Pepper never meant to lose her best friend. Lucas never meant to fall in love.
Yet the aftermath of broken hearts leads them to blur the lines of their friendship forever. When Pepper is dumped by her boyfriend and Lucas is led on by his crush, they...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I DON'T EXPECT anyone to be at the pool after school hours.When I arrive, the echo of splitting water greets me. It's hard to tell who's in the water as they slice through it expertly, but I can only assume it's the boy I ran into earlier this week. Instinct tells me to back out and go home instead, but my legs don't move. Something keeps me from escaping into solitude. Maybe it's the way he seems to be one with the water, swimming with a grace and speed that I can't help but admire.
I used to be the same way.
One end of the pool is met before he laps around and swims in my direction. I drop my backpack by the door and approach the edge of the pool. Kneeling down, I watch as the boy darts to my side before rising out of the water and pushing drenched locks out of his face. He gasps for air and blinks rapidly. The auburn of his hair and freckles along his olive complexion is enough confirmation that he is the boy I ran into. What's his name again?
"Shit," he hisses when his eyes land on mine. "Hey! I didn't hear you come in."
"Sorry," I mumble. "Didn't mean to scare you." I fall back into a sitting position and drift my gaze along the waves he left behind. "Practicing?"
"Yeah." He grunts and hoists himself out of the water. "You wanna jump in? I can go to the other side."
I shrug. It's foreign to talk to someone so casually. Almost like I've forgotten how to be social and calm like I used to be. I can't speak to my friends or even look my classmates in the eye anymore. Somewhere along the lines of that night with Pepper, a part of me is lost.
"Hey." The boy grabs my attention while padding his way over to my side. "Sorry about the other day. I didn't mean to upset you by bringing up gossip. I just didn't want you to think that it was weird that I knew who you were without us actually meeting."
I don't acknowledge his apology. Not only do I not know how to accept it when I was the one being paranoid, but I simply don't want to think about those damn rumors anymore. "Your name is Cory, right?" I inquire instead.
"Y-yeah."
"You're really good. At swimming, I mean. You're only a sophomore?" I glance over in time to catch him blush at my compliment.
"Eh. Yeah." He grins and rubs the back of his neck. "I guess you could say I love the water and it influences me."
I nod and turn my attention back to the cyan reflections of the pool. "That's pretty cool."
"Are you a swimmer?" Cory flops down next to me and sticks his feet in the water.
"Nah. Not competitively at least. I mean, I used to when I was a kid. Now I just do it for fun."
"Why'd you stop?"
A sharp pang goes through my chest as I remember the exact moment I stopped swimming competitively. The night my mother broke the news to me and Chris that she was divorcing Dad. Something about our home being broken shattered every competitive desire that I ever had. I went from swimming to win, to swimming for an escape. That, and hanging out with Pepper and the girls were the only things keeping me from drowning in those years.
