07 | Olympic Swimmer

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

The following morning, the Jones' felt unwell and asked if Darcy and I could head to the shop to prepare a few things before the week. We agreed, but with the way Darcy was groaning and stumbling around after our night out, I told her I'd start some things in the morning and she could just help finish up at noon. She easily agreed and quickly fell back asleep.

Before leaving, I made sure to set an alarm on her phone before she slept the entire day away.

I could hardly sleep the night before, as I kept replaying the events from the previous night over and over in my head. I really just needed to tell Darcy what happened after she passed out, but without her I couldn't do anything, but commit it to memory.

I didn't want to obsess over the situation, but that's exactly what I was doing. Between asking myself if he would actually call me and what would I even say on our date, I couldn't even think about what was supposed to happen after a date.

As I drove down the usual path I took to work, my phone started ringing. My heart jumped, without even looking at it. I grabbed my phone that was sitting on the passenger seat and felt my heart jump again when I didn't recognize the number.

"Stop being so nervous," I scolded myself before taking a breath and picking up, "Hello?" My voice came out unnaturally high-pitched.

"Good morning Miss Bonilla," Leo's voice rang through my head and I nearly swerved my car over the curb of a sidewalk.

"Uh, good morning," I responded. Why was I such a mess? Why was he making me such a mess?

"I'm surprised you're up this early. I thought you might sleep in today." His voice was so nice over the phone. It was smooth and deep and playful.

Nope, he gave me two tickets, I would not forget that. "Yeah, typically. I just have a few things to do at work today."

"Ah, so the shop is open on Sunday?"

"No, the Jones' usually do some prep work, but they're sick so Darcy and I are covering." I explained. I was really having a casual conversation with him. Wow.

"I see."

"So, what's up?" I asked, already feeling the awkward plateau of our random conversation.

"Well," I could hear him exhale deeply, "I was trying to play it cool and wait a few days before calling, but after not being able to get you off my mind last night and this morning, I decided it couldn't be so bad to seem a little clingy."

I hadn't realized I was already parked in the lot at work, but came to as my head rested on the steering wheel in sheer embarrassment at his words alone. This guy was way too smooth. I wondered how many other girls he wooed with those same exact lines.

Why was I falling for it?

"Anyways, I thought I better set up this date quickly before you have the chance to back out." He continued on.

"Do you actually want to go on a date with me? Or is this another ploy of yours to harass me? Like, I'm obviously not a model citizen or anything and it's not nice to play with girls emotions." I told him. Not that he was playing with my emotions, since I was trying to play him, but the other big question that had kept me awake the previous night was why they hell did he want to date me?!

He just laughed, like I was a clown making a joke. "How about dinner this Tuesday night at seven? I'll pick you up at your house."

I rolled my eyes, not liking how he blatantly ignored my question, "Sure." I responded.

"Great! I'll see you then. Keep yourself out of trouble now, bye Cala." I could practically hear the smirk on his face.

"Bye," I responded before the line went dead.

Internal screaming activated.

I really couldn't be chill. I was really about to go on a date with a cop. What was life?

I tried to keep myself busy with shop work, but having been the way that I'd always been, my mind ran rampant with thoughts of everything going on. I made five mistakes that I had to fix because of it too.

By the time Darcy walked through the back door, I was about ready to explode.

I updated her on everything that happened the moment she knocked out to that morning, not missing any details including his smirks, laughs and teases so that she could accurately tell me what was happening.

"You are going on a date with the Man. Interesting, never expected it, but I like it. Stick it to them, by being with them. Who knows, could work out." Darcy smiled, knowing that I did not appreciate her joke.

"I'm not going to be with him, I'm going to use him to get payback for the financial crisis he put me in." I explained.

"I've watched too many romance movies with you to not see this how this turns out. As mad as he makes you, somewhere deep down, you like Hot-cop." She said, voicing thoughts I refused to think.

"You're no help at all," I threw the rusted cleaning rag I was using at her and sat on the floor, hugging my knees to my chest in despair.

She laughed before she squat down next to me and wrapped her arms around my body. If anyone walked in, we would've looked absolutely ridiculous. "Listen babe, I know the truth hurts, but I've got to tell it to you straight. Hot-cop is, without a doubt, one of the finest men we've had come to town in a long time. He's definitely an arrogant fuckboy who thinks he can do what he wants and that's almost everything I'm personally against, but this could be a good thing."

I looked at her like she grew an extra head, "How the hell could this be a good thing after you just said all that?"

She finally let go of me, standing up and then climbing onto the checkout counter. She struggled slightly until she was standing with her head held up high.

"My life motto is that men are trash." She exclaimed as if giving her presidential address, "However, I am undeniably attracted to these trash individuals. So, in order to keep enjoying the men as they come, I need to do my part in helping them realize the error in their trash-like ways."

My best friend was a bit of a nutcase.

"Do we do this by ignoring the men that come our way? No way! They will never learn. We take in these men and try our best to show them the light. Many won't take, but a few will. And thus, we continue our path for the few that will."

I had no idea what she was going on about, but I gave her a few 'hoo-rahs' and pulled myself up onto the checkout counter with her.

"We fight for the men that will!" She said, throwing a fist in the air and looking down at all the antiques she was hoping would give her their vote.

"For the men that will!" I agreed along, throwing my own fist in the air and laughing at how idiotic we were.

"Now it's your turn," She pointed at me, "For Narnia!" She jumped off the counter, tripped and fell into a cluster of baskets.

"Oh my goodness!" I laughed so hard I snorted, "You are a mess." I gently climbed down the counter and tried picking her up, but she couldn't stop laughing herself.

"Cal," She said through the laughs, "I'm going to pee!" She shouted and I had to let go of her hands to continue laughing. She laid back on the ground, trying to breathe through the fits, "That hurt!" She tried again, picking up a small picnic basket and chucking it at me.

"Should've never jumped," I told her, grabbing the basket that only hit my leg, and tossing it on her stomach. "Clean this mess up while I take a break. Here," I smacked the outstretched hand she was trying to give me to help her up, "I tag you in." I walked over to the back of the register to sit on the stool.

She finally composed herself enough to stop laughing and stand up, "You're such a terrible friend, I have a hangover!" She complained, picking up the mess of baskets. "Just for that, I hope you end up marrying Hot-cop. And then have a bunch of little corrupt, cop babies." She teased, sticking her tongue out at me.

The gasp that came from my mouth was loud and dramatic, "How could you say such an awful thing!?" I threw a pen at her, missing terribly. "I hope that when you try and take over the world, you lose to a sexist guy."

She gasped loudly too, straightening herself and turning to look back at me. I smiled triumphantly, "Now that was a low blow."

I shrugged, "You started it."

"At least I can sniff out a cliche romance movie when I see one."

I inhaled, ready to make a comeback, but couldn't think of any good ones, "Yeah well, at least I don't fall into baskets."

Darcy laughed again, "True."

We finished up the shop, with Darcy taking inventory and myself cleaning and then headed over to her parents' place to pick up Joey. He had asked Darcy to take him to the indoor community pool so he could get some extra practice in and I decided to tag along because I had absolutely nothing else to do and I could use a dip in the pool.

The smell of chlorine hit my nose the moment we walked through the double doors of the pool center. The space was always humid and as gross as that was, it was much nicer than the cold winter air outside.

Darcy and I separated from Joey to the women's locker room, where we changed and Darcy helped me put two braids in my hair.

I looked in the mirror as I twisted the braids into high buns on my head. With Darcy's thin hair, she skipped the braid and just opted for one high bun.

"Isn't it crazy that they renovated this whole space just because of Joey's talent?" She asked me.

If the chlorine scent wasn't so strong, I might have been able to smell the fresh paint, "He's a child prodigy. He's obviously gonna win some metals and the town is going to love the attention." I responded.

Darcy and I shared a laundry list of similarities so tacking on, athletic brothers who outshined us in every way, felt natural. I mean, it sucked sometimes to be an after thought to said brothers, but at least we had someone to share that feeling with.

And I would never know the extent Darcy felt it, considering that my brother was just great at football for his year, whereas Joey had won regional championships in swimming for multiple years.

"I just can't believe we're going to the next Olympics." She added.

"It's going to be so cool! So let's do our part and make his practice difficult." I gave her a mischievous smile and she returned it.

We both sported the one-piece bathing suits from our high school, a deep forest green with a silver owl across the chest. Coming to the community pool with Joey was the only time we wore these suits for the sturdy, no-slip design of them. And with how these practices generally went, we couldn't spare to have any Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunctions.

We finally walked into the pool area of the center, the heat seeming to rise up off of the water. Joey was already there doing laps. It was amazing to see his slim frame glide through the water. He was only warming up, but his warm up was already so much faster than I could ever accomplish.

I watched him reach the far end and, instead of flipping and starting a backstroke, he stopped and turned his head, spotting us.

Joey hardly ever invited us to his practices anymore. As a matter of fact, I was sure he didn't like us coming at all.

I looked over at Darcy, who was smirking down at him, "Why are you all the way over there?" She called to him. We were the only ones at the pool and her voice echoed through the space.

"Can you guys swim over there and just leave me to train over here?" He called back, still unmoving.

"I didn't think an olympic star could be afraid of any challenges." I chimed in.

Darcy sat down, sticking her legs in the water, "If you can handle a challenge on expert mode, then there's no doubt you'll win the gold. Don't you want that edge?" She asked him.

"No, not at all." He called back. I laughed, sitting down as well and sticking my legs into the water. As warm as the water supposedly was, it still felt cold on impact and sent goosebumps up my legs.

"Well we're going to give it to you anyways," I said and slipped into the water, feeling the cold shrivel up my chest.

"You're going to have to catch me first," He said before disappearing straight under the surface.

So the game was, Darcy and I would split up and try to catch him and see if we could drown him. It sounded really terrible once explained, but that was just about exactly what we tried to do. We'd use pool noodles and rings as well, which never really helped, but we'd grab him, call the other one over and see if we could pull him down and keep him there.

What made the game not so murderous was the fact that Joey was, again, a scary good swimmer. He could hold his breath for longer than necessary and he was stronger than both of us and was great at getting away. Or he'd pull us down with him and we'd have to let go whenever we needed to breathe.

As much as he wanted to deny it, it helped him by making him have to hold his breath under strain and use his strength and speed to break free. I was sure no other olympian had such a good training regimen.

We split up, me doing my infamous doggy paddle as Darcy, who actually knew how to swim, went straight into a breaststroke.

"Polo!" Joey shot out of the water in the opposite corner that he had entered, calling out to us. He viewed our game as an intense Marco Polo. Which was fine. It had a much better ring than my idea of calling it Murderers and Murder Victim.

I took a deep breath and went under. As with most things that involved physical exertion, I wasn't great at swimming. Or this game to be quite honest. I only ever caught Joey myself like three times and I was pretty sure it was because he felt bad and came up to me.

I opened my eyes in the water, feeling the sting of chlorine and scanned the area diligently before coming back up for air and to see Darcy's progress.

She was below the surface herself, her green spandex ass looking like a hill over the water.

I went under again, scanning. I could just barely see Darcy in the mostly clear water, but no sign of Joey.

Just then, someone grabbed both of my feet and shook them vigorously. I shot out of the water, nearly choking in the process.

Joey came up from behind me, laughing.

"Dar, I've got him!" I called, grabbing him in a tight bear hug and trying to allow me deadweight to bring us down, "Dar!" I called again.

Darcy finally brought her tush down and came up from the water. "Hang on!" She shouted, breaking into a freestyle stroke and coming our way.

Joey just kept laughing, not really trying to escape. "You are so weak," He told me.

I ignored him, squeezing him tightly and trying my darndest to pull him under by kicking my feet. As Darcy approached just a couple yards out, Joey hooked his hands under my knees, pulling them around himself.

"Hold your breath," He smiled before we sank into the water and were off. I clung to him for dear life as he swam around the pool. I could've sworn I was on a small motorboat with his speed.

We made it to the side of the pool he'd originally been at when he decided to lift us up. I panted like the out of breath potato I was, as he seemed to be as solid as ever.

"Why can't you just let us win?" I asked, as Darcy splashed through the water, trying to reach us again.

"Why can't you just let me train in peace?" He countered.

Darcy finally made it, sounding as out of breath as I had been. "Damn Joseph. Did you get faster?" She asked him.

"How about you guys play on the diving board or something. I want to get a few good rounds in before we head back." He suggested.

Darcy and I looked between each other, probably thinking the same thing.

"You win this time Joe-Bo," I said, using the one nickname for him that could actually cause him annoyance. It was a pun on the word hobo. Yeah, it wasn't the most revolutionary, but it did its job.

He released me and I had to remember to wade the water before sinking.

We got a good few dives in before we decided to head over to the shallow end and just hang out.

"I think Joey still has a crush on you," Darcy told me the moment we sat in the water.

"I think you're wrong." I said, unfazed.

"I don't know how you can think that. He obviously still flirts with you." She said, her blue eyes seeming to match the water.

"He does not. That's how he always is."

"Yeah, to you." Darcy turned her head towards her brother, "He's always been like that to you because he's always been in love with you."

I looked over at Joey then as well. Swimming back and forth the width of the pool, timing himself. I met Darcy our freshman year of highschool, when we had homeroom together. I'd seen her in passing before that, but we never spoke. Freshman year was when we were formally introduced and we became the best gal friends ever. She easily got along with Devin too, and we all hung out numerous times. Back then Joey was in sixth grade and the first time I walked into her house, he was a nervous wreck around me.

It turned out he had the biggest crush on me and I found it to be the cutest thing ever. Little Joey actually liked me. Before I learned that, I just thought he hated me.

"That was until he got himself a girlfriend."

Finally, Joey entered high school and fell in love with someone more appropriately aged. They dated for two years until she ended it abruptly at the beginning of his junior year. He was such a mess after that and Darcy and I tried our hardest to help him through it.

"Yeah, but that's been over for awhile now, and—as he keeps telling me—he's a man now. So we need to stop seeing him as a kid."

"Man or not, I've already honorarily adopted him as my younger brother."

"Well, if things don't work out with Hot-cop, remember you can always just marry my brother and then by law we would actually be sisters." She rolled over onto her stomach, pretending to swim in the air as the water barely came up above her belly button.

I laughed, "Don't be so selfish, I still consider you my sister, even without the law." I scooped up some water and poured it over her back. It was satisfying to watch her flinch at the cold. "Things aren't going to work out with Hot-cop or Joey. I'm just going to do my single thang."

"Boring."

"I thought you would like that. I thought I was supposed to be a strong woman who didn't need no man." I stood up, hooking my fingers through the spandex suit to release the wedgie. I was ready to shower and dry off.

"Definitely," Darcy started, picking herself up too. "But I know you are a hopeless romantic who loves the idea of love and I support that."

"Aw, what would I do without your support?" I said sarcastically and pulled her into a hug.

"Get a room!" Joey shouted at us.

"Don't be jealous," His sister said and I rolled my eyes.

We walked back to the women's locker room and as the smile finally dropped from my face, I couldn't help myself from thinking how much better all of this would be if Devin was still alive. 

++++++

Author's Note: Happy Tuesday! This week, I'm going to upload an extra chapter because I love you all and I know you want more Hot-cop. So expect chapter 8 this Thursday! <3

-Criss

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net