Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
“God, Wells has no business being that fine,” my friend Leigh said.
I glanced up from my lounger, picking at the plastic beneath me. I sat cross-legged, and it didn’t take me long to spot Wells from across the pool. He twirled a whistle around his finger in a pair of red swim trunks, his abs flashing in the summer sun, and I immediately gazed away.
“Summer’s definitely been treating him right,” Leigh continued beside me, giggling.
She was always talking about how hot Wells was.
Him and my brother, Thatcher, which was complete ick.
Thatcher wasn’t lifeguarding today thank God, and, really, none of my brother’s friends were spared from, well, my friends.
My brother had three best friends, Wells, Ares, and Dorian, and my friends talking about them got worse since I started high school.
I supposed the guys had developed.
My brother and his friends didn’t have baby faces anymore like me, and Wells certainly didn’t.
He had a jawline that didn’t look like a boy anymore.
It was chiseled, just like his abs, and was golden just like the rest of him.
He was even getting facial hair now like Thatcher, but he shaved it. I caught him once.
My nail continued to pick at the lounger, noticing Wells grinning at a girl in the pool. He hunkered down to her, her arms on the side of the pool. She kicked her tanned legs and had way bigger boobs than me in her bikini top. I had no boobs. Not really. Not yet.
Shifting, I cut off my stare when Jasmine tapped my shoulder. She was on the other side of me in her own lounger.
“Don’t talk to Bow about Legacy,” she said, referring to what basically everyone called my brother and his friends since coming to high school.
Our families had all been going to Windsor Preparatory Academy, my school, for a long time, and people gave Thatcher and the other guys that label.
We were the next generation, and I guess technically I was Legacy too.
Jasmine laughed. “It’s like she has blinders to the fact that her brother’s friends are hot. ”
I grimaced, my brother’s friends like brothers to me. We’d all known each other since we were in diapers, and she was right that I didn’t see them that way.
Mostly.
Chewing my lip, I tried not to stare at Wells, who was lifeguarding today. My brother and his friends all did that summer, but only Wells was out here today.
He smiled at me.
It was subtle, but the wink he gave in my direction wasn’t. It made my stomach spasm and flutter, and I started to lift my hand and wave, but the girl in front of him splashed him. She sent a strong current of water in his face, and Wells laughed.
He was always laughing.
The water completely drenched him, but all he did was splash her back. He then rubbed her head like a puppy, which was cute and flirty. He was always flirting. He was easy to flirt with. He was so nice.
I hugged my legs, studying him and that girl. He’d forgotten about me now, but he didn’t usually. Out of all my brother’s friends, he always made sure to include me in things. He even stood up for me when the others treated me like a little kid sometimes. He never babied me or treated me like one.
My butterflies left as Wells sat on the side of the pool.
He put a leg up, his muscled arm on it. He had lots of muscles since he and the other guys played football for Windsor Prep.
The girl continued to kick her legs in front of him, clearly flirting.
Wells had flirted with a boy earlier today.
He was always flirting because people flirted with him, but he typically didn’t for this long.
My cheek touched my knees, my stomach tight. My feet touched the wet concrete. “I’m going in.”
I did before my friends said anything, rushing. I didn’t plan on getting wet today since Wells was lifeguarding. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t care about my hair or anything else when I got in the pool.
I ended up sinking.
I could swim just fine, but I let myself fall, my eyes closed. I let my arms extend in the water. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I just wanted my stomach to not be so tight.
It was so tight.
A rush hit me when a hard body slammed into me, held me. Firm arms came around me, and the next thing I knew, air filled my lungs.
Wells.
He’d brought me to the surface and was yelling something. People were screaming too, girls, guys. Two of the girls sounded like Jasmine and Leigh, but it was like my brain turned off. Like I couldn’t hear them anymore because the only thing I was aware of was Wells’s voice.
“Bow,” he said, swimming so hard with me in his arms. His arms felt good, warm. “Bow, hang on.”
He cradled me like a small child, and my eyes closed. I felt drunk, euphoric. He ended up carrying me out of the pool in his arms, my legs dangling, and I held on to him like a bear cub.
He felt so warm.
“Everyone get out of the way!” Wells said, and he laid me flat on the wet concrete. He hovered over me, and I saw that right before his mouth touched mine.
Oh, God.
My eyes closed again, air from his mouth breathing into mine. I’d never touched my mouth to a boy’s, but it didn’t feel icky. Not like it would with Ares or Dorian.
No, this didn’t feel icky.
Wells’s breath was warm, and he tasted like syrup. He was always eating sweets, and he gave me sweets too. Buttercups and fruit chews.
“Bow?”
My eyes shot open. Wells’s green eyes were on me. He had eyes like green quartz or jade. He frowned. “Bow, are you not…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, scanning me. He’d clearly thought I wasn’t breathing, but that wasn’t the case. I could breathe just fine. Kinda.
It was hard when his mouth touched mine, and, seeing I was breathing, Wells sat back. He lifted my head. “Are you okay? You were at the bottom of the pool and you weren’t moving.”
He thought I’d been drowning.
“I’m… I’m fine. I…” It was still hard to breathe, my mouth still warm from his, tingling. I fought touching it. “I wasn’t drowning. I was just…”
I didn’t know what I’d been doing underwater. I just knew I didn’t like seeing him with that girl, and I was shutting off my system to all of it. Like being in one of those salt tanks where you couldn’t hear anything or feel anything.
“You weren’t drowning.” His blond hair dripped water droplets on me. He dyed his hair, but I always liked it brown. He forced all that electric blond back. “Why would you do that? Why would you—”
Another scream came and splashing. It wasn’t Jasmine or Leigh who were beside me with red faces and dropped jaws. They’d watched the whole thing, as well as what seemed like everyone at the pool. There was a healthy crowd around Wells and me, and no one was watching the other side of the pool.
Because if we had…
The screaming, the flailing ceased when a girl disappeared beneath the water. It was the girl Wells had been talking to, and, without another thought, he left me. He ran, diving back into the pool, and people around me started to scream.
“Oh my God, she’s drowning!”
“Oh my God…”
“Wells, get her!”
People were freaking out, panicking, and it was like I was watching it from a bird’s-eye view. I’d left my body. I froze when people left me and went to the other side of the pool. When they watched Wells drag a limp girl’s body out of the water…
When they watched him try to resuscitate her….
A similar crowd formed but this time around Wells and the girl.
I was there too. Though, I didn’t remember how I got there.
I just knew I was standing there, wet and helpless, as I watched my older brother’s best friend legitimately try to save a girl’s life.
She lay there unmoving on the concrete just like I’d been.
I didn’t know how long I watched Wells try to breathe life into her. I didn’t think any of us did.
But I think we all knew when he ultimately stopped.