HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 020.

May 29th, 1985

The pool was pretty busy since it was the opening day, but not too horrible considering it was a Wednesday so a lot of parents were at work therefore couldn't take their kids there today. Arwen arrived in her red one piece swimsuit with El and Max. While she took their towels and found them a nice spot to sit, the two young girls immediately ran off to go get into the water.

Max was actually going to help El learn how to swim today in the shallow end, which Arwen thought was a great idea. However, she still planned on keeping a close eye on them just in case. She sat in one of the pool lounge chairs and opened a book to read but made sure to glance up every once in awhile to check in on the girls. After a little while, Eddie and Robin showed up. They took the chairs on either side of her.

"Hey Arwen, can you help get my back?" Robin asked as she rubbed sunscreen into her skin.

She nodded and sat up as the girl came over to sit on her chair, facing away from her and moving her short hair away from her back. Arwen squirted some of the sunscreen on her hands and began to put it on Robin's shoulders.

"Stop running!" shouted one of the lifeguards.

That was when she looked up and saw who the lifeguard actually was. The blonde, curly-haired boy was slowly scanning the pool like a hawk before he stopped. He slowly removed the aviator sunglasses to reveal his eyes that locked onto hers for the first time in three months.

Arwen had entirely paused in what she was doing and couldn't tear her gaze away from him. Her stomach was doing flips and you would've thought that the funny feeling in her stomach would've dissipated after three months of no contact, but it was still there and just as strong as ever. She could throw up right here.

"Arwen?" Robin's voice broke her out of her dreamlike state and she turned to her friend. "You okay?"

"He's here."

"Who?"

Arwen tried to subtly shift her eyes over to the side repeatedly in order to try and get Robin to see Billy without being super obvious. But, in true Robin fashion, she snapped her head visibly to look over at him.

"Oh my god." Arwen put a hand atop her head to turn it back around to face her. "Could you be any more obvious?!"

"Sorry! You gonna, you know... be okay with him being here?"

"Fucking of course he works here..." she mumbled while she snuck another glance to the lifeguard station. "But yeah... yeah. I'm fine."

Yep. He's still looking.

Arwen groaned and tried to focus her attention on finishing putting sunscreen on her friend instead of the blue eyes locked onto her.

It was then that she felt arms wrap around her middle from behind and pick her up. A gasp escaped her and she turned her head to see Eddie, carrying her over towards the deep end of the pool while laughing like a mischievous little child.

"Wait -" Her eyes widened as the realization struck her and she started trying to squirm out from his grasp, but no avail. "Eddie, no! Wait, wait, wait! I can't -"

But it was far too late. Before she knew it, she was dropped into the water and sinking quickly to the bottom. A shocked gasp caused water to fill her lungs and the stinging pain was unbearable. She thrashed her arms and legs around but it did nothing to help. Her vision began to blur slightly.

Before she could slip into unconsciousness, a strong pair of arms wrapped around her and she was pulled upwards. Her head broke through the surface and she gasped loudly for oxygen, coughing up water as she was ushered towards the edge of the pool. Robin was crouched down there and helped to pull her up onto land. Arwen used as much strength as she could to sit herself on the concrete, sputtering and coughing more water out of her body. Her eyes blinked harshly as she tried to focus her blurry vision. So much talking with stressed tones was going on all around her, but she could only hear the ringing in her ears and feel the burning in her chest as her breathing was still very accelerated.

"Ari," a low, smooth voice cut through the high pitched noise in her head. Slowly, Arwen raised her head to find the source. Beautiful, intense blue eyes full of concern met hers and she felt her breath catch in her throat.

"Ari, listen to me." Billy said firmly with a hand on her arm. "You need to try to calm down and breathe. Can you do that for me?"

After a brief moment of hesitation, she nodded with her gaze still trained on his face. She felt like she was in a trance. But the clearest thing in her mind right now was... his face. Billy gave her the smallest twitch of a half-smile at seeing her nod.

"Arwen, holy shit," Eddie's voice broke its way into her earshot and she blinked at the sound and gazed up at him as he came to stand by where she was sat. "I am so fucking sorry, I -"

"She doesn't know how to swim, you fucking idiot!" Billy was stood now with his face in Eddie's and his eyes wide with rage. "You could have killed her!"

Arwen shifted and Robin immediately moved to help her to her feet. She took a weak, shaky step in between the two boys and faced Eddie.

"It's okay, it's okay," she placed a comforting hand on his arm and gave her best attempt at a smile. "I didn't really ever tell anyone about how I can't swim. You couldn't have known. I can't blame you for that."

Eddie took a breath at that. His brown eyes were filled with regret and sorrow. It made her heart clench and she squeezed his arm. It was an honest mistake. He was just trying to have some fun with his friend. How could she ever be mad at him for that?

But Billy sure could, apparently. So she turned to him and gazed upwards at him. His eyes were still firmly, angrily locked onto Eddie until she spoke.

"Um... thank you." Arwen said quietly.

Billy's eyes snapped onto hers and his expression softened instantly. His jaw unclenched and his nod was barely visible.

"Just doing my job." He replied simply and handed her a dry towel.

She wrapped it around her body and gave him the smallest of smiles, which he returned. He then shot another threatening glare to Eddie before turning and walking away. Arwen cleared her throat, still trying to get the remaining water out. Robin put an arm around her and walked her back to their chairs.

"Are you okay...?" Robin asked her with concerned eyes as she sat across from her on her own chair.

Arwen took a deep breath and nodded, her eyes wandering over to Billy as he climbed back up to his lifeguard station and tried to dry his curls with a towel.

"Yeah... I think so..."