A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. You guys are all awesome. You make me feel like a star. *pulls on movie star sunglasses*
Anyway, here's Chapter 5!
She dove into the water and it split at her touch, peeling away from her and closing up again around her, hugging her like a glove. She kicked and pulled, dragging herself forward. Her muscles acted of their own accord, remembering hours upon hours of practice and training.
She tucked into a flip and powered away from the wall. The water swallowed everything else. Air rushed in and out of her lungs. The world shrank to size of a pool lane.
Her hand slapped the wall and she popped out of the water, sucking down air and grinning.
Fulton clapped as she walked over.
"That was excellent, Paige. You're a little rusty, but clearly you don't forget what's important."
"Never could, Coach," she said. She pulled her goggles away and wiped her face, flinging droplets against the bleachers. "I was born to swim."
Emily could barely stop herself skipping over to Paige's side. She grinned at the other girl as Fulton declared the practice over and ushered everyone into the locker room.
"It's that time of year again, ladies," she said. "Since our seniors left, we're going to need a captain. Do we have any volunteers or nominations?"
Emily stayed silent as the team nominated two other swimmers. Fulton caught the girl's eyes, giving her star a pointed look, but Emily pressed her lips together and gave a tiny shake of her head.
Paige squinted at the exchange. Her hand shot into the air. "I nominate Emily," she said. A murmur of assent rippled through the gathered group.
Emily turned to Paige, jaw dropping. Paige held up her hands in apology. "Come on," she said. "You'd be so good at it."
"But…"
"We all have to vote, right? You can trust our judgment."
Emily looked at the crowd, chewing her lip. Those who had overheard reiterated what Paige had said, and those who hadn't gave her small looks and gestures of encouragement.
"Okay," said Emily in a small voice. She tried again, louder. "I accept."
Everyone clapped and when there were no more nominees, Fulton urged them to settle down.
"All right, all right. Now, in past years we've made all the nominees work together to organize a fundraiser. Then the team will vote. Until then, you'll act as co-captains. Support your teammates and be the best swimmers you can be. Sound good? Right. Sharks on three!"
#
Paige waited on the bleachers for Emily. She fiddled with her phone for a bit. She stretched and walked around the perimeter of the pool. She laid down on the bleachers and stared at the ceiling.
Emily's face appeared right above hers and Paige flinched, grabbing at her chest.
"Geez, Emily," she managed to say through ragged breaths.
The other girl only laughed.
Paige waited for her pulse to settle. "So, nominated for captain, huh?"
Emily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I wonder how that happened." She put her hands on her hips and gave Paige a disapproving stare, but Paige could barely repress a laugh. Emily joined in. "You're terrible," she said. "I don't know how you convinced me to do this. It's so not my thing."
"Oh, come on. It so is," said Paige, imitating the other swimmer. "I meant it. You're the second-best swimmer on this team-"
Emily feigned an offended gasp.
"-and you're a hard worker. You care about the other girls. Everyone looks up to you. I've been on this team for, like, one day and I can see that."
"First of all, I'm the best swimmer on this team. Second... thanks. You're right. Everyone's always telling me I need to be more confident. But they always just say what I'm doing wrong. You... you see what I do right. And you seem so sure that I can be better."
Paige shrugged. "You can. Anyway. What's the deal with this fundraiser?"
Emily smiled. "It's going to be fun."
"Are you making a pun? A fundraiser, har-har?" She poked Emily with her elbows and giggled. Emily let out an exasperated laugh.
"Ugh, that's horrible! I wouldn't have made friends with you if I knew your sense of humor was so bad."
"Aw, come on, it was kind of funny. You laughed." Paige's face drooped in an exaggerated plea.
"I laughed at how ridiculous it was." Emily rolled her eyes, biting her lip to stop another laugh from bursting free. "Anyway, will you help? With the fundraiser?"
Paige stopped walking. "Aren't you supposed to do this on your own?"
The other girl fidgeted. "Yes, but only the planning part. I need someone to, you know, help me get everything together."
"You need someone to carry things for you." Paige tilted her head, smirking at the other swimmer, whose cheeks had gone bright red. She laughed. "Well, it's just your luck that in addition to being the best swimmer in this school, I'm also a champion box-carrier and shopping cart-pusher."
Emily's face lit up, her smile spreading from cheek to cheek. She flung her arms around Paige's neck, exclaiming her thanks. Paige hesitated, eyes wide with shock, before wrapping her arms around Emily's back and returning the embrace.
She pulled Emily close. One hand lay flat on the girl's shoulder, the other found the small of her back. Emily's Sharks jacket crinkled beneath her fingers. Chlorine hair tickled Paige's nose. Chlorine and shampoo and that something. The same scent that Paige had found in Emily's shirt as she sobbed like a baby in her room the night they'd met.
Someone stepped away first. Someone let their hand slide down, fingers trailing across a shoulder blade, over a hip, breaking away to fall useless at their side.
It was a slow break. A break first of hands. Then, a separate motion entirely, a break of distance. Paige stepped back, then Emily. Then a break of eyes; as they moved away, they found each other. It was only when Paige realized that she could not breathe that she let her head fall loose on her shoulders.
Emily's hands found the strap of her bag. She clenched and unclenched it, watching Paige look away. When Paige lifted her eyes, Emily spun around, before the weakness could strike her again, before her legs could threaten to melt beneath her.
I've barely known this girl a week. This is crazy.
She cleared her throat and they left the school, silence clinging to their heels like their own shadows.
#
"I gotta say, Em," said Hanna, leaning over the table, "you're taking this break up really well."
Emily shrugged. Spencer sat down beside her with a fresh cup of coffee. "Why should she be torn up about it? As far as I'm concerned, she just excised a malignant tumor."
"Yeah but that's still, like, major surgery!"
They bickered for a while. Emily tried to tune them out, focusing on the book in front of her. Aria, she noted, was doing so with a good deal of success. But then, her nose was buried in a book. There wasn't much that could snap her free of that spell.
"I was just over her, Hanna," said Emily, cutting Spencer off before she could begin to explain the finer details of local anesthesia. "It's awful, but I started to move on the day..." She swallowed. "The day she left me at work. I knew all along that she wasn't good but that was the day I saw it. Really saw it."
Her friends gave her supportive smiles and they dove back into the reading, Hanna peppering the air with candid observations and honest, if shallow, questions. It was a familiar rhythm and Emily flew through the pages until Hanna tapped her on the arm.
"So," she said, leaning her head against the hand she'd propped on the table, "what next?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," said Hanna, dragging out the words, "are you going to fly solo? Or are you on the rebound?"
Emily stared at the table, tracing patterns across its surface with a lazy finger. Am I on the rebound? Is that what this is?
"I don't know," she said. "How do you know if it's too soon?"
"Have someone in mind?" asked Hanna, with a wink. Spencer rolled her eyes.
"Em," said Aria, lifting her head from the book in her hands. "You have to do what makes you happy. The important thing is that you find someone you want to be with because they make you better, not just because they make you feel good. If you find that person right away..." She shrugged. "Why wait?"
#
Emily sat in her car and dialed Paige's number. "I'm here," she said, glancing up at the house. She was parked in the other girl's driveway. "Should I come in?"
"No." Paige blurted the answer faster than she'd intended. She could almost hear Emily's shock in the silence that buzzed over the line. "I'll be right out."
She was already mostly dressed; she yanked on her last sneaker as she hopped out the door.
"Ready!" she said as she slipped in beside Emily. They set out for their destination, one of the retail stores close to town. Emily had deliberately chosen Samara's employer's biggest competitor.
Paige glanced at Emily as they drove, but the other girl's eyes were fixed on the road. "I like your car," she said, patting the door. 'I like your car?' Grade A conversationalist, you are. Emily smiled.
"Thanks. It's actually my mom's. She lets me take it sometimes."
"That's nice of her. I'm stuck with my bike. My parents never let me take their cars." She drummed her fingers on the console. The radio burbled and other cars zipped by, the air whining as they hurtled past. Paige's seat shivered beneath her as the car rolled over cracks and bumps.
Emily's fingers tightened on the steering wheel. The silence billowed in the cabin, carried by the cloying air rushing from the heating vents. She spared a glance at Paige from the corner of her eye. Snap to, snap back. The lines of the road slipped beside them, staccato bolts stretching like a cat after a nap just before they disappeared into the mirrors.
"Why didn't you want me in your house?"
Paige snapped out of her stupor, breaths quickening and heart racing at Emily's question. She opened and closed her mouth, floundering like a fish out of water.
"It's…"
"You can trust me," said Emily.
Paige frowned. "I barely know you." She stared at herself in the side mirror. Frowning, jaw set, eyes shrinking beneath curling brows.
Emily pursed her lips. "That's not true."
"I just met you. I don't think it's been a week."
"That doesn't mean you don't know me." Emily took in a slow breath and it trembled in her lungs. She let it out just as slowly. "You see me better than anyone."
Paige played with her fingers in her lap. "I just… I don't think I'm doing anything special. I just pay attention."
"Whatever you're doing, you're the only one who does it. You know me. Can you trust me?"
Paige stared at her hands. "My parents are…" She shook her head. "My parents are a mess. And I'm a mess. No one needs to see that."
"You're not a mess."
"Not in front of you." Paige chewed her lip. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the world swirling past them.
Neither spoke anymore. Emily pulled into the parking lot of the store and turned off the engine, but she remained glued to her seat. The engine ticked and popped as it shrugged off its heat. The cabin air began to freeze.
Her fingers were like icicles, still wrapped around the steering wheel. Her muscles had gone rigid. She thought about moving, but nothing happened.
Shoppers walked past, wire carts jingling over cracks in the asphalt.
"I don't feel like a mess when I'm with you," said Paige. Her words came out slow like molasses. "I forget about all of it. You make me feel normal." Her voice quivered on the last word, scraping out of her throat and balancing on her lips. She pressed them together as if to hold it in, as if it was glass and might shatter if it fell.
She glanced up at the roof of the car and sighed. "Come on."
Before Emily could stop her, she leapt out of the car and headed for the store.
Emily hustled to catch up as Paige's long legs carried her forward. The other girl shoved her hands in her pockets, tugging her jacket taut about her shoulders.
She drew alongside Paige so that their elbows knocked. Paige glanced at her. Emily smiled.
Paige swallowed. She returned the smile.
#
As Paige grabbed the last bag out of Emily's car, the girl in question popped her head out from her front door.
"My mom wants to know if you'd like to stay for dinner," she said.
Paige closed the trunk and shuffled up the driveway, arms laden with their purchases. Her muscles strained but she kept a straight face. "Yeah, absolutely," she said.
As she entered the house, Pam Fields bustled into the hallway to greet her. The older woman peppered Paige with questions about swimming and school, a smile on her face. When she began to inquire after Paige's parents, Emily cleared her throat and escorted Paige upstairs.
They went to Emily's room and tried to discuss the fundraiser, though the conversation soon derailed itself. Emily perched herself on her bed, grinning at the girl who had curled herself into the window seat, head propped at one end with her knees tucked in. The dying fall light seeped in around her, casting her in shadow. When she turned to squint out the window, the sun peeked out around her, setting her profile aflame.
Emily pressed her lips together and tried to remember how breathing worked.
Dinner was easy until Wayne mentioned Danby.
"I still don't know if I want to go there," said Emily.
Wayne raised an eyebrow. "Danby's a great school."
"I know it is," she said with a shrug. "But I don't know if it's the right school for me."
"Honey, we can't afford to be picky," said her mother. "Danby has a lot to offer, especially if their scout is true to his word. A scholarship is really important."
"You're right," said Emily. Her eyes fell and Paige frowned. Emily's voice disappeared after that, squeaking out only in the occasional yes or no. Paige engaged the adults in conversation, and the three of them managed to carry through until Emily began to clean the dishes. Paige jumped up and offered to help, insisting when the Fields' assured her she didn't need to.
Alone in the kitchen, Paige asked Emily if they could take a walk.
The sun had dipped beneath the horizon by the time they stepped onto the Fields' front porch, and the world wallowed in the purple pallor of twilight. Paige pulled her beanie down over her ears and stuffed her gloved hands in her pockets, but the wind gusted and needled through her jacket. Beside her, Emily shivered.
"Sorry," said Paige. "I didn't realize it would be so freaking cold."
"It's fine," said Emily.
Paige exhaled and her clouded breath streamed towards the sky. She looked up. A sprinkling of stars danced above them. "Where do you want to go to school?" she asked.
"Somewhere a lot farther than Danby." Emily kicked at the leaves that lay like a carpet over the sidewalk.
"Me too," said Paige. "I've always wanted to go to school in California or something. As far from my parents as possible."
Emily glanced up at the other girl. "I don't really have a reason. I just want to go somewhere different. Somewhere new."
"Nothing wrong with that."
Emily stopped, freezing in place. Paige stopped and turned to look at the other girl. A streetlight blazed orange above them.
"Then why won't my parents even listen to the idea?"
Paige shrugged. "You haven't made your case. Fight for it."
Emily stared into the darkness. Her breath shimmered and her hair shone bronze beneath the streetlight. She looked up, eyes black against the glare.
Paige waited, shoulders curled against the still-gusting wind. Shadows and light clashed on her face, slicing along her cheekbones and the sharp angle of her jaw.
"I don't know how." Emily's brows knit together and she lowered her head, and her face slipped into gloom beneath the curtain of her hair.
"Sure you do. You're strong." Paige planted herself in front of the other girl and pulled her fist from her pocket. "You broke up with Samara," she said, extending one finger. "You're running for swim team captain." Two fingers. "And you've done so much for me, even though I know it rubbed some people the wrong way." She wiggled all three fingers. "That's just three moments, and that's just in the past week."
A smile cracked Emily's mask and she looked up at Paige, eyes twinkling. "It's a fluke."
"It's not a fluke!"
"How would you know?"
Paige rocked back and shoved her hands in her pockets. "As you said, I know you. So I know you did all of those things yourself."
Emily bit back her smile but it burst out anyway, half her lip caught in her teeth and the other curling wide. Paige grinned as Emily's eyes met hers and she bounced on her toes. She held the gaze, heart beating against her ribs like her father's fist against her door, and it was all she could do to hold the door closed. She dipped her head and Emily stepped forward instantly, legs moving of their own volition as her lungs twisted into knots.
But as her soles crunched through the leaves, her cellphone rattled in her pocket against her keys, and the tinny jingle echoed in the canyon between them. Emily stepped back.
With an apology, she glanced down at the caller, and suddenly the helium that had been pulsing through her veins moments before turned to lead. Her heart gave an ugly twist, straining against the sudden weight.
"I have to take this," she said in a small voice. Paige's face had gone hard again, lips pressed together.
The phone buzzed again, glowing in Emily's glove. Paige shrugged. "I'll see you around," she said.
"Wait," said Emily. The phone quivered with impatience. Emily darted forward, sneakers shuffling through the leaves. She leaned in and pressed her lips to Paige's cheek.
Then she pulled away and raised the phone to her ear. She gave Paige one last tiny smile. One little wave. She turned back toward her house.
Paige watched her go. She watched her slip from their island beneath the streetlight into the umber beyond, one minute there and one minute not. Emily's voice, muffled beyond comprehension, floated past her on the wind.
Paige reached her hand to her cheek. She frowned. She pulled off her glove, and she touched her cheek again.
It was cold. She knew it was cold, and the air snapped at her fingers with its icy teeth as soon as they were exposed to it. Her breath crystallized in front of her eyes. It had to be cold.
It didn't feel cold.
It didn't feel cold at all. All Paige could feel, as she pressed her fingers to her skin, was heat.
A/N: And there's another chapter down! :) Things are building between these two! I wonder what's going to happen...
Tune in next week for MORE COOL THINGS like EMOTIONS and FIGHTING and STUFF. In the meantime, tell me what you thought of this chapter/the whole thing so far! The good, the bad, the ugly... lay it on me. Your comments are my fuel. I've got two more chapters fully written after this one and half of #8, but I expect to FINISH MY NOVEL (!) this weekend, and then I'll be taking a two-week break from it before I burrow into the EditCave, and during that break I intend to focus my writing energies on this story and maybe The Rosewood, as well. Because I can't NOT write. It's weird to not write.
Anyway! I've rambled. See you next week for chapter six!