Chapter 4 – Splash Me If You Can!

We head over to river, Nicholas leading the way a few footsteps ahead of me. He seems awfully excited about going there. I wonder what is so good about it? I guess I'll find out when we get there.

Once the river is viewable in the distance, Nicholas finally begins to talk.

"There it is!" He cries out as he bolts toward the river. I too begin to run, in awe of how clean the river looks. Most bodies of water I've seen are oceans. From living in Boston to being on a boat the past few months, oceans have been around me a lot. I have to say though, they look nowhere as pure and clean as this river.

"You weren't planning to leave me behind, were you?" I ask him once we come to a stop in front of the river.

"Right, sorry about that. I really didn't mean to ditch you." He sighs.

"It's fine. Time to hit the water!" I yell out as I lift my shirt over my head. However, after I remove my shirt, I find Nicholas staring at the bare skin under it as if he's in shock. I look down at my body to see what he's staring at.

"What's up? Is there something on my chest?" I ask Nicholas as I slide my hands over my chest to brush off whatever he might be staring at. Nicholas quickly looks back up at me.

"What? Oh it's n-nothing. I was just day dreaming…" Nicholas bites his lip after his sentence.

"You okay dude? You look stressed out." I ask him. I don't get him. He was so happy to come to the river a few minutes ago and now he looks worried. It's like me being shirtless alarmed him or something. Why should he care if I have no shirt on? We're both guys after all so it's no big deal…

"I'm fine." Nicholas replies.

"Then get that shirt off and get in the river!" I slap Nicholas' shirt with the back of my hand, resulting in him twitching. I look back up at him and stare into his eyes, sensing insecurity. Something is clearly wrong.

"Okay, I know something is up. Just tell me. Maybe I can help you bro."

Nicholas looks away from me. He allows his eyes to wander into the distance, remaining in complete silence. I feel kind of bad. Did I do something wrong?

"Look man, I'm sorry. How about we just drop all of this and go into the river?" I tell him. The last thing I want to do is feel guilty for putting him into an uncomfortable position. I mean, I only met the guy a few hours ago. He probably doesn't want to talk to me about his problems.

Nicholas looks up at me, clearly noticing the guilt on my face. "That sounds like a great idea!" He smiles at me.

"Good then hurry up. Don't want to waste time now since dinner is in an hour." I remind Nicholas as I walk toward the river. "Ahhh the water's cold!" I shout as my feet hit the water. I turn around and see Nicholas removing his shirt. About time.

"You coming in or what?" I ask him, growing impatient.

"Be right there."" He replies as he takes off his glasses and places them on top of his shirt which he neatly folded and placed on a rock. I also notice that he folded my shirt for me and placed it under his.

"You didn't have to fold my shirt you know?" I tell Nicholas.

"I know, I just wanted to."

"Well thanks then. Just hurry up and get in here."

"Alright, alright. Relax, would ya?" Nicholas states as he walks toward me. I continue to watch him as he approaches me. I don't want him getting distracted again.

I wait until Nicholas reaches waist level with the water before I proceed to bring myself any deeper into it than my knees. I try to go deeper into the water, but the cold feeling the water gives my legs makes it difficult to so.

"It's freezing." I yell out to Nicholas in the distance.

"Clearly you aren't a country guy." Nicholas laughs as he walks back toward me.

Once Nicholas places himself next to me, he shoves me full force toward the water, causing me to fall. "Stop being such a baby and get out there." He tells me.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play? I see how it is." I smile as I swing my right leg at Nicholas, making him trip on top of me.

"You're so going down!" He replies as he pins my arms into the water. I try fight my way out of his grip, but to no avail. I guess those two years of age he has on me make quite a big difference.

"Stop using your maturity against me!" I cry out as I try to squirm out of his grip.

"Haha, if you insist!" He replies as he kicks water into my face and runs further into the river. "Looks like you're going to have to come out here If you want revenge." He snickers at me.

"Oh now you're in for it!" I yell out as I swim after him. I guess he really does have a playful side to him.

As I swim out to him, I look at the expression on his face, and see a whole new look to him. Unlike before, where he seemed simply happy, now he seems to be truly enjoying himself. I guess I can say the same for myself too. I haven't had this much fun in a long time. This just goes to show that the S.S. Tipton lacks one thing, a prefect friend for me. Sure, I always have my brother and the gang to turn to, but none of them can truly relate to me. None of them just want to have a good time fooling around. None of them are like Nicholas.

Nicholas tries to swim away, but I swim way too fast for him to do so. I begin splashing him in the face with water.

"Two can play at that game!" Nicholas smiles as he begins to splash me back.

"Race you back to shore!" I yell out after a few minutes of laughing and splashing. Nicholas bolts toward the shore before even agreeing. "Playing dirty now, are we?" I state as I swim after him. Unfortunately, his head start and my exhaustion from swimming allow him to win.

"I win!" He laughs, well aware that he cheated and laughing for just that reason. Nicholas then turns around and begins to walk away from me. I quickly dive at him and make him tumble to the ground as he did to me before.

"Now who's the winner?" I ask him as I give him a wedgie. I guess that could be a downside to wearing boxers when you swim.

Nicholas begins to yelp in response, but tries not to overreact.

"Why are you pulling on my brother's underwear?" A girl asks from behind me. I turn around to see Theresa confused at the sight she has walked in to.

I quickly remove my hand from him and stand up. "Why do you make it sound so gay for?" I ask his sister.

"What? What does that word mean?" Theresa asks.

My eyes widen as I stare at her. She really never heard the word gay before? She's eleven. She should know that by now. "It's when…" I start, but am interrupted by Nicholas who cuffs his hand over my mouth. "Foo bois loik eathoda." I continue to mumble through his hand.

"You aren't old enough to for us to tell you what that word means." Nicholas tells his little sister.

"Fine, if you won't tell me then I'll ask daddy what it means." She smiles, knowing she caught Nicholas in a trap.

Nicholas looks down in defeat. "Very well. You win. Gay means happy. Zack was just saying, 'Why did you say what you said with such a happy tone?' Like you were happy to see him doing that."

"Oh, I wasn't happy. Silly Zack." She smiles as she looks at me. "Well, mom sent me out here to tell you guys dinner will be ready in ten minutes, so you'd better get back there now!"

"Okay, we'll be there in a bit. We're just gonna dry up out here for a bit." Nicholas replies.

"I'd better get back home now. Bye Zack! Hope you're having fun!" Theresa waves at me as she runs into the distance.

Once Theresa is completely out of sight, Nicholas throws me a towel and looks at me. "Didn't I tell you to watch what you say and do around here? My parents are very religious and they don't teach Theresa anything outside of what they think she should know."

"I'm really sorry. It just slipped out." I sigh as I look toward the ground. I totally just ignored his warning from before. He has every right to be mad at me just about now…

"No problem. Just try to be more aware." Nicholas informs me. "Anyway, I don't know about you, but I had a lot of fun today so far!"

I smile as I notice Nicholas has changed the topic of discussion. I guess he really isn't mad at me after all. It's like he's just looking out for me more than he's trying to make me feel bad. He really is a true friend.

I felt kind of bad for not updating this story in a while, so I used the very little time I have to make this chapter. I decided to make it not that long so that I could complete it before my busy schedule caught back up with me!

Secondly, due to school, don't expect an update for this story for another month at least. Sorry if that is an inconvenience for anyone. I want to write as much as you guys want me to update, but I don't have much time.

Finally, don't forget to review! I want to know how many followers I have for this story so I can know if it's worth making this story a priority to update over the others! ^_^