7

01: people talking

Music floats through the air and over the salty waves that slosh on the sides of my childhood boat. Just yesterday it felt like the sun boiled our teenage hormones that made harbored all that angst. Deja vu flickers across my mind as I steady the boat and make my way up to the front where Keaton and Niall sip on beers.

The salty air grazes our skin in the soft breeze that tosses her golden waves. Keeping a loose hand on the steering wheel I steady us against the rambling soft waves that break against the boat.

"Can you believe this is the last day before our first year of med school?" Niall asked leaning on the railing with a relaxed stature.

"Can you believe that Harry is actually sober enough to remember our entire summer?" Keaton joked as I shook my head lifting my sunglasses off my face. Her golden blonde hair subtly blew in the breeze as she came up and nudged me gently.

"Hey now!" I banter knitting my brow together as I hear a soft throaty giggle come from the both of them.

"I mean you can't say she isn't right!" Niall joins in referencing the drunken and strung-out state I was in most of the time a few months ago.

"I am a reformed man now," I arch my brow shrugging my shoulders thinking about how just a few long months ago I had managed to have not only drinking and partying problems but a flair for being way too comfortable in different beds every night.

"You know I'm happy you are back to yourself, I missed this Harry," Keaton said setting her beer down and slipping her white slip dress off to expose her tanned body clad in a little bikini.

"I don't know, party Harry was pretty fun though," Niall disagrees shedding a better light on my party animal days.

To be completely honest it was all a blur. I knew that I had drunk a lot and even experimented with drugs here and there but I couldn't concretely remember anything. Every day had felt like an endless loop of the last. The only night I definitively remembered was when Keaton found me at a party. She was worried and I could faintly see those crocodile tears welling in her terrified eyes.

She wanted to be strong for both of us that night. She somehow took me back to her dorm where she fixed me up and held me through the cocktail of drug withdrawals. Niall wasn't there through a lot of the hopeless moments, he only knew the fun, Harry. Keaton knew better. She knew that although I had come off as the fun party animal, deep down I was self-medicating for the immense pressure surrounding my life at the time.

"He was, wasn't he?" I cocked a smile as Keaton rolled those sleepy brown eyes shaking her head.

"No, I don't think so," she starts, "you weren't the one cleaning vomit off of him!" She looks over at Niall hoisting herself up on the silver gleaming railing. She reaches her hand out to follow her. "Well come on let's get in!"

I follow after her and peel off my button-down, slipping over the railing to sit against it with Keaton. She squeezes my hand before we jump a foot into the water. The water engulfing me as I settle in the peaceful silence. Life was so noisy and it always had been, it was rare to find a truly comfortable silence. To feel supported without giving any assistance, but maybe I was making this way too deep.

Then again these were my last few moments before my world caved in and threatened to collapse.

"Come on! You old fart, it feels great!" Keaton teased as I broke the surface of the water. Niall sauntered over still holding his beer and looking questionably at the glistening water.

"Gentlemen don't swim," Niall countered back with taking another sip from the bottle.

"Is that just a fancy way of saying you don't know how to swim?" Keaton kicks her legs and I can't help but erupt in a throaty laugh. Niall ever since we were kids could never swim and was forced to wear a life jacket which he was embarrassed by. Then again he never tried to take lessons, swim lessons weren't far up his priorities list.