The Ride of My Life (an Ansel Elgort story)

Chapter 32

Lucy's POV

Ansel runs to the edge of the lake, takes his shirt off and jumps in. I wonder if he's always this quick to take his clothes off, wink wink.

I haven't officially seen him shirtless, this is the first time, and even now I only got a glimpse.

I follow Ansel's lead and reluctantly take my clothes off. Well, at least some of them. I don't know how I feel about him watching me undress, but knowing Ansel, it doesn't matter if I want him to look or not; he's going to watch anyways.

I walk onto the small, square wooden deck is near where Ansel is.

"Is it cold?" I ask.

"I don't know, why don't you jump in and see for yourself?" He answers in his smart-ass tone.

I gather up all my courage and jump in next to Ansel, doing a cannonball and splashing him.

Ansel grabs me and puts his arms around me, and we stay there, treading the water. Together.

He kisses me on the forehead.

"So, now that you've gotten in, time for a picnic?" Ansel says.

"Uhhh, I guess." I say, thinking it was kind of pointless to just to jump in and get right out.

Ansel gets out and goes to his car. From the trunk he grabs two towels, a picnic blanket, and a basket. How thoughtful. He hands me a towel. He spreads the blanket on the grass and puts the basket down, too. Then he motions for me to sit down.

Once we're both sitting, I get a good look at him shirtless, and boy, I'm speechless.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, uh, are we trespassing? Whose lake is this?" I ask, hoping Ansel hasn't turned into a law-breaker.

"Well, I have to tell you something."

"What?" I say, suddenly very curious.

"My family bought some land. This lake included. We wanted a place to get away, you know? Away from all the craziness of the city."

"That's awesome. From what I've seen, your new land is beautiful." I say, and it's true. It's so nice here.

"I brought you here because no one in my family has swam in this lake yet. I wanted it to be a first. With you." He smiles.

"I'm honored." I smile and lean over and kiss him.

"And to celebrate," he says, opening the picnic basket, "Champagne?" He says, with a fancy accent. He holds the 'champagne' up and I laugh. "Okay, maybe it's not real champagne, but it's the champagne for kids under 21." He laughs with me. It's sparkling cider.

He pulls out two plastic champagne glasses and pours the cider into them.

"Cheers!" I say, when he hands me one.

"Cheers!" He says back to me, and we clink our 'glasses' and gulp down the bubbly liquid.

We eat a classy lunch of peanut butter & jellys, and Ansel tells me his plans on how he's going to make the lake awesome.

"See that tree over there?" I follow his finger to see he's pointing at a tree with an odd curve in it. "I'm gonna hang a rope from it, so we can climb up and swing off of it. It'd be perfect. Oh and Warren had this idea that we could make a zip line going across the lake." I smile at how excited he is.

"Ansel, your ideas sound awesome. I love you."

He takes my hand, " And I love you."