The Switch

Chapter 2: Will

Earlier this morning, our friend group decided to meet at a cafe not too far from our apartment complex. I'm walking out my door as Courtney steps out of her apartment. "Hey," I say to her.

"Hey," she says back as she makes her way to the elevator.

I follow her and catch up as she rounds the corner. "These two days are going to be painful," I whine.

She turns around after pressing the "up" button on the panel. "Yeah, I know."

"So, are you, I don't know, excited?" I ask her.

Courtney shrugs, "I guess so, yeah."

Awkward silence ensues in the time that the elevator takes to reach us. After what seems like an eternity, the elevator doors open. We both step onto it and press the button for the fifth floor. As the elevator travels up two floors, I don't even attempt to make small talk. Courtney obviously didn't want to talk to me, so I don't even try.

The elevator comes to a halt and the doors open once again. We make our way to Kyle and Hayley's apartment and knock on the door. Hayley opens the door and I smile at her. She smiles back at me and steps past Courtney to take my hand. "Kyle will be out in a minute. He's getting dressed," she says to Courtney.

Courtney nods and we all stand awkwardly in the hall, waiting for Kyle's slow ass to get out here. Another eternity seems to pass before he walks out into the hallway and slips his fingers through Courtney's like it's the most natural thing to him.

I pull Hayley through the hallway and make my way towards the elevator and press the "down" button. She lets go of my hand as Kyle and Courtney round the corner. Their fingers are intertwined and they don't seem like they have any intention of letting go. I tear my eyes away and try to convince myself that it means nothing. After all, I was just holding hands with Hayley.

The elevator doors open and we all step inside. Kyle presses the button for the ground floor and the elevator begins to descend. Nobody speaks on the way down or as we walk out of our complex. Hayley loops her arm through mine while we walk to the cafe. Since we're in front of Kyle and Courtney, I can't see what they're doing, and frankly, I don't want to know.

I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing was a good idea. It seems like we probably shouldn't have done this, but I guess we can't quit now. I turn the corner and spot the cafe about a block away. When we reach it, I hold the door for everybody and enter last. We head to the counter to order our drinks and then find a table.

On one side, there's Kyle and Courtney, and on the other, me and Hayley. I watch painfully as Courtney leans on Kyle.

"Will," the barista calls.

Great timing. I stand up and grab mine and Hayley's drinks. Once I hand Hayley her coffee, I sit back down. I sling my arm around her and when she leans her head on my shoulder, I can tell she's feeling the same way about how Kyle and Courtney are acting.

The barista calls Kyle's name a second later and he gets up. "So Courtney," I start. "What are you guys doing later?"

She begins talking as Kyle sits back down. "I thought we were all going to hang out today."

Kyle directs his attention to me. "Do you have other plans?"

I shake my head. "Do you?"

He scoffs, "Nope."

With a nod, I take a sip of my coffee and remove my arm from around Hayley's shoulders. "Anyway guys, where should we go for the rest of the day?"

Courtney pipes up, "We could go to the beach."

"Sure," Hayley says.

Kyle groans, "We should've decided this before we left. Now we all have to go back to change."

"Don't be so negative, it's not that long of a walk," I chide.

He rolls his eyes. "Whatever, we're not leaving now, though."

"Obviously not, we just got here," Hayley says.

Kyle nods and we all continue talking for a while. Nothing is too out of line while we talk and when we walk back to our apartments an hour or so later, the only thing Courtney and Kyle did was hold hands. Maybe this isn't so bad. We'll be fine, I'm sure.

***

We're walking to the beach after getting changed. It's about two in the afternoon now, and it's only the eighth hour of the switch. I'm missing Courtney, especially as I see her cling to Kyle's arm on the way to the beach. I lace my fingers through Hayley's as we walk behind them.

Once we reach the beach, we find a decent area to put our things down and spread out a few towels. I pull my shirt over my head and while Hayley's attention is mostly focused on Kyle, I see her eyeing me every few seconds. She tugs her shorts off and takes her shirt off, revealing a red bikini. I can't help but stare.

Kyle catches me staring and glares, but not for long. He resumes his focus on Courtney who is now lying on one of the towels. Kyle sits down next to her and they start chatting away about something. I don't care enough to listen and I grab Hayley's hand.

"Where are we going?" she asks me as I pull her towards the ocean.

"The water," I say, grinning.

Hayley smiles back at me and steps cautiously towards the water. She lets go of my hand and walks into the ocean and stands where it's about knee-deep. I walk up next to her and I notice she's shivering. "Cold, huh?"

"Yeah, a bit," she says before wading in a bit deeper. "Only one way to get warmer though."

With a sly smile, she splashes me and I give her a shocked look. I splash her back and it causes her to move a few feet away from me. As quickly as I can in the water, I make my way towards her. She continues to back up and the water gradually gets deeper. I slip under the water and do my best to see.

"Will?" her voice calls out, sounding muffled by the water in my ears.

She calls for me again as I swim towards her. I grab her waist and pop up behind her. She squeals and splashes me. "Don't do that!"

I laugh and catch a glimpse of Kyle and Courtney on the shore. Courtney is still lying down but Kyle is somewhat leaned over her. Everything inside of me is screaming at me to go run over there and stop them, but I remember they're probably just playing along. We're all best friends, we can handle this. Right?

We can handle this, I tell myself over and over again. Hayley's hand finds my shoulder and I jump, pulled out of my thoughts. "Will? You okay?" she asks me. Trying to muster my most genuine smile, I turn to her and block her view of the shore. "Yeah, I'm great. I was just lost in thought."

She nods before attempting to avoid a wave heading straight for us. I swim towards the more shallow area just in time, but Hayley isn't so lucky. She gets knocked over by the wave and yelps as it hits her. I start laughing and she glares at me. If looks could kill, I think.

We head back out to the water and this time, successfully dodge waves.