Chapter 8
"Okay, Freckles. How are you so good at swimming?"
He looked up at me from where he was floating. I was still sitting on the dock--we were right on the outer edge of the enclosed dock--but I'd taken my shirt off. My feet were dangling in the water, and he grabbed one of my ankles to keep from floating away.
My leg somehow went numb and hypersensitive at the same time.
Right when we had gotten to the beach, he had taken off without me, peeling his shirt off and running surprisingly fast for a guy that said he got tired easily. He didn't even stop running when he ran out of dock. He went flying through the fucking air with his legs and arms still moving. When his head rose back up to the surface, he'd said, "Oh my gosh--it's cold!"
I could only stare for several minutes. Eren was right--Marco did like to swim. Not for the same reasons, but still. Who woulda thought?
He shrugged. "I don't know. I've always liked swimming. I can't fall over in the water, and if I can swim long distances without getting tired, then I can walk around for most of a day without getting tired too."
He tugged on my ankle. "Get in."
"That's what she said," I muttered.
"What was that, Jean?" The way he was floating made him look upside down to me. Even then, I could tell that he really didn't hear what I'd said.
"N-nothing," I said quickly. "I just said that the water is cold."
He smiled. "Don't be such a baby."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm not a baby."
He let go of my ankle and stood up in the water, facing me. He raised an eyebrow, but he was still smiling. "Is Jean boy a baby?" he asked in the type of voice that I'd heard Mom talk to little kids in.
I glared at him.
"Come on. I know you can do it." He tilted his head. "Are you too scared to jump off the dock? Do you need me to catch you?"
"Alright, asshole." I braced my foot on the metal under the wooden part of the dock and jumped forward to catch him but missed, landing completely in the lake. I came up, sputtering. Marco was laughing. I lunged forward again, but he evaded me.
"See? I knew you could do it. Yay!"
"God dammit, Marco. I'm gonna get you!"
He was back to his normal voice when he said, "You have to catch up to me first!" He disappeared under the water.
I started swimming in his general direction, but I wasn't getting anywhere very quickly. Yeah, I knew how to swim, but I usually just hopped around, moved my arms, and hoped for the best.
Today was no exception.
"Marco!"
I saw his head pop up all the way on the other half of the dock. "Polo!" he yelled in response before ducking under the water again.
I couldn't help but laugh. I knew that if my name had been Marco instead of Jean that I would've hated that game. It wasn't surprising that he was okay with it, what with his bubbly personality and all.
We swam--well, he swam, I hopped--around for another ten minutes before I gave up and leaned against the dock. The next time he came up, he was closer than I thought he was, but I pretended not to see him.
He seemed to have bought my act because he silently slid back under the water. Shortly after, he appeared again, but this time, he was much closer. Damn, he moved fast. He went back down for a third time, and I saw him come closer under the water. He didn't have much time to do anything when he came to the top because I grabbed him and wrestled him against the dock, being careful not to do anything that could hurt him.
We were both panting when he stopped struggling. My hands were on his wrists, and his back was against the dock. The sound was that of the wind, the waves, and our breathing. We were so close that I could count all of his freckles.
He blinked and looked up at me shyly, and God dammit, it melted my heart. I didn't move a muscle when he started to lean forward. My eyes slid shut, and I felt his breath fanning across my face. Butterflies erupted in my stomach at the thought of what he was going to do. He may have been pinned against the dock, but I was the one that was captured.
His lips tapped my nose right when the dock started to shake from people running on it. I was immediately snapped out of my stupor. I jumped backward with a gasp. We locked eyes. Neither of us said anything.
"Hey, Horsefa--"
I turned away and started climbing the nearest ladder as fast as I could. "Leave me alone, Eren," I growled. I stomped away, still flustered from what could have happened.
* * *
"Woah, what...?" Eren said mostly to himself as he watched his older brother storm away. He furrowed his eyebrows. He hadn't seen Jean this upset in a long time.
"Hey, Marco."
Marco looked up from where he was in the water, staring at the surface. "Hm?"
"What happened?" Eren already knew what had happened. He had run ahead of the rest of his family to the lake, so he was the only one that saw. He would never tell Jean this, but he actually thought that it was kind of cute.
He saw Marco's neck and ears flush before the rest of his face turned red. "I don't really know myself. It just kind of... happened."
Eren sat down on the deck, criss cross applesauce. Both of them looked out on the shining surface of the water. "Do you think he hates me?" Marco asked finally, breaking the silence.
Eren thought about it for a moment before he answered. "No," he said carefully. "I don't think he hates you. Knowing my brother, he probably hates himself."
"Why?"
He sighed. "He doesn't like to open up to people, you know? It's hard for him to let others know what he's feeling. Just in the past 24 hours it seems like he's opened up quite a bit to you. I think that he just realized it and got scared."
"Okay." Silence. "And what about you? Are you okay that I... did that?"
"I think that Jean is too moody and needs somebody to help him be happier. You seem like a person that could do that. You look like you balance each other out."
"But... I'm a guy."
Eren shrugged. "So what? Gay marriage is legal in all of the states now. I personally think that you guys like each other, then go for it."
Marco sputtered. "Marriage? It was just a little... something. I don't know. Just... I-- Nobody's getting married!"
Eren grinned. "You know what I mean." He could see why Jean liked this guy, even if he didn't realize it yet. "To answer your earlier question more directly, I think that he hates himself right now because he allowed himself to become vulnerable. Needless to say, he doesn't handle that very well."
Marco nodded. "Well, what do I do?"
Eren shrugged. "Beats me, but you might wanna catch up to him before he locks himself in the cabin."
Marco barely hesitated before he used the ladder to get onto the dock. He went to grab his things, and Eren saw that Jean had run off without his own stuff.
"Just leave it," Eren told him. "I'll bring it back later. Oh, and Marco?" he said as the freckled boy hurried off of the dock. "Could you do me a favor and not tell Jean about this? I wouldn't want him to think that I actually cared."
Marco smiled and nodded. "Sure."
After he was gone, Mikasa showed up. She sat down next to Eren. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"
Eren shrugged. "Not really."
* * *
My ears perked up when I heard somebody calling my name. I slowed, thinking it was Mom, but when the voice called out again, I sped right back up. I didn't run--running brings attention to you, and that was the last thing I wanted right now.
How could I have let that happen? We almost kissed. We were both guys--nothing about this could end up going well. And what if somebody had seen us and told my parents? I had no idea how they would react. Gay rights wasn't really a topic we discussed at home, and if they did, then I obviously wasn't around to hear it.
I didn't even know why I cared what they thought. It wasn't like it was their life. It wasn't even any of their business, so why did their opinion matter to me so suddenly?
I still wasn't sure what I even felt about the situation. I knew that I was freaking out for no real reason. I also knew that some of me wanted to leave this resort immediately, but there was an even bigger part of me that wanted me to turn my ass around and get some more from him.
Sure, I'd had a few girlfriends in school, but they were all flings and lasted about a week. Was a relationship with another guy going to be the same as a relationship with a girl? No, stupid, I told myself. You both have dicks.
I shook myself. Now was not the time to be thinking about sex. Why was I even thinking about sex right now?
"Jean, please slow down!"
I ignored him until I got to the highway. Right after I crossed the road, I heard the sound of flesh hitting the pavement, hard. I turned around to see that Marco had fallen onto the middle of the highway.
And there was a car coming.
I rushed back and hauled him up and to the side of the road where I had just been right before the car came whizzing by. Thanks for slowing down, fuckers.
Marco clung onto me, and he was shaking. "A-are you ok-kay?"
My jaw almost dropped in disbelief. He almost got hit by a god damned car, and he was asking if I was okay? "I believe that I should be asking you that. What were you thinking? Didn't you look both ways?"
"You didn't slow down, and I did look both ways, but I guess I didn't notice that my eye was acting up again, and I... I'm so sorry."
I felt like a total dick. If I had just stopped then we wouldn't have had this problem. And I already should have known that he must've been worn out from all the swimming. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't even think about how he must've felt or what he'd been trying to say.
Without thinking, I clutched him to my chest. His arms wrapped around me lightly, as if scared that I might run off again. His head was resting between my shoulder and neck, and I realized that we were the same height. He was still trembling.
"Don't apologize. It was my fault and we both know it. But the next time, you don't have to come after me."
"There's going to be a next time?" His voice sent vibrations into my chest. "We're still good?"
I took a deep breath and held him tighter as an answer.
* * *
It's finally published! I've been working on this chapter on and off for the past couple days, unsure of what to do. I didn't want to rush things, but I still wanted to put some substance in it, so I decided to just jump right in.
I may have lied when I said that I've been working on this for the past couple days. It was more like day and half or something. Very late at night one night not too long ago, I started watching Vampire Knight.
*Heavy angsty sigh*
I had to force myself to stop it when the TV glitched out, and I finished it all the next day. For some reason, I flipped shit so hard that my stepmother said she could hear me from downstairs while I was on the second floor in the bathroom, taking a shower. I'm not gonna tell you how it ended, but I actually burst into tears, saying, "That was the worst ending ever!" before I ran upstairs and screamed at my friends over the phone about it with occasional bouts of insane, knee-slapping laughter. I didn't manage to calm down until I made myself a cake in a mug.
Now, like three or four days later, I still don't know why I flipped out that much. All I know is that there is more in the manga, so I will be reading it.
Anyway, I always appreciate hearing your opinions on the story. Thanks for reading to this point.
--Shelby