THE POOL
I took another swig from the whisky bottle in my hand. The amber liquid burned the lining of my throat and warmed me from the inside out. I stuck my thumb through the mouth of the bottle and kicked of the wall of the pool onto my back.
I had come to the pool room because I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept racing, bringing up the past and comparing it to the present them predicting the future. My conversation with Zane a few nights ago struck up all these old feelings and memories.
Today was my birthday a day I hadn’t celebrated on this land or with these people in years. I floated leisurely through the water slowly moving my feet and occasionally taking a drink from the bottle in my hand. Today was going to be a long day and I knew it.
“Couldn’t sleep,” boomed Zane from the side of the pool. I hadn’t heard him come in or I was to wound –up to have noticed. He crouched down and held his hand out for the bottle.
“I never really did while I was here,” I told him kicking off the wall and back into the center of the pool.
“Why are you letting him throw you a party?” Zane said thoughtfully feeling my uneasiness.
“He wanted to,” I said shrugging my shoulders.
“But if I wanted to you would have protested it.”
“I would have but for a different reason.” I was slightly more dismissive than needed.
“I want to change the way things are between us.” I do too, I thought but stayed silent.
“Annabella,” he sighed after a few minutes. I looked in his eyes and saw all the hurt and pain I was feeling inside. He took a step closer to me at the edge of the pool. I saw his eyes look at what I can only assume is my mark. That was when I looked him over quickly. He had come down to swim I presumed with the pair of black swim trunks and the lack of shirt to cover his well-defined torso. His mark sat on his left hip an exact duplicate of mine.
“I should go.” I said abruptly trying to side step him. But when I did he went to stop me by grabbing my waist and knocked me off balance. I slipped off the side of the pool and in a last attempt to save myself from plunging into the deep side I grabbed Zane’s arm but due to the water that has dripped off of me he just slipped right after me.
We fell into the water with a great splash. Kept my eyes closed until I hit the bottom of the pool. The chlorine stung numbing the nerves. The first thing I saw was Zane staring back at me intently his eyes a smoking grey. I released the grip I had on his arm to put some distance between us but an unknown force was pulling us together. We gravitated toward each other, treading water keeping ourselves level.
The moment I blinked everything changed he was kissing me I was kissing him it became a moment of passion of us testing each other. And then it was over I was backed against a wall of the pool his arm wrapped tightly around me my hands knotted in his hair our breaths mixing.
“Tha-That” my breathing still hard while I spoke. I tried to pull him closer but he refused putting an arm on the pool’s edge to act as a brace.
“That was a mistake,” his voice steady and stern. He spoke with his eyes closed. I was stunned my heart dropped all excitement was replace with anger. I though his head back roughly and pulled myself up out of the pool. Any and all pleasure I had got from kissing Zane was gone. I was beyond hurt now I was confused and furious. He could not hurt me anymore nor could he reject me any further I was done with him and anything he could have stood for.
When I looked at him his face was hard and turned away from me. I picked up the bottle of whiskey I had brought and downed the last bit as I walked to the door. When it was empty I swung my arm out releasing the bottle with as much force as I could. It hit the wall with shattering force breaking the thick silence in the process. Pieces of glass ricocheted off the wall. I could still hear them tinkling to the floor as I walked away from the pool room and away from Zane.
