The Deep End

14

Chapter Song: Let's Begin- Jon Bellion

"Deal."

Liam was fuming. I swore I saw smoke billowing out of his nose and ears. All the while Cal raised his eyebrows shocked. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Mason and Tyler fist bump laughing at each other.

I think they were all a little surprised at my answer. All the boys would taunt Riley and I throughout highschool. I secretly thought they made a bet on which one of the boys could kiss one of us first but it hadn't been proven true. Yet. I knew this would fuel their fire. 

Nobody thought I was really going to do it. I knew I was going it hear a mouthful from Liam tonight at home, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. As captain, I couldn't turn down the challenge no matter what the consequences were. Even if it meant I had to streak across the parking lot. It just meant I couldn't lose.

Although part of me wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to win or lose. The competitive part of me wanted to win more than anything. Especially since I knew if I actually did lose I didn't think Liam would talk to me ever again if I actually did kiss Cal.

The other part of me, however, wondered what it would be like if I did kiss him. Would his lips be soft? The thought of kissing him sent the butterflies wild and crazy flapping around my stomach. I shook my head trying to get the thoughts out of my head. I needed to focus.

Snap out of it Ken.

We went through the motions of the annual Lacrosse Swim practice. Tyler and I even helped them learn how to dive. Although Mason belly-flopped off the diving blocks and still had a red mark on his stomach. I laughed so hard I cried actual tears.

Everyone seemed to be having a great time, even our coaches. Once practiced had officially ended people began to trickle out. I had told our coach some of us were going to stay later and he agreed. Regionals were coming up so he wanted us to get all the practice we could.

Finally, it was time for everyone to take their bets and win or lose. We even did some relays to add in extra bets. Tyler and I stayed on a team and beat four of the lacrosse guys. Everyone tried to say we cheated but there was no way we could when it was the two of us. I hated to admit it, but we did make a good team.

This was the fun part about swimming for me. Today had let me forget about my dream last night. Usually, I would get such bad anxiety before a race to the point where I would be behind the block or on top of it and not being able to breathe. Today was different. It was fun.

"You ready for this Parker?" Cal smirked coming up behind me.

"I'm just trying to think of what I'm going to make you do when I win." I looked him up and down with playful eyes. I even batted my eyelashes.

"Uh-huh," he eyed me up and down. Was he checking me out? He quickly bit his lip looking away.

"Okay let's just get this over with," Liam grumbled behind me. I tried not to laugh at his disgust but it was too funny not too.

We stepped onto the blocks bending into position. As soon as Tyler blew the whistle I dove in. The familiar burst of water surrounding me with bubbles comforted me. Once I reached the surface and began to swim I tilted my head a little to see where Cal was. He was a short distance behind me, so I decided to coast it.

Cal was not a good swimmer at all. The only thing he had on me was length because of how tall he was. The only person besides Tyler that gave me any real competition was Mason. He actually swam with us up until high school where Cal and Liam recruited him for Lacrosse. They even tried to get Tyler but he was against it.