You Make Me Sane

Chapter 15

Alister walked beside Deion. They both decided it would be best not to get in the car until they were sober again, which would probably take a few hours. Alister shook his head at his muddled thoughts, at the voices in his head muddying the waters inside his mind. He looked over at Deion and smiled. He wished he could hold his hand again. He wanted to hold his hand again. He wanted it really bad.

"Just this way," Deion slurs as they enter a small passageway.

"Now you're really going to murder me," Alister whispers very loudly.

"I thought we were past those accusations. We agreed if I were going to kill you, I wouldn't do it when everyone knows I was the last person to see you," Deion says and Alister can't help the laughter that bubbles up inside of him.

"You're taking me to... a high school?" Alister questions as Deion fumbles up the stairs to the front doors, Deion rolls his eyes exaggeratingly. He takes Alister by the sleeve and leads him into a back entrance.

Deion takes the necklace from around his neck, revealing a series of keys on the thin chain. He flips through the keys until he finds the one that's the largest and inserts it into the lock on the door. Deion twists the doorknob, it squeaks, then it opens.

Deion bows dramatically and shoves Alister through the door. They walked down an unlit hallway until they arrived at an inside pool. Alister glances at Deion, but Deion isn't looking at him. He's looking at the pool. Longingly, like the child who went years starving for affection from their parents and finally got it, if only for a second.

Alister begins to undress and Deion looks at him like he's gone mad.

"Come on, you've brought me here, don't tell me we're not going to swim," Alister says as he pulls off his shirt and unties his sweatpants. Deion ignores the way Alister doesn't lose eye contact as he slides the grey sweatpants down his legs. Alister is still staring at him when he tugs on his boxers and discards them as well.

Deion runs a hand over his face before looking back at Alister. "Fuck it," Deion mutters before tugging his clothing off as well.

Alister jumps into the pool, rather ungracefully. More like a child cannonballing into the neighborhood pool during summer vacation. Alister watches as Deion dives elegantly into the water. He then realizes why they are at a school pool and not a neighborhood pool.

"You were on the swim team," Alister says once Deion breaks the surface of the water.

Deion runs a hand through his wet hair, slicking it to the side before nodding.

"I was," Deion responds and glances around the pool, barely lit except for the large windows illuminating the water by the sun setting.

"Swimming, for a while, was the only way I could release the anger I felt inside of me. I guess it's always been there, boiling beneath the surface, raging war inside of me. I've always felt so... so angry. I'm so angry all of the time, the war inside my head never quiets, never rests dormant. My mind was never quiet... Not until... Not until I met you. You've made my mind silent, Alister," Deion says emphatically, whispering the last sentence.

Suddenly there is too much space between the two of them. Alister can't tell who moved first. Maybe he did, maybe Deion did, or maybe they both moved at the same time. All he knew was he couldn't feel anything until they collided, and then... Then he felt everything. Their lips were on each other in an instant. Deion pushes Alister against the side of the pull, fisting Alister's hair. Alister places his hand on Deion's hips pulling him closer to him. They're moving together, colliding like the waves of the ocean. Deion turns Alister around and only in the reflection of the window does Alister finally see what Deion wrote on his back.

"Mine,"

And on Deion's back is one word, three letters, the only word that came

to Alister's mind when he was handed the paintbrush. 

"His."