beat me.' I should have been embarrassed, I was a little, trying to prove myself to her - this girl who was older and more confident and pretty much everything I wanted to be - but her enthusiasm was just so infectious. After that she showed me how to refine my turn and edge my board and before long the races become much closer.
She was close behind me now, her control almost perfect, she seemed to be able to mirror my movements, skimming so close she could whisper in my ear as she sped across the snow. This time she pushed me, not enough to make me fall but just to unbalance me then she tucked and cut ahead.
'Cheat.' I called back.
'All's fair, TG, all's fair...'
In love and war!
Her blonde hair was steaming behind her and I hoped she meant 'love'.
I'm not gay...wasn't gay...probably...but I'd make an exception for Cassie - my surfer girl.
She was waiting at the bottom, grinning. She liked to win and I liked what she liked and, well...
'Let's go again.' She said excitedly.
I should probably kiss her I thought, if I didn't then, I never would.
I didn't.
Then she leaned towards me, her grin broadening. 'Why don't we do it naked?' she said.
'What?'
'Oh, come on TG, what have we got to lose?' She nudged me. 'Unless you're frightened that you'll fall and get cold.' Without warning, she pulled on the zip of my jacket and was pushing it down off my shoulders before I could stop her. Then she pulled off her fleece and T-shirt in one go. As far as I knew, she never wore a bra.
I tried not to stare. Like I say, I wasn't interested in girls that way - most girls - girls that weren't...
I shrugged out of my jacket making a point of looking away from her body and then pulled off my thermal layer. By the time I looked back, she was clipped out of her board and down to her thong. I'd seen it before, of course; the staff shared a changing room. I wasn't spying on her, she just didn't seem to care who was around when she undressed. I guess she knew the sort of attention she got and I'm sure she enjoyed it.
'Everything!' She said, smiling at me, her gaze sweeping over my body.
'But...'
'Oh, TG, it's not cold.' She huffed and I saw her breath condense. 'Though your nipples are already hard!'
I felt myself blushing.
'You know you have a great body,' she said, adding to my embarrassment. 'You should display it more.'
It wasn't the first time she'd hinted at this. We'd been swimming together in the pool in the Dome's complex. The first time I'd warn a swimsuit and afterwards she'd insisted I go with her to buy a bikini. It was tiny, even more skimpy than hers and I blushed as I tried it on. I blushed the first few times I wore it too.
'Stop saying that.'
'Stop denying it.'
It wasn't that I was ugly or that my body was anything to be ashamed of, though I was just turned eighteen and didn't realise this at the time. I knew I turned heads sometimes with my pale skin and long dark hair; I still had some puppy fat and her comment about my nipples only reminded me that I still had those little cones that adolescent girls have, not real nipples.
Not like Cassie's.
And certainly not pierced! Of all the things that had shocked and surprised me about Cassie, it was the little studs in her nips. Until then, I'd thought it was only weirdos and whores that had pierced nipples.
I grew up in Tamworth, my experience of life was limited.
'Come on, sexy,' she teased, sliding out of her thong and dancing on the cold snow before stuffing her feet quickly back into her boots.
I followed suit, albeit a little more self consciously. Since I'd met Cassie, I'd taken to wearing thongs too. I'd tried going braless but my breasts were bigger than hers and after a few days I'd had to start wearing one again.
And there we were, both naked save our boots in the Tamworth Snowdome.
'Come on.' Cassie kicked towards the lift and we both went up with Cassie whooping in flight even as she shared how cold the button was between her legs.
I knew, I was riding one too.