The Artist

The string.

Spike

IM STANDING ON the edge of the pool, overlooking the blue waters. The air is calm and the sun is shining. I could do a perfect flip.

Victoria is at the poolside, snoring loudly and I'm considering pushing her in but I know I won't.

I snort. Such a whimp I turned out to be. I kick the water lightly with my foot. It's still cold but not as cold as it was last night. I bend down, dipping my hands in the waters and trying very hard not to think of last night's dream.

My hands feel around the walls of the pool when I feel something smooth, like thick fabric. I follow the string like fabric but it tugs and I fall in the cold water. I scramble to the surface and gather as much air as I can before going back to the wall of the pool.

I look around, trying to see any string made of fabric but It's gone. I swim to the other wall, then the other then the other but it's as if it was never there. I try to swim to the surface but I can't. Something is restricting my movement. I look down.

A purple string is wrapped around my leg, the exact string I touched minutes ago. It stretches to the drain plug and I move my hands to my leg, rushing to be free as I'm running out of air.

"Nicolas."

I stop, looking around for the whispering voice that said my name. My actual name. I remember that I'm underwater and that nobody can talk when their underwater. I must be imagining it.

I go back to the string, deciding to tear it apart if possible but then I can't feel anything else other than my skin. I look down.

The string is gone.

I look on my other leg, thinking that perhaps I went to the wrong leg. That leg too is free and so I turn around but the head of a middle aged woman with an angry expression is staring at me. The rest of her body is gone, only her head remains. Her eyes seem to have been scooped out. Her skin is pale and peeling off. Her hair floats around her and her tongue is slit out.

I scream, trying to get away from her and my hands flap but the head floats towards me even closer than before.

I push away from it but something hits the back of my head, a wall and I feel myself slipping…

"Spike!" I hear Joey screech.

I cough out all the water out of my lungs before looking at what's infront of me. Joey's big brown eyes are infront of me, then it's Marco and his big fat grin. I turn to Jack and Jesse next to Juliet and Victoria. I sit up.

"What happened?" I ask even though I know exactly what happened. Well, I don't know exactly what happened but I know a few things.

"You hit you head when you swam around underwater. What were you doing?" Victoria asked as she slapped the back of my head. I glared at her when the throbbing increased.

"Just trying out something," I lie. "When did you guys get here? And where's Evan?"

"Inside." Joey says, "He's mad. Doesn't want to talk about it."

I shrug and stand up. Victoria begins her hostess duties and introduces the old gang to the new gang. It's kinda complicated.

Then she makes everybody breakfast and drinks and after some time, eventually, Evan strolls into my room.

"I noticed," he says, "you replacing us."

I frown, "was that why you were mad? We all had an agreement."

He looks at me then grins. I scowl and throw him with a pillow. It's always kind of hard to take Evan seriously when he's constantly making jokes.

He sits down next to me and sighs, "you know I'm from a Japanese family, right?"

I turn to him and nod.

"After what happened," he says, "my father doesn't want me near you. Especially when he learnt that you're bi. He's worried it'll tarnish the family's reputation."

I nod, "I get it. Not a lot of people are accepting to the whole 'bi' concept."

He nods, "but we can do secret rendezvous. After all," he nudges me, "you should be a pro at this."

My ringtone blares and he shakes his head. "You have a sick obsession with Naruto."

I flip him off and answer the phone.

"Hey, is your name Nicolas Jonovich?"

I reply that I am and they tell me that I have a package waiting for me and it's been a few days since it's been delivered. I ask them to deliver it here and they agree that they'll arrive at a later time. The line disconnects.

Evan takes out a bag of cannabis. He takes out a tobacco paper and rolls one for the both of us. "Something going on between you and Jack?" He says, "He seems pretty hot to me. I bet he gets harassed real good."

"He is," I chuckle, "I Wish there was something but there isn't much. I barely know anything about him."

He lights on one of them and takes a pull. Exhaling, he starts laughing. "so?" He says, "He barely knows anything about you either and if I'm right, you haven't bothered."

We hear a creak before a door knock. Evan let's them in and Juliet makes her appearance. She smiles but it seems kind of forced. "I'll be going now." She says, "the school photographer just called. He says there's something wrong with one of the photographs he took so I have to be there."

I nod and walk her out. When we reach the door, however, she turns to me. "So those were your childhood friends? They seem to know a lot about you."

I look down at her. "Something like that. We just knew eachother for a while."

"And you're getting along with your mom now, right?"

I shrug, "we're tolerating eachother. What about you? Talked to your dad?"

"My dad and I are getting along," she says, "What about yours? Is he going to visit you?"

"Well he could be dead and I'd still not care."

"I don't think you should talk that way," she says, frowning, "about your dad."

Jeez. Seriously? Out of all people, she's taking his side? "He's breathing, so what?" I respond, "What's with all the questions?"

"I'm sorry, I—"

"Enough." I say then sigh, "it's just… things aren't going anywhere. It's my dad we're talking about and I'm having nightmares about him. He doesn't know… what I am."

Her eyes widen, "you mean that you're bisexual?"

I keep silent and scratch the back of my head, feeling as if I made some kind of huge mistake but I block this, even though it's bothering me.

"What's with the questions?" I ask, "is this some kind of Investigation or what?"

"No, you goof." She giggled, "I just want to know. I also saw you and Evan. What about that?"

I am not sure on whether to detail it for my satisfaction or to cut it short for hers. I settle on the latter. "We were friends with benefits before but now we just limit it to flirting."

It's roughly but overall the truth. I just spared her the details and before you ask how much I left out, I would say all of it.

"Huh," she says, grinning, "I guess  you have a bit of a triangle."

I laugh at that. Is she serious? She laughs as well before she leaves. I wave goodbye before I go back.