“I was fifteen and he was five years older than me, and I didn’t find it weird at all,” Holly says.
I twist to look at Maddy, and she just opens her eyes wide and shakes her head at me, urging me not to dig deeper.
“Holly was a little…advanced…in high school,” Maddy says.
“Fuck high school. I was advanced in junior high,” her friend says, her book snapping closed as she stands. “I really should head home to study, Maddy. Maybe Will can take you home? You know…when you two are done with whatever…this is?”
Holly waves her hand above us, her lips pinched like she’s holding in a laugh. I see what she’s doing, and as much as I appreciate that she’s trying to force Maddy and me together…alone, I’m getting a vibe from my other side that alone time isn’t exactly wanted. Unsure how to answer, I turn to Maddy for a sign, some expression that gives me a clue, but Holly—my unrequested wing-woman—doesn’t give me time.
“Great, okay, well…call me later, Mads. Will, as always, been a pleasure. Keep avoiding carbs and making those abs look super sexy, would ya?”
I can only laugh to myself when her friend leaves us alone, and I let my face fall forward so I’m looking at the water.
“I’m pretty sure that falls under sexual harassment,” I chuckle.
“You have no idea how much worse that could have been,” Maddy says. I meet her eyes, and she widens them. “We used to do this thing after big tests. We’d each take turns picking how we’d celebrate. I’d make us splurge and go out to some fancy dinner, or maybe go dancing.”
I raise an eyebrow, kinda guessing where this is going.
“Strip clubs,” she says, and my chest shakes once with my laugh. “Every. Single. Time. She has a stack of ones on hand, like, always. Seriously, the next time you see her, I’ll show you her wallet. Ones. Filled with ones.”
“Wow,” I mouth, stretching forward while my fingers grip the edge of the wall. “You…went to these clubs with her?”
Maddy’s head falls to the side and her eyes scowl.
“I’m a big girl, Will. I can go to a strip club if I want to,” she says.
“No, yeah. I get that. And I’m fine with them. Young men need a way to earn their way through college, you know?” I say, doing my best to keep a straight face before Maddy splashes water at me. I splash back a few times, but when it causes her to put more distance between us, I stop.
She looks down into the water, folding her arms along the ropes and lifting her legs up until her toes break through the surface. I smile at them. Even her fucking toes are cute. The quiet grows a little uncomfortable, and I’m hit with the need to make some kind of move.
“I didn’t really come down here to swim,” I say, lifting my head just enough to peer at her.
She kicks her toes, making tiny splashes in the water.
“I know,” she says out of one side of her mouth. Long seconds pass, and I watch as she chews at her lip. In my mind, I swim the few yards between us, back her into the wall, and tug her hair free from its cap while I taste her lips again. Holly kept calling Maddy a pussy, but she has no idea.
“I shouldn’t have let it happen…”
“I’m sorry for yesterday…”
We both talk over each other, freezing mid-sentence, our eyes locking just before our lips curve and our smiles reflect one another’s.
“Sorry, you first,” I say.
She shrugs.
“Kinda sounds like we were both saying the same thing,” she says, the right side of her mouth curled into a wry smile. My head falls to the same side as her smile, and I study her, hoping that at any minute she’ll change her mind, say something that’s just a little better than wishing yesterday never happened. She doesn’t, though, so I nod, accepting this place we’ve met at in the middle. I don’t like it, and I won’t be able to live with it. But for five more weeks, I can bare it.
“So you wanna sprint?” I ask, dipping my goggles into the water and sliding them on. Business it is, then.
“Probably should. I can’t be anything but the first girl to the wall again. Makes it kinda hard for your dad to push for you to make the US team when you lose to a girl who literally just got her braces off,” she says.
“She’s not that young,” I laugh.
“No, I’m actually being serious. She told me at the Mills. ‘Let me take out my retainer before we do the next round of shots,’ she said, to which I responded, ‘You have a retainer?’ And then she smiled, all bright-white teeth, tapping her fingertips on the front ones. ‘Just got the braces off a month ago.’”
Maddy’s lips purse and she blinks slowly while I laugh.