When one typically thought of a swimming hole, they usually thought of something a little closer to the name: a small, muddy hole in the ground that might dip their feet into. But the one on the Cooper farm was much, much bigger and the water was surprisingly clear. It was so blissfully quiet out here on the prairie that Theodore could imagine hearing the ears of corn popping in their husks.

The two eventually climbed out of the pickup truck, dragging towels and a small cooler from the stalwart truck bed in the back. Mercifully, everything seemed to have more or less stayed in one piece and nothing seemed to have gone flying over the side during their journey; a miracle, considering Lila's less than stellar directions and Theodore's haphazard driving.

Granny Olga had offered to make them lunch before they'd left, but Lila had just rolled her eyes and said that they would handle it. Between the two of them, they probably had enough coinage to grab some sandwiches from one of the stores in town. "At least then we'd know that it'll be edible" Lila had hissed to Theodore as they'd shooed the elder woman out of the kitchen. The Garde boy could only agree; as nice as Granny Olga was, she couldn't cook to save herself. Not even something as simple as sandwiches. Which was why they'd picked up sandwiches from the local diner when passing through Central Dallas.

Down by the shoreline, Franklin Cooper stood in all of his teenage glory; sun-kissed locks pushed back, slick with sweat. Rivulets of pond water dripped down his chiselled figure and his birthday suit was on full display; sun-baked clothes strewn about the shore. Theodore stumbled a little getting out of the truck; the sudden tightness & dryness in his throat had nothing to do with the stinking summer heat. Across from him, Lila wore a knowing look as she disembarked with far more grace and waved in greeting to the farm boy on the shore.

Theodore spared a glare in Lila's directions as she snickered mercilessly at his reaction; silently warning her to not say anything as they neared. It was fair to say that Theodore might—possibly—have a crush on Franklin and it didn't take a genius to figure to see it. Although like most teenagers, they kept pussyfooting around each other, too afraid to make the first move. But that didn't mean Theodore couldn't dream.

"Hey guys!" Franklin waved, basking int he summer sun as the water lazily lapped at his ankles.

"Hey, Franky!" Lila called back as Theodore tried to regain his composure.

"How's it going?"

"Hot!" Theodore squeaked out, ignoring more of the Garde girl's snickers. He wasn't totally sure if he meant the scorching weather or the gorgeous boy in front of him.

"Oh, tell me about it!" Franklin groaned, throwing his head back in exasperation.

"Strip it" Lila instructed the Garde boy next to her, pointing to the knickerbockers that hung about Theodore's hips and the shirt which had been left unbuttoned in the summer heat. "We're going in!"

Theodore easily yanked the tank top over his head, shucked his knickerbockers and threw them aside. "Is it cold?"

"I fucking hope so!" Lila kicked off her dress & underwear, flinging her brassiere aside and sprinted for the water.

The skinny dipping wasn't anything new and the two Garde wasted no time in stripping down to their birthday suits, ridding themselves of their own clothes and leaving them to strew about the shore, next to the cooler and the towels as they raced for the cool waters. The first time they'd come out here, Theodore had been worried about not wearing a swimming costume, but Franklin hadn't seen any issue with it. "We don't wear swimsuits, stupid" He'd said, "Why bother? Who're you trying to impress?" And when you were out there with only the wind and the blazing sun, and the neverending sky, it was easy enough to see his point. It was like their own little slice of paradise.

Theodore followed right on Lila's heels, screaming as he jumped in, the water splashing up against his legs as he ran. The water was blessedly refreshing as he plunged in and Theodore revelled in the feeling of the liquid against his sweaty skin. Logically, the water itself was more lukewarm (thanks to the blazing sun beating down upon the pool since the summer first began) than being properly cold, but it still felt amazing either way.

Diving down low beneath the water, Theodore twisted & turned until he was thoroughly doused. When he came up, spouting water from his mouth like a fountain, hair slicked back and eyes shining, he found Lila flat on her back across the way and Franklin treading water next to him. Together, they played like the children they actually were at heart, even though they were all on the cusp of growing up. They were free; free from judgmental eyes and disapproving stares, out here in the prairie.

At one point they were joined by a rather rotund bullfrog who had sequestered himself to the cool mud of the shoreline, squelching around like a pig in a pigsty. It was still fun to make the amphibian jump, even if it meant scaring him with a few wayward pebbles. There were endless games of Marco Polo, rounds of water fights and dunking each other under or teasing at unprotected legs.

And when all was said & done—when the sky had darkened & their fingers had turned to prunes—the three of them sat upon the shores eating ham & cheese sandwiches and the rolls of Lifesavers that they had grabbed from the stores in town. Washing it all down with a couple of beers that Franklin had snagged from his family fridge when Mr & Mrs Cooper weren't looking. Theodore couldn't honestly say if he liked the taste of beer, but it was hot and he wasn't about to turn down a cold drink…Or the image of Franklin lain out like a Vanity Fairy model in the dying light, sipping on a beer and hair still tussled from their afternoon swim.

"Ugh! I'm going to be so fried, tomorrow!" Lila grumbled to herself as she inspected her bare shoulder where the sun had painted her a darker shade than when the day had first began.

"Me too" Theodore hummed in agreement as the familiar itchiness of sunburn decorated his nape. His gaze cast out across the farmland where he traced the silhouette of Franklin half hidden amongst the tall brush, where he'd gone to take a piss.

"I reckon my boobs are bigger than yours; just a little" Lila joked, looking down at her chest as she set her beer beside her in the bed of the truck and arched her back, provocatively.

Theodore spared a look down at his own flat chest, then spared a comparative glance over at her profoundly more rotund one; where her darkened nipples poked out through his unbuttoned shirt. "Mm…maybe" He teased with a grin that was all teeth. "Just a little"

She playfully whacked at his shoulder and followed his hungry line of sight. "Sooooooo…Franky?"

A brilliant red coloured his face, hiding the freckles beneath the bright flush. "Shut up…" Theodore mumbled into the mouth of his beer.

Lila leant back on her elbows, head tilted skywards. "But seriously, though, are you ever gonna tap that?"

"Lila!" Theodore gasped, gobsmacked at her gal.

"What? It's an honest question" She shrugged, "I bet if you cornered him in the barn, you two could start rolling around in the hay"

He choked on his beer, foam burning at his nose as he tried to gasp in some air to retort. "Wha—! Frank—Franky and I haven't even kissed!" He hissed back, "So, why are you talking like we're gonna have some Meet-Cute porno in the barn?"

"So what? I'm sure its one that he'd enjoy" Lila wiggled her eyebrows suggestively before laying fully down in the bed of the truck, not at all ashamed of how exposed she was in the evening sun. "Say, Teddy?"

"Mmm?" Theodore hummed.

"Have you ever been kissed?" She asked.

"Noooo, no I don't think so…" He trailed off awkwardly, quite unsure as to where this (awkward) conversation was going. "Have you?"

"Oh my Lore, it's the best feeling in the world! I love that feeling!" Lila cheered, hands thrown up in the air. "It's like your heart's about to beat out of your chest and you want them naked and smashed up against you; breathing you in like there's nothing else that could keep them alive" She sighed, dreamily as if she were picturing someone in particular.

Turning his head away, Theodore's one-eyed gaze roved across the prairie, serenely watching the way the evening breeze lazily rippled across the water of the swimming hole. His gaze jumping from the frogs in the mud, to the boy in question—his crush—who had steadily began to make his way back to the pickup; the breeze tousling at his locks like he was the love interest in a romance-comedy.

Theodore's love for Franklin Cooper had started out small, inconsequential, all things considered. It was a mere thought here (if we leant closer, we'd be kissing), or a moment there (farm calloused hands helped him down from the hayloft with a gentleness that did not belong to someone so broad-shouldered). Until finally it hit him. Oh, that's what that is. And then the Garde boy found himself falling so head over heels in love with the boy, that it felt like he was drowning in unrequited longing. But maybe…maybe Lila was right? Maybe it wasn't so unrequited?

"Wanna know a secret?" Lila piped up after a moment, her voice barely above the whispering breeze. She hadn't moved from her sprawling position next to him in the truck bed, eyes closed against the glare.

"Sure" Theodore hummed as he was broken from his reverie.

"Even if it's the worst secret in the world? Even if it's terrible?" Her eyes slunk open and flittered up to where Theodore was looking down at her, through half-lidded eyes.

"What could be worse than blowing up the moon?" Theodore only half-joked.

Lila's lips quirked up a little at the corners. "Ah, but that hasn't happened yet, so it doesn't count"

"I don't think that's right…" He mused, silently thinking of the vera he had lost. "So, what is it? This big terrible secret? That you actually love Granny Olga's cooking?" He teased, grinning crookedly.

She didn't return the teasing grin, instead her eyes flittered towards the sky. "Actually, it's the best and the worst-kept secret" She replied, a thick & heavy tension laden on her tongue. "It's both, at the same time"

"I have no idea what you're talking about" Theodore huffed, leaning back against the side. "You're not making any sense"

Lila nodded conversationally, but her eyes looked sad and very, very old; like they didn't belong on young her face. There was this unreadable look in her eyes that made her look older than Granny Olga, older than Grandaddy Edwin, even older than the world and all its troubles. It was the kind of expression that troubled Theodore, though he didn't know why, just that it did. And, worst of all, he didn't know how to fix it.

"…It's the secret to all us, October kids" She whispered, pinching at the tender skin between her thumb & forefinger, with nails that were like pinchers. "It's what makes us special"

Wincing in sympathy at her actions, Theodore reached over and gently pried her fingers apart. "Stop that" He quietly murmured, as if he were talking to the more skittish chickens. "Now, tell me this oh so important secret"

The Garde girl looked up at the Garde boy, face set with more of that unreadable expression, eyes swimming with wary hope. Theodore waited, hoping that she would tell him. Everything suddenly seemed too loud; the blood rushing through his head like a river of rapids, the rustling of the reeds around the swimming hole, how heavy his breath suddenly seemed to be and the raid pulse of his heart that made it feel like it was trying to escape through his chest. It seemed to take an age before Lila cracked her mouth open again, though no words spilt out.

She jerked upright, knocking Theodore's hand away from hers and when she smiled up at him, it was wide & sudden, and it didn't reach her eyes. Theodore didn't even know he'd been holding his breath until she jumped to her feet and rocketed for the swimming hole, hair and shirt flying behind her. One blink she was there and the next she was gone; taking the tense atmosphere with her as it popped like a zit.

"Last one in the water's a rotten piken egg!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, making Theodore jump. He could only watch as his friend ran from him, her long legs bicycling through the long reeds before she dropped into the water, shirt & all.

Theodore clambered from the truck bed and stood on the edge of the swimming hole, an irritated pout pursed on his lips. "What was that?" He called out through cupped hands. "I thought you had a secret to tell?"

"I do: you're a rotten piken egg!" Lila laughed, only faking it a little. "Now get back in here!"

"Lila…" Theodore sighed sadly, dropping his hands to his sides.

But instead of answering his unsaid questions, she simply dove down instead, her body turning into a caramel arrow beneath the surface of the water. Lila wasn't usually the kind to runaway from her problems, instead she faced them head on, with the kind of stubbornness that you'd more likely find in an amnesiac goldfish swimming upstream. So, whatever it was, it had to have been bad; bad enough, that she'd run at even the first hint of it.

Theodore hesitated to follow after her at first, now that it had cooled some and because they'd already dried off. But—thanks to the Garde girl—his shirt was already soaked, so he just gave in to her urging and dove in after. The brunette relished in the feeling of cool waters on his sun-baked skin and noted how the water appeared green behind his closed lids.

Soon after, Franklin joined them again without question, and they stayed in the waters until it was almost supper time; when Mrs Cooper had to come fish them out with warnings of pitchforks up their asses. Still, they ended up staying in the pool, all three of them just lazily floating about as they watched the occasional stray cloud skin across the sky and sway amongst the stars. All the while, Theodore couldn't help but wonder what Lila was going to say, but didn't. He hoped it wasn't anything too bad.