I stood there speechless, wondering what it was he had really wanted to say. He dove into the lake with no reservations, and then surfaced a moment later. Translucent drops of water clung to his chest and shoulders. Cedars rimmed the lake on all sides and the setting sun shone beyond that. I wished I could have taken a picture for Caroline. We weren’t that far from the town, but it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.
“ Does it feel good?” I asked, creeping closer to the edge. There was no way I was going to jump in like he did. I wasn’t certain, but it seemed like I shouldn’t ingest any of the water. There was no telling what type of bacteria lurked in it and being immunocompromised meant snorting gross lake water was probably not the best plan.
“ Perfect,” he answered, treading lightly and waiting for me.
I waded in up to my waist, and then when I couldn’t touch anymore, I swam toward him. He was right. It was so warm outside that the water was refreshing, just shy of freezing. Yes, my teeth were chattering, but it still felt good.
“ It’s not that cold,” he laughed.
“ I’m smaller than you. You probably have like ten layers of fat warming you up,” I joked, knowing full well there was not even a single layer of fat on him.
“ Want to go to the middle and back?”
I looked beyond his shoulder. The lake was huge and I hadn’t swam in years, but I didn’t want to admit defeat.
“ Okay, but no going under. That’s cheating,” I stated.
“ Seems reasonable. Ready?”
My teeth were still chattering and I could feel my lips turning blue (one more side effect of being so pale), but I nodded. But before he could countdown, I started swimming as fast as I could. I kicked my feet in time with my arms, leaving him in the wake of my splashes.
“ Hey! Cheater!” he called, starting to swim after me. I don’t condone cheating, but we both knew he was going to win. I just needed a little advantage. Not to mention, seeing him flustered was priceless.
I grabbed some disgusting lake slime and chunked it behind me to add obstacles to his path like those bananas in Mario Cart. When I peered back, the slime sat atop his brown hair and sludge was dripping down his face. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“ Sorry!” I offered innocently, but he tossed it off with a determined look in his eyes. Uh oh .
I kept swimming, never looking behind me for fear that he’d be on my tail. The center of the lake was still quite far, so I hunkered down and tried to concentrate on breathing in and out. It’s embarrassing how little I had worked out prior to that moment. I couldn’t do anything before my transplant, and then after, I’d worked with a physical therapist, building a bit of my strength back. It obviously wasn’t enough. My arms felt like lead weights and my stamina was quickly dwindling.
My lungs gulped in heavy breaths and I tried to push past the pain, but my body was deciding it had had enough. I paused and tried to catch my breath while I treaded water. That’s when I looked up and saw Beck in the center of the lake, looking relaxed and happy. Damn, I hadn’t even made it half way. I tried to swim closer to him, but quickly decided against it. Dying on the first day of an epic road trip would really put a damper on my plans for living.
“ Are you okay, Abby?” Beck yelled when he realized I wasn’t swimming any closer.
My breathing was still uneven, so I just gave him a feeble thumbs up. He didn’t buy it. He dipped under the water and I assumed he was bee lining for me. I tried to recover quickly. He’d think I was a wimp if I was this tired before even making it to the halfway point. Maybe I could say that I was attacked by a group of lake monsters and had to fight them off. I’d faced Loch Ness and lived to tell the tale.
A second later, his brown hair popped out of the water a few feet away from me.
“ Not a swimmer?” he asked, inching closer. If his plan had been to kill me on this camping trip, he should have done it then. I didn’t feel like swimming back to shore and treading water was becoming harder by the second.