I Won't Let You Wilt

A Kiss

Basil surfaced from underwater, coughing. "Did I make it?"

"Congratulations!"

Sunny was teaching Basil how to swim at the local community center.

Back when he still lived with his mom in the city, Sunny had taken some swimming lessons. Having faced his fear of deep water when he tried to save Basil after Aubrey pushed him into the lake, he'd managed to learn how to swim fairly well, at least if you considered one style of moving through water to qualify for fairly well.

At least I'm not going to drown if I get pushed into the water again!

Swimming was a vigorous, aerobic exercise and four years spent indoors barely doing any exercise did not build up a healthy pair of lungs. Sunny discovered quite early in his swimming lessons that he lacked the lung capacity to do the front crawl as well as most other styles of swimming. Holding his breath for any length of time made him quick to cough and choke and sputter. He could only front crawl for a few feet before he ran out of breath and energy.

On the bright side, spending four years in a lying position on top of his bed meant he adapted himself quite well to the back crawl. The back crawl became the only style of swimming he used, and he'd gotten good enough at it to perform a couple of laps around the swimming pool in one go. It was the first swimming style he taught Basil how to do.

"How long did I take?" Basil asked.

"Three minutes and sixteen seconds," Sunny replied.

Basil smiled, wiping the water from his eyes. "I'm much faster with front crawl, aren't I?"

Sunny turned his eyes away with a hint of jealousy. "...Yeah."

Unlike himself, Basil had not wasted four years of body growth lying in bed, and maintaining a gardening hobby meant he also possessed a healthy pair of lungs that allowed him to hold his breath underwater for much longer periods of time than Sunny ever could.

Shortly after becoming comfortable with the back crawl, Basil wanted to try another, faster swimming style. Sunny then taught him what he remembered of the front crawl, the basic motions.

To his jealous astonishment, Basil learned the front crawl quickly and he was able to maintain it for way longer. Within only a couple of months of learning how to swim, Basil had surpassed Sunny's stamina and speed in water.

Basil had just completed his first lap around the swimming pool.

"Thank you so much for teaching me how to swim!" Basil said, giving Sunny a hug.

"It's nothing," Sunny replied. "I just don't want you to be helpless if you ever end up in deep water again."

"I'm starting to really enjoy swimming! Maybe I'll start swimming all year long now...or at least when I'm away from our garden..."

Gardening and swimming as your exercise hobbies?

You're going to become so healthy and strong...

"Sounds lovely," Sunny said with a genuine smile.

"I'm going to try to swim another lap."

Over the next hour, Sunny leisurely back crawled across the pool while Basil swam laps around him.

Ever since he received his exam results back, along with his high school diploma, Sunny had lived each day of his life in a steady, carefree manner. He wasn't interested in advancing his career at this time in his life, even though other college kids his age seemed to be working hard at that. He didn't feel any time pressure to write his novel either.