WHAT THE WATER TOOK

Madison

The first thing I noticed that morning was how hot the sun was.

Not just hot.

Arizona hot.

The kind of heat that made the air look blurry over the pavement and turned every piece of metal into something you didn't want to touch with bare skin.

Which was exactly why I was stretched across my towel beneath the umbrella, sunglasses covering my eyes while music blasted from somewhere behind me.

The lake was packed.

Boats were everywhere.

Jet skis cut across the water, people screamed from tubes being dragged behind boats, kids jumped off docks, and groups of teenagers crowded the shoreline with coolers and speakers.

Everybody was laughing.

Everybody was having fun.

And Tyler was pretending he wasn't sleeping with another girl.

I lifted my sunglasses just enough to look toward the water.

There he was.

My boyfriend of almost two years.

Standing on the back of the boat with his friends.

And sitting beside them was her.

The girl he'd been sneaking around with.

The girl he thought I didn't know about.

I knew.

I'd known for weeks.

I just hadn't decided what I wanted to do about it yet.

"Madison."

I lowered my sunglasses.

Tyler was standing over me.

"What?"

He crouched down, grinning like nothing in the world was wrong.

Then he kissed me.

Quick.

Casual.

Like he hadn't been texting another girl every night.

Like I hadn't seen the messages.

Then his hand slid down and grabbed my ass.

I immediately caught his wrist.

"Seriously?"

He laughed.

"What?"

I stared at him.

He gave me that stupid innocent look.

"You're acting weird."

I looked past him.

Straight toward the boat.

The girl looked away the second our eyes met.

Tyler noticed.

Then looked back at me.

"You good?"

"Perfect."

I let go of his wrist.

He kissed my forehead.

"I'll be back."

"Sure."

He walked away.

Right back to her.

Avery dropped down beside me.

"You're really not going to say anything?"