The One She Needed. **complete**

Chapter 16**The Stong Chest

"Hurry up!! Come on!!!" Darren pulled Kelsie through the car lot. More excited than a toddler on Christmas morning. He stopped in front of a pumpkin colored Mustang. "Here she is!" He said smiling. "My baby!! My first brand new car!!"

"Wow". Kelsie said. "It's really pretty. Isn't it kinda pricey though?"

"Yeah the payments are gonna kill me!" Darren said, "but I'll make it work." Kelsie cringed, figuring that he would make it work by borrowing money from her.

"How 'bout we go somewhere private and break her in right?" Darren ask with a wink.

"I don't have sex in cars Dar. You know that." Kelsie said and Darren laughed and went back to inspecting his new car.

So far Darren had kept his word to Eric and had been the perfect boyfriend. In fact he was so devoted, he was starting to bug Kelsie. She wasn't used to him being around so much anymore. He had also started calling the local radio station and dedicating songs to her at night. Which she thought was very sweet at first, but then started thinking he just liked hearing his name called.

Scott said radio dedications were dumb.

"I don't get it." He said one night when they heard the dedication while they were on the phone. "He spends God knows how long every night trying to get through on that dedication line. Why doesn't he just spend that time talking to you?"

"I don't know." Kelsie said laughing. "It's just his thing. It makes him happy."

The first weekend in May rolled around and Kelsie, Darren and many others, including Eric, decided to go camping by the river. It was unseasonably warm, the swimming was great and Eric had borrowed his dad's camper. 16 kids in a camper that was made to sleep 8. It was gonna be great!!

Kelsie didn't expect her mom to let her go, but Darren had sent Eric to sweet talk her and Mom had been no match for Eric.

The group left before sunup Saturday morning, arriving at the camp site just in time for breakfast. The girls made pancakes for everyone and then the whole group headed out to tube.

Tubing was one of Kelsie's favorite things. It was done by tying four innertubes to one tube in the center. A cooler is placed in the center tube. Then you just float down the river.

Kelsie's group consisted of Darren, Eric, Jake, and herself. Somehow in a group of sixteen, they ended up with twelve boys and four girls so every grouping was pretty much like hers. For Kelsie that meant laughing and begging for mercy as the boys threw ice at her or tickled her feet until she couldn't stand it anymore. For the girl one group up it meant taking off her top and dancing. To the girl in front of them it meant screaming every ugly word she knew at her boyfriend because he had turned around backward to look at the topless girl. The girl in the very front group fell asleep. Kelsie wasn't sure how.

After the screaming girlfriend had calmed down a bit and someone had thrown a shirt on the topless girl, Jake looked at Kelsie and said, "Darren was looking too, were you not mad?"

"Well I was kinda looking too." Kelsie said laughing. "I mean they were just there, bouncing and all. It was kinda hard not to look."

"Your's are better baby". Darren said. Kelsie turned bright red and Eric said, "That was uncalled for. Don't talk about her like that."

The tone of his voice made the other three look at him and he added, "she's not that girl Darren. Treat her with the respect she deserves."

Oddly , Darren didn't argue and Jake changed the subject in a way that only Jake could. By standing up and mooning the other tubes. This resulted in a size contest between the guys that left Kelsie sitting with her eyes covered for several miles.