What She Didn't Know (What She 1)

“Us.” She glared at me. “I want to talk about us.”

I shook my head. “There is no us.”

“Well, not since her,” she sneered.

“Lynn,” I corrected. She had a name.

“Not since Lynn,” she said, but with less venom. Silence fell upon our little area of the pool deck. “Are you going swimming?” she asked casually.

I was standing there in my swim trunks. Of course I was going swimming. If the noises coming from the pool house were any indication, Malcolm would be back out in a minute or two. “Maybe,” I said, stalling for time. I really wanted to leave. I wanted to go by the clinic and maybe run into Lynn. But it was my buddy’s birthday.

“You want to go out some time?” Aubrey asked. “Maybe catch a movie?” She looked hopeful and it killed me inside.

I fidgeted. “I can’t.”

“Because of her.” She set her cup down on a nearby table and punched her fists into her hips. She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit.

“Lynn,” I said succinctly, sounding out the word.

“Are you really dating that freak?” she asked.

I saw the blur just before it happened, but that was all it was to me, a blur. One second Aubrey was standing there completely dry, and the next she had a pitcher of punch poured over her head. I looked for the perpetrator, and found a girl our age standing behind her. She wasn’t grinning. She just stared at Aubrey as Aubrey blew red punch from her lips. Aubrey’s hair hung down in her face, and she brushed back the wet clumps sticking to her skin.

“Keep talking about Lynn like that and I’ll toss you into the pool next,” the blonde said.

She was wearing a tiny bikini and she had a body that was svelte and lean. Little pink triangles with lace covered her breasts, and strings tied on her hips. She had blonde hair with a ribbon tied in it, and even with the bikini on, she had a strand of simple pearls around her neck, and high heels that would look ridiculous on most girls. But on her, the effect was stunning.

She held up her hand and gave a little friendly wave. “Hi, I’m Shelly,” she said, “and she’s a bitch, so you should stay away from her.” Then she sauntered off toward the house.

“Who the fuck was that?” Malcolm said as he came out of the pool house. He was wearing swim trunks and nothing else, and a girl from our school slipped out of the pool house behind him and melted into the crowd.

“I have no idea,” I said. I stared after Shelly’s retreating form, stared at that little pink triangle that covered her butt crack and very little else.

Malcolm threw Aubrey a towel, and she tried to mop her hair but it was hopeless. “Come on,” I said. I motioned her toward the house. “I’ll show you where the bathroom is.”

I took her upstairs to Malcolm’s section of the house—yes, he had his own wing. And then I showed her where he kept his shampoo and things in his guest bath. “You should get cleaned up.” I turned to leave, but she grabbed my arm.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” she said meekly. “About Lynn.”

I sighed. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

“You really love her, don’t you?” she asked, and her eyes welled up with tears.

I looked right at her and said, “I really do.”

“Even with all her problems?”

“Yeah. I love all of her problems, too.”

“I’m sorry I was rude. I just…” She shook her head. “I just miss you.”

“I’m sorry, Aubrey,” I blurted out. “I really am.”

She smiled softly. “No, you’re not. You’re in love. With her. I should be happy for you, and part of me is. It’s just hard, you know? You broke up with me and I didn’t even have any warning.”

“I didn’t mean to—”

She held up a hand. “I know. The heart wants what the heart wants, I suppose.”