july 30th
Living with Jessie and her family wasn't nearly as bad as Ophelia had expected. In fact, her parents were barely ever home, considering how much they travelled for their jobs. Jessie and Ophelia basically had the house to themselves for the entirety of the summer, doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. The only real downside to all of it was the fact that the Kiszkas visited whenever Jessie's parents were home, meaning Ophelia had to lock herself in the guest room and not make a sound until they were gone. They had no idea she had been living with them. Ophelia was eternally grateful for how willing Jessie's parents were to keep her a secret from them, and she was also surprised at just how well the secret was being kept. Of the dozens of times she had hidden in the room when they were over, no one in their family had needed to go in there for any reason. This time, however, Ophelia knew she was risking it.
It was nearly a hundred degrees out, the hot sun blaring down and burning everything that wasn't covered by the shade. In an attempt to beat the heat, Ophelia, Jessie, and Joanna all laid on various pool floats on the crystal clear water. Ophelia and Joanna had been seeing each other since the middle of June, and as soon as her and Jessie met, they instantly hit it off. The three of them were best friends (who occasionally hooked up). Today wasn't much different than what they had done the past week, blaring some rock song on Joanna's playlist as they swam their day away.
"Code red!" Jessie's mom, Fiona, came onto the deck, announcing the warning to the three girls. "Oh, fuck. How long do we have?" Ophelia asks, swimming her way to the edge of the pool to get out. She knew exactly what that meant, given how much it happened. "Less than a minute. They're about to pull in." Fiona says, handing both Joanna and Ophelia towels to dry themselves off with as Jessie continues floating around the pool. Ophelia nods quickly before turning to Joanna, who was now stepping out of the water like a goddamn supermodel. Ophelia didn't even realize she was staring until Fiona put her hand on her shoulder, "Just keep it down." She winks, and Ophelia's face turns red before she laughs a little. She watches as Joanna dries herself off quickly, then takes Ophelia's hand and drags her inside.
The blonde grins as Joanna squeezes her hand, pulling her upstairs and into the guest room that Ophelia had claimed as her own. Joanna giggled as she pulled Ophelia down onto the bed, pulling her into a kiss. "Shh, baby, I don't wanna get-" She was cut off by Joanna jumping off of her and covering the two of them with the comforter as the bedroom door opened. "Caught." Ophelia whispered, finishing her sentence as she stared wide-eyed at the boy standing in the doorway. Her heart dropped into her stomach as they stared helplessly into each other's eyes, trying to figure out what to say. There wasn't an ounce of oxygen in Ophelia's lungs as she looked at him - tan, tall, and slightly more muscular than he had been three months ago. "I was looking for a charger... are you... um... staying here?" He asks under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Jo, can you give us a minute? I'm sorry." Ophelia asks, and Joanna nods. Sam turns around as she stands up and quickly gets changed out of her bikini, tossing Ophelia her clothes and letting her do the same.
"You really had no idea?" Ophelia asks, surprised they had kept the secret so well. "I knew there was something weird going on with Jessie, I just didn't know what." Sam steps inside, shutting the door behind him so his parents couldn't find out they were speaking. "So you're, like, okay? And everything?" He asks quietly, looking her up and down as if to examine her well-being. "Yeah. I'm okay, I... I'm so lucky they took me in. I don't know where I would be without them." Ophelia responds, playing with her nails as she stares at the ground. "You've been living here this whole time? Like, since what happened?" He furrows his eyebrows, and Ophelia only nods slightly. "The amount of sleepless nights I spent laying awake, just wondering where you were and if you were alright... You've been five minutes from me the whole time?" Sam didn't sound entirely angry, just mostly disappointed that she hadn't told him. "Please don't be upset at me for not telling you. First of all, you blocked my number, second of all, your parents probably would've found out and talked them out of letting me stay with them. It was a bad idea. Obviously I wanted to tell you. And obviously I wanted to see you. But I couldn't." Tears welled in Ophelia's eyes as she looked up at him, trying to blink them back. Sam closed his eyes momentarily before nodding, "I understand."
