Mark My Words

46 | Blackmail

a/n: I know everyone's bitter about Ariana Grande right now but REAL TALK: This is a bop. Also the guy in the music video (Charles Melton) looks like he had his face vacuum sealed. Like, I love that kid I think he's hilarious but I'm just stating the facts guys.

Rosalie had seen Joanna in nothing but a sports bra and basketball shorts, so she figured she could handle Joanna in a bikini. She didn't want to, nor did she, look into the reason why Joanna In A Bikini was suddenly enough to make her heart race. There were bigger things to worry about, like their upcoming match, and making sure the entire team was out of the pool and fed by noon if they ever hoped to be ready for warmups at two in the afternoon.

Joanna, however, kept her basketball shorts and t-shirt on long after the other girls left their coverups at the beach chairs. Rosalie stood at the table in the warm mist of chlorine water in the air. Her bare feet settled on damp, prickly concrete as she watched Joanna from across the table.

Joanna took a seat in one of the plastic chairs with a heavy sigh that she caught halfway through, eyes hooked on Rosalie's. Joanna was quick to look away, teeth toying with her lip piercing.

"Pools aren't really my jam," she said.

"So it seems," Rosalie said.

Joanna gestured towards the water not far from their table. "You should go swim. I'll watch everyone's shit," she said.

Rosalie looked out at the pool area. She turned her eyes up to the glass ceiling letting in the bright sunlight despite the overcast. The waterpark was centered around a jungle-gym of sorts topped with a massive barrel balanced on a bar. The bucket tipped further and further as it filled with water, and she could see Brynn with her arms up at the very top of the jungle-gym, awaiting the eventual downpour.

When the water dropped, the girls' screams echoed across the pool area and reverberated off of the vaulted ceiling. The tall, foggy windows on the sides illuminated the lazy river looping around the park, and passing in front of where Rosalie dipped her toe into the water. Lukewarm—the perfect temperature for swimming.

"Rosie," Joanna said, and the harsh edge to her voice made Rosalie realize that she was being scolded.

Rosalie stopped an oncoming empty tube with her foot. It had two loops, and was precisely the reason why she stopped it.

She pointed down at it and looked back at Joanna. "But I need a partner for this."

"No you fucking don't."

"Rules are rules," Rosalie said with a shrug. She grinned, though, and Joanna scowled at her. It just made her all the more happy, since Joanna was rising to her feet, cursing under her breath.

"Fine. Get in the damn tube and wait for me," Joanna said.

Rosalie clapped her hands and raised her fists in triumph. She crouched down to hold the tube still before twisting around and dropping back into the tube. Water sloshed up the sides of it as the tube bounced under her weight and recovered fast, raising her over the water with her arms hooked around the back of the tube.

She was facing their table when a group of girls passed—clustered together and more likely than not from a rival team. Rosalie glanced after them before turning back to where Joanna watched after them, her hands on the hem of her basketball shorts. She already had her shirt off, revealing Brynn's suit underneath.

It was a simple black bikini top with thick straps that looped around Joanna's neck. There was a gap between her breasts where the fabric twisted together around a gold hoop. Rosalie could only assume that Brynn stopped wearing it because she outgrew it. Joanna was perpetually stuck in a small frame.