□So you're a swimmer?□

dark blue to pink

Stephen's pov

But when I entered the class the following day, the sight of her hooked in her book, scribbling something on the paper at her side, or simply staring straight ahead, her usual self felt like a ghost sitting on her bench at the last column. I sighed and proceeded to take my seat at the second column.

Not many students came today too. When I seated myself in the mathematics class, and looked around to see where she sat, I forgot she didn't come today. Her truancy is somehow gnawing on me and I don't know why. She did reply that she'd be coming, right?

I tried to overhear something from her friends but nothing about her caught my attention. Our mathematics teacher continued to blabber and again it was all Greek to all of us. I closed up my books and marched out, half wanting to notice her long hairs flowing out the door. I never realized I had noticed enough about her. Her fair skin matches most of my vintage moods, her voice really matches the tone of the flute playing in the music room below our floor, and maybe her height just matches my sight to easily look at her.

I am feeling delusional now. I shake my head off and start towards my classroom. 

Stretching out on my wheeling chair, again looking out to the evening colorful sky, just perfect in those darker shades, I turn off my gaming laptop, snatch my swimming bag and head to the pool. While on the walk, which is almost 15 minutes, I noticed a lot of Bethlehem stars growing alongside the bushes. I love those look-a-like black pearls in the middle, it's like the good-black in one circle picture. 

I swiftly took off my shirt and put on the swimming suit, all alongside the pool at an hour no one roams around. I should feel free for once. Then I jumped into the pool stealthily and popped my head for air. Swirling my arms around once and twice, I checked my surroundings. No one was there. Then why did the water felt warmer than usual, than yesterday?

My heart was about to come out my already thin chest when someone splashed near me. Long black hairs sprayed out like branches in the clear water and snaking down her shoulders as her smoothly cheerful smile met my eyes. She is here. And I can't seem to find my words in this socketed brain.

'So you're a swimmer?' Her voice must have so much echoed in this empty pool room, but it seemed like my ears were the only one becoming the void letting it in. I was so startled by her presence that I couldn't answer. I don't know why this is so uncanny but there is no one I have met from school here. I wanted it to be a secret of mine. But it's no more, and I feel like I don't need to escape it, from her. 

She must have noticed my freeze and so swam closer to me, close enough to come to the sight. I saw her wet eyelids and the drops still like jewels on her eyes, her face a wet painting of a deeper sea by the dim lights of this pool room. Suddenly I feel like I want to make everything poetic about her. 

I struggled to move my lips a bit but then asked my one question, 'did you knew from before that I come here?' Suddenly I want someone to invade my privacy. She shook her head and the ripples reached to my skin. I smiled a soft smile and looked away from her cuteness. Why is she so....dreamy? 

'Then why are you here? Do you learn swimming here too?' I asked shifting myself a bit, waving my legs to the deep water. She was so still, I wondered how. 

'Yes. I do. And I happened to meet you today, isn't that strange? Only today?' My head moved a bit to what the date is today, it shouldn't matter much. 'Yeah, it alarmed me all of a sudden. How long have you been learning?' Now I moved back and waved myself to other sides of the pool too, but just a bit near her. 

'I started last year. Should I tell you when?' She gave me a mischievous smile and my mind must have cut all the strings attached to my senses. The more I moved around, she only seemed to come closer. 

'I am curious.' A husky sound came thereafter. 

'Today.' And I stopped moving. 'I had joined today. You know why?' She swam to the side of the pool and rested her arms on the tile, her back facing me. I followed and positioned myself the same. 

'I used to fear water a lot, since my childhood. I remember once trying to battle it by waving my feet up and down the water in the lakes, but the moss laden stones pulling me in, the gravity my feet felt in the blue, or simply the dreading scenario of being gobbled up by some monster coming out of the blue scared me to hell which led to not being near it. But you know what, I love it. I love being near water, love the way the wetness hugs my skin making me feel alive and all the many symbolisms it can hold in itself. Nothing is traumatic enough, I just wanted to get over it with. I didn't want anything to tempt me. You know, my favorite types of princess movies were all about the water. It feels infinite, being here.'

She looked at me and smiled. I noticed the hollow inside her eyes and thought for myself. 'By the way, why did you want to learn swimming?' She tilted her head and once short strand fell on her forehead, masking a mole I below her brows.

'I....I just wanted to practice holding my breath for long.' I ran a hand behind my neck, feeling nervous around her. 

Then it abruptly hit me. I didn't ask about her mother. 'How's your mother now?' My brows furrowed in concern. She looked away immediately. 'She's gone.' She snorted a bit, and held her breath for something. My heart felt like something was taken out of it, somehow weighing it more. 

'I'm sorry.' 'You shouldn't be.' She said nonchalantly. 'It's okay, everyone has to go someday. You and me too, you know.' She smiled again. I have counted all the curved line times already. 

'True.' I passed a bread smile to her. 'Wanna race? I bet on a strawberry ice-cream from the loser.' I pointed a finger at her teasingly, she smirked and said yes. 

After exhausting ourselves with all the sweat and water, I lost. And she laughed and mocked all the way home to me. 'My home is further away, let's meet again sometime in the pool. And get ready to lose Stephen.' My name from her lips melted in my veins. I beamed at her and waved her away. Her hairs were wet on the ends shining black. She didn't look back. 

But today is a pink for me. I have started liking someone for the first time.