Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (72 page)

   Eric follows Julianna into her bedroom. The hostess turns left and enters the next hallway. She makes a right into the first room. It is a large washroom. She walks over to her left and sits the purple bag with the two shot glasses down on a bench.

   “If you’re shy, you can change in there,” Julianna points towards an area with a curtain.

   “No, I’m good,” Eric says while kicking off his shoes.

   She suddenly realizes that she can’t get out of her dress.

   Eric takes his socks off and places them on his shoes. He looks up. Julianna is staring at him. He looks over at the curtain.

   “I apologize,” Eric says, “I can go in there.”

   “No, you’re fine,” Julianna counters, “It’s just that I can’t untie the back of my dress.”

   “Oh.”

   “Never mind,” Julianna shakes her head, “I’ll call Gale in here.”

   “No, I’ve got it,” Eric says, “That’s if you’re comfortable with me doing it?”

   Julianna nods and walks over to Eric. She turns, holds up her hair, and places her left palm over her neck. The last thing she needs right now is for this boy to pull the wrong string – her bikini top.

   A slight excitement rushes down her spine as Eric’s fingers graze her back while he takes hold of the proper string. He gently tugs. Julianna feels the dress release its tight hold.

   “Did I get it?”

   “Yep,” Julianna says while walking away. She feels Eric’s fingers retreat as though he has does something wrong. She turns and smiles, “Thanks.”

   “No problem.”

    Julianna slips her shoulders from the dress and lets it go. The dress falls to the floor around her high heels. Eric’s brown eyes look her up and down. But it doesn’t feel creepy. Instead, she feels a little warm from his visual intrusion. She steps out of the dress and rounds the bench in order to turn her back to him. Julianna sits down and begins removing her high heels. Not that she needed to, but rather, she
needed
to.

   Eric slips his shirt and jeans off. He can’t believe he is about to go swimming with this girl. He secretly contemplates whether or not he is having the most realistic dream ever. If he is, he sure doesn’t want to wake up anytime soon. Knowing his luck, the next time he dreams, it will be about a ninety-year-old woman with a butcher knife saying,
‘Come here, sonny. Grandma has something for you to do.’

   Eric shutters. His body chill bumps with the horrendous thought. He looks over at Julianna. She is staring at him.

   “What was
that
?”

   Eric’s mouth opens, but no words come out.

   Julianna holds both hands up, “Wow.”

   “It’s not like that,” Eric tries to defend.

   Julianna shakes her head and snatches up the purple bag. She leaves one shot glass behind as she heads for the pool room.

   “Julianna, wait.”

   “Nope – I’m good on that. Sorry I disgust you so much.”

   Eric watches the back of the pale-skin angel disappear into the next room – a room full of the sounds of splashing and laughter. At this point, he understands that anything he tries to say will sound like a lie. After all, his skin crawled after viewing Julianna in her bikini. Even as a cyber-junkie with little to no social interaction, he can still figure out that there’s no recovery from some things.

   “Hi! Glad you could make it!”   

   Julianna looks upward. Alexandria is standing at the edge of the high dive.

   Julianna holds up her Crown Royal bag and a shot glass.

   “Let’s see it,” Julianna hollers back.

   “Show her, babe!”

   Julianna looks into the pool as she lowers her arms. David is watching his girlfriend with a knowing anticipation. Julianna looks back up. Alexandria closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She exhales slowly. When she opens her eyes again, Julianna can see that Alexandria is all business.

   Alexandria looks at the water and then straight ahead. She bounces once and then pops the board as she springs into the air. Julianna’s mouth opens in disbelief as Alexandria acrobats her way into the water. As her arms come together, the blond parts the water with the upmost graceful of intrusions.

   Alexandria’s head surfaces in front of her boyfriend. Her arms wrap around his thick neck.

    “Damn woman,” David adores, “You’re a badass.”

   Julianna walks around the backside of the diving boards to join Gale and Jason lounging in their chairs. She pulls her prize from the pesky purple bag, tosses the bag on the ground, pulls the cap, pours a shot, and downs it before sitting on a lawn chair.

   “Rough day?”, Gale teases.

   “Ready to party,” Julianna informs while sitting her supply on the table by her chair.

   “I second that,” Jason holds up his beer and guzzles the bottle dry.

   Julianna smiles and looks over at Alexandria, “What was that dive?”

   Alexandria wraps her right arm around her boyfriend’s neck and repositions herself so she can see Julianna better.

   “It was a forward two and a half somersault, one twist in the pike position,” Alexandria informs.

   “I have no idea what you just said,” Julianna admits, “But I’ll pay you to train me.”

   Alexandria glances at Gale before looking at Julianna with a slight smile, “Let me think about it.”

   Julianna nods. She watches as Alexandria maneuvers herself behind her boyfriend and gently kicks on his back, “Your turn.”

   David laughs as his body is gently nudged forward by his girlfriend. He looks at the diving boards, “You people haven’t seen nothing like me.”

  “He’s got that right,” Gale quietly comments.

   Julianna pours another shot as David swims for the ladder by the diving boards.

   Alexandria swims to the opposite end of the pool and lifts herself out. She turns and sits her buttocks on the concrete pool’s edge. The woman makes brief eye contact with Julianna before looking at her boyfriend.

   When Gale sees an opening – whenever Alexandria’s attention is on her boyfriend – she leans over and speaks quietly to Julianna.

   “She was all-state in high school our freshman year. She was geared for competition diving, but then had that aneurism. The damage made her a liability. They wanted to keep her on as a trainer, but she couldn’t handle it. Said it always reminded her of what could have been, but will never be.”

   “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t know,” Julianna says with a regretful tone, “Should I go over and talk to her?”

   “No,” Gale confirms, “She’ll let you know. Just let it ride. I haven’t seen her enjoy herself like this in a long time; at least, not with her true love – the pool. It’s a nice change.”

   Julianna nods her compliance on the matter before throwing back another shot. She sits the shot glass on the stand between her and Gale. Julianna leans back and watches as David climbs the top most diving board.

   Gale looks around the pool area and notices someone is missing from their little party, “Where’s Eric?”

   “He’s in the washroom freaking out about how ugly I am,” Julianna blatantly says.

   Gale sits up, “What? What did he say?”

   Julianna looks over at Gale. The nurse seems like she’s ready for war.

   “Relax,” Julianna says calmly, “It’s no biggie. We’re just not meshing. It’s all good.”

   “It’s not good if he said something like that,” Gale counters.

   “No worries” Julianna says, “It happens sometimes. No chemistry.”

   “Chemistry?”, Gale questions with a slightly calmer tone, “Is that all it is?”

   “Yep. That’s it. We don’t have it.”

   Gale looks over to the washroom area as Eric makes his debut into the entrance way.

   “You sure?”, she questions while trying to stare a hole through Eric.

   Julianna glances from Gale to Eric. She looks up at the diving board where David is.

   “I’m sure. He’s done nothing wrong. I’d rather have an honest answer than to believe a lie.”

   “So he told you that you were ugly?”

   “It was an intuition thing. He never said anything like that. Just a chemistry thing.”

   “He better not have said anything like that,” Gale answers. She grabs her Long Island Ice Tea and takes a few sips from her straw.

   “Now
here’s
how it’s done!”

   Julianna watches as David makes his boastful proclamation to announce his forthcoming dive. She finds it difficult to believe that he could top what she seen from Alexandria. She waits patiently as the man mimics Alexandria’s deep breath and exhales. David jumps, pops the board, and flies into the air. He enters into a cannonball formation as his body begins rotating in reverse. Julianna covers her mouth with her left hand. David extends his body. The hostess glances at Alexandria. The blond partially covers her eyes with her right hand.

  
Pop!

   David lands a perfect belly flop into the water.

   “Serves you right!”, Gale yells out.

   Alexandria immediately jumps in the water after him.

   David glares as he forces his way towards the pool’s edge. Alexandria helps him over, climbs out, and positions herself to help him out of the water. David takes hold of her hands, smiles, and pulls. Alexandria falls into the pool. She resurfaces and quickly shoves her boyfriend’s head under the water. His arms flail instinctively as she takes him by surprise. When Julianna sees his arms disappear into the water, a moment later, Alexandria is yanked under the water’s surface. When she emerges, her arms are wrapped around her boyfriend’s neck. They look into each other’s eyes before kissing.

   “Some might say that there’s a certain amount of unhealthiness to that relationship,” Gale quietly teases.

   Julianna smiles as she reaches for her liquor. She pours herself a shot and looks over at Eric. He is sitting at the pool’s edge where Alexandria attempted to help David out of the pool.

   “Where’s your glass?”, Julianna loudly calls out.

   Eric looks at her and forces a faked smile. He gets up, walks into the washroom, and returns again – glass in hand. Julianna motions him over. As he arrives, he holds out his glass. Julianna fills it, sits the bottle down, and picks up her shot glass. She clinks his glass.

   “Friends?”

   Eric smiles, “Friends.” He puts the glass to his lips and downs the liquid. His eyes do not water. His throat doesn’t burn, and his recent anxiety has slipped away. He sits the glass on the table.

   “I didn’t know you had it in you,” Justin admires his younger brother’s handling of the liquor.

    Eric looks over. His alcohol induced stupor causes him to sport an awkward grin.        

   Justin laughs.

   Gale’s boyfriend holds up his bottle of beer, “Cheers.”

   Julianna notices that Eric’s eyes are reflecting a strange new respect that he has been given by his older brother. His brown eyes are appreciative and proud.

   “How about taking an ugly girl swimming?”

   Eric’s newfound pride quickly vanishes as he looks at the lawn chair housing Julianna. She stands. He opens his mouth to explain, but is silenced by her left hand as it covers his lips.

   “If I wanted to hear lies, I would ask you to tell me the whys.”

   He stares into her green eyes as her hand leaves his lips, “Friends don’t lie to one another.” 

   “But…”

    Julianna grabs Eric’s right hand. He silences once more as she escorts him to the diving boards. Julianna releases his hand and points at the ascension ladder leading to the mid-range board.

   “Penance.”

   Eric grins. He nods and begins climbing. Julianna watches as he makes the climb.

   Justin leans over and speaks quietly in Gale’s left ear, “I don’t think he should do the dive. He’s not a very good swimmer.”

   “Shhh…”, Gale pushes her boyfriend’s face away.

   Eric finishes his climb and edges himself to the board’s edge. It’s not as wobbly as he had envisioned. He looks into the water. The height seems different up here than it appears from the ground looking up. His heart begins racing. He is finding it hard to breathe. He shakes his head and turns around. Julianna is standing on the ladder preventing any retreat.

   “You back out on this,” Julianna playfully threatens, “You back out on our friendship.”

   “Don’t be a wuss!”

   Julianna recognizes the voice as belonging to David. She watches as Eric nervously turns and looks back into the pool. She can see the intensity in his legs as he struggles to fight his fleeting urge.

   “I’ve got you if something happens.”

   Eric looks at the woman next to David. He has heard of her skills from his brother. She has reassuring confidence about her. He looks into her eyes and nods. Eric looks directly below the board. He doesn’t bounce the board; instead, he elects to fall forward with his arms outstretched above his head like he has seen in diving photos. He closes his eyes as his body falls prey to the gravity around him. His scrawny body begins rotating. He opens his eyes and screams.

  
Pop!

   Eric grunts as the water feels like a brick smashing into his back. He can’t breathe.

   “Dammit,” Justin panics. He jumps up from his lounging chair and rushes to the pool with Gale close behind. David and Alexandria are already at his brother’s side by the time her gets to the pool’s edge. He waits as they escort his younger brother. Justin lifts him out and lays him on the concrete edge. Gale kneels down and begins examining him. A few moments later, Gale stands up and smiles.

   “His fine,” she explains, “Had the wind knocked out of him.”

   Eric sits up. He notices a large hand and looks up. His brother Justin is staring down at him. He takes hold of his brother’s hand and is pulled to his feet effortlessly. Justin pats him on the back.

   “The things we do for chicks.”

   Eric grins knowingly as his brother’s hand playfully rubs the top of his head.