by Lauryn April
“We’ll talk later though,” Eliza said as she raced over to Christy.
Damon followed and I turned to Tiana.
“That girl is trouble,” Ti said and I nodded in agreement.
We watched as Christy parked and got out to talk to Eliza. It was then that a passenger exited the car. I looked on as the pale moonlight made his blonde hair gleam in the darkness. Chase Bryant shut the car door. I felt Tiana watching me as my eyes went wide and my heart started to beat so hard that I feared its sound would echo down the block for everyone to hear.
He shook his head knocking his dark blonde hair out of his eyes. I was so lost staring at him that I couldn’t move. I heard Christy talking to Eliza, saying that Chase overheard her talking about our late night swim with Tiana in P.E. and invited him along. Then suddenly they were all standing before Ti and me and I shook my head to knock myself back into reality.
“Hey,” Chase said as they approached us.
Ti waved to them but I found myself unable to speak. I could only stare at his green eyes and the perfect curvature of his lips.
“Ivy, you ready?” Eliza asked me.
“What? Yeah, yeah, I’m all set.”
“Great,” Christy said with a smile then turned to Eliza, “We’re gonna ride with you guys, okay?”
“No problem.”
I turned to Tiana as the four of them got in Damon’s Mustang. She gave me a sympathetic look.
“Come on, you can ride with me,” she said and I followed her to her car.
“I told her not to invite him,” she said when we got a little ways down the road. “We all know you have a thing for him.”
I looked at her surprised. “It’s that obvious?”
“Uh yeah,” she said and I felt my face flush red. I must have looked horrified. “Well maybe not that obvious, but we’re your friends. We notice these things. You’ve been crazy about him since the three of us were lab partners in Freshman Bio.”
I just nodded.
“Look, don’t worry about it, you know how Christy is, she likes to flirt with every tall, dark, and hunky guy that walks by but she never gets serious with any of them.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I took a deep breath. “You know, sometimes I wish she would get serious with one of them. Then maybe I’d quit getting dragged on so many double dates.”
Tiana laughed. “Steve and Alex?” she asked and laughed again.
“Yeah, they’re coming back down next weekend or something. God, I just don’t care that much, I’m not quite as desperate as Christy.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.”
“How come she didn’t ask you to meet them anyway? Didn’t you guys carpool to Nicolette’s party?”
Tiana’s cheeks blushed. “I, um…I was preoccupied at the time.”
My eyes narrowed in on her. “What does that mean?”
She was speechless for a moment. “I… well, okay remember this morning when Farrow busted those guys for smoking?”
“Yeah.”
“Brant Everett, remember I pointed him out, dark hair, cheekbones to die for, gorgeous blue eyes, cute yeah?”
I nodded. “Wait, what does Brant have to do with… Oh my God, you hooked up with Brant Everett at Nicolette’s party,” I nearly shouted and her dark skin turned rosy again.
“Don’t tell anyone,” she said in a whispered tone as if we were sitting in a church pew, and I could tell there was some embarrassment buried in her voice. “We didn’t… we just fooled around, but… Brant’s a total asshole. Trust me on that.”
“I’m sorry, Ti.”
She smiled. “Thanks, hun. Don’t worry though, a few beers and a midnight swim and I’ll be just fine.”
The golf course at Lakefall wasn’t gated itself, just the front entrance surrounding the country club. This made it easy for us to sneak in by driving down a side road. We had to be careful nearing the pool house though. The buildings were not only locked at night but there was a security guard that patrolled the grounds as well. In middle school, a group of about ten of us snuck on to the golf course to play ghost in the graveyard only to end up getting sprayed by the nighttime sprinklers and having to run from the guard. Since then, our strategies to sneak into places had improved.
Tiana switched her headlights off, driving in darkness as she parked a little ways away from the pool house. Both cars were left hidden in shadow and away from the main road where we hoped the guard would not be checking during his nightly patrol. Then Damon grabbed the case of beer out of his trunk and wordlessly we walked to the pool house.
We were all on edge, nervously glancing over our shoulders and huddling close together. I heard every whisper of a sound, from the rustling of leaves and shuffling of feet to the quiet chirping of crickets. We were keeping watch while Eliza unlocked the door. I stared off into the dark moonlit green of the golf course. The clean smell of grass and pine invaded my senses as I tried to see if anyone was coming, but the only movement I caught was of shadows dancing in the darkness. Then I heard the click of the door as she twisted the handle and we all hurried inside.
I sighed in relief once the door shut behind us then followed my friends past the front desk and through the women’s locker room. We passed the showers and I felt my stomach twist as I saw Chase put his arm around Christy. I tried to think of what Ti had said in the car, tried not to let them bother me. After all, it’s not like I’d even said more than a couple sentences to Chase in my entire high school career. There was no reason seeing them together should upset me. But it did.
We all passed through the glass door that led to the open pool area and I smiled seeing the water before me. The pool was outside but there was a tall brick wall that surrounded it on all sides so we were safe from the sight of any passing security guards. The water was still and reflective as glass. It looked black in the night and shined back the white light of the full moon above. For a moment the wind held its breath and the mirrored water before us looked like it was set in a photograph, a serene and tranquil unmoving image.
“What are you guys waiting for?” Eliza asked. She was running toward the water. Already stripped down to her swimsuit, she did a cannonball into the pool. The water splashed up around her and sent ripples circling out from where she broke the surface.
Then Damon was throwing Chase a beer and Tiana and I were following after Eliza, jumping into the water. Christy hung out with the guys for a little while, sipping on a Bud Light before joining us in the pool. Shortly after that, the boys jumped in as well and we spent the next half hour swimming away from them as they tried to catch and dunk us. Chase mostly swam after Christy but Damon picked me up once and threw me into the deep end. I ended up with water up my nose, but I popped up out of the water laughing.
I pulled myself up out of the pool and sat at the edge with my feet dangling in the water for a short while after that. A moment later Tiana joined me and we watched Eliza and Damon take on Christy and Chase in a game of chicken.
“Well, I’m ready for a beer,” Ti said and got up to walk to the other side where the rest of the Bud Light was sitting.
“Yeah, me too.”
I followed Tiana and she handed me a beer. The can was wet with condensation and slipped a little in my hand. As I popped the top of the cold aluminum can, Eliza splashed into the water as Christy and Chase won the game of chicken. I took a sip and watched as Damon pulled himself out of the pool. He walked over and grabbed a beer. I was facing him and Tiana at this point and had my back to the pool. The shallow end, only three feet deep, was behind me.
“Hey, Ivy!” Christy called from the water.
I stepped back turning to face her. I didn’t realize how close I was to the edge of the pool. I didn’t realize that as I moved I would set my foot down and my heel would be over the edge. Christy was in the deep end swimming toward the ladder and I heard her say something else, but by then I was falling. My balance was lost and I slipped, tumbling backwards. That was it, that o
ne small moment. Just Christy calling my name, just a wrong step, a small slip, and my life was forever altered. I couldn’t help the way I hit the water, couldn’t have adjusted the angle of my body. I barely had time to take a breath before I was submerged. I couldn’t have done anything about how my head hit that last step at the bottom of the pool, the way I crashed into its sharp edge. The water didn’t break my fall as one would hope, but it did seem to break something. Or maybe it broke something loose.
2
Head Above Water
My chest heaved as I tried to find air but only came up with water. I remember feeling hands on my chest, and lips hovering above mine. I remember murmured voices that sounded like I was hearing them from the end of a long tunnel. Someone said something about blood, someone wondered if I was dead. I heard it all clearly but the words were distant and had a strange ring to them. I wheezed and jolted upward finally finding my breath and my eyes popped open. I saw Damon hunched over beside me, looking frightened, his eyes wide, mouth curved down into a trembling frown. He moved his hands back to his sides. There was an audible gasp and I looked around to see all my friends above me looking on with concern. I had fallen, I had nearly drowned. Damon had pulled me from the pool and I could still feel soreness on my chest where he’d pressed against my ribs to preform CPR.
“Ivy, are you okay?” Tiana asked.
“You scared the hell out of us,” Eliza added.
Christy remained silent. When I looked to her, I saw her arms were wrapped tightly around herself and her eyes were cast at the ground as if they were tied down to something heavy.
I sat up and Damon helped me to my feet, my hand instinctively moved to the back of my throbbing head. There my fingers found a mass of hot, wet tangled hair. I felt dizzy and my head was spinning. My eyes caught Chase’s and the intense glare of his green eyes made me look away. That was when I saw the puddle of an oily black substance on the cement where I’d been laying. As I glanced to the pool, I saw a smoke-like gray color swirling in the water. I pulled my hand away and looked down at my fingers. They were coated with blood.
“You with us, Ivy?” Christy asked. “You look like shit.”
I looked to her. She may have snapped out of whatever daze she had been in, but I felt like I was slowly falling away from reality. My head felt heavy as if my brain were swollen. It felt as if it was a sponge that had soaked up all the pool water and now sat engorged balancing on my neck, and I was bleeding.
“Ivy?” Damon then asked.
When I looked to him, I found that, despite the pain, I could focus. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine I think.”
“Thank God,” Christy said, “I so didn’t want to have to call an ambulance and explain what we were doing here.”
I did my best not to roll my eyes at her and then we heard it. The not so distant sound of a car pulling to a stop, and then the main pool house door opening and clicking shut.
“What’s that?” Ti said and we all turned to look toward the pool house. Then the light inside flicked on.
“Shit, it’s the security guard,” Eliza said, “We’ve got to go.”
“Go where? We can’t get back out through the pool house,” Chase said as we all scrambled to gather our things.
No one bothered to wonder what the guard would think about the blood, not even me. I had my clothes in my arms and was slipping my shoes on when I heard the grating sound of metal being dragged across concrete. I looked up and saw Eliza pushing one of the small round tables up against the brick wall.
“Come on, we’ll go up and over,” she said and we all froze, unsure if that was the best way out. “Anyone have a better idea?”
None of us did. Eliza climbed on top of the table, throwing her clothes over the wall. She was the first to jump over and the rest of us followed. Once we reached the cars, I was revisited by the dizziness that had overcome me moments earlier. The rush of adrenaline from the fear of getting caught was wearing off as I sat in the passenger seat beside Tiana. For a moment my eyes fluttered shut and I worried that I’d lose consciousness. Tiana glanced at me. Her normally plump lips were a thin worried line, her eyes wide and unfocused. She was shaken.
“You alright?” she asked.
All I could do was nod yes, but it was only to calm her. I wasn’t alright. The entire ride back to Eliza’s, I fought to stay awake. My hand held the back of my head tightly as if I were trying to hold it together and, in my mind; I felt like that was exactly what I was doing. I feared my head was cracked apart and that my skull would be in pieces. I didn’t know then that it felt worse than it really was, only that a part of me still wondered if I would live through this.
When we arrived at Eliza’s I realized that I had blacked out for most of the drive. It seemed as if from the time I got in Tiana’s car to the time we pulled into Eliza’s driveway that only seconds had passed. I shared this with no one.
Everyone circled around me as I staggered out of the car. Damon was quick to grab my arm and help me over to a lawn chair in the back of the garage. At the time, I assumed they were concerned for me, and maybe to some degree they were. Later, however, I would come to realize that they were all far more selfish than I once thought. Looking back, I can tell they were more worried about getting in trouble themselves. Someone should have called an ambulance. Someone should have called their mom or dad. I should have gone to a hospital. Maybe if that had happened I wouldn’t have been left with any… residual effects.
The girls were flustered and completely unaware of what to do. Damon was eager to help me but didn’t know what I needed. It was Chase who took control. As for me, my eyes moved around the dimly lit garage, seeing everyone in a surreal, spacey haze that reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope. Chase grabbed my head and forced me to look at him. He didn’t say anything, just stared into my eyes.
“I think she has a concussion,” Chase said, his words echoed in my head. Then he turned away from me.
They were all chattering now asking one another what they should do.
“I’m fine,” I said, though I didn’t know why. I think mostly I just wanted them to stop talking. Their voices were making my ears ring.
Time flickered away from me for a moment then because the next thing I was aware of was Damon and Chase rinsing the blood out of my hair and parting it. The wet strands resisted being separated from one another and tugged against my scalp. I winced in pain. I also noticed that sitting in my lap was a first aid kit and my fingers gripped the corners of the white plastic box.
“My older brother cracked his head skateboarding when I was twelve,” Chase said.
I found his voice soothing.
“I went with my mom and him to the hospital. All they really did was staple the back of his head and give him Tylenol, just Tylenol, said he couldn’t take Advil, or aspirin… Here, hold that in place.”
I think he was talking to Damon and I felt hands on my head then a cold liquid. Later I would realize that they used skin glue to seal up my wound.
“It’s really not that bad,” Damon said. “A lot of blood, but it’s not really wide or deep.”
“We really don’t need details,” Christy said.
Soon they were done and helping me stand. I thanked Chase. He smiled at me and I felt lightheaded for a whole new reason. After that, Tiana was insistent that I couldn’t drive home and I watched as they talked amongst themselves. Even now, looking back, they seem dreamlike, their voices distant and resonant, their images fuzzy and glowing. As they talked, I felt like I wasn’t really there. I was an onlooker, an outsider. Eventually they came to a consensus and Tiana drove me home in her car. Damon followed in my Scion and they dropped me off waiting until I walked up the front steps to drive away.
At a little past ten, I walked through the front door. My hair was still wet but I’d pulled it up into a pony tail and thrown my shirt and jean skirt back on. I still felt dizzy and there was a bump forming on the back of my head beneath the glue that held my sk
in together. But that was of little concern to me after I walked through the door. I could hear Mom in the kitchen. She was talking to someone on the phone then hung up as she heard me close the front door.
“Ivy?” she called and I could tell she was upset with me.
I saw her come around the corner and for a moment she looked at me with relief. Then her eyes grew darker and I saw the corners of her mouth curve down in disappointment.
“Ivy, where have you been?” Her voice was firm and for a moment I didn’t know how to respond. “Don’t give me some lie about studying. I just got off the phone with Mrs. Hall and she said you girls were out all night. I want the truth, Ivy.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The surreal haze that had taken over my vision before faded and my mom stood in front of me with sharp, bright intensity.
“I’m sorry, you’re right. I lied to you.”
She seemed to calm a little with my honesty.
“We, um, we went for a swim.”
She looked me up and down and took in my wet hair.
Then my honesty went out the window. “At the Pool at the Y. We were going to study, but Christy had guest passes that were going to expire today.”
Mom sighed. “You should have told me the truth, and I’m not too happy about you girls going out on a school night,” she sighed again and I could tell her anger had deflated some, “but I’m glad you’re being honest with me now.”
I cringed a little inside knowing that I hadn’t given her the complete truth.
“Just… go to your room.”
I nodded and made my way upstairs. That night I slept terribly. At first I think I’d been afraid to even fall asleep, and after that I kept waking up every few hours. I had a restless and dreamless sleep and found myself the next day with a pounding headache and stiff neck. There was still a large bump on the back of my head from where I hit the bottom of the pool, but I wasn’t bleeding and I was still alive.