Worth the Trouble ✓

05 | summer lovin'

"WE NEED TO GET TO the beach," Suki sighs quietly. "I'm going to melt."

We made it through one year of hell, also known as private school, and I came out of my freshman year thinking I might not want to get expelled, after all. Not when Suki's there.

In the summertime, people in Carsonville fight for a spot on the shoreline of Haywood Lake like it's a Black Friday clearance.

Most people linger around the pruned, public areas—with the gravel path from the road to the lake, picnic tables, a bricked bathroom building, water fountains, and manicured grass. Suki and I plunged deep into the wooded area at the southern side of Haywood Lake, traipsing through brush and old trees until we emerged on a natural embankment away from civilisation.

Dense trees are to our back, the glistening water to our front. On top of our shirts, which are in turn on top of wild grass and old leaves, Suki and I are lounging our summer away.

"Agreed," I reply, eager to sink into something ice-cold. I slap my neck, where a sandfly landed. "Can your parents take us?"

We both dressed for a hike, bringing old button-ups to protect our bare arms from jutting branches and insect bites. Underneath we wore as little as possible, since it's fucking boiling.

Suki's wearing her floral sundress. She kicked off her sneakers and socks, crossing her bare legs, one ankle over the other.

"They're both working during the daytime," Suki says apologetically. "What about your dad?"

"I mean, he could."

I pause. No part of me wants to ask him, though, or endure the conversation about where, with whom, and why I'd be going.

"But I don't know how willing he'd be."

"We can take the bus."

Another sandfly lands on me, this time on my exposed calf.

"Let me do some research about the routes and fares, and we can go next week—"

I push myself to sit, then to stand. "Come on. Get up."

"Why—"

I drop my shorts and step out of them.

"Oh my God, what are you doing?" Suki's eyes widen, scandalised, when I start stripping. "Terrence! I am not associating with you right now."

"No-one can see you," I argue, pulling my t-shirt over my head and dropping it into the forming pile of my clothing. "Who needs the beach? We've got a huge body of water right here."

"Yeah, a filthy body of water that people dump trash into." Suki glances out at Haywood Lake. All the way at the other side, in miniature, is the jetty and the picnic benches and moving coloured dots that must be people—kayaking, dipping legs—and dogs bounding in.

I shrug, wading into the lake. The water is brown-blue, that of shallowness. Until the middle, where it becomes rich and inviting. The cold water slaps against my legs, and it's heaven.

"Maybe I'll emerge with radioactive powers," I call over my shoulder.

"That's not how radioactivity works."

Behind me, Suki relents and stands up. She deigns to go ankle-deep.

I lower my body and push off the rocks at the bottom, freestyling out into the deeper water.

"Terrence!" Suki puts a hand over her brow, blocking the harsh sunlight from her eyes.

Turning over to float on my back, I crane my neck until cool water soaks my hair. Haywood Lake is surrounding me, sweeping away the stress and anxiety of the high-performing Academy, Dad's increasingly late nights, the sheer heat. Lifting my head, I can see Suki tentatively feeling her way over the rocks, each foot probing and deliberate when she wades deeper in.