When the Sun Goes Down

"I can't believe it's over." Cara said to Nicole as the two girls floated around in the Blanchard's pool. Graduation had been the night before and now the two girls were enjoying their first day of summer.

"Me neither. I'm glad but kinda sad too," Nicole replied, pushing off the brick pool trim and floating to the deep end.

"It's funny, how I imagined myself at the end of high school is a lot different than actual reality." Cara ran the tips of her fingers through the water.

"I kind of thought it'd be something like this, happy but sad."

"Yeah, but I mean, if someone had told you that you and Clark would be over and Jesse Buchanan would have a crush on you, would you believe them?"

"I guess not, but he doesn't have a crush on me."

"You're such a liar. Only a guy that cared about someone would carry them a couple miles home and listen to them while they babbled on about their ex-boyfriend."

"That's because he's staying at my house. Plus, we haven't really even have had a real conversation since that night. I think he hates me now."

"Speaking of the devil." Nicole followed Cara's stare to the dock where Jesse and Travis climbed out of a boat with their flip flops in their hands and their shirts around their necks. Jesse made his way to the girls while Travis hung back and tied the boat to the dock.

"Hey Jesse," Cara smiled and waved and nudged Nicole with her other hand.

"Whatsup girls," he smiled back and dropped his flip flops and t-shirt on the ground.

"Why are you guys back so early?" Nicole asked.

"Storms coming," he said quickly and then dove into the pool, purposely splashing the two girls.

"You guys better get out before it hits," Travis said once he had finished tying the boat and was at the pool. He motioned towards the clouds in the distance, which were black and scary looking.

"Oh shoot," Cara climbed off her float and out of the pool. Jesse and Nicole followed shortly after.

"I'll call you later," Nicole said as Cara turned and headed for her house. "That was awkward," she said to Travis once Cara was gone. She had figured Cara's abrupt exit had something to do with Travis's arrival.

"Why?" He played dumb.

"Cause you guys both secretly love each other."

"Why does everyone think that?"

"You really don't know?"

"No I don't, and I thought all that 'you like Cara' shit would end with high school." Travis sounded aggravated.

"You're the idiot that talks about her nonstop everytime your drunk, and now she does it about you too."

"I don't remember ever talking about her when I'm drunk."

"Well obviously cause your smashed, you don't remember crap from the night before. All I know is that you were always watching her and you still do with this weird look on your face, and now she does the same to you. It makes no since to me, since you guys don't talk or anything, but what do I know." How come no one had ever told him that? That he talked about her all the time when he drank? He guessed they figured he knew he did but tried to play stupid. That was probably why all his girlfriends said something about Cara when they'd break up.

Ten minutes later, he was heading to his room to get changed when he spotted her playing basketball on her driveway. Before he knew what he was doing, he was crossing her lawn and making his way to her.

"How bout that raincheck?" He asked with a smile, he didn't know where his confidence came from at times like this.

"If you're up for it," she said, although she didn't smile.

"Alright, let's play on my driveway, my courts nicer."

"If you say so," she trailed behind him as they crossed the lawn to his driveway. Travis noticed that she still wasn't smiling, and it bugged him.

Cara got ball first, although Travis had the disadvantage of playing in a bathing suit and barefeet, and shot the ball right in his face. It swished through the hoop and she gave him a cocky smile.
Her smile made Travis smile, and he suddenly didn't care whether he won or not, he just wanted to see her smile.

"I'd ask if you wanted to play love and basketball style, but I'm already halfway undressed, so we can just play til 11" he joked as he dribbled the ball at the top of the key. She was tall, but smaller than him, her eyes were level with his mouth.

"It'd already almost be game over," she added.

"Yeah, and you wouldn't want to see me do this naked," he said before flicking the ball behind his back, blowing by her, and soaring in the air to dunk the ball.

"Impressive," she said when he finished. She was slowly beginning to feel more comfortable around him. She took the ball and dribbled around for a few seconds before stopping and shooting, the ball swished perfectly again.

"Damn," he said, a little out of breath. He took the ball up top and shot it over her head, it swished. The competition was beginning to heat up.

She got the ball up top and started to dribble, but he stripped it from her and charged for the basket. She ran beside him and was knocked on her back when he went up for the lay up. He tripped over her feet and fell on top of her, catching himself at the last second. He held himself up with his arms, their faces only a few inches apart. The smiles disappeared from both of their faces and they looked each other in the eye like they never had before.

"Offensive foul," she finally said in a shaky voice as she put her hands on his chest and pushed him off her.

Laughing, he rolled onto his back next to her and stared up at the sky, "storm should hit any minute now." Three seconds later, rain was beginning to pour out of the sky.

"Play to five?" She asked when he started to head into his garage. He shrugged and tossed the ball to her. It was hard to see in the heavy rain, but she was able to fake him out and take a lay up.

The rain was pouring down in buckets now, Travis was shivering from his lack of clothing, and Cara's white tank top was drenched and practically see-through. Both refused to call it quits, though, until lightning lit up the sky and thunder shook the ground. In unison, they both sprinted into the garage.

"Come on up, I'll get some towels," he ran up the steps into his room before listening to her response. She slowly followed him. He came out of the bathroom with two navy blue towels in his hand. He wrapped the first around her and then the other around himself. She moved past him and further into the room, looking around. She had never been in his room before, only saw part of it from her bedroom window. She even stepped into the bathroom to check it out, half because she wanted to see and half because she felt completely awkward in the situation and didn't know what else to do.

"Nice for a garage apartment, dontcha think?" his voice came from behind her and she turned to find him only a few inches from her. Her heart began to beat faster and she wasn't sure what to say.

"Yup," she faked a smile and contemplated her next move. She wanted to walk back into the room, but his body was blocking the doorway. "This is one of the reasons I don't want to play basketball in college," she motioned towards his torso. He took off his towel and peered down at himself and looked back up with a smile.

"You don't have to get big, I just wanted to. You're bodies fine just the way it is," he purposely checked her out from head to toe.

She playfully pushed him and said, "Good one, do you use that one on all the girls that come up here?"

"Nope, just you," he said, "usually the girl would already be in my bed and I wouldn't have to use any smooth talk."

"Classy...well I guess we'll have to finish our game some other time, I should probably get home." She slowly took off her towel, embarassed that her nipples were showing through her shirt.

"Why don't you wait until the rain stops," he tried his best not to look anywhere below her neck, "I haven't talked to you in forever, we can catch up."

"Okay, so do you wanna talk about how you ditched me a couple of years ago or how you treated me like shit through middle and most of high school and now you all of the sudden think we're the best of friends?" He had struck a nerve and he had no idea how.

"What are you talking about?" He got defensive.

"Really Travis? You don't know. It'd be one thing if you told me you didn't want to hang out with me anymore because I was a girl, but to just start to ignore me and trash me to your friends when they asked about me and you was just downright rude. And when your girlfriends would ask you about me because the only time you remembered our friendship was when you were drunk, you didn't have to call me a basketball dyke or a slut or whatever other fucking words you used to describe me. If you didn't want to like me or be my friend, that's fine, but you didn't have to bash me to other people along the way. And what, now that you have no other girls to fuck you're gonna finally talk to me again? You're such an asshole." She shoved him out of the way and rushed past him, trying her best to hold back tears.

A few seconds later, after the initial shock was over, Travis sprinted down the stairs and out the garage. He could barely see through the rainfall, but he could kind of see her walking quickly across the lawn. It took only a couple of strides for him to catch up to her. He gently grabbed her elbow and she jumped a little in surprise. She turned and he could still see the anger on her face.

Everything she said was somewhat, but not completely, true, but he figured he'd start off nicely. "Look, Cara, I'm sorry," his hand was still cupped at her elbow, "I know I've made some mistakes, but you've got me all wrong. You know, for the longest time everyone has teased me about you, and I never understood why. Yeah, we were friends in elementary school, but I figured everyone would have forgotten about it. And I was a dumbass for just ignoring you, but that was ages ago. You don't know the real me anymore. I never would have called you those names to anyone, and I never did. The only thing I used to say was no I don't like her when people would question me about it. But people always assumed I had a crush on you or something, and it wasn't until recently that I figured out why." He was babbling, all of his emotions were just flowing out. "They say the drunken mind speaks the sober heart, maybe that's true. All I know is that when your around, I feel different. It's like everyone else disappears and I can't take my eyes off of you. Maybe I always looked at you that way and other people noticed it but I didn't, I don't know, but seeing you with that Kyle kid the other night tore me apart. I guess that's really when I realized how special you are to me. And I'm sorry I threw all those years we could have been friends away, I really am, it's just I--" she grabbed his cheeks with her hands and pulled his face down to hers. Chills ran down both of their spines when their lips finally connected. He surrounded her lips with his and suck at her bottom lip. Then he slowly slid his tongue into her mouth and his hands to her waists.

Lips still locked, they slowly walked back to the garage until Travis grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her legs around his waist. He carried her into the garage and up the steps, kissing her as much as he could.

"Shower," she moaned out of breath between kisses. He respected her orders and carried her into the bathroom. He kicked the door closed behind him and put her down on the counter. He quickly turned on the shower and went back to her, a wide grin on his face. Pushing her legs apart, he stood at the counter and leaned in to kiss her again. It was even more passionate than before, if that was possible, and their hands began to explore each other.

He slowly slid his hands underneath her tanktop and sports bra and pushed them up. They separated for a second while he moved it over her head and then immediately went back to kissing. He grazed his fingertips from her waist up to her breasts, which he grabbed. She didn't have the biggest chest, but there was just enough for him to enjoy. He lowered his head and sucked and bit at her neck while she leaned her head back and reached for the buttons on his shorts.

He lowered his kisses until his mouth surrounded her nipple and he played with the other one with his hand. Once he had gave each boob equal attention, he went back to her mouth and kissed her while he slid down her shorts and underwear. He picked her up again, her bare legs wrapped around his waist, stepped out of his shorts and boxers, and carried her into the shower.

He put her back on her feet and, both were aware of how hard he was, and they went at eachother's mouths again. They continued to passionately make out and rub eachother's bodies until Cara pulled back.

"I'm sorry," she said, avoiding eye contact, "I can't do this." Without an explanation she quickly stepped out of the shower and attempted to slide on her soaking wet clothes before walking out of the bathroom as fast as she could.

Travis looked down at himself, completely baffled by everything that had just happened. It looked like it was just gonna be him and his hand tonight.