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TRACK 24

With (NO) love, Tyler-Jane Roberts

"There you are. What the hell are you doing out here?"

My eyes remained fixated on the pool, watching as the lights from the bottom danced along the surface. "How long can someone hold their breath underwater?"

"I don't know. A minute? Maybe two?" Weston said. "Why?"

"I want to try five."

"What do you mean you want to try five?"

I turned my head towards him. "I want to see if I can hold my breath for five minutes. You don't think I can, do you?"

Weston's eyes widened slightly, clearly confused from my babbling. "Teej, I don't know if you can even fucking swim. Why do you-" he cut himself off as I got to my feet. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to see if I can last five minutes."

"Are you-" he shook his head. "No, TJ, come on. Let's just go back inside where the rest of the party is and if you still want to test out this... experiment in the morning we can. Okay?"

Ignoring him, I turned back towards the pool and kicked off my shoes.

"TJ, please. Not while you're all fucked up. What if you drown?"

I shrugged my shoulders as my hands gripped the bottom of my shirt, pulling it up and over my head. "I'm okay with drowning," I mumbled, tossing the shirt on the ground. "You can either stay and time me or leave your watch so I can do it myself."

Unbuttoning my pants, I quickly caught a glimpse of Weston from the corner of my eye. He looked distraught, yet I had trouble understanding why - clearly it had nothing to do with me standing in my underwear. It's not like he had never seen me like this before. If he wanted to go back inside so badly, he could. It didn't matter whether it was him timing me or I did it myself. I kicked my jeans to the side, letting it join my shirt and the bottle I had been drinking from.

"Are you going to time me or not?"

Weston let out a distraught sigh and nodded his head. "Yeah, fine, whatever. But as soon as you need to come up for air, do so. Okay?"

"We'll see about that," I whispered, walking towards the edge of the pool.

"TJ," Weston warned.

I looked over my shoulder and forced a smile. "I'm just kidding. I promise I will."

With one long stride, I leapt into the pool. I stayed under for a few seconds, allowing myself to become adjusted to the cool temperature, before swimming back up to the top. Half of my reason for doing so was to ensure Weston would actually time me; the other half was to show him that I could swim back up to the top.

I pushed my hair out of my face. "Ready?"

Weston stood near the edge with his watch in hand. "I guess," he said with a look full of concern. "You promise to come up, right?"

"Yes, Dad." I rolled my eyes.

Taking in a large breath of air and plugging my nose - to avoid cheating, of course - I pushed my body back under the water, submerging myself below the surface. It was quiet here. Peaceful. The sounds of the blaring music coming from the house were now muted. I felt utterly alone with just my own thoughts to keep me company, and I quite enjoyed that feeling right now.

Opening my eyes, I turned around, taking in the view of the four tiled walls. Looking down, I noticed the design of a turtle on the floor. The green colour sparked under the lights; for a second I thought it was swimming along with me.