aeipathy | one shot collection

summer.

*Willow's POV*

Aubree taps me on the thigh lightly. I lower my phone from my face and look at her, squinting from the bright sun invading my eyes.

"Hi," Aubree says, puffing her cheeks out at me. My lips tug up as I wave at her.

"Hello, babe."

"Do you wanna swim again?" Aubree asks me, her eyes watching the kids shrieking and playing in the clear water, teenagers doing flips off the diving board, and older adults suntanning on lounge chairs.

"Sure."

She rises from her lounge chair and looks back at me. There's still some fear in her eyes. I stand up and grab her hand.

"Ready?" She nods. "One... two... three-"

We run with our hands interlocked, jumping off of the ledge into the water. I resurface a couple seconds later, inhaling fresh air and pushing my hair out of my face. Aubree is gripping the ledge tightly and shivering.

I swim towards her, wrapping my arms around her body. "Are you scared or cold?"

"Both," she admits, sniffing and laughing hotly. "Why can't I swim like a normal person?"

"You can swim fine. You just won't let yourself."

Aubree wraps her legs around me, putting her head on my shoulder. "I'm scared I'm going to drown."

I laugh, wrapping my arms around her. "You will not drown. There are tons of lifeguards around here and I won't let anything happen to you anyways."

After a while, Aubree starts to grow more comfortable in the water. We find a couple friends from high school and talk with them, swimming around and fucking off like we used to do. 

"You girls are so fucked up," one of them says, his arm holding himself up on the ledge, laughing at Aubree and I. 

"Does that even surprise you anymore?" I ask, splashing water at him.

Soon, he has to leave, so we all take a picture together on our phones.

"See you girls later," he says, giving us his weird goodbye salute he's done since school. We wave goodbye and look at each other.

"I didn't think we'd ever see him again."

"Me neither." Aubree snickers and takes a bite of a chicken nugget we bought from the concession stand.

Suddenly she grabs my jaw and pulls my face to hers, kissing my lips passionately. When she lets go I look at her, a blush rising in my cheeks.

"What was that for?"

She shrugs. "I just felt like it."

"Oh, okay." I look down when she laughs, grinning to myself.

"Let's get outta here, huh? Wanna order a pizza and watch Harry Potter or somethin'?" Aubree asks, my ears perking at her suggestion.

"Sounds good to me!"

We pack up our stuff, running across the hot, burning cement to the changing rooms.

-;-

When we get home, Aubree calls a pizza place and orders for us. I run into our room and drag out my Harry Potter movies (which is every single one of them because I'm obsessed and I have a problem) and set them on the coffee table in the living room.

"Watching all of these movies will take about 20 hours, y'know," Aubree says, walking in the living room with her phone in her hand, her favorite PJ's on.

"Oh, I know. I'm down for it. Too much for ya?"

"Nah, you'd fall asleep before me! I could make it all night."

I raise my eyebrow, crossing my arms. "Is that a challenge? Because I call bullshit on you."

"It's on!" Aubree yells, running and jumping on the couch. I follow, pressing play on the first Harry Potter movie. 

The pizza comes about twenty minutes later and we settle back on the couch, cuddling with each other. We feed each other bites of pizza, listening obsessively to the movie. I make stupid puns every time Hagrid talks, which probably annoys Aubree, but she's laughing so I don't care.

We just start the second movie when Aubree is drifting off to sleep on my shoulder.

"I thought you were going to-" I yawn. "-to stay up all night."

"Yeah, yeah..."

I yawn again, my eyes drooping. My head falls on the pillow behind me, Aubree's even breath lulling me off to sleep.

Our competition to see who could stay up longer is forgotten as our heartbeats start to beat in sync, soft snores pushing themselves out with each breath of our mouths. We fall asleep together in each other's arms, where we belong.