Sunburned

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Heather thrashed about on the couch next to Vanessa. “Holy shit, Van! Why do your mom and dad keep it so cold in here?” She seemed to find what she was looking for, a fleece blanket bearing a stylised print of Mesa Butte. She cocooned herself within the cosy folds.

Vanessa gave the other girl—her best friend all through school and now her girlfriend!—a sceptical look. “What’re you talking about?” She paused the movie on the family room television. “We’re under a heat-dome, I’m sweating here!” For emphasis, Vanessa gestured at herself: thin, cotton halter that left her tummy bare, and bicycle shorts that were almost booty-shorts, both slightly damp.

The incredulous sound Heather made in reply told a story Vanessa already knew. “Hettie,” Vanessa began as she inched her way across the couch toward Heather. “What sunblock did you put on today?”

Heather flushed! She looked frightened, and took a long time to respond. “I…put on…it was the stuff in the…yellow bottle?”

Vanessa nearly laughed, already recognising the signs of Heather preparing a lie. “Uh-huh. SPF?” Heather’s anguished expression made Vanessa want to kiss her—salt and sunscreen, her mouth remembered, but there wasn’t any sunscreen today.

“Nine?” Heather offered, hopefully.

“Babe!” Vanessa glared. “We spent the whole day at Axel’s pool! The UV index was eight today! What were you thinking?” She closed the final distance and carefully attempted to remove the blanket. “How bad is your sunburn? Seriously?”

Heather awkwardly struggled to remain bundled up, and murmured, “Kinda bad?”

Vanessa’s parents had set up a “basement apartment” for her during her final year of high school, and now she led Heather to the bedroom. It wasn’t far, just down the stairs and around a corner and through a door with a real lock on it, but it was quiet, comfortable, and exactly as private as she liked.

“Sit,” she said, pointing Heather to the side of Vanessa’s bed.

Once freed of the blanket, and her tank-top, and her fleece gym shorts, and her wool socks(!), Heather was shivering. She still wore her bikini beneath all the clothes, but moving a strap the tiniest bit was enough to show just how sunburned the fair-skinned girl had gotten today.

“You dork!” Vanessa scolded gently. “No more! For the rest of the summer I’m putting your sunscreen on! Look at you!”

The scolding still stung, tender as it was. Heather lowered her eyes, murmured a quiet “okay,” and pulled her knees up to her chin.

“C’mon, we’ve got to get some aloe on that or you’re gonna be in real pain,” Vanessa offered, feeling suddenly far less confident.

Heather looked up, squirmed again, then smiled as she bit her lower lip. “Okay,” she agreed softly.

Kneeling on the bed behind Heather, Vanessa squeezed a generous dollop of aloe gel into her palms. She hesitated for a heartbeat, then carefully touched Heather’s sunburned shoulders. Instantly Heather responded with a hiss and a tightening of her shoulders. “Hey, you’re the one who didn’t cream up today.” Vanessa’s tone was teasing as she tried her best to be gentle. Even on her own skin the gel felt cool—it must feel like ice against Heather’s poor shoulders!

“Cold,” Heather murmured, half laughing, half sighing.

Vanessa was working her way down Heather’s arms now. “I bet.” She tried to sound stern but couldn’t keep the laughter out of her voice.

Except…

“You’re getting it on my top,” Heather observed, peeking back over her shoulder.

“Oh! Uh, sorry, I’ll try to—”

“Why don’t I take it off?”

The offer sent Vanessa’s mind spiralling. Of course she’d seen Heather topless already—they’d even fooled around when Heather’s new breasts weren’t too sore. But this felt different.

Heather appeared to sense her nervousness. “Can I take it off, Van?” The question was gentle, quiet, and without expectation.

“Mmmhmm,” was all Vanessa could manage. That and a little nod.

And then, there she was, nude but for her bikini bottoms, and Vanessa’s mouth went dry. She couldn’t help staring at the graceful line of Heather’s neck, the slightly angular set of her collarbone, then the soft, perfect swell of her small-ish breasts, each capped with small nipples and a circle of raspberry-bump areolae. She was lost.

“Van?” Now it was Heather who sounded teasing.

“Um, okay, your back looks fine, lay down and I’ll do your front.” Vanessa’s words came faster than normal, and her voice quavered a little. She shifted away from Heather’s back, giving her room to lie back.

Heather moved back, lying in the middle of Vanessa’s twin bed. She fixed Vanessa with a curious smile. “Van. Relax.”

Vanessa’s ears burned—she must be blushing a colour to rival Heather’s sunburn now. “Hettie, I just—I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“You won’t.” The smile wasn’t curious anymore. It had turned mischievous. And it unravelled something tight in Vanessa’s chest. With a slow exhale she began working the aloe gel into Heather’s legs.

The gel absorbed fast without turning sticky, the contact staying almost frictionless as Vanessa caressed Heather’s calves, then the backs of her knees, then the tops of her thighs. Every third heartbeat, Vanessa glanced up at Heather’s face, waiting for a sign that she should stop. It never came.

“Van?” Vanessa’s attention snapped back to Heather’s face. “Why don’t you help me take my bottoms off?” The tremor in Heather’s voice echoed Vanessa’s own from just moments before.

“Yeah?” Vanessa wasn’t certain she’d spoken aloud.

“Yeah,” Heather responded, removing all doubt.

With an almost holy reverence, Vanessa removed Heather’s last article of clothing. The bikini bottoms were smooth and satiny and warmed by Heather’s body and it took all Vanessa’s will to not hold them to her cheek. Instead she set them aside and truly looked at Heather, fully naked before her for the first time—breathless herself.

The pale sweep of Heather’s hips. The dusting of freckles across her stomach, turning a tender pink at the edges. The rise and fall of her ribs. The way her body fit her exactly, whole and unapologetic and unmistakably hers. Vanessa’s throat worked. Her hands trembled as she brushed her fingertips over Heather’s belly.

“You’re beautiful,” Vanessa said. The words came out quiet, raw, stripped of all pretence.

Heather’s breath hitched. Something like tears flashed in her eyes before she blinked it away, lips parting in a slow, dazed smile. She reached for Vanessa, thumbs cupping her cheeks, pulling her up until their foreheads rested together. “I know,” she whispered. “But it means more hearing it from you.”

Vanessa’s control fled.

Her palms flattened against Heather’s ribs, then slid down, mapping the warm dip of her stomach, the sharp crest of her pelvis. Heather’s fingers tangled in Vanessa’s hair, anchoring her. Vanessa kissed her girlfriend, the gentleness now vanished, her tongue exploring Heather’s mouth while Heather moaned her approval. Vanessa’s knees pressed into the mattress on either side of Heather’s thighs, pinning her down. Heather’s hips rose to meet Vanessa’s still-aloe-slick hands, and as they moved together Heather’s breathing grew sharper and louder.

“Van…” Heather’s voice was fraying at the edges. Her hands gripped Vanessa’s forearms, nails pressing just shy of painful. “Don’t stop. Please. Right there. God, yes.”

Vanessa let Heather guide her, teach her the rhythm and the motions and the pressures Heather liked best. Sweat slicked Vanessa’s wrists. Heather’s breathing turned staccato, catching in her throat between ragged pulls. Her toes curled. Her thighs trembled, then pressed together, then forced apart again, instinct overriding everything. Vanessa’s hands never wavered. She just kept roaming, kept pressing, kept learning what Heather seemed to need most.

Heather’s breath shattered. Short, sharp inhales choked into whimpering puffs. “mmph—oh god—don’t stop, pleeeeease, Van!” Then nothing. Just the raw, shuddering wheeze of lungs fighting for air, the violent clench of thighs, then the sudden, boneless give as tension bled out of her all at once. She went completely limp, spine curving back against the mattress, face buried in the crook of Vanessa’s shoulder.

Vanessa looked up at the ancient clock radio on her nightstand. 2:22 AM. Heather was breathing the nearly silent breath of one deep, deep asleep. Vanessa brushed Heather’s beautiful, sable hair away from her face, then kissed her forehead softly. “Welcome home, Hettie.”

Knotty

Sunburn on Knotty Biscotti

Sunburned