When I got home last night, Matt and Jane had been sleeping on the couch, the home and garden channel flipped on the tv. Turns out it wasn't just for middle aged men and their sons. I snuck up the stairs into my room, being careful to skip the creaky fourth step.
Clover was waiting for me in her room, wagging her tail vigorously. I gave her a quick pat on the head before jumping into my bed, staring at my phone screen until it lit up.
555-479-2347
Hey, long time no see!
I rolled my eyes but laughed, my thumbs fluttering across the keyboard.
To 555-479-2347
I know, right! Definitely should meet up sometime soon.
555-479-2347
Will do.
At that point I had put my phone away and drifted off to sleep. It was late, and Clay and I had stayed up on that roof talking long enough for our Dixie cups to sog with the water.
Now, though, I had Matt hovering above me, his hot morning breath nearly suffocating me. "Good morning!" He said excitedly before ripping my sheets off of me, exposing me to the cold, cold world.
"Matt!" I groaned and rolled over.
"Matt, what did I tell you about doing that?" I heard a familiar voice in my doorway. I turned back over to the other side and saw Jane in my doorway, fully dressed with her hair up in a neat ponytail, complete with a sparkly pin. Matt brought home a girl who uses sparkly hair pins, I thought to myself, rubbing my eyes and doing a double take to see if it was real. Sparkly hair pins. I then looked to my brother, whose hair was still uncombed, teeth unbrushed and only had shorts on, underneath which I prayed was underwear. "And weren't you supposed to start getting ready an hour ago? We have a brunch to get to!"
"It's Wednesday?" I said. Interesting day for a brunch.
"He's meeting my parents," Jane clarified.
"I'm meeting her parents," Matt repeated after her, as if he'd remembered this all along. I raised an eyebrow at him and he leaned in closer, whispering, "Pray for me," as he looked to the heavens above.
"Alright," I said. "But unless this 'brunch' is being held in my room, I'd like you all to extract yourselves from the premises." Jane nodded and stepped in to grab Matt's hand, pulling him out after her. Matt held up his free hand as half of a 'prayer hands', looking up and mouthing "pray for me". I snorted but covered my mouth, not wanting Jane, who apparently took this very seriously, to hear.
Once they were gone I rolled out of bed, walking into the bathroom where Clover had decided to spend the night. She woke up at the sound of my footsteps, following me around all the way through my morning routine. As I was finished my last few bites of cereal, Clover sauntered into the kitchen with her leash in her mouth.
"Someone's excited, huh?" I said as I finished pulling on my shoes and clipped her leash to her collar. Clover proceeded to pull me to the door, impatiently huffing as I opened it and turned around to make sure it had locked behind me. "Chill, Clover!" I hushed her.
She had apparently been very excited to get to the Tree that morning, and our daily walk turned into more of a run. By the time we got to the Tree, I was breathing much heavier than I should have been. "I need to work out," I muttered to myself, ducking through the curtain of leaves and bending down to take Clover's leash off.
After dusting myself off and catching my breath, I turned to my chaise, stopping in my tracks. Déjà vu.
"And so we meet again." Clay said, taking a sip from his cup, this time a plastic coconut. The same neon sunglasses rested on his forehead, the same bike manual laying spine-up on his thigh.
"What are you doing here?"
"Eh," Clay shrugged. "Needed a quiet place to work on, well..." He nodded to his still mangled bike, which was propped up against the trunk.
"What's in that cup anyways?" I asked, looking over the rim and deterred by the odd color.
"Happy juice," Clay said. I raised a brow, to which he looked at me innocently. "Apple juice, what were you thinking?"
I rolled my eyes. "Haven't you realized this is kind of my daily thing?" Clay simply took his sunglasses off of his head, folded them and tipped them towards the trunk, all in one swift move. I looked above his bike and there was a yellow piece of paper from a legal pad tacked to the trunk, messy handwriting scribbled on it. "'Tree Time'?"
"To answer your question, yes, I've realized, but I like it here too, so I thought we should share. You've got midnight till noon on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then noon to midnight on Tuesday and Thursday. I've got all the time you aren't here."
I squinted at the bottom of the paper, where there was something in particularly bad scribbling that looked as if it had been erased and then hastily rewritten. "Coexisting hours?" I read slowly.
"Well, all species need to coexist in order to thrive," Clay explained.
"Species?"
"Males and females? Totally different worlds if you ask me."
"Ah, yes. The incompetent mind of the male is far less competent than that of the female."
"Agh," Clay grimaced cartoonishly, his hand over his heart. "That one burned."
I turned my attention back to the paper. "Well, you've certainly put a lot of thought into this."
"True. A whole thirty seconds worth of it."
I shook my head, realizing what was happening. "Wait, who even gave you the right? This is my stuff." I stepped closer, my eyes slits.
Clay stood, puffing out his chest to see manlier even though he couldn't have been more than four or five inches taller than me. "It's a public area."
I took another step forward, looking up and realizing maybe he was a little taller than me than I anticipated. "Do you want proof otherwise?"
He advanced, proving that he was way taller than I had judged, but before he could give another counterpoint I turned and scrambled up the ladder to my treehouse, tearing off an ages-old paper from the inside wall and hurrying back down, skipping the last four rungs. I handed him the paper, which was yellowing in the margins and the ink was smeared after an emergency operation trying to salvage it from a rainfall.
"Is this... crayon?" Clay asked, holding the document at arm's length.
"Read it!" I urged him.
"The Bureau of Land Management of the United States of America recognizes this land as belonging to the name Eva May, and it's notarized by Matthew May." Clay squinted at the paper. "And you spelled 'management' wrong."
I snatched the paper from him, reviewing it. He was right. "Okay, but I was a 9 year old with a crayon and knew what 'notarized' meant," I defended, holding the paper close to my chest.
"I mean, I'm not one to argue with a legal document..." Clay trailed off, wandering away to the vines.
I looked down at the paper, and before I could think twice about it-- which I always did --I tore the paper in half, dropping the halves on the ground. "Sharing is caring." Before he could comment, I walked over to the trunk and looked at Clay's scribbled on the paper tacked to it. I looked at my name, with "midnight to noon" and "M W F" written under it. "Clay, what day is it?"
"Wednesday?"
"And the time?"
"Say no more," Clay walked back over and quickly his stuff and put his sunglasses over his eyes. "You'd better be out by noon though!" He called over his shoulder, and just like that, he was gone.
I piddled around the tree for a bit, not really sure what to do now that I knew I had a limited amount of time to do it. First I picked up the halves of my "legally bound" contract, contemplating what had gotten into me. Carefully I put them back up in the treehouse, stored neatly in in the trap door on top of my journals. I also messed with Clay's bike for a bit, even though I knew he'd be pretty angry if he found out I did, but he didn't strike me as someone that could really get angry about anything. My levels of boredom were so high I climbed back up the rickety old ladder to the treehouse and read a few of my journals, many of which from several years ago. Apparently, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and eating it on the porch with Clover was classified as adventure journal worthy to eight year old Eva.
I stowed away everything in the treehouse and moved back down to my chaise, inviting Clover onto it with me. We sat for a while before I was really bored, and checking my watch, I realized it was nearly 11, the time the local pool opened. I texted Tia asking if she wanted to go. After some coaxing and promises that I would spill all, yes all, of the details from the apparently magical housewarming with Clay the night before, Tia agreed. She would've gone anyways, because I had no doubt in my mind that she had bought a new bikini on vacation that she wanted to show off, but playing mind games was a beloved tradition of ours.
Clover and I made our way home and I was pleased but confused to discover upon opening the fridge that there was fresh cut fruit and a note addressed to me folded next to it. I pulled out the tray and began munching on the crisp strawberries while I read the note, which said:
Eva,
So nice to meet you, and I hope to see you again soon!
xoxo
Jane
After this, I simply concluded that either Jane was a robot Matt and Brad had accidently concocted in their stupidity, or the Matt I had been seeing for the past two days was not him and had to be an alien, for the Matt I knew would've never attracted a girl as amazing as Jane.
***
I decided to leave Clover at home while I went to the pool, because the last time I brought her there was an incident involving ice cream, a bush, a four year old and some sunscreen that I'm not willing to discuss.
Tia and I had developed the talent of being able to arrive at places at the same time. Some girls synchronize their cycles, we synchronize our clocks. Tia and I pulled into parking spaces next to each other, rare as the pool was usually packed at this opening hour. We met up at the curb of the entrance, linking arms like some cliche teenage movie before laughing at ourselves and separating to retrieve our membership cards from our wallets.
Once inside, we realized that people must've carpooled, because the amount of people inside did not match the parking availability outside. Tia pestered me with questions nonstop as we circled the pool deck thrice in an attempt to find chairs. At last we found a pair by the diving boards, left empty by other people because they were in a particularly susceptible splash zone.
I continued to feed Tia mumbled, generic answered to her questions as I took off my t-shirt and applied sunscreen to my still pale but promisingly tanning shoulders. Finally she got frustrated with me, exclaiming, "I thought you said you were going to spill!"
"Patience is a virtue," I answered calmly, placing my shades over my eyes and leaning back into my chair.
"You sound like my mom," Tia huffed, crossing her arms. "Will you at least tell me how the housewarming went?"
"Well," I said. "I found out his dad is dying, his mom left, and their home decor is a hot mess." Tia's jaw hung open, her eyes wide. "I'm kidding! Well, sort of."
"Please tell me you talked about something other than death--" Tia paused, leaning in and lowering her voice. "Did you spill about the clocks?! I wasn't there to stop you, and you fumble meeting new people all the time, and--"
"I didn't say anything!" I said. "Thanks for your faith in me, though."
Tia held her hands up in surrender. "Hey, I'm not the one who almost spilled to my idiot and blabbermouth brother on several occasions and the only thing stopping me was my best friend." I rolled my eyes. Tia was nothing short of dramatic. I picked up my water bottle, pretending to take a sip before pointing it at her and squeezing the cheaply made plastic middle, spewing the contents all over her freshly-sunscreened chest. Tia squealed and jumped up in protest, nearly knocking over the elderly couple passing behind her.
"You're so going to pay!" She shouted, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet, practically dragging me to the pool. I damned her gymnast's strength and my noodle arms as she practically threw me into the water, soaking everything, my hair and all.
I looked up at Tia smirking on the pool deck and was about to yell at her, but a clock changing numbers at an alarming speed caught my eye. The kid next in line for the diving board had a clock that was going faster than I'd ever seen, two minutes turning into a minute and thirty, and by the time he climbed up the ladder he had thirty seconds left. Tia snapped her fingers in front of my face and before she had time to react to me I swam off faster than I ever had before, ducking under the lane rope to the diving pool and ignoring the lifeguard's objections as I swam towards the little boy's board. As he took the plunge I saw his body go limp and I panicked, swimming faster. I met him as he met the water, shaking violently.
Everything after that happened in slow motion. I grabbed the boy and tried to hold him still as I dragged him over to the edge of the pool, where some lifeguards were there to meet me while others sat shocked in their chairs. Within moments there were tens of people dialing on their phones, their hands shaking as they explained to 911 operators what was happening. With the help of another lifeguard I heaved the boy onto the pool deck as he continued to shake. His mother tried to break through the huddle of life guards around him, held back by two guards who were assuring her that her son would be okay, that it was best if she stayed away so medical professionals could handle if. She screamed at them, asking why this had to happen to her son, why didn't anyone stop it, why did they allow him to dive. They couldn't do anything but hold her back.
After what seemed like a century a stretcher was rushed in and two men lifted the boy onto it, a woman and another man quickly buckling restraints over the still shaking boy. I was still in the water at the edge of the pool, my hair slicked to my neck, my hands quivering. The guards were clearing the way, the ambulance team shouting, the mother screeching, the people in commotion and I sat in the water, alone.
Tia, the only one who ever seemed to notice me, rushed over to me, pulling me out of the water and wrapping her arm around me as I began to process what had just happened. What Tia understood that I knew no one else would even if I told them about the clocks is the guilt that comes with them. The fact that I felt responsible for whatever happened to that boy because I was the only one that had even a hint about his fate, and that since I knew about it if I hadn't taken advantage of it soon enough or hadn't been quick enough about it and if he died I was responsible. The clocks made me feel as if I was constantly being selfish and that I needed to give all of myself to everyone all the time and if there was one moment when I didn't try to play savior and something happened, it was automatically my fault.
Nothing like this had happened since I was 12 and couldn't save a squirrel from becoming roadkill and mourned it for days on end. This was definitely on a higher scale.
Tia eventually pulled me away from the pool to our chairs, where she wrapped a towel around my shoulders and sat with me in silence. The rest of the crowd was either too disturbed by the scene and went home or had returned to their waterpark activities.
After sitting with me in silence for an unidentifiable amount of time, Tia spoke up. "You can't keep blaming yourself, Eva."
I couldn't count the number of times she had told me that over the course of our friendship. Inside I knew she was right, but whenever I would look for answers to the reason for something happening, I'd land on myself like there was a big red X on my forehead I kept coming back to. Like a broken record I would spin round and round, continuing to tell myself it was my fault, the same way Tia's repetitive tune told me that I couldn't have done anything more than I did, no matter the outcome.
After she and I went back and forth between our usual argument of me saying that I could've done something and her telling me it isn't so Clay walked up to me, confusion spread across his face. Great, I thought.
"Hey, Eva," he said, subtly stepping away from Tia, who was glaring at him. "What, like, well," Clay stumbled over his words, stepping farther and farther away from Tia. "What happened back there?"
"It was just a coincidence, I don't know," I mumbled.
"I dared her to go into the diving area and it just happened," Tia cut in, beginning to gather our stuff into her bag. "And she's just kind of shocked about what happened because she doesn't deal with anything more thrilling than a pile of bricks well." Of course, Clay knew this wasn't true but before he could object Tia had pulled me to my feet and was ushering me out the door.
"You okay to drive?" She asked me, putting my things into the back of my car. "I still can't believe that random guy just came over to us! How'd he know your name?" I realized that I was still just wearing my bikini and jumped in the back to grab my shirt before she closed the door. "Oh, and you come over to my place okay? Don't even go home."
"I'll be fine," I assured her. "And hey Tia?"
"Yeah?"
"That was Clay," I said before closing my door and driving away.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please vote, comment and share!