“I’m not,” Kevin told him. “Not tonight. Not
with you. Now get the hell off my chair before I throw you out of
the pool, you hear me?”
“Jeez,” Danny pouted. He jumped down and
kicked one of the chair’s wooden legs for good measure. “I’m not
the one who disappeared the other night, dude. I go to open the
door for my friend and when I come back, you’re gone.”
Kevin shook his head. Did Danny seriously
believe that crap? Kevin was the one who got ditched, not the other
way around, and he wasn’t about to let it happen to him again.
“Whatever.”
“Do you know how long I’ve dreamed of getting
into these red swim trunks of yours?” Danny asked, tugging at
Kevin’s shorts.
“Keep dreaming.” Kevin moved his leg away and
stared pointedly across the pool. “You lost your chance.”
“Why you doing me like this?” Danny kicked
the chair leg again, petulant. “Come on, Kev—”
“Don’t come onme,” Kevin warned as he
shook Danny’s hand off of his ankle. “Touch me again and you’re out
of here. Get it? Go.”
“I’ll change your mind,” Danny promised, but
when Kevin’s jaw clenched in anger, he backed away. A few feet from
the lifeguard station, he turned and shouted, “Tonight, I swear
it.”
Adrenaline roared like the ocean in Kevin’s
ears as he turned away from Danny. Beneath his breath, he muttered,
“You wish.”
* * * *
At nine o’clock, Kevin blew his whistle to
signal that the pool was closed. The few lingering students
gathered their towels and headed for the gym doors but Danny wasn’t
among them. Maybe he left already,Kevin thought. The fact
that he hadn’t noticed—and that Danny didn’t even bother to say
goodbye—bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Quickly Kevin checked the locker rooms that
branched off near the deep end, but they were empty at this hour.
Now he had the pool all to himself. He’d swim two laps around the
perimeter to warm up before running through his competition strokes
for practice. Climbing up onto one of the starting blocks that
lined the shallow end of the pool, he bent his knees a few times
and pumped his arms to get the blood flowing, then took a deep
breath and dove into the still water below.
For one refreshing moment, the water parted
to let him in before closing above his head. All senses
disappeared. Resurfacing, Kevin pulled himself through the water
with a fast front crawl. At the deep end he kicked down to touch
the bottom of the pool seven feet below. The water was dark there,
and deathly silent. There was a scary moment when he wasn’t sure
which way he was swimming, his lungs screamed in protest, but then
his fingers scraped the bottom of the pool and he turned around,
pushing off against the tiles with his feet to propel himself back
to the top. He broke through the surface and gulped in fresh air as
he smoothed back the blonde bangs plastered to his forehead
Behind him, something splashed into the
water.
Kevin whirled around, heart racing. He should
be alone. “Hello?” he called out. There was someone in the water,
near the lifeguard chair. Kevin pinched his nose and blew hard to
clear his ears, then noticed a pair of blue swim trunks lying on
the concrete floor beside the pool—Danny’s, he remembered seeing
them earlier. That meant … as Danny swam towards him, Kevin
scrambled for the ladder at the edge of the pool. Beneath the
water, something brushed against his foot and he kicked out, angry.
“Danny!”
Cold, strong hands gripped his legs, pulling
him back. Kevin kicked into a soft stomach, felt a swirl of hair
tickle his knee, then felt fingers pulling at the waistband of his
swim trunks. When he twisted away, the shorts slid down to his
knees, then slipped off completely. “This isn’t funny,” Kevin
hollered.
With a laugh, Danny popped up out of the
water nearby. “Told you I’d get you out of these,” he shouted as he
held Kevin’s shorts up above his head like a prized trophy. “Didn’t
I?”
“Give them back.” Kevin lunged, but Danny
swam out of reach. “The pool’s closed.”
“You’re in here,” Danny pointed out. As Kevin
watched, he swung the shorts above his head, then let them go to
land in a wet heap on the side of the pool, far enough away from
the water that Kevin had to climb out to retrieve them. He glared
at Danny, who laughed again and said, “You want them back? Go get
‘em.”
Kevin eyed the distance between the ladder
and his shorts—there was no way in hell he’d walk that length
naked, not with Danny watching. When he didn’t speak, Danny ducked
back into the water. Kevin swam for the edge of the pool, thinking
he could get out now, get dressed or at least get covered before
Danny came back up for air, but just as he reached the side, Danny
resurfaced behind him. Kevin felt a hand smooth along his thigh
then higher, tracing the curve of his ass, and he kicked out to
shake it away. “Don’t touch me,” he muttered.