Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? ✓

twenty three

TWENTY THREE

FINAL CHAPTER! EPILOGUE COMING SOON!

late summer 2018

THE HEAT OF the August sun was trickling over Romeo's face and throat and chest like liquid gold; a stifling, sweltering kind of heat that was only bearable because of the water. He was resting, floating, along the surface of Heather's pool, occasionally dipping low enough beneath the ripples to cool the sides of his face and fill his ears with that vague, drowning gurgle that made everything sound like it was underwater.

Then, he would raise himself up a little and wade his arms through the water to guide himself along, and everything became clear again, the gurgle draining from his ears like water swirling out of a bathtub. All the sounds became loud and vivid, clearer than they had been before, clearer than they had ever been.

Romeo turned his head half to the side and squinted through the blazing sunlight until his head started to hurt. Frankie was floating in the water, close to the wall, shading his eyes from the thin, escaped rays of sunlight that otherwise escaped into the sliver of a gap over his sunglasses. He was looking up at Heather and Atlas who were standing on the grass together, just beyond the edge of the pool.

They had been having diving contests all afternoon and forcing Frankie to judge the winner each time. Romeo thought, tenderly, that they were almost like children, never tiring, endlessly enthralled by their easy competition that lacked any real rules. It comforted him and he smiled each time he heard and felt the splashes in the water.

Heather was shielding her eyes with both hands, her fingers interlocked against her forehead as she squinted down at Frankie, her cheeks scrunched and bright. She was paler than the rest of them and the only fair-haired member of the group. Other than Romeo, the only member of the group with blue eyes. She was not made for the sun and already had faint, pink sunburn in small, odd patches on her chest and shoulders where she hadn't applied enough SPF. Her hair was dark with water, but standing in the sun was drying her off quickly and tangled, blonde locks of hair were returning.

Atlas was beside her, standing with his hands on his hips, until he became bored of waiting for Heather and Frankie to finish their conversation, and sat down on the grass instead, his arms behind him, palms flat on the ground, and his legs sprawled out. He squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head up towards the sun, then looked away moments later and groped blindly over the grass for his sunglasses.

Romeo, when he became bored of floating on his back or pausing to observe them, swam laps across the pool but it had been a long time since he'd gotten any real exercise and his body was still heavy with leftover fatigue so he tired quickly.

The moment that Atlas jumped to his feet, rushed towards Heather and pushed into the pool was the moment that Romeo plunged beneath the water, her scream at once loud and high, then forgotten, plugged out by the sounds of the pool.

His senses were filled. His hearing was entirely blocked and blurred by the gurgle, and he kept his eyes closed tight so he could focus on the hard burn of his lungs, his held breath, the solid press of his ribs, his heavy chest and his tight stomach. He savoured the sensation. Everything stopped. Anything above the surface became foreign and was forgotten; his head was empty.

When he could no longer keep the hardness in his lungs, when his empty head grew dizzy, he broke through the surface and inhaled sharply like he was taking his first breath of clean air after travelling through a thick, polluted fog. He stopped in the water, smoothed his wet hair back from his forehead and took slow, full breaths until his lungs felt like they'd been cleaned. The world flooded back to him; the parched grass and the startlingly blue sky, heavy and hot.