The Worst Prom Date Ever

18 • The Worst Accident Ever

I cleared my throat. "So uh, do you need something?"

"I need you."

Lucas jokingly made a low whistle and my mouth dropped.

"Y-you need...me?" I said, quite thrown off-guard at what she just said. Did I just hear her right? She needed me?

I inserted my hands in my pockets, getting nervous. "Do you need a ride home? Callista's riding with me though, so—"

"No, that's not what I meant," she cut me off, blushing. "I'm fine. I'll be riding the school bus later."

Piper then continues on. "But, I need you since I have to interview all the captains of each sports team in school for our yearbook. It'll take just around ten minutes or less—if, you know, you don't mind."

Oh.

Oh.

I released my hands from my jeans pockets and crossed my arms, trying to hide my assumptive look of surprise. "Okay, sure. I have swimming practice around four o'clock, so let's meet at the pool in ten minutes?"

"Alrighty."

"Can you walk, though?" I asked, since I might have come off as insensitive again.

Piper cracked a smile, telling me that I shouldn't worry about it. She waved goodbye to the two of us and walked away. Well, tried to walk properly, that is.

When Piper was out of earshot, Lucas jutted his lower lip out and made a puppy face in front of me. "I need you," Lucas mocked.

My head popped a vein in annoyance as I slid my gym bag off my shoulder and swung it directly at Lucas's chest. "Ow!" He yelped, but laughed right after.

"You like her," teased Lucas, poking me in the arm. "Callista will be so mad."

"Tsk, cut it out," I said. Lucas was just talking nonsense.

  — — —   

PIPER • [3:51 p.m.]

I sat by the bleachers, with my injured leg gingerly propped to the side. I swallowed a huge lump on my throat and glanced nervously at the Olympic-sized swimming pool.

It looked even bigger when the place was empty. I only went here to watch Beau whenever he competed during his tournaments, and most of the time this entire place was packed.

"Hey." I turned to my right and glanced up to see Beau. Thankfully he was still wearing a shirt and a pair of jeans. If I was going to have to interview Beau and he was wearing nothing but swimming trunks, I might as well just interview him with a blindfold over my eyes.

Beau must've sensed my discomfort, so he sat down a little too close beside me, which actually made me more uncomfortable.

"Are you still afraid of the water?" he asked.

"A little bit," I answered back. The sound of his hushed voice made me tingle inside.

I wasn't really a pool person or a beach person. I preferred admiring all bodies of water at a distance as I had a bad experience with it before. 

I was eight years old, and Beau and I were swimming at a public swimming pool. Being the stupid daredevil that I was who thought she didn't need any floaties, I immediately jumped into the pool thinking it was the shallow part.

I was wrong, it wasn't the shallow part.

When my feet couldn't reach the floor, that was when I knew I jumped into the deep end. Beau didn't know how to swim back then, and the lifeguard who was about to rescue me felt like he was as slow as those people running from Baywatch.