It was almost noon on a beautiful summer Saturday, and I was still in bed wearing my nightgown. Lori burst into our room and started rummaging through my dresser. "What the hell are you doing? And didn't you leave for your picnic or whatever?"
She tossed me a pair of bikini panties. "I get that you're upset you broke up with Donny," she said, "but I'm not going to have you lying around depressed for the rest of summer session." She threw a pair of shorts over to me. "You're coming with us to Thomas Park, me and Frank and a few of his friends. We'll cook burgers and hot dogs and play Frisbee and get some sun, and you'll have a good time whether you want to or not." She tossed over a t-shirt. "Frank's picking us up in ten minutes."
I was dressed and ready outside with Lori when Frank's hatchback pulled up in front of our dorm. Frank was driving, and another guy was sitting in the back seat. Oh, so
that's
how it was going to be. Lori got into the front passenger seat, and leaned over to give Frank a kiss. I climbed into the back seat.
"I'm Jason," the other guy said sheepishly.
"Hi," I said. "Annie. Your fix-up."
"Yup," he said, giving Frank an evil look.
"Shut up both of you," Lori said. "We were both tired of having mopey roommates. We're just going to a park. It'll be a nice day out, no strings attached."
Frank and Lori were quiet on the 30-minute backroads route to Thomas Park. Jason and I could both tell that Frank had his left hand on the wheel and his right hand across the seat on Lori's lap. Clearly it wasn't being confined to only her lap. Nothing more awkward than two people being on an involuntary blind date, trying to ignore the fact that their best friends are fooling around in the front seat. We tried making small talk. I missed Donny.
Jason seemed nice enough: good-looking in a tall, gawky sort of way. Kind of shy, but then I wasn't feeling like much of a chatterbox either. He was pale, as if he hadn't seen much sun these past few weeks - but again, he probably thought the same thing about me, and probably for similar reasons.
We met up with two other couples at the park, and the eight of us were the only people in sight. Lori pointed out that families usually hung out on the other side of the big lake, where there was a playground. This side attracted more of the college crowd, so during summer session it was fairly deserted.
Frank set up the portable grill he'd brought, and the guys began cooking while the girls spread out the blankets and unpacked the salads, drinks, plates, cops and forks. Because sexism is alive and well 21st century America.
I was glad Lori forced me into this. This was the closest to happy I'd been since the break-up.
Since Jason and I were the "odd men out," we pretty much hung together as a couple. That was okay too.
After lunch, Frank and Lori and one of the couples started throwing around the Frisbee. Jason said "I don't know about you, but I think I'll take some sun for a while." He pulled off his shirt, and I had to stifle a grin: if I thought his arms and legs were pale, his chest and back were shockingly white. I was probably no better, though.
"I'll join you," I said, rolling my t-shirt up to just under my breasts. We stretched out on "our" blanket, half watching the Frisbee action and half dozing off.
After a while, Frank and Lori abandoned the Frisbee game for a lie-down on their own blanket, leaving just one couple - Vin and Susan, I think - tossing it around. It was just that sort of lazy, humid afternoon.
I noticed in the distance, about a hundred yards away from us, another couple sunning themselves on a blanket. It was hard to tell at this distance, but I thought the girl might be sunning herself topless. That would feel nice, I thought. I wondered, if I were here alone with Jason, whether I'd have the nerve to do the same thing.
Susan trotted over to Vin and said something to him, and they both looked off in the direction of the new couple. Then Susan ran about halfway toward where they were lying, Vin moved toward her maybe twenty yards, then he lofted the Frisbee way over her head. It landed pretty close to the sunning couple, and Vin and Susan both ran over there to retrieve it. "Sorry, I accidentally threw the Frisbee too close to you," I thought with a grin, wondering what was going on there.
I could see what was going on on Frank and Lori's blanket: they were lazily exchanging soft little touches. Lori had taken off her shirt, but she was still covered by a non-revealing pretty pink bra. I turned over and fell asleep almost immediately.
I woke up to the feel of Jason's warm hand on my shoulder. "Annie? You may want to get up before you burn. We're all going to a swim."