Sink or Swim

4

Chapter Song: Problems- Arizona

"Okay if you could be famous what would you be famous for?" Hayden chuckled.

That was an easy one. It would be swimming. Except I really couldn't use that answer. At least not anymore. Not since I decided to walk out of one of the most important meets.

Turned out my birth mom, was there with the scout for Berekly and came up to talk to me. I hadn't seen her since she walked out on us years ago. Safe to say it was an emotional meet.

"Oh, I don't know," I paused in thought. "I think it would be doing something good I guess. Like doing something good to better the world," I quickly added. "You?"

"I don't know if I would want to be well known," he admitted grinning cheekily.

"Okay that's not fair I thought it was a forced kind of thing," I exclaimed sitting up straighter. I playfully slapped his chest which caused him to laugh more.

It's not that I wished I was well known or anything, but I thought I had to answer that as if I didn't have a choice. Now I probably seemed like an airhead or something. This was embarrassing.

He couldn't help but laugh and bite at his lip ring. He leaned against one of his arms on the desk continuing to stare at me. I had no idea if Cal was watching or if he even cared, my back was to him. I couldn't wait to tell Riley all about this though.

"You have to answer," I told him.

"Okay fine," he groaned playfully. "Maybe be in a band or something."

"Do you play?"

"Guitar," he shrugged. "But not in a band or anything I just play for fun from time to time. It is a good escape."

I couldn't help but look at him in awe. Even though our escapes were two different things, someone understood. It was refreshing. I loved it when people talked about this kind of stuff. What they are passionate about and what drives them. It was so much more interesting.

We continued to answer questions with each other and even share some playful banter. I had to admit he was really cool to talk to. Maybe because he was so different from Cal and the rest of the guys.

"Okay, so you really moved here from Arizona?"

"Yeah, my mom travels a lot for work and this is where we ended up. How long have you been here?"

"My whole life."

"Really?" His eyes grew wide.

"Yeah I know it sounds lame," I scoffed.

"No I think it's really cool," he admitted. "Maybe it's because I've moved around my whole life nothing ever really stuck." After a long pause, he finally asked, "okay would you rather be able to freeze time or go back in time?"

That was a hard one. I would love to freeze time so I had more time to do just about everything. At the same time if I could go back in time maybe there were a few things I could change.

Maybe I could change the way I found out with Cal. He could have just told me the truth or I would talk to him about it to get it out of him. Hell, maybe I would have avoided him all of last year to prevent whatever mess we were in now. I could even have prevented someone from destroying his parking spot.

"Uh. Uh, I think I would want to time travel," I finally let out.

He seemed generally surprised by the way he raised his eyebrows in shock. Maybe I shouldn't have been honest with him. I tend to do that a lot and it always got me into situations.

"I think I'd just want to pause time to sleep more or do anything. You could be so much more productive," he let out a small laugh.

I let go of the breath I didn't realize I was holding. How was he so easy to talk to?

Just when I was about to say more the bell rang signaling it was the end of the day. I had to admit  I was a little bummed for once. He was a nice distraction.

"Do you think we got enough information?" He asked throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

I reached for the phone in his hands and quickly typed in my number. He didn't have a lock on his phone, which was weird but I respected it. I gave it back to him with a sweet smile.

"Here just in case you need to know more, and for when we have to help each other with our essays."

"Thanks, Ken," he tilted his phone towards me before heading off in the opposite direction.

I watched him walk away and couldn't help but admire the way he looked in his jeans. They were fitted and looked damn good on him.

"Sorry about earlier," I heard a familiar deep voice behind me. I jumped a little and hoped he didn't notice.

I turned around to face him before saying anything else. I gave him a once over and sighed. Why did he always look so good? It was like he always sucked me back in even when he didn't try.

"Look, Parker, I don't care if it was you or not." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I fucked up and took out my anger on you when you didn't deserve it." His brown eyes poured into mine.

"But you didn't believe me even when I told the truth," it came out more like a question.

We were out in the halls now. While the students seemed to pour in filling the empty gaps. Somehow there seemed to be a circle of space between us. I think we were beginning to have an audience.

That was great.

"I know and I'm really sorry it's just, what did you expect?"

I didn't really know what I was hearing. What did I expect? Maybe him not to be a complete jerk about it? I didn't even do anything! But here he is apologizing still making it seem like it was my fault! What kind of twisted shit is this?

"Maybe I expected you to not act like such a jerk," I shot back gripping my backpack strap. "I mean since when did we start yelling at each other and accusing each other of stupid things?" I moved the weight from both my shoulders to just one.

He gave me a look that seemed like I-can't-believe-you-really-said-that. I didn't blame him, but at the same time, he couldn't just expect me not to.

"You didn't even try to explain yourself."

"I told you I didn't do it and you called bullshit. So now all of a sudden you believe me or what?" I felt my voice grow higher and angrier with every word.

"I-uh-" he looked towards the ceiling trying to contemplate the words.

"You still think it was me," I realized. "Of course," I scoffed before brushing past him. "Thanks, McCormick you're a great friend." I made sure to brush against his shoulder as I said, friend.

I hated how many different feelings ran through me anytime I was near him. This was pure anger though. I just couldn't believe he had the nerve to do this and confront me in front of half the school. That was fun. Ugh, I just needed to go blow off some steam.

I turned around quickly to see that he was watching me walk away. "Do you really think I'm that kind of person, Cal?"

He blinked once. Twice. Almost realizing that I called him Cal. I almost never called him Cal. 

I used to when we were kids. It wasn't until middle school he started calling me Parker because it was on the back of one of my hoodies from a swim meet. I still didn't get why he didn't call Liam by our last name instead of me, but I kind of liked it. It had always been something between us. 

When he didn't say anything to my question I nodded my head muttering "right" before finally leaving the hallway. I had to get out of here. Fast. 

I threw my bag into my Jeep and slammed my door. I pressed my keys into the ignition and turned it with way too much force. I floored it to the gym. It was time to let out some anger.

Happy first last day of high school to me.