And Then, There Was Fire.

three.

The back of Lauren's legs and arms ran smoothly across the tiled flooring. She could feel her muscles flex while slowly moving her ligaments through the heavy chlorine water as she laid at the bottom of the pool. A soft expression sat on her face as she stared through the thick body of water nine feet above her, watching the ceiling of the campus' pool gymnasium through the wavy vision due to the motioning clear-blue water.

She turned over softly, sitting herself up and bending her knees preparing to push herself to the top. Once her face hit the warm air of the gymnasium, she lightly breathed, unsure of how long she was down there for.

She ran her hand over her loose, wet curls back up into a bun before starting her laps. Reaching the end of the Olympic sized pool, she did her 270-degree flip, pushing her feet against the wall of the pool. She then planted her arms to her sides, waving her body through the water quickly under the surface.

She did four more laps in an American-crawl stroke, never wanting to stop. Before she decided to swim to the very bottom, she placed her hands on the ledge, immediately looking up from the boots in front of her.

"You're weird, you know that?" Trey asked, squatting against his knees while lending out his hand. She smiled, grabbing his hand and allowing him to help her out. He watched her tall body jump out with his help, the water running down her body perfectly, yet all too fast. This was the closest he was going to get to seeing her naked, for now he thought, and it only teased him. The one-piece black bathing suit stuck to her wet skin, causing his eyes to bounce back to the water running down the side of her bare, butt's skin that wasn't covered.

"How so?" She asked, taking her bun out and massaging her head as her curls fell to her back.

"Who stays under water that long? And likes to walk in the rain? And goes through almost fifteen water bottles a day?" He asked each question all at once. It's been a whole week since he last seen her and the water against her bare skin wasn't helping his hormones.

She immediately began laughing as he walked beside her. She sized him up after taking her towel and holding it to her mouth, patting her neck and face. He wore his gray polo shirt that read SEMINOLE UNIVERSITY FIRE ACADEMY in the circular trademark on his chest, over a long sleeve, black compression top and his black cargo pants for his training classes.

"I think I'm normal. Maybe the people who you deal with every day are weird and I'm the normal one."

"Hm, I see." He lightly said.

"What are you doing in here anyway?" She asked, realizing that she would've been alone if it wasn't for him, fortunately.

He then crossed his arms as he stopped walking and turned around in front of her, leaning against a wall. "Getting my equipment from the lockers, saw you earlier in here before you went missing under water for damn near thirty minutes."

"You're exaggerating." She downplayed.

"Ugh, no. You're just-" He stopped himself after she gave him the eye, causing him to choose his words wisely. "You?" He said in an unsure tone, having to avoid using the term 'weird'. She laughed, crossing her arms with her towel dangling. "I'm just not use to seeing people enjoy swimming like that where I'm from."

"And where are you from? I never knew you were from elsewhere."

"Maine, why you think they call me Maine other than my name."