Chapter One
Ugh, I sighed. Just another day in this small town, I thought to myself.
"Jane!" Clara yelled. I completely forgot I was supposed to go out with her today. Swimming, my favorite, not!
Considering I jumped into my aunts pool at the age of 2 and almost drowned. I'd never really liked water since then.
But Clara, sweet Clara was always ready for an adventure. Swimming, cliff diving, anything that just screamed dangerous, she was on it. And dragging me along with her for the ride.
"Jane!" She yelled again, pulling me from my scattered thoughts.
"I'm coming, hold on!" I hurried and threw my bathing suit in my bag, and ran down the stairs.
Sweet jesus, she's always on the go. As I reached the bottom of my stairs she was already half way to the car. I scrambled getting my keys and locking the door behind me.
I made it down my sidewalk to the car, and spotted Daniel. Daniel is my neighbor, he's around our age, I think about 16 or 17. There's just something different about him, I'm pretty sure he has a mental disorder but I've always been too afraid to ask.
He spots me staring at him so I wave a shy hello, and he just blankly stares back. In that exact moment I just want to know what he's thinking.
Then I hear a car horn, it's Clara. My god, can't she just hold on? I finally make it to her car, before I can even open the door she's yelling at me.
"Why did you take so long?! What were you doing?! And why were you staring at that freak?!"
He's not a freak I thought.. "I'm sorry Clara, I've just kind of been in my own world today."
She replied with her usual, "it's okay girl, I understand." Knowing good and well she never does.
We start going down the road, she turns up her favorite song and I just slip back into my thoughts.
She's always had an easy life. Why couldn't I? Clara had the grade A, all american family. Where my life was more like an american horror story. I'd never had it easy, yet she just had everything handed tmo her.
I'd often asked God why, why me? But I'd never got an answer.
When she put the car in park, I snapped out of my thoughts. Finally, we were at the lake, the smell of tanning lotion and SPF 50 filled the air.
She looked over and smiled, "You ready?" I replied back, "As ready as I'll ever be."
Chapter Two
It was a hot day, supposed to be one of the hottest of the summer. I couldn't decide what was hotter, the sun or the guy that was playing football in the grass. Clara must have been thinking the same thing because she looked at me with that look only a best friend could understand.
After twenty minutes, we finally found a spot big enough to lay our blanket down along with our towels and other things. The lake was really packed today, out of all the time I'd been coming here I'd never seen it so packed. Clara finally got the blanket situated, then began rubbing tanning oil all over her. She looked up at me and smiled, "You want some?" I replied a quick yes and she put some in my hand. As I began rubbing the lotion in I couldn't help to ignore all the whistles we were getting. We just looked at each other and giggled.
Clara was used to the attention, in fact she loved it. On the other hand, I didn't like it as much, I thought it was quite demeaning. I mean, whistling at me, seriously? I am not a dog, nor should I be whistled at like one.
After that little episode we finally laid down and began to soak up the wonderful sun.
"So what do you think about that guy over there?" Clara asked.
"What are you talking about?" I replied, knowing exactly who she was talking about. Yet, pretending I was completely oblivious.
"That guy over there playing football, you know the one we've been eying since we stepped foot here." She said.
"If you mean that tall, tan, and handsome Greek god over there, I'd like to say he's a beautiful piece of work." I replied jokingly.
Clara knew I was the type to only look but never touch, I'd never much really desired a relationship. They all went south at some point, in my opinion, so why bother? But Clara was always trying to set me up with people, every chance she got. It never worked out, she didn't know "my type" whatever that was.
About that time a football came whizzing at our heads, we both ducked but the football stopped just short of our blanket. One of the guys from the group ran over and retrieved it while saying a quick "I'm sorry."
Clara looked at me suspiciously and said, "Like that wasn't planned."
I just laughed, "Yeah, it was. Want to get out of this battleground?" I replied.
"Race you there!" Clara said.
And before I could even stand up she was already half way down the beach.
Chapter Three
I finally moseyed my way down to the beach where Clara was swimming freely. She laughed at me when she saw me eying the water suspiciously, but she knew how I was about water..
"Come on! Get in!" She yelled, while beginning to splash water my way.
I was trying, she didn't know that there was a raging war inside of myself going on about getting in this water. It's not that I didn't like water, it was just the fear of drowning, or even worse what's in the water. The next thing I heard was Clara screaming "Look Out!" Before I could even turn around, I felt something hard hit me in the face. Everything went black.
"Jane! Jane!" I heard people screaming my name, but I couldn't quite match the voices. My head was pounding, I felt like I'd been hit by a Mac truck! I was struggling trying to open my eyes, it felt like there was water down my throat. Oh no! I thought, I'd fallen into the water! My brain swiftly kicked into gear and I started coughing up water.
When I finally looked up, my eyes met the most beautiful hazel eyes I'd ever seen. Holding me in his arms was that Greek god I'd been staring at all day. This must be a dream, I thought.
"Are you okay?" He said.
All I could reply was "Who are you? What happened?"
"My friend threw the football and it accidentally hit you in the head. You ended up falling into the water and almost drowning! But that's not important, How do you feel?" He replied.
"I'm fine, my head just hurts a little. You didn't answer my question though, who are you?" I asked again.
"Brian, my name's Brian." He said.
