Mint [H.S.]

19

Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran

You know I'll fight my corner. And that tonight I'll call ya, after my blood is drowning in alcohol.

HARRY

It was a blur of events.

I don't know when it happened or how, but one moment I was standing on dry land and the next I was engulfed by lake water. Heavy jeans and boots held me down as my arms fought to bring me back and above water. Thrashing my arms in front of me, and kicking my legs behind, I managed to swim up.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" A high pitched voice screamed down. Using one hand to keep my body afloat, I used my other to wipe away the water from my eyes. I squinted up. Maddie was on her knees on the edge of the dock. Her tiny hand reached out to rescue me.

Dylan was at her side. One hand holding her close to him and the other reaching out for me. I gratefully reached up for his hand and let him pull me up.

My body laid heavily on the warm dock. A few stranglers watched from the side. Two young boys watch with shocked expressions. One of them rushes over to us as his friend remains still. "Man - are you alright? I'm so sorry about that. We didn't see you there."

I glanced up at him confused. I tried my best to replay the events before my sudden plunge into the freezing lake, but am coming up short. Everything happened too fucking quick. One moment I'm standing beside Dylan as he told me about how Maddie would build sandcastles here as a kid, and the next I'm in the water... treading for my life.

"What happened?" I asked him. His eyes widened before he leaned over.

"Dude. We were playing frisbee and I wasn't seeing where I was going and ran right into you. I almost fell in too. Sorry," he rambled quickly.

"What the fuck are you doing playing frisbee on a dock?" The punk's face whitened as he rambled profusely his apologies.

"It's fine kid. Go on and don't do that again, alright? Someone could have gotten really hurt today," responded Dylan. The kid scrambled another apology (damn Canadians and their sorry's...) and ran off to his friend who was still stuck in his spot.

"That's a dollar for the swear jar," scowled Maddie and ignoring everything else. "Just because you're covered in gross lake water, doesn't mean you get to say bad words."

I mumbled a slew of profanities and stood up. "I think I have a blanket in the trunk. I might have left a sweater in there too. Let's go get you warmed up," said Dylan.

This morning when Dylan suggested we take a "family" trip to Oakville, I was not expecting to be soaked from head to toe. I already was in a shitty mood. Sleep was hard to come by last night after saying goodbye to Ben. It was hard to explain, but it had felt like we had created some bond since his short stay. I wasn't going to say we suddenly had a Brady Bunch type of sibling friendship. It was still far from that, but it felt like there was an unspoken camaraderie between the both of us. He wasn't my best mate - I wasn't sure who that was, but we were okay.

When Ben asked me to be his best man for his wedding, I thought it was a joke. Chase was still one of his best mates and it was easy to assume that he'd be his first choice. In fact, I had assumed I wasn't even going to be invited to this damn wedding, but apparently that wasn't the case. Not only was I invited, but he wanted me to stand beside him. I had told him sure, without giving it much thought, but soon realized that meant seeing Isabella.

Jasmine was her roommate and her best friend (other than her sister). It was certain that she would be there. I knew that if anything, Jas would put Izz in the wedding party. It would be crazy for her not to. Avoidance will be tricky to come by if we have to fucking stand beside one another. If my life wasn't full of stress enough, I now had to worry about that.