"If I ever see someone swimming alone, I'd have to dive right into the pool—even if I'm fully clothed—and smack them and ask them if they don't know the buddy rule or if they just want to drown," I stated.

He stared at me with no small amount of shock, unable to believe the words that had just come out of my mouth. "That...That's..." he said, not able to say what he was thinking because he was still unable to believe I had really just said that to him.

"That's what you said to me the first time you met me. Meeting you, Strait Hughe, was the most life-changing event I have ever experienced,” I stated, now smirking to myself.

“Uh… I said that to pretty much everyone I’ve ever met at one point or another. It’s really nice that you remember my words and my name and all, but I don’t remember you,” he said, the shock leaving his expression as a sheepish look came to his face.

“How many people were those the first words you ever said to?” I asked, not about to be deterred by him not immediately recalling me. It was to be expected that his memory of me would be a bit fuzzy and hard to find, since when we first met was so long ago, and it was also the last time we had interacted up until now.

“Uh… I said that first thing to some snot-nosed brat when I was in elementary school, because I was voted be the junior lifeguard for my grade, and he looked like a possible trouble-causer to me,” he said as he raked through his memories, “…I think that was the first and last time I said that first thing to somebody I met.”

“…You remember me as “some snot-nosed, trouble-making brat”?” I asked weakly, feeling just slightly disheartened now. That wasn’t something I had been expecting.

“Yeah. And, considering you purposely were swimming alone around the time I usually arrive to the school pool to see if I would really dive in fully-clothed, drag your ass to the shallow end, smack you upside, and ask if you don’t know the buddy rule, my judgment of you appears to be correct in at least the trouble-causer part,” he stated flatly. Without waiting for me to reply, he now sloshed his way over to the stairs in corner of the shallow end, stomped up said stairs, and stormed off towards the pool locker room, dripping wet and seething with annoyance every step of the way.

I stared after him for a beat, then swiftly moved after him. “Hey, hey! Wait, wait! I’m not finished talking to you! That’s not the only reason I came here and went swimming alone!” I exclaimed as I followed him out of the pool and to the locker room, also leaving a trail of water as I went after him.

Just as the locker room door swung shut behind me, he whirled around and jumped in my face. “You know what, I’m not done talking to you, either! Not only is what you did dangerous and dumb, but it’s also against the rules! I am not just the captain of the Swim Club, but I’m also the school lifeguard, so that means you have to go through me if you want to set foot in that pool! I want your name right now, because I’m recommending you for detention to Coach Bobari!” he shouted furiously.

“I won’t tell you my name a second time. I told you the first time we met. You have to remember my name if you want to report me to the coach,” I said swiftly. Immediately he opened his mouth to retaliate, but paused as he thought about my words and quickly tried to recall my name. Seeing an opening in the conversation and the opportunity of a lifetime, I was swift to go on. “So, until you remember my name, how about I become an unofficial member of your club? I’m not a member of one yet, since I just transferred in a couple days ago,” I said, my long-lost smirk finally returning to my face.

He switched the thoughtful look for a flat stare now as he pulled back from my face, crossing his arms across his chest. “You want to join the Swim Club,” he stated skeptically.

“You don’t think I have the body for swimming?” I asked curiously. I now looked down at myself as though to inspect my body, I twisted the body in question back and forth as though trying to get a better look at it.

His eyes followed mine, visually inspecting me much more closely and much longer than I did. He was still checking me out when I looked back up at him expectantly, waiting on an answer to my inquiry. “…Your body looks fine,” he stated finally, his eyes flicking up to meet mine, “Not everything can be seen from the outside, though.”

“Such as?” I prompted him.

“Well, your lungs would be the most obvious thing. I’m not about to accept a brat that might drown because he can’t hold his breath very well or very long,” he said.

“You want to see how long I can hold my breath for?” I purred, making a small kissing motion and licking my lips. My smirk turned suggestive as I now visually inspected his body much more closely than I had my own.

“Sure. Let’s go back out to the pool, and I’ll hold your head under water for as long as I think you should be able to hold your breath. If you drown before I let you come up, you don’t get into the club,” he replied smartly.

“You know, if you want me to give you a blowjob, you don’t have to make me do it under the cover of water and under the guise of testing how long I can hold my breath. I‘d be happy to do it right here and now,” I returned without missing a beat. Though he had been trying very hard to remain stony-faced and stern, he couldn’t keep from looking somewhere between startled and disturbed as he blushed. I let out light laughter now as I turned around, pulling open the door and stepping out. “I’ll be waiting for you poolside, Mr. Lifeguard,” I purred over my shoulder just a second before the door shut behind me.



“Yo, John Doe, are you going to lie by the pool tanning all day, or are you going to actually swim some?” came a called from one of the senior students in the Swim Club.

“How can he be tanning when this is an indoor pool?” asked one of the freshmen students in the Swim Club.

I didn‘t even bother to open my eyes or look at either of them, but I did respond to the question of the freshman. “His question was not only rhetoric, but sarcastic,” I told the poor fool, knowing that anyone else’s answer would have been rather much ruder.

“Exactly. So, get your ass in the water,” said another club member. Before I even really realized that that reply had come from someone that was looming over me—rather than floating around the pool, like all of the other club members—I had been rolled right over into the water. I went in without so much as a peep, but I came up sputtering out curses and splashing water as I made a blind grab for the offender. He was swift to join me in unexpectedly falling into the pool and just as quick to join me in swearing and splashing.

The shrill sound of a whistle cut through the air, but that didn’t stop either of us from making attempts to drown each other or trying to turn the water red with the other‘s blood. “Hey, hey! That’s enough! You two break it up right now! Fighting in or around the pool is against the rules!” Strait shouted, swimming swiftly over to where we were to break us up physically.

“I’ll break something alright!” I shouted furiously. As Strait shoved his way between us, I switched from trying to punch the sonofabitch to making attempts to kick him.

“Pulling people into the pool is also against the rules! I want this sorry excuse for a human being punished for that!” the sonofabitch shouted, swimming backwards just enough to get out of my kicking range.

No longer able to make attempts to physically harm him, I now settled for just trying to splash him around Strait, who was keeping me from pursuing the prick. “I don’t know all the pool rules, but I’ll bet kicking someone into the pool is also a violation of them! If I’m getting a punishment for this, I’m taking you down with me!” I shouted as I continued to splash in his direction.

“You’re still acting violent even after the lifeguard and club captain said to stop it! You should get a bigger punishment than mine!” he shouted right back at me, also splashing right back at me.

“You started the violations and therefore the violence, so you should get the biggest punishment!” I shouted, still splashing away.

“Good Lord. They’re like three-year-olds, screaming and splashing at each other like that,” grunted another member of the club as they watched the spectacle that was our argument.

“The next person to make so much as a peep gets the biggest punishment!” Strait exclaimed. Immediately everyone’s lips were sealed, and I and the sonofabitch I was fighting with even stopped our splashing. Strait let out a breath of relief, glad to find that that tactic had proven most effective. “…Now, everyone out of the pool, and then I will sort this out and punishments will be handed out,” he said, pulling away from me now as he slid a stern look across every face in the pool.

Silently everyone swam over to the shallow end and then trooped up the stairs, having decided pulling themselves up at the sides might possibly earn them a punishment in this predicament. Only once we were all lined up in front of the locker room did Strait speak again. “Okay, now, I’m going to start this by allowing Duck to defend his rather inappropriate way of getting the initiate in the water,” he said.

“My defense is that I felt offended by him duping you into inducting him into our club, and then just laying around on his lazy ass during club activities,” the sonofabitch, Duck, stated flatly, “I mean, we don’t even know anything about this bastard other than that he knew you in the past, and we’re supposed to not only accept him into the club, but accept that he doesn’t even really want anything to do with the club or to do anything while in the club? It’s offensive to those of us who really love swimming and worked hard to be worthy of being a member in this club, and I’m not about to take this shit and his crap lying down.”

Now, I easily could have started arguing against his pathetic excuse of a defense right away—I was quite inclined to do so, actually. However, in order to keep things orderly, as Strait seemed to wish to do, I managed to restrain myself and wait for my turn to speak in my own defense. “Even if you felt offended, there are many better ways to deal with problematic people rather than dealing with them by causing a problem yourself as you so chose to do,” Strait stated none too happily.

“I thought of trying to reason with our John Doe there, but he has thus far shown himself to be an unreasonable person. I figured, rather than waste my breath, I should confront him on his own terms,” Duck returned in the same flatly unhappy tone.

“That’s exactly the problem here. You decided to confront an unreasonable man in an equally unreasonable manner, and when he wasn’t even causing a problem! Even if he was offending you, that did not give you the right to go on the offensive! He may have been insulting us all indirectly with his actions, but he was not directly doing anything to harm or disturb our club in any way. The proper course of action with such people is to ignore them, not to provoke them!” Strait exclaimed.

“That’s exactly the point here! I didn’t want to just damn ignore this pain in the ass! I wanted him to get off his ass and at least act like he cared about this club! I can put up with his presence, but not if he’s treating this more like he’s a member of a country club than the Swim Club!” Duck argued, shooting me a furious look. Man, if looks could kill.

Just as he wasn’t about to take my shit lying down, I wasn’t about to just stand there and take his. “I do care, damnit! Don’t presume to know what I care about! Don’t assume you know about me when you already admitted you know nothing about me!” I snapped, returning his furious look.

“I am not presuming or assuming anything! You’re the one that was just lazing for the last half hour while every other member of this club was working on swimming techniques!” he shouted, gesturing to the side of the pool where I had been laying prior to the beginning of this fight.

“I was staying out of the way so I wouldn’t get in anyone’s way! I didn’t want to cause problems when I had only just joined the club! I figured it would be appreciated if I didn’t interfere with your practice! I thought you’d like it better if I didn’t further impose myself on the club! If I’d known you were going to get pissed off and kick me into the pool, I’d have gotten in and joined in long before then!” I shouted, clenching my fists at my sides to resist the urge to deck the sonofabitch, “What kind of idiot gets pissed off and kicks a person into a club’s activities, anyway?! If you’re that mad at me becoming a member, you should be trying to get me kicked out!”

They all only now looked quite startled by my outburst. Obviously they had all thought I’d just been being lazy before. It didn’t look like a single one of them had even considered that I had actually been trying to be considerate. “By the looks I’m receiving now, I’ll bet the lot of you would have let me drown if it had turned out I couldn’t swim after that damn bastard kicked me into the water,” I stated flatly, not much liking how they all seemed to think very little of me.

“If it turned out you couldn’t swim and you joined the Swim Club despite that, you damn well deserve to drown,” Duck snapped immediately.

“Even if everyone else would have wanted to allow you to drown, I would still have saved you,” Strait said suddenly. Now he was the one getting startled looks from everybody else. Realizing that his words were probably being taken the wrong way, he was swift to correct out thinking. “I mean, I’m the lifeguard and such, so I can’t just let a person drown in the pool on my watch! So I’d save anyone from drowning, no matter how much others might think they deserve to!” he said quickly. Even as he said this, though, he was unable to keep a bit of a blush off his face, perhaps because he was thinking about how we had first been thinking he meant that first statement of his.

“Well, I feel so much better knowing that one out of ten people would save my life, and only because he’s obligated to due to his occupation,” I stated flatly and, obviously, sarcastically.

“We can’t help it that you’re such an asshole,” Duck stated without hesitation. Of all the nerve! I can’t believe this guy! How could he call me an asshole when I had already explained that I had been acting out of an attempt to be considerate, and he had already admitted he had been acting merely out of aggression?! His damn name should be Dick, not Duck, because he acted a lot more like the former than the latter.

“Duck, cool it, dude. You’re the one being an asshole right now. Doe explained himself,” said the senior who’s question to me had been the start of this whole thing.

“Tsh. You really buy that bull?” Duck scoffed, sneering at the other even as he shot me a glare.

“You know what? Shut the duck up. I’m not asking for an apology, and I’m not even asking you to believe me. I’m telling you to stop talking trash about me like you know who I am. You don’t know any-goddamn-thing about me, so stop running your mouth like you do,” I snapped.

“Did you just tell him to shut the duck up?” Strait asked.

Despite how tense the air was and the fact that I was supposed to be pissed off, I couldn’t stop a grin from breaking out on my face. “Yeah. My bad. I really couldn’t resist myself. I had to say it to him at least once, so I figured I’d get it out of my system now while we’re fighting,” I said, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly as I laughed at myself.

Again despite the tensity of the situation, Strait and several other club members couldn’t keep from smiling now. “…You’re an idiot, Doe,” Strait sighed as he shook his head at me, still smiling all the while.

“By the way, since we’re on the subject, is “Duck” his actual name, or a nickname, like how you’re all calling me “Doe”?” I asked curiously. Duck just turned his sneer on me now, not about to answer my question. That, of course, was exactly why I had chosen not to direct the question at him, even while it was a question about him. I had expected such an assholeish “answer” from him, as he appeared to be the only one not willing to stop being angry at me for having weaseled my way into the club.

“Duck’s his real name. It might seem odd, but it’s not, considering his brother is named Dusk. His bro ain’t in this club, though. But, anyway, we don’t use nicknames. We’re only calling you by “Doe” because it’s troublesome to keep saying “John Doe” and you still haven’t yet given us your name. Also since we’re on the subject, my name is Rodderk,” said the senior guy, “You can call me Rod for short, though.”

“Like “fishing rod”!” declared the same stupid freshman from before.

“No, as in “Rodderk”, my name. I just said we don’t use nicknames, you dipstick,” Rodderk stated flatly, “His name is Dippen, by the way, but you can call him Dip for short and call him dipstick when he acts like one.”

“You know, other than being an insult, as you choose to use it, a dipstick is a measuring rod that is dipped into a container to measure the depth of the liquid contained within. Therefore, it could be called a “diprod”, instead. And, as it is common in today‘s society to come up with cute names to refer to couples by using the names of the persons in the couple in question, calling you two a “diprod“ would be insinuating that you‘re together,” stated an unnamed member of the club.

Rodderk immediately rounded on the guy. “Don’t you even start with that again ! We are not now nor are we ever going to be together romantically! Also, I’m just as hip to things in this day and age as you are, and I know calling us “diprod” would mean that dipstick is the man in the relationship! If we ever got together—which we never ever will—we would be called “roddip”! Now stop making it sound like we’re a couple, Hosea!” he shouted, furiously pointing at the other and even poking him in the chest a few times as he yelled at him.

“For someone who is adamant about being heterosexual, you sure do seem to know an awful lot about things that straight males normally don’t keep current on,” Hosea stated, not hesitated even the slightest in the face of the larger male’s fury.

“That’s because you and your bisexual ass insist on trying play matchmaker with Dip and I! I have to stay on top of this shit to set you straight every time you try to set us up in some way or the other!” Rod shouted.

“You can call Hosea by Hose for short, by the way,” Dip informed me, seeming to not at all mind that the person he was speaking of seemed to want to set him up with another guy.

“You just find it amusing that you can call everyone by water-related nicknames, don’t you?” I asked. He just smiled at me and giggled to himself as he turned his attention to the argument at hand. Since practice practically was over, I decided to get changed and get out of there before any other arguments broke out.

I had also decided to be sneaky about it, in case Strait still wanted to punish me for fighting with Duck. Even if I had a good reason for not participating in practice and even if he had started the fight, the fact was that I had pulled the other boy into the pool and then participated all too eagerly and energetically in the exchange of blows, not to mention the splashing and shouting match that had followed all of that. Plus he still owed me a punishment for whenever he figured out my name.

“You sure are racking up the punishments, aren‘t you?” Strait asked, speaking right into my ear and cutting right through my thoughts.

“Cute. I get it. Racking up can mean both accumulating something and to position the balls at the start of a game of pocket billiards, otherwise known as pool,” I said. Though I was only half-dressed, I slammed my locker closed now, leaving my pants inside as an acknowledgement that I had been caught and that I would accept whatever punishment he planned on giving to me for breaking I don’t even know how many pool rules.

“Not everyone in this club speaks in a roundabout way that is meant to indicate things not stated outright,” he said.

“That, of course, means everyone in the club, excluding you, does that. Though you obviously were not trying to allude to that; it’s simply a shown fact,” I stated. I hadn’t yet turned around to face him, basically just because I didn’t want to. I was ready to accept the punishments I plainly deserved and the lectures I obviously needed, but I wasn’t ready to accept the fact that he would rather tell me off than listen to me.

“And that, of course, means that you are included in those of this club that speak in ways that allude to things probably better left unsaid. The thing is, I don’t think that whatever you are trying to tell me without saying is something better left unsaid. So I want you to say it,” he said. Now I immediately turned around, quite clearly surprised by the fact that he actually wanted to hear what I had to say. Just earlier that day he wouldn’t give me the time of day! What in the world had changed that fact in less than an hour of club activities that I hadn’t even participated in and that I had apparently actually disrupted?

Earlier that day, there had been so many things I wanted to tell him and so much I wanted to talk about. Right then, though, the only thing I could think of was a single question. “…What do you want me to say?” I asked. It was an earnest question that I wanted and honest-to-God answer to. I wanted to know what it was that he wanted me to say so badly that he would corner me like this and all but demand to hear it.

He looked startled, swiftly pulling back from me. “Ah, nevermind,” I said, swiftly doing an about-face both figuratively and literally, “That was a stupid question,” I said, fingering the handle on my locker as I tried to figure out where to go from here, “Anyway… What I want most to say to you, to tell you….I guess would be….Benjemen Landlock is my name. I’ve liked you since I was in the third grade with you. We only actually interacted one time, but you had a big impact on my life and made quite an impressive impression on me.”

“I’m average all around—looks, personality, grades—there’s only one area I’m below average and one area I’m above average. I’m below average in my swimming ability, in that I have little to no such ability. I’m not afraid of the water, but I am deathly afraid of drowning. I’ve almost drowned thirty-six times and have drowned nine times in my life now, all because of my substandard swimming skills,” I stated calmly but quickly.

“The area in which I am above average is in my determination, particularly about pursuing you and in relation to improving the one area in which I am below average. I won’t go into detail about what I went through to get here, but it is suffice to say that the only reason it took me this long to initiate contact with you because it took me this long to locate you after you finished elementary and went on your way,” I said, speaking a bit more slowly and solemnly now.

“Wait a minute here!” he interjected before I could add anything else, “Why the Hell have you spent this long looking for me?! Just liking somebody isn’t reason enough to go through all that trouble! And, speaking of trouble, what was that about how many times you’ve almost drowned and have actually drowned?! I may have thought you looked like a trouble-maker when I first met you, but you never caused me any trouble while I was the junior lifeguard in elementary school!”

“I never caused you and trouble back then because I never had any trouble. I mean, I was still below even a beginner’s level in swimming, but I didn’t have any near-death experiences. Before I entered into your elementary school and class, though, I had a lot of trouble. I had trouble in the summers, too, when I was out of school and therefore without you. That’s when I began to think that maybe it was having you around that somehow kept me out of trouble. And then, after you went into junior high, my troubles resumed and almost kicking the bucket by nearly drowning became a regular thing. So, since going into junior high, I’ve been trying to track you down, that way I can learn to swim,” I explained.

“Wait a moment now!” he exclaimed, putting up a hand to halt me before I could say any more, “…How the fuck are you a grade below me now, when we were in the same grade before? I don’t get that part. I mean, you make it sound like you were held back, but I don’t understand that. You said your grades are average.”

“Ah, they’re average now, but they haven’t always been. See, I’m a grade below you, but I’m two years older than you,” I answered simply.

“…That’s not average,” he stated flatly.

“Let me explain! You see, my first time drowning was when I was in second grade! It was in the middle of the school year and during a class trip! Being at such a important, impressionable age, it was naturally a life-scarring event. Though, actually, I suppose drowning is life-scarring at any age… Anyway, I was really iffy about going to school after that, and my parents didn’t want to push me. So, due to a devastating drop in my actual attendance, I ended up flunking the second grade and having to repeat,” I said.

“The second time through my parents pushed me to make sure I passed. When I moved on to third grade, I decided that I should push myself to do the one thing my parents wouldn’t push me into: learning to swim. I was…less than successful. I almost drowned about a half a dozen times throughout the third grade, but I didn’t let that deter me from learning to swim or distract me from learning in school. Then came the drowning number seven of that year, which was my second actual drowning. Needless to say, I was again scarred for life by the event,” I went on casually.

“I ended up not attending school at all for the last two and a half months. So I flunked,” I said, “That’s when I transferred into your school, having to repeat the third grade again and thereby being in your grade. The first day I dared to go near the school pool was the first time I met you. I was….struck not just by your words, but by your general attitude. You were so confident in your skills and so caring about the swimmers. Even though you say you became the junior lifeguard because you were voted to be, it was pretty obvious you enjoyed the job you had been entrusted with.”

“Seeing you there every time I went to the pool, knowing my life was in your hands when I was in the water…that just made me feel sort of…secure, untroubled. I wasn’t worried about the “what if” situations, I didn’t think about the troublesome things I used to. With me not worrying about what might go wrong, my troubles seemed to evaporate. Of course, even without worries, I couldn’t just up and catch up on the years of swimming I had missed. Things like that don’t just happen overnight, you know. Especially not since my parents were pushing me more about school than swimming, not wanting me flunk again and go through third grade a third time,” I continued.

“So, time passed, and I passed. I went in to fourth grade with barely acceptable grades and unacceptable swimming skills. More time passed, and I managed to pass again. I went into fifth grade with average grades, but still below average swimming skills. Since my parents were appeased for the time being, I then tried to satisfy myself by improving my swimming skills. I  managed to make minimal improvement, but that was it. Nothing monumental. More importantly, my school grades went down three times as much as my swimming skills went up,” I sighed to myself.

“So you flunked. Again. And repeated fifth grade, whilst I graduated and went on to junior high,” he stated.

I laughed weakly, now nodding my head to myself and than shaking my head at myself. “Yeah. And, well, since then I’ve been struggling to survive. Due to my determination I managed to get through junior high without flunking or failing, but there were many drownings throughout that time,” I said, “As a matter of fact, I likely would have drowned earlier today, had you not jumped in and dragged me to the shallow so that you could chew me out.”

There was a silent pause now as he digested all of that information, during which I finally dared to again turn around. I was ready to face him now. I was ready to come face-to-face with the person I had been pursing for years after I had now that I had come clean to him. Or, I had thought I was ready, until I actually took a good look at him. He was, quite frankly, furious looking. Immediately I went to turn right back around—but, before I could, he’d grabbed me by the front of my shirt and dragged me back around and over to him.

“That’s it?! That’s the whole story?! The reason you pursued me this far, the reason you pushed yourself onto this club, the reason for everything is that you want me to be your personal lifeguard or something!? All of that—all of this—just because I impressed you and made an impression on you!? Are you fucking kidding me?!?” he screamed in my face.

“W-Well, what did you expect from me? What did you want me to say?” I asked weakly, making no attempt to pull away from him or push him away from me. Just as it had before, that question startled him right out of senses. He swiftly moved to let me go and step away—but, before he could, I grabbed onto his wrists, keeping him from either releasing my shirt or moving away from me. “Benjemen, let me go,” he said swiftly, though he didn’t even actually attempt to shake me off or shove me away.

“I’ll let you go after you tell me what you wanted to hear from me, not before,” I stated simply, softly. I wasn’t trying to seem demanding or even stern. I wanted to know what it was that he wanted me to say so badly that I would corner him like he had me, but not badly enough that I would demand to hear it. If he actually resisted me or outright refused to tell me, I wouldn’t push it, I wouldn’t push him.

He didn’t do either of those things, though. He released my shirt now, but he didn’t try to pull his wrists from my grasp of pull back from me. “…I-It’s not like I had anything I wanted to hear from you. It’s just…what I expected to hear from you…after you were all “Meeting you changed my life forever” and “I’ve liked you since the third grade” and all that….” he said, more muttering under his breath than anything else as he averted his gaze and his face turned an interesting shade of pink.

My eyes widened with surprise as I realized what he was alluding to. “Oh… Ohhh…. Ooooh! Oh! I see what you’re saying now! I can see how you would be thinking that!” I exclaimed excitedly, just feeling overjoyed about the fact that we were finally on the same page.

“Is that all you have to say?! “I see”?!? What kind of assurance is that to me?! What kind of answer is that for me?!” he exclaimed in a much less joyous manner, glaring at thin air since he still couldn’t bring himself to look at me.

“Oh, yes! I mean, no! That is—I’m sorry! Or, no, I meant to say, I do like you in that way! It’s just, I didn’t want to push my luck! I’m already unloading so much information on you, you know. And, anyway, it’s enough for me to have you as my club mate, and it’d be more than enough if you’d be my friend, and it would really be too much to even consider confessing my romantic feelings towards you to you when there’s all this other stuff—” I rushed to apologize to him and assure him, inadvertently blurting out the one thing I had never intended to come clean about.

All at once my swift words were cut short as he ripped his wrists away from me. “Stop trying to be considerate already and just confess to me!” he snapped.

“Okay! Alright! I have a reasonable amount of romantic and possibly slight sexual interest in you! Are you happy now?!” I exclaimed, just trying to keep him—or, rather, stop him from being mad at me.

Surprisingly, it worked like a charm. Actually, it worked even better than that. He not only stopped being mad, but he actually became happy. “I am, quite. I will be happier when you ravish me, though,” he stated even as he grabbed me by the shirt, dragging me to him again. Before I could get out a word—before I could even think about his words just now, he had dragged me right into a kiss.

It occurred to me only then that, while I had been struggling to stay afloat all this time, this guy had lapped me more times than I could count. He was out of my league. I was barely qualified to be in a kiddie pool, and he was practically qualified to be in the Olympics. I was definitely in over my head, entrusting my life to this guy. And yet, with the knowledge that he had gotten in over his head as well by entrusting his heart to me, I knew I would not only happily entrust my life to him, but that I would happily spend the rest of that life with him, too.