Cavities on a Stick

Continue remaining silent please

When I came to the pool for the mandatory swim, I found Justin with his legs half submerged underwater. He'd already been in the pool. I could tell by his wet hair.

The PE instructor had everyone swim at least 5 rounds everyday, unless you had a medical condition stopping you, and since mental health didn't count as a health issue, I jumped into the pool and swum my five rounds.

On my way back from the last, I swum towards Justin who, like the gentleman he was, stepped into the water to lift me out of the pool.

"Hi." I said.
He nodded in return, sitting down beside me.
"I'm sorry, about the other day." I said. "But if it makes you feel any better, my family also had a fight."

He gave a small smile.
"And you handled it way better than I did," I went on. "I'm barely able to get a word in when my father's angry."
"My dad didn't want me talking either," he said. "Why are parents so keen on sending us to our rooms?"

"I believe they think not watching them fight would cause less trauma." I shrugged. "But your parents are together at least, that's rare."
"I'd never understand how they live together." He said.

"So they don't...." I didn't know what to ask.
"Have sex?"
"No!" I crossed my arms. "Talk! Do they never talk to each other?"
"Obviously they talk, that's how the arguments start." He grinned. "But they're almost like... just two people living in the same house."

"Who happen to have a kid together." I giggled.
"Yes, how unfortunate."

He seemed rather at ease or maybe he was masking his dejection too well, so I tried to stir the conversation to less rocky shores.
"I saw a picture of you with two girls in your living room," I put in. "Who are they?"
He pulled his gym bag closer by the strap and fidgeted for his phone in the side pocket.

"That is Leslie," he said showing me a picture taken in front of the same fireplace— with Justin sitting in front of the fire and a blonde girl in a purple dress on the other side. "And Abigail." He swiped.

"She's so cute." I said zooming in on the picture— a ten year old blonde with impossibly green eyes, stuffing an entire cotton candy in her mouth, in front of the London Eye. "You seem close."
"Growing up together tends to do that." He said.
I remained silent.

"That's Hatice, she raised me when I was 4 till— well still."
"Oh...." So that's what Taylor meant about raising Justin. "You still see her?"
He nodded. "She's good to me."
"I can tell." I said smiling at his face, his shining eyes and growing smile. "I can tell she loves you dearly."

He gave a toothy smile as he looked down at his phone. "She always tells me I'm her favourite child," he murmured as if talking to himself. "But that's on me, I am a better child than Leslie and Abby."

"Does your mom mind it?" I asked. "Seeing her?"
"Sometimes."
"Your mom's really possessive, I'll tell you that."
"And you're really straight forward, I'll tell you that."

"Sorry." I giggled. "Justin Frost... you're either really sweet or a creep!"
"I'd describe myself as the later." He said sliding back into the pool.
"Is she Turkish? Do you know Turkish?" I pulled my legs out of the water.
"Yok hiç bilmiyorum."

As the afternoon light blazed through the glass windows and the few people in school worked on completing their extracurriculars. Justin offered me a hand. "More swimming?"

"How'd I know you won't drown me?"
"There's only one way to find out," he tsked. "You'll have to step into the water."
"No, thank you." I said. "We just had a murder in our neighbourhood, can't be trusting you, creep."

"Maybe I'm really sweet, who knows?" He insisted. "Like an artist or a poet."
"Do you know any poems?"
"Je suis une feuille d'automne. Pleine de couleurs, brûlante au soleil. Chaque jour je meurs un peu plus, mais quand tu ne me fais pas confiance mon amour. Je suis écrasé sous ton pied, comme une feuille d'automne."

"What does that mean?" I asked.
"It's means, 'trust me I won't drown you'."
I shook my head laughing. "You're a creep."
He laughed along and came out of the pool.

"Well, I gotta go," he said unzipping his swimsuit as he walked to the boys locker. "We're job hunting today."
"Job hunting?"
He nodded. "Hatice wants Leslie to get a summer job, she's trying to talk her out of it, I'm trying to find a job in case she fails to convince her."

"How old is Leslie?"
"14 years and 7 months."
Creep.
"I have a job." I said. "You know my cousin—"
"Victor?"
"No, he's not my..." I shook my head. "My other cousin, Ann, her stepfather's a doctor and he needs an assistant."

"What sort of a doctor is he?"
"Pulmonologist," I said. "He does rounds around the wards morning and evening and he has OCD so Leslie will need to walk with him and carry his things for him."

Justin narrowed his eyes at me.
"Garson likes to check the patients with his own stethoscope, blood pressure monitor, pens, phone, pharmaceutical guide, you know that kinda stuff." I explained. "She has to follow him around and hand him the things, when he needs them, from 8 to 10 in the morning and 5 to 7 in the evening.

"He's very funny, caring, he'll pay well and he wouldn't get mad at you if you accidentally spill your soda all over his birthday cake."

"Sounds good—" Justin said folding his arms. "Even I'd do that job."
"So ask Leslie and if she agrees, I'll have Ann talk to him."
"If it's such a great job," he asked, "why don't you do it?"
"I did, one summer, but then he found an assistant." I said. "Except last month she died on her trip to Spain."

Justin blinked at me.
"Sorry about that detail." I looked away. "That's off topic."
"I'll go now."
"But I just found you the job." I said.
He looked back. "Ella... do you want to hang out with me?"

"Oh, no." I waved my hands at him.
"Okay then," he said. "Off you pop."
"What did that mean by the way?" I asked. "The French?"

"It's means, it all started when my mom met my dad and they didn't fall in love, but they still had me." He said. "And now they're living together to shock poor Ella."
"Good God, Justin!" I said picking up my gym bag.

"I am an autumn leaf!" He called after me, "Full of colour, burning in the sun— Every day I die some more, but when you don't trust me, my love...  I am crushed under your foot, like an autumn leaf."

Silence hugged us tighter, silent breaths sounding louder than imaginable, ringing in my ears.
I turned to face him. Confused, unstable on my feet and cold from the water.
He was real. He was real, yet his eyes remained illegible.

"I'm not even here, Ella," He said breaking the silence, stepping towards me. "I'm a hallucination."
"No, you're real." I said. "Because I don't know french."

"That's good to know," he said. "I was worried your blood sugar might drop to infinite depths now that I'm calling you my love."
"I know I'm not your love."
"You don't know that." He said. "Maybe I've had a silent crush on you all this time."
"Continue remaining silent please."

CX.