Yeah, let's go to the beach

The local place for tanning and swimming was not far from home, so I grabbed my towel, shorts, sun screen and a bottle of cold water, and headed out. It wasn't until I got down there that I realized I had left my phone at home.

After a bit of panic, I took a deep breath and told myself it would be safe there, and I could use some detox from doom scrolling. The app would be unavailable, but it was risky to bring it up in public anyway.

I installed myself on the towel and lay down to catch some rays. The beach was crowded with young adults, probably college students needing a break from the intense reading for exams. Behind my sunglasses I checked out the babes in my vicinity. A bunch of fours and fives, I guessed, slightly disappointed. After Olivia, I felt like raising the bar with the next chick. The sun was scorching hot, and I was happy I had brought and applied the sun screen. I laid back and closed my eyes. The sun made me sleepy, and it didn’t take long for me to zone out and almost fall asleep.

I was briskly awoken by a splash of sand over my body.

“Sorry!” a girl yelled as she ran towards me.

As I looked up, I realized she wasn’t just any girl. She was probably 5’8-5’9, and despite her fiery red hair, tied up in a long ponytail, her skin was golden tan all over. Her neutral, dark blue bikini struggled to contain her ample boobs as she ran. When she came closer, and I saw her clear, blue eyes and cute, freckled nose, I knew for sure that she had to be at least an eight. Maybe even nine.

“No worries,” I replied and got up on my feet, handing her the volleyball. She returned the smile and took it.

“Oh, but we got sand all over you,” she said and tried to brush it away from my chest.

“It’s fine,” I said, and took her hand into mine. “I’m Mike!”

{If Confidence>8}Though my confidence was very high, {else}I started sweating, she was so hot. {endif}I decided to play the take it slow with her, and maybe play the long game.

She laughed. “Smooth. I’m Kayla.” She looked around. “Are you here just by yourself?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, “I’ve been studying so much lately; I was **** for some sun today.”

“Oh… and your friends are all hard-working nerds too?” she said, looking around with a frown on her face.

“All of my friends have exams tomorrow,” I lied, “they couldn’t come.”

I realized I was in the strange situation that none of my friends had seen me since Saturday. The ring had taken up all of my time. They would probably be shocked to see me now. Or maybe the app took care of that?

“Ah, I see… well, nice to meet you, Mike,” Kayla finished, and turned around.

Damn, she had a really nice ass too. Her bikini had pulled themselves in between her tight, round cheeks, making it act like a string.

“Hey, do you need another player?” I called.

“Sure… do you think you have what it takes?” she asked, looking at me over her shoulder.

“Of course!” I replied, confidently.

“Come on, then!” she said and laughed, walking back to her friends. I gathered my stuff and ran after her. There were seven others waiting in the sand, four guys and three girls. All of them very tall and fit. Despite my 6 feet, all the guys and even a girl were taller than me.

“This is Mike,” she introduced me. “He wants to play with us!”

They all laughed.

“All right, but Shorty goes on your team,” one of the guys said.

“Damn, you better be good!” she whispered and pointed me to the back right corner.

One of the guys on the other side served. Damn, it was fast. The ball was caught by Kayla, bumping it up. Another girl set it up, and a guy jumped up and spiked it over the net. Our opponents defended well, digging it easily and returning the ball to us with a simple attack. We sent it back again, but it was blocked. With a **** jump, Kayla saved the ball, the second guy on our team set it up and suddenly it was like time slowed down. Everyone looked at me. I ran forward, jumped up and smashed it… into the net.

“1-0!” someone called while I brushed the sand off my face. Kayla helped me up with a pitiful look.

“Get ready, Mike!” a guy on my team said.

The next serve was aimed at me, but somehow I was able to catch it, setting up my team for a counter-attack. Gradually, I worked my way up to their skill, or at least decent enough to not cost them points. I praised my new fitness. I’d never been good at ball games, and would never have had the lungs to play this intense before.

“You’re getting better, Mike!” Kayla said, and smiled. “Let’s kick their asses, and I’ll give you my number!” She handed me the ball.

“What are we waiting for, then?” I gritted my teeth and prepared for my first serve. Jumping taller than I’d ever jumped before, I hit the ball hard, shooting it right over the net and into the ground. Point! The other team started arguing about who should have taken the rookie’s serve. Kayla didn’t turn, just showed me the thumbs up.

The game continued, and my next serve was defended. The ball went back and forth for a while, the score even. Finally, as the sun was setting, Kayla served a ball that was headed into the ground. A blonde on the other team saved it barely, a guy set it up for a smash, and another jumped up to spike it. This was my chance. I jumped as high as I could, put my hands up and blocked it! The ball went to the ground on their side. We won!

My team cheered, and everyone hugged me.

“Well done, rookie!” Kayla said, while everyone was packing up their stuff, and grinned. “I bet it’s not every day you play with the College pro volleyball team.”

“Ah, that explains-“ I said, but she interrupted me with a kiss on the cheek.

“I guess you’ve earned this,” she continued, and wrote her number on my hand. “Call me!”

“Hey, what about a drink tonight?” I said, but she hurried to catch up with her friends, who were walking to the cars.

“Sure! Text me later!” she yelled, and I grinned and gave her the thumbs up.

Victorious, I packed up my stuff and went home. After entering Kayla's number into my contacts, I took a nice, long shower, thinking about her delicious body while I let out some steam.

“Hello, Mike!” the female voice said from my phone afterwards. “Did you have a good day, yeah?”

“Yeah…” I said, and brought up Kayla’s number on my phone. “What’s this girl’s rating?”

“Well, I need a picture, or her full name,” Liz replied.

Time to use my google-fu.

I searched for “Kayla volleyball”.

Nothing.

“Kayla [name of college]”.

Nope.

"Kayla volleyball [name of college] athlete”.

There she was! On the volleyball team for our college, captain of the women's team.

I gave Liz her full name, and she gave me her profile.

“She's Kayla McAuley. 23 years old. Medicine student and volleyball player. Recently single. On the pill, no STDs. Interested in cooking, travelling and finding a new boyfriend.”

“I deducted the last one from her Tinder activity,” Liz said.

“Sounds amazing,” I replied, “what about her rating?”

“Of course. I'm rating her 8/10. Do you think you have what it takes?”

"Sure!"