Chapter Seventeen
After one more week of school it was finally summer. I spent the majority of the time hanging out with Axl at the pool where he worked, usually sitting with Brittany and Ashley as we lounged around trying to get a tan even though with my hair colour it was highly unlikely that I would do anything other than burn. "Excuse me miss, I believe you're going to have to sit with me so that you don't get sunburn." I flicked my hair out of the way to see Axl was standing before me, grinning cutely as he held out a hand for me to grab onto.
I sighed with a smile and let him help me up, pretending not to notice when he so obviously checked me out. Brittany and Ashley giggled loudly next to us and I shot them an amused look as I followed my boyfriend up to his post. "Am I allowed up here?" I asked, making myself comfortable and stealing some of the snacks he had.
He shrugged and smirked at me. "I say you are, so you are."
I threw my head back and laughed, leaning against him and watching all of the swimmers as they played and splashed around in the water. "When are you finished?"
He grabbed his phone which was on the seat next to me, causing shivers to erupt on the skin he accidentally touched. "In about an hour." He sighed, grabbing his hat and putting it on his head. I smiled and stole it, placing it on my messy hair. "How about afterwards we go back to your place." He gently wrapped an arm around my shoulders and lent his head on top of mine. I felt completely content for the moment.
Until I saw something horrible. A man was walking past the pool and he smacked the woman he was with. The woman screamed and fell to the floor, holding onto her cheek which was quickly becoming a horrible red colour. Axl saw it as well, he jumped up, told me to stay where I was and went to confront the man. I was amazed at his bravery and grabbed his phone to dial 911.
"Hello 911 what's your emergency." The woman on the other end was calm as she tapped away at her keyboard.
"Hello, I'm at Orson local pool, a man just assaulted a woman outside the gates."
"Okay, officers have been dispatched to your location, should be arriving within 5 to 10 minutes. Can you make sure that no one approaches this man as he may be dangerous."
"Okay." I hung up and rushed over to Axl. He had managed to reach the two, the woman was now sobbing and curled up against the wall. The man was shouting something at her and Axl was now trying to calm him down. Axl saw me coming and his face instantly became more tense.
"Sam, go back!" He shouted, turning his attention back to the man. "You can't just go around hitting people."
The man scoffed, his arms were the size of Axl's head and I had no idea how he wasn't running away in fear. I went to the woman as the man started to respond. I didn't know how to get Axl away from him without starting some sort of drama and I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. "Are you alright?" I asked the woman, she shook her head with her lips trembling, more tears threatening to fall and they soon did so. I wasn't very good with crying people but I let her grab onto me and hugged her so that she would feel at least some sort of comfort.
I began to hear the sirens for the police and so did everyone else. We had attracted quite a crowd, some of the older men looked about ready to step in on Axl's behalf and it made me feel a lot happier knowing that if the guy was going to throw punches, Axl was unlikely to get hurt because of it.
Just as I thought that the man swung at Axl's head. I gasped as did the woman next to me and watched in horror as the fist got closer and closer to my boyfriends head. I forgot how fast Axl's reflexes were however as he was able to sidestep and dodge the man's attack. As soon as Axl was safely out of the way two men rushed forwards to restrain the man and police officers finally arrived.
I let go of the woman who was attended to by some random people and rushed to Axl's side. I grabbed his face in my hands and worryingly looked over his body and face. "Oh my God! Are you okay? I can't believe that happened. You're so brave." I rambled on and on until he decided I was too loud and kissed me to make me shut up.
"Are you alright?" He asked me, hugging me to his body. "I told you to stay up there." I nodded into his chest.
"I'm sorry, the police operator woman told me to make sure that no one approached the man and you did so I wanted to get you out of there. I just didn't know how." I had to hold back tears at this point. "Is that woman okay?" I asked, remembering who was the victim in all of this.
Axl turned his head to try and find her. "I don't know where she's gone." He furrowed his brow in concern and we both frantically looked for her.
I yelped when I saw her under the water. "There she is!" Axl ran forwards, ripped off his shirt and dived into the water. "We need an ambulance! We need help!" People started to look where I was and I motioned to where Axl had managed to get a hold of the woman and was now trying to get them both out of the water.
Police officers who were not dealing with the man who was trying to fight his way out of his handcuffs rushed over to help. They grabbed underneath her armpits and dragged her out of the water. Axl hopped out as well and began searching for a pulse.
I stood with Brittany and Ashley as we waited for the woman to be alright. Axl began administering CPR with the aid of one of the officers. The woman spluttered out some water and rolled onto her side. She gasped for air and Axl and the officer were able to stand back with relieved expressions on their faces. Paramedics appeared out of nowhere and took over the situation, Axl briefed them on the woman's injuries and she was loaded up on the back of an ambulance and taken away to hospital.
The man was taken to the police station and finally all was calm. Axl came over to me and kissed the top of my head.
"We did good." I laughed in pure relief and kissed him.
"Yeah, we did good."
You would think after saving someone's life Axl would be a little more confident and a little more cocky, but no. He stayed exactly the same. He was actually being extremely humble about the whole thing and that made me love him even more.
It was a week after the pool incident, the woman had come back to thank Axl for saving her life, admitting that she had intentions of taking her own. The news shocked him to his core, he later confided in me that he had teared up at the news, hugging the woman who was now training to be a lifeguard. Axl was her inspiration.
He had become a minor celebrity in Orson, he was well known for his sport ability but now he had saved someone's life. As much as I hated to admit it, he was getting a lot more female attention and it was driving me up the wall. I glared as another girl came up to him for a picture while we were eating at a diner. He must have noticed the growing irritation on my face as he shooed her away and grabbed my hand.
"I'm sorry about that." He lent over to kiss my cheek. "Do you want to get out of here?" I nodded and we went back to his house. I sighed in relief when I noticed none of his family was at home. I collapsed on the sofa and took my food that we'd had doggy bagged and took with us.
"This is so good." I grinned as I chewed. He nodded in agreement and lay down so that his head was resting on my lap as he scrolled through the channels to find something for us to watch.
"You know you're the only girl for me right." He said suddenly, his eyes peering up concernedly at me.
I blinked. "Why are you saying that?" Panic began to brew in my stomach and I put my food to one side.
He sighed. "Because of all these girls coming up to me. I love you. Only you." The panic fell away and warmth replaced it. I lent down to kiss him, the kiss soon progressed and he was on top of me. I linked my legs around his waist and suddenly heard a car pull up. My eyes widened, Axl continued on oblivious to the imminent arrival of his family and began to kiss down my neck. I pushed him off me, his confused face looked hurt but I pushed him so he was fully off me, just in time for his mom to open the door.
"Axl I'm home!" She yelled before she noticed us. "Oh, hello Sam." I smiled and waved at her, picking my burger up and taking another bite. "You've had dinner, that's good cause I didn't buy anything for you." The rest of the family trooped in and went into the kitchen with the bag of takeout in Mr Heck's hand.
Axl snorted. "Oh thanks, what if I didn't have any, I would have starved."
Mrs Heck stared at her son, completely unimpressed. "You would have gone to Sam's."
There was a pause. "Okay, so maybe I would have." Axl pulled me closer, hugging me to his body and I took this moment to steal some of his fries. "But that's not the point."
I started to laugh. "You're so ridiculous." I shoved some fries into his open mouth and Mrs Heck gave me a grateful look.
"Oh and Axl, you're in the local newspaper again." His expression brightened as he was handed the paper. I smiled in appreciation at how happy he was. I wanted us to stay like this forever.