“Maybe? I don’t know.” I groan, resting my forehead against her warm shoulder. “Are you sure everyone’s gone?”
She pulls the chain out from between the links it’s wrapped around. “Positive,” she says, using her foot to tap open the gate. It squeaks noisily open to reveal a dark and empty pool deck, not a soul in sight.
We walk inside, stopping at the edge of the water.
I’ve never seen the pool like this. Completely quiet, the moonlight reflecting off the ripples in the water. If I didn’t know just how gross it was during the daylight hours, hair balls rolling around on the bottom, dead bugs floating on the top, I’d actually think it looked kind of beautiful.
“Why would she want to skinny-dip in this? I definitely don’t understand this one. I bet the water hasn’t been cleaned since my mom swam in it,” I say, and Blake laughs.
“Not very well, I can tell you that.” She shrugs. “Maybe you just have to do it. Maybe there is no why.”
I stare at the water for a few more moments, my pulse quickening as I think about what comes next. “Count of three we take off our clothes, okay?”
I look over at Blake, and she nods in agreement. “Deal.”
“One.”
“Two,” she says back.
“Three.”
I start to pull off my sundress, stopping suddenly when I see Blake glance over at me. My face burns underneath her gaze, my body suddenly ablaze.
“Blake! I swear to God, don’t look!” I hit her shoulder and she steps back, clapping her hands over her eyes, the both of us laughing. But something lingers under the surface. This strange new energy between us.
“I won’t! Here—” She turns around, pulling one hand away and motioning for me to do the same. “We’ll both turn our backs, okay?”
“Okay,” I say, following her instructions.
We’re both silent for a long moment. I look down to see the skin above my heart dancing, the rhythm uneven.
“Do we have to count down again?” Blake asks, breaking the tension as the both of us burst into giggles.
“Let’s just go for it,” I say as I rip off my sundress. Two seconds later my rose-colored bra and striped underwear land in a pile on the pool deck too.
“Is it cold?” I ask, cautiously reaching my foot out to dunk a toe into the water. But as I do, out of the corner of my eye, I see her pull her red bikini top off, her back completely bare, the lines of her shoulder blades and dip of her spine a shadow in the darkness.
“It’s probably—” She starts to turn around, and I jump as I try to cover my body with my arms and snap my gaze away at the same time.
“Blake!” I squeak out, but I’m already losing my balance in surprise and…
—Smack—
I tumble into the icy water, submerging completely.
“Freezing,” she finishes when I come up, coughing, chlorine stinging at my eyes and throat.
I rub my eyes, but a splash next to me soaks me all over again, a wave of water right to the face.
“Really?” I say when Blake surfaces, her hair slicked back. I skim my fingers across the surface to shoot a wave back at her, and the two of us laugh as we push water back and forth at each other, white foam forming at the surface, bubbling.
“All right, all right!” she says when I get her right in the eyeballs, holding up her hands in defeat. “Truce. I call truce!”
I stop splashing, the water quietly hissing as it calms, giving way to absolute silence. My eyes lock with Blake’s, and I feel my stomach flutter at the intensity of her gaze, my breath hitching in my chest as she moves just half a step closer.
Unconsciously, my eyes move down to her lips, to the sharp lines of her collarbone.
Something about this moment and the freeness of it, skinny-dipping at the Huckabee Pool, pulling me toward her. To this. To…
“Emily?” a voice asks, but I know Blake’s lips aren’t moving because I’m still looking at them.
I swing my head around wildly to see Matt, his eyes wide with surprise, his phone flashlight smacking me square in the eye.
“Matt! Don’t look!” I say as Blake and I paddle to the edge, flattening ourselves against it. Matt quickly squeezes his eyes shut.
“I just came back because I forgot my—wait. Are you… skinny-dipping?” he asks, incredulous.
I clamor out of the water, Blake following just behind me. I quickly pull on my dress, the water making the fabric suction to my body.
“Maybe?” I squeak back, clutching my bra and underwear to my dread-filled chest.
What will he think of me now? Kissing someone else at prom. Swimming naked in the Huckabee Pool. Oh God, I’ve just ruined—
And then he starts to laugh.
“That’s actually pretty badass,” he says, his voice sounding… slightly impressed, not pained for once.
“You won’t tell anyone?” Blake asks, and I can tell she’s nervous, the expression on her face unfamiliar. He pops one of his eyes open, opening the other when he sees we’re fully clothed.
“Matt doesn’t snitch,” I say, and I know this because before he was my boyfriend, Matt was my middle school partner in crime. The one who refused to break under pressure, staying strong even when Kiera tapped out.
“I dare you,” Matt had said after lunch in sixth grade, holding up a tiny green garden snake, “to set this loose in math class.”
“Deal,” I’d said without as much as a second thought.
Half an hour later, Mr. Benson’s sixth-grade math class had to be evacuated, each of us getting individually grilled in the hallway while the school janitor, Mr. Wibble, scoured the classroom for the snake.
Matt knew it was me and didn’t say anything.
“He won’t even rat you out when Mr. Benson threatens detention,” I say.
The corner of his mouth ticks up into a smile at my words. “Not even then.” His eyes meet mine, and he nods to the main road.
