I was once again trying to fix my little sister's bike. She was really hard on it. Either that or the bike was getting so old and fragile it fell apart if you looked at it wrong. This time I'd managed to partially strip the threads on the bolt for the clamp that held the seat in place at the right height. Part of the problem of course was that she was having a growth spurt that summer so the seat had to be raised every couple of weeks. Or so it seemed.
I pawed through the trays of old bike parts in the garage, looking for either a new clamp or a new bolt for the clamp already on her bike. Larry showed up about the time I found a grungy piece that looked to be the right size. "Oh paper boy. Paper boy, you missed me this morning."
I grinned at Larry's whining imitation of a customer. He changed to his normal voice. "So, my man, seen anything worthwhile on your morning rounds?"
"Nope. I think you're just trying to jazz me up." Larry had a different route and before I took over his old route, he was filling my ears with sexy stories about the scenery he saw. And he wasn't talking about flowers and bushes. I'd actually been influenced to take the route because of his tales. My raging teen-aged hormones, I guess. I'd already told him about old Mrs. Pierson flashing me. He was not impressed. Thing was, he never got specific. Which houses? He just grinned. Which customers? Larry just grabbed his crotch and winked. I came close to asking about Julie—Mrs. Meyer, but thought better of it. No way was I going to even suggest there might be something at the bungalow at Cross and High streets. But I was desperate to find out if he knew about her or if he'd seen anything there. Hell, for all I knew she was making a habit of seducing her paper route boys.
I had that thought and then dropped it right away. Somehow I knew it was unworthy of the woman. Nobody, I thought, with a hot body like hers, was some kind of slut. But what did I know, really?
So Larry had come by to tell me that some of the neighborhood guys and girls were organizing a beach party. That happened a lot in my neighborhood, pickup games of softball or football, sometimes a trip to some parent's cabin for an overnight. Beach parties. Larry was always part of the early planning and a real motivator. Not me. Somehow I always got invited at the last minute, sort of as an afterthought. I didn't date much in high school. Until Janice and I hooked up in our senior year. Maybe that's why I was still a virgin.
Actually, I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about it. I hung out with Larry and some other guys and generally school and the first summer after graduation was pretty much okay. But here I was at nineteen and still a virgin. I didn't mind that so much as what I knew to be my serious lack of education in the sexual arena. Anyway, Larry came by later in the afternoon and picked me up in his brother's old beater. It was really falling apart, the body anyway. There were holes in the floorboards so you could see the street going by underneath. One of the back windows was busted so it only closed halfway. The springs in all the seats were partially loose so sometimes you'd sit down and get goosed by a spring. One of Larry's girl friends insisted he made the passenger seat that way.
We got to the beach about four. This was not the lake near home, it was a few miles farther away so we didn't know any of the people who regularly hung out there. There was about fifteen in our group. I jumped in the water and then spent an hour ogling the girls who'd come with us. Some of them were wearing pretty skimpy suits. So the scenery was pleasant. Larry came and sat on one corner of my towel by my feet and said in a low voice, "Don't look now, but there something you need to see."
So of course I sat right up and looked around. Dumb. But it didn't matter because I had no idea where to look. Larry stared at me and then without moving his lips growled, "Look over your right shoulder, Sam." His imitation of Peter Lorre always sucked.
I did. But what was I looking at? "Two of your favorite customers, right?" he went on.
"What? I don't see—and then I did. About twenty yards away, in that yellow bikini, was Mrs. Meyer. Julie. She was lying face up on a blanket with another woman. My cock twitched in my swimsuit. This was not good! I couldn't go around getting an instant boner every time I ran into her. So I concentrated on the other woman who was obviously there with Julie.
"Okay," I said to Larry. "I think that's Mrs. Meyer over there in the yellow suit. The other chick looks familiar but I can't place her."
Larry gurgled. "Chick, he says. That gorgeous piece of female flesh is 2766 High Street." He was giving her address, one that was on my route. I realized then that I had never seen this customer.
"Ah, got it." Who—and just at that moment, customer 2766 High Street twisted around and the top of her suit slipped. She was wearing a fairly modest one-piece but she'd apparently slid the straps off her shoulders when she laid down in the sun. So when she sat up the top flopped down and her bare boobs were exposed. She grabbed her top and covered up fast, but not before both Larry and I got a good look at her.
"Boom, boom," Larry laughed, grabbing his crotch. "Wouldja like to play with those puppies?"
"Disgusting!" came the voice of one of the girls in our crowd. "You guys only have one thing on your minds the whole time you're awake!" She sounded mad, but then when I glanced up at her, she was smiling at Larry and she winked. I figured there was an implied message there. I looked at Larry and it was clear he was receiving. Grinning he stood up and took Ginger's hand. "Let's take a little walk to the snack shack, okay?"
I guess it was okay because just after the sun went down I came around a car in the parking lot and ran into Larry and Ginger. He had her backed up against the side of a car and his hands were up under her shirt. She looked pretty happy.
After Larry left with Ginger to go to the snack shack I got into a conversation with a couple of the guys about the pro sports teams in the city. A shadow fell over me and the guys stopped talking and looked up above my head.
