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This was a true bitching session, and my job was to make sure she stayed up right, hold her hair if I needed to, and listen and nod my head at the right moments. I knew not to really answer any of her questions about this heart breaker, and I quickly learned she had been drinking long before I knocked on her door. I wondered if she was this noticeable when she saw Chris and our children earlier and hoped she walked or had ridden her bike at least to Natalie’s house when she was looking for me. Natalie lived almost a mile away, but even if Liza had ridden her bike it would have been safer than driving. I didn’t have time to mother my oldest friend, though.
    “Liza, let’s go outside and get some fresh air. Is the pool still down the road? The one where we used to meet Will and Brian?” I started to guide Liza to the back door. The pool, if I remembered correctly, was another five or six houses away. It was a great pool when we were kids. Filled with saltwater to match the bay surrounding us; it was always warm and soothing. We used to sneak in after it had closed for the day. I didn’t think I’d even been there during open daytime hours. We’d all walk down the road from Liza’s grandmother’s house, where Liza lived, climb the fence, take off our clothes, and dive in. At first taking off our clothes was a matter of not getting busted. If we had dry clothes to put on when we were done, we could explain to anyone who might ask that we weren’t swimming in the pool, just hanging out around the pool. Years later, it didn’t make much sense, but I guess it was a good thing we never got caught naked in the pool. Well, by our parents at least. After a few times skinny dipping, it became a fun event, and as we got older, it added some erotica to our evenings. Especially when Will and his best friend would come out to play with us. I fell in love with him in that pool.
    “This way, Liza. Just how much have you had to drink today? Let’s get some fresh air. Yeah, this way, babe,” I said while guiding her down the steps. My mind wandered to the first night Will and his good friend, Brian, showed up at the pool.
    ***
    It was the start of summer after graduating high school. Liza and I were both eighteen. She and I were already in the pool and already naked, just starting our nightly swim. It was just the two of us. Our dry clothes were waiting on a plastic lawn chair someone had left at the pool. Of course we never thought anyone would ever notice wet hair, because we never did anything to make ourselves actually look like we weren’t just swimming. But we also never got caught. At least not by adults. We didn’t hear them come up at first. I think we were gossiping about the yacht club boys who visited each summer. Liza swam down to the deep end giggling over some guy who won the regatta earlier in day. Not wanting to talk about boys anymore, I stayed in the shallow end bobbing up and down, my perky little boobs barely moving as I jumped in the water. I heard a squeal and Liza yell something unintelligible before going under water. Then I saw two figures run through the dim light with bundles of clothing in their hands. They had taken off with our clothes, and we didn’t know who they were or where they were going. After doing the teenage girl freak out, we realized at least one of us could get back to Liza’s grandmother’s house without neighbors seeing us, but we had to wait until about midnight, after the nightly news was over, and the neighbors went to bed. Until then we’d just swim. On edge.
    We stayed huddled together in the deep end where we felt nearly invisible in the dim light of the moon. It only took about fifteen minutes for the two clothes stealing boys to come back to the pool. Only when they walked through the gate, they were stark naked too. They stood there in the moonlight with their treasures hanging loose. It wasn’t a well-lit night. The moon was almost a half moon, but it was quite