All Too Well ⏤ Tim Shepard | ✓

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Mid-August arrives in sweltering heat and cloudless days. The sun hangs about in the sky, beating down on everybody relentlessly.

The affluent teenagers on the West Side of Tulsa have sought to seek respite by lounging around the pool, clad in swimwear with cold drinks in their hands. Jay, George's friend, is today's host, graciously inviting as many people over to escape the stifling heat.

Becca feels like a fish out of water; George had invited her and she didn't have the heart to decline, not when summer is quickly coming to an end and George leaves for Michigan. It had been fine when Becca had stuck to George's side; he'd introduced her to everybody and listened in to his conversations, only joining in when somebody directed a question to her.

Now, Becca watches George's retreating figure disappearing back inside the house. Her grip on her Pepsi tightens as she drags her feet in the water. The pool water ripples with the motion. Her safety net has gone inside, ducking into the bathroom and Becca feels like she has been exposed to the wolves.

She drags her feet in the water, sitting by the edge of the pool. Her skin is warm from the sun, freckles dotting her skin like constellations in the night sky. Her skin is sunkissed from being out in the sun all day. Two days prior, she, Annie and Diana had been lying on the deckchairs at the front of the building complex, sunglasses on with cold drinks in their hand. Annie had gotten terribly sunburnt, her normally pale skin an angry pink. Becca and Diana had laughed themselves silly at the tan line Annie's sunglasses had given her.

Becca looks behind her, wishing for George to come back so she doesn't have to be reminded how out of place she is. Everybody talks around her, conversing with each other with the ease of familiarity that comes with growing up together in the same place for so long. She is an outsider; the one thing that isn't like the other.

"It's Becca, right?" Two girls sitting near Becca on the edge of the pool turn to face her. Their faces are familiar, two girls that Becca had gone to Will Rogers High with.

"Yeah," Becca answers, taking a sip of her Pepsi. Her grip on her cup tightens.

"I'm Charlotte," the first girl introduces herself. She has dark brown hair that falls in perfect curls over her shoulders despite the sweltering summer heat. Unlike Becca's own hair, which she has tied up that is frizzing from the heat. "And this is Vera." Charlotte introduces the second girl with dead straight blonde hair. She waves at Becca.

"I think we shared a few classes at school, didn't we?" Vera asks, in the polite way people do when they faintly recognise someone but can't place where.

Becca nods her head, "I think so," she replies, despite not being sure. She wonders when the polite time is to duck away, making an excuse to use the bathroom.

"Are you really dating George?" Charlotte bursts out, not bothering with pretences. She talks with such disbelief, like she can't believe that George would be dating Becca. Or somebody like me, Becca wryly thinks. An East Sider, how shocking!

There's a childish, petty side to Becca that wants to lie, to tell Charlotte that she and George are madly in love and watch her head explode with the news. But, she isn't going to stoop to such measures and answers honestly, "we have been hangin' out."

"He's such a catch, isn't he!" Vera exclaims, the nicer of the pair. "He's gotten even more good looking since high school, hasn't he?"

Becca makes a noise of agreement. Vera's not wrong; George is attractive. Gorgeous, even. But her heart doesn't race when he looks at her. Her stomach doesn't flip in itself when his green eyes meet her blue eyes. Her throat doesn't seize up in anticipation, nor does her stomach break out in goosebumps when his arm brushes her's.