"I don't want you to jump, Josie." I pulled her aside to try to get her to listen to me for once. She poked me in the stomach and smiled.
"Of course I'm gonna jump, you did." Everyone else was perched on the ledge overlooking the waterfall.
"I was only a couple feet from hitting the side, you won't be able to jump far enough out." She frowned.
"Josie, don't do it, let's just go back." I held her hand, she smirked and pulled away.
"You're right, I shouldn't jump..." She flung her t-shirt off, ran past our friends and leapt from the ledge. I ran to the precipice in time to see her splash, her bikini top came up before her. Everyone cheered when she surfaced.
* * *
"Take me somewhere nice, Lew." It was twilight, we were on our way back to town.
"You didn't even look before you jumped." She stroked my arm.
"Don't be mad. I watched you and the other guys jump, I knew where everything was."
"Why can't you ever do what I ask you to?" She giggled.
"I did everything you asked me to last night -- on top, on my hands and knees, in my..." I cut her off.
"How have we been together for three years?" She frowned.
"I don't mean it like that, don't look at me like that, Josie. I'm just saying, you don't seem like the sort of girl who'd go to college and date one guy all four years." She scratched my arm.
"We haven't made it four yet, Lew."
"I know, and I can't imagine not being with you this year. I'm just sure you get sick of me." She caressed my cheek.
"You're my favorite. I like making you mad sometimes... But I don't like it when you try and tell me what to do." We arrived at the restaurant, it was her favorite, but I expected her to ask me to go somewhere else.
"You wanna go here?" I figured we'd continue the contrary nature of our day.
"Fine with me, Lew."
She chewed with her mouth open once in a while. I tried to figure out whether she did it just to annoy me or whether it was a habit. Sometimes I'd spy on her in the morning, peek in when she was eating her cereal. She never seemed to chew with her mouth open when she was by herself.
"I don't like this, Lew, trade with me." She ordered some sort of fish she never had before. I ordered the same thing I always did. She always wanted to trade when she ordered something new.
"You don't even like fish, why did you order it?"
"I thought it might taste less fishy. Trade with me, please?" She pouted. I exchanged plates with her. I hated fish.
"Take me to Jessie's party tomorrow?" I shook my head. I hated sorority parties.
"Kameko wants to come visit tomorrow." She made a face.
"Tell her 'No', she's not your girlfriend." She was an exchange student my Senior year of high school. She stayed with my family and we became good friends. She went to college just a few hours north.
"I never get to see her anymore, she doesn't have any family in this hemisphere."
"I don't care if she comes over, just make sure she goes home by nine, then you can take me to Jessie's party."
"You know she doesn't drive at night. She'll stay over, she can come with us."
"I don't like her, Lew. You and her would get married if I wasn't always around." I laughed.
"I only like girls who torture me." She bit my neck.
"Lew, what does a Japanese pussy smell like?" She whispered it, but she was still a little too loud for a busy restaurant.
"I don't know, I've never smelt one."
"You held your nose when you ate her out?" I didn't reply, just paid the bill and got up. She wrapped her arms around mine. She had a short torso, long limbs, was about a foot shorter than me.
"Can you try and be nice to her? She's my friend, almost family."
"I'm never mean to her. I just don't go out of my way to learn all about her stupid life."
"She's not stupid."
"She doesn't go to an Ivy League school, I do -- therefore she's stupid and I'm smart." She giggled, she was being childish, was trying to get me to defend Kameko so she could hold it against me. We went home. I wanted to finish a paper. She wanted to drink wine and make sure I didn't get any work done.
"Quit being so boring, play with me." She sat on my table, pushed some of my books on the floor.
"You don't have to stay home tonight. I'm sure there's a zillion parties you could be at -- call someone." She got her phone out, flipped through it then tossed it.
"I don't wanna go to some frat party and hang out with idiots."
"You said you wanted to go to Jessie's party tomorrow, what's the difference?"
"On Friday I hang out with my boyfriend, on Saturday I go out." She was running her hand through my hair, trying to get me to stop typing.
"Josie, I don't think I've ever seen you study, write a paper, or do anything for school." She smiled.
"I want you to think you're smarter than me." She never let me see her grades, but she always had to study mine when they came in the mail. I figured she barely made it by, because she never seemed that interested in her field of study.
"I don't care if you're smarter than me, Josie."
"Drink my wine, Lew." She placed the bottle to my mouth, tipped it up.
"I'm feeding you like a calf." I laughed, choked on the liquid.
"I'll be done in an hour, we can listen to records or something." We rented part of a house, had two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and a living room. It had a separate entrance from the other side of the house, so it felt more like our own house than an apartment.
"I can't wait an hour, I'm still wearing my new bikini." She unbuttoned her blouse and lay over the desk in front of me.