"Michael, please come get in the water with me. It's only two feet deep here and I promise I'll be holding on to you the whole time," Luke said softly, holding out his hands, "Nothing bad will happen. You promised you'd try and you'd let me teach you."
The black-haired boy stood shyly at the edge of the pool, watching Luke already up to his chest in the pool water. He could see that the blue-haired boy was on his knees and was waiting for him to get in.
"Can you hold my hand as I walk in?" Michael asked, his voice coming out as a whisper as he watched Luke get up and walk towards him.
Luke had convinced Michael to let him teach him a few swimming basics so that what happened the last time they went to the pool wouldn't happen again. It basically took a lot of bribery of not using fish puns and promising to buy pizza that made Michael finally agree.
They were at the community center's pool for the afternoon and Michael was trying to get in the pool without screaming and crying.
Luke grabbed onto the nervous boy's hands and slowly started inching his way into the water. The pool descended as the two boys walked in slowly and Michael panicked more.
Michael felt the same warmth again spread throughout his body and he felt a bit more at ease for being in the water.
"You're okay Michael. I got you," Luke said softly, leading Michael into the four feet of water area. He didn't want to go too deep but if they were too shallow they wouldn't be able to do a lot of swimming.
Luke helped Michael get up to his shoulders in the water and motioned for the black-haired boy to go all the way in. Michael soon quickly clung onto Luke when he got up to his ears. He definitely did not want to stick his head underneath the water.
Luke held onto the boy and soothingly ran his fingers along his back. "You're okay Mikey," Luke reassured, for maybe the one hundredth time.
Michael shivered, feeling Luke's hands on his bare back.
It didn't bother Luke that they both only had swim trunks on, he was raised around people that only had tails for the longest time. This was different for Michael though.
"How about we work on floating instead? It'll be very simple and you won't get hurt," Luke whispered, his voice a lot softer than normal.
This was a huge step for Michael and Luke wasn't about to scar him for life.
"Okay," Michael shakily breathed out.
Luke shifted his hand to rest on Michael's knees and the other to rest on Michael's middle back, slowly lowering the boy so that he was laying down in the timid water. The black-haired boy was very tense and Luke knew this would not end well if he stayed like that.
He tried to slowly lift the boy so that he was standing again but it took him by surprise and the boy started thrashing around, sputtering out water. Michael stood up so the water was at his waist again and glared at Luke.
"I was trying to help you! You can't be so tense! Water is your friend! This is not the open ocean and you have a lot of supervision, me and the life guards," Luke reassured and JT soon turned to rambling, "I won't let anything happen to you. You need to trust me. If I wanted you to drown I would've done something a long time ago. Trust me," Luke said softly.
Michael nodded his head slowly. He gulped but then allowed Luke to lay him back again and have him rest on his hands. He was much more relaxed now since Luke had told him what to do and he had a basis of how to float.
"I'm going to move my hands," Luke whispered. Technically he was giving Michael a warning, just not loud enough for the boy to hear.
Luke slowly moved his hands from underneath Michael but his plan obviously did not work when Michael clung to him like a koala.
"Michael. You're going to have to float on your own if you want to swim. You were doing so well. I was barely holding you," Luke grumbled, wrapping his arms around the taller boy that seemed so small clinging to him.
"Okay. Let's try again. I promise I'll try not to do this again" Michael sighed, he crawled off Luke and waited for the blue-haired boy to position his hands again.
Luke slowly lowered the boy so that he was back into a floating position and waited a bit before slowly removing the hand that was under Michael's knees. Everything was going well so he continued with moving his other hand. Michael was floating. He was actually floating by himself!
The water was pretty cold, the community center only heating it up when they knew they'd have a lot of people, and Michael was shivering. Well except on his back and knees. He liked the warmth that Luke would give him but he was so confused on why only he felt it.
Luke took the time that the black-haired boy was floating to admire his features.
The boy looked a lot more relaxed now and didn't look like he was about to die any second. Luke thought it was adorable the way Michael's nose undid the scrunch it had and how his hands came out of the balled fists they were in prior. Luke liked how his short, little fingers were splayed out on the top layer of the water.
He didn't know if it was Michael getting over his fear or his own presence helping relax the boy.
He watched as the boy shifted and stood up once again. Michael was beaming down at the smaller boy.
"Luke, I never thought I'd ever do that. You're incredible," Michael said excitedly. He was so proud of himself and Luke could tell.
Luke wrapped his arms around Michael's waist and pulled him in closely. He didn't really know what to tell the black-haired boy but he definitely was proud. So he just hugged him.
Michael took it as a response and there was not a problem.
"We can try you kicking next class. That will then lead us into arms and then finally putting the two together. You'll be a pro in no time," Luke said softly.
Michael nodded his head, his somewhat damp hair tickling Luke. Luke giggled softly and Michael hugged him tighter.
"Do you want to keep floating or do you want to go out and buy some Maccas?" Luke asked, waiting Michael's response. He was sure they looked weird to any passers, just two teenage boys hugging in the somewhat shallow end of the empty kiddie pool, but he didn't mind.
"Will you pay?" Michael asked in retaliation.
"Pay for what?" Luke asked, not really understanding what Michael was saying.
"Pay for my food. I didn't get money from my dad this week and can't really afford anything," Michael admitted sheepishly. He didn't have a job and he only lived off what his dad gave him every other week. He normally wouldn't have a problem with it but a new video game he had wanted had come out the week before and he spent all his money on it.
Now he just had to float his way through life until Sunday when he'd get paid again.
"Yeah, I can pay," Luke answered.
Michael pulled away and took off running to where the stairs were. It took Luke a second to realize that Michael was racing but soon took after him and started running to the now ascending pool ground.
Michael didn't realize how hard it was to push with water and Luke soon pushed forward. Luke stood waiting for Michael for a solid five seconds but Michael would argue that it was four and a half.
"Let's go get Maccas," Luke said, tugging on Michael's hands so that they would go to where their towels were.
And Michael felt that same damn warm feeling spread through out his body again.
***
Hey! So sorry for the long wait but I fell asleep updating. Here's a long update though to make up for it. It was such fluff I'm.
I will be going on a small hiatus most likely for the next week. Something happened in my family, a family emergency, and I'm going to be flying out in the next two or three days to be with them.
IF YOU COMMENT "update??" or "please update??!!!!" or SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES I WILL BLOCK YOU. ITS RUDE AND DISRESPECTFUL ESPECIALLY WHEN I UPDATE EVERY THREE DAYS. I AM ALLOWED TO TAKE A BREAK AND I AM DOING IT BECAUSE OF FAMILY REASONS. I WILL UPDATE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BUT RIGHT NOW I NEED TIME. I WILL BLOCK YOU AND I DONT EVEN CARE IF I HAVE TO CONTACT WATTPAD. I WILL.
Anyways, it's obnoxious when people comment asking for a update. Writers have lives and things happen in them. They update because they want not because they have to and it's very stressful when people ask for updates even though someone updated the day before.
Sorry about that little rant. I'm just having a bad day. I can't believe how much this book has grown and thank you for everyone supporting it. I love you all so much. Xx
-Lee