Bitter & Sweet

4. Swimming Till Our Minds Clear

"I've got dips on Carls bed!" Hazel exclaims as she jumps on his bed.
"How 'bout I've got dips on my own bed?" Carl suggests.
"You can sleep next to me," Hazel responds, winking jokingly at him.
"Get off!"
Carl pulls Hazel off of his bed by her ankles and Hazel lets out a yelp as her back hits the floor.
I grin to Grace who grabs two pillows from Carl's closet and puts them on the mattress next to his bed.

Hazel and Carl are play fighting with each other while Elijah is showing Grace a funny video he'd seen, and my mind keeps wondering back to Teo. I hope he's okay.
He probably deserved what was coming for him though—

A pillow suddenly flies over my head.
"Snap out of it dude," Carl says, standing above me with a pillow in his hands.
"You're so lucky you missed, you little fucker," I grin, as I quickly get up, taking hold of my pillow.
"You think you're tough?—"

I cut him off by smashing my pillow into his face and with the blink of an eye, everyone jumps in and we go on slamming slamming pillows toward each other until Elijah accidentally breaks a lamp and we decide to go with a different activity.

"Let's go swimming!" Hazel suggests.
"Alright. Elijah, you still got your weed?" Carl asks Elijah, to which he responds, "But of course my dear."
"Damn Carl, you've got one, no two new crushes today," I joke, while counting my fingers.
"I call shot gun," Elijah says putting his arm around my best friend, while smiling.
"Did all of you just forget that I have a boyfriend," Carl laughs.

Hazel and me had decided to swim in our underwear as Grace swims in a T-shirt with shorts.
I'm quite certain Grace has gotten insecure about showing her body since those photos of her where leaked, she used to be much more confident in her own skin.
Fucking Otis.

Elijah's tongue slides against the rolling paper before he finishes it off, sweeping his lighter around it, then lights it, and I watch in awe as he blows out circles.

"Let me hit that," Hazel walks up to him from the pool, dripping water.
"Hell no. Dry your hands first," Elijah says.
Hazel does as he says, rolling her eyes, before she takes a hit, and another... and another.

Once we've finished the joint together, we sit in a circle, on our towels.
Carl's parents have quite a lot of money, they live a luxurious life, but Carl's alone a lot so he sleeps more at his boyfriend's house than in his own bed. They have a huge pool in the backyard.

We decide to play Truth Or Dare, but can hardly take each other seriously, everyone stoned out of their minds.
It wasn't until the weed wore off and we'd swam, that my mind wandered back to Teo.
What if he's in jail? No one to bail him out?

I wait until everyone's asleep, until I get dressed and take Carls car keys.
I already have my driver's license, but my mom can't afford another car and uses hers to get to work every day.
Carl wouldn't mind me taking his car... and it's not like what he didn't know could hurt him.

I drive to the police station. I couldn't understand what had possessed me to do it, but once I parked the car and walked up to the front of the building, I saw Teo walk out the door with a man next to him whom I assumed was his dad.
I was about to walk up to them, but stopped in my tracks when Teo's dad started yelling at him. And I don't mean the average "disappointed" parent yell. Teo's dad was cursing at him and shoving him into the car by his arm.

Frozen in place, I watched them take off in a hurry.
Once they had disappeared into the night, I took my phone out and looked at the time. 6am, shit.
I quickly got back into the car and drove back to Carl's house before anyone could wake up.