Dream, Dive, Daley?

Chapter 9

Sutton’s point of view

My hands were placed ten to two on the wheel of my white 2010 model BMW M6 Coupé. It felt awfully strange to drive on the other side of the road. Sometimes I would catch myself driving on the wrong side of the road, which is not safe for anybody. In the passenger’s seat there was a wrapped up present with a large bow on top for Tom.  I raced quietly through the narrow streets of the Daley’s neighborhood and pulled up in their small driveway. Their driveway was decorated in balloons and flares. I stepped out of the car, took the cake from the trunk and shut the door.

‘Hi Sutton’ Two small blond, curly-haired toddler girls ran up to me and squealed in unison. They were Tom smaller cousins. I’d first met them in one of the family’s gatherings.

‘Hello Brook and Malia. Are you excited?’ They nodded. ‘Now tell me what are we going to do today?’ I tried to balance out and not drop the cake while two toddlers were running by my feet.

‘Have you forgotten?’ Malia was the older one. She had a high pitched voice, but it suited her angel face. ‘We’re going to surprise Tom! It’s his birthday’

‘Oh, really? How old is he now?’ I tried to sound surprised too, as if I didn’t know. Don’t drop the cake, Sutton. It’s customized! The girls were quiet for a while and stood still. It gave me the opportunity to walk down the trail of stairs to the backyard where the party was supposed to be.

‘Sutton! Great, the cake is here’ Tom’s aunt Marie took the cake off my hands and placed it on the main table amongst the presents. She baked the other pastries, while I had the task to pick up the customized one. I took off my jacket. The spring weather in Plymouth was surprisingly hot compared to the weather in London. Earlier this week when I was in London for a meeting and a press conference, I had to wear a long coat and pair of rubber boots. I took a plastic cup and filled it with carbonated water. Eric ran up to me and bumped into my arm, causing me to spill some of the beverage on the lawn.

‘Finally, someone with an American accent! Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you! I should have stayed home and watched the game’ He whispered through a stiff, fake smile. If I wasn’t entirely wrong, he was bored, tired and tried to avoid social contact with others.

‘Don’t be so anti-social, Eric! Come on, it’s a surprise party! Cheer up’ I lifted his chin and grinned at him. His face showed an annoyed-frown, before it faded over to a super-fake smile. ‘Good’

Eventually people started to show up, his cousins, other divers, his friends from school, aunties and uncles and grandparents. Unfortunately for me, Eric and I knew almost none of them. He ended up walking behind me like a bodyguard for the rest of the evening. Maybe he was a little bit more like a lost puppy. Either way, he was always behind me.

‘Look who’s here’ a male voice said from behind us. I quickly turned around to see both Jack and Chris standing there with pointy, paper party hats. Eric disappeared to talk to some of the female friends of Tom’s. I shook him off and focused back on the conversation I had with Chris and Jack. They wore the classic Chris Mears look, blazers over t-shirts. My wedges, which made me a couple of inches taller than them, sunk in the grass. Can’t a girl support her pretend-crush on his birthday? I rolled my eyes at them as I sipped some sparkling water from the plastic cup.

‘Hello to you too’ I gave them both a friendly squeeze and pulled away. Food was set out on the tables in a buffet form on the porch. The Daley’s trampoline was out for the season.  Chris put a pointy hat on my head. I froze and stood there with a fake smile on my face.

‘Thank you’ I pulled the rubber string under his chin and let go. It slapped him and made a red line below his jawline.

‘Ouch, what was that for?’ Chris squeezed his eyes together in pain and rubbed the red spot with his thumb and index finger.

‘For putting a stupid hat on my head and ruining my hair’ I smiled proudly at both of them. Then an iPhone started to ring. I checked my back pocket, but it wasn’t mine. Also, I had six lost calls from Chris. I looked up at him and raised a confused eyebrow as he pulled me away from the crowd. We ended up standing a few more feet away than planned.

‘Sutton,’ He started and looked me straight into the eyes. I knew the following words from there. I fancy you, in a British accent. Damn, if he said those words, I would probably start to develop feelings for him. Don’t you dare, Chris. Stop him! ‘I…’ I managed to stop him by placing my finger on his lip and wrinkled my nose.

‘Don’t you dare say those words, Chris!’ I shook my head without breaking the eye contact. ‘No, no, no’ I sounded a little bit mad. Then I let out a nervous laugh, turned my face away from him and turned it back towards him again. ‘Just no, I really like Tom. You’re not screwing this up for me by saying that you like me too. What about your girlfriend?’ A disappointed expression faded over his face, but he quickly smiled in a surprised way. This was going to make Mallorca extremely awkward. The diving team was going to Mallorca for an intense week of practice with a couple of the country’s best coaches on Monday.

‘It’s okay, I know’ He tucked my bangs behind my left ear and stroked his hand down the side of my face. ‘How did you know that I had a girlfriend?’ I shrugged. Honestly, it was an aim in the dark. ‘Anyways, I just want you to know that Nat and I temporarily broke up. Just in case you wanted to give me a shot’ I sighed in relief, but in the same way I felt really sorry for them. They broke up just because of me?

We walked back to the group of friends, talked and joked for another ten minutes when we all heard a honk from the road above the house. Sam, Tom’s cousin is here. Somebody yelled that we should all hide and be ready. Seconds later we heard familiar footsteps on stone surface.  One step, two steps, three steps. Finally, when they reached the last step…

Eric’s point of view

I hid behind the trampoline with Sutton and some friends of Tom’s. How did I even get invited to this thing? I was supposed to stay home and watch the Giants game. But what can you do when your sister needs some company?

‘SURPRISE!’ We jumped from our hiding spots and cracked some confetti at him. The guy looked both happy and like a deer in the headlight at the same time. In some ways he reminded me a lot about myself. I didn’t drink until I was legal in my home country, which was this year. But also, I think it was because you have to get use to alcohol. We had almost the same body type; of course I think I was a lot leaner when I was seventeen.

‘What did you and Chris talk about just now?’ I was referring to the weird moment when I had to stand alone in a crowd of people I didn’t know. Back to the main happening; people were hugging the birthday child and congratulating him on his seventeenth year of existence. Music played loudly and almost drowned the irritating screams of seagulls. Everyone stood in a type of line to congratulate him.

‘Did you get any numbers from those girls?’

‘In fact I did, but don’t you try to change the subject’ I pointed my finger at her face.

‘It’s not polite to point at people’ She put her hand over my finger. ‘Learn your manners, Mr. Halls’ I really disliked people calling me Mr. Halls. It was the name of my father and my grandfather. I hated the fact that it sounded so formal. Usually, Dan, our eldest brother went by that name. But that’s another story. You could either call me Eric or just Ric if you’re too lazy to type in the extra letters. I didn’t have any more time to argue with her as we started to close up to Tom.

‘Congratulations, man’ I shook his hand brotherly and walked back to the friend group.