Dear Ethan: A Second Chance Romance

Chapter 5: Walking Home

[Stand By Me - Seal] 

*Jodie*

Of course, there would be standard-issue swimsuits. 

Why, oh why did that not occur to me when I spent $50 on a cute bikini Ethan will never see?

I looked around at the faces around me chatting and stretching by the pool. 

We were already ten minutes into swim practice. I felt my stomach plummet in disappointment.

 Everyone was here listening to Coach talk about practice schedules and uniforms. Except him.

He wasn't coming.

I tried not to let my disappointment show as we ran through attendance and started doing warm-ups. Nearly drowned when I tried to do a backstroke. Coach raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything before making some notes on her clipboard.

After practice, I walked down the empty hallway and waved hi to Macy who was rehearsing for the school play with a few of her theater friends in a classroom. 

I pushed against the heavy door and felt the cool autumn breeze on my face as I rounded the corner.

I was in the middle of reaching for my headphones when someone called out my name. I turned.

"Hey, you're Jodie right?" My eyes widened and I almost tripped over my own feet.

Ethan Majors came up to me smiling hesitantly. 

He had on the same dark denim jeans he wore on the first day of school and a green jacket that made his eyes look even more luminous.

My legs felt sore and heavy from swimming. And I was starving. All I could think about were those chocolate chip cookies at Sam's house. 15 seconds in the microwave for the ultimate toasty melted cookie. Ten minutes until I reached her place and could morph into a cookie monster. But with Ethan standing in front of me, all those thoughts disappeared.

"Um, ya that's me." I croaked out. God, what was wrong with my voice? It was like I no longer knew how to use my vocal cords around him.

"You're on the swim team?" He asked as he walked next to me. I tilt my head up to look at him.

"How did you know?"

"You're wearing a swim jacket." He said, giving me a quizzical smile. I'm such an idiot. I looked down at my bright red jacket. It cost me $50 bucks too. My summer job savings were quickly dwindling.

"Oh, right. Ya it was the first day of practice." I replied. Okay at least I could formulate sentences now. That's a start. God, I hope I didn't smell like chlorine.

"Cool." We walked in silence for a bit. My heart was buzzing like crazy.

Say something. Say something. Say something. Anything.

"You swim a lot?" He said.

No, I don't. I almost drowned and died but I joined because I thought you would be there and we would have a meet-cute.

"Sometimes," I said coolly, trying to sound mysterious as if I was secretly an Olympic swimmer who didn't want to boast.

"Do you swim?" I asked, sneaking a glance at his side profile. 

He looked even cuter today. If possible. And he smelled really good. Not like the other boys who liked to drench themselves in cologne. It was faint but warm and woodsy.

He nodded, looking down. "I actually wanted to join..."

Then why didn't you??? I screamed inwardly.