They know about Carter posting Kennedy’s pictures, I mean the whole team knows, but still. They’re aware of the absolute clusterfuck that Kennedy dealt with last year and I’m not worried that anot of them will say something out of pocket today.
Kennedy told me yesterday that besides her and Miranda she also invited her friend from her law internship, Claire. I guess Claire is the girl we were smoking with the night of my party.
There's a nervous energy in my hands that I can’t explain as I set up the cooler with ice and drinks by the pool. Adrian and Liam are already in swim trunks and shirtless, shoving cans of hard seltzer into the open cooler sitting in our kitchen.
By the time the three of us are done shoving drinks into the cooler, it weighs about a hundred pounds.
Adrian and Liam both offer to carry the cooler which I don’t argue with. I know my knee will not be happy with me if I carry that thing down the stairs. I opt to carry a bag full of towels and plastic cups instead.
Ten minutes later, Miranda and Kennedy walk through the gate to the pool and I’m shocked at how stunning Kennedy looks. It’s not like I haven’t seen her in a bathing suit before, I have about a thousand times, but damn. She looks good.
She's wearing this low cut and very high wasted hot pink one piece. Every time she moves I’m worried, okay, maybe even a little excited, there might be a nip slip. What can I say? Objectively, her body is sexy. Tight and toned with big naturals. Obviously, I’m not into her like that, I just happen to sometimes notice that she has an amazing body and a beautiful face and an incredible personality.
When Claire arrives, the girls hop into the water. Even though it's the middle of September in Michigan, the high today is 80–very much still pool party weather. Almost instantly agame of chicken starts. Kennedy is sitting on top of Logan’s shoulders, battling Claire who sits atop Adrian.
Kennedy leans forward over Logan, clutching at the other girl’s hands, pushing and pulling while Logan and Adrian duke it out under them. It's not a fair fight since Adrian has about three inches and 30 pounds on him. It's not like Logan’s a small dude, but Adrian’s just massive at six four. It doesn't take long for Adrian to best Logan, causing him and Kennedy to fall back into the water with a shriek. When she pops back up, she’s laughing.
She swims to the edge of the pool and gestures for me to hand her her drink. I shake my head, “Sorry, Kenny, I don’t help losers,” I tease.
“Oh really?” she says and pops out of the water, body glistening from the pool, reflecting the sunlight.
I’m momentarily stunned when she starts moving toward me, but after two steps in my direction I pop out of the lounger and hold my hands in front of me, cautiously backing up.
I like going to the pool for a swim, sure, but I’m not the biggest fan of getting in the water for longer than a couple minutes. I hate when my hands are wrinkly and pruny, and I can’t stand walking around in wet clothes. The sensations of it makes me feel wrong. She knows this, as she grew up with a pool that Miranda and I frequently hung out at growing up, and has a look in her eye.
“Don’t even think about it,” I say, slowly retreating away from her.
“Oh, I’m thinking about it,” she says and then she bolts toward me. I turn attempting to try to run away from her but there are pool chairs everywhere blocking my path and causing me to be so slow it’s embarrassing. It takes her almost no time to jump onto my back like a koala and get my entire back half wet. She locks her forearms around my throat, choking me a little as she evil laughs in my ear.
“I just got fully dry,” I grumble at her while clutching her wrists at the base of my throat. I jump up and down several times in an attempt to shake her off but she just hangs on tighter, getting my back and my trunks even more wet. My knee is taped up, fresh from this morning, and even with Kennedy on my back, it feels good.
I spin a few times, then with my grip on her wrists, I unchoke myself, forcing her to let go of me. She hops off my back, and I turn around toward her, finding her all smiles and self satisfied, arms crossed over her chest and hip popped out.
I narrow my eyes at her, “Oh, just you wait, I’m gonna get you back for this one,” I say.
She waves me off, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, what’re you gonna do? Toss me in the pool?” she says over her shoulder, and then cannonballs into the water like a middle finger right to the face. Yeah, I was going to toss her in the pool.
I eye her as she swims back over to Logan and latches onto a very pleased Logan’s back. The back of my neck gets hot when I notice Miranda looking at me in a way that feels way too invasive. Miranda hops on Liam’s back and I pull out my phone so I have something to do other than watch Kennedy in a skin tight bathing suit.
Logan and Kennedy start another round of chicken against Miranda and Liam and I try to stop myself from glancing up from my phone every three seconds. There’s a small thought in the back of my mind that wonders if there’s something going on between Logan and Kennedy. I only care because Kennedy and Logan are both my friends and I’d hate to have to pick a side during the inevitable demise of their relationship. And unfortunately for Logan, or Adrian, or Liam, I already know I’ll side with Kennedy. I don’t want to examine the fact that I’ve thought about choosing Kennedy over all of my friends.
“Who wants to do a handstand contest with me?” Kennedy shouts, propelling herself off of Logan’s shoulders and toward the shallow end. The group gathers around her. “Alright, the last person still holding their handstand wins,” she explains.
“What’s my prize for winning?” Liam asks.
“What do you want?” Claire says with a cheeky smile.
“Winner gets a kiss from the person of their choosing?” Miranda supplies as an answer. Everyone agrees to this weird handstand competition rule. Kennedy and Liam kissing flashes through my mind sending a twist of something through my chest. All I know is that I now have the urge to jump in the water and join this competition, so I do.
Everyone dives under the water on Kennedy’s count. I drag in a full breath and get into my handstand position. My legs are flailing and I bump into the edge of the pool right before I feel two hands push me over, forcing me to come back up to the surface of the water. I turn, expecting to see Kennedy’s face, as I’m about 100% sure she sabotaged me. But no one’s there. It's another ten seconds before she breaches the water. “Aw, did you lose?” she teases.
The next to lose is Logan. Kennedy makes a face at him and they both start to laugh. “How are they still going?” She says, nodding her chin toward the feet sticking out of the water at strange angles.
“Everyone here besides you is an athlete, babe. They have amazing lung capacity,” Logan says.
Looking at me she says, “Then why were you the first one out?”
“I was pushed over. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?”
