The pool was obviously heated as I watched steam drift upward from the surface of the water. People were swimming. Some without any suits. I looked away as Julianna Martin from my Spanish class climbed up the ladder in all her natural glory. Daniel's eyes nearly popped out of his head and Rachel smacked his leg, giggling.
Daniel went to join a group of his friends from the soccer team, while Rachel and I found a pair of deck chairs closer to the pool house to stretch out on. “Now this is what I'm talking about.” I groaned as I laid my head back on the cushion. Rachel did the same. “I could get used to this.” Rachel said, her arms dangling off the side of the chair.
“This makes this crazy orgy all the easier to bear.” I said, noting the paired off couples making out around the pool. Rachel laughed and instantly sobered. “How bad was I earlier? On a psycho scale of zero to ten?” I looked over at my friend and saw how worried she was. I reached over and squeezed her hand. “Very low, only like a two or a three. It could have been a lot worse.” Rachel sighed in relief. She rolled her head to the side to look at me again. “So what happened to Clay?”
I started to answer her when I was distracted by a noise coming from the pool gate. I big group of kids came through, being led by none other than Clay himself. He had obviously had a lot more to drink since the last time I saw him and was the life of the party. The jocks were joking with him, the girls were flirting. He was the sun of the popularity solar system.
I realized this is how life could easily be for him. With his looks he could be that super popular guy with girls falling at his feet. But instead he had chosen to hang out with me. Not that I was unpopular, but I wasn't to the level Clay could clearly become.
“What is up with him? He's being totally weird.” Rachel said as she watched Clay jump into the pool with all of his clothes on. He grabbed the ankle of Lydia Turner, a cheerleader, and yanked her in with him. She screamed as she fell into the water. Coming to the surface, she wrapped her arms around Clay's neck and nuzzled into him.
I looked away, feeling sick. Clay somehow talked a bunch of other kids into jumping in the pool and soon they were horsing around and dunking each other. Daniel and his buddies joined them, while Rachel and I sat on the sidelines, unnoticed by the others.
I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling suddenly cold. I did not like this side of Clay. He acted as though he were amped up on amphetamines or something, like the Energizer Bunny. He spoke too loudly, acted erratically, but most of all he just wouldn't stop. The people around him seemed to like this, but his behavior worried me. He was not acting like himself. Not like the boy I had spent almost every day with for the past month. This was not my friend.
“What is he doing?” Rachel gasped from beside me. I had zoned out for a moment and missed Clay getting out of the water. He was currently climbing up a tree that grew beside the pool. He climbed and climbed until he was almost at the top. He was easily twenty feet in the air. Balancing precariously, he edged out until he stood over the water below.
“He is not going to jump into the pool from up there is he?” Rachel asked in horror. I just shook my head, my heart stopped in my chest. He was going to freaking kill himself.
“Dude, that doesn't seem too smart.” One of the jocks yelled up at him. You know it had to be dangerous since one of his herd of followers had said something. No one was cheering him on this time. Everyone looked uncomfortable with what Clayton was obviously getting ready to do.
“You bunch of pussies! This is nothing!” Clay yelled down. He suddenly saw me, as he perched up on the branch. How he picked me out of the crowd and from that height, I have no idea. “Check it out, Mags! I can fly!” I started to stand up and rush over to the tree when he dropped from the branch. I held my breath as his body hurtled toward the pool.
The kids in the water quickly moved off to the side and he slapped onto the surface with a loud clap, dropping straight to the bottom. “Fucking hell!” Daniel yelled, diving under the water. Rachel and I hurried to the edge of the pool, peering into the water. I thought I would hyperventilate waiting for Daniel and Clay to surface. Why did he do that? That was just crazy! Not something a normal, sane person would do. I was so scared! What if he was hurt? Or dead?
Those seconds as we waited were the longest of my life. Finally Daniel and Clay surfaced. I could see blood streaming down Clayton's face from a cut at his hair line but other than that he appeared fine. The pair swam to the shallow end and Daniel smacked Clay on the back of the head. “That was a pretty moronic thing to do, Clay. Get it together.” Daniel told him angrily and swam away, clearly too pissed to say anything more.
No one else approached. Clearly Clay's stunt was too much even for this admiring crowd. Clay climbed up the stairs to where I stood with my arms crossed. His eyes were a bit unfocused and I wondered if he had a concussion.
He grimaced. “Not you too, Maggie. It was nothing.” He got out of the pool and went to a chair to grab a towel. I followed him. “You have got to be kidding me. That was totally insane. You could have killed yourself!” I called out. Clay dried his hair, shaking water out of his ears.
He reached up and touched the cut on his forehead and winced. “You might need stitches.” I said, inching closer to have a look. Clay let me touch the abrasion. “I'm fine.” He said. He suddenly sounded tired. It was like a light switch flipped and now the energetic, over the top boy from fifteen minutes ago was gone. He sat down heavily on the chair and stared blankly ahead of him.