“Why are you telling me about this now, then?” I demanded. As if I had the right to ask her when I wasn’t telling her what was going on with me.
“Uh, well I think I really like him, I guess. We hung out a few times this last week.”
“What’s his name?”
“James. We were dancing together when you went to grab food and I gave him my number when you texted me to come eat.”
She went on to talk more about him—where he went to school, and what they had been doing together. As she went further into detail, it made me realize I was being a coward. She was brave enough to tell me her secret. What was I waiting for? She was my best friend, after all.
What are you so afraid of, Étienne? Just tell her. It’s not a big deal.
I took in a breath, about to tell Dana what was going on inside my head. My meeting with Thad earlier that day. How he asked to hang out. How I was feeling about it. I opened my mouth, trying to keep my end of her deal, but instead something else came out.
“Let’s see who can jump the farthest.” I started pumping back and forth to gain speed on the swing. She immediately jumped up and threw her legs toward the sky.
Yes. I was a coward, but I guess self-defense and self-preservation proved more important than being honest with my best friend.
“Hey! Hold on,” she bellowed.
I continued pumping my legs, getting higher and higher as Dana caught up to me. My head turned toward the dark sky, the chain starting to buckle and tighten as I ascended, then descended. I searched for the moon as I reached higher and higher, while a sinking feeling in my stomach appeared as if I were on a roller coaster.
“Hey,” said Dana, cutting off my search.
“What?”
“Ready? Three, two…”
I turned my head forward and readied my arms as we prepared to jump. I let go of the chains as my legs straightened, preparing for the impact. But my left foot found an unwanted depression in the wood chips, and I stumbled in my landing.
“Ha! You suck.” Dana clearly won the contest with her superior athletic abilities, and thankfully dropped the fact that I was supposed to say something.
After nearly spraining my left ankle trying to land on the rough mulch, I headed back with Dana to her house where we could relax in her family’s back porch jacuzzi.
“Hey T.” I wasn’t sure why Dana’s mom called me T, but I was okay with it. She was one of those cool moms.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages. Where’ve you been? How’d the end of the semester treat ya?” she asked while opening the fridge to grab a beer.
“It was ehh. You know.” I shrugged then threw myself onto the floor to give the family’s chocolate Lab some kisses.
I didn’t much enjoy classes at my school. Well, I don’t think many people do. The required subjects weren’t too exciting. I only enjoyed after the day ended and I had practice for an hour and a half. At least then I knew what was expected of me.
I ran and grabbed my bathing suit from Dana’s room—yes, I kept a bathing suit there—then ran into her older brother’s room to change. Normally I would have gone into the bathroom to change but her brother’s room sat right across from hers and he wasn’t home.
Dana and I met in the hallway. She wore a neon purple two-piece, her orange hair piled on the top of her head in a messy bun. Me in my sapphire swim trunks, holding my back straight as a board and sucking my stomach in as my dad taught me.
Dana’s mom lifted up her beer as we passed through the kitchen on our way to the back door. “Want one?”
“Sure. Ope. Étienne, let me scooch past ya,” Dana said as she wiggled between me and the kitchen island.
“How about you?” Dana’s mom pointed to me.
“Yeah, I guess.” I clenched my jaw, unsure if I should.
“Only one though!” She pointed at the two of us before adding, “You can enjoy yourselves under my roof, but only so much. You’re still teenagers.”
Understandable,I thought to myself.
“Oh. And close the gate so she doesn’t get out. I’m going to leave ’er in the yard with you guys for a while,” her mom said, pointing to their family dog.