In Too Deep

22

"Right, so if you hold onto the bannister as you come down the stairs. This is the starter pool. The whole area is only 90cm deep. You can stand up and walk at any point."

Robyn made the first tentative steps into the pool.

"Good. Now do you trust me?"

The teacher nodded.

"I want you to sit down. I'm sitting on my butt, it's only slightly deeper than a bath."

"People drown in baths." Robyn stressed as she stood frozen on the last step.

Riley stood up and waded over, "would you give me your hands?"

The teacher stared at her like a rabbit caught in headlights, before giving her the hand that wasn't gripping the bannister.

"Now the other."

Robyn looked at the brunette, her blue eyes were full of care. She slowly let go of her grip on the handrail and quickly transferred it to Riley's free hand.

"Okay, now I've got you. Take the last step."

Robyn stood in the water which was half way up thigh.

Riley was walking her into the pool."See, it's not deep, now keep holding on. I want you to lower yourself onto your knees."

"I bet you say that to all the girls." Tried a joke to lessen the fear she was feeling.

Riley grinned but kept it professional, "Just the ones scared of water. Take your time."

"I can't do it."

"Yes you can. I'm here and I'm on my knees now. See I'm still well above the water."

Robyn looked scared.

"You're fine. You're doing really well. Just take one leg at a time, I'll keep a hold of you."

The blonde looked around. They were the only two people in this pool. She took a deep breath and slowly lowered herself down until she was on her knees.

"See you can do it. Okay so what we're going to do now is move over there. There is a ledge and we can sit there for a moment. Sitting on it will bring the water only a few inches higher than it is now."

Robyn felt the water lapping just under her breasts, she felt quite exposed as she felt her nipples harden in the cool atmosphere of the pool, she didn't want Riley to notice that so, a few inches higher would be good.

As they moved over walking on their knees, the biker moved backwards and was still holding the teachers hands. She maintained eye contact. Finally they got to the ledge that the brunette mentioned and sat next to each other.

Robyn missed the feeling of the swim coach's hands. While she shuffled back.

"How have you been? If I'm allowed to ask?" Riley asked. "I was worried about you."

"Yeah I've been okay, I don't know what happened, I just went back there that night."

"Panic Attack, sometimes things just trigger a stress response. It was probably Chad's talk. Some of the soldiers in the base get them. My Dads mate David got them real bad. I remember him being with us on the fourth July a few years back. He just hit the deck and started crawling then ran into the house. My Dad found him like a zombie under the bed in the spare room. PTSD. It was the fireworks."

"That sounds awful."

"It's a bit like what happened to you. Are you going to speak to anyone about it?"

"Yeah I have an appointment with a therapist next Wednesday. Look Ry I'm sorry, I should never have spoken to you the way I did."

"It's okay, I need to learn my place."

"It's like here, I have to be professional. I get it you do too and I should've been more respectful of that."

"I still shouldn't have said that you mean nothing."

"Apology accepted. Right, so how do you feel about getting your hair wet."

Robyn looked scared again, "I'm not going under the water, I'm not anywhere ready for that."

"No, I thought we could try floating. On our backs."

Riley moved out into the pool and lay on her back. She widened her arms and legs until she was in a star shape. She moved back onto her knees and looked at Robyn, "we automatically float, as long as we're still, the arms and legs add stability so you won't roll over onto your side. You want to give it a try?"

"I don't know."

"I'll be here and if it's okay to put my hands on you, just here" she pointed to her back "and here just above the knee. I will support you for a bit until you feel confident to be on your own."

The blonde's mouth felt dry. "Won't I just fall under the water?"

"No, as long as you're calm you will float."

"What if I panic?"

"Then I am here to keep you above the water. I promise. I think you will like it, it's pretty chill. Just floating. Want to give it a go?"

"Okay, you'll hold onto me though."

"Yeah."

Robyn moved out into the middle of the pool.

"Right lie back onto my arm."

Robyn took a moment but finally did as instructed she felt Riley's hands and arms support her exactly where she said they would be.

"Okay right," Riley smiled at the blonde. "Open your legs a little wider."

Robyn blushed. So did the instructor. The teacher did as instructed.

"My arms are still there, don't worry, just under. Okay, now the same with your arms."

She felt Riley move her arm away from under her back.

"Stay calm, don't worry. You're floating. Now if you just stay calm you'll hardly move." The brunette moved to float alongside. "How chill is this?"

"Yeah it's nice."

They talked about the dance and the 80s theme. Riley explained she'd grown up with music like that. Robyn explained that her parents were a little older, when they had her so it was late 70's she'd heard growing up and some early 80s but mostly her parents didn't really play music.

Robyn wanted to ask about Theresa but didn't think she could manage without sounding jealous. She was glad she had attended the lesson though she'd had the opportunity to apologize and as she did every time they were together she enjoyed being with Riley.

"Ry," the teacher said as she was staring at the ceiling. "Come and get support with English, I want to help."

"You sure? It's okay if you're not, I don't want you to feel like you have to."

"I want to."

"Okay, Tuesday. I work Thursday and have soccer the other two days."

"Tuesday, just stay when the class finishes."

"Talking about class finishing. Your times up. Now just lean forward and stand up."

"I can't believe I just spent $40 to hang out and talk to you."

"You didn't, you spent forty bucks to start getting over your fear of water. Your space is reserved until Wednesday if you want to come back next week. You need to book before then." The biker smiled as they walked out of the pool.

"I'll see you tomorrow and don't worry about what you said last night."

Riley looked at the blonde.

"It was sweet and you looked very handsome yourself." Robyn moved on before the hurt of knowing the brunette was with someone else engulfed her.

Riley watched the teacher move into the change rooms. She'd wait a bit. Before she went to get changed herself because right now all she could think about was following the blonde and having her in the shower.