The Boy's of Westbrook

~Brave~ Chapter VII

Chapter VII

Rubio grinned when he saw Eric tailing behind Damien. Eric felt ridiculously like he was doing the wedding march. His feelings for Damien were stronger than he thought. It was only Rubio, and Alejandro's car. He hoped in the front. Damien took shotgun. Eric's heart fell, but got in the backseat anyway. He looked out the window trying to look nonchalant about the ordeal when really, his palms were sweaty.

Rubio turned up the radio so there was no conversation. Eric wondered if Rubio was enjoying this somehow. There was something he wasn't saying. There was something he knew that Veronica didn't. That made the feelings he felt, like they were doing back flips and head stands in his stomach. It was an almost 'go wild' feeling. Each pothole Rubio managed to hit made his stomach lurch.

In under ten minutes, they arrived to their destination. Eric tried to focus on the beauty around him to keep himself distracted. If things were indeed going to end here, why not with a beautiful landscape all around them. Water skiers were at large just past the safe zone. Men and woman with better bodies than his were sun tanning. That made Eric feel self-conscious of his own body. He was thin, but not thin enough to show his rib bones. He hardly had any muscle. All of his shirtless cousins, including Trey, had muscled bodies. Something Eric may never get.

Rubio turned his face away, hiding whatever it was there. Eric was starting to feel like there was an inside joke he wasn't being let in on. Maybe it was Eric himself that was the joke. This whole thing was probably a prank.

Frankie could be seen down by the water. He saw them, his facing first showing panic and then had to turn away.

Eric was starting to regret this already.

"Are you coming?" Damien.

Eric had no idea what look he must have had on his face to make Damien look alarmed.

"Don't tell me you can't swim. You've been coming here for nine years and you don't know how to swim?"

"No I can swim!" Eric wasn't sure he'd believe himself.

Damien didn't seem to.

"Honestly," Eric tried again, "I can. I've got a lot on my mind." He might have said too much because he suddenly felt worse. Veronica was wrong. He wasn't going to be ok. He couldn't do this by himself.

"The water is shallow when you stay close to the shore," Damien said with a mixture of concern and... something else?

As if Eric needed any help with getting mixed signals and already being overloaded with emotions he wasn't used to feeling!

So Eric took a deep breath. Air through the nose and out the mouth, before saying, "Really, I'll be fine."

There was no good time like the present. Eric could clear out the air right now if he wanted to. "I'll be better once I get myself wet."

Bad word usage. Even Damien flinched lightly at that.

Eric acted like it never happened and joined his cousins at the shore. Damien followed. Eric started to become self-conscious of his walk. What would Damien be thinking right now?

He started to feel loads better once he got himself in the water. He did a show of going further into deeper water to show that he could swim. Swimming always felt nice, and relaxing. Usually it was a swimming pool. Eric tried not to think about the things beneath him. At least it wasn't the ocean with jellyfish and other creepy crawly things.

He ignored the fact that Damien was still wearing a thin beater shirt. He pretended like he didn't know Damien was keeping an eye on him. He thought Damien was being a nice guy, just doing the right thing. It didn't mean anything.