Winter [Completed]

NINETEEN

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December 22nd
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"Dying to know. Afraid to find out."

—unknown

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Ethan POV

The one thing that I've always loved about California is the warm winters. The warm weather provided many benefits, my favorite being year round swimming. However, today when Kelly suggested we all go swimming, I wasn't too stoked.

Events from yesterday consume my thoughts, making it impossible to enjoy the radiant feeling of the sun's heat on my skin. I run a hand through my hair before resting it on my stomach and closing my eyes.

Relax, Ethan.

Kelly squeals and I open my eyes just in time to see Jordan push her into the pool, jumping in right after her.

I roll my eyes, still not liking the fact that Kelly invites him to everything.

"Hey," Imani says, lightly touching my shoulder. "You okay?"

I move over for her to sit beside me, and wrap an arm around her. She nuzzles into my side and glances up at me, awaiting my response. I sigh. "Yeah, Mani, I'm fine."

I close my eyes once more and Imani traces my abs with her fingers. After a moment, I laugh. "Imani."

"Yeah?"

I grab her hand. "That tickles."

"Oh." She giggles. "My bad, I couldn't help myself."

I laugh and kiss her on the cheek as she hugs me instead. I've missed this.

Imani and I haven't talked about the past week's events, but we seem to be in a better place since yesterday. She slept in our bed last night and she's been nice, but something about us still feels different. Neither of us have said anything about it, but I can tell she feels it to. However, at the moment we both know we have bigger problems to focus on.

Kelly steals a glance at the two of us at the same moment that I look up. Our eyes lock. It only lasts for a brief moment, but her eyes say it all. I hoped that maybe Imani was overreacting or it was a just a coincidence, but this confirmed it. She knows.

"She knows?" I ask, crinkling my brow. "H-how?"

"I don't know." Imani takes a seat at the foot of the bed and stares blankly at the ground. "She...she has a photo of me from this summer—"

"What?" I run an hand through my hair and lean my head against the headboard. "I could've sworn I went through all those photo albums and took out the pictures of you."

Imani scoffs. "Well, you missed one."

Rolling my eyes, I sigh and get out of bed. "This doesn't make any sense." I  gnaw on my thumb nail as I pace the floor.

How could this have happened? I mentally kick myself for being so careless.

Imani flops back onto the mattress. "First the Will thing, now this."

I stop dead in my tracks and turn my attention to her. "Will?"

I can already feel my blood beginning to boil. My stomach turns as I cross my arms. "Okay you gotta back up. The Will thing? What Will thing?"

She knows he's a sore subject for me.

"How does she know about Will?" I press.

Imani sits up again, tossing her hair to the side. "Well how should I know? I thought you told her."