Home > Up In Flames(2)

Up In Flames(2)
Author: Nicole Williams

Once I kicked to the surface, I rolled onto my back and floated for a couple minutes. I felt better. Not earth shatteringly better, but enough to make it count. Enough so I knew that when I got out and back to reality, I’d be able to resume smiling at all the right times and saying the right things.

The swimming hole was surrounded by a circle of giant oak, maple, and willow trees, which was part of the reason the water always stayed so cool. Hardly any direct sun could make it through the canopy of trees, but as I floated around the hole, I found a hand-sized patch of blue sky shining through the glossy green leaves. After staring at that ray of light for a while, I moved into deeper water.

Since the summer I turned twelve, I’d developed something of a swimming hole tradition. It was part competition with myself, part therapy, but it was all sacred.

Once I’d paddled over the deepest part of the hole, I exhaled, forcing all of the air out of my lungs.

And then I started to sink. I always started with a couple warm-ups where I’d only sink a few feet beneath the water before resurfacing. But today wasn’t just about warming up; today was about breaking the record I’d set two summers ago when Logan and I first starting dating. I sunk for a total of thirty-five seconds that year, far surpassing my previous record of twenty-seven seconds. Last summer I’d come within one second of breaking that record, but I was determined that this summer, I’d annihilate that record.

After the day I’d had, I could really use that record breaker. I filled my lungs to capacity before slowly letting that breath out through my nose. As soon as I was below the surface, I started to count. The longer I counted, the blacker the water around me got. The farther my body fell below the surface, the colder the water got. Deeper and deeper I sunk until my lungs started to burn. The last of the oxygen was gone after ten seconds.

I pushed past the burn and ignored the fear that clawed at me when the black got opaque around me. I was three seconds away from tying the record. Four seconds away from breaking the record.

Two more seconds down, two more to go. My lungs had gone from that burning feeling to feeling like raw open wounds. I felt myself go a little light headed when something grabbed a hold of me.

I jolted in surprise as a strong arm wound around my middle before I was towed to the surface. The instant my head broke through the water, I gulped in a mouthful of air. The arm wound around me didn’t let me go, and as I took a second gulp of air, I felt a few emotions trickle into my veins: I’d been so close.

So close to breaking my record and this arm and its owner had ruined it.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I gasped, shoving out of the arm’s hold and swimming a few strokes away.

“You’re welcome. Happy I could be of assistance and I’m even happier to have you show your utmost appreciation for saving your life,” a male’s voice replied with a strong dose of sarcasm. It wasn’t a familiar one.

When I’d put some distance between us, I twisted around. His face wasn’t familiar either, but a girl wouldn’t mind getting familiar with that kind of face.

That was, if a girl wasn’t with another guy who was the town’s unofficial crown prince.

“I wasn’t drowning,” I said, biting back the you idiot part. “I was swimming.”

“You were under the surface for over thirty seconds,” he said, swimming closer. I backed away until my feet hit the sandy loam. “I thought you were drowning. What was I supposed to do? Just let you go down without a fight?”

Sinking my feet into the sand, I stood up. “No. You’re supposed to ask a person if they want saving before you go all hero on them.”

Hero boy’s mouth curved up when his eyes drifted south. “Thank God.”

“No, not ‘thank God’ for you interrupting my efforts to break a sinking record,” I snapped back.

“I’m thanking God for something else right now.” The look on his face was one I’m sure God wouldn’t approve of and, if it wasn’t for the way it was making me breathe a little short, I wouldn’t have approved either.

“What are you thanking him for?” I said, ready to get out of the water and leave this stranger, who was both infuriating and appealing at the same time thanks to his own life-saving, god-thanking ways.

That was when I remembered I was swimsuit impaired in waist deep water. A fact that wouldn’t have escaped my mind if it hadn’t been so oxygen deprived.

“Right now,”—one brow arched—“I’m thanking him for cold water.”

I glanced down, already mortified.

Yep. That dreamy look in his eyes and that twisted smile all made sense now. As if my bare boobs weren’t enough, my ni**les were on high beams for his viewing pleasure.

I ducked beneath the surface so he had nothing but a neck up view. His expression didn’t change as much as I thought it would. “For someone who can stare like that at a girl’s . . .” I stumbled for the right word to use. I fumbled even more trying to verbalize it.

“Rack?” the grinning boy suggested.

“Chest,” I added with a tight smile. “For someone who can stare at an unsuspecting girl’s chest for half a minute, I wouldn’t take that person to be the thanking God, religious type.”

“I’m not,” he said with a one-shouldered shrug. “But after just witnessing that wonder of the world, I might change my mind.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How long have you been here?”

   
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