The clock uttered a soft beep, indicating that it was the top of the hour. 1AM in the morning flashed in blue letters. I sat up in bed and rubbed my puffy eyes, which were still adjusting to the shape of Keegan and Lee's bed beside me. I looked first to Keegan and saw he was sitting upright as well.
"Keegan? We good to go?" I whispered at his direction. He tossed the blanket off of him and gave me a thumbs up.
"Yep! Hold on let me get on some sweats."
Keegan stood up and put a pillow in his place. Lee, our other good friend sharing the guest house with us, stirred a little, but then rolled over to Keegan's vacant spot and relaxed back into his sleep. I could see the outline of Keegan standing up and trying to find the pant holes of his sweat pants as he stumbled in the dark. I noticed his blue checkered boxers hugging around his hips and watched as he finally pulled his pants on and a t-shirt over his head.
"Alright, let's go." Keegan whispered back, heading towards the screen door of the guest house.
We were staying at our best friend Ryan's summer house for the first weekend of summer. Ryan was in the same grade as we were and it was a tradition to kick off the summer with a trip up to Charlevoix where Ryan's family owned a large lake house. Ryan was in another room however, as the guest house had limited space.The trip had been on everyone's mind even before school ended. With the parents enjoying their side of the house, we, of course, got the guest house to ourselves just like we did every year.
We stepped out into the cool night air and inhaled the scent of the nearby lake as we stood on the wooden deck that connect to the rest of the house.
"So, where are we off to?" Keegan said in a normal voice, now that we were outside. He playfully plopped down on top of the deck railing and swung his feat over the edge. Letting out a stretch and a yawn, he extended his hand signalling me to sit with him. I pulled myself up next to him and night sky, feet dangling over the edge. There was a silence for a bit as I stared into the clear, black sky until Keegan interrupted with a soft nudge to my side
"Come on! How does a little swim sound?" He said in a playful tone as he proceeded to lower himself to the ground. He fell softly to the grass below and looked up at me.
I lowered myself from the railing and began to smile to myself. I took a small jump off the railing and onto the cool grass, wet with the drops of the sprinkler had been turned on earlier. My toes were now wet through my Billabong flip-flops as they brushed across the lawn. I knew it would have been a better idea to bring running shoes, but slipping out of the room without Lee noticing was hard enough in the dark and I don't think fishing through my bag to find running shoes would have been the best idea. Keegan had a t-shirt on and his baggy flannel pajama bottoms on that sagged a little bit under his hips, revealing the top waistband of his boxers. He looked a lot warmer that I was, and I wished I had slipped something else on over my Adidas shorts and t-shirt.
"Wish you would have brought warmer clothes, huh?" Keegan whispered back as we walked across the lawn away from Ryan's house and towards the hill down to the lake.
"Yeah, it really has cooled off since this afternoon on the lake. It was probably in the nineties!" I stated as we walked down the dark street. It felt mysterious to be walking around so late, but I felt a certain thrill of adventure.
"Heh, well don't worry. You'll warm up once we start walking around out here. Come on, let's head towards the lake."
Keegan started to pick up his pace a little bit, extending his hand out for me to follow it. I grabbed at his hand and started to pick up my pace, too. Ryan's street was dead quiet this late at night and everyone was surely sound asleep..except for us night owls, of course. Keegan and I had a reputation for sneaking out after dark, though. I guess you could call us the daredevils of our group. We both decided that since we were only here for the weekend, we might as well take advantage of the beautiful lake that was only a short walk from Ryan's.
"So how did you like the boat today?" Keegan said as we slowed down our pace. We were now on the sidewalk that went directly down to the pier. We both knew the way by heart since we had made the walk down to the pier many times over the years.
"Yeah, the boat ride was sweet. I don't think I've ever been on a speed boat before. We were really flying when we hit the rough water," I laughed as I remembered us four boys almost flying off the tube when we hit a few rough patches.
"Yeah! I think Ry's dad wanted to throw us off the tube or something. He's alway likes to test how fast his boat can go."
"Sometimes I think he likes his boat more than Ryan!" I replied. Ryan's dad liked to keep his boat in tip-top condition at all times and spent most of his time researching new boats or better engines."Maybe we'll go again tomorrow, too. I'm gonna be bummed when we have to leave though. I hope Ry invites us up her more often."
"Haha, with some persuading we can probably convince his mom to lug us up here again. Besides, I think our parents like it up here, too."
"It's only June and we have tons of time to spare. It's not like there's much to do back home," Keegan replied.
I nodded as we turned the corner. We were approaching the entrance to the pier. The familiar picnic benches were deserted and the smell of dying campfires and barbecues filled the air as we passed by the entrance onto the dock where the boats were tied down. The dock was long, and had rows and rows of fishing boats, yachts, jet skis, and speedboats. We passed Ryan's familiar orange speedboat and proceeded to the end of the dock. A little summer breeze blew across both our faces, which again filled my nose with the scent of lake water. Keegan and I both took a deep breath, taking in this familiar smell. There was some sort of zen-like feeling of being by a lake at night. Especially one as big as Lake Charlevoix. The water gently churned at the end of the dock and we could see our reflection in the water as we passed by it, lit up by the moonlight. As we sat in silence, Keegan dangled his legs over the dock. It was a pretty high up dock, so his feet didn't touch the water. As I removed my flip-flops, I plopped down next to him as I once again took in the scent of the lake.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Keegan said as he got up from the dock's edge.
"Hm?" I questioned. I didn't think we would be swimming this late at night. We didn't even think to bring a towel or a bathing suit. It was a warm night, but we would probably be freezing walking home soaked with lake water. I made a mental note to bring a towel next time we went.
"Come on, it shouldn't be too bad. It was pretty warm this afternoon so it can't be that cold," Keegan said as he was pulling off his tshirt. Keegan had a similar body shape to mine, with faint set of abs coming along, as he liked to brag about. We had been on the school's soccer team for almost 3 years, but Keegan still was a little more toned than the rest of us. Putting his thumbs in the waistline of his boxers, he nodded for me to join him for a swim. A little unsure, I put my hands on the bottom of my shirt, still thinking if I really wanted to get out of my dry clothes to jump off into a cold lake.
"Alright, you're gonna make me get over there and get you in the water, huh?" Keegan said as he lunged towards me and put me in a playful hug, tugging at my shirt. He made an effort to pull my shirt over my head and try to push me towards the end of the dock. I plopped down on the dock as Keegan collapsed next to me, still grabbing at my shirt and laughing. With a few quick moves, I managed to get Keegan down on the dock and pinned both his arms down on the dock with myself on top of his stomach as he made a helpless attempt to loosen his hands from my grip.
"Well well, look what I have here now" I teased as Keegan tried to release himself from my grip. I looked down on his with a smile a lifted a hand up to tickle his face. He swatted my hand away and flipped around and put me in the same hold I put him in, sitting on my crotch. I was kinda amazed at how fast it took to reverse the situation. He looked down at me with a smile and his light piercing brown eyes looked down on me. I could smell his sweet boyish scent as I looked up at him. I began to relax so he would loosen his grip. "Well well look what I have here now," Keegan repeated with a little sarcasm in his voice. He let go of my wrists and I got out from under him, both of us panting a little bit.
"Alright, alright. Jeez, I'll go I'll go!" I finally agreed. I pulled off my t-shirt revealing my goose bumped skin. Keegan was starting to throw his sweats in a pile with his t-shirt and running shoes and socks. Standing there just in his boxers, he looked up from his pile and stared in my direction.
His teeth chattered a bit and he shook off the cold."Fuuuck, it
i is
i0 colder that I thought," Keegan whispered under his breath as I threw my t-shirt on the dock next to his clothes pile. I then pulled down my Adidas shorts and stood there in my boxers as well. I stretched my arms up into the air and arched my back a bit. I could feel a sweep of goosebumps spread across my skin. The air around the lake felt cooler compared to when we were walking down the road earlier .
"Well, no use walking back in wet boxers either. I guess we'll be skinny dipping! Hope you're little dick won't be too small with the cold!" Keegan teased as he tested the water with his toe.
Keegan laughed as he pulled down his boxers and shyly tossed them aside. I snuck a glance over as he tossed his boxers on top of our heap of clothes. Keegan had been getting a slight tan as the warmer months of summer approached. Our soccer practices and games were held on the school's field outside. I could see an even tan line starting where his waist line was then transitioned into a paler shade of skin on his cheeks and thighs. Keegan covered his crotch at first, but then dropped his hands down to reveal a pretty nice package with a small shrub of pubes above it. He repositioned his dick a bit as it was pretty cold out and was suffering from some shrinkage, if you know what I mean. Keegan and his siblings were all blonde, so his pubes were pretty light, but could be still be seen as they darkened a bit towards the base of his package. He didn't seem to be shy about his nakedness, despite it being a public dock. He leaned on a post and examined how far the jump was. I fidgeted with my boxers, still a little shy (And cold, dammit!) about skinny dipping at the end of a public dock.
"How is it? It's not that far up is it?" I questioned, still with my hands on my boxer waistband trying to work up the courage to be completely nude in front of Keegan. We had seen each other naked a few times in the locker rooms, but there was an unfamiliar initial awkwardness between us at this moment
"Nah, only like 5ft or so. It looked a lot higher when we were walking up here. I've done this a few times before with Ryan and Lee. You just gotta run and not think about jumping off." Keegan trailed off and looked around to see that it was still deserted around the pier. "We gonna jump in now, then? Or do I have to help you get your undies off too" He questioned over his shoulder with a small grin on his face.
"Yeah yeah, let's go." I said as I pulled down my boxers and tossed them aside as well. I took a minute to shake off the uneasiness of being completely nude but quickly started to feel more comfortable. Keegan's face lit up as he glanced in my direction.
"Alrighty.. let's do this." Keegan said as he backed up and ran full speed off the dock and into the lake with an added "WOOO" as he hit the water. I rolled my eyes and backed up to do the same, thinking that yelling would probably not be the best idea late at night.
I counted down in my head and ran off the dock towards Keegan, who was already swimming around below. With a loud splash, I hit the water and resurfaced to Keegan's smiling face. His hair was a mess, pointing in all directions and beads of water were dripping off his face as he beamed a smile towards me.
"Phew, at least it's warmer in here than standing on the dock" Keegan said as he floated on his back, looking up to the moon. He dunked himself under to smooth out his uneven hair.
"Yeah, just hope we don't run into some killer fish or anything" I added as we both giggled and swam towards the adjacent beach. We both swam freestyle towards the beach and away from the gross sea-weedy areas to find a soft patch of sand in shallow water. When we found a spot that was about waist deep, we stood up and took in the scenery once again, thinking of all the stuff we could do this weekend.
"Man I love it up here. I wish we could spend the whole summer. Just us guys hanging out at Ryan's place." Keegan said, locking his hands behind his head and looking around the shore.
"I know what you mean, that would be awesome. This weekend's gonna rock. It's such a relief to finally be done with grade 8."
I glanced up at Keegan who was sort of staring up at the sky zoning out a bit. I thought of earlier on the dock when he tried wrestle me out of my clothes and into the water. This was a perfect time to get him back. I shifted my position and got ready to tackle him into the water.
"Hey Kee, think fast!" I shouted as I threw myself towards him, knocking him backwards on his ass and back into the water. Keegan resurfaced spitting water and splashing me, re-"fixing" his hair again. I playfully punched his arm and splashed him back
"Hah, gotcha back." A smile flashed across my face as Keegan wiped the water from his eyes. Rubbing his hands up and down his his arms, he signalled that he was getting cold standing here and ready to get out. I joined his side as we walked towards the beach and back to the dock to retrieve our clothes. The sand was soft on our feet and sunk downward as we started to walk up the beach. I gave Keegan's hair a little ruffle because I knew it annoyed him. Keegan had a short sag to about his ears, similar to mine but a lot more blonde compared to my dark brown. He always spent extra time in the shower washing it and styling his "swoop" to his liking. Even though it was still wet from the lake, it fell into its classic swoop shape with just a few shakes of his head and some help from his fingers.
"You're lucky I'm getting tired or I would have dunked you under too, dork!" He refuted as we climbed back onto the dock. Trying to find our clothes in the dark was quite a challenge, but hilarious at the same time seeing Keegan stumble around stark naked. My foot brushed against Keegan's pile of clothes and my feet found my flip-flops. I threw Keegan his shirt and began to wipe the beads of lake water dripping off my face. I slipped my shirt on and watched Keegan hop around to find the leg hole of his boxers in the dark. I giggled and pulled on my briefs and shorts and made sure I wasn't leaving anything behind. Keegan followed suit and pulled on his sweatpants and pulled out his phone from the pocket.
"Wow, almost 2:00am already?" Keegan said with a hint of surprise in his voice. He shut his phone and shoved it back into his pocket.
"Really..? It hasn't really felt like we've been gone that long. I bet Lee is still fast asleep though. Little baby," I joked as we swiftly made our way to the entrance again. I could feel the grains of sand rubbing at my feet from the bottom of my flip-flops. My clothes felt slightly damp as we continued walking and I thought to myself how stupid it was not to think to bring a towel along with us. Next time we would plan ahead.
A shower was sounding pretty nice at the moment, but it would have to wait until tomorrow morning. It would seem suspicious waltzing into the bathroom around 2:30am to have a nice shower. Especially if we woke up Ryan's mom, who isn't too forgiving those who woke her up. Another wave of summer air found us as we left the entrance of the pier and back up the road. It sent goosebumps up my back and quickened my pace.
The walk back was quiet as we crept through neighbors' back yards and through short cuts to avoid the main streets. Before we knew it, we were walking back up to Ryan's balcony, where we would have to climb back up to get back into the guest house unnoticed. We slowed down our pace and were careful not to turn on the automatic lights hanging off the side of the house. We were pros at sneaking in and out of the house by this age.
"Man, I always hate this part. I always think Lee's mom is gonna be waiting up there for us or something like that." Keegan whispered as I decided which way was the best to climb up. I grabbed a bar from the patio fence and hoisted myself up to the edge and pulled myself up with an over exaggerated grunt.
Keegan smacked the bottom of my flip-flop and held a finger over his lips. "SHHH. What the hell man, you want Lee's mom to skin us?!" Keegan hissed as he pulled himself up to the ledge as a grasped his hand helping him up. I flashed a little smile and ruffled his hair as we tip toed back to the guest house door. Keegan leaned up to the door cupping his hands over his eyes and looked into the room. I put my chin in the crook of Keegan's shoulder and looked in as well. Of course, Lee was still passed out on the bed, still sprawled on both Keegan's spot and his own.
"Heh. Just like I left 'em," Keegan grinned as he quietly cracked open the door and slipped inside, holding the door open for me as I followed him. Slipping off my flip flops, Lee stirred a bit in his sleep and extended his leg out from under the covers as his breathing got more shallow and settled back into his spot. Keegan shut the door and pulled the blinds down.
I held my hand over my mouth to keep myself from giggling. Every little creek or noise sent us both in a fit of giggles. Several times I felt myself bump into a shoe, carelessly left in the middle of the room, or one of Keegan's pairs of jeans or shorts. Luckily, Lee remain asleep despite all the noise we created. I was heading to backpack to get some pajamas out when Keegan tapped my shoulder.
"Well.. how do you suppose I get myself back in there? It kinda looks like Lee is pretty comfortable snuggled up in that mass of blankets and pillows." Keegan switched his eyes from Lee over to me with a puzzled look on his face.
"Eh, we'll talk for a while on my bed and see if he wakes up. Ryan's up in his own room tonight so I have an extra spot." I headed for my twin bed and plopped down on it. The softness of the comforter felt soothing under my damp skin. I began to warm up from the cool night air and my goosebumps started to disappear. I rolled off the bed and went to my bag and pulled out some pajama pants and slipped off my shorts and tossed them aside. I retrieved them and hung them over one of the arms of the chairs to air dry. I stood up and slipped the pajama pants on and also got my iTouch and cell out of my bag. Keegan took off his shirt and tossed it aside into his messy pile, disregarding the fact that he should let it dry like I did with mine. Putting my hands behind my head, I extended onto the bed and let out a soft yawn and rubbed my eyes.
"You're not tired, are ya?! That swimming got me wide awake!" Keegan was propped up on his elbows and grabbed my iTouch and began to shift through the pages of games and tapped away at the screen. I put my legs underneath the covers and leaned over to Keegan to see which game he had chosen.
"Eh, a bit. I mean we did spend most of the day on the lake. We'll be able to sleep in tomorrow though. Got anything to do?" I answered as I glanced over to Lee's bed, who was stirred a bit and repositioned his head on his pillow. I again put a finger to my lips signaling that we should keep it down.. but that wasn't really possible for two rowdy teen boys.
"Well right now i'm kicking your butt on the game. You high score is weak, man!" Keegan playfully shoved me back onto a pillow and continued tapping away at the iTouch screen." After several minutes of tapping, cursing, and cheering, he put his arms up signalling an obvious victory in whatever he was playing.
"WOOO. Your high score is officially beaten." Keegan cheered as he tossed my iTouch back to me. I glanced over to Lee, who was now rubbing his eyes. His head popped out from underneath the mass of covers. It took him a few moments to regain rub away the sleep from his eyes as he sat upright on the edge of the bed.
"Man, you two dumbasses don't know how to be quiet, do you? I was having a nice dream until you two assholes started to shout and holler," Lee half- yawned at us as he threw the covers off from himself into a giant heap on the bed.
"Well you kinda stole my spot, dude. Was I supposed to get in there and spoon up with ya..? Anyways,you're up now, dork. Come over and sit with us," Keegan answered. He tossed a few pillows aside and patted a spot across from him on my bed. Lee sat up and repositioned his dick which was poking against his pajama bottoms and responded with a tired grunt and made his way over to the bed and fell face first onto the comforter making a fake snoring sound.
"Well you can't be too angry about us waking you up. You look pretty happy to me." I giggled as I rolled Lee over and gestured towards the obvious boner still poking against his pajama bottoms.
Lee blushed as he again tried to hide his wood by repositioning his pajama bottoms. I gave him a little shove to say I was just kidding.
"Man, think we can pull an all nighter?" Keegan questioned us, getting underneath the covers along with me. Lee had a gotten the blanket from the foot of the bed and was sitting with his legs folded with the blanket wrapped around his shoulders, still waking up from his disturbed sleep.
"Pfft, some of us actually sleep at night..unlike you two night owls." Lee reminded us.
I repositioned myself so I was on my side facing both of my friends. "Well we're up for the time being, let's talk for a while." I switched my glance between Keegan and Lee's faces, who seemed down for a little chitchat before we got tired to stay up. I wasn't sure if I could last all night like Keegan suggested, but decided to wait and see where the night's conversations took us.
"We kinda went out awhile ago while your fat ass was sleeping." Keegan informed Lee with a little grin on his face.
"Wooow. You should have woke me up to go with you guys! Where did you go? The lake?"
We both nodded our heads simultaneously and shared with Lee how we made our way down the balcony and into the lake to have a nice skinny-dip under the moonlit lake.
"Well we'll have to go some other time before the weekend is over. Maybe Ryan will want to come, too. And you have my permission to wake me up if I fall asleep next time."
"Ooh, so now you want to be woken up. I was sure you would slapped me in the face if I woke you up to go swimming." Keegan teased.
I let out an over exaggerated yawn. I tried to think of something for us to chat about when the thought of a game came to mind.
"Let's plaaaaaay....Truth or Dare?" I asked them. It was a classic game that we usually played at our sleepovers.
"Fuck that, man. I'm too lazy to get out of this bed to put up with your silly dares." Lee said as he buried his face into the blanket.
"We could just do the truth questions, I guess?" Keegan suggested. Lee shrugged at the suggestion indicating that he would take part in whatever game.
"That could work.. alright. Let's go around in a circle starting with Lee. And remember what we say here never leaves this room." I had to reminded everyone to keep their mouths shut because these games have a reputation for getting a little bit personal. We had all made a promise at our countless sleepovers that we wouldn't tell anyone our secrets except each other.
Lee's face lit up as he thought about who to call on for his question. His eyebrows lowered as he thought about what he was going to ask, as it was pretty open to any topic.
"Alright... startin' with you I guess, Eric." He said, looking in my direction as he threw a head nod at me.
This is my first attempt at writing and sharing a story!
Please send all comments/questions/suggestions to
meaningofsummer@gmail.com ! - Thank you :)}