Love Thy Neighbor ✓

seven

LATE APRIL

IT BECAME CLEAR to Luca upon arrival that he and Blake had different ideas of what a casual get together— as Blake had described it on their walk there— was.

He guessed that there were around forty people hanging around the lake. Around fifteen people (mostly girls) were lounging back on the grass, most on beach towels patterned with ships and palm trees and waves. Others were sitting at the edge of the pier or standing in groups along it, all dressed in swimming shorts or bikinis and half of them had wet hair; water droplets sliding down their skin, glistening under the squinting beams of sunlight. Some people were walking along the grassy banks around the pier to meet their friends and the few remaining people were sat at one of the picnic tables further up, near where the cars were parked.

Kai and Luca were in those groups of people sitting along the pier, their legs hanging over the edge as they leaned back, their palms flat on the deck behind them. Their brown skin was honeyed and their tousled waves of dark hair were tinted lighter by the great bulb in the sky. The rest of their friends were on the grass, relaxing under the hazy gaze of the sun; the warmth of his face grazing their skin like the arms of spring herself.

While Kai told Luca about a girl he was starting to lose interest in, Luca busied himself by listening while craning his neck round and shielding his eyes with the shade of his palm to look for the boy he was gaining interest in. He was always around the same general area, a little further down the pier, and now he was standing and talking to Wes, his hands on his hips as he glanced around.

But then he and Wes had their fingers interlocked, their elbows out and their hands between them like they were preparing to wrestle. Curiously, Luca watched as Blake's lips spilled into a bright grin, the melody of his laughter carrying above the din of teenagers.

Wes had his back to Luca but it didn't take much to figure out that they, standing at the edge, were trying to push each other into the water. It wasn't openly acknowledged by either of them, but it didn't need to be acknowledged; it was one of those unspoken acts, one of those silent truths, that was too obvious not to realize.

"Bets on," Kai beamed, leaning into Luca's side. "Who's going in the water?"

"Wes," Luca replied, studying them with a growing smile. A few of the girls and guys sitting around them were paying attention now, too, and laughing, teasing about who was going to lose.

"Blake is closer to the water," he pointed out, leaning past Luca to get a better view of them.

"Doesn't matter," he insisted, shaking his head. "If one of them is going in the water first then it's Wes."

"You're only saying that because you love Blake so much," Kai teased. "You're biased."

"I do not and I am not," Luca scowled, his bronzed face dusted pink as he turned his head back towards Kai.

"You do and you are."

"First of all—" He began, but he couldn't get any further because he was interrupted by the rising song of chaos and, when he turned his head again, he saw Wes standing at the edge of the pier, his body leaning back towards the water.

Briskly, he went backwards into the lake but, as he fell, he extended his arm forward and grabbed hold of Blake's wrist, pulling him down, too.