The Girl He Could Be - Part 7

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Tim was relieved. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like trying to live here and keep up his charade.

Patty and Nancy had better imaginations. Nancy could just picture it. Tim would go crazy here. Mrs. Brown would mother him like he was her own daughter. Mr. Brown would probably be all right with it; she was neat. Jeff and his little brother would like it just fine, too. Patty thought it would be fun, but not yet. 

Tim wasn’t ready yet. He wasn’t feminized enough yet. As she thought more about it, she knew it would be almost cruel to Tim, and she was beginning to really like Tina.

After about another ten minutes of small talk, during which Tim joined in occasionally, they went out and joined Pam and Sue.

The girls had a set regime when they lay out. Sue and Pam had already started on their toenails. Nancy pulled two bottles of nail polish out of her bag. The red was for her; the pink she handed to Tim. 

It nearly matched the polish on his fingernails. Tim decided it would either wear off or he could take it off in two weeks. He had a terrible time applying it correctly. He wasn’t used to his fingernails yet. Like the others, he sat with cotton balls between his toes as they dried.

He felt strange in the little bathing suit when he pulled off the little skimpy suit and stretched out in the lounge chair. He had just gotten comfortable. He was on his back with his knees raised, just like Patty, when he heard Mrs. Brown behind him at the sliding door. "Girls, your friends are here."

Tim looked back, behind him, to see three girls in bathing suits coming out. His first impulse was to cover up, but he felt a hand on his arm.

Patty was in the chair next to his. "Relax, Tina. They’re just girls, like us. You did fine with Mrs. Brown, and you’ll do fine with them." The new girls heard none of this, of course. They exchanged greetings, and Pam introduced Tina: "She’s new in town, from Atlanta. 

We just met yesterday. Tina, this is Janet (average height, full-figured, as pretty as Patty but with larger features and a brunette), Karen (as tall and skinny as Sue, with dirty blond hair and an angel face), and Arlene (about the same height as Janet but with a more modest build, a pretty face with a great smile, and another blond). He recognized them all from school, but, thank God, they didn’t recognize him!

They were full of questions for Tina. The girls wanted to know about Atlanta and about his life there, his family. They thought it had to be pretty exciting to get away from her family and live on her own.

Tim was in a box with no way out. If it hadn’t been for Nancy and Patty helping him, he would have exposed himself. They finally decided to change the subject, sort of. They began a roundtable about the local boys.

They had been out in the hot sun for nearly an hour. Tim was waiting for one of them to jump in the pool. He was very hot. 

He waited as long as he could before he asked the obvious question. At least it was obvious to him. He leaned over close to Nancy, "Isn’t anyone going in the pool?" Nancy looked at him like he was crazy. "And ruin our hair? No way." 

She handed Tim a spritz bottle of moisturizer. "Use this to cool off. But don’t spray it on your suit." It helped. It seemed silly until he thought about how much trouble they went to to get their hair to look just right.

Mrs. Brown brought out a tray of sandwiches and drinks, and they had lunch. Tim listened to some of the girls pick apart other girls they knew. Most of it sounded awfully petty. They didn’t include him because it was assumed he didn’t know any of them. Nancy and Patty, for the most part, didn’t join in.

They spent hours talking about all the good-looking guys in school. The ones that any of them went out with received most of their attention. Tim thought guys talked about girls a lot, but girls were much worse. There wasn’t anything sacred. 

Tim was occasionally asked an opinion or a question, and after listening to them, he answered with what he thought they expected to hear. He did pretty well. He got quite an education on what girls think of guys. 

It scared him that he might be starting to think like them, the way he answered some of their questions. Pam decided to spice up the conversation a little. "Karen, you should ask Tina about the guy she split up with just before she left Atlanta."

Tim couldn’t believe it. He knew he was right about Pam; she was cruel. What was he going to tell them?

Sue perked up. She loved it. She couldn’t wait to hear how he was going to handle this.

Nancy and Patty were appalled. How could Pam do this to Tim? He wasn’t ready for this yet.

He needed a few more days.

"What was his name, Tina?" asked Janet, her interest piqued at the prospect of a juicy story.

Tim had to answer. He had to make up something, and it had to be worth Pam’s bringing it up.

"Jerry has a junior."

Janet was almost shocked. "You went out with a junior?"

Tim should have realized that was a no-no for a girl Tina’s age. "He was eighteen; he had been left back."

Well, that was all right then.

"So what happened?" Arlene was dying to hear the story.

There wasn’t a thing that Patty or Nancy could do to help him. He would just have to stumble along on his own.

Tim thought quickly, what would make him look special in their eyes? 

It had to be something that they might not want to ask a lot of questions about. 

"I had been going out with him for almost a year. He was really cute. He played football, and he was really good." "What position did he play?" Sue asked, a little cruel smile crossed her lips. Hearing that from her surprised him a little. "He was a fullback." Tim went on to describe him better. 

They seemed to want a better picture of the guys they talked about. "He was about 5'11" and about 180 pounds. He lifted weights and had a great build." By the look on their faces, Janet, Karen, and Arlene were impressed.

He went on. "He had great hair. It was really thick and long, and it felt wonderful to run your hands through." Tim felt like he was rambling, but they seemed to enjoy it. "Brian has hair like that. I know just what you mean." Janet loved running her hands through his.

"Who did he look like?" 

Karen wanted to know what his face was like. They had this picture of this great body and hair, but no face. "What movie star?" Tim had seen "Rocketeer" about a week ago. 

"He was like this younger version of the guy who was in the movie "Rocketeer."

You know, the rocket man." They knew who she was talking about. 

"He’s cute." Bubbled Janet. "So what happened between you and him?" The girls just couldn’t wait to hear the rest of the story.

All the others were listening with delight. He was doing better than Pam expected, and that sort of annoyed her.

It suddenly dawned on him, the thing they would probably love to hear. "I went by his house with some of my friends on a Friday afternoon, and he was supposed to be at work. 

We were just cruising around, and we just happened to go down his street on our way somewhere else. Well, I see his car in the driveway, and I figure maybe he’s home sick or something, so I go up to the door and knock." He was on a roll, and he had all their attention, even Pam’s. 

"There’s no answer, so I try the door. It’s open, so I walked in. There was no one around. I decided I’d check out his bedroom. Well, I’m walking down the hall, and I looked in his room." Tim was getting the hang of this. He paused for effect.

"So what was going on?" Who was there?"

He gave them a forlorn, dejected look. "He and his best friend, Jack, are in bed together, naked. The bastard’s gay, and he’s been pretending with me for a year." Tim tried to look absolutely crushed. A painful memory best forgotten.

It worked. Sympathy gushed forth from the three new girls. They rushed forward and hugged him almost all at once. As they did, Tim turned to look at Pam. She was looking at him, smiling. He nodded, ever so slightly, ‘Ok?’.

Pam’s little smile grew into a grin, and she nodded back, OK.

His story generated a brand new discussion, and he took a willing part now. The new girl had been welcomed into their little family.

"There are lots of really nice guys here, Tina. We’ll steer you away from the bad ones and help you find somebody nice." Janet and her friends really wanted to help her after what she’d been through. No girl should have to experience what she did.

"Thanks, but I’m not in a rush." God forbid!

Pam was looking at her watch. She whispered to Sue, "They should have been here by now." It was about ten minutes later when the guys came charging out of the house and jumped in the pool. The girls screamed as they got splashed.

By this time, Tim had all but forgotten that he was lying around in a girl’s bathing suit. When the other girls jumped out of their chairs and tried to avoid getting wet, he involuntarily joined them, leaving his towel and cover-up on the chair. He huddled with the girls on the lawn. 

Tim felt foolish at first, but it had been the right thing to do. He did feel almost naked in front of the guys. The guys started climbing out of the pool, and as each one did, his girlfriend went to join him. Tim was left standing with Janet and Arlene. Then they decided to join the others too. 

Apparently, the lone boy in the pool was not one of their boyfriends. Tim didn’t recognize him. They had been watching, unseen, from the house. They agreed that they would rush out and see how many of them they could soak.

Jeff noticed Tina and said to Jim, "If you thought Tina looked hot the other day, you should see her now."

Jim hurried to the window to look. "She looks good, but check out Pam. I don’t know where she finds suits that small."

Jeff’s cousin, Brad, wanted to know which one was Tina. "Is that the one your girlfriend said was available? She’s really cute."

Jeff’s cousin lived in St. Pete, and when Nancy had suggested he try to come up with a good-looking guy for her, he immediately thought of Brad.

Brad was kind of shy. Jeff had to do a lot of talking to convince him to come over today.

"She’s really cute, and she’s a little shy, too. You two would be great together." Nancy knew Jeff’s cousin, and when Jeff suggested that he call him, she thought that he’d be perfect for Tina. Brad had his family’s good looks, and he worked out, just like Jeff. He wasn’t as tall as his older cousin, but he was pretty impressive at 5’9". They were all ready, so they threw the door open and rushed out. Tim didn’t know what to do. 

He went back to the lounge chair and picked up the towel, but he was the only one interested in covering up. None of the other girls appeared to even give it a thought. He would look a little strange if he did, so he spread it down on the chair and lay on his stomach. 

At least on his stomach, he didn’t feel so exposed. Brad watched her from the pool, trying to think of a good way to approach her. Tim didn’t pay any attention to the lone boy still in the pool. He was watching the couples as they either sat together kissing or in small groups talking. 

He felt really out of place. Janet and Arlene, alone too, came over and sat by him. Their boyfriends were busy and couldn’t come over today. Tim turned his chair away from the others and started talking with them. He welcomed their company.

Brad climbed out of the pool. He walked around to where his cousin and Nancy were sitting. Aside from the three girls, everyone else was paired off in small groups, talking. Brad felt they would be intruding if he tried to join their conversations; he sat down on the ground by Nancy and Jeff.

"Why don’t you go and say hello to her?" Nancy suggested. "She looks like she’s busy." Actually, Brad was afraid. Not only was she cute, but there were two other cute girls with her, and he just didn’t have the nerve to walk up and start a conversation.

"Come on, Brad, she won’t bite you." Jeff had plenty of self-confidence; he wished his cousin had more.

"Just walk up and say hi. Ask her about herself. Say you heard she just moved here from Atlanta. You know how we girls love to talk about ourselves." Of all the boys she could think of, Nancy had felt that Brad would be the least intimidating for Tin’a. "You shouldn’t be afraid of her just because she’s pretty." Jeff prodded him. "Who’s afraid? It’s no big deal." 

That’s not what Brad’s eyes said as he shot furtive glances in Tina’s direction. His cousin had challenged him, and now he had to go over to her. What Jeff had said about Tim didn’t escape her. Nancy was glad that the boys thought Tina was attractive.

The mid-afternoon clouds were moving in, and there was thunder over the bay. It would probably rain within an hour.

Tim didn’t see Brad coming. Janet and Arlene did.

"Hi," Brad said nervously.

Janet and Arlene, without enthusiasm, responded, "Hello."

Tim turned to see who it was and recognized the guy who had been in the pool a moment ago. Tim didn’t know what to say, and it would have been rude to ignore him. "Hi." The first thing Tim noticed was his build. Well-defined muscles stood out on his trim body. Tim compared him to other guys he knew who worked out, and this guy was more serious about his body than most.

"Is it ok if I sit here? I felt a little awkward over there." He pointed behind him to the couple

"That’s understandable." Janet’s comment was not as cool toward him as her ‘Hello’ had been. She noticed how his gaze fell on Tina frequently. 

She thought to herself, so he’s interested in Tina? It doesn’t take boys long. "Sure, have a seat." The chair next to Tina was empty, and she pointed to it.

Brad summoned his courage; he sat down and looked at the girl who had him so nervous. "My name is Brad. My cousin tells me you just moved down from Atlanta. How do you like it here?" 

She had a nice body. Not as tiny and frail as most girls. He looked quickly at her shapely legs and narrow hips but didn’t let his gaze rest there too long. She had a slender waist and nice figure from there up, along with a really pretty face and beautiful hair. 

He approved. "I like it fine so far. Who’s your cousin?" Tim asked. He was nice enough, Tim thought to himself. At least he didn’t come on like those other guys.

Tim knew he had been set up, but he didn’t know by whom. He’d play along for now. If he could fool these girls, then he could fool this guy, for a while at least. "Jeff, this is his house." That was stupid. She already knows that. Now she thinks I’m a jerk.

The girls saw the resemblance immediately, and so did Tim.

So either Jeff or Nancy set him up. If it were true, that was understandable. If it were Nancy, that bothered him. 

Of course, there was the possibility that he hadn’t been set up at all. If he were Jeff’s cousin, he probably came here a lot, and it could just be a coincidence. Tim didn’t like the thought that Nancy might have done this; he had just become secure in the belief that he could trust her.

Brad knew it was up to him to keep the conversation going. 

"So what made you move to Tampa Bay?" He was looking for something to get her talking so he didn’t have to. Tim had just gone through this earlier with the girls, so the story was still fresh in his mind.

"My dad is being transferred down to open a new office for his company."

"What kind of business is he in?"

"He’s in advertising." Tim had decided earlier that everyone knew what an advertising executive did, so he wouldn’t have to answer a whole lot of questions about himself. "What does your mom do?"

No one had asked him that yet. He thought fast. "She used to work in a doctor’s office, doing billing. I don’t think she’s going to work anymore, though." It was the best he could come up with. 

"Have you got any brothers or sisters?" It was getting easier for Brad. Tim turned on his side to face him. His neck was getting a kink from the way he had to turn his head to look at him.

"No, I’m an only child." It was time to get him to talk now. "What about you?"

"Me?"

"What do your folks do?" Tim asked.

Brad was comfortable enough with that. He talked for ten minutes about them. Janet and Arlene decided they should split. Brad was making his move on Tina, and they were just in the way. 

"We have to get going. We want to beat the rain home. It was really nice to meet you, Tina, and don’t worry about what we talked about before; moving here was the best thing you could have done." They gathered up their things. 

"Are we going to see you at the beach with the others tomorrow?"

Tim didn’t know they were going to the beach. "Sure, I guess so. It was really nice meeting you, too. Bye." They were really friendly, nothing like Sue and Pam. He wasn’t happy to have them leave. He would rather not be alone with the boy.

Brad wondered what the conversation was about earlier, but he figured he'd better not ask. "Have you met a lot of people here?" Brad was glad they were alone. It was awkward trying to talk to Tina with the other two girls around.

Tim saw Karen get up and say goodbye to the others. She waved goodbye to Tim, and he waved back, returning a smile. The three girls and Karen’s boyfriend left, and Tim turned back to Brad. 

"Just Nancy and her friends and some of your cousins' friends." He thought about the way Jim had touched him and was glad that Brad wasn’t like him. That would have been too much to handle.

Tim wanted to get Brad back on the subject of Brad. He was obviously comfortable talking about himself. "So, how long have you been lifting weights?" "About three years." So she noticed, he thought to himself. 

Tina had hit on the subject that he was most comfortable with, and he got into it. 

Brad was a little surprised that she knew something about weightlifting, and her questions and comments kept him talking for quite a while. Tim found him interesting. He didn’t brag like most guys, and Tim knew enough to be able to talk to him about it intelligently. He became engrossed in the conversation. "They seem to be getting along well," Nancy commented to Jeff.

Jeff wasn’t surprised. "Brad’s a pretty good guy, and Tina seems really sweet." "Look at the two of them." Tim was now sitting on the edge of his chair, facing Brad, and it looked like they were deeply engrossed in whatever they were talking about. Nancy got a thrill out of how well he was doing. He didn’t seem nearly as self-conscious anymore.

 "He’s probably talking about weight training. He lives and breathes that stuff." Jeff had once been that dedicated, too, but football took up too much of his time these days. Nancy thought to herself that, being a boy, Tina would probably know something about it. It had obviously not been his thing, but he was sure to know a little. 

The others had noticed too. They had been watching ever since Brad walked over to him. Patty was a little worried for Tim at first, but seeing the two of them now, getting along so well, she relaxed.

Sue and Pam had stopped watching; they were too engrossed with Jim and Randy. The clouds had gotten darker, and they felt occasional drops of rain. It was about four thirty, and Jeff’s mother came out. 

"You'd better all come in before it starts to lightning." 

The girls pulled on their coverups, and the boys followed them in. Tim felt more comfortable with the skim on around the other guys, especially Jim. 

He had been giving him funny looks outside. In the house, in closer quarters, it would have been worse. The boys’ suits were almost dry, but Mrs. Brown insisted that they go change back into their clothes before they sat on her furniture.

The girls were alone in the living room. Tim went over to Nancy and whispered, "Did you set me up?" Tim wasn’t really annoyed; nothing had happened, and it had almost been pleasant, passing the time with Brad.

"Not me. Jeff did it. He told me after they got here that he called him this morning when he found out we were all here." It was a lie, of course, but an innocent one. Nancy knew what Brad was like, and Tim was better off with him than with someone that Sue or Pam might have tried to fix him up with. What she had done was for his own good. Patty decided not to push it and ask how he was doing. He was probably having a rough enough time without that kind of harassment.

Pam was not so sensitive. "So Tina, how are things going with Brad?" She said it in a tone you could take several ways. It could have been interpreted as concern, or it could just as easily have been cruel humor.

Tim felt the latter was probably true, but he couldn’t be sure. 

"Fine, he’s really nice." Tim was a lot more comfortable talking to him than he thought possible. 

"So what do you think of her?" Jeff asked as they changed in his room. "She’s really something. Not only is she pretty, but she’s smart. She even knows a little about bodybuilding." Brad had been really surprised.

"Probably from an old boyfriend," Jeff suggested.

That thought bothered Brad. "Probably." He shook off the tiny dark cloud. "Do you suppose she plays pool?"

Jeff laughed, "Why don’t you ask her, dummy?"

"I will!"

The guys started coming back. The girls were all sitting around talking, but stopped as the guys walked into the room. 

They paired off again, and when Brad suggested that they go shoot some pool, Tim agreed immediately. It was a chance to behave normally and relax. "I’d like that." Tim had played before, of course. What guy didn’t play pool? Tim thought he was pretty good at it, but Brad beat him in the first game.

Part of Tim’s problem was the positions he found himself in, trying to make some of the shots. 

When he had to hang a leg up pretty high or lean into a shot, he felt self-conscious in just the bathing suit and little short cover-up, with his ass sticking out. 

His other problem was his hair. The little wisps of hair on the side of his head kept tickling him and getting in his way.

Tim won the second game, but it was only because Brad sank the eight ball too soon. They were halfway through the third when Jeff's mother came into the den. "Tina, I asked the other girls and their boyfriends to stay and have dinner. We’re just going to barbecue chicken, so it’s nothing fancy. 

Pam and Sue said they can’t stay; they’re going out tonight, but Nancy and Patty are. They just want to go back to Patty’s and change first. You will eat with us, won’t you?" She was almost pleading.

Tim had been ready to say no, but considering Sue and Pam weren’t going to be here, and Nancy and Patty had said yes. What could he say? "I’d like that, Mrs. Brown, thank you." Carol was delighted. 

Tina was precious. She was still disturbed by the idea that she was alone in town. Even if she was staying with the girls. A young girl should have her mother around. Brad was happy about her coming back, too. 

They were having fun together. 

"We can finish the game when you get back, Tina." He was beginning to really like her. She was a real person, not like a lot of the girls he knew. "You never know, you might even win." He took a chance and teased her. He wasn’t sure what her reaction would be.

Tim turned quickly, almost hitting him with the cue stick by accident. "What do you mean, ‘might’?" Tim had been having fun too. There was none of no pressure he had been feeling for the past couple of days, playing pool with Brad. Tim smiled and handed him the stick. Tim joined the girls when they were ready to leave. On the ride home, Patty felt she could ask. 

"Did you have fun?" She felt asking him about Brad specifically would be a mistake. The others were anxious to hear his answer. He certainly seemed to have a good time. 

"I have to admit I did." 

He turned to Pam, and feeling a little brave, he said, "You really put me on the spot before." His tone didn’t exactly chastise.

"Tina, sooner or later, someone would have started asking questions about you. I just figured it would be better when we were all there to help if you got in trouble." Pam might have jumped in if it got really bad. She wouldn’t have wanted to spoil their game so soon. "That was quite a story you came up with, by the way."

"I almost started believing it, the way you told it." Sue had been impressed. "You did wonderfully today, Tina. I was very proud of you." Nancy told him. She put an arm across his shoulder and squeezed.

"I a,m too. I don’t think I could have thought as quickly as you did or been able to come up with a story like that. The others were really touched by it." Patty, like the others, got caught up in the hurt and humiliation Tina inflicted.

Tim had actually been very proud of himself at the time. It wasn’t until later that he felt guilty about lying to them and playing on their emotions. "I didn’t like lying that way. You are probably right, Pam; sooner or later, over the next two weeks, I would have had to come out with some sort of story." When he considered how it went, maybe Pam and Sue were not as cruel as he had thought.

They were at Patty’s already. Sue and Pam headed for their room to shower and change for their dates. 

Nancy, Patty, and Tina went to the bedroom and got out of their suits. Wrapped in just towels, they waited until the others were done in the shower. In the interest of saving hot water, they decide to forgo washing their hair. 

Tim took the bow out of his case and started to fix it the way Sue had taught him. "You looked really cute today with the curls. 

Would you like us to show you how to fix it just a little differently?" Nancy was anxious for him to look pretty for later. Tim agreed to let her show him. 

He thought they looked good, too. They laid out their clothes. Tim waited to see what Nancy and Patty were going to wear before he decided. 

They were both going to wear skirts, so he found his new white denim skirt with the lacing in the back. He laid out a silk camp shirt to wear with it. 

"That’s too dressy for a barbecue, Tina. Wear this instead." Patty handed him his peach-colored, cotton, three-button Henley shirt. He would wear the bra he wore yesterday. The girls had told him they almost always wore theirs for two days before washing them. 

He took out a new pair of white panties, the ones he had bought last Thursday. He found his new white flats, the ones with the little bow.

"Pantyhose?" he asked Patty.

"No way, girl. It’s too hot." Patty thought it was cute that he asked. He was really getting into this. She checked his makeup when he was done, after they all showered. "You did just fine. I wouldn’t change a thing."

He was proud of himself.