Saving Grace

I Don't Know How To

"I have no idea. I want to help, yet I don't know how to." I shoved my hands in my pockets in kicked stones on the ground with my boot.

"Women. I'm tellin' ya," Preston chuckled as we reached the porch. Normally I would have said something like 'don't talk about her that way'. But I needed a laugh. Anything to distract me from the current episode of 'Days of Our Lives' I was dragged into.

***********************************

"Awesome, ain't it?" Finn said, tossing his arm over my shoulder and leaning on me. I could tell just from his appearance that he was way past being drunk. He obviously didn't learn anything from grandpa. But then again, he would never listen anyways.

"So cool," I replied with an eye roll and a small chuckle. I sat on the back of my truck with Finn as we looked at the group of people about twenty feet away. They were all standing in smaller groups, some swimming, others dancing and almost all were drinking. There were at least forty people at Finn's little end of summer party he apparently threw every year.

I took a sip of my soda and tried to block out Finn's incoherent babbling. I kept scanning the crowd for Cali. She had been gone for almost two hours already. She knew about this party and made it sound like she had wanted to come so I was surprised she hadn't shown up yet.

But I was also worried. I almost regretted not following her now. She could have passed out from the heat or something and be lying on the ground unconscious. I was probably just overreacting, but I was still nervously sweating.

"You gonna go swimming?" Finn asked with a better sounding voice, allowing me to understand what he asked.

"Probably. Why?"

"I'll race you across the lake. You whipped my ass last time and I want a rematch."

I started laughing to myself as I hopped off the truck and took my shirt off. I remembered the day Finn was talking about.

I was about twelve years old and we were bored one day so we came down here to swim. The lake is about one hundred yards long and Finn dared that I couldn't swim the length without stopping. Being the normal male that I was and not wanting to back down from a dare, I did it. Finn then proceeded to want to race. I beat him by a good five minutes. But when I turned around, I saw he was practically drowning in the middle of lake. I saved his life but I really didn't want to do it again.

"Okay. Just don't drown again," I smirked as I punched him in the shoulder. He took his shirt off too before responding. And just like a magnet, we suddenly were surrounded by about ten girls.

Damn my incredibly toned and nice looking body.

I'm just joking, don't worry.

Finn politely shooed them away, obviously uninterested. "Nah man. I took lessons for a like three years after that. I'm gonna kick your ass."

He then decided to bet on it. Fifty dollars actually. I bet him easily, knowing I would win. We began the walk down to the lake to where a large group of college girls had just entered in bikinis that were practically tied together with floss.

"You sure they won't distract you?" I mussed as I nudged his side. He chuckled and shook his head.

"Nope. I got my eye on someone and none of those girls could distract me. But-"

He was cut off by something that had caught his gaze in the distant. But I didn't look at who it was just yet. I had to process what I just heard.

Finn had his eye on someone? That seemed almost impossible to me. He was a huge player and man-whore at that. I don't think he's ever had a real girlfriend and the thought of him actually settling down would be the equivalent of hell freezing over.