“Really?” This idea seemed to cheer him up.
“Definitely.”
I caught Steve’s eye and gave him a little tilt of the head. After the dance ended they came over to join me at the bar. Loreal got a beer from Karl, who started talking to her in a low voice. Steve winked at me and asked, “Have I earned my reward yet?”
“What would that be?”
“A dance with you?”
“Sure.” And we went out on the dance floor. He taught me to two-step, which was fun. I was pretty excited things were working out for Loreal, and I thanked Steve for everything he did.
“You know, there are way better ways you could thank me. Why don’t we step outside for a little fresh air?” He put his hand on my cheek and lifted my chin. He was trying to kiss me, but I easily deked my way out.
“Steve, I think there’s a nice guy under that jerk exterior. Let him out more.” I turned and left him on the dance floor.
I went back to the bar and sat beside Loreal. Karl was off serving someone on the other side.
“So?” I asked.
“So, things are good.” She was beaming. “He asked me to go canoeing next week, after the camp is done.”
“That’s great.” For Lake Carswell, this seemed like a very romantic outing.
Just then, the lead singer announced, “Now we’d like to slow things down and play something for the lovers out there.”
Jimmy magically appeared and asked me to dance. Clearly, good deeds did get rewarded.
We moved out onto the dance floor, and Jimmy held one of my hands to navigate through the crowd. His hand were soft except for the slight calluses on his fingertips. He moved his thumb across my palm, and I felt a jolt run from my hand to my panties. When we got to the middle of the dance floor, he pulled my hand into his chest and put his other hand on my back. The music was slow, and we were close enough that I could feel the body heat radiating through Jimmy’s thin t-shirt. My head hit at his chest level, so I leaned against him. I could feel the dip of separation between his pecs and the throbbing of his heartbeat. I was having trouble remembering why it was bad for us to get together.
Jimmy moved his hand down to the small of my back and pulled me in closer to him. Now I could feel his strong quads and the flat of his stomach muscles. I was remembering my dreams. Although it was the first time we had really touched, everything about him seemed familiar to me. It was a weird sensation
It was too noisy to talk much, so we just danced. My head and my body were having this big argument. My head was saying, “Kelly, he’s too young and he acts young too. You’re only together for another week, and you can’t go there. It’s nuts. There’s no future here.” But my body was saying, “Kelly, he’s smoking hot, why not go for it? Are you going to be a spinster nun forever? Who cares about the future?” And while my body parts were busy arguing with each other, apparently Jimmy had been talking to me.
“Kelly?”
“Oh sorry, what did you say?”
“Nothing.” He looked disappointed. If I kept up the internal debate, I could blow it before I had a chance to decide.
“No, Jimmy, what is it? It’s kind of noisy.” I smiled encouragingly at him.
He smiled back at me. “It’s okay.” And then he pulled me in tighter to him and as our lower bodies pressed together, I could tell he really, really liked me.
Once the song ended, Jimmy didn’t want to dance anymore. He headed for the washroom, and I went back to the bar with Loreal. Suddenly, the lights came up on the band and the crowd.
The lead singer was a skinny guy in his late thirties and a real showman. “And now, we have a special song, for a special lady.” People were clapping and cheering.
“The only problem,” he continued, “is that my special lady and I called it quits last week.” He made a fake sad face and everyone went, “Awwwww.”
“So I would like to call up a volunteer from the audience to be my special lady tonight.”
There was a brief moment of silence, and then someone started chanting: “Kellee! Kellee! Kellee!” All the camp guys joined in. Beside me at the bar, Loreal was laughing and chanting too.
The lead singer raised a hand for silence and then spoke into the mike. “Is there a Kelly here?” I tried to duck down, but the guys started pointing at me. “C’mon, Kelly,” the singer said. “Don’t be shy. Let’s give her a hand everyone.” People started clapping, and Loreal gave me a shove.
“Go,” she urged me. “It will be fun. Gene is a riot.”
I walked over to the stage, and Gene helped me up. He smiled and whispered, “Don’t worry, this’ll be painless. Stand there and relax.” He motioned to someone and the lights went down and a spotlight shone on the two of us. The keyboard guy started playing alone, and then Gene began to sing.
Gene serenaded me with this totally corny ballad, “Oh Pretty Lady.” I knew the song even though it was from the seventies. So I could sway and dip at the appropriate times. Maybe it was the drinks, but I felt relaxed on stage. With the lights down, the crowd completely disappeared.
After the song, Gene gave me a kiss on the cheek, and thanked me. Everyone was laughing and cheering. He spoke to me as we walked towards the stairs at the back of the stage.
“Thanks, Kelly. You’re a good sport. That song was way before your time.”
“Actually, I know all the Trooper songs. My dad loved that group. We used to sing them in the car. You guys should play his favourite: ‘Raise A Little Hell.’ I love that one.”
“Really?” Gene asked, “Do you know all the words?”
“Duh.” I said, “My brother and I used to strut around the house singing it at the top of our lungs because then we got to swear.”
“Well, hold up, honey. Why don’t you help me out?”
And he offered me the mike.
11
Raise A Little Hell
Jimmy
Kelly certainly let loose after a couple of drinks. First, she was dancing like a maniac with all the guys from camp. I managed to get one slow dance with her, but I still wasn’t getting a vibe from her that she liked me. Feeling her toned body against mine had gotten me all excited, and I think she felt my hard-on. Kinda embarrassing.
Then, after Eric, who was totally gonzo, starting chanting Kelly’s name, she ended up getting to be the “Pretty Lady” in the song. I’d seen Gene pull this stunt before, and he always managed to get the prettiest girl in the room up there. Musicians were slick. I waited near the side of the stage to talk to her when she came back.
These crazy strobe lights started up. Gene came out and started singing. I recognized the song. It was “Raise A Little Hell.” Seriously, these guys never played anything that wasn’t three decades old.
As he was singing, the drums started up and then the guitar. People loved this song. and they were pouring onto the dance floor.
He stepped to one side, and Kelly came striding up from the back. She looked great in her black tank top and tight jeans. Then she lifted up a mike and started singing too.
I thought Eric would lose his mind. He started yelling, “Kelly, you rock,” like she was some superstar.
She actually sounded good, and she was really into it. She was prancing around the stage, holding the mike in one hand and waving her other arm around. Everyone from the camp was freaking out. She grinned and when she got to the chorus, she leaned against the lead singer and they both sang together. Then Kelly started doing the over-the-head hand-clapping thing and got everyone clapping to the music.
Her voice seemed to be getting stronger and more confident as she went on. But she let Gene take the chorus, and kept clapping her hands and dancing around in a hot way. They alternated singing verses, and then during the guitar solo, she played air guitar beside the guitarist. X-man was crying he was laughing so hard. Eric and Riley were right up front, screaming like little girls. When the song finished, everyone was laughing and cheering. Kelly walked up to the very front of the
stage and took a deep bow. Then she turned around and fell back into the crowd. Crowd surfing? Was she freaking kidding? Kelly was totally awesome.
I did a circuit of the room, and finally saw Kelly at the bar with Loreal. I was making my way over when Gene announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the last dance. Last chance for romance.” The keyboards started up.
Kelly looked around and when her eyes met mine, she smiled. Did she want the last dance with me? Then I noticed Steve making a beeline towards her too. No way. I speeded up.
But Eric sniped both of us. He was drunk as a skunk, which probably gave him the courage to even ask her. I saw Kelly nod, and then she gave me a tiny smile as she followed him onto the dance floor.
I was heading back to the bar when this blonde chick grabbed my arm.
“Jimmy,” she said. “How ’bout a dance?”
I didn’t recognize her, but that wasn’t unusual around here. I shook my head, but she kept holding on to me.
“Aw c’mon. It’s last dance.”
“Yeah, c’mon, Freshy. Don’t be such a pussy.” Steve-O was passing by with some chick. “Kelly’ll see how popular you are.”
I decided to dance. It was probably better than watching Kelly dance, like I’d been doing all night. The inaction bothered me most, seeing her swirling around the room while I could only stand there and wish. The blonde chick was short, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. If I looked down all I could see was her tits popping out of her red top. She seemed to be pushing them into me, like that would be a big turn-on. As if anyone else could look good to me when Kelly was in the room.
I looked over and saw Eric talking away to Kelly. She had to stand up on tiptoe and talk into his ear to answer. Was there any way she could like Eric? Cripes, he was even younger than me.
The song went on way too long. When it was over, instead of letting go of me, the chick pulled my head down and spoke into my ear. “We’re going to party some after this.” She motioned with her head towards Steve and his girl. “You wanna come?” Then she started giggling before I could even answer. I guess she was drunk.
“You wanna come?” she repeated and laughed even louder. I was sort of embarrassed because people were starting to stare and she kept clinging to me.
“Sorry, I have to go.” I tried to pull her arms down. She lunged up at the same time and kissed me. It felt wet and horrible.
I finally peeled her off me and had a look around for my friends. I saw Kelly staring at me, but then she turned away and headed out the door. I was trying to go after her when I got cornered by some older guy I knew from my minor hockey days. You couldn’t ever be rude because then everyone would say you were getting full of yourself. When I finally got out, everyone was gone.
I figured they were walking home on the trail. Burt had dropped us off, but he knew better than to let any one of us drive back after drinking. I ran and finally caught up with everyone.
“Hey,” I said.
“Freshy! You made it,” X-man said. Kelly didn’t say a word. She even turned her head slightly away from me.
“Where’s Loreal?” I wondered. Kelly was the only girl here. She still didn’t answer, and Smitty told me Loreal got a ride home with the bartender.
“How come you’re so quiet?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “What happened to your friend?”
“That woman I was dancing with? No idea. She was pretty scary.”
She smiled when I said this. That had to be good.
“You’re quite the singer,” I told her.
“Among my many talents.” She laughed.
“Yeah, Kelly is an amazing woman,” slurred Eric. He was so going to regret this tomorrow. He kept on going, “Y’know, you should be on Canadian Idol.”
“Thanks, Eric. I’ll think about that.”
“Oh man, there are so many mosquitoes here,” Kelly complained, smacking the back of her neck.
Riley laughed. “Yeah, they’re the provincial bird.”
Kelly was flailing away at the mosquitoes. Which was useless, but she was from the west coast so she had no clue. It gave me a brilliant idea.
“You know, you can outrun mosquitoes,” I told her quietly.
“Really?” She seemed quite hopeful at this idea.
“Yeah, let’s go.” And we took off fast. I knew she was a good runner; she ran nearly every day. And I figured the rest of the guys were too hammered to keep up. Sure enough, we had lost them in a few minutes. Just the two of us, alone at last. I had to talk to her—it was now or never. I had been drinking, and that made me braver or stupider.
“Kelly?”
“Mmmm?” She was walking along, swinging her sweater in her hand and not even looking at me. Happy to be mosquito-free.
“Meet me tomorrow. At the dock. We’ve got free time after 7:00. It could be just the two of us.”
She stopped and tilted her face up. I couldn’t stop looking at her lips, so full and pink. I wanted to kiss her right then. I always wanted to kiss her. The way she was looking right at me with her eyes all dark and mysterious, it seemed like she was into me. She licked her lips, making them shiny. Man, she was hot.
Just do it. I leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were softer than I could have imagined, warm and moist. At first, I was gentle, but everything kept building up in me and I kissed her harder and harder. I parted her lips and inhaled her, and it was so good. She tasted sweet, and she was kissing me back pretty good. I was enjoying all the sensations, but underneath I felt this certainty that she did like me and this was how everything was meant to be.
There was a noise nearby, and we broke apart. Kelly’s eyes were wide and shocked.
Riley showed up.
“Hey, guys. You can really run,” Riley huffed. “Did you see the chick Steve-O left with? Older women are supposed to be the best right? Experienced and ready to go.”
I saw Kelly make a little face at that comment. Was she thinking about us?
“Here’s my turn off,” she said abruptly and went to her cabin. I could see by the light that Loreal was already there. Riley and I both watched Kelly walk away.
“Great ass,” Riley said. He was pretty bombed and she might have heard him, but she didn’t turn around. She never looked back at me.
12
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
When I walked into the cabin, Loreal was humming happily and brushing her long hair. She turned to me and smiled. “Thank you so much, Kelly.” She looked dreamy and faraway. “Karl kissed me!”
I guessed I could have responded with a similar remark, but I didn’t. I needed to process Jimmy’s kiss for a while.
Loreal and I were sleeping in the same cabin that night since there were no campers. We lay in our beds and started talking in the darkness.
Loreal was usually on the quiet side, but tonight she was bubbly and girlish. “I liked Karl from the first day I met him. I was only ten, and I had found this baby bird that fell out of its nest. My brother, Dirk, was playing soccer with his friends, and he told me to stop bothering them. But Karl came with me. He told me to get a towel, and he got a ladder and then wrapped up the bird and put it in the nest. Karl said if we put our human scent on the nestling, its mother would reject it. He was so nice.”
“Wow, that’s beautiful,” I said. “You two saved the bird.”
Loreal started giggling. “Actually, he died. The stupid mother bird had built the nest in the worst place, and the bird fell out again. But this time my mother found the body and buried it. She made Dirk promise not to tell, but soon afterwards we had a fight and he told me the truth. I never told Karl though, and it doesn’t make him less of a hero.”
It was pretty morbid, but I started giggling too. I guess it had been an emotional night, and we needed some kind of release.
Once we had finished laughing, Loreal took a deep breath. “All’s well that ends well. Now I have a date with Karl.” She made a happy squeak. “So Kelly, you and Jimmy? Are
you still only friends?”
“I have no clue,” I said, and we both giggled again.
“I feel sorry for him,” Loreal said.
“Why?” Jimmy seemed to have everything going for him.
“Everyone knows who he is and has an opinion on what he should do. Mostly it’s hockey stuff, but if he pays attention to any girl, there’s gossip. And there’s no shortage of girls around here who’d like to go out with him.”
That might explain why he was so insistent I not be interested in him when I first met him.
Loreal spoke again, “I think he really likes you. I can tell by the way he looks at you, and his little considerate ways.”
“His little considerate ways?”
“Yeah. He does things for you, you probably don’t even know.” She tried to think of examples. “Oh, like when we had movie night—I noticed him taking a cushion for one of the chairs. Then when you came in, he called you over and gave you the comfy chair. Does that sound stupid? But it’s important. My oma used to say, ‘Don’t mind what a man says, mind what he does.’ She hated smooth-talkers. That’s probably why my mom married my dad, he hardly says a word.” Loreal started giggling again.
That was sweet. But did it mean anything? Maybe he was raised to be nice to girls in general. From what he had said, his mom sounded pretty strict.
The bed creaked as Loreal turned and pulled up the covers. “A date with Karl. I don’t know how I can wait two weeks.”
I only had to wait one day. Should I even meet him? The whole thing seemed impossible. There was the age gap. Two years might not matter when we were in our eighties, but right now it was huge. And logistically, we made no sense at all. Right now we were in the same place, but Jimmy was leaving in a week. And after that, we wouldn’t even be in the same country.
But, wow. When Jimmy kissed me, I was blown away. At first, his mouth was so gentle and tentative, exactly how I would have expected him to kiss. Then everything started building up, he kissed me harder and opened up my mouth with his, and then this huge wave of emotion and desire hit me and pulled me under. Physically, I was drawn to him in an almost magnetic way.
Hockey Is My Boyfriend: Part Two Page 7
