Down The River
By Thomas Mc
Chapter 2: New Friends
Brigit turned from Justin and faced Adam who was standing next to Nancy. "You want to try me?" The abrasive demeanor was more pronounced and there was more than a hint of defensiveness in her voice.
"Not me." Adam replied with a grin. "I know when I'm outclassed."
Brigit cocked her head at Adam suspiciously, as Nancy asked. "And it doesn't bother you that we are stronger than you?"
Adam looked over at Nancy and shrugged. "Makes no difference to me." He chuckled. "But it might be nice to go with a girl that you never have to worry about because you know that she can take care of herself."
Brigit addressed Justin her hands firmly planted on her hips. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Justin replied off handedly.
"How do you feel about the fact that I could beat you up." Brigit pressed.
Nancy opened her mouth to chide her sister when she felt Adams hand on her elbow. She held her peace.
Justin gazed at Brigit for a couple of seconds just a bit taken aback by the tone as well as the content of her question. "First off, it's not that sure you could beat me up. You may be as strong as me, possibly even stronger, but I still have weight and training on my side." He paused as he gazed back at her. "It would most definitely bother me if you did, but the idea that you could doesn't." He paused.
Adam jumped in at this point. "More importantly, fighting would be a total waste of time. I can think of much more pleasant ways to pass the time." He glanced around at the scenery. "Like floating down the river and enjoying the view."
Justin jumped back in. "Who can beat up who, only matters if you're planning to get into a fight." He gazed at Brigit. "And fighting is the last thing on my mind right now."
Brigit's defensiveness seemed to relax a bit over the next half hour as they all engaged in a few more various tests of strength. The boys learned that the girls were also very quick as well as strong. It was decided that Justin was nearly as strong as the girls were and Adam was just as fast as they were. In feats of strength where weight was a factor Justin often won. After a while, they decided to just call it a draw before finally returning to the river.
They continued to float for a while in silence. The boys quietly observing and thinking about the girls. The girls seemed to be deep in thought as they observed the boys.
After a few minutes, Adam finally broke the silence. "By the time we reach the end, we'll all probably be hungry. Would you two like to go out to dinner with Justin and me?" He shrugged. "I know of a great restaurant that is just fifteen minutes from the last landing."
Nancy and Brigit looked at each other, alternating between uncertainty and surprise, unsure how to answer. Finally, Brigit responded. "Let's just see how things go between now and then."
"Fair enough." Replied Justin. He opened the cooler. "Anybody want something to drink?"
"What do you have?" Nancy shifted her tube closer and tried to peer into the cooler.
Justin looked down into the cooler and appeared to be studying its contents. "Let's see . . . we have beer, more beer, coke, water, and Gatorade? Who snuck that in here?" Justin glanced at Adam. "Well that's it. What would you like?"
"I think I would like a coke, please." Nancy requested.
After a pause, Brigit also responded. "I'll have the same thing."
Justin pulled out and handed the girls the requested items, next he pulled out a Gatorade and tossed it over to Adam without remark then he pulled out a beer for himself."
As the quartet continued down the river together, they commented on the things they saw around them on the river and slowly got to know each other. The girls became more relaxed with the boys once they became convinced that Adam and Justin weren't going to bug out on them at the first opportunity, as they had half expected.
They passed the first landing where the traffic on the river thinned out somewhat. They had become relatively isolated from the other people sharing the river around them when the topic eventually came back to the girl's unusual strength. It eventually came out that both girls had experienced bad reactions to the discovery of their superior strength. Usually this had led to an unpleasant breakup or a relationship simply disintegrating before it even got started.
As they continued to float downriver, Adam thought about the strength that the two girls had displayed as he took in both girls' bikini clad bodies. Finally, he asked the question that was uppermost on his mind. "Why are you two so strong? I know it's not from working out. You would have much larger muscles if it was that. One would never guess how strong you two are just by looking at you." He looked at Brigit and Nancy expectantly.
Brigit glanced uncertainly at Nancy, who shrugged, then frowned at the sky for a second. Nancy looked back at Adam, the uncertainty showing through her eyes. "It's genetic. It comes from our father." She shrugged. "It's just the way we are."
Adam mulled her answer over, and then grinned. "Stealth strength. Could give you quite an advantage if you were attacked by someone who didn't know you." He glanced momentarily at Justin. "Have either of you ever taken a self defense class?"
Again, Brigit glanced at Nancy who responded for the two. "No, never thought about it, though Mother has taught us a few tricks for emergency situations."
"You should, you know." Justin threw in. "Speed and strength will get you through most situations but it is useless against a gun. That's where a self-defense course could make the difference." He pointed his finger at her. "If I pulled a gun on you right now, you could never use your strength against me before I pulled the trigger."
Nancy responded. "I could distract you by splashing you." Which she proceeded to do.
"Oh is that how you're going to play it." Justin sputtered then splashed her back.
She returned the volley, getting Adam in the collateral spray. Justin and Adam both returned fire, getting Brigit who sputtered with surprise. Very quickly, it degenerated into a free-for-all melee with all four of them virtually hidden in a wall of seething churning water. Only the sound of laughter, squeals and squawks betrayed their existence inside the maelstrom.
Thirty minutes later, they were again peacefully floating along, soaking wet and chuckling softly.
More drinks were passed out. After a few minutes of silence, Adam brought up the subject of current movies and soon they were all talking about their favorite movies and actors. Adam adamantly refused to back down in his assertion that 'Lord Of The Rings' was the best movies ever made. Brigit insisted that 'Avatar' was better. Justin agreed with Brigit. Nancy insisted that 'The Abyss' was the best
~ o ~
Late in the afternoon, they reached the last landing and got out of the river. They all used the outdoor showers next to the tube rental shop to rinse off the river water. The girls dropped off their tubes which they had rented. Then they all joined up beside the covered bench at the shuttle bus stop.
"Well," Adam spoke first. "Are we still on for dinner?"
Brigit and Nancy glanced at each other. Nancy answered. "Sure, sounds fine to me."
"Your car or ours?" Adam asked with just a hint of a smile.
Brigit snorted at Adam's play on words. Justin glanced at him in surprise then shook his head.
"Our car is parked at the second landing and it's a two seater." Nancy replied straight faced.
"In that case, I guess it will have to be my truck, then." Justin responded with a hint of a grin.
"But we still need to go by our car to get our cover-ups." Nancy added striking a pose in her bikini.
"Um, No problem." Justin remarked after a half a beat. He glanced at his watch. "We have plenty of time 'til we have to be back."
"Back?" inquired Nancy.
"We came here with three others and we have to be back at this spot to meet them at eight o'clock."
Justin and Adam opened the air valves on their tubes letting them deflate then they went out to Justin's truck. After packing everything away Justin and Adam got out tee shirts and put them on, then they all hopped into the truck and headed to the second landing and the girls' car. Brigit directed Justin to a little red BMW convertible.
"Nice car." Adam remarked in admiration.
Nancy shrugged. "It actually belongs to our big sister, Naomi."
The girls retrieved their cover-ups. Then they headed for the restaurant that Adam had suggested.
"How come you were parked at the second landing?" Adam asked.
"That's where we were originally planning to get out." Replied Brigit.
Nancy jumped in. "Then we met these two really weird guys and followed them further down the river out of curiosity."
"You should be careful following strange guys. You never know what you might end up with." Adam remarked.
"Well they are a bit strange but they don't seem to be too bad . . . for guys." Brigit responded as she nudged Justin.
~ o ~
Soon they arrived at the restaurant. Over dinner, they talked about their day on the river. It turned out that the girls had also started down the river from the upper drop-off. Adam and Justin were impressed, but not really surprised, that these two girls would dare to take on the upper rapids.
After a little coaxing, Nancy exchanged home phone numbers with Adam and Justin. Adam glanced at the girls' home number and commented on it. "This is a Manhattan exchange. You live in New York?"
"That's correct. We live close to Central Park." Replied Nancy.
Adam remarked. "My father used to live in Manhattan, before he married my mother. They moved to Connecticut right after they got married." He chuckled. "Small world ain't it."
"A lot of people in Connecticut come from New York." Responded Brigit.
~ o ~
It was getting late when Justin pulled up beside the girls' car. After a quick round of goodbyes, Justin headed back to the first landing. They arrived with two minutes to spare. Jordan, Rusty and Stephen were there waiting. "So where were you guys?" Jordan asked.
"We were with a couple of girls we picked up on the river ." Adam replied.
"Oh is that so?" Rusty looked at the cousins. "Were they cute?"
Adam shrugged then grinned. "Oh yea! They weren't bad at all."
Stephen jumped in at this point. "Hey, did you guy's hear about the two Amazons?"
Adam and Justin looked at him curiously. "Amazons?"
"Yea!" Stephen responded. "These two big guys said that they ran into two huge hairy Amazon women that attacked them and threw them into the river."
Adam and Justin glanced at each other. Justin shrugged, a hint of a smile playing across his face. Adam raised one eyebrow, his eyes glittering in amusement. "No, we didn't see or hear about any 'Amazons'. What did those guys say?"
"Not that much." Jordan replied. "Rusty noticed that they both had large bruises on their backs and asked about it."
That was all it took for Adam and Justin to know for sure.
During the ride back to the college dorm, they talked about the river trip and the girls they had seen. Adam and Justin talked a little about the sisters but left out the more unusual details and the events around the initial encounter.
~ o ~
Once Adam and Justin got home, they pulled out Adam's camera and went through the pictures from the river trip.
The first one was a, way off plumb, picture of Justin surrounded by white rapids. His tube was at a 45 degree angle to the water, one leg straight out to the side, the other leg nearly straight up.
"When did you take that one?" Justin asked.
"Just before your tube flipped over." Adam replied. "I almost lost it there as well."
The next picture was of the five of them with the six girls they had met just after the rapids.
"I forgot about them." Justin remarked.
The third picture showed a large tree overhanging the crowded river, a vaguely female shaped pink blur about halfway between the tree and the water.
"Aw, that one didn't come out very good." Adam shrugged. "What a shame."
With another shrug, he went to the next picture of Justin, Brigit and Nancy in their tubes on the river. "Hey that one came out really good."
The next picture was of the arm wrestling contest between Justin and Brigit. Both their faces clearly showed the strain of the contest. Adam laughed. "She sure put you in your place there, didn't she?"
"Well she did prove that she was as strong as she claimed." Justin replied with an unconcerned shrug.
The next picture showed Justin holding Nancy above his head in front of a large tree. That was followed by one of Nancy holding Adam up over her head with the river in the background. Justin and Adam both laughed at that one. The one after that showed Brigit holding Justin above her head and it was obvious that she was about to lose her balance.
"Fortunately she dropped you on your head so there was no damage." Adam commented, laughing.
Justin responded by shoving Adam off the sofa and laughed as Adam returned to his seat.
They resumed flipping through the pictures. The next picture was of the two girls framed by the river backdrop followed by one of the two boys in the same background. Then there was one of Justin and Brigit together followed by one of Adam and Nancy together. There were a couple of pictures of Nancy and Brigit floating on the river in their tubes, including one of Brigit flipping Justin's tube with him in it, followed by a picture of Nancy and Brigit standing next to Justin's truck.
The last picture from the river trip was of Adam, Nancy, Justin and Brigit sitting around the table at the restaurant. That picture had been taken by their waiter. Justin spoke as he gazed at that picture. "Well cousin what do you think about Brigit and Nancy?" He glanced over at Adam. "Did you like them?"
"Are you kidding? Two smoking hot girls in bikinis driving a hot red sports car, what's not to like?" Adam grinned.
"So should we call them? Maybe try to arrange to get together again sometime soon?" Justin pushed.
"I think it would be a good idea." Adam thought a few moments. "Maybe we could drive down to New York this next weekend to see them and take in a movie or something."
"Definitely." Justin looked back at the picture of the four of them in the restaurant. "We'll call them tomorrow night and make plans for next weekend."
Continued in Part 3
'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.