Learning to Swim(27)

I couldn't believe this. Keith was wearing his heart on his proverbial sleeve, and there was no one around to appreciate it but me.

“So when I came back this summer, I really didn't have any intention of hooking up with Mora again. But our parents are good friends, and Mora and I kept getting thrown together. She seemed like she had really grown up a lot in the past year. The way she's been acting recently, though… Well, I'm beginning to wonder.”

I suddenly realized he was staring right at me. I wanted to say something profound and eloquent, as if I was in Keith's philosophy class, but I was so afraid to screw it up. I knew if I kept looking at him I would, so I turned my attention to the water and inhaled the salty air. “No one's ever what we expect them to be.”

Whoa. Where had that come from?

I glanced back at Keith, and his eyes were glimmering.

Who cared? He'd obviously liked it.

“That's true,” he said, grinning. “Anyway, I didn't mean to drag you into all this.”

“It's okay.” I smiled.

“Thanks for being so understanding.” He stretched his arms over his head and then put his hands on his hips. “All right, ready to go swimming?”

I was so ready that I shed my clothes in less than twenty seconds. Meanwhile, Keith pulled out a long piece of rope from his duffel bag and untied it.

“You're not nervous, are you?” he asked.

I shook my head. It was really weird, but I wasn't nervous at all.

“Good,” he said. “There's not much of a current, but I don't want to take any chances.” He looped one side of the rope around my waist before tying the other side around his own.

Keith tucked a kickboard under his arm and we walked side by side across the hard pebble-filled sand and into the warm, dark water, wading in until it was up to our waists. I was remarkably cool and collected. At least, I was until I saw the giant white fleshy creature speeding toward me with fangs bared.

“Jellyfish!” I screamed, practically hopping into Keith's arms.

He plucked the white glob out of the water and held it up. “Paper.” He smirked. “This water can get kind of gross this time of year. But the good news is there's no jellyfish yet.”

“Great,” I said weakly. Suddenly I realized that Keith still had his arm around me. He seemed to realize it at the same time, because we both took a step backward and cleared our throats.

“Here you go,” he said, handing me the kickboard. “Just start kicking,” he said. “I'll walk alongside you.”

I glanced out across the bay. The masts of several sailboats dotted the horizon, bobbing lazily in the dusk. It was a clear night, and I could see the skyline of Annapolis in the distance as lights began to fill the shoreline. It was an altogether peaceful scene. It did not look like the bay my mother had described: a seemingly tamed beast that was capable of turning ferocious in an instant. It was just another thing that we saw completely differently.

“Go on,” Keith said, encouraging me.

You can do this, I reassured myself. I would not be one of those silly squeamish girls who let their fears hold them back. And with that final thought, I leaned over the board and began to kick. After a while, I forgot about the crabs and the jellyfish. (They hadn't arrived yet. What did that mean? Were they on their way?) Finally, Keith took my board away and tossed it back onto the beach.

“I want you to move your hands like this.” He showed me the stroke once again. As he reached forward and then back, the muscles in his arms popped to the surface. “Got it?”

I nodded and dropped back into the water. He lifted me up, and I began to kick and move my arms. “Good,” he said. He moved his hands out from underneath me and I immediately began to sink.

“Are you okay?” he asked, lifting me back up.

“Fine,” I said, pushing the hair out of my eyes.

“Concentrate,” I heard him say.

And then a thought popped into my head. He was close enough to kiss me.

Suddenly, I was completely underwater and Keith's strong arms were pulling me to the surface.

I coughed up the water I had inhaled, but fortunately, there was no barf involved. It was gross nonetheless. The bay is pretty much grody salt water mixed with motor oil (i.e., not much better than the pee water in the pool).

“Let's take a break,” Keith said, hastily removing his hands from my waist.

As I followed him back to the shore, I couldn't help noticing that he seemed disappointed, like a teacher whose star student had just flunked.

“I'm sorry,” I said softly after he had untied us.

“Don't worry,” he said, grabbing his towel and plopping down on the sand. “You'll get it.”

He handed me my purple beach towel, and his thumb grazed mine. I tied the towel around my waist before sitting down next to him. And there we were. Two people sitting side by side. In kissing proximity.

“I saw your mom last night,” he announced out of the blue.

My eyelids started twitching. “Barbie?”

He nodded. “After I had dinner with my dad, I went to a party on the beach. There were a lot of people from the club there.”


I imagined my mom dancing in her bra and under-pants, or something else that would ruin my life forever. My eyelids twitched faster.