I Only Told the Moon

I like her

We arrived at the pool on time and she took Camila's usual place in the bleachers going on her phone while I changed for practice.
"Aye lad last practice together before the big tourny yeah?" Nile says wrapping an arm round my shoulder as we walk into the pool area.
"Yeah last practice man I'm going to miss you guys until a month from now when I see you again." I roll my eyes.
"Aye you know anytime away from us is a aching pain for ya." Nile says punching my side slightly.
"Alright whatever." I laugh slightly. Harry stays at our toes right behind us. The girls walked out the other side of the pool area walking towards us. When me and Vanessa make eye contact, her face lights up and she smiles brightly waving. I wave back and we all new in between the two places.
"Hey loves." Nile says to the girls with a smirk. Harry then spots Lauren in the bleachers and the minute he does you can see his eyes visibly light up.
"Who is that?" He asks enthralled by my green eyes friend.
"Laur come here." I beckon her. She gets up and heads down the bleachers and over to where we are.
"What's up?" She asks leaning against the edge.
"Guys this is my old friend Lauren who just moved back into town. Lauren this is Alycia, Selena, Vanessa, Nile, Danny, and..."
"Harold. But everyone calls me Harry. You can call me whatever you want. Do you like sophisticated men or scruffy chill guys? I could be anything you need you fine ass piece of woman." I mentally cringe at his words. He tries so hard.
"I'll tell you what I don't like. Being called woman, being sexualized, and guys with cocky attitudes who think they can woo me with their worn out lines of objectification and dry cracker personalities." Harry's smile is wiped off his face.
"Ooh sh..." Nile starts before covering his mouth
"She roasted you bro!" Alycia finishes for him.
"Well damn girl I was just trying to talk for a minute maybe get some magic going but you fired shots. What're you on your period?"
"And you see its comments like those that don't get you into a girls pants let alone into her heart. I presume you're a virgin right..."
"actually I'm n...."
"Your cousin doesn't count." We all laughed slightly whilst silk reacting to her shade. The scary thing is he never continued his sentence he never fired back.
"I bet you've never had a relationship longer than a month. And the other person always ended it as I right?" He stays silent.
"Exactly. So next time you want to hit on s girl who's way out of your league reassess your approach or just simply don't force yourself on her and sexualize her. Thank you."
"Damn you got roasted by a chick." Nile says laughing at Harry.
"Is that supposed to be an insult Sherlock Holmes?"
"No it's just he considers himself to be the lady whisperer. That he could get any girl he wants and bed her too."
"There may be girls with low enough self respect and confidence to do that but me and every girl around me so long as I can help it will never be that low."
"You know what screw you Lauren!" Harry says. Score jumping right into the pool. When he comes back up sshe replies.
"You wish but your tiny penis would never even get close. You can't handle me trust me."
"Oohhh!" The boys jump up and down laughing before jumping into the pool for warm up.
"Ok I like her." Alycia says laughing.
"Me too she's got quite an interesting aura." Vanessa says laughing slightly still.
"Yeah I agree. A very sassy in a way that I appreciate." She giggles.
"Yeah but of  course who wouldn't dream of saying that to Harry. No one he's a douchebag she just showed it to more of an extent." Selena further explains.
"Do they know I can hear them?" Lauren says with a hint of sass as always.
"Yeah they do that a lot. Talk about people in front of those people but to each other. It's a problem." Lauren nods.
"So are you from Miami?" Vanessa asks kindly.
"Yeah born and raised somewhat but I left for boarding school in the fifth grade so I haven't really been round much. But I presume you all haven't either."
"No we moved here for training a few months ago. We're staying for a while."
"Let me guess Australia, Texas, and a really white state on the east coast I'm sensing Jersey?"
"How'd you do that?" Vanessa gapes.
"You have slight shore inflections, I mean Alycia is pretty straight forward how I figured that out. Selena was a racially charged assumption that I threw into the fire hoping it didn't burn and it didn't."
"She's so cool!" Vanessa gushes like a little child.
"Thank you. You're cool too." Lauren smiles at Vanessa and Vanessa blushes because she again did not mean to say that out loud. She does that pretty often like uncontrollably often.
"Message you have a thing for blurting thugs out don't you?"  Her blush disappears and she hangs her head down more interested in her shoes.
"Yeah."
"Hey I'm sorry did I strike a chord or something. I didn't mean to. Forgive me." She walks away and jumps into the pool and the other two follow her.
"Wolfie why would you say that to her?"
"What? I didn't know it would hurt her feelings."
"It's very clear that she can't control it. Did you think about that?"
"No."
"Come on Wolfie you know what to do?"
"I-I don't."
"Just apologize."
"What if she gets sad again. I hate it when she's sad. It makes me feel bad especially if I caused it." She smirks slightly for a second then restored her face.
"Just make sure she knows that you meant no harm nor to make fun of her ok?" I nod and run off jumping into the pool and swimming a lap to warm up then seeing Vanessa looking right at me. When she saw unnoticed she turned to the wall and started doing wall pull ups. I swim over to her and float by her side.
"Hey." I say softly.
"Hi."
"So uh I'm really sorry that I hurt your feelings back there I wasn't meaning any harm at all. I didn't want to make fun of you or anything I just thought it was cute that you blurt out complimented about people all of the time. I'm sorry."
"It's ok Grayson. I was just upset because I have a condition that is similar to turrets but not quite. It's tied to my ADHD. I get self conscious because you see I have a twin."
"Ooh hot." I make an ill considered joke then widened my eyes.
"Sorry that was bad timing and I..."
"Don't worry it was funny." I breathe out.
"Well anyways I have a twin and she's perfect. She's beautiful, smart, absolutely flawless and Popular too. It's just that I'm not like that. For some reason I was called the nerdy twin and I was the one with the mental disorder and I was the one who needed more attention so when ever that flaw gets pointed out I get a little self conscious."
"I get it people made fun of me most of my life. I never really stopped being bullied, they just didn't do it when Camila was around and Camila was always around so I didn't get picked on as much. I still feel self conscious so I kind of understand." She nods with a smile.
"So that Lauren girl she's cute huh?"
"Are you going to come out to me right now or something?"
"No I just thought that you might've liked her."
"What? No God no."
"Oh my bad."
"I anything she's into me. I'm like a chick magnet. They just can't deny me." I joke with a smirk making her giggle.
"They can't huh?"
"Nope."
"Vanessa, Grayson less flirting more swimming." Vlad says accentuating his comment with a fish swimming motion.
"Who are you?" He asks noticing Lauren.
"That depends." I swim off not wanting to hear anything else from Vlad about not warming up.
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After practice the entire crew go out for dinner and we all have a blast. We couldn't eat too many calories because of the tournament coming up so we went to a healthy spot for dinner.
"So are we meeting there?" Harry asked confused on the plan for Italy. See me and Harry get to go to Olympic squad training in Italy because as it turn out we are in team contention. If we keep on or grind and push a little harder then come trials we can make the Olympic team.
"Yeah me and Lauren will get there a bit early to check everything in."
"Wait she's coming?"
"Yup."
"She's like Selena, has the money to follow us around." I explain.
"Really?" Selena says offended.
"What? It's true you only like swimming you're not going for nationals or anything."
"Yes I am."
"Since when?" She thinks for a minute and her demeanor breaks.
"Since I don't know."
"Exactly."
"Ok whatever."
"So Grayson mate, you attracted to Lauren?" Alycia asks right in front of Lauren.
"No, not really. Not that she's unattractive but I don't see her that way. We're good friends."
"I don't know why you're both beautiful people why not get with her if you're close enough friends."
"There's a difference between being close and having feeling for someone. Trust me I know."
"I think Lauren would be good for you, youneed a girlfriend."
"Do you ignore the person you're talking about every time you talk about them?" Lauren asks still not accustomed to Alycia and the girls' ways of social communication.
"A lot of the time yeah."
"Your friends are weird Gray."
"I know but I love them anyways and you will too."
"Yeah you'll learn to love me." Harry says still attempting to flirt with her.
"If I wasn't clear before I'll be clear now. I'm not into you let it go. Or does that not compute in your head."
"She wants me." He says quietly still looking at Lauren.
"Alright now let's get some food in us shall we." Vanessa says gesturing the waiter back over to get our orders. Harry was going to annoy the hell out of Lauren and I could just tell.