I found myself at the edge of my seat. This wasn’t because I was excited about anything, but rather because somebody had spilled sticky juice along the canvas of the chair. The liquid pooled, slowly flowing toward the back of the seat due to the natural incline. Normally, I would have just found another chair, but that proved difficult with the sheer amount of people present at the waterpark. In fact, everyone had started to rely on the ‘dibs system’ to ensure that they managed to secure a seat by the poolside. Family, partners, friends–relations of whatever kind–would take turns to maintain their coveted position as a proud chair owner. They didn’t care about the rest of us, leaving us to flounder in whatever filth the commoner before us had left.
Dramatics aside, I found myself growing impatient with my fellow club members. They had made me promise to wait for them before doing anything on my way to the locker room. That had been almost fifteen minutes ago. Now I was just stuck watching people wipe out on the slippery lily pads as they tried to bound across to the other side. This had been amusing at the start. Now I was just hoping that someone would come along with the required upper-body strength to hang on to the ropes and succeed.
It was dark times when I started hoping for the success of others instead of the much funnier fails they could show me.
Another few more minutes ticked by, and I found myself bored enough to stare down at my chest. I lightly traced my fingertip over the faded lines of the scars adorning the area above and below my collarbone. The most egregious was the faded pink line that ran directly across it, serving as a memory of a particularly bad night she had. My body had been nothing more than a canvas to paint her hatred and anger across that I now had the pleasure of bearing for the world to see. The only positive thing was that the fight had given me a bunch of bruises and scrapes that helped take the attention off of it.
I pushed to my feet, intent on scouring the place to see if I had somehow missed them; I didn’t need to bother. When I turned around, I was greeted by the sight of the three of them clad in floral bikinis. It seemed Serena had been trying to surprise me, and probably convinced the others to play along, as she was unable to hide her dejected expression. Her yellow bikini was a stark contrast to her tan, and I quickly looked away before I could stare for too long.
The other two were far less concerned with any mischief. Aubrey flashed me a small grin, and I noticed that the bikini actually made her look more modest than normal. That was pretty funny in its own right, so I did my regular due diligence of checking her out. Off to the side, Nicole fiddled with one of the straps of her swimsuit. Her long raven hair was tied in a ponytail, leaving expanses of pale skin visible without her usual sweatshirt getting in the way. It must have been quite the transition for her to go from her usual sweatshirt to this. That almost made me feel guilty for how my eyes kept wandering over her.
Almost being the keyword.
“You just can’t help but be creepy.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I already checked out the other two.”
Aubrey shook her head like she had already jumped into the water and was attempting to dry off. “You make it really hard to keep defending you…”
“I’m just messing around.” I wasn’t kidding in the slightest. “It feels like somehow you all expect the worst of me.”
Serena, unaffected by any of the recent happenings, tilted her head to the side. “We do though?”
If that was true, I would start to be more concerned about some of the guys around us. The ones around our age and even some who looked like they were in college did little to hide their interest in our group. We attracted their gazes like moths to a flame, and I could guarantee their interest didn’t extend to me. The girls didn’t seem to notice or worry, so I assumed that it wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t like there weren’t other pretty girls lounging with a drink, floating down the lazy river, or screaming in fright from the slides that they could gawk at. Refusing to be dragged into any kind of nonsense by any of them trying to shoot their shots, I walked away, confident that the group I came with would not stray far behind.
They didn’t disappoint, and Serena bound up to my left while the other two were content to walk at a slower pace alongside one another. Had anyone from our school seen them like that, the poor soul no doubt would have gotten whiplash from how fast of a double-take they would do. The two of them were discussing their plans for the evening, or so I assumed because it was difficult to hear anything over the constant babble coming from Serena.
“What?” I grumbled, hoping that giving her some attention would keep her on a single topic instead of bouncing all over the place.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Serena said, spreading her arms wide to try and encompass the entirety of the waterpark. “What do you think we should do first?”
Normally, I would have found her child-like amazement off-putting, but I was grateful for the distraction. “I think Nicole was onto something with the hot tub.”
“Boo~, you’re so freaking boring sometimes.”
“Sorry I can’t live up to your high standards.”
She did raise a solid point, though. We needed to decide what we were going to do. Otherwise, we risked wandering around aimlessly until they decided to close the park.
The slides were undoubtedly the main attraction of this waterpark, stretching high above us and winding around until coming to an end a little further than the edge of the pools. There were three main slides: a smaller blue one that was marked for little kids, a yellow slide that required a float, and a green one that hurtled you out into the large pool. In the center of where the three slides would have intersected, had they not all been at different altitudes, was a tipping bucket. It was more or less what the name implied; a large bucket that was off-center on an axle and slowly filled with water. Eventually, it would grow too heavy and dump its contents over the children and a few adults waiting underneath it. I chuckled when most of them were wiped out and flowed into the kiddie pool that was to their backs; Nicole snorted, but I wasn’t certain whether it was at their demise or at my reaction.
“You guys want to wait for the bucket to refill?”
“I was thinking we could go down the tube slide right away.”
“I’m getting a drink, and then going into the hot tub.”
Perfect, we couldn’t decide on a single thing that we all wanted to do. Although, it was probably fine to split up and do our own thing too. No need to bore ourselves to death doing something we hate.
We had slowed to a crawl along the edges of the hot tub that Nicole coveted. The scent of chlorine was overpowering here, and I could no longer smell anything at the shops tucked in the corner across from us. Still, I really did agree that the hot tub was the most enticing of the options. The inviting steam lured patrons in from the inside while the plastic curtains hinted at the charm hidden away outside. It would be a nice change from the chilly day we had, and the bad weather I had experienced yesterday.
A hand was raised in front of my face and I flinched back instinctively, thankful that I had the common sense to not try to dart away on the slippery tile. “As our self-appointed leader” –Serena held for applause that was never coming– “I have taken upon myself the great burden to decide our first destination.”
“If it’s the slides, I’m out.”
“It is indeed the slides.”
“Later.” Nicole managed to give us a backhanded wave while in pursuit of a sugary-flavored juice lined up at one of the vendors.
“Great speech, poor execution.”
“Yeah, I would give it a four out of ten myself.”
Her cheeks puffed outward. “You guys suck!”
I clutched a hand to my chest, raising a single eyebrow. “You wound me. And here I was prepared to follow your lead. What a shame.” Turning to Aubrey, I smirked. “I guess we should be on our way.”
She didn’t miss a beat, heading in the same random direction I had. “It seems that way to me. Truly tragic how these things go.”
“You aren’t seriously going to leave me behind?”
“Depends if your little legs can keep up.”
I laughed at her off-the-cuff remark and pushed forward to the slides. Knowing the two of them, we were going to be in for non-stop action for at least the next hour. There was no chance we wouldn’t be hitting all the slides and the tipping bucket before considering taking a break. Honestly, that was alright with me. It would certainly sweeten the relaxation of the hot tub, my final destination of the day.
“You guys really are leaving me!”
The laughter that bubbled over was contagious, and Aubrey and I only pulled it together once we joined the long line to the yellow slide.