Hot Laps
of grape jelly.
    I will say that swimming in your bra and underwear in jelly is rather strange and
     I wished it was strawberry. I wasn’t a big fan of grape.
    There were a few problems with grape jelly in a swimming pool. It was like quicksand,
     thick and dense. If you went under, as a lot of us did by accident when we decided
     to play chicken, you couldn’t get back up without assistance.
    After a few people needed CPR, we all got out.
    Have you ever seen that movie Poltergeist when Carol Anne is rescued and she comes out in the slimy after birth looking shit?
    That’s what it reminded me of when you looked around at all of us covered in jelly.
    Most ridiculous shit I’ve ever seen.
    “We didn’t exactly think that through.” Noah said to Casten, trying to get grape jelly
     out of his ear.
    Casten didn’t say anything but smiled at me and licked some off my cheek.
    Thankfully the sprinklers came on at midnight and most everyone decided to run through
     his parent’s beautiful landscaping and river-rock beds to clean off.
    After that, if anyone had some sort of party foul, they were pushed inside the afterbirth
     as it was now being called.
    I stood there, not exactly wanting to run through the sprinklers and licking jelly
     off my forearm when Casten looked at me, holding concern, and then at the jelly on
     his skin. He gave me the weirdest look right then.
    “I’ll be right back,” he turned then and jogged inside the house.
    Nathan came up to me, handing me a vanilla Monster energy drink and a bottle of whip
     cream vodka. “He won’t admit it to anyone, especially us, but the dude’s got issues
     with shit on his skin. Freaks him out if it’s sticky.”
    “Good to know.”
    I made a mental note to test this theory later.
    After four shots of vodka and half the energy drink, Casten returned wearing a new
     pair of shorts and sparkly clean skin.
    “Better?”
    “Come on,” he took me by my sticky hand and led me to the outdoor shower to clean
     off.
    The band started up after that, rocking Casten’s favorite music idol. Strange enough
     it was Kenny Chesney who he idolized but he did enjoy some Steve Miller, too.
    He asked me to dance with him when they played “True Fine Love.”
    Casten was unlike anyone I’ve ever met in my life.
    I was convinced by one in the morning that he was my soul-mate.
    And though I wanted desperately to give this engine builder’s piston a good workout,
     it didn’t come to that. We kissed a lot, mostly while dancing but I was having so
     much fun that, for once, sex wasn’t on my mind.
    Having a good fucking time was.
    Everywhere I looked, people were doing the same.
    Just past the bounce house that had about twenty bags of packing peanuts inside of
     it was Rosa, passed out in a lounge chair, still covered in jelly and wearing her
     floaties.
    Anna and Cole were nowhere in sight and Nathan and Noah were setting off fireworks.
    As people began to pass out and the night’s sky was lit by the bonfire and fireworks
     bursting ever so often, Casten and I danced in the same field he apparently set on
     fire a few years back.
    “Were your parents pissed?”
    Casten laughed, his lips at my ear swaying to a slower song. “Yeah, they were pretty
     pissed.”
    “You think they’ll be mad about this?”
    “Oh yeah,” his laugh shook my chest with his. “I may need a place to stay. You got
     a place?”
    “I live with a butthole.” My hands moved over his bare chest, the light hair dusting
     his hand feeling oh so nice. “You could take his room if you want.”
    He watched my hands moving over him and then looked up at me with his chin bent forward,
     only his eyes on mine. “Sounds good.”
    I was about to ask him why he was staring at me like he wanted to ask a question when
     his right hand that was on my waist moved slowly up to my neck and tilted my head.
    Trailing his lips from my ear, over my jaw and then to my own, soft pillow lips moving
     with mine his kiss

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