Smothered Emotions

Chapter 5

It was already Wednesday, but I felt like the week wasn't moving fast enough. Seeing Henry today was nice, even though we were already expected to have some readings done for the week. I didn't expect literature majors to have so much to read. It might seem obvious to the regular person that an English major should be expected of this, but two of my intro classes were already asking me to have read ten chapters each by class next Monday. Somehow, I was more stressed about intro to lit than my chemistry class. 

I leaned back in my desk chair, giving my eyes some rest. I had decided to devote my day to finishing my readings so I wouldn't fall behind. The first book I was forced to read was The Illiad, which is the toughest book I've ever read. One chapter took me twenty minutes, and I couldn't Sparknotes it because my teacher does super detailed quiz questions every class period. On top of all this, I had a lab write up, chem homework, and calc homework due.

As my mind began to wonder, I started envisioning myself flirting with Henry at the party. I imagined our hands touching, our bodies pressing against each other, and his lips moving slowly to touch mine. My daydream was interrupted by a vision of Vanessa, giving us the death glare, and chills ran up my spine. That girl scared the shit out of me, and I had only known her for five minutes. I wondered if she ever dated Henry, but I couldn't imagine such different personalities getting along romantically.

Bizz. My phone vibrated on the edge of my desk and toppled over to the floor. The sound of my phone slamming the floor made cringe as I remembered I had cleverly decided to go caseless for the month. Luckily there were no visible scratches or cracks, and my screen revealed a message from River.

River: I'm boreeeed. Let's hang! 

Me: Why do you assume I'm not busy?

River: Because you suck. Meet me at Beacon pool in twenty:P

Me: K. See you soon

I shut my book and threw it on my desk, glad I had a distraction from reading a Greek epic translated into old English. Since I was planning on wearing my new swimsuit on Friday, I settled for one of my older black bikinis, despite knowing it was quite revealing. I never said I wasn't interested in getting to know River either if you get what I mean. I grabbed a pair of sunglasses from my desk, placed them on my head, and started rubbing sunscreen all over my body. I put on some high-waisted cutoffs, a loose tank top and made my way to Beacon pool.

...

I reluctantly dipped my feet in the pool as I took a seat beside River. He was sulking because Henry had been busy all week with football training, which is why I was his replacement for the day. He never revealed any of this to me, but knowing that Henry and River's friendship was similar to mine and Kelly's meant they hated spending too much time apart. We sat in comfortable silence, hearing the light splash of our feet and the grumble of the pool filter. I closed my eyes, feeling my skin sizzle in the sunlight, glad I couldn't get a sunburn.

"Did you put on sunscreen?" I turned to River, glad he couldn't see me staring at his abs through my sunglasses. I was just making up for the gawking he subjected me to the first few minutes we met each other at the pool entrance.

"Nah, what are you, my mom?" He scoffed, seeming offended by my question.

"Just because you tan doesn't mean you don't need to put on sunscreen. I put on sunscreen because black people can get skin cancer, you know." I nudged him and hoped my words could make him reconsider his stance on sunscreen. 

"If I get skin cancer, I get skin cancer. It was my time to go anyway." He shrugged and took a deep sigh, "No more of this talk; let's get in the water." His perfect teeth beamed at me, attempting to entice me.

"The water's like forty degrees," I grumbled, watching him prepare to do a cannonball. 

"Come on. It won't be that bad once you're in."

He raced across the cement, doing a gymnastics worthy flip before plopping in the water. The water slapped his body, and the sound echoed through the pool area, catching the attention of a few people. I visibly cringed, wondering how much pain he was in. After a considerably long time, his head resurfaced, sharing the same discomfort expressed on my face. I could see the redness on his body, but I guessed he recovered, and he began coaxing me to go in. 

My head shook in protest, and he started rapidly swimming towards me. I expected him to pull me under, but instead, he placed his hands on the concrete on either side of me. They were awfully close to my hips, and I resisted the urge to adjust, avoiding his touch. His grin revealed his intentions proving that I was right as he grabbed my waist and pulled me in. Luckily, I was prepared, and despite some water invading my nostrils, I was fine. 

As soon as I could come up for air, I swam after him, planning to exact my revenge. I could hear his hearty chuckles under the water, which gave me more motivation to slam dunk him. Once I reached him, I attempted to pull him under, but I had forgotten he was a foot taller than me, making this much more challenging than I had anticipated. I eventually switched my tactics to tickling, and he quickly submerged. We continued to wrestle until my lungs screamed for air, and we surfaced, letting some breathy laughs escape our lips.  

"Hey! That wasn't fair. No tickling."

He sulked, shaking his hair and getting some droplets all over me. If River were a dog, he would definitely be a golden retriever. I just laughed and swam to the edge of the pool. As I was getting out, my hand slipped on something, and I heard a plop. My heart stopped, knowing the sound I just heard was my phone sinking deep into the pool. 

I dove in, reaching as far as I could, hoping my phone wasn't already at the bottom. My hands managed to grab the phone before it hit the bottom of the pool, and I raced to the surface. Sliding it across the concrete, I lifted myself out of the pool and rushed for a towel, and wrapped my phone around it. I began blowing on it as if my breath would make the water miraculously disappear. 

"What happened?" River yelled to me, completely ignoring the girls gawking at him across the pool. 

"I accidentally got my phone in the water." I sulked, pressing the lock buttons to make sure it wasn't completely dead. Luckily it came to life, but it was slow to react. River was by my side in no time, checking my phone. I decided to go to the bathroom since standing around wasn't going to help me much, and I couldn't think on a full bladder.

Once I was back, River was sitting by my phone, surprisingly relaxed. He looked more tanned than he did a few days ago, leading me to believe he had been lounging at the pool and surfing quite a bit this week. He turned to me with a grin, using his hand to signal me to hurry up. 

"What?" I sighed, knowing if my parents knew I needed a new phone, my mom would never let me live. 

"Here." He handed me my phone, which was functioning perfectly fine now. 

"How did you do that?" 

"I just shook it around a bit." He shrugged smugly. I squinted at him in suspicion, but I decided to let it go since whatever he did fixed my phone. I was glad I didn't need to go to my parents and get lectured for being careless and stupid. My finger scrolled through the phone seamlessly; it was as if it had never fallen in the pool. 

I watched as River dove in the water in the carefree manner he always possessed. Shaking my head lightly, I let go of the thought. Maybe my phone had some kind of waterproof feature I wasn't aware of. I never did read those pesky manuals, despite my dad always telling me to. I put it back down and jumped back in the pool. 

River and I continued to wrestle with each other, play Marco Polo, and race each other in the pool. We were in the pool so long; the sun was already setting on the horizon. I had promised Kelly to have dinner with her every day, so I proceeded out of the pool and dried myself. River followed me out and reminded me of the party later like I would forget.