High School With Hemmings

Chapter 11

I hear a rustle coming from the bed next to me and I open my eyes to see Ellie get up and grab a towel from her drawer. I sit up in my bed and rub my eyes. "Hey, El. Where are you going?" I yawn.

"We're all going nightswimming in the lake. I was going to invite you, but I didn't know if you wanted to sleep or not, so I didn't," she whispered back.

"What time is it?" I ask.

"3:30 in the morning," She replies and adds, "You should come though,"

"Yeah I guess I will," I say and hop out of my bed and grab my towel. We are going to swim in our pajamas. Ellie and I walk out of our room and tiptoe downstairs. We don't want to wake Cal's mom up. As we round the corner and go into the kitchen, the boys all greet us. Michael puts his arm around me as we walk out the back door. I see Luke give Mike an angry glare. We all walk down a path that leads to the lake. When we get to the lake, everyone puts their towels down on the larger rocks and start to get in the water. I reach out my foot to feel how cold it is and I let out a whimper. It is freezing cold.

"C'mon Mar," Luke says as he lifts me up and carries me into the water with him. Everyone follows us in and I screech feeling the icy cold water surround my feet and part of my legs. Luke laughs and drops me into the water, all the way up to my head.

"LUKE!" I yell as I resurface, "You're gonna get it!" He puts his hands out in front of him and slowly backs deeper into the lake, away from me. The water is just up to his hips.

"No Mari. It was an accident. I promise," he sarcastically pouts.

"I'm sure it was," I say and start to splash him. Ash, Mike, Cal, and Ellie are standing far enough away from us to not get splashed. We get in a full out battle, until we are both soaking wet from head to toe. We are about 5 ft away from each other, just standing and looking into the other's eyes. I giggle escapes from my throat until my body erupts into complete laughter. Luke giggles seeing me and he comes over to hug me and we both stand there shivering. His arms slightly warm me, but my teeth are still chattering.

"Well that was fun, but it's freezing. Let's go get our towels," he says.

"Yeah, good idea," I reply. As we walk back in towards the shore, I hold onto his arm tightly. I'll take any warmth that I can get. He grabs both of our towels off of the rock and wraps me in mine. The others are still in the water talking. He sits down on a slightly smaller rock and motions for me to sit next to him. I lean my head onto his shoulder, and he rests his head on top of mine. "This has been so much fun and we haven't even been here for a whole day," I say, "Thanks for inviting me,"

"You're welcome," he says and turns to face me. He looks me straight in the eyes. "Did anyone ever tell you you have really pretty eyes?"

"Oh, um not really," I laugh, "But thank you," He still studies my face, his hand brushing along my jawline. His eyes fall to my lips, and they linger there for a couple seconds. He rubs his thumb over them gently. He looks back into my eyes. They pierce through my heart, shattering it into a million pieces. He starts to lean closer to me, I feel the space between us vanish rapidly. His eyes close and so do mine; I can feel him taking long breaths. I grip my hand in his wet hair on the back of his head and inch my whole body closer to him. I feel my lips just barely brush his as someone splashes us. We both pull away and see Michael standing towards the edge of the water.

"Save it for the bedroom!" He shouts to us and runs up onto the shore and grabs his towel off the rock. He stands there grinning and shaking his hair out. Ash, Calum and Ellie follow after him. Ellie shoots me an apologizing look. Luke is beyond mad. I feel his arms tense up and his fists clench. He stands up from the rock we were sitting on. I do the same. I grab his arm and turn him to face me, before things get out of hand.

"Luke, it's okay. Michael's just teasing us." I try to calm him.

"I know, but he ruins everything!" he says furiously.

"Calm down," I say and grab his hand, which makes him feel a little better. The others have already started walking up the path to the house, so I pull Luke along with me and we catch up to everyone else. We all open the back door as quietly as we can; all the house lights are still off. We tiptoe into the kitchen flick one light on so we can see where we're going. Everyone jumps and I shriek when I see Mrs. Hood standing in front of one of the cabinets, with her arms crossed.

"What are you guys thinking?!" She yells. "Going swimming in the lake at night when one of you could drown! I would be held responsible!"

"Mom..." Calum interrupts and shakes his head.

"No Calum this is serious! Don't ever do this again!"

"Yes, Mrs. Hood," we all reply.

"We're really sorry," Ellie says, "Let's all go to bed guys," Calum's mom eyes me holding Luke's hand as we all leave the kitchen. I let go of it when we go upstairs and we all file into our rooms and get some sleep before we get into any more trouble.

Okay, so things started to advance a little more with Larilyn.... I hope you guys liked this part and I just have to say that a lot of big things are coming in the next couple chapters! Thank you for reading and voting and commenting!