Page 35 of Falling Too Late

Jonathan went to put his arm over mine and Alex’s shoulders, but I ducked out of the way. He gave me a confused look but recovered quickly. “You guys came, that’s all I wanted. Come on, there’s another pool our friends are swimming in over by the gardens.”

Jonathan saidour friendslike it was a no-brainer. I recognized a lot of people from classes; even Juniper was here. There were lawn chairs, and we claimed two of them, laying out our towels and setting the tote bag to the side. The property was surrounded by tall trees that provided a good amount of shade.

“Come on, Alex, the drinks are over here.” Jonathan slung an arm over Alex’s shoulders and tried to pull him along. It looked awkward. Alex had gotten taller in the last few months and stood a few inches taller than Jon.

Alex didn’t budge. He looked at me. “What do you want to drink?”

I shrugged my shoulders, overwhelmed by the crowd, the music. Drink options? We always just had water. Alex just nodded at me and then followed Jon to some coolers on the other side of the pool. I scanned the crowd and caught Juniper's eyes, waving at her. She came around the pool and plopped down next to me.

“Hey!” She stretched her long tanned legs out in front of her. I was relieved to see someone else I knew here. “I was wondering if you guys were going to make it. Did you know that Jon wasrich?” Juniper's hair was tied in a smooth bun on top of her head, and I wondered vaguely what would happen if she dunked her hair in the chlorine pool. Would it dye the pool the same green color?

“No. I had no idea. I didn’t even know it was his birthday. He just gave us an address and said we would be swimming.” I didn’t mention that we hadn’t even known that it was going to be more than just the three of us.

After Jon and I’s initial meeting, Alex had walked us home and cautiously asked if I was okay with meeting him and how I felt about going to Jon’s for a swim day.

I quickly realized that Jon was one of the more popular kids at school. It was something I had never paid any attention to. He was nice, funny, and seemed to be okay with including everyone in whatever they were talking about. He talked about the private school his parents wanted to send him to, but he hadn’t wanted to transfer out of our school.

I looked across the pool and tried to remember some people’s names. I watched as a girl pulled out a white bottle from her bag, which reminded me.

“Hey, do you have sunscreen we could borrow?”??

“Yeah, it's in my bag. I’ll be right back.” Juniper ran off.

I had searched under the bathroom cabinet before we had left but couldn’t find any. I was prone to burning and didn’t want to start the summer off by being miserable. They didn’t have central AC at the apartment, and once I burned, there wasn’t much to do to cool off except take a cold shower.

“Here.” A few seconds later, Alex startled me by placing a cold can of soda on my bare arm. “Thanks.” I cracked the can open and took a long drink. It was cold and sweet. A nice treat that we rarely got.

Jon shot off and started talking about some guy named Chance from school who wasn’t going to be here, but I didn’t recognize the name and started to tune them out. Juniper walked back over and handed me the sunscreen before we both heardsomeone call her name from the other side of the pool. She shrugged her shoulders and headed over to them.

I turned my back to Jon and Alex. I had worn a pair of Alex’s basketball shorts and had rolled the waistband down to accommodate our height differences. I wore one of his shirts that I tied back with a rubber band. I tugged the shirt off and used the rubber band to tame my unruly curls up in a manageable bun. Kicked off the shorts and put them on the lounge chair.

Underneath I wore a bikini that Ma had brought home for me one day. She found it at the shelter lost-and-found a few days ago. She volunteered there in her spare time; she got first pick when it was time to go through the bins. It was a black top with blue bottoms. They were a little big, and we had to safety pin them to fit me right, but it was a swimsuit. Something that Gloria didn’t have to do for me, but at the mention of us going to the pool to stave off the hot summer days, she found a way.

The bruises finally were completely healed, only a slight discoloration here and there on my body, but it wasn’t as bad.My hands shook as I squeezed out some sunscreen and worked it into my arms, stomach, and shoulders. I felt naked, but kept looking around at the other girls who were wearing bikinis.

This is what normal high school girls are wearing. This is okay.

But it felt wrong. I felt exposed.

I turned to offer Alex the sunscreen, nudging his arm. He and Jon looked my way. The sunscreen was plucked from my hand, and Alex was squeezing a dollop into his. I went to take it back from him, hold it while he was putting it on himself, but he stopped me, had me turn around, then worked it into my back.

“Your hair.”??

Automatically, I reached back and swept the loose strands at the base of my neck up. Alex’s hands were warm and felt good while he was working the sunscreen in.

It fell quiet all of a sudden. I glanced over my shoulder again and realized that Jon had stopped talking. His eyes bounced between Alex’s hands and me.

“So,” Jon started, “how have things been, living with my guy?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Alex, who was still working in the sunscreen. He didn’t look at me. The way Jon saidmy guysounded weird. Like he was subtly claiming Alex ashisfriend.

“Good.” I didn’t know how much Jon knew about my situation, so I kept it short. Alex had told me that they had been best friends for a long time and I had decided then that, if Alex trusted him, I could trust him too.

I kept my mouth shut most of the time Jon was around. I was better at listening than I was at talking. Alex had always been the more approachable one. People had been asking us how we became so close. Alex always intercepted their questions easily.??

We both lived in the same apartment. We both took the same route to school. These answers appeased just about everyone asking. I never knew what to say or how to answer them. There was never a label good enough for what we were. Alex seemed to always say the right thing.

Jon shifted on his feet, eyes on me. I could see he wanted more of an explanation from us. I tried to muster up something to give him. Some answer that would satisfy his curiosity. I looked from him to Alex. Alex and Jon had been friends for so long, and I didn’t want to put a wedge between them.

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