You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

25

AN: dedicated to lunasidereal because thank youuu for all your support and encouraging comments! I LOVE YOU ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ♪) shoutout to her amazing story In His Shadow, too, which i absolutely love! i ship levi/bailey so HARD i squeal every time levi shows up. if you guys like drama you should definitely try it!

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When I got within several feet of him, Nolan seemed to notice that I was approaching him, because he started slowing down.

Eventually, he stopped and just floated in one position until I reached him.

"Hi again," I said.

"Hi," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"I was wondering if you wanted to join me and my friends," I said. "We could race each other."

"No." The word left his mouth before I even fully finished my sentence.

"Ouch, that was direct," I said but smiled to show that I wasn't offended.

I really wasn't expecting him to say yes, anyway.

"I mean, not really," he amended.

This time, I chuckled for real. "That doesn't really soften the blow, you know. It's the same thing!"

"It should," he said. "I could have just stuck to 'no.'"

"Isn't it boring to swim alone, though?" I gestured around him.

"Maybe I like it that way," he said, swimming closer to me.

I frowned at the slow smile spreading across his face. "What are you—"

Nolan splashed water onto my face.

"Hey!" I spluttered, instantly flicking my hands out and splashing him back. "What was that for?"

"I felt like it," he said, backing away. "Are you done asking questions? I want to swim."

"Fine, let's swim," I said.

"Won't your friends miss you?" he said.

I glanced back at my other friends. They seemed like they were having fun swimming. Melissa caught my eye and raised a thumbs up at me. Feeling my cheeks burn all of a sudden, I swiftly turned back to Nolan. I hope he didn't notice that.

"Nope, they'll be fine without me for a few minutes," I said, shaking my head.

They were the ones who prodded me into approaching Nolan, after all.

I decided to try one last time. "Are you sure you don't want to join us?"

He looked at me appraisingly for a few seconds.

"Tell you what," he said, raising his hand to point to the other end of the pool. "I'll race you there. If you beat me, I'll go with you. Breaststroke only."

"You're on!" I blurted out before he could change his mind.

It didn't occur to me until we started our little competition why he was willing to bet on this. Nolan knew he would win. The moment we began, he sped ahead of me. I expended all my efforts into each stroke, but with my mediocre swimming skills, it was no use. By the time I was halfway there, he was already at the other end. My brain almost couldn't catch up with how quick he was.

"You're fast," I gasped out when I finally got to the end. "Were you holding back during the medley relay just now?"

Nolan yawned. "Who knows?"