Happy new years everyone!! woo, 2016!
~
Bea Ashby:
"Beatrice, we'll be back around two!" Dad yells from downstairs.
"Okay!" I shout back as I rummage through my things.
I'm currently in the middle of organizing my closet. It's so messy in here, I have too many clothes!
"Whatcha doing?" Noah's annoying voice is heard from my doorway.
"Get out of my room, Noah." I don't even bother looking back as I pull a few racks of shirts from my closet and drop them onto my bed.
Instead of leaving, Noah jumps onto my bed and I turn to cross my arms over my chest as he makes himself comfortable on my bed, putting his arms behind his head and locking his ankles. "Nah, I'm good."
I pick up bunched up t-shirt from the floor and chuck it at Noah, hitting him right in the face, "Leave."
"No," Noah grumbles annoyingly, pulling my shirt off his face. "I'm bored."
"That's not my problem, now leave. I'm busy cleaning out my closet."
Noah huffs, jumping off my bed. He walks to my door before turning back around. "Are you spending today with Justin?"
"Probably," I mumble, looking back over at my closet. I pull out a yellow top I haven't worn in forever and toss it to the floor in the pile of clothes I planned on giving away.
"I think Vince said you guys were going to go swimming? Good luck with that." He laughs and I roll my eyes.
"I don't even know how you're going to do that," Noah continues walking out the room and I huff. He knows I can't swim and he likes to mention it whenever he can.
Growing up I hated being in the water, but my dad doesn't know that. He actually thinks I can swim and I haven't told him that I skipped all my swimming lessons when I was younger.
After two very long hours of cleaning out my closet and bedroom, I go downstairs and call Jamie. When she doesn't answer, I huff and put my phone back into my pocket. She must be at tennis practice. A few seconds later, my phone buzzes and I pull it out thinking it's Jamie calling me back.
It's not. Instead, it's my dad. "Hey dad,"
"Hi Beatrice. Justin and I are on our way back right now. He isn't feeling very well so it looks like you guys are going to have to hold back from your swimming day. Is that alright?"
I let out a sigh of relief. "Of course," I reply smoothly.
Dad bids me a goodbye and I hang up, skipping upstairs. Ten minutes later I hear the front door open and the sound of my dad's keys jiggling as he walked. "Bea! Noah! We're back," Dad yells. I slip off my bed and walk down the stairs.
Justin is making his way up, stomping as he does so. Our shoulders brush harshly, but he doesn't even look back as he makes his way up the last few steps and goes straight to his room, shutting the door close with a loud 'bang!'
I raise an eyebrow at my dad and he sighs, rubbing his temple. "Justin didn't take the check up too well... we stopped by the office today too. They needed to check up on his behaviour which he didn't like. He threw a tantrum so we had to calm him down. It wasn't too good and now he's grumpy."
Slowly nodding, I start to make my way upstairs. I'm about to enter my room, but instead, I press my ear against Justin's door. I don't hear anything at first, but then I hear some low incoherent mumbling from the other side of the door from Justin.
I want to knock, but I hold myself from doing so. He needs to cool down.
So instead, I head to my room where I hide out for the rest of the day.
~
"You must be really hooked on the idea of us going swimming," I groan as dad leads us outside. Today is another day and dad is still trying to get me and Justin to hang out.
"You know it, Beatrice."
I sigh, following behind him.
Justin is already outside, peering into the pool water. I never use the pool, but Noah is usually out here swimming laps, which he happens to be doing now.
We watch as he finishes up and get's out the water. He grabs a towel off one of the chairs by the pool. "All yours," He grins knowingly. The little shit is well aware that I can't swim and he's been irking me about it since yesterday.
I suck in a breath, "Great..." I sigh deeply.
Dad pats my shoulder, "Have fun you two," He says loudly to both Justin and I, "If anything happens, come tell me right away. Some doctors are coming by this afternoon to check up on Justin's behaviour, okay?" Dad whispers lowly so only I could hear. I nod and he sends me a smile before walking back into the house with Noah.
Justin is still staring off into the water. He's got on a pair of swim trunks and a t-shirt with his hair falling over his hard features as he peers down into the depth of the pool.
"You know how to swim?" I ask, walking around to the other end of the swimming pool where there's a diving board. I go to the edge and sit down next to it, letting my feet dip into the water. It's not the warmest, but it wasn't too cold either. All I get in response from Justin is a grunt as he dips a foot in.
I look away for a second and when I look back, Justin is in the middle of unzipping his trunks.
"Woah, what the hell are you doing?" I shout, covering my eyes before he could drop his pants.
I peak through my fingers and see Justin looking back at me with a confused expression on his face. His head is slightly tilted to the side and he's examining me from a distance, trying to figure out why I'm so shocked. Thankfully, he hasn't dropped his pants yet.
"Don't take your pants off. You go into the water with them."
Justin just stares back and I sigh, standing up. I motion to my shorts and say, "Keep on." And then I point to the water.
Still nothing.
Groaning, I walk over to Justin who still looks confused about all of this. "Pants on in the water," I slowly say, using hand motions to try and get my point out there.
Finally, something seems to spark in Justin as he slowly removes his hands from the top of his bright green and yellow pants. "You get it?" I ask and he nods. I watch as he walks to the edge of the pool before jumping right in the deep end.
Holy shit. I rush to the edge and wait to see what happens next. A few seconds later, I see his image resurface in the water and I sigh in relief. Okay, at least we know for sure that he can swim. I watch as he attempts to shake out the droplets. Justin's long hair is sticking to his face and I hold back a giggle as he struggles to push it away from his eyes.
"Justin, come here," I call out for him, fiddling with my extra elastic band. He swims over swiftly to where I sit at the edge of the pool. It's much more shallow over here so when he stands, the water drips off his body and his hair hangs heavily. "Closer," I whisper, clearing my throat.
Justin doesn't say a word or grunt as I slowly reach over to touch his hair. He flinches at first, not letting me touch it and I quickly put my hands up in surrender. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to tie your hair back." I say. I'm not sure if he quite understood me, but he hesitantly moved forward again.
"Turn around," My voice comes out in soft tones. Surpassingly enough, he listens, giving his back towards me.
I reach out to grab a few strands of hair before pulling them back from his face. I make sure there's no bumps before tying his hair back. "You really need a haircut," I mutter under my breath.
When I'm done, I let go of his hair and inspect my work. He looks good, if I'm being honest.
Justin lifts both hands to feel his hair to see what I did with it and I smile when he grunts in approval. "Much better, right? It won't get in your face." He nods before sinking back into the water.
I stay seated and watch as he freely swims around, doing a few laps and just being in the water for about an hour before he swims back over to me. "B-bea no come in water?" He asks slowly, trying to put his words together.
His question takes me by surprise, "Um... no. I can't swim." I tell him truthfully, looking down at my feet in the water. At this angle, they look disoriented as the water ripples around my skin.
The feeling of a wet hand being placed on my thigh startles me, earning a little yelp in response. Looking up, I meet Justin's eyes. I don't make a move to push away his hand even though I probably should. He just keeps it there, not making bothering to remove it either.
"Hey guys," A new voice pipes in and I jolt in surprise, moving Justin's hand off so fast that he didn't even blink. I twist my body around and see my dad smiling at me. Behind his figure stands a few people who I assume are the doctors here to observe Justin.
I arch an eyebrow at my dad, silently asking him if that's them and he nods subtly. When I look back into the pool, I'm surprised to meet an empty space as I examine the water. I didn't even hear Justin swim away. I don't even see him right now. Searching the water, I spot a pair of green and yellow trunks gliding on the other end of the pool. Damn, he's quiet and fast. He's clearly been swimming for a while. If he taught himself or learned from someone else, I don't know, but swimming obviously isn't something new for him from everything that's happened this past hour.
Justin's underwater for a quite awhile and I start to panic. "Um, dad?" I call out. He seems to notice my worry as he furrows his brows and walks around the pool. Justin is still in the same spot, but he hasn't come up to the surface.
"Do you think he...?"
"No," I instantly say, rushing to the other side. He couldn't. Just when I'm about to suggest for someone to jump in, Justin slowly remerges to the surface and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"Did you tie his hair back?" Is the first thing my dad notices.
I sheepishly nod. "Yeah... it was getting in his way."
He doesn't respond to that. Instead, my dad excuses himself after scolding Justin for scaring us like that before leaving to talk to the two other doctors watching. I notice they got a little closer than they were before which caused Justin to swim farther back.
Oh.
He doesn't like them. I snort, glancing back at the doctors who were writing down on clipboards and talking among themselves in hushed tones.
For the next fifteen minutes, Justin keeps swimming until everyone, but me, leaves the backyard and retreats into the shade. Soon, he's climbing out the water and grabbing a towel to dry himself off. His hand reaches to pull the hair tie out, letting dark strands fall back into his face before offering the elastic back to me.
He grunts and I take that as his way of thanking me and I timidly smile, taking it back and putting the elastic back onto my right wrist.
Turning away, I walk to leave the pool area when I slip on a wet puddle from where Justin pulled himself out the water. I gasp loudly and just when I'm about to fall right into the water, a hand grabs onto bicep, pulling me into their chest before I could fall in.
"Careful, Avocado." Justin's low voice says in my ear and I'm too shock to reply as he let's go off my arm and walks away, water dripping down his body.
He saved me before I could fall in.
And he called me an Avocado...?