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And I've been thinking about it lately
Canberra was just as beautiful as I had imagined. I especially liked the water surrounding the hill where the capital stood. I never thought that the capital of a country could be designed this way, with a bridge connecting the two circular hills. With Washington D.C. standing a few miles away from the Potomac River, I was surprised the way I reacted to the Molongolo River.
We took a tour of the Parliament house and visited the National Museum of Australia not so far away from Capital Hill, but we didn't stay in the museum long because Kiaira threw a tantrum from her disinterest in walking around the building and reading the long paragraphs on the walls.
As the clock inched toward five in the afternoon, I grew more and more excited and Ashton could clear see that. He had to tell me, way more than just once, to calm down and stop cracking my knuckles, a nervous habit. Despite his constant questions about what was bugging me, I refused to tell him about the perfect plan we had in mind in celebration of his seventeenth birthday.
It's tomorrow. July 7th.
You could tell from the excited look on my face that I was most definitely looking forward to going to the Olympic Aquatic Center. I felt confident that I would beat Ashton at swimming, considering my previous experience. I was never one of those "good" swimmers like this guy in my school named James, but whenever I swam on my own I always felt good about myself.
The second I emerged from the ladies' locker room, I understood what Ashton meant when he said our small incident yesterday was "preparation for today". I spotted Ashton on the other side of the pool with his towel draped over his shoulder while yelling at Harry and Lauren to stop chasing each other. I laughed to myself at the frustrated look on his face and the nonstop giggles coming from Harry, who had just slipped on the wet tile before he got up and continued running like nothing ever happened.
I walked to where Ashton was standing, careful about the small puddles here and there to avoid falling on my face. Harry just looked cute and innocent when he fell, whereas I would've looked like a complete idiot. I tapped Ashton on the shoulder once I was close enough, and he spun around as soon as my fingers made contact with his skin.
We took a few seconds and shamelessly looked each other up and down until I felt my cheeks heat up. Consciously I wrapped my large beach towel tighter around myself to cover up all the bare skin, but he stopped me from doing so, "You're beautiful. Stop hiding."
If anything, the red on my cheeks only got deeper and a slight tingle ran through my fingertips. I didn't know what to think of what he just said. Deep down I knew it was just a friendly compliment, but part of me secretly wanted it to be more. Oh god, what was I doing to myself? There couldn't possibly be anymore meaning to that than a plain simple compliment. There were so many other pretty girls out there, if anything, that girl wouldn't be me.
"So what do you say, want to test this water out?" Ashton offered, giving up on trying to stop Harry and Lauren and turned to me instead, "I need to race you."
Whatever previous awkwardness was gone and replaced by our usual joking tone, and I raised my eyebrow in return, "Sure. Let's see who wins."
I threw my towel on the lounge chair and sprinted toward the deck without being too fast for me to get into trouble with the lifeguards. Ashton mirrored my actions and followed closely behind, our giggles ringing in the high-ceilinged room.
"Oh no, you are not pushing me into the pool--Ashton!" I squealed in surprise when his easily pushed me into the water. I splashed around and couldn't control my laughter. Ashton himself was laughing as well, he dangled his feet above water and watched with a smirk on his face as I tried to catch my breath. I paddled my way to the deck and tried my hardest to pull him in by his leg, but he didn't budge at all, he just say there and watched me with an amused grin.
