Chapter 10 #2
I stepped out of my skirt, slid off my underwear, unfastened my bra, and then dove into the water.
Sam jumped in seconds later, a flash of white limbs.
We kept our distance from each other, but I paddled away further still and turned onto my back, spreading my arms and legs, floating under the open sky.
My feet tingled with relief. The water swirled around me, and my eyes grew heavy.
Eventually someone splashed me, and Charlie said, “I think it’s time to get Percy to bed. ”
He ran up to the house in his underwear and came back with towels, and Sam walked me home through the path.
“Ready for the swim tomorrow?” he asked when we got to the bottom of the steps.
I hummed in response. “You might have to give me a wake-up call.” I said good night, climbed the stairs up to the cottage, and sprawled out naked on my bed.
THE SOUND OF knocking woke me suddenly. I glanced at the clock: 8:01 a.m.
“A phone call would have been fine,” I grumbled after I threw on a cotton robe and trudged downstairs to open the door. Sam gave me a guilty half grin, and I motioned for him to come in.
“Thought an in-person alarm would be more effective. You seemed really tired last night.” He shrugged. He was wearing a bathing suit and a hoodie. His light brown hair fell over his face in a tumble.
“You know, for such an anal guy, your hair is extremely messy.” I glowered.
“Someone’s grumpy this morning,” he said, slipping off his sneakers.
“I just woke up, and I’ve really got to pee.” I walked to the bathroom. “There are Cheerios in the cupboard and bagels in the bread drawer if you haven’t eaten yet.”
The phone started ringing mid-pee. “You mind getting that?” I yelled to Sam. “It’s probably Mom or Dad.”
When I came out, he held the receiver in my direction.
“Hello?”
“Percy, it’s Mason.” My eyes skipped to Sam’s.
“Hey. I didn’t think you woke up this early,” I replied as Sam turned and busied himself with the toaster. There was no privacy on the main floor of the cottage, and Sam was going to hear every word.
“It’s your swim today, right? I wanted to wish you good luck.” Mason called the cottage to talk about once a week. If he hadn’t, I think I would have forgotten about him almost entirely, the same way I forgot about nearly everything to do with my life back in the city when I was at the lake.
“It is, thanks. It’s looking a little gray outside,” I said, peering out the window, “but it doesn’t seem like there’s wind, so I should be good.”
“Who was that who answered the phone?”
“Oh, that’s Sam.” Sam glanced over his shoulder.
I’d mentioned him to Mason before, and he knew that we were friends—I just hadn’t told him Sam and I were best friends or that I was harboring a not-insignificant crush on him.
“He’s spotting me while I swim, remember?
” Sam pointed to himself like, Who me? and I bit back a laugh.
“He’s there early.” It wasn’t an accusation. Mason was too sure of himself for jealousy.
“Yeah.” I laughed nervously. “He wanted to make sure I got out of bed. Busy night last night.”
“Well, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to check in before your swim.
And”—he cleared his throat—“to tell you that I miss you. I can’t wait to see you when you come back.
I want to hold you, Percy.” I watched Sam smear cream cheese on a bagel.
His forearms were thick and covered in fine, fair hair that glowed in the sun.
He looked big in our small kitchen. There wasn’t a hint left of the gawky thirteen-year-old boy I met three years ago.
“Me too,” I replied, feeling guilty for the lie as it left my mouth. I hadn’t really missed Mason at all.
When I hung up, Sam handed me the bagel on a plate.
I thanked him and sat on a stool chewing while he prepared one for himself. When he was done, he stood on the other side of the counter and took a bite out of his breakfast, watching me while he ate.
“Was that the famous Buckley?” he asked, his mouth full. I gave him a flat look.
“Mason.”
“Does he call a lot?”
I took a big bite of my bagel to stall. “Every week,” I said after a minute. “It’s probably good he does, otherwise I might forget he exists.”
Sam stopped midchew, his eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“What’s with the face?” I asked.
He swallowed and then cleared his throat before answering. “Nothing. It just doesn’t sound like you’re that into him.”
“It’s not that I don’t like him—he’s been sweet.”
“Good, Percy. He should be,” he said with a hint of exasperation.
“I know. That’s not the issue.” I looked down at my half-eaten bagel. “I told you before—I like someone else more.”
“The same guy you emailed about?” Sam asked quietly as I moved sesame seeds scattered on my plate with my finger. “Percy?”
“Yep, same one,” I replied without looking up.
“Does he know?” I looked up at Sam. I couldn’t tell if he knew we were talking about him. His expression was impassive.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “He can be hard to read.”
We finished breakfast in silence, and then I changed into a racer-back swimsuit Mom had bought. She had decided swimming was the perfect hobby and wanted me to try out for the swim team in the fall. I was considering it.
You couldn’t call it a nice day—it was muggy and overcast, but at least the lake was flat.
“You seem a lot less antsy today than you did last year,” I said as we stepped onto the Floreks’ dock.
“I actually had nightmares about it for a full week before you did that swim,” he said.
“I thought you were going to drown and that I wouldn’t be able to save you.
Now I know you can do it without breaking a sweat.
” He kicked off his shoes and pulled his shirt over his head, leaving both on the dock.
He rolled his shoulders in backward circles a few times.
“And now you’ve got all that,” I said, motioning at his bare torso, the shadows playing off the ridges of his chest and stomach. He chuckled.
“I’ll do a couple of warm-up laps with you, and then we’ll head out?”
“Whatever you say, Coach.”
Sometime while we were at the water, Sue and Charlie had come out onto the deck with coffees. I waved at them from the water while Sam got the boat ready. And then, giving each other a thumbs-up, we set off.
It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as last summer, either.
I didn’t need to switch strokes or slow down—I kept a steady, rhythmic pace.
My legs were tired but didn’t feel as though they were going to drag me to the bottom of the lake with their weight, and my shoulders ached but the pain didn’t consume me.
When I reached the shore, I sat in the shallow water catching my breath while Sam pulled the boat up on the beach.
“Seven minutes faster than last year!” he announced, hopping out of the boat, dropping a cooler bag on the sand, and sitting in the water beside me, his skin slick with sweat. “I think your mom’s right; you should join the swim team. You didn’t even stop to catch your breath!”
“Says the guy who practically runs a marathon every morning,” I panted.
“Exactly.” Sam grinned. “I should know.” He passed me a cold bottle of water, and I chugged half, handing the rest to him to finish off. The wind was starting to pick up and the air smelled thick.
“Looks like it could finally rain,” I said, watching the breeze dance through the leaves of a poplar.
“That’s the rumor. Mom says a big storm is supposed to hit,” Sam said, wrapping his arms around his knees. “Too bad she needs me to work an extra shift, otherwise we could do a scary movie night.”
“Blair Witch!” I suggested.
“Totally. How have we not done that one yet?”
“Well, I have, many times,” I said.
“Obviously.”
“But never with you,” I added.
“A huge oversight,” Sam replied.
“The hugest.” We grinned.
I was almost catatonic by the time I got back to the cottage, my belly bloated from one of Sue’s epic breakfasts and my body completely drained.
I passed out on the couch and didn’t wake up until well after five, which meant Sam would already be at the Tavern, whereas I had the night off.
My parents left me home alone all the time in the city, but they were always around when we were at the lake.
I had fallen asleep so quickly the night before that it had barely registered that they were gone.
Now I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself.
Groggy, I shuffled into the bathroom and splashed water on my face, then slurped the cold liquid from my hands.
I headed down to the lake with a notebook and sat on one of the Muskoka chairs at the foot of the dock.
The wind had picked up since morning and was throwing whitecaps over the gray water.
I jotted down a few ideas for my next story, but soon raindrops began to fall on the pages, and I was chased inside.
I boiled a hot dog for dinner and ate it with some of the rice and bean salad Mom had left. Bored, I riffled through our DVD collection until I found The Blair Witch Project.
It was a terrible choice. It scared me every single time I’d seen it, and I had never watched it alone.
In a cabin. In the woods. On a dark and stormy night.
Halfway through, I paused the movie, locked the doors, and did a sweep of the cottage, checking the closets, beneath the beds, and behind the shower curtain.
Just as I pressed play again, a loud crack of thunder shook the cottage, and lightning quickly followed.
With every flash, I expected to see a gruesome face pressed up against the back door window.
By the time the movie ended, the storm had passed, but it was dark and rainy, and I was totally freaking out.