30 days challenge

2

Day 2 : Something you feel strongly about

"You guys are all a bunch of scared buttholes, why can't you just jump in? It's not even cold!" Jessica screamed from the lake. It was one of the hottest day yet in our hometown, and we all decided to go down to the lake and go with the Camp Rock style, and take our first bath in the lake this summer.

Of course, me and Jessica were the first ones out to jump in the lake, and I do have to admit that it was cold in the start, but as we kept swimming in the lake, it naturally became warmer. Also, there was no trace of wind anywhere, so going up to the pier wasn't going to make you freeze too.

I was a couple of feet away from the pier where my hopeless friends were looking down at Jessica who's trying so hard to drag them down in the cold water. In a way, that was a good thing because I don't think I could enjoy the refreshing feeling in the cold water on a hot sunny day, when they were screaming in the background.

I decided that I would start swimming a little further out in the water, to see how the temperature there was. Then sun wasn't shining in the area we were dipping, so maybe the water was warmer, where it did shine.

True enough, when I got a couple of feet away from the rest, the water gradually became hotter. I mean, not as hot as the temperature on land, but hotter than where I was swimming earlier.

As I turned my body to look at the pier, I almost bursted out laughing as I watched my friends jump into the cold water, loud shrieks escaping their lips.

This is what summer was all about, spending time with your friends, hearing your horrible laughs in unison, and creating beautiful memories that will always stay with us.

It was stuff like these that made me want to wake up everyday.

The smile that was taped to my face, quickly disappeared and was replaced by a horrified expression when someone jumped up from next to me.

I was already a long way from the pier, and I watched the pier ever since I got to this spot. I would've known if someone was following me, that's one of the main reasons to why I was screaming and also the reason to why my heart was pounding faster than a rocket to the moon.

I would've probably drowned if he hadn't wrapped his arm around my waist and kept me steady. When I heard his familiar laugh, my expression from horrified mirrored the expression of someone who was annoyed but at the same time relived.

I pushed him away from me, not that it was easy or anything, pushing someone or even kicking someone in water is like slow motion in real life.

"Did you really have to do that?" I asked, my breath still in a really fast pace.

He shrugged.

"Asshole," I retorted, trying to swim away from him, but he quickly reacted and grabbed my wrist and dragged me back to him.

He wasn't saying anything, probably because he was still trying to regulate his breathing. I guess trying to catch up with me, and holding his breath under water just to scare me, took quite a lot of energy from him too.

So while he was trying to readjust his breathing, I found myself staring at him and admiring everything. I admired how his blonde hair was hiding his forehead, how there was freckles, I'd never seen before, forming on his face from the sun, and how his blue, sky shaded eyes were watching me carefully and not leaving my brown ones for even a second.

Even if it felt like I had been staring at him for an hour, if I had looked at the time, it would've only said three seconds and I guess that's a good thing.

"You should take a picture, it'll last longer," he said, with a smirk carefully lining his lips.

I rolled my eyes and took a step back, so we the gap between us would be filled even more with water.

"How did you catch up with me?" I questioned.

Shawn looked confused, his eyes watching me for any answers but when I didn't give him, he asked with his voice, "Catch up with you?"

"Yeah, didn't you follow me out here?" It was getting hard, holding myself up in this water. Shawn was having a good time because he was quite taller than me, so his feet reached the ground, unlike mine.

"I didn't follow you here, I was at that pier right there and I saw you swim so I jumped in," he explained. I looked to where he had pointed and noticed that there was in fact another pier on the other side of the lake.

"Oh," I say. Suddenly, I lost my balance in the water because of a cramp in my leg and my head ducked under water before I could myself up again. Luckily, Shawn came to the rescue and wrapped his arm around my waist again,

"I told you not to do that!" I exclaimed when we were really close again, so close that I could feel his breath on my shoulder.

Shawn chuckled, "Okay, I should just throw you back in the water again on your own then."

My eyes widened and I shook my head, wrapping my hands around his neck as I wrapped my legs around his body for safety. "Okay, but only this one time, Shawn."

He was looking at me, but his eyes showed no trace of agreement. "I mean it, Shawn."

Shawn laughed, "You like it and we all know it,"

He looked away but the smile was still present, "besides, i can do whatever I want with what's mine," - and started walking me back to the pier where my friends were standing and already looking out to the two of us.

Jessica were sending me thumbs up as much as I could see, and it made my heart warm a little.

Knowing that my friends would always have my back no matter what would happen, was something worth treasuring.

They knew that Shawn had a bad rumor going around, but when I introduced him to them, they gladly grabbed his hand and shook it was respect.

They wanted to see it for themselves.

But it didn't matter anyways because if he made me somewhat happy, they were happy.

Shawn always used to ask me why I had so many friends and considering me and Shawn has known each other since middle school, he knew everything about my previous best friends.

I've always had friends but not as close as this, and it was funny, because he has friends that he has known since elementary school and they have been there for each other through thick but it doesn't come remotely close to the relationship I have with my friends that I only got to know a year back.

There's something about that little fact, the fact that some friends can stay in your life for the longest time, but you'd still feel closer to someone who just got in your life, that I feel so strongly about.

It's not about who has been there with you the longest, it's about who has been there for you the longest.

Meaning that I could've known you for five years but you would've only been there for me emotionally two months, but a person I've known for two years could've been there for me emotionally two years.

Ironically, the last one is the one I can relate to the strongest and I have no problem with it.

Because friends are the ones who are there for you, and care about you. The ones that will help you succeed even if it means that they will fail.

That is all I feel strongly about.