Fix You ~Completed~

Act Seventy-Point-Five

~Eddie~

All throughout Gale and I's childhood, Mom and Dad had an aboveground pool they always set out during the summers. After I graduated, they only occasionally set it up if one or both of us came around. "Soon as we get some grandkids," Mom had murmured one day, trying to keep her tone casual as she made a pot of coffee, "we'll keep it up all three months of summer! Never know. Maybe we'll even put it up during the springs. Our Aprils are just lovely."

My mom was the type of person to use the world lovely and I couldn't help but love her for that.

When dinner was over, Georgie squealed that we had to go swimming. Gale was on board. Of course he was; it's Gale. Dad promised to check the chlorine levels and told us kids to go get our swimming trunks on.

Clem froze as us four boys headed inside the house. Our fingers were locked together when I lead him into my bedroom. Since Gale had forgotten swimming gear, Georgie took him to pick out one of the many pairs of trunks my ginger buddy had left behind over the year. He really hadn't gotten taller or gained any weight since high school, so he'd still fit perfectly into his old stuff.

My boyfriend gave me a hesitant grimace the minute my bedroom door was shut. "I can't," Clem stuttered. I took his face in my hands. "Eddie, I-I really can't."

"I know, baby," I assured him. "You and me can just hang around, okay? They'll go swimming, we'll do whatever. There is plenty to do around here."

He looked down at his feet. "What do we tell them?"

"You just don't like swimming. If I tell the adults that, they'll get it. Gale gets it. Georgie might be a problem, but I'll tell him to shove it." Ever so carefully, I drew Clem into my chest and pecked him on those rosy lips. "I know the perfect thing for us to do actually! You're gonna love it."

For some reason I'd never understand, Clemmy trusted me. He always trusted me.

I rushed over to my old closet and threw it open. There was an old dresser shoved in there that had some of my random toys and crap from my childhood. Mom insisted I kept them for when I had kids myself. I wondered if that'd happen now that I was with Clemmy. Children was such a huge topic; I didn't feel right bringing it up so soon in our relationship. That could wait a few months.

"Here we go!" I beamed, pulling the pale out. My Clem cocked his head to the side, confused. "It's for the cement slab we have out there. Haven't you ever used chalk before?"

It shouldn't have surprised me when he shook his head.

"Not even in school?"

"Maybe," he responded quietly. "I don't really remember, Ed."

I kissed his forehead and ushered him out of the room. We found ourselves back outside. Mom and Aria were walking around the deck switching on the various lights my parents had strung around the fencing that surrounded said deck. Dad and Joel were over by the pool with the testing kit. Well, I should say Dad had the testing kit whereas Joel was already in the pool... in his shorts and George Harrison t-shirt.

"Joel, really?" I scoffed playfully. "That is a legitimately vintage Harrison shirt and you're ruining it!"

"A little chlorine never killed anybody!" my childhood friend's dad called. When I was little, Joel and Aria were around so much I assumed they were my aunt and uncle. Gale thought the same with my parents. We were twelve before we realized we weren't actually related and that was all because of Georgie. He had a fetish for ruining our dreams. None of us have any blood aunts and uncles; our parents were all only children ironically. "And where are your trunks, Eddie Han? Over there sassing me out when you're not even properly dressed?"