A Story From the Deep End

That's Not My Name

The water splashed as the blonde boy jumped into the water and sent furious waves of water towards Jennifer and I. He popped up with a victorious smile seconds later and flipped his long, luscious hair behind him. It reminded me of the scene in "The Little Mermaid", where Ariel has just turned into a human and comes flying out of the water, beautiful sparkles in the sunset that surrounds her as she emerges, victoriously, with her new legs.

"Hey!" shouted Jen, flirtatiously. "This is our pool; get out!"

He looked around him, making me question what he was doing, then, turning back with a smile, he swam over. "Sorry, I didn't see the sign," he said sarcastically, speaking with a rough, manly voice that made my ears want to live next to his mouth forever.

"Well I didn't think I needed a sign. It should've been implied," she said innocently.

"We aren't the brightest bunch, I guess," laughed one of the other boys, who had some thick developed sideburns and slight stubble. He sat down next to the pool, feet in the water and looked over at me, still wading in the water. "But less about us- what about you girls; have names?"

"Well," I said with a smile, "we prefer to be referred to as women, to start..."

"Oh, excuse me, Miss. I should have realized we were in the presence of poolside royalty," he smiled over at me. "In that case, let us have the honor to introduce ourselves- this gorgeous Rapunzel, here," he said, gesturing to the blonde, who had swam over to the edge of the pool next to him, "is Wyatt."

"And stubbly, here," yelled the sunglasses boy, who was now walking around the pool towards us, "Is named Gerald, but he prefers to be called Jersey because he's too much of a pussy to man up to his real name."

Wyatt threw back his head with a laugh, and Jersey glared across the pool at nothing in particular.

"My name, though, is the one you really want to know..." he said, reaching our developing group and smiling at me. " I'm Jack."

The dark humor in his voice offset me a bit, and I didn't know how much I liked it. He had one of the classic bad-boy smiles, which proudly showed off a large grin of white teeth and Listerine breath. His eyes were an amazing hazel, though, with golden flecks among a creamy milk chocolate. They had a glimmer of innocence in them, something that made me want to trust him, but the large grin across his face reminded me that he was just another player. I had dealt with far too many throughout my life, and it was because of it that I had never had a boyfriend. I'd been on lots of dates, though, but never anything serious. Something about me was attracted to players, though, and I constantly had to fight emotions for boys because of it. All through high school I never had a single date- but I didn't mind because I was fine alone. I did find it a little strange, though, because I was always aware that boys liked me. However, the reality was that  they never really did anything, and I had convinced myself that I didn't need a boyfriend, and so I never did anything to pursue it either. So I was dateless and boyfriendless all through high school- I didn't even have a date to prom.

"Well," Jen said, flipping her hair and trying to redirect the attention towards her, "I guess it's our turn to introduce ourselves. My name's Jen."