Skipping Stones (Book I: Smoke + Mirrors)

17 | Its Time | Niki

After Dan pulls away he leans over me, smiling. I grin back, staring up at his ocean blue eyes. He grabs my hand and helps me up again, and we sit with our feet dangling into the water. "Want to go for another swim?"

I nod and slip back into the water, Dan following after me. "What do you think Platz and Zoey are up to?" I ask him, floating on my back. Dan laughs and swims up next to me. "Do you really want to know what they're doing?" "Probably not."

I laugh and dive under the water, swimming down to see what's on the bottom. Dan swims down beside me, picking up a purplish muscle shell at the bottom. We both swim back to the surface and he puts the shell on the side of the pond.

"That's so pretty! I've never seen a muscle-" splash! Dan grabs my arm and pulls me underwater mid-sentence. Thankfully I got a quick breath before going all the way under.

I feel something brush past me and open my eyes, watching Dan go back to the bottom. I take another breath from the surface, and follow him back down. He yanks on a big rock and I glance at him with a questioning look. He motions for me to do the same, so I start pulling too.

My lungs start to ache for air and I'm about to stop and go back up for air when he rock comes loose. Dan pushes it out of the way and we both swim back to the surface for a much needed breath. "There's a cavern down there, want to check it out?" I nod, and watch as Dan smiles and slips back under. I take a big breath and follow him to the bottom, again.

Once we get there Dan goes through the hole in the rock first, since we both can't fit. I follow and try to keep sight of his feet as we swim through the water. Soon he starts swimming up and I follow, grabbing onto the rock ledge and lifting myself up. It's pretty cool in here. There's an opening in the roof, so the moon light shines through and onto the rock. The rock I'm sitting on is almost like a bench, and the water is still so it's like looking at dark glass.

I look around and realize that Dan didn't come out of the water. "Dan?" I call and lean over the rock. "Dan, Hello?" I wait a few seconds and see his head pop above the water. "Aren't you going to come sit?" He looks embarrassed and even in the faint light I can see his face go red. "I can't." I give him a questioning look. "Why not?"

He blushes again. "BecauseIlostmyboxersonarock." He says it so fast I almost can't even tell what he's says. "Wait- you lost your boxers on a rock?" He nods. "I swam down to see how far the bottom was here and they got stuck on the way back up." I grin at that.

"Oh come on, just come up. You're going to get tired and drown if you stay in the water to long." He swims over reluctantly and lifts himself up, sitting carefully. "You do realize underwear does literally nothing to help you right?" Dan looks at me like I'm kidding. "I'm being serious."

He rolls his eyes and looks down at the water. "How the hell am I supposed to get back?" I laugh "The same way you came! Do you actually think I care you lost your boxers?" Dan smirks and looks over at me "No." I smile and lean against his shoulder. "That's what I thought."