“Can you tell me where we’re going now?”
Carson walked through the brush beneath the oak and pine trees and swatted away a mosquito. Even though he spent time as a child running around in friends’ wooded backyards, pretending to be alien hunters or running away, playing imaginary games with them, he could never overcome his fear of stumbling upon rattlesnakes, scorpions or even strange things. It’s rare for him to see such a creature, but not impossible to encounter one in this part of Texas.
“Almost there,” Wes said. “Be sure to surprise yourself.”
“Uh,” Carson said, a twig scratching his cheek. “Better be a good man. Are we still in your yard?”
“Probably not,” Wes said. “Just hoping we don’t get disappointed. Let’s call it a show… everything has come together these past few days.”
“Show?”
“You will see.”
Wes walked forward in silence for a few more minutes until a large house appeared in the woods ahead. Carson doesn’t remember having seen a house here before, which means it is probably several years old. Away from town, homes can vary considerably from neighbor to neighbor. The trailer stands next to a ranch house that could be considered a small mansion, and this new house falls into the latter category. Residents seek the peace, quiet, and privacy that comes with large tracts of relatively inexpensive land in a hilly area. Although Carson enjoyed the benefits of growing up in a city within walking distance of schools, fast food restaurants, and a public swimming pool, he still had reason to envy his friends’ homes.
“New neighbors?” Carson said. They were now close enough to see a well-maintained backyard with a gorgeous in-ground pool, patio, barbecue grill, and vegetable garden.
“Yeah,” Wes said in a low voice. He slowed down and tried to use the bushes as cover for the house. “They built the house last fall and moved in over the winter. It’s a pretty lovely place if I do say so myself.”
“So what, you’re spying on your neighbors now?”
“I prefer the term ‘passive observation.'” Wes was clearly a little embarrassed about being criticized for his behavior, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from sharing.
As his friend approached the yard, Carson followed him. When Wes found a small clearing behind the dense bushes, he finally stopped, put his bag down and sat down behind the shade. Carson did so, although he felt nervous and suppressed the urge to go home and play games. Whatever Wes brought him here to see, nothing good would come of it. It may have blown up when they were kids, but now they are adults and about to enter the real world.
“Water?” Wes asked, pulling a bottle of wine out of his bag and handing it to him. Carson accepted gratefully, already sweating profusely from the heat of the short hike. Even though it’s just early May, the afternoon temperature is almost like midsummer.
Carson said, “How long do we have to wait for this surprise?”
“Shit, get down,” Wes whispered, waving her down with his free hand. “She’s a little early today.”
Carson followed Wes’s gaze to the back of the new neighbor’s house and saw a young woman exit the back door. She was wearing a bright yellow beach cover-up and holding a towel and book. Her legs were long and slender, and her hair was cut short around her chin. Carson could appreciate the view but still felt a bit tainted by his participation in Wes’s voyeuristic behavior.
The woman stopped beside a chair, spread out a towel and put down her book. When she took off her big sunglasses, Carson’s heart began to beat faster.
“Is that Amy?” Carson squinted to see more clearly. Although he was still some distance away from her, he was now almost certain that his judgment of her identity was correct.
“Hmmm,” Wes whispered triumphantly. “Your love.”
“Shut up, stupid,” Carson said, blushing slightly. Once again he regretted telling her about his crush on the new girl in school. Weiss’ teasing got worse when Amy worked together with Carson in the AP Physics lab. Whenever Weiss talked about his crush, he realized what a coward he was for not having the courage to ask her out. She is a polite girl, although when they work together, she is almost entirely focused on the task at hand. She revealed very little about herself, which Carson always assumed meant a lack of mutual interest. Despite this, she seemed to avoid most other people in school, but this may have been a result of her transferring schools during the last semester of high school.
“I can’t believe you’re spying on her,” Carson said, unable to look away as she placed her sunglasses next to her chair. “What would Gracie say if she knew?”
“Well, she broke up with me last weekend,” Wes said, clearly not too bothered by the brief relationship.
“ओह।”
“Anyway, I didn’t really want to spy on her in the first place,” Weiss said. “Don’t even know if she lives here. But you’ll see why I brought you here. Just…almost…now…”
Carson involuntarily opened his mouth as Amy pulled her shirt over her head, revealing her beautiful body. Stark. Damn it. Naked. He thought, in the real world, no girl at his school would do something like that. In any case, she is not a good girl like Amy. He just as easily threw his shirt aside and stretched his arms above his head. He was doubly angry and knew that now he would never have the courage to ask her out. Talking to her in class was an almost insurmountable challenge.
Amy strode along the edge of the pool with uninhibited, effortless grace, her slender hips swaying slightly. Her breasts were medium sized and had an attractive cone shape with a slightly puffed halo at the top. Her stomach was flat, extending down to her neatly trimmed pubic hair. The girl showed off her attractively perfect ass as she turned and jumped off the ladder into the pool.
“You can breathe now,” Wes said, patting Carson’s leg.
“Wow.” He still felt dirty spying on her, but he couldn’t blame his friend for wanting to share. “Has it been like this all week?”
“A few days in a row,” Wes said. “And, judging by her total lack of tanning, I’d say she’s been doing this for a while. I mean years.”
“Do you think he is…?”
“Nudists? Yeah, that’s my guess,” Weiss said. “They’re never what you think, huh?”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Carson. He kept looking at her, though nothing could be seen as she swam except her slicked-back hair and bright eyes. That’s enough.
“Also, yesterday I saw a man come out and ask her for some food or something,” Weiss said. “It must have been her father. She was laying there naked and she didn’t even blink or try to hide it or anything.”
They watched in silence for a while, Carson only moving his legs a little to avoid cramping. Amy floated out for only a moment and sank back into her chair. Every curve of her body, water droplets glistening in the afternoon sun, was completely mesmerizing to him. He wondered how he had forgotten such a big detail about his lab partner. Did anyone else at school know she was doing this?
“You know, you’ll have to ask her now,” Wes broke their long silence. “She’s beautiful, smart and clearly loves taking her clothes off.”
“I guess I can’t ask him right now,” Carson said. “I’m still trying to figure it out. I might freeze.”
“Oh. Well, I guess you won’t mind if I make a move.”
“What? Yeah, I don’t mind.” Carson wasn’t sure if his friend was serious or just teasing him. “Besides, what kind of relationship does one start with a spy?”
“You’re spying on him,” Wes said.
“Yeah, but I don’t know what I came here for,” Carson said. “And I liked the nudity before I even found out about it.”
“Well, that’s why I gave you this…”
Shifting his weight, Wes leaned on a dry branch, causing a loud cracking sound to come from the branch. Both boys froze. Carson was still looking at Amy, and when she poked her head out from behind the book and looked directly in their direction, he immediately knew that she had indeed heard the sound. Behind her sunglasses, it’s hard to tell how concerned she is about the sound.
Finally, she sat back in her chair and picked up the book. Carson let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and threw a dirty look at Wes. Wes at least had the decency to look weird. The incident made Carson realize that it would be nearly impossible for the two of them to sneak away while she was out, as doing so would certainly create more noise, and she would likely be more sensitive to hearing additional sounds.
“Do you think they’re going to nudist camps and vacations?” Wes whispered a few minutes later, when his mind had calmed down.
“I don’t know,” Carson said, almost defensively. Although he admired this young woman’s beauty, he still felt awkward standing here. He didn’t want to disturb her private life. What she and her family did was not his or Wes’ business.
After another minute, Amy put down her book, stood up, and returned home. Carson saw this as an opportunity to escape without being caught and suggested the same to his friend.
“Are you kidding me? He dropped everything. This show could go on for at least another hour.”
Carson rolled his eyes. “Yes, she is very attractive and very nudist. If you want to look at naked girls, there are plenty of them on the Internet. I think we should give Emmy some privacy.”
Wes studied him for a moment. “Either you’re gay for me, or you really like her.”
“I’m not going to be gay,” Carson said, shaking his head.
“See, I was right,” Wes said, a triumphant gleam in his eyes. “Well, that’s it, Mr. Chivalrous.”
As they walked silently through the woods towards Wes’ house, Carson couldn’t help but look back a few times, hoping to catch another glimpse of Amy. He was already wondering how he would look at her with a straight face at school tomorrow.
** ** **
Carson’s heart was pounding in his chest and he could feel a hot blush rising on his face. It was just as bad as when he had asked Jenny Holman to the homecoming dance, only this time he wasn’t doing any stressful work. Today he just had to sit next to Amy and finish their physics lab together.
He moved a box of electronic components to his bench, and his heart skipped a beat when she looked up from her laptop and met his eyes. He was sure she could see right through him, read him like an open book, and openly accused him of being a voyeur in front of the whole class. He knew it was stupid, but he was still scared.
“Is there a meter?” Amy said, sitting down next to him.
“Huh?” Carson was so confused by what was said to him that he failed to ask the question.
“Voltmeter? Did you get one?”
“Oh, yes,” he said, taking it out of the box and handing it to her.
“That’s great, thank you,” he said, taking it and placing it on the bench. “I think I’ve got the first circuit, if you’re ready to start building it.”
Through practice, they would calculate the electrical characteristics of the circuits drawn by the teacher on the blackboard and then test them on physically constructed models. Carson was usually very keen on physics, but he found himself making many mistakes while trying in vain to prevent his partner’s naked body from being visible under the tight shirt he was wearing today. What made him even more upset was that Amy seemed even more talkative today than he remembered. She seemed talkative, although he suspected that it might be her mind playing tricks on her.
Luckily, the lab eventually came to a conclusion and they packed up their things. By the end of the class, Carson’s nerves finally started to calm down and he was able to carry on some conversation without making a complete fool of himself. Even though he realized something was wrong with him, he didn’t show it.
“Carson?” Amy said.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor.”
Carson’s heart began to beat faster and his palms were suddenly sweaty again. “Of course.”
“I really need to do well on finals next week,” he said. “One of the scholarships I got was so strict on GPA that I was already on edge. If I didn’t do well, I thought I might lose it before I even saw my first check, which would really suck.”
“Ouch. Can they do that?”
“It’s a private scholarship, so yes. Anyway, I was wondering if you’d be willing to help me study for it. I know you’re probably super busy studying for all your finals next week, so it would be nice if you didn’t want any more…”
“No, no,” he said, a little nervous. “I’d be happy to help.”
“Great! I thought, now that you’ve taken me to some of these labs, you’d be my best hope.”
Amy was a little hesitant to admit her flaws. Carson thought the look was both beautiful and very different from the woman who exuded confidence by the pool yesterday.
“Thanks, I guess,” he said, feeling foolish for saying so. “Of course I hope I don’t disappoint you. When did you want to learn?”
“Are you free after school today?”
“Uh, sure,” he said, though he wasn’t thinking clearly enough to remember if he actually had other plans.
“We can do it at my house if you want,” she said. Carson heard the wordless follow-up to that sentence in Where I Like to Be Naked in the back of his mind.
“Okay,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“Here,” she said, grabbing a piece of paper and writing it down as she gave me directions. “5598 Westchester, next to FM9066.”
“Yeah, I know where it is,” he said, picking up the scrap.
Amy looked up as she heard this. “You do?”
“Yeah,” he said, trying not to look upset. “My best friend lives there. It’s not the easiest place to find unless you know where it is.”
“No, it’s not like that,” he said, a strange sense of satisfaction coming over his face and then disappearing immediately. “I’ll be home by four, so I’ll come any time after that. Maybe earlier or later. Call me if you have anything.”
“Okay,” he said, noticing that she had written her phone number below the address. “Then I’ll give it four.”
“great see you then!”
Carson nodded and stared as she walked out of the classroom. His eyes helplessly focused on her ass and the memory of seeing her naked. He might be able to survive their time together in the lab, but he wasn’t so sure he could survive a one-on-one study session with her alone. He swallowed the note hard and put it in his pocket.
** ** **
For most of the drive to Amy’s house, Carson’s imagination revolved around how she would react if he opened the door naked. He would probably feel crazy if he faced this fantasy in reality. Still, he did his best to convince himself that she was an ordinary person during her time there.
Pushing aside his fears, he climbed onto the large front porch and rang the doorbell. Amy, who was still in her school uniform, took a while to answer and greet him. To his relief, she seemed almost as nervous as he was – exactly as nervous as he had been the first time he had visited his girlfriend’s house.
“I thought we could work from the kitchen table if we could,” she said.
“Of course,” Carson said, taking a step back to admire his new surroundings.
The house was at least twice the size of their parents’, but the extra space in it was used to provide rooms with vaulted ceilings and other open areas. Skylights allow sunlight to cast a warm glow on the hardwood floors, and the simple artwork on the walls adds an elegant touch to the otherwise minimal furniture. The place was clean and tidy and she felt like they were alone for the time being.
“Nice place,” he said as he walked through the kitchen and stopped in front of the wide table already filled with her class notes.
“Thanks,” he said. “This is more or less Mom and Dad’s retirement home, even though they’re still a few years away from actually retiring. I can only go out here for a few months before I go off to college.”
“Then, I guess, it could make it feel like a vacation home to you.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s not entirely a bad thing.”
As they sat down at the kitchen table and got ready to work, Amy grabbed a few bottles of soda from the refrigerator. She was a little nervous because Carson sat in the chair next to her, but in the end it was the most practical way for them to solve some equations from their homework that they had been given over the past few weeks. To her great relief, they immediately focused on physics and she found that he was finally able to relax and talk in her presence. Likewise, Amy seemed more open to him than she had in class, and she noticed a sweet, self-deprecating sense of humor in her that she had never seen before.
“You know, I think you might do a better job at teaching this material than Mr. Andrews,” Amy said after about an hour of explaining the material. “Some of it is finally starting to make sense.”
“Pretty good,” Carson said, blushing a little at the compliment. “But it might be helpful to see it done another way.”
“Well, I appreciate it anyway.”
“Honestly, I think this is the best way for me to learn,” he said.
“how come?”
“Well, in trying to explain to you how I solve a problem, I force myself to really understand how the equation works, not just how to add numbers.”
“Good. Glad to hear I didn’t completely waste your time.”
“No,not at all.”
“I wanted to take a break,” Amy said. “I need to find another lab notebook before we look further into the kinetic stuff. If you want, you can follow along – and come up to my room.”
Carson felt the offer was a trap. He really liked her, but he didn’t want to come across as overly enthusiastic. Most of all, he still had doubts about his ability to see beyond the bright vision she had in her mind. But if he refused, he risked being seen as aloof or completely disinterested.
“Uh, sure,” she said weakly.
As she took him upstairs, they chatted about their interests and hobbies. Carson was surprised and impressed by the interest in sailing and scuba diving Amy had developed during her years with her family. Carson’s forays into computer programming and website design seemed dull and boring by comparison, although Amy at least tried to feign interest.
“Well, here it is,” Amy said, opening the door to her relatively uncluttered sanctuary. “Sorry for messing things up. I still haven’t fully recovered from the move.”
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “It’s much cleaner than my room…and the view is much better too.”
Carson was drawn to the windows overlooking the backyard and the side of the house. Even from the second floor, the view of the countryside is impressive. The swimming pool and beautiful stonework and landscaping also caught his attention and reminded him of yesterday.
