Love or Hate

Chapter 16

After a long night of explaining everything to Leah and convincing her to not arrest Cooper, she agreed but banned him from the house. Ha. Like I would ever want him over. He's an jerk.

I skipped dinner that night and convinced my mom to let me go to the community pool. She let me but I had to bring James with me.

Let's try to not make this awkward, Nicole.

When I want quiet I go swimming. When I was younger I would come home from school every single day and go swimming. Its my getaway.

I don't usually like company but I guess since its James that I'm okay with it. The only problem is that I'm gonna be in a bikini. I'm not usually self conscious, because why would I care what people think, but its James. And he's hot. Like really hot.

It late enough that no ones in the pool, except for an old lady getting out of the hot tub. I slip off my shirt and skirt which leaves me in just my bikini.

I dive into the deep end which is 6 feet and swim alone for a few minutes. James eventually joins me by jumping in with a loud and disturbing cannonball.

"Ahh, James," I scream as I'm hit by water, "I like my swimming to be peaceful."

He laughs, "I like mine noisy and full of games." He goes under the water and pops up next to me, "La la la!!!" He screams/sings at the top of his lungs.

"Be quiet." I dive under the water and swim sorta like a mermaid, all the way to the stairs and jump out of the pool. He gives me a look of confusion. But I ignore it, walk over the the teen and up pool, climb up the high dive, and dive into 12 feet of water. I add a small twist to impress him.

His jaw completely drops, "Woah. Your amazing!"

I giggle, "I've been swimming since before I could remember. did my first dive off the high dive before my dad died. I'm glad he got to see me."

"Your like a swimming prodigy. Your dad died when you where 5 or 6 right?," I nod "Wow, you dived at a really young age!"

I smirk and hold a finger to my mouth, "Stop talking. I want peace and quiet. if you want to talk go over to the hot tub because apparently the last came back. Now shut up."

About an hour later of swimming and silence James leaves and I just hope Leah doesn't find out.

I wave bye to him.

"Go swim Kaila." I turn around and see Violet and who must be her daughter Kaila. She sits in a pool chair by the kiddie pool and waves me over.

I go sit next to her, "You were right."

She nods, "let's never speak of Cooper again. And let's start over. I'm Violet, that's my daughter Kaila and I hope we can be friends."

I smile, "I'm Nicole, I live in a foster home, I love the color blue and I hope we can be friends too." I stand up and walk over to the kiddie pool.

"I'm Nicole. I'm friends with your mom." she glances at Violet then grabs my hand and pulls me toward her pool toys.

After a long night of swimming, I go home and to bed.