Get You The Moon ✓ [published 2021]

5 | Scarlet

For a fellow Kiwi,
Anne,
I don't know what's more amazing.
You, or your writing???

I dived in, my face breaking through the water than my body. No splash, just a clean dive. I was finally home. The soup of chlorinated water pooled around me, and my strokes cleaved the water.

I moved with perfectly practised precision, while still maintaining a sense of fluidity. The water was forgiving only when my body allowed it to be.

I tilted my head, one ear in the water and the other breaking the surface. One quick breath and my nose buried itself into the water.

My muscles were tense and relaxed simultaneously. In the water, nothing mattered. Climate change wasn't issue and neither was poverty. I didn't have a dysfunctional family. I wasn't dedicating every moment for a scholarship that I might not get, and my boyfriend loved me just like the movies.

I reached the end of the swimming pool and turned back around, swimming relentlessly back. The next lap across the pool, I swam leisurely, taking my time and savouring each cleave and stroke. 

Morning swims like these kept me sane especially when swimming practises were ruthless. No one was at school at this time of the morning. Just me and the pull of the soothing water.

Times like these, I didn't put a cap on and discarded the goggles. With my hair tied in a bun, I wanted the water to flow through my hair without the strands getting in my way.  I wanted to feel the water all around me. I wanted to become the water.

I reached the end of the pool and my feet dropped, hitting the mosaiced flooring.  I rubbed the water out of my eyes, and my eye lashes fluttered for a few moments. Sport shoe clad feet stood at the edge of the pool. I nearly jumped back, not expecting to see anyone.

My gaze unmoving; I thought about all the crime shows that had episodes of bodies found in pools. My breath shook and I wondered if someone hated me enough to kill me. On second thought, the answer to that was probably Poppy Carter.

With a pounding heart, my eyes trailed up.

Levi Henare.

Just my luck.

He was dressed in sport shorts and a t-shirt. A towel sat around his neck and he grasped an empty water bottle in one hand. My eyes flickered to the door that led to the school gym that was available for seniors. I had never realised that Levi frequented it.

Levi knelt down, his legs bending until he was squatting in front of me. He placed the bottle and towel next to him and I positioned my arms on the edge, using it to stabilise myself. His hickory eyes gripped mine and I waited for him to speak, knowing he had something to say. 

He always had something provocative to remark.

Levi did something I had never expected him to do. His fingers reached behind my head and he pulled at the hair tie. My hair came undone.  I could feel his hand in my hair until the soaked strands rested on my shoulders.

He studied me, his eyes bouncing over my face and momentarily flickering lower. I wondered what he saw. Wide eyes and a slightly parted mouth, or something so much more.

"Good morning," Levi said casually. The only remnant of his actions were the slightly huskier undertones to his voice.

I wanted to look away. "Is it really a good morning if I have to start it with your face?"

He smiled lazily. "I could be Poppy."

It was too early to be thinking about Poppy and her excessive, racially ambiguous tan.

Without thinking and acting directly based on my id and impulse, I grasped his hand. I registered the moment of surprise on his face and I yanked him into the water with me. Already kneeling, it was easy to catch Levi off-guard.

He broke the surface and brushed his hair back. Then he padded through the water, nearing me. The weight of his clothes dragged him back, but his arms were powerful enough to carry him forward.

Before I could move away, he gripped my hand just like I had earlier. I yanked at his hand, but he was stronger and a lot more alert this time. He pulled me closer and I moved involuntarily.

A part of me tingled and sprang alive in a feeling that was all too foreign. I shoved that part of me down.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Scarlet."

Standing so close to him with only the water and our hands separating our bodies, I didn't look up at him. I stared straight ahead, where my eyes landed on the skin marginally exposed on his chest.

Slowly, finger by finger, he loosened his grip and then moved around me. I watched, dazed and at a loss for words. Levi hoisted himself over the edge of the pool. Despite the shirt being black, with the way it was clinging to his skin, I could see the movements of his muscles as he lifted himself up. He hadn't even used the ladder.

Turned out, Levi Henare was too cool for ladders.

Levi pulled the shirt off him in the rough and oddly hot way that only brooding boys did.

Yes, Levi Henare had back muscles. They looked good too. A part of me wanted him to turn around just so I could have a peek at his abs. With a back and arms like that, he had to have abs.

It wasn't fair that Levi was attractive. His skin should've been green with scales and slime. I pictured him looking like a combination of the Grinch and ET but somehow worse. It did nothing to make me feel better. For the past five years, all of my birthday wishes had revolved around Levi waking up with sweat that smelled like baked beans and vinegar or shrinking into a troll.

None of my wishes had come true.

Levi Henare still looked too good to be true.

He grabbed his towel and bottle and walked away, his long legs leading him to the locker room where he must have kept his school uniform.

I stayed floating, still trying to process that I had just ogled at Levi Henare.

This was so not good.

Fun fact:
My boyfriend's going to end up writing fanfiction
for GYTM because I refuse to turn Scarlet into a spy.

I posted a page for the playlist. It's a bit special to me so I would
love it if you checked it out.