Missing Martha

114

Martin returned into the kitchen, it was nearly 6am, he made himself a glass of water and walked around the penthouse, opening doors he'd never opened before and seeing, to his complete shock, a room tiled with a swimming pool in the centre and at the back wall there was a line of showers with reclining seats surrounding the pool.
Martin instinctively took off his shirt and trousers and climbed in, initially shocked by its cool temperature before back stroking and relaxing, diving deep before resurfacing and flicking his hair back when he took a breath.
"Sir?"
Martin turned towards the door to see Cloda standing there,
"Didn't expect to see you here at 6am." She scoffed,
"Couldn't sleep." Martin told her, leaning back against the side of the pool, his elbows on the side.
"The feeling's mutual, I'd think Ryan's the only one who's not awake right now." Cloda replied, dropping her towels on the ground before removing her white dressing gown, revealing her very flattering green bikini, accentuating her evolved body as she slipped into the pool and began to swim towards Martin.
"Did Ollie go back into your room?" Martin asked her,
"Yeah, and he said he made you cry." Cloda replied, biting her lip.
"Well that wouldn't be difficult, would it?" Martin chuckled, losing eye contact for a few moments.
"You know, don't you?" Cloda began, catching his eye.
"What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We're not gonna stick together after Ryan goes."
Martin looked down, his feet losing their grip on the side of the deep pool. "I hoped you would." He said.
"We're all best friends and all that, but Ryan was the centre of it all. It's like in music, really, we base everything around the drum beat- he's our drummer, we can't just replace him, and even if we did it just.. it wouldn't be right. He's the backbone."
Martin leaned back and listened, his heart breaking slowly as she continued to speak.
"By September I'll be back in Ireland, Ollie will be in Vancouver, Lucy is moving to Europe and Jemma is going to London. We're over, essentially. That tumour isn't just killing Ryan, it's killing the whole band."
Martin pushed off against the wall and began to swim towards the other side of the pool; Cloda followed him, breaststroking her way towards him, the green in her eyes brought out by the red from the tears and chlorine.
"Ollie and Jemma, at least." Martin Suggested, feeling hopeless.
"They're more of a teen, high school sweetheart couple. They're not like Lucy and Ryan or you and Zoe; Ollie and Jem couldn't spend their whole lives together."
The added example of himself and Zoe touched Martin slightly, albeit he now felt that everything he had done in the last 5 years for them had been pointless.
"What's Lucy gonna do?" He asked her,
"Well.. she hasn't quite got her head around the fact that Ryan's gonna go.. I mean- none of us have. But I think she intends to travel. Buy a house somewhere far away and start up a B&B or something." Cloda told him.
"And what about you?" He questioned,
"I'm doing an accountancy course in Dublin. Don't know what I'll do after that." She said, her elbows resting on the side of the pool as she looked out the huge glass wall at the rising sun.
"Accountancy, possibly?" Martin Suggested, making her laugh.
"I'm sorry you're not getting any musicians out of this." She Sighed, another tear gliding from her eye.
"I am." Martin told her, "I'm getting five."
Cloda looked over at him, biting her lip before bursting into tears. Martin swam up beside her, rubbing her back,
"C'mere." He soothed, inviting her in for a hug which she accepted with much appreciation.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and he held onto her waist while she rested her head onto his shoulder.
"You'd probably get some beef if somebody saw us like this out of context." Cloda said, picturing her half-naked teacher holding her, his half-naked student.
"Oh well I'm probably getting arrested the second we go home anyway." Said Martin, splitting the hug apart.
"Don't say that! Honestly I've got enough things to cry about." Cloda complained, wiping another tear from her eye.
"What's going on in here?" Called Zoe from the threshold, "since when did we have a swimming pool?"
She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest while she wore an oversized shirt that was off the shoulder and emphasised her swollen belly.
"Jesus; you're pregnant." Martin exclaimed, swimming over to the shallow end, close to the door.
"I think I'm in the second trimester; I should be!" She exclaimed, sitting down on the edge of the pool and letting her legs dangle into the water. "You okay, Clodes?"
Cloda nodded in reply and continued to swim a few lengths of the pool as Martin made his way over to Zoë, putting his hands around her exposed legs.
"If you pull me in I swear I'll move to Philadelphia." She chuckled.
"Oh I won't." He murmured, running his hands further up her thighs till she slapped his wrists nodding her head over to make Martin aware of Cloda who was at the other side of the pool.
"Okay, seriously whys your bump so noticeable now?" He asked her, putting her hands on it, "you're only what- thirteen, fourteen weeks?"
"Yeah I need to speak to you about that.." Zoe said, looking down to her abdomen which Martin was stroking with his thumb.
"Go on..?" He encouraged, looking up at her.
"Later." She insisted, merely teasing him.
"Why? It's not serious, is it?" He asked, becoming concerned.
"Not in a bad way." She Promised.
"So- it's serious then?" Martin concluded, biting his lip.
"Let's talk about this later, okay?" Zoë said, heaving her legs up from the water and standing up again.
"I'm worried about you." Martin told her,
"Honestly; it's fine." She insisted, smiling at him as she used his towel to dry her legs. "By the way, all the others are awake in the living room."
Martin raised his eyebrows, "it's not even seven am. Jesus, I thought they were supposed to be teenagers."
"Ryan's up, too." She notified him.
"Okay." Martin replied, taking one last dunk under the water before climbing up the steps and drying himself with a towel, deeply exhaling.