Can Water Wash Away the Guilt?

"Did you find out why she's like that?"

"Not one thing," Whitney whispered back to Ramsey.

The two girls stood huddling a couple of steps inside the walk-in closet of the master suite. Rammy's damp hair hung down from the shower she had finished mere minutes earlier. Over in the bed, Lacey lay stomach first with her face in the pillows. Whitney's plans for a fun week with her two best friends and her boyfriend sure had hit some snags already. Ramsey and Owen both flared up with their own little dramas yesterday, and now it looked to be Lacey's turn.

"Do you think Tarver did something to her?" asked Rammy in a low voice.

"He's not like that," Whitney replied dismissively.

"How can you be sure? We don't know him all that well," the redhead continued.

"He's not like that!" Whitney responded more forcefully.

"Well, Austin thinks he did something to her," Ramsey pointed out.

"As my Great-Grandpa would say: Austin's a putz," the blonde shot back.

"Whitney! Austin's our friend--"

"Stop whispering about me!" Lacey's muffled voice called out.

The girls in the closet looked at each other, unsure how to proceed.

"Lace, we're a little concerned. Did anyone hurt you? Like say a person who frightened you earlier," Ramsey hesitantly suggested, ignoring Whitney's dirty look.

"No one hurt me," Lacey spoke into the pillow before she swung her head around to look at her friend. "He's not that kind of a guy."

"Mm-hmm," sounded from Whitney. The blonde then took a step forward. "It's okay, Lace. You don't have to tell us anything until you're ready to. Now it's your turn to use the shower."

Lacey stared at her two friends for a good fifteen seconds before sighing and getting off the bed. "Fine, I'll take a shower."

After their friend went into the bathroom, Ramsey turned to Whitney in annoyance. "What are you doing? We need to find out what's wrong."

"And you did a fabulous job of shutting down any chance we had. Accusing a guy she's known since they were babies of hurting her."

"Well, she freaked out when she saw him in the kitchen."

"Neither of us was there when it happened," Whitney reminded." And unlike you, I'm not naive enough to believe Austin, of all people."

"I'm not naive!" squealed Rammy.

"Whatever, look, when she came back last night, she seemed distracted. One minute she was happy and seemed to be planning something, and the next minute she was sad. It went on for a long time. You were asleep, so you didn't see it," Whitney recounted. "Something happened last night, but not some Law & Order: SVU crap like you're imagining."

Ramsey didn't answer as she burned with anger at how her friend sometimes treated her. Just because I'm not out chasing older guys all the time doesn't mean I'm sheltered. If anything, I know more about life from my time at the Flyer.

"Now, I'm going to go see if my approach can yield any information," Whitney informed Ramsey before she walked over to open the bathroom door.

JoJo sat on the toilet staring at the wall in an unfocused daze. Drying tears littered her cheeks. The urgent need to pee had been satisfied ten minutes earlier. Now, her mind swirled emotionally, with her body seemed paralyzed.

"What did you do?" she whimpered. Her body started to rock back and forth slowly. "What did you do!"

You gave away your best friend's deepest secret. That's what you did! Five years you've kept it for him, and you just gave it away. For what? Because you're still a little girl that can't handle some tickling.

"Weak. Pathetic. That's what I am," JoJo muttered to herself in the confines of the bathroom. "And a pervert!"

How could I get that warm feeling inside of me while betraying my friend, my best friend? How could Jared's hands have felt so soft and smooth? Why did I want them to move elsewhere on my body? And I moaned when he slapped my butt. I moaned! What must he think of me?

The troubled teenager finally stood up and pulled up her pants. She moved over to the sink to wash her hands. Her reflection in the mirror caught her attention. JoJo stared at herself as she pondered the image before her. A traitor. That's what I see — Sean's personal Benedict Arnold.

"A dirty-minded traitor," came out right before tears started flowing down her face again. I need to make this right. I need to fix it and stop Jared from making it worse. But first, Sean needs to know what I did. He might never forgive me, but he needs to know.

The brunette dipped her face down to the sink, cupping her hands and splashing her face with water. Holding in any additional tears, JoJo looked at her clean face.

"No more crying," JoJo told herself. No more feeling sorry for yourself. Tears will only draw attention and suspicion. It's not like anyone else in the cabin is walking around crying.

Whitney could hear the sobs over the sound of the shower. Her heart went out to her lifelong friend for whatever troubled her. The caring teenager untied her silk robe and let it slip to the floor. The buttons on her royal blue, satin pajama top came undone, then her boxer shorts.

Walking around the short wall, Whitney stepped into the large walk-in shower. Mrs. Tarver was definitely right about Dad having a shower built for sex, she mused. The large shower could fit a good four or five people inside its tile-covered space. It had a multi-showerhead system that Whitney loved when she tried it for the first time the other day. However, Lacey only had a single showerhead turned on, with her standing motionless underneath it.

The buxom blonde paused at the sight of her naked friend. They had showered together numerous times over their lives, but today something felt different to Whitney. Her eyes appraised the redhead's incredibly toned figure. If Lacey had an ounce of fat on her body, it was well-hidden. The petite girl's slim waist was the envy of the cheer squad, and Whitney's gaze lingered on it before moving down to her backside. Lacey's little tush, the word that always came to her mind whenever she saw it, was something to behold. Now, Whitney loved her firm, curvy behind, and she knew men did too, but Lacey's had this tiny, tight ass that took your breath away. The blonde watched as the shower water ran down her friend's back and into the crack of her ass.

Shaking her head, Whitney brought her eyes back up to her friend's head when she heard another sob. She took a couple of steps further into the shower but hesitated to go further. In Lacey's current emotional state, Whitney didn't want to give her scare by suddenly popping up next to her.

"Lace? Do you mind if I join you?"

At first, Whitney wasn't sure if her friend heard her, but after about twenty seconds, Lacey gave a slight shake of her head. With that, the blonde strode the rest of the distance until she stood right behind her friend.

"Girl, you know you're supposed to be cleaning yourself in here," Whitney remarked in a light-hearted tone. Sensing her friend wasn't about to get moving, the blonde reached over for the body wash. Squirting a fair amount into her hand, she tentatively reached out to lather Lacey's shoulders. "Then I guess I'll help you get started. Sound okay?"

The petite redhead shrugged the same shoulders that her friend started to lather up with soap. Sliding her soap-covered hands down from her friend's shoulders, Whitney moved to cover her upper arms too. Reaching to grab more body wash, the cheerleader captain began to talk to her squadmate soothingly.

"I'm here if you want to talk. About anything at all." As she finished soaping up her friend's lower arms, Whitney pressed further on. "Now, Rammy thinks you were the victim of a very special episode of Riverdale or Gossip Girl. But we both know Sean would never do shit like that, right?"

Seeing Lacey respond with a nod of her head pleased Whitney. With more body wash, she began to spread it around the girl's upper back. "But something did happen last night. After Sean helped you back, you seemed happy and then sad, over and over."

The blonde could feel her friend tense up, but she continued. "It even kept you tossing and turning last night. I'm sorry to admit it kind of pissed me off. So I went to get some ice scream and space from you and Rammy. And guess what? Some asshole ate most of my cookie dough from Ms. Sprinkle's. And you know what I do when somebody steals my ice cream."

The short laugh from Lacey pleased Whitney even more this time. Her hands were now down to the redhead's lower back, applying soap.

"Did something happen with Austin? I know he was drinking heavily last night. Did you two get into an argument or fight?"

The shake of Lacey's head was reassuring. Whitney didn't think Austin was a mean drunk, but one never knows. Dropping down to her knees, she now began to apply soap to the ankles in front of her. She slid her soap-covered hands up down from the ankle to the knee on both legs.

"So does that mean something happened on the walk back with Sean?"

Whitney could feel her friend's body stiffen up all the way down to her legs. With more body wash, she now began to move her hands up past Lacey's knees.

"Did something happen between you and Sean?" Whitney wasn't sure if Lacey's little jump had to do with her question or the pair of hands sliding up to the top of her legs. Lacey's slightly spread her legs to allow more for Whitney to work. Damn, everything about her body is so tight and firm...I wonder if her--no, don't think that. "Or did someone else do something to upset you?"

The tiny, tight ass mere inches from her face called out to Whitney. She had to touch it, feel it. She had to know how tight and perky it was. Whitney did touch it with more strawberry body wash, spreading the soap all around the flawless globes. Tempted to cup and squeeze it, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up at her friend's words.

"I-I saw something."