Middle of the Week Motivation

Come Join Us

"Come join us, Jack!" Felix shouted from the pool, stirring the green haired man from his day dream.

"Yeah!" Mark exclaimed. "It'll be fun."

Jack rolled his eyes. "You guys know I don't swim." He crossed his arms stubbornly.

Wade jumped in the water off the diving board, causing the biggest splash he could and getting Jack a little wet.

"Wade!" Jack whined as he resurfaced, everyone else laughing.

"Wanna hug?" Bob offered, soaking wet.

"No, Bob! Stop!" Jack ran away from the older man, only to be caught in a hug. Felix chuckled.

"You're soaking wet now, you might as well join us." Wade pointed out. Jack shook his head defiantly.

"At least dangle your feet in the water." Mark comprised.

"Fine," Jack replied, rolling up the pant legs of his jeans. "If it'll make you guys shut up." Jack sat on the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the pool.

They left him alone after that. For about 5 minutes. Bob playfully tried to drag him into the pool and Mark began a splashing war, making it his goal to splash Jack as much as possible.

"Ok, ok, that's enough." Jack laughed, standing to his feet and walking away from the pool in attempts to stay as dry as possible. He bent down, rolling his pant legs back down, not noticing the others as they exited the pool. Jack squirmed as he was suddenly lifted off the ground. Everyone was laughing as Felix took a few steps closer to the pool as if he was threading to drop Jack in.

Jack's eye widened in panic. "Felix!" He screamed, squirming even more in attempts to get free. But the Swede had an surprisingly strong grip. "Felix! No! Stop!" Jack yelled again, watching the pool get closer and closer. "Felix!" Jack felt himself falling towards the water. "I can't swim!!" He exclaimed. The last thing he heard before hitting the water was the sound of laughter stopping.

Jack thrashed around frantically, immediately taking a deep breath, as if on instinct. He felt the pressure on his neck, and he clasped his hands around it, as if trying to keep something from coming out. He felt the pull between his legs trying to bring them together, but he forced them apart. "Not like this..." he thought. "Not like this." Then Jack remembered, he couldn't breathe. He tried to push himself towards the surface, only to sink farther down.

The last thing he registered was Mark jumping in the water after him before everything went black. Mark quickly swam both of them up to the surface, Bob, Wade and Felix pulling the unconscious Irishman out of the water. It had only been a couple seconds after Jack went in before Mark dived in afterwards, but it felt like an eternity. Mark climbed out as well, the four friends gathered around the green haired man to see if he was alright.
It was only a few seconds before Jack rolled over, coughing water out of his lungs, but it had seemed like an eternity.

"Dude, you ok?" Bob asked, as Jack finally stopped coughing.

"What's on your neck?" Wade asked, motioning to the ridges that had suddenly appeared. They were very subtle, but as Jack ran his hand over the side of his neck he could feel them. His eyes widened and he quickly scrambled to his feet racing off into the house.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Jack though to himself, looking at his neck in the mirror. "Go away, go away!" He practically screamed in his mind.

He stopped, adverting his gaze from the mirror and taking a deep breath. Then another. And another. Slow and steady. Deep breaths. He looked in the mirror again. Everything was fine. Everything looked normal. Jack headed down the stairs, stopping before he reached the bottom and picking up a few lines of the conversation that drifted in from the outside.