We Grew Back Together

5: After Hours [deluxe]

"Do a flip!" Liam called from in the pool.

Harper followed his gaze to where Nic stood at the edge of the lifeguard stand.

Nic smiled and asked, "you want me to do a flip?"

"Yeah!" Stella joined in and everyone else agreed.

Harper watched her shrug with a smile and flip off the lifeguard stand.

When Nic surfaced everyone cheered and clapped, Harper joined in too.

The group kept swimming and Harper decided to get out of the pool.

She swam over to the side by the lounge chairs and got out. Wrapping her towel around herself, she heard a voice in the pool behind her.

"Are you not much of a swimmer?"

She turned to see Nic at the pool edge with her arms resting on the ledge. Shaking her head Harper told her, "No I am, I'll probably go back in in a bit if everyone else is still swimming."

"Okay," she pushed herself up and climbed out of the pool, grabbing her own towel.

Harper watched her wring out her hair and wrap her towel over her shoulders. She caught Nic's gaze and saw her raise an eyebrow and the corner of her lip tug at a smirk.

"Come on," Nic started to walk down the pool deck.

Harper followed her, glancing around the empty pool club. It looked so eerie in the dark.

Nic led her past rows of tables up to a playground. She walked over the woodchips and climbed on, glancing back at Harper.

Harper hesitantly tiptoed through the woodchips that pinched and pricked the bottoms of her feet.

She climbed the ladder and joined Nic where she sat on the platform.

Harper wondered, Why did she take me here?

For a moment neither of them spoke, the silence was only filled by the sounds of crickets and cicadas.

Harper wanted to say something but she wasn't sure if Nic was going to start. She wanted to know everything about her, everything she missed. How different really was she? Was she still the same Lettie?

That's dumb, obviously she isn't the same. Harper just wanted to know her, who she is now. Back then, they were just kids with no real personalities. Now they had so much more to them.

"It's been a long time, huh?" Nic started, with a light chuckle.

"Yeah..."

Nic frowned in thought before saying, "Damn it's been like what, eight- nine years?"

"Yeah, it has been a while."

"What have you been up to, how's it been?" Nic asked, leaning back on the bars of the platform.

Harper chuckled and looked at her hands in her lap, fidgeting with the corner of her towel. She answered, "That's not a quick answer, there's a lot we can do in nine years."

"Yeah," Nic replied with a short laugh, "I guess, but might as well start somewhere, huh?"

"I guess," Harper shrugged. She furrowed her eyebrows and met Nics gaze, "are you still friends with Anna, Laney, and Kate? Or Vane? Oh what about Bella?"

"I stopped talking to them when we got to middle school," Nic admitted, looking down at her lap. Her tone went lower, losing a bit of the excitement she asked all her questions with, "I sorta stopped talking to everyone from Sycamore in middle school. Somewhere in the middle of sixth grade. I don't really remember much from middle school. But I got Stella out of it so it was worth it."