Blue.
My feet stood still and together on the wet, cold tiles at the edge of the swimming pool. I greatly disliked the feeling of the safety ridges that stuck out of the tiles, and I grimaced as I saw the occasional piece of hair or dirt or peeled skin scattered around the filthy flooring. Did they even bother cleaning the pool? I thought, as I then imagined children and adults both, freely pissing their swimsuits at the deep end. Now that I thought about it, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go in or not.
I wasn't scared, not at all. I had mentioned before that I had a fear of drowning, but that didn't mean I was scared of the water or swimming (in fact, my fear of drowning had motivated me to learn how to swim). I was scared of the concept of drowning, and the feeling like you know you're about to die. If I had to pass, that'd be the worst way to go, along with being buried alive. But of course, I was no stranger to drowning.
The sound of the water swaying and splashing was so familiar to me. It was the sound of inevitable disaster... the gateway straight to hell... a death trap. I shut my eyes, trying to ignore the distant screams of drowning in the back of my mind... the smell of fear almost real to me in that moment. I knew I was all imagining it, but the awful sense of nostalgic despair was too traumatising to forget... a child screaming for her father.
I squeezed my eyes tightly and shook my head, suddenly back in the here and now.
Crossing my arms and clutching them self consciously to my stomach, it growled. Mustn't eat before I swim, or else I'd get a bad belly, I told myself yesterday at two pm. Cassidy wasn't concerned much about my weight or my 'diet', but that was due to me telling her I'd been working out and cutting on carbs. Honestly, I wasn't doing it on purpose. I'd eat a cheeseburger, ice cream and an entire loaf of bread if I wanted to, but I just felt too full even if I had a forkful of spaghetti.I'll have a salad once I get out of the pool.
Unexpectedly, I heard an enthusiastic giggle and pattering of running feet go past me, and then I witnessed a huge yet skinny splash when I saw a blur of dark hair and tanned skin dive into the pool. I blinked when I felt droplets of water hit my face, and then I saw Cassidy popping her head out of the surface of the water, looking as elegant and aquatic as a mermaid. Cassidy was a real life siren, an angelic mythical being straight from a fairy tail. She was the type of girl 90's feminist grunge bands would write songs about.
"Come on!" She called, waving her pink nailed hand yearningly at me, "Jump in!"
I gazed at my feet, my toes curling in timidly. I glanced around at all the other people here- the pool was actually quite crowded considering it to be 5pm on a Friday. A variety of families and friends were here, mothers and their children down in the shallow end, and more athletic and somewhat young people up in the deep end, where we were. Cassidy turned back and the blue water engulfed her form as she swam, last seeing her toes bubble from the top of the water as she kicked herself in.
Finally, I took a step back and then rapidly neared the edge, extending my arms into a point and diving in, letting the deep blue swallow me whole. I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them, and I looked around me. My light hair flowed in thin tassels, the dip dyed blue ends blending in the water. Around me, it seemed empty. Anywhere further than two feet away faded into deep navy, the thick water hiding anything to give away the illusion of the ocean like feeling. In fact, I just waited for a school of fish or even the Kraken to just ignorantly swim past me. Or perhaps somebody else... a corpse...
Desperate for breath, I kicked myself upwards and brought my neck up and out of the water and took a long gasp of air. I brushed my hair back from my face and I saw myself opposite Cassidy, who was smiling fondly. "Man, this is great," She said nostalgically. "Reminds me of the time I went to the Caribbean... but woah, you should've seen the pool in our hotel there."
