Deep Waters

Chapter Four

Kason and the others had made friends out of the people who had shown them how to properly cliff jump. Unlike everyone else, I was just sitting on a boulder, watching everyone else swim and jump off of the waterfall. There were a few people walking and standing around outside of the water, but not many. Every now and then, I would exchange a few words with someone but only if they spoke to me first, and the conversation never lasted very long at all.

The boys were repeatedly jumping off of the thirty-foot cliff into the water and seeming to have a lot of fun while the girls just swam around and talked, getting to know the new people they had met. We had been here a while with the locals—maybe an hour and a half—and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. At least our graduation trip was started off great. Personally, I wasn't really enjoying the time, but that was only because I couldn't stop thinking about Charles.

"You okay?"

I turned my head to look at my brother as he walked up and sat down next to me on the rock. His hazel eyes stared at me with a certain curiosity and the same worried look that he seemed to be showing a lot lately.

Nodding, I slipped him a small smile. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Then why aren't you hanging out with the girls instead of sitting over here by yourself?" He asked, glancing to Aria, Marla and a few local resident girls that I hadn't met yet.

"Because all they've talked about in the last hour is how amazing their boyfriends are," I told him, chuckling.

Gavin laughed. "Well, do you not think that your boyfriend is amazing, too?" he asked. "Because if you don't, I recommend having a conversation with Kason about that because it sounds like you love him...or even like him for that matter."

I tilted my head to the side and looked at him. "He's so not amazing," I joked.

He laughed, but let it die down after a moment. "Seriously though, what's going on?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," I assured him genuinely before looking out at our friends swimming around in the water. "I'm just enjoying the sight of everyone I love having smiles on their faces."

He looked at me weird with a small, curious but confused grin on his face. "Are you expecting those smiles to disappear?"

A few people walked by behind us, so I lowered my voice. "They will when Charles shows up again."

My brother's smile completely disappeared at my words, completely proving my point. He sighed and replicated my stare on our friends. "We will talk about this later, okay?" Gavin spoke after a long moment.

I just nodded in return as he stood up from the rock. "Wanna join us in the water?" Gavin looked at me with a pleading stare. Exhaling, I nodded before letting him lead the way into the water and toward our friends.

We joined the group of people that included our friends and half a dozen people that I didn't know, but they all welcomed me with smiling faces. One-by-one the unfamiliar people introduced themselves, but even if I had really tried, there was no way that I could remember any of their names.

"Are you two..." one of the boys, who was possibly named Jacob started.

"Siblings," I interrupted him, knowing what he was going to suggest. "I'm Gavin's little sister," I informed them all, making all of them nod in acknowledgment.

"That makes sense," one of them replied.

"She's also my girlfriend," Kason spoke up, swimming his way to stand beside me in the slightly green tinted water. He eyed the local guys as if it was a warning. My heart warmed and I had to keep myself from swooning.

"...Good to know," another guy, who I think was named Ryan said.

One of the girls, who had fiery red hair punched him in the shoulder. "Babe!"

He grabbed his skin where she had hit him. "What?" he asked, making her glare at him.

"So, where are you guys from?" another girl spoke up, quickly changing the subject and diverting the attention away from the now arguing couple.

"Ohio," Marla told them.

"Oh," Jacob said, furrowing his eyebrows. "What are you guys doing here in Indiana?"

"A graduation trip," Holden said.

The group of six all nodded. "Why travel so far for a little celebratory trip?"

Aria shrugged. "We've had a rough past couple of months and just needed a vacation from our lives back in Ohio," she said.

"Yeah, we all needed to get our minds off stuff, so we thought a weeklong vacation was in order," Gavin added.

They nodded, seeming to think they understood, but the truth is they had no idea how complicated our situation was. "Well, if I have any advice for you guys, it's to not dwell on anything negative in your lives. Appreciate these moments right here with each other on this trip because these good times are going to be something that you want to be able to look back at with a smile on your face when you are older," one of the guys advised us.

These people didn't look very old—maybe in their later twenties—but this guy seemed to have some wisdom on him. How he learned a lesson on this, I didn't know, or maybe someone had once advised him the same thing; either way, I appreciated the advice and would definitely apply it to my unfortunate situation. I should be focusing on having fun with my friends on this trip, not letting myself constantly thinking about the "what if's" that had to do with Charles.

"Thanks," I told him. "We will keep that in mind."

He slipped me a small smile. "No problem."

"Are you guys about ready to go?" Aria asked after a moment. "My skin is started to wrinkle," she said, observing the pale skin on the bottom of her fingers.

I nodded, along with the rest of our friends. "Yeah, we better get back on the road," Kason agreed. "Thanks for all the help. It was great meeting you guys," he told the locals.

They all smiled back at him and each said a kind reply. "It was great meeting you guys, too. We hope you guys had a lot of fun."

"We did, thanks," Holden assured them. "You guys have a good rest of the day."

We all spoke our short farewells before turning around and heading out of the water. I grabbed my slightly damp towel and wrapped it around me and began drying off the best I could. The others copied my actions. The locals remained in the water as we packed up all our stuff and started heading back to the path, where we joined Chad and Brandon before making our way back to our vehicles.

After packing up our few things into the backs of the cars, we slipped on some clothes over our still damp swimwear. "Let's stop at the next food place we find so you guys can change into some dry clothes and we can grab some lunch before you all start looking for another attraction to check out," Chad suggested.

We all nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

"Something on your mind?" Kason asked me as we climbed into the driver's and passenger's seat of his Charger.

I slipped him a smile. "I'm just glad we had the opportunity to take this small vacation together with all our friends," I told him honestly.

A bright smile stretched his lips before he leaned over the middle console and kissed me. "Me, too."

***

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