After Dark

Six

"Liam." Paige swims over calmly. "Let me get on your shoulders."

"What?" Liam raises his eyebrows.

"To play chicken." She says like it's obvious. After another second where he doesn't say anything she must realize he doesn't understand what that is. "It's a game. You have someone on your shoulders and someone else has someone on their shoulders too. The people under have to hold the people on top up while they wrestle. Whoever falls off the shoulders first loses."

"Uh, okay." Liam nods like he fully understand but he doesn't. He knows he'll get it once they start. At least he hopes so. He helps Paige up on his shoulders and stands up holding her shins.

With his lack of muscles it's difficult but he's able to hold her. It probably helps that Paige is a little on the smaller side. Ember sees them and encourages Izzy to get on her shoulders.

"This doesn't seem completely fair." Izzy says as she glances at her opponents. The she looks down at Ember who's already looking back at her. "Paige has a boy and I only have you."

She doesn't say it like an insult. More like she's just pointing out the obvious. Which, if Paige were on Ian or Javi's shoulders than it would be obvious. They both look like they work out. However, she's not. She's on Liam's shoulders.

"Ember could beat Liam in a wrestling match." Paige points out. She also doesn't say it to be mean but rather just as a fact. She's probably right.

Ember laughs at this and Liam smiles to show that he's not offended. Izzy takes a look at his and Paige's expressions to decide if they're serious. She seems to realize they are because she lets out a little laugh as well.

"Fine, okay. Let's start."

Liam doesn't do much. All he does is steady Paige when she seems like she's going to fall and take a step towards Izzy and Ember on occasion. Paige ends up shoving Izzy into the water and winning.

She raises both her arms up in triumph and cheers. "Yeah!" She looks around the pool with a smirk. "Who's next?"

Liam scans the pool. There's only Ian and Javi. They both exchange glances before Javi shakes his head.

"I'm not lifting him on my shoulders and I'm sure as hell not about to trust him to keep me from falling and busting my head open."

Paige sighs. "Fine, alright Li let me down. These guys are ruining the fun."

Liam takes a large step forward just to make sure they're in the middle of the pool and then tips Paige backwards. Since she wasn't expecting it, it's easy to get her to fall. She lands into the water and comes up laughing.

"Son of a bitch Liam, that's not what I meant!" But she's smiling wide and so is he. Everyone else is laughing and the air is light.

He's having fun. Liam realizes that and smiles more to himself. He's actually having fun.

"Hey, I got an idea." Ian grins suddenly. He pushes Paige gently towards Javi and then goes over to Liam. "Hop up."

It takes Liam a moment to realize what he means. When his brain finally processes it after one quiet second he chuckles quietly. Ignoring the fact that this could be a very stupid idea and he could very easily embarrass himself, Liam starts to hop up onto Ian's shoulders.

Ian drops a little lower in the pool to make it easier on Liam. Once his legs are on the other boy's shoulders Ian grabs them and holds him in place. It takes him a second to get himself balanced but once he does he smiles and looks up.

Paige gets herself on Javi's shoulders and is grinning at Liam. The competition is in her eyes and Liam knows his eyes don't have that same fire. He doesn't know what to do but he's having fun so that's all he's focused on.