What Are We?

Chapter 7

12 years ago

Before long, I found myself getting into a routine that first winter on the high school swim team. Wake up and go to weight room for p90x yoga and a mile run. Go to 8 hours of classes, devouring as much food as I can get my hands on.  Head to the pool locker rooms for practice until 6. Attempt homework and devour even more food before passing out from exhaustion at 9pm. 

As tired as I am at the end of my long days, it feels good. I feel accomplished. On top of good grades, I'm average at swimming. I get to swim my events of choice because I have more experience than other freshman like Casey and Payton.  All the exercise is also getting me in to the best shape I have ever been in. 

Swim practice is a joy. I share a lane with Casey and Payton, and also another girl I've gotten close to named Melinda. We share lots of inside jokes, complain under our breath only loud enough for each other to hear, and we have prime location for checking out cute boys on the swim team. How can we not? Hot guys in speedos are hard to ignore.  We all have fallen victim to a swim team crush. Casey has her eyes on Justin the jokester. Payton has her eyes on the dark and mysterious senior Matt. Melinda has been caught once or twice staring at Brad's abs. And I of course can't help myself from gazing at Charlie from across the pool. 

Charlie and I are separated by a lane, but that doesn't mean I don't have opportunities to spend time with him. Turns out that we are the two slowest kickers on the team so whenever we have a kick set, like we do today, Charlie pops under the landline with his kick board and we keep pace together. 

"This is about the be the longest 2000 meters of my life," I groan after hearing coach explain the set. "There is no way in hell I'll be able to kick that much before the end of practice. And we still have a whole set of stroke after this."

Charlie takes his goggles and wraps tosses them onto the side of the pool since he won't be needing them. "True, but there is no one else I would rather suffer through this set with. Shall we?"

Thank goodness the chlorine makes my skin read and blotchy. I hope it will disguise the fact that I am hardwiring blushing after hearing that. We grab our kickboards and push off the floor. Before we know it, we've settled into a rhythm going back and forth across the pool.  Casey and Peyton pass us several times, but I hardly notice. All I can focus on is that Charlie wants to kick with me and not one of his guy friends in his lane. 

"I like the swim cap. It's new right?" Charlie asks as we slowly progress through the set. He must be referring to my new smiley face cap that came in the mail yesterday. 

"It is! Thanks for noticing. I needed some bigger caps to shove all this hair into," I explain. "And I was already online ordering new swimsuits like this tie dye one. I swear. This pool is eating through my suits way faster than any other pool I've every swam in. It's not even a month into the season and I had to buy three new suits!" 

Charlie chuckles and shakes his head back and forth. "At least you have the common sense to buy new suits before they become stretched out and see through unlike Cameron. Last week was unfortunate...." We cringe together in silence thinking about the wardrobe malfunction Cameron experience during practice.  It was so bad, the coach pulled him into his office and gave him one of his person suits so nobody else got an unexpected anatomy lesson. I get shivers just thinking about it. "And you have good taste. That suit looks really good on you. It makes the color of your eyes pop." 

I smile as Charlie looks away after the compliment he just gave me. " Thank you. I-" 

"That's not what he said in the locker room," Matt shouts over the lane line. He and Justin are snickering to each other as they pass us in the other directions. 

"Yeah, Charlie. Why don't you tell her what about her you really think POPS in that swimsuit," Justin teases.  Matt can't contain his laughter. They kick and the distance between our groups lengthens.

Charlie is turning beat red and refusing to engage with their comments. We kick in silence for the remainder of the lap. I can tell he is really embarrassed by whatever he said and I don't want to upset him more. Pretending it never happened is probably the best case scenario. Besides. As curious as I am, I can't forget he just complimented my eyes. It's not every day that your friend makes a compliment like that. 

 The pool has become a lot more quiet without an extra 20 people kicking. The music is off and everyone is catching their breathe while us, the stranglers and finishing up. Every sound echos in the natatorium due to the high ceiling. You don't have to talk loud to be overheard when there's not a lot of movement. 

As we make our way to start our final lap, Matt and Justin are just finishing theirs, along with most of the team. Charlie makes a point to look anywhere but their lane, so I join him in facing forward to push through our last 50 meters. 

We are zoned out into our own world. WE are focused on the task at hand. But I, like most of the team couldn't ignore Justin as he shouted over to Charlie."Did you tell her Charlie? Did you tell Jenna that you like her boobs?"

Everything becomes dead silent except for the laughs coming from the senior boys. Charlie begins to kick faster to fill the void and so do I. We don't say anything to each other. for the rest of the length. 

As we turn around on the wall to head back the final time, Charlie touches my shoulder. "Don't listen to them. They are just trying to get a reaction from me. I didn't talk about your boobs in the locker room. I'm a gentleman. Not that you don't have great boobs. You do! Truly! Not that I've starred at the or anything. Not because I don't want to! I just respect you and all that. And I swear I'm not a pig." Charlie is speaking a million words a minute it feels like. "Wow. I am making this so much worse aren't I?" 

I give a gentle chuckle. "Don't sweat it," I reassure him as our legs struggle to get us across the pool a final time. "Those guys are assholes. I'm not worried about them. I'm not offended or anything. Just ignore them."

We reach the end of the lane and put our boards on the side of the pool. Just before Charlie ducks back into his lane for the next set, I lean in and whisper in his ear "Besides, they wouldn't be laughing if they heard the girls say in the locker room about their little dicks. Speedos leave little room to hide."

____________

The next day we have an away swim meet. We meet in the athletic hallway before boarding the bus. While we gather and wait for coach to check everyone in, Charlie comes and stands besides me. "Want to sit next to me on the bus? I brought my iPod with me."

I nod my head yes as our group begins to push through the heavy metal doors into the cold December air. We climb into the musty yellow bus and slide into a brown leather seat.  We wait quietly as coach takes attendance a final time and everyone checks that their competition suits are in their bags. 

Once the bus is in motion, Charlie hands me an earbud. Our heads lean close together as we shuffles his playlist. I quickly hear through the bud " My milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard" before Charlie Shuffles the playlist again just to be replaced by the first notes of "My Humps." He tries to skip again with better success. Before long we've safely moved past songs reminding us of yesterday's snafu. 

It's not a long drive the meet. It's only 15 minutes to the high school in the next town over. But in that time, Charlie and I sing along to "Don't Stop Believing", "Respect", and living on a prayer. We aren't the world's best singers and we're stuffed into a buss with 30 other people that are subjecting to our howling. But in that moment, it feels like it is just the two of us. As the bus pulls in to the parking lot, Charlie's iPod starts to play one final song. As everyone around us begins to shuffles their belongings back into bags, our earbuds are singing to us " Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"