Matty didn't bother asking where they were going. He wanted the surprise.
A tall fence greeted them. Matty looked through the bars. His jaw fell open.
"We are not going in there," he said.
"We are."
The Park Duncannon pool was designed to make residents feel like they were in the rainforest. Tropical-looking trees and shrubbery draped out of large planters. Walls covered in plants stood tall around the perimeter, so the poolgoers never once had to remember they were in Pennsylvania.
Coop squatted and cupped his hands.
He wanted me to hop a fence?
"This is trespassing!" Matty whisper-yelled.
"Only if we get caught."
"Which we will. They have cameras."
"Not in the pool area. You can only get to the pool through the front door. And what's the worst that happens? They're not going to haul us off to jail. They'll just tell us to leave." Coop shrugged like that wasn't a big deal at all. "It'll be fine, Matty. Live a little."
I've been living a lot tonight. "Let's quit while we're ahead. Maybe we can come out during the day, when the sun's out."
Coop re-cupped his hands. "I'm assuming you've never hopped a fence before."
Something in the way Coop said that stung like a rubber brand thwacked against his arm. He was tired of it being true. He wanted to be Sunshine Bomb Matty again.
And just like that, Coop catapulted him over the fence. Matty heard the whoosh as he flew through the air and the bounce when his feet touched the ground. Coop gave himself a running start and climbed up the fence like a squirrel, then jumped down to the other side. They ran behind a planter.
"See?" Coop said, catching his breath. "No cops. No SWAT team."
They ran to another planter closer to the pool and did another check of the area. Still clear. Water lapped against the side of the pool, one of the most soothing sounds to Matty.
"Okay, we saw it. Let's go." Matty nodded for them to leave, but it seemed only Coop's neck had that magic power.
"Now Matty, do you think we came all this way just to look at a pool? It's the law of Chekhov's gun. You can't come to a pool and not swim in it."
Coop kicked off his shoes and yanked off his socks. He dipped his toes into the pool. Then he whipped off his tank top and unbuckled his jeans. They slipped to the ground, revealing tight black boxer-briefs. Matty studied the hefty muscles in his back and the smooth curves of his chest, which he'd only seen through the clingy fabric of his shirts. Coop should never wear clothes again. Matty's dick hardened in seconds
Coop lowered his body into the dark water. "You coming?"
Basically. Matty dug his fingers into the planter.
Coop taunted him with his wet, half-naked body only a foot away. "The water's great. Nice and warm."
He listened to Coop's body swish in the water. His fears about being arrested were being pushed aside by the chance to get a better look at Coop. If he was going to be caught and thrown in jail, then so would Coop.
Matty undressed behind the planter and took quiet, calculated steps into the pool to minimize his splash. He had never been in a pool at night. He submerged himself up to his neck. The water had an ominous darkness to it.
Coop swam to him and stood up, a Greek god emerging from the seas. Water cascaded down his chest and rippled over his abs, making his skin slick and bright. Matty had to tell himself to blink.
"You are a rebel, Matty."
Matty gulped back hard. The closest he had ever been to a guy this naked had been a locker room. It seemed that Coop didn't mind him looking, watching the water hit the spot at the base of his abs, just above the waistband of his underwear.
Coop fell backwards and swam to the deep end with Matty not far behind. The lights in the water gave Coop's solid jawline a crisp silhouette. Matty treaded water, which didn't help to tamp down his erection. It raged with even more force against his boxers.
"Have you ever done this before?" Matty asked.
"I did it once with a girl and some of her friends. That's how I knew."
Matty wanted a break from worrying. He laid back and let himself float, the hell with his erection. There was a certain excitement in Coop possibly seeing. He never looked up at the sky like this. The stars twinkled in the black nothingness. "It's going to be one year since I graduated high school soon. It feels like much longer."
"Me, too. It feels like a million miles away."
"I bet you miss it." Matty paddled himself in circles around Coop.
"High school?"
"You seem like the type of person who had a blast."
And there was Coop's head above him, white teeth and hazel eyes smiling at him.
He stood over Matty's floating body. Matty was so close to his jacked arms and tight chest that he was about to go Old Faithful. He submerged himself underwater to cool off. It didn't help. His cock remained stubbornly hard and his brain could only think about an alternate universe where he and Coop were going at it like unneutered dogs.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," Coop said.
Matty swam to the middle of the pool. He put both feet on the ground. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You've been asking a lot of 'em tonight. What's one more?"
"Why didn't you want to rap tonight?"
Coop swam backwards to the shallow end. Matty could watch him cut through water all night. "Did you listen to the people who rapped on that stage? They were good, really good."
"Who says you can't be good?"
"They poured out their souls."
"And you can't?"
"I'm a kid from the suburbs. I'm just like any other Browerton undergrad dipshit. There's no gang story behind my tattoos. I got them over the summer because they looked cool. My dad got a tattoo also, as part of his midlife crisis when he lost his job." Coop's head shot up. "Don't tell anyone that, about my dad."
"Of course. I'm sorry. Has it been tough?"
"We're in a beautiful pool half-naked. We don't need to talk about my family."
"But that right there! You have something to rap about."
"Thanks for the tip, Kanye." Matty registered the edge behind his joke. He didn't want to push too hard, but something about the night made him keep going, like social rules didn't apply at this hour.
"The best art comes from pain, right? Is there anything else that makes you upset when you think about it?"
"Well, I just don't think about it." Coop gave Matty a smirk.
His heart raced as Coop swam back to him. The hairs on Coop's forearms waffled in the water.
"You're lucky," Matty said. "You have this talent. All I'm good at is school."
"Being smart is a pretty good talent to have."
"It's not a talent. It's a constant game. It's all about being the smartest one in the room. Whenever I was getting teased, that's what I told myself. I'm smarter than them. No matter how cool they were or how many friends they had, there was one area where I was always better than them. So I have to stay smart in order to keep that statement true." There was something in the look Coop gave them that said he should keep going. Coop wanted to hear more. "Junior year, the trig midterm was brutal. Everyone thought so, but I knew I aced it. And I did. I got a 92. But this popular kid who was on student council and dated a cheerleader and drove a Mercedes his parents bought him got a 94. I was devastated. I had to go to the bathroom and cry, which I hadn't done since junior high. It felt so personal. Like if I wasn't the smartest, then I was worthless." Matty felt winded from all that. He couldn't believe what he was revealing to Coop tonight.
"You're not worthless." Coop slipped his fingers through Matty's. His grip was strong, protective. Matty's heart pounded in his ears. His erection was back in a flash, pounding against his boxers. How could this all be the same night? Time seemed to bend sometime after midnight.
Matty wished he knew what was going on inside Coop's head. He didn't want this to end.
"Can you rap for me?" Matty asked.
"Right here? Right now?"
"I won't boo you offstage. I've seen how you can improvise. Let's see the performance that Squadron missed."
"I thought we were supposed to be quiet." Coop licked his lips. Matty wondered if Coop just as nervous as him.
Coop moved to the center of the pool. He ran his fingers over his head, giving Matty a beautiful view of those arms.
"You did your first ice luge. That was so tight./We went to Squadron, then we took flight./Now we go swimming in the moonlight./That's what happens when you go out for the night.
"Hung out by Whole Foods and sat on a cart./You may not rap, but you can be smart./You think the night is over, that we are gonna part./But it's only two a.m., and the night's about to start."
The night was in control. And it was the night that made Matty swim forward and kiss Coop. And it must've been the night that made Coop pull him to his chest and kiss him back.
Chapter 13
Coop
It must have been the adrenaline. Coop's heart was pounding through their entire break-in and swim. He thought he would jump in the pool and get out a minute later.
But nope. The kid jumped in with him, stayed there, and was now kissing him.
Coop's thoughts melted into a soup of noise, overpowered by the taste of Matty's salty lips on his own. Matty had proven to be full of surprises tonight.