The water rushed to meet him as he pushed off the blocks, his arms stretched, strong and ready, out in front of him. His legs were held perfectly behind him as he entered with only a small splash and powered through the first few meters. His arms pulled him up and out, letting him take his first breath as he began his first length. Arms, legs, arms, legs, arms, legs. He fell into his stroke naturally, gliding through the water with almost no effort. The cool, chlorinated water pressed into his body like soft silk. He focused on his breathing, in and out, in and out, as he ducked his head in time with the stroke. Breaststroke wasn't his best swim but it was his favourite. The feeling of power that came from each pull and kick was so good and the long stretch of his muscles between strokes calmed and soothed him. Tyler Simms was a swimmer, pure and simple, even if he wasn't the strongest or the biggest. But swimming wasn't just his sport, it was his escape. He let all his emotions drift away as he pulled his mind to the job at hand: arms, legs, arms, legs, pull, push, pull, push. Tyler felt his entire being drift into nothing as he centered on the swim.
He knew his friends were out at Nicky's, the local hangout spot, but he didn't care, he needed his daily release. Reid, his best friend always chastised him for dedication.
"You're such a suck up, Ty" the blonde smirked one night as Tyler met up with his friends, hair still wet from the pool, "we all know you're just trying to get Coach Robins on side so you can go to the Gloucester meet next month"
Tyler had laughed along, and replied "Better use of my time than sleeping my way through the girl's team".
Caleb and Pogue chuckled whilst Reid put on his normal smug, egotistical smile, shrugging his shoulders, "Hey, what can I say? I've got to keep my fitness levels up somehow".
Next to him, Caleb grabbed the younger boy by the head, "maybe, if you didn't miss practice so much, you wouldn't need the extra workout"
Reid knocked his friend away, a look of playful defiance on his face.
They were always like that, Reid and Caleb. Right now, they were probably sparring over pool or some girl. Pogue would be watching over them, keeping it playful. Tyler pushed these thoughts aside, replacing them with self-assesment. He felt how his muscles contracted and relaxed, rolling under his skin. He lowered his left shoulder as he felt his neck start to twinge slightly.
The wall drew closer and automatically Tyler felt his body curl and tense. His tumble was quick and agile, building power in his legs and exerting it fully against the tiles, pushing his body a good five meters through the water. Tyler pulled his shoulders out of the water, sliding back into his rhythm: arms, legs, arms, legs.
That was when he saw her, Christina Albright, dressed in her bright red bathing suit, and suddenly his focus was lost. He felt his rhythm slow, the pull of his arms pushing his body up rather than forward in an attempt to see her better. Through his dark-lensed goggles he watched as she pulled her long dark hair into a ponytail, walking towards the tall lifeguard chair. The guy sitting up there smiled in her direction, scooting down a couple of steps. She smiled back.
Tyler felt the quality of his stroke ebb slightly, water occasionally filling his mouth as he breathed, not enough to stop him, just a sign that his mental escape was long gone. Through his concntration, he heard her laugh lightly. She was laughing with the guy on the chair as he leapt down, allowing her to take his place. Oddly enough Tyler felt jealous. He saw Christina every day at school and at the pool, but he'd never spoken to her. They ran in different groups. She was a studious scholarship student, working as a lifeguard to save for college. Her friends were laid-back, casual girls, the kind that were happy to stay on the edges of social politics, listening to the rumours rather than being a part of them. Tyler was the opposite, a legacy with his family name to uphold. He and his friends were royalty – socially speaking at least. They were expected to attend all the best parties, hang out with the most popular girls, be a part of as many rumors as the gossip mill could create.
The only thing they had in common was swimming although Tyler didn't even know which was her swim or how fast she was. It was only her well-balanced, athletic physique that gave him any guess at her sport of choice
The wall approached again and he tensed, ready for his tumble. As soon as she left his sight, his mind sprang back into action, his rhythm speeding, his pulls deepening, his breathing simple: in and out, in and out. Without her in full view, his mind dutifully pushed her into the box labeled 'not for now' but the memory of her was strong, her silver-grey eyes, her delicate jawline and her strong, sunkissed body slipping out through the box lid. Hard as he could, he pushed the lid down trying his best to regain the peace he normally felt.
He turned again, pushing hard in an attempt to silence his mind with physical exhaustion. This time, he kept his eyes solely on the tiles in front of him and below him, keeping his gaze low although he felt her watching with those silver eyes trained exclusively on him.
He was used to girls staring at him. He wasn't as althletic as Pogue, or as reckless as Reid or as sweet as Caleb but by being tied to them, Tyler was automatically classed as a notable conquest. He didn't think of himself as attractive but when girls realized Pogue and Caleb were off the market and Reid was an ass, they usually turned to him and as if he would turn them away, he was a teenage boy after all. But the way Christina looked at him now was different to the way girls normally looked at him. Instead of eyeing him as some kind of achievement to cross of the list of things to do before graduation, she looked at him with a new expression, a mixture of confusion, surprise and was that lust? He must be imagining it though: it wasn't like he had a clear view of her face. She was probably just noticing the major flaws that had crept into his technique due to his distraction. With a conscious effort, he pulled his mind back into the present. Nothing would ever happen between the two of them, it was too impossible, their lives too different to work. He needed to focus, the Gloucester meet was only two weeks away and the state championship trials only five days later. Ty felt his limbs respond to the new surge, speeding up, finding the best positions and movements to increase the efficiency of his stroke, pulling him faster through the water. The focus held strong as he pushed through the rest of his warm-up and his sprints and exercises. He'd practically forgotten her intense stare as he heaved himself out of the pool. She still sat on her perch, chatting idly with Olivia van der Waal, captain of the girls swim team. Taking one last look, he tried to memorise every detail from her bright, wide smile to the way her foot twitched as she spoke, even the way she subtly surveyed the pool whilst keeping up her conversation, keeping her job first and foremost. So he couldn't be with her, but he could still watch her right?
As he turned his head to start towards the showers, he felt a silvery gaze on his back. He looked back but she was scanning the pool again. Obviously, he'd just imagined it again.
Tyler shook his head lightly, he needed to snap out of it. He was Tyler Simms, a Son of Ipswich and he could have any girl he liked, any girl except the one that he saw every day.
He sighed and carried on to the showers, not noticing the way Christina watched him go, silver eyes full of longing. Full of wishing for a boy she could never have.