Arabella (ALEX TURNER)

9 - it's an exploration

Knowing how Alex felt about my silver swimsuit gave me an unwelcome thrill as I put it on this morning. 

We had to head out to the Amalfi coast of Rome for a concert, so I set up a swimming field trip with the children I taught while we were out there. The band was near the back of the beach, relaxing in the morning before practice, while I was out with the kids on the coast of the ocean. 

Everything was going pretty good. Their parents had came out with us to watch the lesson. Sometimes I'd look past my students and see the band having fun, or I'd see Alex sneak a glance back at me. It looked like we finally were on good terms. 

I was smiling at Alex when one of the parents screamed, breaking me out of a daydream. "Andrea!"

Oh no. 

I looked into the ocean. Andrea had gone a little too deep, and her little arms were flailing on the surface. Her hair floated in clumps. She was being pushed to the rocks. 

I told her to stay close!

"Everybody out of the water, now!"

I sprinted into ocean. It was heavy with salt, waves that pushed the sand beneath my feet. Eventually I got deep enough to swim and booked it for the rocks, hoping to get there before Andrea did. 

I treaded, trying to find a place to press my feet against so the waves stopped pushing.

Andrea bobbed near me and pounced, plunging me into the water. She was panicking, gripping at my scalp. I sunk for a moment and stepped into a shell that cut the heel of my foot. It was acutely painful and I yanked Andrea off of me, losing my grip. 

We were pushed by a wave and my back slammed against one of the rocks. Adrenaline spiked. If she would have just remembered my class on what to do in emergencies... whatever. She was just a kid. The panic was understandable. 

Water sprayed in my face as Andrea tacked herself to my chest. I gripped the top of one of the rocks, fingernails dug into dirt and moss. A wave hit us and I grabbed a log for Andrea to hold onto for more support, but she scrambled to stand on top of it and instead kicked it down into the water, painfully scratching against my thigh. Then it bobbed back up with force and slammed into my jaw. 

This was enough. 

"Fermati!" I said, using one arm to grab onto Andrea's arms, the other to tread. "Stop moving!"

Then I pushed off the rocks and used one hand to swim a thrashing Andrea back to shore. Her parent ran into the water and helped Andrea off me, checking her for injury back on the beach. The mom hugged Andrea and thanked me. She wasn't hurt--I never let her get hurt. 

"Class has ended," I said breathlessly, my knees weak. "I'll see you all next week."

All the kids and their parents filtered out, a little on edge from the incident. Alex rushed up to me, helping me to sit. "Mia, please tell me you're okay. I can't believe you just ran out there. You could have seriously been hurt. You should have waited for the lifeguard."

"I was one," I whispered. "Before I became a teacher. And there wasn't enough time to wait, or Andrea could have cracked her skull on the rocks."

"Still," Alex said. He looked a little in awe of me. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, but my entire leg was in pain. When I tried to move it closer towards me, sand seeped in the cut. The branch that cut my inner thigh stung. 

"Mia!" Matt ran up to me, holding bandage and a water bottle. "Did anybody get hurt? Alex told me to bring a few things as soon as you jumped in the water, but this was all I could find."

"Andrea's fine," I said, teeth seething. I pulled my heel closer to me to get a look. It was cut pretty bad. "Thanks, guys."

Matt gave me the bandage and water, backing off the beach. "Jamie and Nick were out to get help. If everybody's safe now, I'll call them off."

Then Alex and I were left alone. 

He was staring at my leg before he reached his arm underneath me and picked me up, struggling just a bit with the weight. I laughed nervously. "What are you--"

Alex found a hidden spot on the beach near the bottom of a ledge and lay me against it. "You're  hurt. Just let me help."

"You don't have to do anything--"

Alex crossed his legs in front of me, grabbing my ankle to look at the cut. He brushed off pieces of seashell. His face was crossed with determination. Then he gently poured some of the water from the bottle over the cut and my leg jumped. He used some of the bandage to wrap around my heel. 

"Anywhere else?"

I cleared my throat. "Something scratched my thigh."

His gaze dipped for a moment. Of course he didn't see anything. "Er, where?"

"You know what? It's fine." I tried to stand but couldn't. 

Alex lay me back down. "Where?"

I blinked. This was so embarrassing. "Like, it scratched my inner thigh. I think a piece of it lodged itself under the skin. But you don't need to take care of that. I will."

"You can't even stand--are you sure it's not more serious? What if it's a sea urchin? Those are poisonous."

I chuckled, my neck red hot. "If it's an urchin, I will definitely not let you help me out. I've heard pissing on the wound helps, but--"

Alex snorted, staring at my beet-red face. "Yeah, that's definitely not something I was suggesting."

Oh why did I even bring it up? Now I was picturing that situation... in full detail. "It's probably just a splinter."

"Just--check to see if it's bad."

I could not be more mortified. I spread my legs just slightly to see my inner thigh. Whatever got itself lodged under the skin had swelled painfully. 

Alex seethed his teeth. "Try to get it out."

I did, but couldn't. It hurt too much. "Let's just forget about this--"

"It will get badly infected if you leave it. Just--let me try."

That's it. I was going to have a heart attack. 

He inched closer until he was sitting right in front of me. His face had paled slightly. 

"This is awkward, isn't it?"

Alex scratched his brow, giving me a small smile. "It's only awkward if we make it awkward."

Then he lifted my leg and moved it on his shoulder until my knee was almost touching his neck. His hand tentatively wavered near my thigh. He was only trying to get the splinter out--why did the splinter have to be so close between my legs? It wasn't sexual at all, but how could my mind not wander?

Alex pressed onto my thigh to try to get it out. I whimpered in pain. He didn't seem to like the noise, as he tensed up. 

There was something about the warmth of his fingers on my cold skin that made the places where he touched light up like fire. I squirmed when he slowly pulled out a piece of bark. My thigh began to bleed and without saying anything, Alex poured water over it and bandaged  my leg. 

I cleared my throat. Even though I couldn't seem to be professional these days, it seemed like he had no trouble with it. "Thanks," I whispered. 

Alex helped me stand, still trying his hardest to only look at my eyes and at nothing below. "Don't mention it. Seriously."

This was worse than awkward. "Let's pretend that never happened?"

He laughed bashfully. "Please."