June 16, 2018
On Saturday, the yacht club party was at the Sterling-Staffords' house, much to my chagrin. I had managed to avoid Quentin for most of the summer, but I would almost certainly run into him when the yacht club party was at his house.
There were two things that comforted me, however. There was a junior league race before the party that I was sure to win, and there was always the possibility that Véro would show up at the party now that she was a member of the Clearwater Lake Yacht Club. When I woke up that morning, I thought of her, hoping that she would come to the party, and everything would be okay.
After breakfast, I immediately went outside and got ready to sail. Everett was still asleep, and Véro was nowhere to be found, but I did see Eden sailing her boat towards the starting line. I set sail and waved to her as I passed her. Eden shouted something back at me, but I wasn't listening to her. I had to focus on winning the race.
Once all of the members of the Junior Sailing League were at the starting line, Mom and Grandma, who were both on the judging committee, began the sequence of signals that would start the race. When Mom finally raised the flag for us to start, Brooke immediately glided over the starting line. By the time I made it past the starting line, several other sailors were already ahead of me, and I knew exactly why. I had become too reliant on my crew.
I caught up eventually, but I still could have gone faster. Eden nearly passed me at the very end of the race, and although I won the race, it felt like a loss. What would happen in the regatta, when there would be talented sailors from other yacht clubs? What would happen if I sailed like that?
Although Véro and I had practiced plenty, there was still a lot more work to do. I was far from perfect, and so was she. As I sailed back to shore, I was hopelessly disappointed by my own performance, and I promised that I would work harder next time. The regatta was coming up, and I had to be better by then.
By the time I returned to shore, Everett was awake and ready to annoy me all the way to the Sterling-Staffords' house. "Mom, Dad, can we sail to the Sterling-Staffords' house?" I asked.
"I don't see why not," Mom said.
"I don't want to go sailing," Everett complained. "It will be faster if we drive anyways."
"Everett has a good point, and we're already a little bit late," Dad said.
Mom thought about it and said, "I guess we'll drive. Come on, Sylvie, let's get in the car."
I groaned and hopped out of the sailboat. I quickly went inside to exchange my soaking wet clothes for something more appropriate for a party. Knowing that the Sterling-Staffords had a pool in their backyard, I put on a swimsuit under my clothes so I could go swimming when I got there. Then, I got into my parents' car. Dad turned the radio to a classic rock station, and Everett and I both sang along. An appreciation for our parents' music sometimes seemed like the only thing that I had in common with my brother.
When we arrived at the Sterling-Staffords', the party was already in full swing. My grandparents were busy talking to Quentin's grandparents, and most of the kids in the yacht club were swimming in the pool, with their parents chasing after them and warning them not to go into the deep end. I found the food table and took a burger and some chips. Then, I sat down at an empty table and searched for Véro.
At first, I couldn't find her. There weren't any purple-haired girls swimming in the pool or lounging around on the beach, so I simply assumed that Véro wasn't there yet. I texted her and asked if she was coming, but I didn't get a response. I would just have to make it through this party alone.
All of a sudden, Eden sat down next to me. "Hey Sylvie," she said. "What's up?"
"Not much," I said.
"Congratulations on winning the race today," Eden said. "You sailed really well."
"Thanks, Eden," I said.
"You're welcome," Eden said. "I haven't seen you around lately. Where have you been?"
"I've just been busy," I said.
"What have you been doing then?" Eden asked.
"I'm trying to prepare for the regatta," I said.
Eden grinned and said, "So you did find someone to crew for you!" I nodded, and she said, "That's awesome. Now we can sail against each other! I'm totally going to beat you though."
"No, I'm going to beat you," I said.
Eden laughed and said, "You'll probably win. So who's your crew?"
All of a sudden, Véro arrived with a beer in her hand and sat down across from Eden and I. "Hello Sylvie," she said.
"Who's this?" Eden whispered to me. "I've gone to every Clearwater Lake Yacht Club party since I was a baby, and I don't think I've ever seen this girl in my life."
"Eden, this is my neighbor Véro," I said. "Véro, this is my friend Eden."
"Ooh, I finally get to meet Véro!" Eden said. "It's so nice to meet you. Sylvie's told me a lot about you."
"I only mentioned her once!" I exclaimed.
"It's nice to meet you too, Eden," Véro said. "What has Sylvie said about me?"
"Oh, she just said that you were sweet, kind, extraordinarily attractive..." Eden said.
"I never said any of that," I said, blushing furiously.
"That's nice of her," Véro said, apparently not listening to me.
"I know, right?" Eden said.
"Eden, shut up," I said as I ate the last few chips on my plate. "Let's do something else."
"I want to go swimming," Véro said.
"That's a great idea," I said. I slowly climbed into the shallow end of the pool, but Véro clearly had other ideas. She climbed up onto the diving board and cannonballed into the deep end of the Sterling-Staffords' pool.
"Sylvie!" Véro shouted as she climbed out of the pool and ran to the diving board again. "What are you waiting for?"
I reluctantly swam to the deep end, climbed out of the pool, and walked up to the diving board. When I was little, the Sterling-Staffords' diving board always freaked out, and I could never figure out why. Now, I wasn't so afraid, but I wasn't exactly thrilled to be standing at the edge of the diving board, staring down at the deep water. I had swam in water far deeper than this, but this time, I could see exactly where the bottom was, and I couldn't figure out why, but that made me nervous.
"Seriously, Sylvie?" Véro said. "Just jump."
I closed my eyes, stepped off of the diving board, and fell into the water. Almost as soon as I entered the warm pool water, I swam towards the surface and gasped for air. I then swam toward Véro and splashed her.
"What was that for?" Véro asked.
"You didn't have to make me go off of the diving board," I said.
"It was fun though," Véro said as she swam toward the side of the pool, blissfully unaware of my fear. I followed Véro as she climbed out of the pool and dangled her toes in the water. "It's a shame that they only serve beer here," she complained. "I would have preferred a nice glass of wine."
"You're not even supposed to be drinking," I said.
"That's what Maman says, but Allah wouldn't mind something so trivial," Véro said.
"No, I wasn't saying that because your mother doesn't want you to," I said. "You're not twenty one yet. It's illegal."
"The drinking age in America is far too high," Véro complained. "Anyways, I think there is ice cream on the food table."
I looked towards the food table, and sure enough, my dad and Mr. Stafford were scooping out ice cream. I ran back to our table to dry off, and then I headed toward the food table for some ice cream. Dad didn't notice me at first, so I simply waited next to the table, listening in on his conversation with Mr. Stafford and hoping that he would notice me.
"As a father, I can't help but be a little disappointed in your daughter, Phil," Mr. Stafford said.
It took me a few seconds to register that they were talking about me, but once I did, I knew that I needed to keep listening. "Why is that?" Dad asked.
"She broke Quentin's heart," Mr. Stafford said. "He asked Sylvie out, and she rejected him."
"When did that happen?" Dad asked.
"At the Memorial Day party," Mr. Stafford answered. "Eden insisted that Sylvie's just picky, but Quentin told me that he thinks that she might be gay."
I froze, waiting to hear Dad's reaction. "I don't know if that's true, but even if it is, I don't really care," he said. "That's Sylvie's business, not mine. Besides, if I were you, I wouldn't believe every rumor that you hear."
Mr. Stafford grumbled something unintelligible, while Dad continued to scoop ice cream. A few minutes later, he looked up and saw me. "Hi Sylvie," Dad said. "Do you need anything?"
"Can I please have some ice cream?" I asked.
"Of course," Dad said. He handed me a bowl of chocolate ice cream, and I started to eat as I headed back to my table.
I shoveled ice cream into my mouth, trying not to cry. Mr. Stafford knew that I was gay - even if Dad didn't care, he could still tell Grandpa, and that would be disastrous. For someone who was supposed to be keeping a secret, I was doing a pretty terrible job of it. Only chocolate ice cream could comfort me now.
"Sylvie, are you okay?" Véro asked, clearly concerned for my well being.
"I'm fine," I insisted, but Véro saw through my lie.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"You wouldn't get it," I said. As far as I could tell, Véro had been openly bisexual for forever. She wouldn't understand.
Our conversation was interrupted by my dad's speech. "Hello everyone, and thank you for coming to the Sterling-Staffords' house today for this wonderful party!" Dad said. "I'd like to start off by announcing the winners for this weekend's sailing races. I'll start with the junior league. Today, Ashley Vega came in third place, Eden Reinhart came in second place, and Sylvie Morrison came in first place." The yacht club applauded, and Dad went on to announce the results for the adult leagues. This time around, Dad was smart enough not to mention Keep Clearwater Clear in front of Mr. Stafford. He keep the speech short and sweet, and once his speech was done, I knew that it was time to leave.
Mom, Dad, Everett, and I all went home immediately after Dad was done speaking - I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to Eden or Véro. We all stayed silent on the drive home, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
However, all of my thoughts went back to one thing. Although I had seen her only minutes earlier, I already missed Véro.