Prove It

Chapter 12

Tristan watched his mother drive off with his little sister in the car and smiled to himself. He and Sierra were finally alone. A million possibilities raced through his mind, feeding him ideas on how to make the most this time together. One scenario appealed to him way more than the others. His decision on what to do first was an easy one.

“I’m done studying for the day and so are you. We need a break,” Tristan announced.

Sierra eagerly pushed her books aside and asked, “What did you have in mind?”

“I want to swim with you.”

Tristan had been thinking about getting back into the pool for a while, the moment the idea popped into his head to go swimming with Sierra, it felt perfect. He convinced himself it had nothing to do with seeing Sierra in a swim suit and everything to do with rediscovering his love for being in the water and sharing that experience with one of his best friends. Swimming for him represented connection. A connection he shared with his body and the water, a connection he longed to share with the girl who had recently come to mean so much to him. Sierra didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.

“Wait, what? You want to go swimming? What about your hand?” she asked.

 “It’s fine. It’s been healed for two weeks.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” That wasn’t the response he expected. Something wasn’t right. “Is everything okay?”

“I didn’t bring a suit.”

“No big deal. We have a ton of new suits just for guests. I’m sure we can find one that will fit you.”

“Tristan, I don’t know. It’s pretty cold outside.”

“That’s why we have an indoor pool.”

“We could still get sick.”

Tristan got the feeling she was making excuses not to go with him and it bothered him more than he cared to admit.

“You don’t want to go.”

“It’s not that. It’s just… I’m not a very good swimmer.”

“You can’t swim?”

“Not very well.”

Tristan released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Was that all? This was such an easy fix.

“I can teach you,” he offered, smiling.

“Thanks, but I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” A thought occurred to him. “Are you afraid?” he asked her seriously.

“No, that would be stupid,” she answered immediately.

Oh my God, she was. She answered him way too quickly to be believable. He wanted to ask how severe her phobia was, but he didn’t want to make her anymore uncomfortable than she probably already was. Knowing that he finally had a way to help her in return for everything she’d done for him motivated him even more, but he knew he needed to ease her into it.

“We could just get in the water and stay in the shallow end. It’s not a big deal.”

“Tristan… I can’t.”

Okay, something was definitely wrong. The look on Sierra’s face reminded him of what she looked like that day she was crying in the music room. He hoped to never see her look that way ever again, much less, be the cause of it. He needed to find a way to fix this. Fast.

“I’m an idiot, you’re right, it’s too cold to go swimming. Forget I even said anything about it. We can do something else. We have a ton of movies, we could watch one.”