10.
Taking The Plunge
Lenley
“SWEET JESUS, IT’S ONLYMemorial Day weekend and it’s already hot as balls!” Sarah complains, spraying herself with a cooling coconut scented mist. “Do you want some?” she offers, passing me the bottle.
Splash!
Someone jumps into the water of the main pool from the highest diving board, causing me to shudder. “Babe,” I tell my best friend, “If you want to go for a swim we can, but—”
She smiles, lifting her sun glasses to look at me. “I know. I know you’re uncomfortable jumping into the huge pool.”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m sorry. This place looks really cool, but who builds a pool with no steps leading into it and so high off the ground that the only way in is by diving?”
This water park opened last year in the late spring, right after my birthday, after I left; so it’s my first time here.
“There’s a normal pool with steps into it and a shallow end,” she informs me. “It’s called the “tranquility pool.”
Someone else jumps in, making me flinch. “Then what the fuck are we doing here? Do you enjoy watching me shit my pants?”
“No, I’m sorry,” she says sheepishly. “It’s just that earlier, right before I called you, Trent checked in on his social media that he was here, and ...”
Trent is a new member of the Cove Angels; he was a Devil until last summer but after he had a great season with his old team, Kyle offered him a spot on the Angels team and way more money than he was being paid by our rivals.
I take my sunglasses off and look at my bestie. “You like Trent?”
She blushes under her tan; this must be a serious crush because it isn’t like Sarah to blush, like ... ever.
“He’s hot. I’ve been trying to find the courage to talk to him but Kiara got in the way, before—”
She doesn’t finish the sentence; we both know what she means. Before she got with Darrius. “I didn’t tell her that I liked him, just FYI. Not after what happened with Niko, last year.”
I sigh. “I don’t fucking blame you, babe. I can’t fucking believe Kiara. I thought she was a friend.”
God knows I cried on her shoulder so many times about Darrius. “I feel so stupid for confiding in her every time Darrius went out with someone new; every time he’d ignore me at a party or cancel plans with me to chase his next hookup. She gave me advice, she kept telling me that he wasn’t worth my tears ... I really didn’t expect this from her.”
Sarah lowers her sunglasses back on her nose. “Seriously, I know. I didn’t expect it when she went after Niko. But you know, Niko was just a crush, while she knew how you’ve felt about Darrius your entire life. What she did to you it’s too shitty to even make sense of it. And the nerve on her, getting Darrius to give her a job with the Angels! I don’t know how you didn’t bitch slap her, Len.”
I sit up, deciding that it’s too hot and I need a drink. “Trust me, I was hanging by a very thin thread.”
Sarah snorts, laughing. “I can imagine. But she better make herself scarce, because I can’t promise that I’ll have your same admirable restraint next time I fucking see her.”
Thinking about Kiara’s betrayal hurts but I smile at the fact that Sarah has my back and she’s more than ready to give our ex-bestie a piece of her mind.
I wipe sweat off of my forehead. “Gosh, it’s hot today. You stay here and ogle Trent, I’ll go get us an ice-cold drink,” I say, getting up from from my lounger and walking to the bar on the opposite side of the pool.
I mustn’t have been the only one with the idea of a drink, judging by the line and I have no choice but to wait, unless I want to drink the warm bottle of water in my beach bag. At least there’s a few large straw umbrellas dotted in front of the bar and I can wait in the shade.
“Lenley.” Kiara’s voice coming from behind me makes me immediately regret coming here this afternoon.
I hesitate for a moment, wondering if ignoring her will do the trick of getting rid of her.
“Lenley, seriously, I know you heard me.” Obviously not. I should’ve known that my ex-bestie is stubborn, I’ve known her since the first grade.
I take a deep breath, steeling myself before turning around; Star Cove is a small town and I know that I won’t be able to avoid her forever, so it’s probably better to rip this Band-Aid off right now and tell her that I have nothing to say to her.
Kiara is standing behind me with her hand on her slender hips; her petite, lithe body is clad in the smallest black bikini I’ve ever seen and she’s wearing a golden chain around her tiny waist. A new, pink navel piercing decorates her flat tummy.
I’m not tall by any means, but normally at 5’3”, I’d tower over her 4’11”. But not today since Kiara is wearing some ridiculously high wedge sandals.
I wish I could say that I’m above wishing her a ruinous fall, possibly in front of as many people as possible, but the thought definitely crosses my mind.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
I know, I know. I should get a tattoo on my forehead that reads “Captain Obvious.” What can someone be doing at a water park?
She has the tact of not calling me out on it and I guess her answer shouldn’t surprise me. “I’m here with Darrius and Anna.”
She indicates somewhere behind her and I intentionally avoid looking because right now Darrius is in the top three of the people I don’t want to see.
So I keep my eyes trained on her gold lacquered toes, hoping that she’ll take the hint and leave me alone.
“Len, I was trying to tell you the other night at the party. Before Darrius got to it.”
That’s fucking rich, I swear to God. “Really?” I snort, lifting my eyes to meet her hazel ones. I register how they’re heavily lined with kohl and take in her matte, dark red lips. It looks like I’m not the only one who changed her looks during the year I’ve been away.