Side Effects

three

Dedicated to @awwthentic for the banner at the top. I love it, thank you :)

*

"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person that walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

- Haruki Murakami

*

I've always believed that smells can be one of the biggest triggers when it comes to feelings and emotions. For some the smell of roast chicken means family. For others the smell of bleach in a hospital means danger. But for me the smell of chlorine and the soft lapping of the waves against the side of the pool as people plowed up and down the lanes had always meant safety.

Swimming was one of he very few things that I had done that had always been independent of Luther. He would accompany me to the occasional gala, always voice his support over enthusiastically, and more often than not brandishing a sign that was equal parts dowdy and colourful. But he had never joined in with a training session, or even expressed the slightest interest in learning how to swim.

And I was fine with that.

When I was swimming, cliché as it sounds, was when I felt truly free. It was my break from reality, and although it never lasted long, I was always grateful for it.

Which is why, when the next note showed up, pinned to the inside of my gym locker, I was less than impressed.

It had been three days since my session with Miss Vaughn, and since then I had been throwing myself into the bucket list idea with more enthusiasm than was perhaps necessary. I had spent hours poring over it, planning the best order to complete it in and the difference ways that I could finance some of the more extravagant items on it. I mean, I don't know how much sky diving costs, but I'm pretty sure it's not cheap.

Olivia and I had decided to ignore the first note. Yes, it was nasty,vindictive, and completely unnecessary, but we had put it down to some sick students idea of a joke.

For some reason the second one wasn't quite as funny.

After reading the contents of the second package, a bright yellow envelope, that had been messily taped to the door of my locker, I hastily ran into the nearest cubicle and pulled off my swim suit. The black material was soaking wet and clung stubbornly to my skin as I rushed to peel it off, but I managed it in record time. Throwing on my hoodie, I threw my swim suit straight into my bag, and pulled on my hoodie before racing out of the centre.

As I pushed open the doors a blast of cold air hit me in the face, causing my skin to sting as I ran to my mother's car.

"You're out early honey. How was practise?"

Ignoring her, I threw my bag into the back and jumped into the passenger seat, not bothering to put on my seatbelt.

"Can you drive me to Olivia's house? I've just remembered this assignment that we have to do, it's due tomorrow and we completely forgot about it." The words rushed from my mouth as I leaned forward in my haste to leave, as though my body weight could somehow compel the car to move on its own.

My mother shot me a look that I recognised well, a look that showed me that my erratic behaviour was worrying her much more than it needed to, but she merely nodded and pulled out of the parking lot.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world didn't seem to share the same urgent haste that I did, and the traffic moved at an impossibly slow pace for the entire drive to Olivia's house. I banged my fists in the dashboard several times out of frustration but it failed to make the traffic move any faster.

After twenty long minutes, instead of the usual fifteen, we pulled up in front of Olivia's house. I threw open the car door and grabbed my bag, throwing a quick farewell over my shoulder as I ran towards the white wooden structure. Knocking several times at the door, I waited impatiently on the step until a figure arrived behind the glass. The door swung open to reveal Olivia's mother, who smiled openly at me. I was such a frequent visitor that my appearance was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Olivia's in her room. I'll be down in the kitchen if you need me."

I waited until she had disappeared from my line of sight before I raised up the stairs, almost tripping on her brothers stray Legos on my way up. She looked up in shock as I burst into her room.

"Cam what's wrong? I didn't think you were coming over today." She swung her legs over the edge of the bed as she spoke, sitting up attentively and replacing the cap on the nail polish that she had been using.

In lieu of a reply, I threw the yellow envelope onto her bed, before placing my bag in the corner of the room. "I wasn't going to. But I found this in my swim locker. Olivia, no-one from school is on my swim team. This isn't some bad joke, not if someone's going to such lengths to give these to me."

Her forehead creased as she examined the bright yellow packet, turning it over in her hands. Opening the already unsealed flap, she turned it upside down and shook it until its contents fell onto her dark blue bed spread.

"What the fuck?" Her eyes crinkled in confusion as her gaze rose to meet mine. "Jason Cromwell? What does he have to do with anything?"

I shrugged my shoulders in response. "I don't know. Read the back."

She turned over the blurry photo and examined the words written on the back, her gaze becoming more and more confused as she did so. It was obvious that whoever had taken the photo was an amateur, it was a hasty snapshot, captured as he made his way to his car after school. But the message on the other side was anything but hasty.

"Swimming may have been your break from Luther. But what was his break from you?" Olivia read aloud from the back of the photograph. "What does that even mean? And why Jason Cromwell of all people?"

I sighed in frustration. I had hoped that Olivia might have had some idea what was going on, but she seemed just as clueless as I was.

"I don't know. Luther and I never had much to do with Jason at all. Mostly because Ryder and Luther didn't get in at all. They were constantly at each other's throats."

Luther hadn't been unpopular, in fact he had been well like by the majority of the students at Westvale High. But Ryder was the exception. Most people assumed that because they both had the same friends that they would get along as well, but the opposite was true. Their paths rarely crossed, but when they did it never ended well. Ryder and Jason had been best friends since pre-k, so when Ryder's sudden dislike for Luther manifested itself, it was inevitable that Jason would support his friend.

"Well it's obvious what we have to do," Olivia said, standing up and replacing the contents of the envelope as she spoke.

"It is?"

"Of course it is. You're going to talk to Jason." Her voice was so filled with certainty that I almost believed that she was right. But then the idea of actually asking Jason hit me and I realised that there was no way that I could do it.

"Olivia, I can't just walk up to him and say 'hey, yeah I know we never talk but I got this letter and I was just wondering if you were to Luther as swimming is to me?' I'm pretty sure that's the type of question that gets people committed to asylums."

"Yeah, maybe don't put it quite like that. But Jason is the one in the picture, so it stands to reason that if there is any truth in these notes then he'd know what it was." She plopped down into her mattress, a smug look on her face, clearly impressed with her logic.

Signing in defeat I sat down next to her and crossed my legs underneath me. "Fine. But if this goes wrong and my life turns into a cheap rip off of Pretty Little Liars, then I'm totally suing your ass."

*

So this update took a while, but I've had gastritus for the last week and a half. Hopefully life's finished flinging shit at me now though, so updates should be constant!

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