Spencer's Face (Buckeye Hawks) (6 page)

“Yes, I do. We dated.
Remember?” I acted like I was joking. I wasn’t. He was a horrible kisser. Way
too slobbery. Call me a snob, but I didn’t want someone else’s spit all over me
even if I was kissing him. That was disgusting.

Spencer smiled at me. It was
more of a silent chuckle. Dale walked off. He knew I wouldn’t budge on my
decision. We were friends a long time before we dated last year. We were still
friends. He came over every once in a while to go out in the dune buggy, or go
riding motorcycles.

“So you used to date him?” Spencer
asked.

“Everyone’s entitled to a few
mistakes. Right?” I asked trying to joke it off. I was sure that he was
tallying up the number of boyfriends I’d had.

“I don’t think I know him.”

“I’m sorry. I should have
introduced you. He was a senior last year. But he’s here at every party. He
likes beer.” I said. I could easily imagine him here until he turned forty. We
had a few of those guys coming to the parties. Free beer and pretty young girls
that liked to make out and sometimes more than that.

About that time, Sandy showed
up with Dwayne on her arm. It was pretty clear that they’d been out looking at
the dunes if you know what I mean. Sandy’s hair was all messed up with stickers
in it, and she had a fresh hickey on her neck. Hold it! Dwayne was dating Vicky.
I had no clue what was going on there. Well actually I did. Dwayne was one of
those guys who was really faithful to his girlfriend as long as she was on his
arm.

“Taylor! Girlfriend! How’s it
going?” Sandy slurred her words out to me as she placed her arm around my
shoulders. She always got too friendly when she’d been drinking too much.
Sometimes it was worse than others. She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek,
then whispered in my ear. “He’s really rough.”

“Tell me about it.” I
whispered back to her, as I plucked the stickers out of her hair. She’d poke
herself in the eye on her next trip to the dunes if I didn’t help her out. I
glanced up at Spencer, who was watching with intense interest, as if expecting
something. Or suspecting something. I suddenly realized that Sandy and I looked
a little too friendly.

She started laughing
uncontrollably while she clung to me, and put her face in mine. She always got
too giddy when she drank too much. That wasn’t helping my case much with Spencer.
He was definitely going to think we had something going here. I pulled Sandy to
my side, holding her up. She didn’t need complete help standing yet, but it was
coming in another two or three beers.

I looked at Dwayne
questioning him. “Where’s Vicky?” I asked.

“She couldn’t make it tonight.
She was grounded.” Dwayne answered as if there was nothing wrong with this
situation.

The two of them finally walked
off to the dunes again. Jerk!

“Nice guy.” Spencer said
sarcastically.

“Yes. But I don’t care for Vicky
too much anyway.” I said to him.

He raised his eyebrows as if
saying that I had a point there. I was sure he didn’t like her too much, but he
didn’t mention anything mean or nasty about her.

“Hey, we’re not bisexual or
anything like that. She just gets too friendly when she drinks too much.” I
told him, then laughed.

He laughed. “I was wondering
if I was about to see some girl on girl action.”

I laughed at him. “She hasn’t
gotten
that
drunk yet.”

I laughed at him again. Spencer
and I stood there alone, talking about school, his life back in California, and
football. I think he figured out quickly that I wasn’t as into football as the
rest of the cheerleaders were, but he was polite and didn’t mention that fact. I
teased him about joining me at the dairy tomorrow. It would be fun showing him
everything, if nothing else.

About that time, I looked up
to see Vicky walking toward us. Oh crap. My best friend, Sandy, was making out
with her boyfriend. I could tell by the way she was walking that she was onto
him. She was there to bust him. The only thing missing from this picture was
the camera from that reality show. Spencer looked at me.

“We should go find Sandy
before Vicky does.” I said to him.

“That might be a good idea.”
He said then walked off quickly with me to the dunes.

We looked everywhere for
Sandy and Dwayne. There were so many couples sitting on the dunes making out.
There were a few on the top of the dunes. I tried to walk up, but it was so
sandy that I had trouble. Spencer went first and pulled me up. He lifted me
completely off my feet a few times, with one arm. He was really strong. That
was something else that really turned me on about a guy. Finally we made it to
the top. We found Sandy, but she was with someone else. She’d hooked up with a
guy named Alan, another football player.

“Way to go, Spencer!” Alan
called out to him, in a very drunken slur.

Spencer didn’t say anything
to Alan. “I guess we’re safe now, as long as your friend isn’t in her direct
path.”

“Thanks for helping me. I’d
hate to see Vicky beat her up.” I joked.

“She’s a big girl.” Spencer
laughed at my joke.

That was the closest thing to
a snide comment that I’d heard him say all night long. I laughed at it. We made
our way back down toward the campfire, slowly. Climbing down the dunes was
really tricky. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve slid down these things
on my ass. I was glad that I didn’t climb these too often.

As we were carefully stepping
down, some sand slid out from under my feet and I went down. Spencer caught me,
but that caused him to fall down on his ass. We slid all the way down the dune on
his butt. He was holding me on his lap all the way down. I was so glad he was,
because I was still wearing my cheerleading uniform. That would have been cute,
a big hole in the butt of my bloomers.

“Thanks.” I said to him when
we stopped safely at the bottom.

“Ouch!” he said, laughing at our
mishap. We stood up and he set me on the ground.

“Did you get goat heads?” I
asked him, as I turned him around to check out his butt and back. Goat heads
were horrible stickers that really hurt when you stepped on them. And, if you ever
got one in your butt, oh boy it hurt for weeks. I ran my hand up and down his
backside. No stickers, but man he had a nice ass, and great legs. I could feel
his leg muscles through his jeans. “None. You’re safe.”

“Thanks.” He said. I could
tell he wasn’t used to people touching him. I rubbed his back. He’d have to get
used to being touched. I touched everyone. “These parties are the weirdest
thing I’ve seen here.”

“Really?” I asked. “You guys
don’t have parties in California.”

“Yes, but at the beach where
you can swim. It helps sober the guys up.”

“That’s funny. Did you drink
out there?” I asked, wanting more history on this guy.

“No.” he confessed.

“Why don’t you drink?” I
asked him. I cornered him.

“My parents were killed by a
drunk driver. I’ll never drink, even when I’m old enough to do it legally.”

“Damn. I’m so sorry.” I exclaimed,
feeling like I had just put my foot in my mouth.

Spencer told me that he was
eleven when they were killed, and he remembered every detail of that day. He
told me how the cops showed up at his aunt’s house to tell them about it. His
aunt was hysterical. She even had to be sedated. That same aunt and his uncle
took him in. He lived with them now. His uncle got a better job here at the
nuclear plant so they moved here last year. They didn’t have their own kids, so
he was an only child still.

I listened as he told me
about his childhood. I felt like he was letting me in when he told me the sad
details. I lost an aunt once, but that had been the only person in my family to
die. We adopted one of my cousins after she died. I now had a brother that I
didn’t have before then. I had five sisters, but didn’t have a brother until
then. The poor guy still didn’t fit in with all the girls in my family. He
always felt out of place, even though we tried to make him feel like part of
the family.

When the party started dying
down, Zane came over to us and asked Spencer to drive him home. Spencer was
taking him to his house to stay the night. It was a ritual for them apparently.
I found Sandy and drove her to her house. I helped her in the door and to her
bedroom as I always did. Another ritual. I felt like Spencer and I had so much
in common. We didn’t drink but had best friends who did, and we were the
responsible ones.

--

I didn’t wake up until almost
noon the next day. I was so glad Daddy didn’t wake me up at four this morning
to go milk the cows. I don’t think I would have made it. He must have taken one
of my sisters. They’d be mad at me for a while.

I walked in the living room
where Mom was sitting on her recliner watching television. Daddy came in the
front door, ready for lunch. I ran to make him a sandwich. As I returned with
the sandwich, I told my dad about Spencer and how he was coming to the barn
today to learn how to milk. I thought I’d better warn my dad so he’d be ready
to see Spencer. I wanted him to know what he looked like, before he saw him. My
dad sometimes made comments that weren’t too nice even though he never intended
to be mean. I also wanted my dad to be on his best behavior. Sometimes the cows
caused quite a cussing fit from Daddy. They were irritating sometimes.

I pulled into Spencer’s
driveway at four o’clock sharp. He came running outside to meet me, so I didn’t
have to get out of my car. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He
jumped into the passenger’s side of my car.

“Hi.” I said to him.

“Hi.” He said to me. “I
wasn’t sure what to wear to milk cows, but I didn’t want to take a chance on
ruining any good jeans.”

“The cows will love you
still.” I joked with him.

When we arrived at the dairy,
I showed Spencer the entire setup from cow to milk. We stepped into our boots.
Daddy had placed a pair of his boots for Spencer next to the barn door. I
always looked pretty stupid in my shorts with irrigation boots on, but over the
years, I found that it was the best clothing option for milking cows. I stayed
cool, and I dried off quicker.

“So, this is where milk comes
from?” Spencer acted surprised.

“You’re a city boy. Aren’t
you?” My dad asked him, walking up to us.

Spencer turned around to face
him. “Yes sir. I’ve lived in the city all my life.”

“We’re going to make a milker
out of you today, boy.” My dad said to him, joking with him. He held his hand
out to shake.

“Oh. Daddy, this is Spencer. Spencer,
this is my dad, Earl.” I butted in. I was glad to see them getting along
already. A few of my boyfriends weren’t really polite to my dad for some
reason.

Spencer shook his hand. “It’s
nice to meet you.”

“You too.” my dad said to
him. “We’d better get to it, Taylor. I’ll bring up the first herd.”

As Daddy left to go get the
first herd of cows, I showed Spencer how to get the stalls ready. Daddy showed
up with the herd and we let the first three cows in. We washed the cows and put
the automatic milkers on them. Spencer learned quickly and helped out a lot.
I’d better watch it or my dad would be hiring him today.

We let three cows into the
other side of the barn, and took care of them. Spencer was full of questions.
He was definitely a city boy. His questions made me laugh, and his expressions
made me laugh even harder. A few of the cows were downright contrary, but Daddy
took care of those. I wasn’t allowed to mess with the cows when they were being
stubborn. I’d been knocked out by a bull that didn’t want a shot once. Since
then, my dad took care of the stubborn cows.