endless thanks to LayAtHomeMom
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I laugh like me again, she laughs like you
(hozier)
8.
Edward comes by on Sunday morning looking for Bella, calling up the narrow staircase to her room.
"Did you just walk right in here?" she grumbles, trying to pretend like she isn't wearing ratty pajamas.
"Mm-hmm. Do you have a swimsuit?"
"What?" She's still half asleep and why is he so chipper?
"A swimsuit—do you have one?"
"Definitely not," Bella tells him, crossing her arms over her chest, though she thinks that her mom ended up buying her one at some point over the last few months.
"I feel like you're lying," he says with a smirk. "Meet me downstairs."
Bella doesn't even consider why he's asking, her brain is still fuzzy from sleep and only cares that he asked her something at all.
Sure enough, there are three suits hidden in her wardrobe drawers. She wishes that one of them was a one piece, but settles on a relatively modest black bikini, embarrassed that she can't tie the top with her cast. Her appointment to hopefully remove it is not until Wednesday and she doesn't know what his plan is. Bella throws on a sweater and leggings over the whole get up and holds onto the strings of her suit with her good hand.
"Have you, um, seen my mom?" she asks him when she gets downstairs. He just shakes his head and her face flames as she explains that she "just can't tie the top."
"Oh," he says. "Come here."
The instant his fingers brush across her skin, goosebumps erupt all over her, even though his hands are warm.
In an attempt to not spontaneously combust, Bella blurts, "I can't swim with this cast. I'll drown."
It's like a bucket of cold water the instant she thinks about it. The very thought of cold water rushing in around her is enough to make her gasp and step away from him far too quickly, sending her tumbling to the floor. He curses under his breath as he reaches for her and misses, kneeling down in front of her trembling self instead.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," he says softly, concern taking over every part of his face. She tries to focus on him, the way his eyebrows draw together, how his hand feels on her elbow, warm even through the fabric of her sweater, and slowly but surely, her breath returns to her.
And she is humiliated.
"Oh my god," she tries to groan, but it comes out as more of a gasp than anything.
"I didn't mean to-"
"You didn't! Do anything, I mean. It's me...I just...freaked out for a second. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
He gives her a look that tells her to stop with the apologies, and then helps her to her feet. Tears burn behind her eyes because jesus christ what a fucking spaz.
"I was going to take you to the community center," he says slowly, eyes still wide. "My friend Jasper is a lifeguard there. He can get us in before they open."
She looks at him, cheeks still flaming red, and he smiles, changing tactics.
"They have a kiddie pool, you know."
Despite everything, Bella begins to laugh, honest to god laugh until she's crying, because he's trying to take her to a kiddie pool and she had a near panic attack over, what, two feet of water? In a controlled environment?
"It's a little less than a mile away. We can walk," he adds as she calms down. "If you want to go."
She shakes her head. She's already been in car with him and she was safe. He knows the details of her accident. He knows her better than anyone left in the world. The realization lodges itself in her chest and she gives him a watery smile.
"Only if you don't push me in."
It's meant to be a joke, but the way he looks her right in the eyes says he's nothing but completely serious when he says, "I would never."
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Bella has only been to a pool once, when she was really little and her parents took her to a waterpark outside of Tacoma. She remembers liking the slides, but her dad told her that the wave pool was totally bogus.
"We live in a world with real waves. Why would you want to sit in a tub of lukewarm pee water with a million other people?"
She'd grown up swimming in the pond near Jacob's house and running through the rough surf at La Push beach. She used to love how wild she felt, what a force the water was. Now though, she can't even stand the sight of it.
Edward's friend Jasper is too tall, almost like his body isn't used to the height and Bella wonders about his center of gravity as he leads them through the still-dark lobby. On Sundays, the center is closed until noon, but Jasper has a set of keys. Small towns are so trusting.
The main pool room is warm, the scent of chlorine is so strong it burns Bella's nose. It's silent, save for the hum of filters and the occasional splash of water against the sides of the pool.
Jasper yawns and says, "don't drown, I'm gonna go take a nap before we open. Hungover as shit."
Edward bumps his fist, telling him "thanks, man."
When they're alone, Bella tugs at the hem of her sweater while Edward kicks his shoes off, grinning at her. When he pulls his shirt off, she feels as if she's going to die on the spot, doing her damnedest to look anywhere but his bare chest. His body is spotted with bruises from working on the hotel, and peeking out from the bottom of his swim trunks is a jagged scar, trailing up his thigh. He looks strong, though she isn't sure if it's from baseball or hard labor or both. He's all hard planes and flawed skin and it makes her mouth go dry.
It's only when he turns around and jumps into the pool that she can take a breath, and as he pushes himself lazily through the water she undresses. She's not covered in her own bruises anymore, but she's got new scars all over her side that she tries to hide with her cast. She hadn't needed stitches for most of them, but they still stand pink and raised and ugly.
When he sees her, he swallows hard and looks away while she sits at the edge of the pool, her feet dangling in the warm water. He smirks when he reaches her, and shakes out his wet hair.
"The kiddie pool is over there if you need it. There's a slide and everything."
She likes that he's teasing her that he's not walking on eggshells around her. Though, she hates that he won't come closer than four feet away from her, and that his eyes seem to be glued to anything but her at the moment.
She kicks her leg so that he gets splashed-right in the face.
"You're lucky you have that cast on or you'd be so done for," he laughs, settling for flicking water in her face. He's close now, so much closer than he's been, and he keeps moving towards her, until his chest is against her knees and her stomach drops at the contact, even though he's still throwing water at her. He leans closer, eyes trailing along the curve of her shoulder, up her neck. She's blinking water out of her eyes and trying to keep her breathing normal when suddenly, he's backing away, diving under the water and disappearing, only breaking the surface when he's at the complete other end of the pool.
She watches the muscles in his back flex as he pulls himself out of the pool, reaching into a bin near the kiddie pool and returning to the water with a cloth ball. He soaks it and then pulls his arm back, and when he throws it, it drops into the water a foot in front of her.
She raises an eyebrow, pushing down that impressed feeling that wants to rise to the surface, and calls out, "I thought you were supposed to be good at this."
She grabs the ball before he reaches her, and uses her good arm to throw it in his general direction. For the next hour, they play catch, and even though Bella's cast gets a little wet, she has honest to god fun.
Involving water.
As they're leaving, giddy and laughing, Edward asks, "same time next week?"
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The good: I was near water and didn't die
The bad: I'm still so, so scared.
