Hmm. Where did Charley go? I didn’t hear her go upstairs.
I was ready to turn off the lights downstairs and head to bed myself, but Madison’s best friend seemed to have disappeared. It sounded like she was planning to spend the night, and I knew she had started cleaning up, but then she vanished. It was possible she managed to go upstairs quietly, but judging by the stagger she had when she came inside the house, that seemed unlikely. I walked to the back door and found it unlocked. It looked like some progress had been made on cleaning up the back yard. I scanned the area with my eyes and then I saw something in the pool. Panic overtook me. I threw the door open and ran towards the edge of the pool where I saw Charley floating underneath the surface. There was a faint hint of blood in the water around her face as well.
“Charley!” I dove into the water headfirst and wrapped my arms around her.
What the fuck!?
I hauled Charley to the surface and then rolled her out of the pool. Once she was safely on her back, I pulled myself out and grabbed her wrist while I put two fingers on her carotid artery. Both returned a strong pulse, but she wasn’t breathing, so I tilted her head and started chest compressions. After a few quick pumps, I leaned in and tried to give her mouth-to-mouth. Her lips were a little cold and there was clearly resistance in her airways, so I started compressing her chest again, trying to force whatever pool water she had inhaled out of her lungs. I repeated the process of mouth to mouth and chest compressions two times before I heard a reaction. I hit her chest a couple of more times and water rose in her mouth. I immediately rolled her to the side and patted her back firmly as the water was expelled and she took a breath of actual air. She spat and sputtered a couple of times before leaning back and sucking in a very large gulp of oxygen and expelling more pool water. There was a slight bump on her forehead, but it didn’t look bad. It had bled into the pool, but it seemed to have slowed to a trickle.
“Oh thank fucking God.” I leaned back on my hands and watched as she coughed, finally breathing easily on her own.
“I thought I was going to die…” Charley continued rapidly sucking in oxygen and exhaling.
“What the fuck happened?” I stood and reached for her hand.
“I slipped and banged my head.” She put her hand to the bump. “Ow…”
“Let’s take care of that. It doesn’t look bad, but I should at least clean it and put a Band-Aid on it.” I took her hand and helped her stand up.
My heart was still beating hard in my chest. The thought of having someone die in my pool after a party was putting my cool dad mentality in a box. There was no way I could ever face Charley’s parents and tell them I let her get drunk and drown in my pool, even if she was an adult. I sat her down in the kitchen and grabbed my first-aid kit. The bump on her head was starting to swell, but it didn’t feel like it was going to be serious. As I cleaned her wound and started to bandage it, I couldn’t help but notice her figure that was clearly outlined beneath her soaked attire. The little girl that used to run circles around my backyard had grown into a gorgeous young woman. She was always Madison’s friend—just another kid from the neighborhood—but it was hard to ignore her curves when she was that close to me. I finally got the wound patched up and took a step back.
“Okay, you should be good.” I nodded and narrowed my eyes at her. “Do you feel okay?”
“I feel like I got drunk and almost drowned in a pool.” Her shoulders slumped forward and she looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry I got water all over your house.”
“It’s fine.” I waved off her concern. “I’m sure Madison has something you can change into. You can toss your clothes in the dryer.”
“Can we… um…” She let out a sigh. “Can we not tell Madison about this? I don’t want her to hold it over my head for the rest of my life. I can already hear the jokes…”
“That’s fine.” I nodded in agreement. “It will be our secret.”
“Thank you.” She smiled and let out a sigh of relief.
I gave Charley one of my t-shirts and a pair of my shorts. They were comically large on her, but it saved her from having to stumble around in Madison’s room looking for clothes that might actually fit. Her waterlogged attire went into the dryer and I was too wired to sleep, so I sat up with her for a little bit. It was the first time we had really talked outside of a casual hello and goodbye. Her blue eyes seemed to come to life as the threat of death passed and the alcohol started to wear off. She didn’t seem like most of Madison’s friends or any of the women I had met that barely pushed their way into their twenties. She could hold a conversation and actually seemed fairly bright. Our discussion on the politics of the educational system was put on pause when the dryer buzzed, signaling her clothes were done.
“I’ll be right back.” She stood and walked into the laundry room, pushing the door closed, but it was a tricky door. It didn’t like to stay closed all the way and I still hadn’t gotten around to replacing it after the hollow-core door warped from the heat in our laundry room.
Don’t stare. Don’t be a pervert.
Ah, what does it matter? Right? Nobody will ever know.
Before the devil and the angel on my shoulder could finish their argument, I saw her appear in the seam of light and pull my t-shirt off. Her breasts were round and perky—they looked like they would fit perfectly in my hand. She pushed my shorts down her thighs and they easily fell straight to the floor revealing a beautiful heart shaped ass that was luscious and full. I felt my cock start to get hard in my jeans when she bent over to dig in the dryer and I saw the mound of her pussy. It was waxed or shaved and her labia was so tight it didn’t even move when she shuffled her c
lothes into her hands and stood up. I finally decided to stand and just walk into the living room. If she did notice the crack in the door, I didn’t want her to see that I went into full creep mode and watched her. When she finally exited the laundry room, my cock had returned to a semi-erect state that was no longer pitching a tent in my pants.
“Much better.” She dropped the clothes I had loaned her on the table. “Are you heading to bed? I’m still not tired…”
“I could stay up for a little bit longer.” I shrugged. “I believe we were discussing your epiphany regarding college being a waste of time and I was trying to respond.”
“Yeah, I guess I should tell you that it isn’t exactly an epiphany.” She sat down at the table. “I haven’t told anyone this yet except for my parents, but I got expelled.”
“Expelled!?” My tone was probably louder than I intended and my whole face lit up with shock. “What the hell happened?”
“Sleep, mostly.” She let out a sigh and her face reflected remorse. “I got behind in several of my classes because I was going out too much and couldn’t drag myself out of bed in the morning.”
“You’re so intelligent and bright—surely you could have caught up. Every college student parties from time to time.” I couldn’t believe what she was telling me and I’m sure my voice reflected that.
“I just gave up.” She shrugged. “I knew the pendulum was going to keep swinging and it wasn’t going to get better, so I quit trying.”