Learning to Breathe

by J. C. McClean

  Our desserts were set down ten minutes later. I looked at mine and decided it was the biggest piece of chocolate cake that I had ever seen. As for Danny’s sundae – well, I had never seen so much ice cream and fudge packed into what looked to be a rather large glass vase.

  “I hope you’re hungry.” Danny remarked. “Because I’m not eating this all by myself!”

  I laughed and tucked into my cake; it was absolute heaven.

  An hour later and I was fit to burst. I felt as if I had eaten my entire body weight in ice cream!

  “So,” Danny began, taking hold of my hand as we left the café. “Do you wanna go for a walk?”

  I nodded. “Sure, where d’you wanna go?”

  “How about the park?” Danny suggested.

  I agreed and we slowly walked to the local park. It was just after midnight and the place was deserted. We took a seat on one of the wooden benches and stared up at the stars.

  Gazing at the stars, I felt a rush of gratitude towards Danny. Everything about tonight had been perfect and I was grateful to him for it. Since he had barged into my life, everything had changed for the better. Suddenly, I felt the bizarre urge to tell him so. I had the strangest feeling that this was the right moment to do so.

  “Thanks.” I said abruptly, breaking the silence between us.

  He shifted his gaze to my face. “You keep doing that – thanking me – but I really don’t know why.”

  I gave him a half smile. “Just for coming into my life when I needed somebody the most.”

  He grinned. “You didn’t make it easy though. As I recall, you were quite adamant that you didn’t want to date me.”

  I let out a low chuckle. “Hey, I’d only just moved here and didn’t even know you!”

  Danny smirked. “Yeah, still, eventually you succumbed to my charms!”

  I rolled my eyes. “If only you weren’t so cocky!”

  “You love me really.” Danny grinned.

  “Sometimes.” I told him with a smirk.

  “Well is now one of those times?” His hazel eyes twinkled in the moonlight.

  “Maybe.” I replied before giving him a quick kiss.

  “Yeah,” Danny said smugly. “You definitely love me right now.”

  I shook my head and gave him a playful punch on the arm. “Come on.” I ordered, pulling him up from the bench. “Let’s go before your head gets any bigger.”

  He laughed and linked our fingers together. “And I love you too.”

  I glanced up at him and smiled. “I know.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Sunday was a blur and suddenly, it was Monday. I was a bag of nerves. The competition was finally here and I couldn’t back out now. The week ahead was going to be the longest week of my life and I found myself wondering why I had entered in the first place.

  I sighed heavily as I lay in my bed, looking at the ceiling. This is it – now or never.

  I groaned and sat up, thankful that I wouldn’t have to go to school all week. Danny had informed me that Ms Greenly always let the competitors take the week off and that she even cut the school days short so that the rest of the school could support those who were taking part in the competition.

  The competition didn’t kick off until noon and would last right through until Friday. However, all the competitors had to be at the leisure centre at 10am to be registered. I glanced at the clock – 8.30am. Sucking in a deep breath, I forced myself to stand up.

  My leg felt a bit stiff so I stretched it out before I headed to the shower. I tried not to think about the week ahead but doubts kept invading my thoughts. What if I freaked out? What if I had flashbacks?

  Rinsing my hair, I tried to convince myself that I would be fine – after all, Danny would be there. I stepped out of the shower and found my mother waiting outside the bathroom door. She had insisted on taking the week off work so that she could support me.

  “Hey honey!” She beamed at me, full of enthusiasm. “You ready for today?”

  I nodded my head in spite of how I truly felt. My mother seemed to sense my unease.

  “Get dressed and I’ll take you out for a nice breakfast before we go to the pool.” She grinned at me and ushered me into my room.

  I quickly changed and packed my swim kit while I was at it. Suddenly, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Harriet:

  ‘Gud luk 2day. C u l8r.’

  I smiled and made my way downstairs where my mother was patiently waiting.

  My phone buzzed again.

  This time it was a message from Danny:

  ‘D Day is here! C u @ 10. x’

  I smiled and hit ‘reply’.

  ‘Dnt remind me. C u then. X’

  I then followed my mother out the door and forced myself not to think about the competition for the duration of breakfast. If I could do that, I could do anything!

  Breakfast was a quiet affair and pretty soon, it was time to go to the leisure centre. Sick with nerves, I forced my feet to walk through the glass doors. The faint smell of chlorine hit me and I nearly bolted. My mother, oblivious to my inner turmoil, smiled at me and then disappeared, citing something about getting a good seat.

  So, totally abandoned, I considered leaving when, at the last second, I spotted Danny waiting with his parents and made my way over to him.

  “Morning Gilmore!” he said with a wink. “You feeling okay?”

  I merely nodded, not trusting myself to speak in case I vomited. He chuckled at my expression and leaned over to give me a quick kiss.

  “You’re gonna be fine.” he whispered in my ear. “I’m here with you every step of the way.”

  I sucked in a deep breath, calmed by his words. “I know.” I told him.

  He threw me that killer lopsided grin and I laughed, feeling a bit better.

  Danny smiled and then pointed to his parents who were looking at me curiously. “Darcie, these are my parents – Miranda and Carl. Mum, Dad – this is Darcie.”

  I smiled at them and shook their hands. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  Danny’s mother smiled warmly. “So you’re the Darcie we’ve been hearing so much about?”

  I nodded unsurely and Danny’s father laughed.

  “It’s alright dear, we’ve heard nothing but good things about you.”

  I sighed in relief and his mother chuckled.

  She then turned to her son. “Danny, why didn’t we meet this girl sooner?” she asked sternly.

  Danny shrugged, looking embarrassed and mumbled something about being nosy.

  Miranda rolled her eyes and nudged her husband. “Come on dear, let’s leave them to it. We need to find a seat anyway.”

  They quickly left and Danny grinned at me. “Okay tiger, let’s go and register.”

  I glanced up at him. “Tiger?”

  Danny frowned. “What? You still look nervous. It felt like a ‘tiger’ moment.”

  I laughed and linked my arm through his as we made our way over to the registering station.

  Once we’d registered, we made our way to the canteen where all of the other competitors were waiting. It was still an hour and a half before the first race and we had been told to stay there and relax. The organisers were still waiting on competitors to register before they could sort out who was in which group.

  Danny and I sat down at one of the empty tables and glanced around.

  “How many schools take part in this?” I asked, amazed at the amount of people waiting.

  Danny shrugged. “I think it’s usually around ten to fifteen of the surrounding schools. There’s usually no more than ten from each school though.”

  I nodded. “Still, that’s a lot of people to beat.”

  He grinned. “Don’t sweat it. You’re gonna do great! Win or lose, you’ll still have me.”

  I laughed at that. “So you’re my consolation prize?”

  “Damn straight! You can’t get much better than that.” He smirked.

  “Is that so?” I enquire
d, amused at how confident he seemed to be about all of this.

  He nodded. “It’s great. It’s like a win-win situation.”

  I let out a chuckle. “Watch it Mr Fletcher, your cockiness is threatening to take over again.

  “Pah!” he protested. “It’s not cockiness, it’s confidence! There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  I nodded and he grinned. “Besides, nothing can put a dampener on my mood today. Nothing.”

  That was when his gaze shifted to over my shoulder … and his grin faded.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see what Danny was staring at: two new competitors had just walked in. One was a very pretty blonde girl who seemed to demand the attention of every guy in the room. The other, was an extremely tall, sandy haired guy who had his arm wrapped around the girl and had a very smug look on his face.

  I turned back to Danny. “What’s wrong? Do you know them?”

  Slowly, Danny nodded and his expression darkened. “Yeah, I know them.”

  “So, who are they?” I enquired, watching the couple take a seat at the last empty table.

  Danny heaved a sigh. “That, Darcie, is the girl who broke my heart and my ex best friend who helped do it. That is Kimmy Grayson and Lance Strafford.”

  I let out a low whistle. “Are you gonna be okay?”

  He managed to tear his gaze away from them and looked at me. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  I wasn’t so sure but I didn’t argue.

  Suddenly, I heard a sickly sweet voice.

  “Danny Fletcher … is that you?”

  I glanced up to find Kimmy standing behind me, staring directly at Danny while Lance shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.

  Danny gave Lance a curt nod before turning his attention to Kimmy.

  “Kimmy. Lance. How are you both?”

  I watched Kimmy flip her long blonde hair and gently flop down on the seat beside Danny.

  “Oh, I’m great!” she gushed, turning her back to me, and totally ignoring my presence at the table. “How are you?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her but didn’t say anything. In fact, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to say anything since all I wanted to do was rip out her bleached blonde hair.

  Danny threw a glance in my direction and seemed to read my mind. He gave me a small smirk and then looked back at Kimmy.

  “Oh, I’ve never been better. In fact, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” He gestured to me and I watched Kimmy whip her head around and give me daggers.

  “Kimmy, this is Darcie – my girlfriend.”

  I smiled sweetly at her and waved to Lance, who seemed to have been forgotten in all of the introductions.

  Lance merely nodded at me but Kimmy glared at me with such loathing that I found myself quite disturbed by her malevolent behaviour.

  “It’s nice to meet you Kimmy.” I forced myself to say, injecting as much enthusiasm into my voice as I could muster.

  “Whatever.” Kimmy waved off my greeting and turned her attention back to Danny. “Are you both competing?”

  Danny nodded, “Yeah, this is Darcie’s first time taking part. She only learned to swim just less than a year ago but I really think she’s gonna kick some ass today.” He threw me a dazzling smile and even though he was probably only boasting about me to get back at his ex girlfriend, I felt a strange sense of pride.

  “Oh,” Kimmy sneered. “Why the sudden interest in the competition?” she asked, turning her nose up at me.

  I shrugged. “I just wanted to do something different.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Uh huh, well good luck. Try not to fall too far behind me.”

  “Kimmy!” Danny warned. “There’s no need for that. It’s been two years; the least we can do is to try and be civil with each other.”

  “Fine. Sorry. But you know how I get Danny.” Kimmy smiled at him. “I can’t help that I’m competitive.”

  Danny frowned at her. “That’s no excuse to be rude.”

  She waved off his comment and stood up. “Whatever. See you later. Come on Lance, let’s go.”

  Lance gave us each a small wave and then trotted off behind Kimmy.

  I glanced at Danny. “You okay?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine but only if you do something for me.”

  “What is it?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Kick her ass today!” Danny grinned and I laughed loudly.

  Chapter Forty

  It was eleven-thirty before the organisers had sorted out everything. There were 128 of us in total: 64 boys and 64 girls. There were 8 lanes in the pool and there was a limit of 16 boys and 16 girls per day right through to Thursday. Who took part on which day was decided by splitting us all alphabetically. Since I was ‘G’, I wouldn’t be competing until tomorrow – Tuesday.

  The organisers decided that there would be two initial races for each style of swimming. This was to determine which group you were in: the fastest swimmers would go into one group and the slower swimmers would go into the other. The four styles were freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly.

  From there, there would be one heat for each group. The top four out of each group would then compete in one more heat to decide the top two for each group. Those four would then compete in one final heat. The overall top two for each style of swimming would go through to final on Friday.

  To say that my head was fried after hearing all that – well, it would have been an understatement. However, I did manage to get the gist of it. It seemed that all I had to do was be in the top two for at least one style of swimming and I would be through to the final. Easy!

  Even though I could relax for the rest of the day, Danny was competing in fifteen minutes.

  “You feeling okay?” I asked, concerned by how quiet he had been since our run in with Lance and Kimmy.

  He nodded. “Yeah, as long as you’re here to cheer me on, I’ll be fine.”

  I grinned. “Consider it done.” I gave him an extra lingering kiss and made my way to find my mother while Danny changed.

  My mother was greatly surprised to see me pushing my way through the crowd of people.

  “Darcie? When are you competing?” She looked confused.

  I laughed, “Not until tomorrow. They decided to sort us alphabetically. Anyway, Danny’s competing today so you’ll just have to help me cheer him on.”

  My mother smiled, “No problem. We’ll have to move to the other pool though. This one is for the girls.”

  I nodded and we pushed our way through the crowd until we were out in the corridor again. The other pool wasn’t too far – just at the end of the hallway.

  I opened the door to the viewing gallery and proceeded to push my way past the closely packed bodies until I had a better view of the pool. I spotted Danny’s parents a few rows behind me so I motioned for them to join us. After a quick introduction to my mother, we all gazed down at the pool, waiting for the competition to start.

  My mother squeezed my arm excitedly and grinned. “So, how good is Danny?”

  “He’s not good.” I told her. “He’s great.”

  She laughed. “So, these other boys won’t stand a chance?”

  I grinned wickedly. “Those boys will need all the luck they can get.”

  My mother chuckled and then pointed down to the pool. “Look, they’re coming out now!”

  I followed her gaze and was pleased to see that Danny was one of the first ones to line up.

  He glanced up, searching for my face in the crowd, and winked when he finally spotted me.

  I waved to him and winked back. He threw me a killer grin and waved to his parents before he started stretching.

  The announcer called out that the backstroke would be the first style and then proceeded to call out the names for the first race.

  Danny took his place with the rest of the boys who had been called out. They took their starting positions and waited.

  The announcer glanced over at the referee. All of
the other officials were ready: the timekeepers were poised for action and the judges were waiting, prepared for anything.

  “On your marks … get set … go!” The horn blared and they were off.

  The competition was intense. My mother and I cheered ourselves hoarse but we didn’t care. Danny’s parents were pretty enthusiastic too – shouting out various words of encouragement – but they didn’t feel the need to overexert themselves like me and my mother.

  Danny was the strongest swimmer throughout the whole day and managed to come first in every single race. Even the officials were surprised at how quickly he glided through the water, judging by their stunned expressions.

  When the competition ended, everybody was still talking about him and I heard many people voicing their amazement about how he had left the other competitors in his wake. I felt immensely proud of him and couldn’t wait to congratulate him.

  I, along with my mother and Danny’s parents, made my way to the main foyer to wait on Danny. Many of the spectators left quite quickly but a few remained behind – obviously family and friends of the other competitors.

  Ten minutes later and Danny appeared. He caught my eye but stopped in his tracks as the people waiting about suddenly surrounded him. They all congratulated him and patted him on the back, telling him he had done ‘a fine job’.

  Eventually, he managed to escape and hugged his parents before making a beeline straight for me. Grinning broadly, he embraced me in a tight hug and kissed me.

  When he pulled back, he smiled sheepishly at my mother. “Sorry.”

  My mother laughed and shook her head. “Pretend I’m not here!”

  Danny grinned and then hugged her. “Thanks for cheering me on.”

  My mother laughed. “Hey, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

  “Hey, this calls for a celebration. How about we all go for coffee?” Danny’s father suggested.

  We all agreed and made our way to ‘The Beanery’.

  The parents all sat at one table so Danny and I could have a little bit of privacy.