Page 56 of The Friend Scheme
“Um, I dunno.” He cracks his knuckles. “Baseball’s the only thing I’m really good at, but I’m not good enough to go pro. I thought it was my ticket out, but it’s not. I know that now.”
He winces, and he starts blinking rapidly.
I hit a nerve. I should be careful of it.
But oh man, do I relate. I often fantasize about being so good at something I’ll be able to leave my family behind. I can’t ask about it, because of our deal, but still. It’s nice to know he’s thought about leaving as well.
“Okay, that sucks,” I say. “But is that what you want? To go pro?”
“I did want that, before. Now I know I can’t. I guess I’d like to be involved with it in some way, because I really do like it.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t know that.”
He grins. “Well, now you do.”
He falls backward, fully into the water. So I guess that conversation is over. I step into the water. It’s nice, just warm enough. I swim up to the inflatable unicorn floating by the edge and try to pull myself up onto it. As I do, a Lizzo song starts playing on the speakers.
I lose focus and tumble off the unicorn. The seam scratches me.Damn it. I grimace, and check my forearm, to see I have a brand-spanking-new paper-thin scratch. It stings like a mother.
“Aw, buddy,” says Jason. “You all right?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing.”
I swim back up to the unicorn and try again. This time I manage to get onto it, with one of my legs on either side.
“Huzzah!” I say, throwing my hands up in victory. I almost lose my balance, so I put my hands back down. Jason laughs.
“Nice work,” he says. “That one’s tricky.”
He wades through the water, making his way up to me. His hair is wet and spiked now.
“Back off,” I say, because I can tell from his smile what he’s going to do. I splash him, trying to keep him away. He keeps advancing, so I try to swim the unicorn away, which obviously doesn’t work.
Jason reaches me and flips the unicorn over. I fall off, sinking under the water. I kick up, break the surface, and get a breath in. I wipe the water from my eyes, slicking my hair to the side, so it’s out of my eyes.
Jason is smiling, which makes me smile, too.
“That was rude,” I say.
“You loved it.”
He puts his hands on my shoulders, and before I can react, he pushes me under. And just holds me there. I struggle, but he’s holding me tight.
My lungs start burning.
He lets go, and I push up and take in a huge breath.
I wipe the water from my eyes and see he’s standing a few inchesaway from me as I cough and splutter. Then he smiles, and a weird crash of emotion hits me.
It’s like an intense surge of like.
We both laugh.
“You’re going to pay for that,” I say, swatting at him. He raises his hands to defend himself.
