Charity

Part 2- Learning to Drow-I MEAN, Swim!

Part 2- Learning to Drow-I MEAN, Swim!

“How long do I still need to do this! Can I let go now?” I groaned, my arms quivering in pain. Charity looked up from her magazine for a second, her cool grey eyes looked almost green today, and scanned over me slowly. Too slowly.

I felt the blush creep onto my cheeks and quickly looked down. Another moment of silence passed before she looked away,

“Nope,” she uttered calmly. Licking her index finger so she could flip through the glossy pages of Sports Illustrated. I guess she must’ve looked at one of those pictures of body builders or something because when she looked down her cheeks were tinged with pink.

Such a weird girl.

I huffed and tensed my arms again, trying not to drop the shoes. For the past week and a half, I had been coming to the pool every afternoon just to hold up these stupid shoes while Charity practically devoured countless books and magazines; listened to music; or even slept. She was freaking sleeping!

My face burned red and suddenly I couldn’t take it. Letting out a cry of fury, I hurled the sneakers to the ground and kicked them to Charity’s feet. She stared at the shoes, then at me, and we stayed like that for the longest of times. Just staring at each other, challenging each other to see what would come next. I clenched my fists, preparing for the worst as I ran over every possible scenario in my head.

1)      She could attack me, in which case I fight her back (so what if she’s a girl? If she hit’s first, it’s a fair game.)

2)      She could attack me and turn out to be stronger than me, in which case I book it out the back door, run home, and lock myself in my room until the threat is gone.

3)      She could cry, in which case I…apologize? I guess?

I still hadn’t finished thinking up my response to the third scenario, but what happened next caught me completely off guard.

She smiled.

Charity Greene looked me dead in the eyes, and gave me a big ol’ cheeser of a smile that made it look like her face would split.

“Finally! I thought you’d never have the guts to do it!” she beamed, swinging her legs off the bleachers so she could stand before me.

This, I was not prepared for, and simply stared at her with my mouth agape. Finally, I swallowed and managed to force out a small squeak of confusion. Luckily, Charity got the point and continued,

“Yes that activity was to increase upper body strength, but it was mainly for us to become close enough that you can see me as more of an equal rather than ‘that mysterious, creepy senior that is somehow really good at swimming’. If you saw me as that, I could never trust you to even go near the pool,” she smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. Something about her words held a level of truth that made my toes curl.

“But…what?”

“Weren’t you listening!? God, just listen. Do you still feel like I am on such a higher level than you that we are ‘master and pupil’?”

“Actually, I see us more as lazy teenage high-school graduate and her wrongfully tortured slave,” muttered. Sadly, she picked up on it with her annoyingly skilled auditory system and smirked at me,

“Either way, we’re now on some level of equality. Don’t get me wrong, you still have to do what I tell you to keep yourself from drowning, but at least we’re equals. Now, you do know what’s coming next right?”

“Swimming?”

“Swimming.”

The smile on my face was so big I swear it could’ve blinded someone.

***

It only took one lesson and many almost-drowns to learn how to breath in the water, and it only took one lesson and many almost-drowns to completely sour my mood about swimming.

“I hate swimming!” I screamed at the sky as I huddled on the bleachers, wrapping my towel around myself. Charity frowned at me and flicked me painfully on the nose.

“Hey, shut your mouth! You don’t hate swimming, you only hate the fact that you actually have to learn to swim. After this part, swimming is one of the most fun things you will ever do.”

“Can’t we just skip this part and get straight to the fun part?”

She laughed at that, and pet the top of my head condescendingly before getting up and walking to the edge of the pool.

In one swift motion, she leapt downward through the air and dove into the water as it embraced her willingly. There was a second of silence as she disappeared before she resurfaced, and everything happened at once.

Her arms stretched out to make long strokes that cut neatly through the water, while her lean legs propelled her forward. It was so graceful, so beautiful, that I felt my breath catch in my throat. Her body glided through the depths so easily that she looked strong and immortal. Time stood still as she did one lap, then two, and finally slipped out of the water to face me. Even though it only lasted a second or so, it felt like it lasted a lifetime.

Her cheeks were flushed and she was panting slightly as she grinned at me,

“Do you think you could do that? Go right ahead and skip the boring part,” she smirked.

“You look really beautiful when you swim. I wish I could swim like that,” I breathed out. Too dazed to notice her cheeks flushing even more.

“W-whatever. Let’s just get back to the breathing exercises and-”

“No. I’m gonna try it. I can already breathe underwater, so let me try swimming a lap.”

Her mouth opened in protest before she closed it again and nodded, moving out of the way with a knowing smile on her face.

“If you insist.”

I got up, and jumped into the pool. Nothing compared to her graceful leap, but I was in the water and that was all that mattered.

What happened next, I will regret for the rest of my life.

All of a sudden her knowing smirks and condescending grins got to me, and I decided to just let myself sink.

So, I did.

I stopped treading water and sunk down a bit, just to give her a scare. I could hear her voice from the surface and grinned slightly.

Suddenly, she was in the water, her eyes wide as she yanked me un and out of the pool. She threw me on my back by the side and slapped my face,

“Zach? Zach!”

“Whoa! Calm down! I’m okay, I was just messing around!”

Her back tensed and she let out a heavy sigh, resting her head in her hands. My smile slowly evaporated as I saw angry tears flow down her cheeks.

“I…I’m really sorry Charity, I just-”

“You just what? Felt like scaring me to death my making me think you had died!?”

“I’m sorry!”

She glared at me for a moment, before grabbing my shoulder and pulling me up to face her.

“What are you-” before I could finish, Charity crashed her lips to mine and gave me a small kiss before pulling back.

“There. We’re even now. That’s CPR,” she frowned, sticking her tongue out at me before walking away.

What just happened?