Safe // (Zach LaFrenière Fan Fic)

SIX: The Last Lap

Slapping the poolside to signal the harmonious start of the fifth and finally lap, Emma and Jason both began swimming as hard as they could, using their strongest strokes. Jason barrelled down the pool with breaststroke as Emma darted through the water using front crawl, this was when everything took a turn that Emma had been praying wouldn't occur. As she neared the half mark, images of her last swim meet in Michigan began to flash through her thoughts almost as if she was watching it happen over again. Emma slapped the half mark and grabbed on to the side of the pool frozen, she watched as Jason slapped the side oblivious to anything going on around him; it was as if everything around her started moving in slow motion. Her mouth dried completely as images of the shooter flashed before her eyes as she began to hyperventilate, everything else around her became blurry as she stood frozen in the water; Emma realised that tears were falling as she pulled her goggles off. She couldn't move her legs to lift herself out of the pool. Emma could hear people calling her name, asking if she was okay and probably looking extremely confused but everything sounded either far away or muted. She could see the blurry legs of someone crouching down in front of her but she was too frozen to even look up at them. The person slipped off their shoes, climbed into the pool and hooking an arm under her knees and the other around her back; she identified the guy as Zach.

As soon as Zach had pulled her out of the water, he sat on the ground with Emma on his lap as tears continued to rush like streams down her cheeks, Brad ran over with her towel and helped Zach to wrap it around her; as soon as she was covered Zach cradled her slightly. Trying to hush her as Jason rushed over from the other side of the pool, Emma stayed on Zach's lap as her breathing was still uneven. "Emma, can you hear me? You don't have to speak, simply nod if you can hear me?"

She weakly nodded as Zach shuffled to cross his legs, making her slightly more comfortable as he continued to talk to Emma. "Good, now I need to you to take deep breaths,"

The still panicking girl closed her eyes as she tried to take a breath in through her nose, holding it for five seconds before exhaling through her mouth, she let out a sob and buried her head into Zach's shoulder. Jason softly stroked her back as Emma tried to breath again. Zach rested his cheek on the top of her head as she turned her to rest it on his shoulder, "Oh god, it was so horrid,"

"What was?" Jason spoke with concern as Zach continued to cradle his cousin, he could see that her hands were shaking as she pulled the towel tighter around her shoulders. Jason studied her face as she kept trying to take deep breaths, he could see that she was fighting herself internally and also that her struggle to breath was getting worse. Zach noticed it too as he shuffled so that Emma was sat beside him, still allowing her to leaning against him; he took her hand.

"Emma you need to calm down," Jason thought the tone in Zach's voice sounded slightly harsh, but he didn't say anything as his friend tried to help his cousin. Jason watched as Zach enveloped Emma's hand in his and spoke to her calmly and cooly, "Emma can you look at me?"

She hesitantly opened her eyes as Zach and Jason sat either side of her, she hadn't even noticed Zach's hand until she felt the warmth surrounding her smaller, colder hand. Lifting her head, she watched him to emulate his breathing, slowly but surely Emma started to calm down; her heart still pounding in her chest. "Take your time, we're not rushing you,"

Emma opened her mouth a little, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out. At this point everyone was sat in mini semi-circle around the three of them, patiently waiting for Emma to explain what the hell had just happened.

"I-, back in Michigan, I told you that I was part of the swim team," She paused for a shaky breath, "I was at my last swim meet before christmas, coach let us hold an in-house competition type of thing. I was in the pool, swimming against my best friend Olive. None of us were really competing though, we were just messing around and having a bit of end of semester fun. We- We were halfway through our last lap, and-"

Emma's breath got hitched in the back of her throat as she tried to calm her voice that had started to quiver, staring at the floor as Zach squeezed her hand gently. A tear fell as she continued to explain, "It was our last lap, Olive and I were neck and neck, our adrenalin was kicking us up a notch, we bounced off of each other...sorta like Brad and Van Dyke do when competing."

The two boys threw a small smile at one another, as they knew how competitive they got at times, focusing their attention back to her; they noticed that Emma's hands were still shaking.

"I was still underwater at the time, but a guy had walked into the pool area and I suddenly felt a weight being thrown onto me as I tried to resurface. Olive-" Emma held back another wave of tears as she finished the story, "The guy had had a gun. He had tried to shoot at me, but Olive had dived in between me and the bullet. The bullet had gone straight through her heart."

Emma dissolved into tears again as the girls bite back tears of their own and the guys faces visibly paled, Jason pulled his cousin into his side as he tried to hush her. "I tried to get back in the pool so many times, but every time I would freeze and choke. It got to a point where I couldn't walk through the school halls without getting looks of sympathy or awkward glances; I told Mom I wanted to leave Michigan when people started saying that I was the one who should've died instead."

"That's disgusting, how can people even think like that?!" Sienna exclaimed as she comforted Belle who was remembering the death of her boyfriend Dominic Ames, he'd died before christmas after being shot with a crossbow bolt by a deranged hunter. Erin and Adam was also at Belle's side as she let a tear slip out, Maggie was leaning on Van Dyke who had his arm looped around her waist. Brad and Zach were looking between each other feeling an overwhelming sense of discomfort within the group as they all tried to comprehend what Emma had just told them. Sienna wrapped an arm around Belle as she looked back over to Emma, "So that's why you moved to Malibu then,"

"Yea," Emma wiped her eyes on the corner of her towel. "But when Van Dyke suggested the race, I thought maybe now I'd be able to swim again, I really wanted to do it; I felt great. I honestly felt like I was going to do it this time, but I got to the last lap and choked; it's always the last lap. Today was the furthest I'd gotten,"

"You basically kicked Jason's ass anyways," Erin shot her a small grin. "You're an extremely strong swimmer, you could probably kick the entire swim team's ass with the speed you picked up,"

Emma's frown slowly disappeared as she returned Erin's grin with a small smile, lifting her head from Jason's shoulder; she let out a massive sigh. Almost as if a massive weight had been lifted from her chest, Emma began to feel better as her breathing slowly evened out, she looked over to Zach who was already looking back at her. Silently, she thanked him for helping her by gently squeezing his hand, Zach squeezed back as they let the smallest of smiles form on their faces.