TAN SKIN // A Baxter Radic Story

-007-

"Tell me about Marlon." I say while blowing on my nails to dry them faster. Poppy smiled and her cheeks became rosy. I think she has had a thing for Marlon for a while, I guess ever since Ari kind of friend zoned her after their kiss. Which I think is so totally low of Ari. "He was all flirty, like really flirty." she started, and standing up to walk over to her closet. "I mean Marlon is always flirting with girls, but something was different about his flirting with me. It was almost like he actually likes me."

I nod at her and watch her as she finds a swimsuit to wear. "Have you guys gone out yet? Like on a date?" I ask her, still blowing on my nails a little. She pulls out a fully black suit, she says it is her favorite. She turns around to face with a disappointed look on her face "No, I don't want to do that to Bodhi." She looks down laying her pajamas on her bed next to me. "I think if you talk to her first, she would be okay with it." I inform her, Poppy shakes her head and looks outside her window. "She would hate me." This time I shake my head, "She wouldn't. And what about Griff?" She looks at me, and shrugs. Poppy then runs out her bedroom door, Manu told us to be down at the ice buckets at 4:30, and it is currently 4:12.

I walk over to my sleep over bag and grab my swimsuit, this one was a baby pink. Poppy walks back in "I don't think dating him would be a good thing for me right now anyway. I don't want to be distracted. By the way everyone is here" she told me, I understand, being distracted does not help with really anything. I was good, before and during Baxter's and I's relationship, but when I left Queensland, I sucked. Like bad.

I walk over to her. "Do want you think is right for you in the moment, if you don't think that he will be good for you right now it is okay to wait." I smile at her, and she gives me a hug. "This is why you are my best friend." she laughs while hugging me tightly. I giggle at her and pull away from our embrace. "Go put your suit on girl and keep blowing on your nails. They are super cute; I wonder who did them." I playfully roll my eyes at her, then make my way out her bedroom door to the closest bathroom. I close the door, turn on the light, and slip out of my clothes. I put on my suit, and take my hair tie off my wrist to put my hair up in a bun.

Ice bath night is the best, all we do is get in this huge bucket for one to two minutes, not going to lie it does suck, but it does feel good on the sore muscles. Then we all go to pizza, Manu pays so we go all out. The thing is, Wren and Bax are going to be here tonight, which will be a buzz kill. A knock on the bathroom door makes me jump and pull me out of my thoughts, "You ready?" Poppy asks, I grab my clothes off the floor and open the door. "Yup" I respond, then running back into Poppy's room to put my clothes on the chair she has in there. I take a deep breath, dig in my bag to grab an oversized t-shirt to throw over myself. I look in Poppy's full-length mirror and walk out meeting Poppy in the hallway. "How long?" she asks, wrapping one of her arms over my shoulder. "I want to do at least one minute in the bucket." I answer confidently, the record for the girls is two minutes and thirty seconds. It doesn't see long but trust me. It is. I am the current record holder, so everyone tries to beat me.

Poppy brings her arm around my shoulder down to grab her phone off the kitchen counter. She stops to text someone back, and I keep walking to get downstairs. The girls always go first too. "See you downstairs, can you send Marlon up?" Poppy asks me, I turn my head to look at her and nod. I then walk onto the porch, closing the sliding door behind me. I take a deep breath as I hear Wren laughing down the steps, you got it Kaia. I put a smile on my face, as I walk down the stairs. "Kai!!" Bodhi yells my nickname, I wave at her as I step off the last stair. "Hi! Marlon, you need to help Poppy with something." I inform him, a confused expression appears on his face. I mouth 'go' to him, he nods then walks up the stairs where I just came from.

"I'm coming for your record, Kaia." Bodhi tells me, I laugh at her "You wish, you can barely make thirty seconds." She nods in defeat and splashes some of the cold water at me. I put my hand in the cold bucket, grab a handful of the frigid water, and throw it at her. "How dare you!" She exclaims at me, while wiping her face off. "Okay, everyone listen." Manu yells so we can all hear him. Poppy and Marlon are walking down the stairs, I wonder what happened up there.

Poppy looks at me, then at Bax, then back at me. I shake my head at her and smile. She always seems to make the most out of a bad situation. "Okay, we are doing this differently. You are going to get with your partner from this morning.  And do you guys notice the difference in the bucket size?" He questions us, I nod and immediately knows what he is planning. I look over at Bax, who is across from me with the bucket in the middle. and he looks just as confused as the others. The bucket was bigger, I have no idea where he even found this. It is almost like one of those giant freezers. I think it actually is one of those.

"You both are going to be in there. You can't leave until you both agree too. This will be a game. Whatever team wins, gets bragging rights. Bodhi you will do it alone. No way I am getting in there" Manu says seriously, we all laugh a little. "Who wants to start?" Manu asks us all, Ari steps back, he has always been bad at ice baths. Bax looks at me, then puts his hand in the air. "Kaia and I can start." I hate him. I wanted to see how everyone else will do before I go. "Perfect. Get ready."

He walks over to me, and leans down to my ear. "I know you're good at this. I am too, you know that." He tells me, this time I notice his tattoo behind his ear. It is three x's in a straight vertical line. I nod, then take off my oversized t-shirt. He takes off his shirt too, and we both walk over to the huge freezer. There are chairs on both ends of the freezer so we can get in. I climb onto my chair, and Bax climbs on his. "Rules, you need to have your legs straight out in front of you. I know your tall Bax, but you two need to figure out how to get both of your legs straight. It helps with the leg muscles. Your arms need to be in the water. The timer will start when both your arms are in the water, and your legs are straight. " I nodded at his instructions to let him know I understand.

I look at Bax, and start to step into the frozen water. Manu even pours ice into the buckets to make it colder. I close my eyes and I step in and go to sit down. "Breathe." I hear Bax whisper at me, I look up to see him, and he is going to sit down too. I smile a little at him as we both make it to the bottom, and I stretch my legs out to the side so his legs can fit. His legs go to the left of my body, but there was plenty of space. My legs end about mid thigh on him. So he has enough room. We put our arms under, and Manu yells 'start!'

I look from Manu to Bax who is already looking at me. I see goosebumps form on his neck, I start to shiver as the cold starts to hit my body. Manu cuts me off at two minutes usually, but my record was made because he wanted to see how mentally tough I am. "30 seconds." Ari shouts, I look over at him, and he gives me a soft smile. I look over at Bax and his are closed. "You cold yet?" I shiver out messing with him. He opens his eyes and smiles at me, "nope." I roll my eyes at his response as my teeth start to chatter. "Minute!" Ari yells.

I take a deep breath. You got this Kaia. Stay in. Then I feel Bax's hand gently touching my lower leg as confirmation that we got it. I feel as he takes his thumb and moves it to soothe me. His touch feels like fire in my body, if he keeps his hand on me I could probably do this forever. "Minute and forty five seconds"

I notice him shiver, and I nod at him. "We got it" I whisper to him. My hands start to shake from the cold, I put them behind my back to stop them. I feel Bax still gently rubbing my leg. "Two thirty" Ari speaks, I look over at Manu and he doesn't say anything. Everyone starts to cheer, as I broke my record, and Bax did too. "Look at that, you did it" Bax tells me, "So did you" Everyone is clapping like we had just won the Olympics.

"Three minutes."
"Okay Kaia up. I am cutting you two off." Manu says, I go to stand up, and so does Bax, warming ourselves by the warm air. But the water was still at my knee, keeping me cold. I tried to get myself over the high ledge, but couldn't due to my weak arms from the cold water. Bax then comes over to me, "wait" he says, coming behind me, grabbing my waist, to help me push myself up. He's a gentleman. He always has been. Me before him. Always. But that doesn't change anything. I make it onto the chair, and put my arms in the air. I look over at Bax who is on his chair doing the same him. We are both whooping, and shouting, before Manu tells us to come down.
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If I had made any mistake I will fix them!! I am going to check tomorrow morning!