Uppercut (A James Maslow FanFic)

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“Maddie, jump in!” Drew yelled as he, James and Alex were in the middle of a splashing war.

Maybe mom hadn’t been too far off after she had called us kids.

I was sitting on the edge of the indoor pool with my feet in the water. It was a decent size pool. It wasn’t too small but, it wasn’t too large either. You could easily swim laps in it if you wanted to, or if you were physically capable of swimming laps, unlike myself.

Only a few of the ceiling lights were on and the pool was lite up. I had thought the pool had been closed because it was kinda dark in here. James had said otherwise.

I just smiled back at my younger brother. I didn’t really want to become involved the war they were having. It would just result in getting water up my nose, choking on the chlorine, and my ears getting plugged.  And all that did not sound like oodles of fun to me.

Another reason I didn’t want to get in was because I was slightly embarrassed. I was the only girl in the group. The boys had all stripped down to their boxers and jumped in without a care in the world. Girls can’t just do that! I’d have to swim in the gym shorts and tank top I was wearing and that would be so uncomfortable. The tank top was sucky enough as it was. If it got wet, it would just get worse.

Being a girl, it was natural for me to be a little self-conscious. I felt like guys just didn’t understand that sometimes. Obviously my brothers wouldn’t care if I jumped in. It would still be a weird and awkward situation for me but, at least I didn’t have to worry about them looking at me and trying to check me out.

Alex was a different situation. I know, we’ve been best friends for over two years and I shouldn’t be bothered by an event like this. It’s not like there would be much of a difference between the way my clothes looked if they were wet or dry. I couldn’t help but feel weird about it though. It seemed like James saying all of those jokes about me and him dating and stuff just kind of… affected him differently than me. It was almost like I knew something was going to happen between us, and I was terrified. I had talked to him pretty much every day since the day I met him. I didn’t want anything to change between us. I liked our friendship right where it was.

Overall I had decided that swimming in your clothes was weird, swimming with boys wearing nothing but their underwear was weird, seeing boys wearing nothing but their underwear was weird, and swimming with someone that might possibly be developing a crush on you was weird, especially if all the other things were already happening.

All these things were causing me a lot of awkwardness and embarrassment and made me want to throw up. And, they weren’t even happening yet!

“Maddie!” James called, swimming over to me.

I looked up quickly, suddenly realizing that I had unknowingly put my head in my hands. James was getting closer.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked as he rested his elbows on the pool’s edge.

“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. Apparently I had been internally freaking out so much, it had caused my voice to get rough. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

James laughed and looked me in the eyes. “Maddie, I’m 22 years old. I know that girls don’t mean it when they say they’re fine.”

Crap. I swallowed nervously. Was it worth trying to deny it? Probably not.

“Well congrats.” I sighed. “You’re officially the only boy who managed to figure it out.”