Part Two

By the time we approached San Antonio, everyone was feeling the heat and the humidity... not inside Alex's car, so much, because it had air conditioning. But still, it wasn't hard to tell that things were getting muggy outside. We drove straight through SanAnton and pulled off for dinner in a steakhouse about thirty miles further on. Not everybody had steak, but it was a pretty nice supper - I had a small filet mignon, and enjoyed it quite a lot. I also managed to snag a seat next to Kyle again, without Rath crowding in on my other side, (or Kyle's other side for that matter,) like I was worried he would.

People got started on telling embarassing stories somehow - not quite sure how. Maria shared how some of the gang, (including Liz,) had caught her in a motel room with Michael, and in her shock at the locked door opening, she'd rolled off the bed - straight on top of Michael, who'd been sleeping on the floor. Kyle told me about how he'd followed Max and Liz on one of their early spying missions, back when he and Liz were still dating, and had mistakenly thought Liz might be giving Max a blowjob in the front seat of his Jeep. There were other good ones, too, ones that you probably don't know about even if you've been following the adventures of these guys regularly - when Max was around seven, some slightly savvier little boys had convinced him to go up to a girl in a higher grade and tell her 'Jimmy found your high-man. Do you want it back?' (He hadn't known what a hymen was at the time.)

We were all in high spirits by the time dessert was finished, and several of us didn't want to leave quickly, but Kyle and Michael pointed out that we really needed to get to Corpus Christi soon if we were going to make our reservation deadline at the Flophouse. (Yes, that's what the place was actually called, it was a kind of combination motel and hostel, very cheap, but they warned us that if we didn't arrive by eight our rooms might get given away.) So we headed back out to the cars, and this time, I was determined to not get seperated from Kyle again. We hadn't been able to talk very much during the meal, but I think I'd scored some decent eye contact, and the signs were looking favorable.

So when Rath headed back to Alex's car, I asked if anyone from the van wanted to switch with me, and after a second Max volunteered. Michael and Maria climbed into the front of the van, and Liz pulled me aside, her eyes twinkling a bit. "Do you want to sit next to me - or to Kyle??"

"Sheesh, does everybody think I've been throwing myself at him?" I muttered, a little embarassed.

"No - not quite." This came after one of those pensive 'Liz pauses.' "But it isn't too hard to see that you're both interested in each other." She giggled. "I do want some private time to catch up on the news, girlfriend, but for now go ahead and chase the boy - he's a good one to catch."

I smiled, more at the thought of catching up and talking a lot with Liz than doing anything with Kyle, actually. "Maybe we can room together once we get there, and talk all night - that is, if you think Isabel and Maria will be okay together."

"Should be," Liz said with an enigmatic look on her face. "And if not - maybe they can swap rooms so that they're with their honeys." I smiled, not having thought of that - we didn't really have chaperones or adult supervision on this trip, so probably a lot of sexy shenanigans would be going on. I climbed into the middle seat, and Liz got into the back again so that the free space for Kyle was next to me. He smiled as he got in and closed the sliding side door.

"So - together again," I whispered. "And no Rath to interrupt, even."

Kyle nodded. "Is there a particular reason he seems to get upset whenever he sees us together? I mean, does he think that I'm not good enough for you or something?" Pause. "Because, I mean, yes, I like you Ava, but I have to admit that I'm not wild about the idea of getting Rath mad at me."

I blinked - hadn't really thought of things in those terms. "Hmm... I suppose that that's possible - the overprotective judgemental thing, I mean. I guess I just put it down to Rath being Rath - a constant pain in the butt." But, well... Rath never used to show me that much affection, which possibly had to do with the way Lonnie looked down on me. Ever since we'd teamed up... I suppose it was possible that he saw me as a little sister - I'm not technically any younger than he is, but I'm certainly shorter and lighter. So did he think he had a say in who I got involved with?? Well, if so, he had another think coming, courtesy of me.

"Well, the point is, he isn't here," I reminded Kyle, and he laughed, seeing what I was getting at. "So - I think you've heard quite a bit about my story. What about you?"

"Ehh, I wouldn't be too sure about that first part," he said softly. "I've picked up some of the highlights, but there has to be more to you than that." I thought about that for a moment. "How about, I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours?"

"Alright." So Kyle started at the beginning, some of his early clear memories - growing up in that little bungalow house in Roswell, his father a somewhat distant authority figure even before he became the sheriff - he'd been the chief deputy until Kyle was six years old or so. He'd very much preferred his mother, a friendly, emotionally free woman with a practical way of looking at the problems of growing up, and seemingly endless stores of patience. But maybe that equanimity had run out in the end, very abruptly, from the sudden way that his mother had disappeared on the two Valenti boys. All of a sudden, young Kyle's life had been thrown upside down as he and Jim tried to put their family together into a shape that would stay together without a woman in it. Jim had done well, I think, for a manly man who'd never expected to be raising his son so directly, or alone, but still there had been psychological traumas enough. A little while after covering the immediate consequences of the unilateral seperation, Kyle stayed silent for a few moments, and then asked if I'd like to take my turn.

So I did - I told him what I could remember of waking up in the tunnels and passages underneath Manhattan, of the first scary trips 'upperside' I'd taken with Zan, and the others, all four of us together. Later I'd gotten up the nerve to go alone. About Kam, the mysterious shapeshifting alien who had found us all not long after we'd emerged, and told us a few important things. For a while, he'd hung around in the vicinity, though he'd never lived in our 'lair' full-time. Seemed to know when we had questions, or needed some help, and would be around. But that didn't last for long - as suddenly as he had entered our life, Kam departed again, and we never knew what had happened to him - if he'd been captured or killed by somebody, or maybe had just gotten bored with us and decided to leave us alone.

"Okay, wait a second," Kyle muttered. "So this is *another* alien, one who might still be at large somewhere in... on Earth, at least?" Kyle asked.

"I... I'm not sure," I admitted. "He might be the same one as Nasedo, the one who stayed with Tess until she came to Roswell - none of us are quite sure where Ed Harding and Tess were when Kam was in Manhattan. Nobody asked her close enough questions while she was around. I've been over some of this stuff with Max and Michael - each of them have some sort of information about the aliens who were in the original Roswell crash - Max from stuff Pierce told him when he was in the White Room, and Michael from Hal Carver's story." Kyle looked a little blank and confused at the mention of Hal Carver. "He... Hal was an air force captain who got mixed up in the Roswell millitary cover-up, and went AWOL when he knew too much and might get iced next." Actually, is it still going AWOL if you sign honorable discharge papers first? Probably, but he was a fugutive from the air force because of slipping onto the base AFTER he was formally discharged.

"Well, the point is, the stories they were told don't seem to add up. So we're not sure if there were two shapeshifters running around, say, a year after the crash, or just one, or none. And around 1989, when we came out - there's way too many imponderables." I sighed. "I... I don't expect to ever see Kam again, though you never know, and if I do I'll have a lot of questions to ask him. But aside from that... I don't worry about him too much."

Kyle nodded. "So, you guys were, what, were around seven or eight years old in human terms then? And aside from one slightly more experienced alien, you didn't have anyone to teach you about earth or how to fit in?"

"Umm... well, kinda. Even by that time, we'd kinduv found and gotten to know some other homeless kids in the same area." I sighed. "None of them were quite as young as us - if you didn't count the years... well, never mind about that. They helped out a bit, and by the time we'd been out of the pods for about two and a half years Zan and Lonnie were playing them. Between our powers, and... well, we're all pretty smart, and most of us were sneaky and canny, and it didn't take long to learn to manipulate and dominate people. Of course, as we grew up, we started to get into situations that were out of our depth and getting into trouble."

Kyle nodded. "Okay, I think that's probably as much of the deep revelations as we need to get into for now." I smiled up at him, grateful that he'd picked up on how I was uncomfortable with sharing so much - though it had felt good to talk about it. Just at that point, it occured to me that we weren't really in a soundproof bubble in here... had Liz been listening to what I was saying? (Not that I minded so much about it - Liz had proven herself as a true friend, and I wanted her to know this kind of stuff. Somehow, it was easier to tell it to Kyle and not think about her listening than it would have been to tell it to her directly - or it seemed so anyway.) And then, Michael and Maria in the front seat - well, they seemed to be talking amongst themselves, so they probably hadn't heard what we were saying too well.

"Well then, what next?" I asked, and then thought of something. "Any idea how long to the beach?" The van was starting to feel very warm and sticky - it's air conditioner was nearly broke and didn't work too well.

"Maybe little more than half an hour," Michael answered. It was an odd way of talking for him, and I cocked my head, trying to figure out what was up with his voice. Imitating a stereotypical bad Mexican accent? No, that didn't seem like him, and it didn't quite fit anyway.

Maria was looking at him in quiet concentration too, for a minute, and then she snapped her fingers and her face brightened. "Princess Bride - when Inigo is explaining the situation to Westley. 'No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marrying Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour...'" She had assumed the same accent, but more pronounced, and it didn't seem latin-american... maybe Castillian spanish. (She was really good at it.)

"Princess Bride?? Oh, right, that old fantasy movie?" I asked.

Kyle turned to me. "Have you never actually SEEN 'The princess bride'?" he asked, in what sounded like a tone of disbelief.

"Umm... no, not really. Didn't seem interesting. Swordfights and evil princes and beautiful princesses and pirates..."

"...and True Love," Liz broke in, with a soft laugh.

"You *have* to see it," Kyle said. "One of the best movies in earth history, I kid you not." He frowned in thought. "Dammit, there's no way we're going to have a VCR available at the flophouse - maybe it'll have to wait until we come back. Dammit, if I'd known, I'd have invited you over to my place last night. I've got the special edition DVD and everything!!"

Hmm... maybe I wished that he'd known yesterday. But then Maria suddenly chimed in, "Yeah, we can make it a party for the whole gang. It's been too long since I've seen the movie, actually. Does the DVD have any cool options on it, Kyle??"

"A few, but we're not going to talk about it any more," Kyle said, with a voice of quite definite finality. Michael looked back at him in the rear view mirror and Liz seemed quite surprised at his vehemence too. "If we talk about the Princess Bride in any capacity, for any length of time, then spoilers are going to come out, and I want Ava to come at it as fresh as possible, though I suspect that she's either heard some details or seen bits and snatches from how on-target her own dismissive summary was."

"Umm, okay, thanks I guess." I smiled again. "Well, if we've still got about half an hour until we get where we're going... why not talk about music?" Kyle considered that a moment, and grinned. "I suppose you have no appreciation for the greatness of punk, hmm??"

----------

Surely enough, it was about half an hour later when both of our cars passed the Corpus Christi city limits, and not long afterward that we pulled into the parking lot at the Sodding Flophouse. There was no possible argument over the fact that we had arrived on time, and the middle-aged woman who ran the place took half of our money upfront and gave out keys - three doubles and a triple. Maria and Isabel didn't mind rooming together, so that I could go with Liz - after a bit of confusion the boys decided that Alex and Michael would be together, (probably so that they could switch rooms with Maria/Isabel,) leaving Max, Kyle, and Rath in the big room. Oh boy.

We all unpacked the cars and loaded our stuff into our rooms about as quickly as possible, eager to get a look at the beach before going to bed. There wasn't much of it to see by the time we got there, because the twilight had mostly gone, but we were able to wander around a kind of carnival pier and hear the waves rolling in underneath. There were some games, and Michael won a big stuffed chicken on the test of strength, (you know, one of those deals where you hit a metal plate with a heavy hammer and try to ring a bell up at the top,) and gave it to Maria. Kyle and Rath were both talking about stripping down to their trunks and taking a night swim, but neither of them eventually went through with it, and we headed back to the hostel and... pretty much flopped. It had been quite a busy day, after all.

As I lay there, drifting off in the direction of sleep, Liz spoke up. "Ava... about all that stuff with how you guys basically grew up by yourselves... do you miss Zan and Lonnie?"

Only had to think about that one for a second. "Definitely for Zan, yeah." A ragged sob escaped my throat as I thought, one more time and involuntarily, of his motionless body out there in the street, and Lonnie pulling me away from the scene of the crime. "As far as Lonn... I dunno. She's the closest thing that I had to a sister, and yet... even before things really started to go wrong, I felt like there was something deep inside her heart that was as cold as ice. Of course, that wasn't all of her... she had fire, she had passion... but I'm not sure that she's ever felt COMpassion, if you'll excuse the play on words. She had the hots for Rath, and felt some kind of twisted sisterly love for Zan, especially before the end when she'd decided that he was in the way of her ticket home. But... but as much as I feel the fact that she's not around, and get reminded of her pretty much every day... I still wouldn't have her near if I had the choice, you know?"

Liz sighed. "I... I'm not sure that I do, that I can. I mean, there's Tess - I was starting to get used to her, to think of her as one of the group, and now I couldn't be more pleased that she's several hundred light years away." I laughed a little, my sarcastic bone tickled by the way apple-sweet Liz Parker had put that. "But... but I guess I'm not as used to her as you were to Lonnie... I *don't* think about her every day, and when I do often it's just relief that she's gone." She sighed. "Maybe we should just count our blessings, huh?"

"Wouldn't be the worst idea I ever heard," I said, the words starting to slur and stretch from the lazy feeling that was surrounding me. "But don't count too loudly - I want to get some sleep tonight."

Liz laughed, and took it as a hint to shut completely up. Which wasn't quite what I had meant, but... well, no harm done, certainly. We could talk again some other time.

-----------

Woke up early the next morning, and took the opportunity to explore the flophouse a little more. The rooms were very basic - ours had two little twin beds with a pillow on each, (no blankets or other coverings in evidence, not that anybody would want them in the hot weather.) One big dresser with seperate shelves side by side, split down the middle into left and right, which was presumably to make it easier for two residents to share the space. A very small, round mirror on the wall, a fairly small window, which had been open when we first came in and left open for the faint breeze it gave off... err, let in, I suppose I should say. One empty bookcase. Light switch controlling a ceiling fixture, one of whose two bulbs was burnt out and the other (unshielded,) was bright enough to hurt if you stared up at it. I didn't turn the light on in the morning, but I remembered that from last night. And that was pretty much it. No adjoining bathroom of course - we knew that we'd have to share with other guests. No adjoining closet even, which was a surprise, but I supposed I'd be able to get by. I did wonder if there were shared closets that were available.

Aside from the dozen bedrooms, one of which was apparently the proprietors', there were three bathrooms that I could find with a little exploring, yes, two closets, (one of which was a fairly big walk-in,) the little check-in reception office at the front of the building, a kitchen with a big long kitchen table in it, and a 'parlour' with shelves full of comic books, sci-fi paperbacks and board games, along with a tiny little rabbit ears TV. (As Kyle had predicted, no VCR or DVD player.) A few picnic tables were sitting on the gray tile patio in the back yard, presumably meant to be overflow from the kitchen table, or maybe just a place to sit and talk if there was a good breeze going.

By the time I'd done this much exploring, it was late enough that I decided to head back upstairs and try to slip into one of the bathrooms before they were all full. That worked, pretty much, though there wasn't a lock on the bathroom door and some girl from Oklahoma came in and used the can while I was in the shower. Wasn't too bad, though I'd have been a lot less happy if she'd still been there when I was ready to get OUT of the shower - she wasn't. Then breakfast down in the kitchen... apparently, we were going to have to pay extra for meal privileges when we checked out, but there was a convenience to it - and heck, we'd have to pay to eat anywhere else too, maybe more. That kitchen table grew more and more crowded as people woke up and made it through the bathroom blitz - I think a few of the other guests had opted out of the flophouse breakfast rights, but not many. I talked with a few of the others - mostly pretty much like us, kids who had come down to the beach for a short end-of-summer vacation trip. There were young people there from all over the area - we weren't the only ones to come from New Mexico, also Texans, Oklahomans, whatever the hell you're supposed to call people from Arkansas, Kansanians, and two Mexicans, which kind of surprised me - there was plenty of beach down in Mexico, wasn't there? But they seemed like a pretty well-to-do couple, so maybe they came to the states for vacation just because they could afford to. I don't know.

After I'd finished with breakfast, I met with some of the other Roswellians out on the patio - Liz, Max, Michael, Alex, and Isabel. (The others were all awake, but they'd started their breakfast much later than us and were still in the middle of it.) Everybody sounded really eager to get down to the beach as soon as possible, so Max suggested that some of us could head down there in the van, leaving the rest to take Alex's car. The Flophouse was too far from the beach to be a short and comfortable walk, which was probably part of the reason why it was so cheap, (aside from the obvious.)

"So, who's going to stay behind?" Isabel asked, looping Alex's arm around hers.

"It doesn't have to be five and four, now that the cars are unpacked," Michael pointed out. "The van can seat six without all of that luggage crammed into the back seat." He considered. "On the other hand, I could wait around and go with Maria - that makes a certain amount of sense."

I thought about that sort of thing too, about waiting to ride down with Kyle... and Rath - and decided that I wouldn't bother. (Especially because if Michael was doing the same thing, Alex's little sedan would be very crowded, even now that it was unpacked.) "Alright... what about swimsuits? Should we get changed now?"

"Umm... probably yeah," Liz agreed. "I'm going to take a little bag with some coverup stuff just in case - as well as a towel and other essentials. But yeah, we can ride down in our suits." So, back upstairs, and Liz smiled gently at me as we got into the room. "Do you want to go in by yourself and get changed first, or is it okay if we're in there, umm..." She blushed. "I don't know why it seems so weird - we got changed for bed last night at about the same time, but..."

"Yeah, it's okay," I assured her. "No sense wasting time in dancing around it." But somehow, whether just because it was swimsuits we were changing into, or because Liz had called attention to it, things were slightly different while we were stripping out of our street clothes, and I couldn't help but steal quick glimpses at Liz out of the corner of my eye, or through that tiny little mirror. She's definitely a hottie... slender, but with subtle womanly curves in all the right places.. and damn, I'd love to have legs like hers! Obviously, her beautiful heart and soul aren't the only things that Max loves about her.

Then I started to imagine that Liz was sneaking peeks at me too. Kinduv gave me a weird feeling, but not an entirely unpleasant one. Then we were both dressed and packing our beach bags - I'd settled daringly on the black bikini for today, and Liz was wearing a red tank suit that actually wouldn't have been too out of place on 'Baywatch.' I hurried down, wondering if I could get to watch Alex's face when he got his first look at Isabel in her bikini. (Well, probably not the first time he'd ever seen her in a bikini, though you never know... but the first time today at least.)

I didn't quite make it in time - Isabel, Alex, and Kyle were waiting at the downstairs landing, Kyle was wearing loose jeans and a t-shirt, obviously he'd just finished his breakfast - probably was heading upstairs to change until he ran into Isabel and got his eyes snagged by her prominent attributes. And yes, Alex had a pretty goofy look on his face too. "Hi guys!" I exclaimed, taking the last two steps in a single bound and rushing up to them. Kyle looked up when I called and did a pretty satisfying double-take at my own bikini beauty. "So, how soon are you going to be joining us down at the beach?" I asked Kyle in a softly teasing voice, (at least, that was the effect I was going for - a nervous twitch in my throat kind of made 'beach' squeak in a way I didn't like, but oh well.)

"Umm... just as soon as I can!" he said, then drew in a breath quickly. "I... I don't suppose I could persuade you to wait for the second car, and ride with me?"

I grinned at the thought. "Maybe. If Michael agrees to go on ahead - I mean, if there's five of us in the little car, it could get crowded."

"Well, umm, there's no particular reason that the van has to go first, if there aren't enough people to fill it up," Alex pointed out, and I nearly slapped my forehead in frustration for having missed that one. "Isabel and I, Max and Liz can come in the sedan, and then everybody else follow in the van."

I looked from Alex to Isabel, and then to Kyle. "Umm... sounds like a plan to me!"

----------

The beach was hot and damn crowded.

Lots of people, a surprising number of whom frankly didn't look like they should be allowed to wear swimsuits in public, ever. (Okay, I know that's mean, and I'll take it back.) The nine of us were able to find some spaces to spread out our towels, but only just, and not all together. I wanted to go into the water as soon as possible, and headed out across the beach, resisting the urge to hop through the hot sand, avoiding trash, ugly seaweed, and what looked like a few beached jellyfish. Kyle was walking next to me - and let me say, that boy looks REALLY good in nothing but a pair of jams. Nice physical definition on the chest, strong touchable legs... excuse me while I wipe away a little drool, just remembering. How had no other girl in Roswell gotten him off the market yet, heheh?

Oooh... that was an unpleasant thought, actually. Kyle had a reputation as a bit of a player, as far as I could find out. Eager to flirt and more with any pretty girl that crosses his path, but not looking for a permanent thing. Did that kind of thing apply to whatever he felt for me, too?? I had nothing against brief flings, but somehow I was looking for something a bit deeper right at this point in my life, and the thought that Kyle might not return that urge was upsetting. Oh well. I looked back, to see if Liz was coming out for a swim too, but no - when I finally found her, she was stretched out on her blanket, her bare legs glinting slightly with suntan oil... and her lips passionately locked with Max's. Okay, she's not going to be getting her hair wet for a LONG time. Michael and Maria were approaching from the other group of blankets though.

The water was a little warm, but definitely cooler than the sand, and felt a little weird as the gentle waves lapped against my calves - maybe that's because it's salty, basically ocean water. Still I just kept rushing in, loving the feel of the fluid surrounding me, until it was up to my shoulders, and then I was floating, my feet not quite able to touch the ground. There was a tap on my shoulder, and I turned around, and it was Kyle there, stretching an arm out ready to wrap it around my shoulders and pull me close. He waited, though, for just a second until he saw me smile. Then my chest was pressed up against him, a remarkably stimulating feeling just in itself, and his lips came close, touching mine quite softly to begin with. All of the trepidations that I'd been feeling earlier seemed to melt away, and I felt my hands come around and touch his back under the water, deepening the kiss at the same time. Everything went crazy all at once in the best possible way - I've never experienced a kiss like that before, even with Zan, who was the best kisser I knew of before I came to Roswell. (Not the only guy I've ever kissed, or the only person for that matter - do NOT ask me to explain further about that...)

For a long moment I seriously thought that a storm had hit over the water and that the giant waves throwing us up and down, together, were very real. Hot surges of energy like lightning strikes passed through my body, starting anywhere that my skin was touching his, and my heart was beating as loud as thunderclaps. But then the sensations faded for a second, and I could tell that we were just there in the water, and it was as calm as you could possibly imagine. Kyle wasn't even floating - he was still standing on the bottom, even though I couldn't quite reach it. I squeezed my lips against his even harder and gently fondled his mouth with the tip of my tongue.

Somewhere between a minute and an hour later, (well, probably not literally close to an hour, though it nearly felt like it,) the kiss discovered its time to die away, and Kyle looked deep into my eyes. The two of us were still wrapped up in each other's arms. "Ava... you're one heck of a woman," he breathed in wonder. "I... I never thought that I could... could fall for this face all over again, after I found out how badly Tess had used me."

"I... I don't think she meant to manipulate you particularly," I whispered, though I wasn't sure why I was arguing my evil twin's case. "She really did care for you - I absolutely believe that. The only times she mixed you up in her treacherous schemes were when she had absolutely no other choice."

"Still..." Kyle muttered, and reached a hand up to gently touch the side of my face. Two of his wet fingers brushed against my golden hair, most of which still wasn't wet - I hadn't had time to duck my head under water before Kyle kissed me, and after it didn't seem like a good time to. The drops of salty water ran slowly down my cheek and against the strands that they touched. "You... you should pick a last name, Ava. It... it seems weird to talk to you without one. I... I like to call a girl by her full name sometimes, when the moment is right, and you really don't have any fuller of a name than we use every day, do you?"

"Hmm... no, I guess I don't," I admitted. There had never seemed to be any particularly good reason to assume more of a name than I'd taken from my past self... of course, the original Ava, back on Antar, had had titles and honorifics coming out of her ass, (or something like that,) but they didn't really apply to her. Should I take her family name, whatever that had been, and convert that to the nearest Earth equivalent? Or maybe, was this a chance to break away from the shadow of an alien past and pick a surname that was meaningful to me, to Ava from New York, currently living in Roswell... something that didn't apply at all to the person I used to be, and probably would never be again? "Well, I'll have to think about that I guess."

"Alright." Kyle smiled. "So, umm..."

"Just a second... being held by you like this is nice," I admitted, "but could you let me loose for just a moment? There's something I really want to do." Shrugging slightly, Kyle disengaged from the embrace, and I let go too, treading out to sea a few feet further, let out as big a breath as I could, brought my arms and legs down and together, my entire body straight as a stick. Gravity asserted itself and pulled me under the surface, but not too far, because even without air in my lungs my body was slightly lighter than the sea water, and I started to bob back up again after a moment. Just before the top of my head would break the water, (as nearly as I could determine it,) I started kicking with my feet and pushing with my hands, so that the top of my down to the shoulders launched out of the ocean, and I shook my wet head back and forth as vigorously as I could. Once my eyes were free of water enough to see well, I could tell that I'd managed to shoot an impressive amount of ocean spray right into Kyle's face, probably streaming off the flying locks of my hair, and I giggled at the expression on his face as he spluttered and spit a little. "Okay, that worked."

"Yes, indeed," Kyle muttered in a dry, almost-British accent. "So, how did you learn to swim, Ava? You seem to be pretty decent at it, and I don't think a childhood in the sewers of New York would lend itself to picking up that skill. Not unless you, umm... swam around literally in the..."

"In the shit?" I finished for him. "No, we didn't spend that much time in the sewer tunnels, never the really big and deep ones, and I don't think I ever swam while I was still in New York." I sighed, and swam a little closer to Kyle again, not reaching out to touch him again, just enjoying the closeness. "But... well, not long after I left Roswell last November, I stayed for a few weeks in a town in Colorado, and got a job as a lifeguard for an indoor country club pool there. Figured that as a lifeguard, I should at least try to learn to swim, so I managed to pick up the basics, mostly after hours when nobody else was in the building."

"Ahh," Kyle said, smiling an odd grin to himself.

"What's that smile for?"

"Ohh... just wondering if they hired you the way you looked when you left Roswell... silver-pink-and-purple hair, piercings, heavy maskaara, leather miniskirt and all."

I laughed. "No, actually, I ditched my punk glory just about as soon as I left town... in case Lonnie and Rath did try to track me down for payback, I knew that sticking out like a sore thumb in the southwest would just mean an easier trail for them to follow. I looked pretty much like I do now... except that the bathing suit I wore there wasn't a bikini." Soft laugh. "I would have changed the hair and so on before I left, but figured that there was no harm in letting Liz remember me the way I had been... just in case they came back and asked her about me."

"Okay, makes sense," Kyle admitted. "I have to admit, I kind of prefer you without the piercings and the technicolor hair... though a leather miniskirt is rarely a bad look for a girl with the figure to pull it off, which you do."

I laughed, and reached out to touch his hand with my fingers for a second. "Well, I've still got one - even brought it to Texas with us, so you might get to see it. On the other hand, whether you'd get to 'pull it off' me is a little more doubtful." Kyle blinked a little, then grinned at my sexual play on words, even though it had been phrased as a coy evasion rather than an invitation.

"Hey." He pointed out to sea, and maybe a quarter of a mile out, I could just make out a reef or rocky outcropping. Some human figure dived off it back into the water. "Race you out there??"

"Umm... I'm not sure. I'm willing to try swimming that far - but, what if there's a rip tide or something?"

"I don't think a rip is anything to worry about as long as you keep your head," Kyle said. "But if it makes you feel better, I'll stick close."

I had to laugh at that. "Cool."

----------

Well, we got out to the reef, and both jumped or dived off it a few times, and played around in the shallow water nearer the shore for a little while, and then I was tired of being wet and decided to come back out. Liz had stopped making out with Max - she and Isabel were suntanning together, while the guys were off playing tag football or something. So I went up and got myself well covered with smooth suntan oil, too. Kyle hung around for a bit watching before Isabel chased him away, saying that the three of us needed a little girl time alone.

We didn't talk about anything much at first. I was happy enough to just stretch out and let the sun's warm radiance lull me into a snooze. A little while later, Maria showed up, coming back from the water and from spending a little time broswing up on the pier, and took a spot between Liz and I. I was reminded to flip over onto my back at this point, and Maria rattled on and on about Michael for quite a while, which got Isabel started raving about Alex.

I sighed softly - had only meant it as an exclamation of pleasure of the sun and the companionship, not any sign of impatience about all the boyfriend talk, but Liz giggled slightly and said, "Okay, I think it's your turn now Ava. Just between us girls. You and Kyle - spill. We want details."

"Umm... I'm not sure what to say," I admitted. "I definitely like him... we've been talking and flirting a bit, since before we left Roswell even. And... and out in the water we just kissed."

"Kissed, how?" Maria asked. "Like, just a little peck on the lips, or major making out??"

"Ummm... maybe a five point nine on the makeout Richter scale," I joked. "The first time - oh man, there was nothing little about it. I thought that a thunderstorm had rolled in over the water, for an instant." Isabel sighed with appreciation, either at my metaphor or the sort of passion it spoke of. "And we kinduv necked for a few minutes just before coming in."

"Alright, fair enough," Liz agreed. "Nothing further to report?"

"Umm... not for the moment." I took a moment, then a deep breath. "Liz... well, you know Kyle, and you've dated him before. Is it possible that he's playing me? Just... you know, out for a few cheap thrills, and then it'll be goodbye?"

"Hmm..." Liz thought about this seriously, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her sitting up to smear on a little more sun cream, maybe just because she needed to do something physical at that moment. "I suppose it's possible... there's that side to Kyle Valenti, but also much deeper layers, and I supposed if you want to get through to those deeper layers I might be able to come up with some pointers, and some signs that indicate when you're making progress." Another pause. "One good indicator, already... well, I can't help but think that considering how he felt about Tess, he wouldn't get involved with someone else so similiar to her for just a casual fling."

"Oh, okay."

"Unless..." Isabel muttered, and then didn't follow that up until Maria repeatedly nudged her. "Well... I hate to say this, but is it possible that Kyle would subconsciously try to hurt Ava because he doesn't have any other way to deal with his anger about Tess??"

"Ooooh," Maria exclaimed, surprised at the notion.

"I... I don't think he's capable of that sort of thing," Liz insisted. "Even his subconscious mind, or part of it, has to know that Ava and Tess aren't the same person. They don't share karma, and it's just not in him to deliberately break somebody's heart."

"Are... are you so sure about that, Liz?" I said softly. "Or just saying it because you don't want it to be true??"

She hesitated, and then all of a sudden in the silence we could hear noises coming from a little distance away - voices, the softer sound of bodies in motion and possibly in contact. Maria hesitated only a moment before launching herself up off the towel and towards the disturbance, which was off in the other direction from the ocean shore. The rest of us followed her as closely as we could, and it was clear that the problem had started amidst the football game the guys were in the middle of. Michael's voice was one of the ones that had been raised, which was probably why Maria had reacted like that.

It caused quite a few hoots and catcalls from the guys around the edge of the impromptu football field when four pretty girls, nearly dripping with suntan oil, (three dressed in bikinis and one in a red speedo tank,) ran up to see what all of the fuss was about, even though there had been the regular collection of attractive summer girls watching the match already. None of us worried about the whistles, though, when we noticed the epicenter of the ruckus - Kyle and Rath, Max, and Michael were all lying, kneeling, or squatting on the ground, (more or less, the individual positions were changing moment by moment,) in an energetic and somewhat violent tangle.

As I watched, it became clear that Rath and Kyle were out for each other's blood - probably none that the other absolutely couldn't spare, but still, they were pissed - Rath using all the New York streetfighting tricks that he knew, and Kyle holding his own pretty well with a mix of amateur wrestling holds, some very basic tai kwan do, and good ol-fashioned football team horseplay. Max and Michael were trying to get them seperated, and not having that much luck at the moment.

As this passed through my mind, it immediately resulted in a vocal output. "Rath - what the hell did you do?" Both of them stopped in mid-fight and looked up at me, Rath with an extremely frustrated look on his face, Kyle slightly aggrieved and at the same time triumphant... as if my blaming the whole deal on Rath had given him more triumph than if he'd kicked Rath's ass. So, I adjusted my stance slightly. "Does *somebody* want to tell me what's going on here?"

None of our guys said anything as they got up. I wondered for a moment what had happened to Alex. Maybe he had wandered off to gaze into the ocean or something - he didn't really seem like the sportsy type. (Max isn't that much sportier, but he is a little closer to the typical 'football player' look, so I dunno.) One of the bystanders enthusiastically started relating the events, though. "Well, it was just a relatively ordinary outward hook pass, when the guy in the black wifebeater," (that was Rath,) "tackled my boy like it was the Super bowl. I mean, he ran into him like he was a train engine." I figured out, after a few seconds, that 'my boy' was Kyle, presumably because he was on the same team as the dude who was speaking. Had he been the quarterback who threw the pass to Kyle, maybe? "I half expected that we'd need people to carry him off the field, but no - bam, up he comes, right in BlackBeater's face, and they yell at each other about whether it was or wasn't an accident for maybe half a minute before words aren't enough anymore and they start brawling. The other two came up as quickly as they could to stop them... but I guess a bikini works better at that." I blushed slightly.

"Okay, well, we'd better leave the field of play - ALL of us," Maria said, a little ominously. I think Michael was about to complain, for a second, that he hadn't done anything wrong and he wanted to stick with the game - but arguing with Maria right then must not have looked like a good idea. I went over to Kyle. "Are you alright??"

He had a nasty scratch down the right side of his face and was moving his left shoulder gingerly, as if it was sore, but I didn't think it was dislocated or anything. "Yeah, I'll be okay, but I wouldn't mind a hand over to the beach." Smiling, I walked beside him, keeping my left arm out so that he could put some eight on it using his right hand. Max and Isabel had crwded around Rath, but I didn't pay him any attention until Kyle was sitting down on the oceanward end of my beach towel.

"Damn, Valenti, when someone really pisses you off, you don't mess around," Michael said in a low whisper.

"Umm... what?" Kyle looked over at him, a little bit nervous and worried. "I... I don't even remember what happened... I just... I was so mad at him for pulling that stunt that I couldn't see straight, and he was acting like he had hardly done anything important wrong and... and next thing I really remember is Ava yelling." He took a deep breath. "Is Rath going to be okay?"

"From what I can tell - probably," Michael muttered. "Especially if Max gets a chance to patch him up without anyone else noticing how badly he was hurt. But you cracked two of his ribs and pulled a ligament in his leg."

"Hey, the ligament he might've done to himself," Kyle argued, "either in the fight or when he bulldozed me." Michael shrugged, not arguing the point.

"What... what was it like?" I asked Kyle. "I... I mean, Rath knows that you're a football player and been tackled before. Admittedly, you weren't in your padding and uniform this time, but..."

"It's not just that," Kyle argued softly. "Usually, tacking someone, you're just trying to stop them as quickly and effectively as possible. But, I swear that Rath was *trying* to hurt me. He hit me just about as hard as he could, and then tried to yank my shoulders down so that I'd hit the ground head first. Even though I've practiced taking falls, I still did hit my head pretty hard - though not as hard as I think he wanted."

"Maybe Max should take a look at you too, after he's done with Rath," I said softly. I certainly couldn't blame Kyle for being angry, for giving Rath a little back, after a provocation like that. Rath might even respect him a little more for the broken bones... though I wasn't sure it would help. But I was more worried about what made Rath so angry at Kyle in the first place.

He'd been pissy or ill-tempered ever since the trip started, I realized. And... and the things that seemed to get him the meanest, I suddenly realized, were when I was talking to Kyle, or someone else mentioned the two of us together, like Isabel had in the car. Had... had he seen the two of us kissing in the ocean?

And, like another metaphorical flash of lightning, the rest of it hit me. This didn't have anything to do with Rath being protective or just thinking Kyle wasn't good enough for me in a big-brother kind of role. The only thing that would get Rath *this* fired up... was if he saw Kyle as the competition. He must have had a thing for me too, and I'd never noticed. Until I started flirting with another guy, and...

Oh, boy. This changed everything. Kyle was cool, and I really did like him, but did I want to keep pursuing him even knowing that it was pissing Rath off this much? Rath had been one of the people I'd been closest to forever and ever... and I wasn't sure how to react to the idea that he wanted to get wit' me, or whatever. (Definitely I wouldn't hook up, as long as he was only willing to show his feelings by beating up other guys, but things might not stay that way long now.)

Great. A classic summer love triangle. The beach beauty has two guys both falling all over her - the sweet, relatively clean-cut jock, and the 'bad boy' that she has tons and tons of history with. What the hell do I do now??

TO BE CONTINUED...