The next couple of days passed in much the same way. Every day they would text each other and decide where to meet up. Jesse began to leave Laura at hope, despite her resistance. Jordyn would give her brothers the slip; it wasn’t hard, considering they all had summer jobs. Friday it was raining again. It started as a light mist that bounced off the ground and back up into the low hanging fog of the morning, and by noon picked up into a steady downpour. By then the two of them had found that if they both started walking to each other’s houses, they met somewhere along the main road, by an old man-made pond used especially this time of year for fishing. They met there in the middle of the rain, two hours before noon.
By now, Jesse had learned that Jordyn didn’t seem to care very much for any type of shoes, and seemed particularly to resist wearing any on rainy days like that one. She was dressed much the same way as on the first day they had met; short shorts, bare feet, tank top. The only difference was her top of choice was a light purple color, and revealed to Jesse for the first time she had her belly button pierced. Other than that, she had unzipped her black sweatshirt and pulled up the hood. She smiled when she saw him, and accepted his kiss warmly as he took her face gently between his hands. Within four days it was only their third kiss.
“Nice stomach,” he commented mildly, still holding her.
“Thanks,” she said. “Nice biceps.”
He shrugged. I ran outta clothes.” He wasn’t exactly lying. He had just a gray tank top, jeans and a DC hat. Unlike Jordyn, he chose to wear shoes, especially when the rain turned the road into a massive river. He let go of her face and grabbed her hand.
“Eh, there okay,” he said passively, inwardly beaming with pride. “Where do you wanna go?”
Jordyn shrugged and looked toward the pond. “Swimming?” She suggested.
“You serious?” Jesse asked, glancing sideways at the pond. “It’s freezing and wet.
She shrugged again. “We’re gunna be freezing and wet no matter what.”
Jesse looked to the pond. It was empty except for the one tiny wooden fishing boat moored to the edge opposite the road, and half a million rippling rings dancing wherever the rain struck.
“What do we do when we get out and we’re all wet?”
“Nothing,” Jordyn said.
Jesse looked once more from Jordyn to the pond. He was beginning to get used to her outlandish ideas on what to do in a town that contained absolutely nothing to do. He looked back to he and nodded.
“Alright,” he said. Then the pair crossed the road, splashing through puddles and dragging their feet through the tangles of waist-high grass growing all around the pond. At the very edge, there was about six feet of sand, mud, and short grass separating the water from the field. Jesse and Jordyn took refuge under a young birch tree, stripping off what they could. Jesse took his shoes, socks, hat, phone, wallet, and shirt, and bundled then together in a dry spot at the base of the tree. Jordyn slung her hoodie over a branch and put her phone and iPod into one of its pockets.
“Ready?” She asked Jesse.
He took her hand and started towards the pond. They waded a few feet out on a sand bar and stood above an obvious drop. A few tiny silver fish swam away from them as they prepared to plunge into the icy water that already numbed their feet.
