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But then she threw herself backward and swam in a lazy stroke. “Relax, Aslan. It’s a joke. Friends can joke. Friends can tease. Or at least, here we can.” Her gaze landed on my soaking clothes. “Now...seeing as you’re already wet, join me.”
“I don’t think—”
“There are no piranhas in here.” She splashed me again, the droplets not reaching the shore. “Nothing to be afraid of. First step to reclaiming water: start with the pool. Otherwise, I might be tempted to push you overboard next time we’re on The Fluke.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“I would, and you know it.”
I glowered at her.
She glowered back.
And as much as I didn’t want to admit it, agreeing to be friends with Nerida—officially and wholeheartedly, on my terms and not being coerced—set me up for a world of pain.
Pain that I hoped would eventually heal me...somehow.
Pain that I knew would break me in so many other ways.
“Fine.” Trying not to second-guess myself, I stripped off my t-shirt and slapped it against a rock. Leaving my shorts on, I waded back into the pool, doing my best to ignore the swirl of sorrow.
It was just a pool.
I’d been in it before.
Yet being in it with Nerida felt like a baptism.
A forced new beginning.
A beginning I wasn’t ready for.
A beginning that would end with far more than just broken hearts...
...it would end with broken everything.
TWO YEARS LATER
Chapter Fifteen
*
Aslan
*
(Moon in Greek: Fengári)
“SO....” I LOCKED THE CUPBOARD WHERE THE expensive sonar equipment lived and turned to face Nerida. The boat rocked beneath my bare feet, tugging on repressed memories of another life, another family, another world.
I hadn’t dealt with my grief.
I’d shoved it in a box and tossed it overboard.
But every now and again, it would float like a badly bloated corpse, rotting and offensive, doing its best to haunt me.
Nights were when it hurt the most, but during the day...I’d become a master at segmentation. I had walls within walls and rooms within rooms in my mind. Everything had its place, and the places I no longer wanted to go had locks and chains barring them from affecting me. For a while now, I’d been able to convince the Taylors that I’d gotten over my tragic beginning.
They no longer asked how I was.
