Chapter 8

            A few weeks or so later, it was one of the hottest weeks of the year and someone had the brilliant idea of going for a pool party and bringing the stereo system and a load of drinks enough for about twenty or more people (I didn’t even know Baz’s friends extended to that many, then I realised they would all be friends of friends).

            The pool was huge and very warm; I was stood in the shallow end with some girls that were very familiar to me and we had a catch up talk about who was who and who we were here with. Meanwhile the guys, all in surfer shorts and sunglasses stood around the pool in small groups with beer bottles and cans.

            ‘Do any of you like wine?’ asked Sharlene, a long blonde haired girl with dark green, slightly slanted eyes.

            ‘Depends what type,’ some of us replied (there were about seven of us).

            ‘I have a few bottles of all sorts, and plastic wine glasses so we can’t break any glass in the pool.’ She seemed nice and not like some of the girls I knew in school. She brought out a bottle of each (red, white and rosé) and we all poured ourselves a glass of our preferred choice. After about another twenty minutes, someone decided we should be up to more than just chatting and drinking wine.

            ‘Can we please put on some songs that we like? At the moment it seems to be all about the guys, they can be boring sometimes,’ complained Ashley (she was the first to befriend me; we seemed to understand each other a little).

            ‘How do you mean?’ asked another.

            ‘Well, they’re all stood around the pool having fun, and we are here having a nice chat.’ She smiled as though she had a plan forming in her head. ‘Have any of you brought some girly CDs that we can play? We can just slip them in the hi-fi and then finally have some fun of our own.’

            At that moment, we all knew exactly what she meant; as one we all looked at the groups of guys with innocent smiles.

            ‘I can go see if I did, I’m sure I put some in my car,’ I contributed; it had just got back from the garage.

            ‘Excellent, I’ll come with and get some of mine too,’ Ashley added.

            We climbed out of the pool, grabbed our towels to wrap round us and headed over to the small car park.

            ‘So you’re a human?’ she asked with a tone of curiosity.

            I smiled and slipped my sunglasses down over my eyes, the sun was so warm and I could feel myself tanning in its rays. ‘Yeh, but it don’t bother me being around you lot. I’m used to it by now, and Baz looks out for me when he’s around.’

            ‘Ah,’ she said with a giggle and a smile. ‘He’s cute, how come he’s ignoring you now then?’ I knew she was just asking questions to make me feel more welcome (she didn’t have that jealous tone that Sharon always spoke in).

            ‘I dunno, he’s with his friends and I guess he doesn’t want to look like he’s being too over-protective.’

            We got our CD’s and made our way back to the poolside and slipped a few into the hi-fi; unfortunately, the only way to put in new CD’s was to stop the current one and put them in the empty trays. Letting Ashley get on with that and change the CD number that the system was on to one of ours; I looked over to Baz with the same smile I had on earlier while in the pool.

            She tapped my elbow when she had finished. ‘Hey, come on. I have another idea. Could you introduce me to your friends over there?’ She bobbed her head over in Baz’s direction. As we walked over, the long way round the pool, we felt all the boy’s eyes on us as we strutted round the pool. The beat to one of the songs hit us and we began to sing and twirl about a bit dropping our towels on the deckchairs (I put my sunglasses down too).

            ‘Baz, Charlie and everyone else,’ I began. ‘This is Ashley,’ I introduced her to them. ‘Ash, this is Baz, Charlie, Derek and co. There’s too many of them.’ The rest introduced themselves to her and I looked at Baz with my wide smile.

            ‘Alright, what are up to, Kez?’ he asked with a calculating look on his face.

            ‘Oh, nothing. Me and the girls decided it was about time we had some fun. Hehe. Come on, don’t be boring, come for a swim with me,’ I suggested with a small smile and held my head to one side.

            ‘Hmm, I don’t really want to get my hair wet. You go have fun; I’ll join you in a bit.’

            Pouting my lips and folding my arms, I focused my eyes behind him and did some quick counting. ‘That’s not fair,’ I said as I folded my arms around his neck and tiptoed up so I could start kissing him soft and slow. Meanwhile, Ashley was trying to use some girly charm on some of the others.

            At the point when Baz was getting the hint, I pulled away and bit my lip with raised eyebrows; sliding my hands down onto his chest, I looked over his shoulder and pushed suddenly with all my body weight. He lost his footing as he was on the pool edge (at the deep end) and went falling backwards into the pool with a big splash that got me all wet again. Then I realised the splash was so big because Charlie had also been pushed into the pool by Ashley. We looked at each with proud smiles and high-fived each other before doing a little victory dance in tune to the music. I looked down at Baz, as he shook his head and wiped his face; bending my knees a bit, and waved at him rather girly like. Then he smiled rather evilly and for some reason nodded his head, I couldn’t think why but then it hit me (or rather his friend pushed me) and I went screaming head first into the pool and straight in Baz’s arms.

            Once my head was above the water, I took a deep breath and shook my head to get the water out of my eyes. I heard Baz and all the guys laughing behind me, and folded my arms with furrowed eyebrows and starred at Baz before turning my head away with closed eyes.

            ‘Awww, Kez. You have got to admit that was fun, which is what you wanted.’ I felt the water swish around me as he swam over from where I had pushed myself. ‘Kerry, please don’t go in a huff. Come on, please?’

            Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Ashley and Charlie were fully into each other’s arms and on each other’s lips (a bit too much); then I decided I forgave Baz and near enough melted when his arms slid around my waist under the warm water; shrugging my shoulders up and letting my childish smile hit my lips. ‘Ah, gotcha. There’s my girl,’ he said as he rested his head onto my shoulder and kissed my cheek.

            ‘Ok, yes it was funny. And I forgive you.’ I took his hands from around me, turned around and began to swim backwards back towards the girls and got my freshly poured glass of wine and downed it all. The music was playing loudly in the background on a song that I absolutely adored and was very addicted to at the moment. I watched as he changed and doggy paddled over, and I saw how the other girls watched with eyes that were saying they found this rather adorable.

            Swimming over, Baz held his head above the water and his tail trailed behind him in his wake. Once he reached me, he changed back, put his hands firmly on my waist, picked me up and sat me on the pool’s edge; he stepped closer between my legs and puppy-eyed me rather apologetically.

            ‘Awww,’ sighed some of the girls, as much as they tried not to be heard their voices still reached us.

            ‘Right, now I have you here. What is it you wanted again?’

            ‘Um, just to spend some time with you while we’re here. You know, something that’s called having fun.’ I sat there smiling to myself and poured myself another glass of wine and downed that too before Baz could take it off me.

            ‘You know I’m all up for having fun, I just meant what kind of fun. Anyway, I thought you wanted to dance with me after you and Ash changed the music.’ His dark smile made me shiver with a little warmth. He shuffled a bit closer and leant in to kiss me like I had kissed him before I pushed him into the pool. Both of us ran our fingers through each other’s wet hair, and my hips rocked with the beat of the music behind me.

            Kissing him more and more, I kept leaning into his arms until I was so far forward I slipped off the ledge and stood up in the shallow end water.

            The sun began to set but the night stayed warm, and by this time we had all got changed from our swimming clothes into proper clothes and were stood around in the car park. I stood with my back to Baz; his arms were around me and crossed over in front of my chest.

            By this time, I had had enough wine that I was a bit giddy on my feet but I could still tell what people were saying to me and what was going on around me; Baz was just making sure I wasn’t going to pass out or fall over and hurt myself.

            ‘Baz, I’m glad you brought me along. I’ve had a really good time and still am,’ I said to him as we rocked about to the music still being played (the boys had changed the music style back to what they liked).

            ‘Hehe,’ he chuckled deeply. ‘I can tell you are; so am I. I’m glad I’ve got you here with me. It’s not the same when you have your girl dancing with you in the moonlight.’ The way he said that was so romantic it actually made me blush bright red, I could feel the heat on my cheeks, and I hugged him tighter than I ever had before.

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