by Jenn Cooksey
“Jesus, what is with this wind?” I asked no one in particular as the swim team and I were blasted with a typhoon-strength gust when we walked out of the locker room on our way to the pool. Okay, so maybe not a full-fledged typhoon, but it’s some pretty strong-ass wind. Plus, the air is really warm, like the winds during a Santa Ana, even though we usually only get those during the fall.
“Dude, I have no clue…the weather’s been crazy this year though,” Chad answered, looking at the sky and the debris being blown around.
“No shit. Anyone wanna bet another tree goes down today?” Ian inquired.
“I would but that last one was a little too close to home, know what I mean?” Alex said, shaking his head. During that last storm we had when Trist and I went head to head out at the lake, the wind had broken an enormous eucalyptus tree that crashed through the house belonging to Alex’s next-door neighbors. They’ve been living in their motorhome for the last week and a half while repairs are being made to make their house safe and livable again.
“Well, I’m kinda diggin’ it and as long as the weather doesn’t fuck with Kristen’s party tonight or my Superbowl party tomorrow, I’ll take it,” Mike put in.
“I’m with you, man…I’m not a huge fan of these hurricane gale force winds, but I’ll take the warm weather…if it holds, it’ll make our birthday thing out at the lake a lot more enjoyable, you know? Maybe we can even get some night swimmin’ in and hopefully it won’t rain so The Band can be outdoors,” Tristan said, making me inwardly smile because now that we’re friends again, our party is back on.
See, Trist and I were born four days apart and when we turned three, we asked to have a joint party and we’ve had one ever since. And this year, our birthday party is gonna be E-P-I-C. Partyin’ all day, all night, and out at the lake with no one around for miles and miles, which means we can be as loud and as obnoxious as we want without harassing the neighbors and worrying about having the cops bust it up. Plus, we came up with a wristband system that, so far, everyone is onboard with. First of all, all car keys will be collected and released only to those with the appropriate color wristband. If you’re okay to be under the influence, you get a green wristband, but if you’re a designated driver, you get a red one. I know, it’s Christmasy, and we thought about going with blue or orange to avoid that, but the truth is, even when you’re hammered you don’t forget that red means stop and green means go. Anyhow, if you’ve got a red wristband and you’re caught with even a teeny-tiny bit of booze or drugs by anyone, you’ll be punished “our way.” Additionally, you won’t get your keys back until Sunday morning. So, if you have a curfew and screw with us, then too fuckin’ bad. And then just to be extra safe, we talked Justin’s older sister, who just so happens to have graduated from the police academy this past summer, to be in charge of handing out the bands, babysitting the keys, and giving everyone a breathalyzer test before they get behind the wheel. She won’t be in uniform and we’re paying her five hundred bucks, but hey, safety first, right?
“Doppler radar says these offshore winds will continue through the week and we can expect nothin’ but clear skies all weekend so we should be good there, but with the combination of high speed winds, heat and dryness, wildfires have a higher likelihood of occurring so we should all keep that in mind, especially at your guys’ party,” Vince told us, getting all scientific on us and making the majority of the guys either roll their eyes or groan, or, both. His father is the weatherman for one of the local news stations. We all give him shit because he’s constantly using “meteorologist” terms that he picks up from his old man and explaining to us about how low pressures systems work and crap like that, like we should care about anything other than what the local weather forecast is. And yeah, growing up in Southern California, we’re all extremely familiar with wildfires, the danger they present, and how fast they can get out of control, so having our buddy lecture us like he does gets a little tired.
“That’s next Saturday, right?” Todd asked.
“Yeah. And no, we don’t have a meet…the beauty of a bye week,” Tristan answered and knocked knuckles with Todd.
“Hey, where’s our girl? She should be here by now…” Ian said, scanning the stands for “our girl,” also known as Camie.
When Tristan said welcome to the team to Camie yesterday, it wasn’t an empty welcome. We all have a sense of family and she’s now a part of that, like a little sister. You could even say we view her with a sense of proprietorship. Last night I saw it in all their faces… Camie might not realize it, but in addition to Tristan and me, she now has eight other guys who’ll go to the mattresses for her. Of course that’s providing we’re not going to war with Tristan, the Don of our family, in doing so. Basically, I’m saying she belongs to us. And like any good mafia family will do, we watch each other’s backs and protect what’s ours.
“Katy left me a voicemail and told me that Camie overslept from a nap and is running late…they should be here any time though,” I answered and just as I said the words, Katy and Camie, along with the cats, rushed through the gate and hurried over to their reserved seats in the front row.
“Hey Cap, aren’t those your cats?” Alex asked in surprise.
“Yep,” Tristan answered with fatherly pride. “They’re showing their school spirit and supporting Daddy.”
“There’s something very wrong with this and what you just said, but what has me worried is that I can’t figure out exactly what it is,” Chad said, looking back and forth between Tristan, Camie, the cats, and the rest of us.
“What’s wrong with it? Obviously they’re showing their school pride, I mean they’re wearing blue and gold bells on their harnesses, and they’re totally supporting their dad. Look, the little one is waving…” Mike said matter of factly when Phineas starting batting at a sparkly ribbon or something that’s hanging down from Camie’s neck and being blown by the wind like it’s trying to tease the cat.
“No, she’s not waving, she’s playing with something…” Jake said, squinting at Phineas, trying to determine what she’s doing.
Tristan started laughing when he realized what it was and said, “So you all can blame Mike for Camie being late…I bet it took her at least twenty minutes to get that suit he gave her on the right way.”
Sure enough, once he said it, there was no question. Phineas was playing with and chewing on the string of metallic blue that’s part of the top to that bikini. Camie is wearing her cheer uniform over it, and if it weren’t for the wind and that one piece coming loose from where she’d tied the bikini top behind her neck, you’d never know she had it on. But the fact is, she does.
Well played, Camie, well played.
Tommy, who was standing right next to me, gave a little shudder and asked, “Okay, but can someone tell me why that super-sized one is staring at me like I’m a piece of sirloin?”
I looked across the pool to see that, yes, Ferb has not only gotten remarkably bigger in size since the last time I saw her, but that she’d draped herself across Camie’s shoulders like a feline mink stole and was staring over here with intent. Unfortunately, she wasn’t staring at Tommy and all I could think as I started to stretch and warm up was, “What the hell did I do now?!”
Los gatos no me mucho gusto mas ~ Pete
I opened my mouth to say, “Well, it’s about time you two got here,” and then closed my mouth just as quickly when it was apparent that in their busyness of getting themselves and the cats settled, Camie and Kate hadn’t seen me sitting in the row behind them.
Yeah okay, so that’s not entirely true…
The real reason I didn’t call attention to myself, if you must know, was because they were totally engrossed in a conversation I wanted to eavesdrop on. I mean, yes, most of my secret knowledge comes from people openly confiding in me, but, there is a fair amount that I have to work for and since I hadn’t heard anything about how Camie’s and Tristan’s night ended up after they left the fashion show together with Joe
y in tow, I was dying of curiosity. So sue me.
Besides, when this sort of opportunity arises, you know you’d do it, too.
“…told you he misses you? In those words?” Kate asked Camie, handing back the cats’ leashes and sitting down next to her.
“Yeah. It was such a great night, Kate. I mean, he didn’t say he wants to get back together or anything, but, the way we were together was like we’d never even broken up in the first place. It was just, I dunno…perfect,” Camie said and adjusted Ferb’s weight a little more evenly on her shoulders.
“So now what are you gonna do about the dance?”
“Oh, I’m totally still going. I mean, unless he offers to take me instead, which you know he’s not gonna do, I’m sticking with my date.”
“Camie, you know Tristan’s gonna go ballistic when he finds out you’re going to the dance with that guy.”
Camie sighed and slouched her shoulders when she said, “Yeah, probably…that’s why I didn’t bring it up last night and why I was kinda grateful he wasn’t even remotely interested in being introduced to him,” Then when she abruptly straightened, causing Ferb to almost fall off her shoulders, she steadied the cat in place with one hand and said, “But you know what, Kate, he’s gonna have to deal with it, because the fact of the matter is, we’re not back together.”
“Yeah, but Camie, you’re so close…”
“No, Kate, I was awake all night thinking about this…I refuse to live my life in anticipation of what he might or might not do, you know? Just because we had a great night and shared one amazing kiss and he told me he misses me, doesn’t mean I got my time machine wish. It was one night. We didn’t automatically go back to the way things were and I’m not sure that’s even possible, but, even if it is and that’s where we’re headed, we’re not there yet.
“Plus, the ball is still in his court. I mean it’s not like I can go up to him and say, hey, I wanna get back together, because I’m not the one who ended things between us in the first place. So, until he comes to me and says he wants to get back together, I’m just gonna go on doing what I’ve been doing because it would really suck if I stopped doing all that in expectation of getting back together with him only to discover that last night was really only a fluke or a whim, and all as a result of how I misinterpreted one night, I get my heart broken again, you know what I mean? I really don’t think I could take that…”
Kate was nodding in agreement and said, “Yeah, no…you’re totally right. I didn’t think about it like that. I was thinking that it’s an inevitability, you know, that you guys are so close to getting back together and that if he finds out about you going to the dance or hanging out with this guy at all, that he’ll freak and maybe you shouldn’t risk it, but I agree with everything you just said. You need to hear it from the horse’s mouth and not assume anything until then, and you shouldn’t necessarily wait around for him to do it either because there’s the small chance he might not...”
“Ooh! Look, girls, Daddy’s up!” Camie said all of a sudden when Tristan got in position on the starting block in preparation to kick the meet off with his superior butterfly in the 200 Yard Medley Relay, causing me to roll my eyes and stifle my “Humph.”
It’s not that I was upset that Kate and Camie were obviously done discussing what happened last night and where Camie now stands, which like Kate, I actually find justifiable…I mean, the girl made a good argument for living her life and it’s not like she doesn’t have grounds on which to base her interpretation of what’s been going on, incorrect as it may be. No, I was fine with all that but here’s the thing, I really kinda wanted to be surprised when Phineas, who was sniffing the toe of some woman’s shoe behind Camie, along with Ferb, who was immersed in cleaning her face with a paw, both pricked their ears up and actually turned their full attention to Tristan and the pool, provoking an “Aw, would you just look at that, it’s like they understand…how adorable,” comment from the recently inspected woman to another parent. Like I said, I wanted to be surprised, but, I wasn’t. Those cats just aren’t normal. They didn’t even flinch when the start buzzer sounded. However, I was surprised that they didn’t bolt from the stands and dive into the pool when their half-fish father did…
I’ve never asked Tristan or any of the guys and I’m sure there’s another, completely different reason for it, but I like to think the reason all swim meets start with the 200 Yard Medley Relay is because it gets everyone super pumped up. As soon as Tristan hit the water, everyone was on their feet, hollering, and when he tagged the wall, having totally smoked the other guys and thereby having given Jeff a huge lead for him to do his thing with the backstroke, I was whooping it up just as much as everyone else. That was also when Camie and Kate realized I was there. Again, not that it was a major disappointment; I mean I pretty much heard everything I think I needed to hear, but still, I knew they wouldn’t be talking about much more than the crazy weather from here on out.
And I was right. They didn’t say another word on the subject. I didn’t care though. Tristan and his team was en fuego, or, en llamas today…both can be translated to mean “on fire” en Inglés and neither have anything to do with actual llamas. Besides, specifically watching Tristan swim his events is inherently compelling. Just the nail biting tension and anticipation you feel during the 500 Yard Freestyle even when you know he’s completely toying with his competition in the neighboring lanes by maintaining a lead position of maybe half a head is enough to make you lose your voice with all the yelling you end up doing. Because there’s always that slight chance he might be having an off day so when he disappears under the water to make the last turn, you hold your breath, and when he rockets back out more than halfway down the lane, leaving everyone, including his own teammates that are racing as well, in his wake like you’ve seen him do every single time he’s in that particular event, you’re shouting and cheering like a mad man. I mean, it’s just extraordinary to watch. Oddly enough though, the front crawl he uses in the freestyle, being the fastest stroke for swimmers by and large, isn’t his fastest, or, his favorite. He has a wicked fast butterfly and his breaststroke doesn’t suck either. That’s why I think he plays with everyone for most of that event, like he’s just trying to keep it interesting or something.
Anyway, the only other noteworthy thing I heard was towards the end of the meet with one event left go when Camie got a text. I couldn’t read it from where I was and didn’t really even try, but she showed it to Kate and asked, “What do you think?”
To which Kate shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Hmm, I guess if you want to…but remember your dad asked you to help him make a lasagna so if you’re going to, we’ll have to get out of here right when the meet ends…”
“Ooh, yeah...and that nap interfered with my chores too.” Then Camie sent a text of her own and put her phone away.
“Yeah, there’s that, but do you really wanna…” Kate said and then, remembering I was in earshot, she got cryptic by nodding her head slightly and motioning with her eyes to Tristan on the other side of the pool. “You know…”
“Yeah, no, I don’t,” Camie returned, shaking her head and then she looked at the cats, “Crap. I can’t just leave the girls here though.”
I saw and watched as it happened, but, it didn’t register until it was too late.
Kate’s eyes narrowed in thought, then, suddenly, when the start buzzer sounded, they lit up like a lightbulb had literally been turned on in her head, a sly grin spread across her face and then she turned to face me fully and said, “I’m sure Uncle Pete wouldn’t mind doing you and Tristan a huge favor by watching the girls for about fifteen minutes after the meet until Tristan is ready to leave, right, Uncle Pete? You’d totally do that for your friends, wouldn’t you?”
I was stuck. My options were to just suck it up and agree or say no and sound like a complete asshole, which I really dislike being thought of as—even if it’s sometimes true—or even possibly being asked why I won’t do
it, which I really can’t seem to come up with a valid reason for.
I blew out a breath and said, “Fine, whatever, but you know he’s gonna ask, so what do I say when he does?”
“Duh, you’ll tell him the truth…Camie had to get home because she has chores to do and she promised her dad she’d help him make dinner.”
Duh is right. It’s not like I know anything about what the text was about anyway. It didn’t stop me from fidgeting under the cats’ weighty stares though when Camie and Kate left, whereby leaving me alone with the two furry weirdos who were just sitting on the bench in front of me, looking at me in what felt like a distinctly accusatory way. And yes, I suppose it could be the product of my imagination, but my guilty conscience is really hoping they can’t truly understand the English language like they appeared to do when the meet started, because then they’d have understood all those things I said about drowning them when they were keeping me awake at night and I was so tired. If that’s the case, the staring would mean they’re either plotting their revenge, or now that we’re alone together, that they’re about to implement their already thought through plan of attack…
“You know I didn’t mean what I said, right?”
They stared. I fidgeted.
Damn. I should’ve threatened their lives in Spanish. I could’ve said I was just studying for a test as a viable excuse.
There’s gotta be a way out of this. I only wish I’d paid more attention at the time and could remember which one likes chicken nuggets…and was it ketchup or mustard the other one likes on her cheeseburger? Hmm. I wonder if they’d overlook the fact that I can’t remember those details if the toy is good…
True lies ~ Jeff
The second Ian tagged the wall, winning the final event in the meet, Katy and Camie bolted.
I looked at Katy and with my hands in the air like I was asking, “What the hell?” she pointed to Camie and then to her wrist and non-existent watch in explanation.