tires hit a rut. The long grass swept along the side of the doors, and I briefly worried they’d scratch the finish. Then I decided I didn’t give a shit.
I hadn’t been out this way in almost ten years. I parked the car at the tree line. The old walking path was completely overgrown, but I knew where it was. I had walked it enough times to have it memorized. I got out of the car and stood there for a minute listening to the cicada’s constant hum and felt the tension ease a bit.
I tugged off my blazer and threw it on the passenger seat before making my trek through the dense overgrowth. The last time I had been there was right before school started up for my senior year. It was the night that had sealed our respective futures, though I hadn’t realized that at the time. I wasn’t sure why I came here now, only that I needed to be somewhere that no one could find me. And no one that I worried about looking for me would know to look here.
Except for Meg.
Briars snagged at my three-hundred-dollar trousers, but I didn’t care. I kept going until I broke through the trees and found myself on the bank of the river. The trees hung low over the water, the sun barely able to breakthrough. The river was wide at this point, and deep. I knew that from a lot of experience. I knew that even in the middle of summer, the water was cold. But it hadn’t stopped us from spending hours swimming here as kids.
The Old Grourer swimming hole, named for the family that used to own the land the river cut through, used to be a favorite spot for local kids to hang out. It seemed in the decade since I had been out here, it had been relegated to the memories of the town’s past. Kids today would rather hang out at the mall the next town over than an algae-ridden swimming hole.
Feeling strangely nostalgic for the smelly water, I kicked off my shoes and removed my socks. I unzipped my pants and folded them, laying them on a flat rock by the water’s edge. My dress shirt followed. And my tie. Until I was standing in only my blue boxer briefs.
I climbed up on the rock pile that was smooth from years of teenage feet, and with a slightly insane yell, I jumped into the river.
The cold zapped the air from my lungs, and I quickly rose to the surface, gasping for breath. I laughed, feeling giddy. I dipped my head back under the water, letting myself float, my limbs buoyant.
I closed my eyes and let my mind drift to another time.
Summer was almost over. The school was starting up in less than a week. It felt surreal that I was going to be a senior. That I was about to embark on my last year of high school.
The last three months had been spent in a haze of sun, parties, swimming, and drinking more than I should have. Now I found myself lazily swimming at the Old Grourer swimming hole. The place had been teeming with classmates only hours before, but now it was only Meg and me.
My badass best friend made it her mission in life to be the last one to leave anything. She’d punch you in the face if you dared call her a wimp. She spent her time combating people’s tendencies to underestimate her.
Her fiery personality was what had me on edge because I knew she’d be pissed if she found out what I had been up to the last two weeks when I wasn’t spending time with her.
Kyle knew. He had given me a pained look, patting my back and muttered, “It’s your funeral, dude.”Webber was never much help when it came to navigating female waters.
Meg was going to be angry. Probably more than a little ragey.
But she’d forgive me. She always did. We’d been friends since the womb. She had told me once I could murder someone and she’d help me bury the body.
I was banking that carte blanche in the mercy department extended to dating Chelsea Sloane.
I still couldn’t quite believe that I was currently engaged in a hot and heavy down-low relationship with Miss Popular herself. I thought the drunken make-out session at Lance Ridgeway’s party two weeks ago was a one-time thing. I had always thought she was good looking, even if she