A Hope and a Chance(20)
Author: Jennifer Foor

The last time I’d seen her hair wet like that was when I found her in my shower hiding from Buffy. I couldn’t believe she was here. How was I going to keep pretending our night meant nothing? How could I be around her when she was almost naked?

Buffy started calling me. I took another drag of my cigarette and came out of my hiding spot. “What’s up, sis?”

“Get your suit on,” she requested. I noticed her bright pink, two piece. I shook my head and sauntered into the pool house to change, trying to come up with all of the reasons that this was a terrible idea.

Once I got in the pool, I noticed my sister and Hope were having a conversation that I didn’t want to be included in. I started doing laps, pretending that Hope didn’t get to me. Keeping my distance was the only way that I saw things could work out.

When we finally sat down to eat, Buffy had taken the spot next to Mark, which left me to sit next to Hope. This couldn’t get any harder. It was like teasing a dog with a T-bone. Not that I was comparing Hope to a piece of meat, but she definitely made my mouth water. Being next to her wet body was so intense. I wanted to look at her, to peek one time, but I couldn’t risk that my sister or Mark would see me. I’d just promised him I wouldn’t touch his daughter. If he only knew she was all I could think about, and had been thinking about for over a week, he would have me shot.

Buffy did most of the talking at dinner. I smiled when I saw Hope get up and run to the kitchen, only to bring back a bottle of ketchup, which she covered her steak with. Her dad looked like she killed a puppy.

“Do you want some meat with that ketchup?” I asked.

Our first words to each other in front of her father were about a condiment. We were both pathetic.

She gave me a dirty look and began eating her red covered meat. “Don’t knock it until you try it. I’ve always put this stuff on my steak.”

“I was just kidding with you anyway,” I said, but nobody seemed to care. They kept eating.

When dinner was over we all hung out by the pool. Mark and I were discussing plans for the house, while Buffy and Hope talked about different ideas for decorating her new room. Knowing that she was so close to me was burning a hole into my mind. I wanted to look at her, but there was never a safe moment to do it.

When the mosquitoes started to bite, I thanked Mark for the meal and retired to the pool house. I couldn’t stand being that close to her anymore. I was about to explode. A cold shower would be the only remedy for this fellow.

11

I did everything I could to avoid Chance Avery. One of the things included joining a father-daughter golf tournament with my dad. It was a few towns over so we spent the night there. It was actually nice being able to hang out with him, without Buffy. She was growing on me though, and I found myself enjoying her company more and more every day.

Rylee had been consumed with the new guy she’d met at the bar. She even told him that she was only eighteen and he was okay with it. I invited her over a few times, but between work and Kyle, she was always busy.

As the days went by¸ Chance and I refused to speak to each other unless we were around my dad and Buffy. I’d managed to avoid him for a whole week between going away and unpacking my room.

The moment we got home from our trip Buffy was on him like peanut butter to jelly. That night at dinner they gave each other googly eyes and looked like they were going to come across the table and start banging right in front of us. As disturbing as it was, my mind was in other places, like being left in a room with just Chance.

Later that night they came downstairs and announced they were going away for the entire upcoming three-day weekend. Before I could grab my cell phone and make plans with Rylee, Buffy got one of her great ideas. “Oh, I know what you could do this weekend. You could get your room painted.”

My father smiled. “I can leave you a credit card to buy whatever you needed, sweetie. Maybe you could have a friend over. No parties of course.”

“And Chance can help,” Buffy added.

I could tell that it was the last thing Chance wanted to do, but he put on a smile and agreed anyway.

I wanted to tell my father that it was a bad idea; that leaving was a terrible decision, but then I would have to give him a reason why. That was never going to happen.

I helped Buffy pack for the trip with my father, but I wished that I hadn’t. Her choice of clothing was not something I wanted to imagine my father being into. She may as well have been walking around topless.

For the past two weeks I’d been forced to watch countless hours of MTV with Buffy. We would sit in the kitchen and talk for hours. She told me about how she and Chance fought as kids, and what it was like growing up in Pennsylvania. She talked about her old boyfriends and being a cheerleader in high school. I tried to avoid talking about Chance, but since he was her brother, the topic always came up.

I learned that he hated grape jelly. Riding on anything that spins made him throw up, and he was afraid of the doll Chucky from the movie Child’s Play.

Even if Chance and I weren’t on speaking terms, or any terms at that, I found comfort in hearing about him. I couldn’t explain it. It was like the more I tried to stay away from him, and avoid thinking about him, the more I had to do it. I thought about Chance from the time I woke up, until the time I went to sleep. When I closed my eyes at night, the time we spent together replayed in my mind until I woke up gasping for air, feeling hot and bothered.

Being close to him was torturing me, but the thought of not seeing him made me even more upset. I didn’t know what to do, and I feared that this weekend would be even worse. Chance had made it abundantly obvious that we were not friends. I suspected that he’d found out I wasn’t yet eighteen. He’d never asked when we were together, and I hadn’t thought it would matter. I made the choice to be with him. I’d initiated it that night.

I still had about six whole months to be tortured by his cold shoulder and humiliating stares. Six months wasn’t long when I looked at the big picture. I could do this. I could avoid him as much as possible while they were gone.

It would be okay.

Leave it to my sister to plan a weekend away from the house. I was doing my damndest to stay away from Hope, and avoid her stares. After all this time I was certain she hated me. I couldn’t blame her. I hadn’t even begun to apologize for what I’d said to her after the night we spent together.

Living here with her was becoming unbearable. It would be better if she had a job or went somewhere, but she didn’t. Instead she lay out by the pool day after day in her skimpy bikinis, taunting me with her hot ass body. I found that I had to take several cold showers during the week to keep from going completely insane. One day I‘d climbed on the roof to fix more missing shingles. She set a lounge chair up directly under me and started rubbing oil all over herself. I got so caught up in watching her, that I almost lost my balance and fell to my death.