the whole world my teeth. Grin, grin, grin until you feel the smile taking root in your belly, my mother used to say. Perception is nine-tenths of everything. Mom said that too.
Everyone talks in rapid fire. “That’s messed up,” one of the guys shouts.
“Such an attention whore,” Carolynn groans.
Becca chants my name in cheer.
“I knew she was fine. She’s Ben’s sister,” Rusty says.
“Screw you,” Duncan shouts, “You were pissing all over yourself.”
“Told you,” Willa gloats.
Warm hands slip over my shoulders. Josh dunks me for a split second as he tries to turn me to face him. “Sorry . . . sorry.” He’s coughing up water with the words. I laugh—can’t tell if I feel it taking hold as I drag the hair from my face.
Josh grins, white teeth pearly and straight, water dribbling from the corners of his wide mouth. He yells over his shoulder, “She totally schooled you with that dive, Car.”
“Bet I can stay under longer than you, bro,” Duncan challenges.
Rusty accepts and they start dunking under, their gasps and splashes background static. Josh’s dark-blue eyes stay on me. His hair is caramelized wet. His hands on my waist tow me to his chest. His touch is as warm as his tan skin looks. He feels like ginger tea tastes.
“What about you?” I ask. “You want to go under with me?” I can’t believe the flirty girl’s voice is mine. I feel my mouth making Mom’s coy smile.
Josh blushes. “Yeah, what’ll we do down there?” He says it like he isn’t the kind of boy who expects stuff or throws away winks. I hope. I would have kissed Josh the first night he drove me home from Marmalade’s. Becca says he’s too decent to make a move while I’m sad. Willa says a girl shouldn’t wait for a boy to ask her out.
My smile sends waves into my chest, and I do feel it taking root. Mom was right. Maybe Willa, too. The nervy words are citrus bright waiting on my tongue. I will ask him out.
Duncan explodes on the surface, sending spray into the air. The water runs from his plastered-down hair to his face and neck. Thin ribbons of blood connect his nostrils to his upper lip. His head bobs in a frenzy, eyes darting below. I look too. The water’s darkening along with the rose-and-blue tie-dyed sky.
“Dude, what happened to your face?” Josh calls to him.
“Rusty’s going nuts down there.” He thumbs one nostril, then the other, and tries to snort up the blood. “He kicked my face.” Josh releases me. I shiver as the water rises and falls, blackening with each crest as the sun sinks behind the shaggy wall of trees. I scissor-kick faster to lift up. Willa’s on her knees, really paying attention to the boys for the first time all day—maybe all summer. She senses the shift in the air.
“You’re getting blood in the water,” Carolynn whines, flicking a hand at the discord.
Becca crawls toward the edge for a better look. She snatches up Duncan’s skipper hat from where he tossed it and places it on her head. “Blood is soooo gross,” she complains.
Duncan has ahold of his nose and is egg beating in a furious circle. “I think there might be someone else down there,” he says.
My arms slash through the water as I whirl around trying to see under. Josh is asking what the eff over and over. Willa’s soprano tells me to get out of the water, “this second.” Carolynn’s shouting for Duncan and Josh to go down after Rusty.
Rusty hits the surface hacking up a lung, arms flailing, palms slapping hard to the rope ladder hanging from the rocky lip of the spring. The chorus is drowned out by his huffing, “There’s a girl. . . . She’s . . . at the bottom.”
– 2 –
What comes next happens fast. It’s getting dark and everyone is out of breath, their panting magnified in my ears. Becca’s whimpers are desperate and grinding, bouncing off the trees. I want to tell her to shut up already, I need to concentrate. Josh leaves the surface, and there’s only black lapping water where he was.
Duncan makes it to the shore and his voice booms, “Carolynn, call 9-1-1.”
And she says, “My effing cell is in the car.”
Willa shouts, “Run for it.”
And then they stop making noise—except for Becca, who’s still wailing—so I assume Carolynn runs for her phone. I get caught up in the enormous unlikelihood of seven of us and not