Moving In With The Enemy

Chapter 11 ~ "I'm Working On It"

They all start to stand up and talk about their teams and I sigh, pushing back off the towel and standing up.

"Abby, do you want to go for a swim?" I ask and she laughs.

"I came from an early practice, Annie. I'm going to fall asleep." She tells me and I chuckle a bit.

"Suit yourself, see you in a bit." I smile, waving at her and she lazily waves back.

I walk out to the lake, the bottom was covered in smooth stones which made me comfortable walking into it barefoot. One step in and I could tell it was like bath water, even this wouldn't give the instant relief I was hoping for.

I get out waist deep and look at the quiet lake, it seemed pretty private all things considered. I try to tune out the arguing going on at the beach, obviously someone wasn't happy with their team. My money was on Piper.

I hear someone stepping into the water behind me and I look back over my shoulder and gulp, quickly turning back around. It was Walker.

He doesn't say anything as he wades in, which was pretty much how it normally was. Walker was the exact opposite of me when it came to filling awkward silences with words.

"Didn't want to play?" I ask as he appears next to me.

Walker was an imposing figure, I was relatively tall and he was still what felt like almost a foot above me. He had a really broad chest, huge arms, obviously he was the type that cared about the gym.

"There were nine of us, uneven number." He tells me and I nod, neither of us choose to look at the other one. "Figured I'd peel out and let them play it guys against girls."

"Oh you didn't do that." I laugh, looking up at him for the first time since he appeared at my side. "They're going to destroy those girls." He chuckles a bit with a knowing smile.

"That was the idea." He shrugs and I roll my eyes, looking back at the water.

"Well Piper would probably only be happy if you two could have played as one team member. Like her strapped to your chest in a baby harness." I say sarcastically, crossing my arms. Walker lets out an uncharacteristically loud laugh and then promptly puts his hand over his mouth.

"That's a weird visual." He mumbles and I chew the inside of my cheek. "You don't like her, do you?"

"No, she's not a nice person." I explain with an easy shrug. "At least not to me."

"She's not really nice to anyone." He admits, scratching the back of his head.

So why sleep with her, Walker?

"Do you like her?" I counter and he bites back a smile.

"Why? Does that matter?"

"It will determine how much I tolerate her going forward." I deadpan and he licks his lips. 

I lose my train of thought for a few seconds, feeling my stomach boil and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. 

"You'd tolerate her." He asks, raising his eyebrows and I sigh.

"Well, actually now that you say it......that seems a little too nice." I shrug. "But yeah, I would."

"Why?"

"Because we live together, I'd find some way to get over it." I shrug, looking down at the lake water.

"You're too nice." He shrugs. 

"Maybe you're just mean." I counter and he shrugs.

"That's always a possibility." He answers and I wade out a few steps more. It was hard to think when we were so close. I always tried to figure out what he meant by the answers he gave to things.