Life after Death: The Afterlife of Hezekiah Chamblee

Chapter Seventeen: Swimming Lessons

The Nexus' Woodlands neighborhood, two days later...

I came up for air, my breath heavy and panting before someone handed me a towel to wipe my face of the pristine lake water. "Second place," I breathed, taking in the cheers of the small crowd. "I thought I was going to win this race."

"Sorry, kid, but that's all me," the brunette-haired female swimmer next to me, a resident of Winterhaven, told me good-naturedly as we shook hands. "I still hold the record of being the top swimmer. At least you can say that you came close to beating an elite athlete."

"True," I agreed as we got out of the water.

I was currently attending a luxury-themed lake party held by one of Eva's modeling friends from Axis, one of the several events that I received invitations to attend since everyone seemed to know who I was and how I was related to both God and Lucifer. Of course, Eva and Caroline was there as well as some of their friends from their respective social circles. Sadly, Chance and the others couldn't attend since they had other agendas to take care of, meaning that I wouldn't catch a glance at the jock who captivated my heart.

After I finished drying off my body and wrapping my towel to protect my modesty (I was wearing a speedo that left little to imagination), I soon rejoined the girls as Eva handed me a glass of water. "You're pretty badass, love," she said to me. "I never knew you were a great swimmer."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, it helps to have a pool at my place," I couldn't help but reply, "and have some swimming lessons back in high school."

"Who taught you to swim?" Carolina wanted to know.

"Surprisingly enough, it was Chance. I wasn't allowed to join the sports team to add some extracurricular activities to my schedule since my parents thought that I wasn't fit to be part of the elite crowd. But I also had to fulfill my PE requirements as well. So Headmistress Berkmar had assigned Chance to be my personal instructor for private lessons. Of course, she wasn't thrilled with the idea of a jock teaching a nerd, but Chance was on the swimming and diving teams and we were relatively good friends at the time..."

FLASHBACK (Freshman Year, September 2016)...

"I feel like I'm being prepped for a gay porn video," I complained as I emerged from the locker room now down to a pair of red speedos that hugged and contoured my groin. I faced the jock who looked as if he was created to be a modern-day version of Michaelangelo's David statue with his black speedo hugging his groin and buttocks in the right places. "How the heck do you get used to wearing these things?"

Chance chuckled, coming over to my side. "No need to feel so mortified, bro," he said. "You got a nice body yourself. You just need to add some more muscle to your frame and maybe get a tan."

"That'll be the say since my parents didn't want me to spend summer vacations with them."

Chance gave me a soft look of pity. "They don't see the greatness inside you," he told me. "Not in the same way that I do. They expect you to succeed, only to raise the bar on you and make you feel worthless. I see a warrior ready to come out from the shadows. You just gotta believe in it yourself."

He briefly cupped my chin before leading me to the Olympic-sized swimming pool. "We're going to start with the basics," he said as we slowly got into the pool, the chlorinated water making my skin go numb with the cold as I was soon waist-deep with the jock. "You know how to do the front crawl?"

I nodded. "Before being sent to boarding schools for the summer, I was able to swim in the backyard pool with someone watching me."

"Have you ever gotten to the deep end?"