One Summer

Chapter 11

It had been nearly two weeks since I almost drowned and Chase and I had kept to our word and tried to stay out of each others way. There had been a couple of occasions where our families had gotten together; forcing our paths to cross, but we were polite and made small talk. Alex however, made no secret of the fact that he was completely ignoring me. No matter how much I tried to talk to him, he wasn't having any of it. Thankfully, our parents hadn't picked up on anything; or if they had, they hadn't mentioned anything. After the first week, I'd given up trying to talk to him. He made it easy, however. He had made friends with the family that were staying in the Wilson's house, so he was rarely around. The absence of the Richards brothers in our house meant that Casey and I were able to spend some quality time together, but after days of radio silence, I was beginning to miss them. I was determined to get Alex to talk to me again. I spent the morning sitting on the veranda, waiting for Alex to leave. I'd bought a book with me, because knowing Alex, he could make an appearance any time between now and late afternoon. After about an hour and a half, the slamming of a door caused me to look up. Alex was walking down the path, car keys swinging from his finger.

"Alex!"

His head snapped up. His eyes were searching for the body that belonged to the voice, and when his gaze settled on me, he put his head down and carried on walking. I stood up, putting my book on the now vacant chair, and ran down the steps to meet him.

"How long is this going to carry on for? I asked him. He ignored me and unlocked the car instead. I reached for the handle on the passenger side and pulled, but it didn't shift. Alex calmly opened the drivers side and got in.

"For fucks sake Alex!" I fumed, banging on the window. "Stop being such a child and open the fucking door!"

Alex glared at me through the window and sighed, before leaning over and opening the door. I climbed in and shut the door. The silence that enveloped us was heavy, but neither of us addressed it straight away. It was Alex that spoke first.

"You had something to say?"

"You have got to let this go."

He scoffed. "Let it go? You almost drowned because of me."

"But I didn't."

"But you could've."

"But I didn't," I replied, more forcefully this time.

"What if you had have done though?" He looked at me for the first time since getting into the car. "What if Chase hadn't turned up to pull you out? I didn't even notice that you'd slipped under."

"All these are hypothetical questions. I'm absolutely fine."

"But what if-"

I cut him off. "If you say that one more time, I'll punch you in the balls." He shut up immediately. "I'm not mad at you. You didn't make me go in the water; I chose to go in myself. And Chase was there to pull me out so stop torturing yourself."

"So you don't hate me?"

I laughed. "I don't think I could ever actually hate you. Although," I added as an afterthought. "If you carry on ignoring me I might start."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Chase still hasn't forgiven me."

"Chase is an idiot. Have you tried talking to him?" I asked. The look on his face told me he hadn't. "Talk to him. If I'm not mad at you, he has no reason to be."

"But he's such a pain," he whined.

"He's also your brother."

"Unfortunately."