Page 146 of Honeysuckle
I fought them all the way down to the lake, and almost made it out of Arlo’s grip, but he was too strong and fast for me to get free.
I hollered a hearty “fuck you” at all of them just before I plunged beneath the surface.
The water was colder than I expected as I pushed to the surface. My t-shirt and jeans made it hard to fight upwards, but when I broke into the sunshine, I could hear Cael and Josh arguing. Arlo was standing nearby on the dock as a bunch of the other players had jumped in to join me.
“It’s the rules.” Cael fought, surging forward into Josh’s personal space.
That was going to end badly.
“Back the fuck up, Cody,” Josh warned, his stance sturdy on the dock.
Cael shucked off his shirt, throwing it and in the motion of doing so, Josh sucker punched him in the face. Ella gasped as the sickening crunch rang out and a few of the players groaned loudly in response.
“Fuck,” Cael yelled, shaking his head free of what was no doubt very loud ringing. He shoved forward, ignoring the pain and pushed Josh as hard as he could back off the dock and into the lake. "You!”
Josh resurfaced in a gasp, his dark curls sticking limp to his head and his hoodie soaked through, clinging to his muscles. Cael gasped for air, his eyes watering as he patted his nose, checking for blood.
“It’s tradition,” he coughed as Ella turned his face toward her, and he fought her grip for a split second. “You’re a Hornet now,” he barked at Josh, dripping wet and grinning.
“You broke his nose!” Ella called out.
“I’ve warned him before.” Josh shrugged.
Cael didn’t give a shit about the nose, he never had. It was just about getting Josh in the water. It was about tradition. He smiled at Ella, kissing her on the cheek. In the most dramatic fashion, he back-flipped off the dock and into the water directly in front of us.
Josh turned his face away from the splash, and I laughed.
“I hate this team,” he sighed, but there was a small smile on his face that said otherwise.
“No, you don’t.” I squinted at him in the sun and kept treading water. “How was your drive?”
“Fine,” Josh clipped. "I’m going to go change before Mark gets here, he’s going to be overwhelmed by all this shit,” he said before pushing to the shore as Cael broke the surface finally with a stupid grin on his face and a stream of diluted blood dripping from his nose. I didn’t have a chance to argue that Mark was more excited to be included in family weekend than Josh was.
It didn’t really matter, it wasn’t about Mark anyway.
“One more broken nose and you’ll be ugly,” Josh said to him in passing, and Cael looked even more proud of himself.
“There’s plenty of uses for a crooked nose,” Cael called after him. “Clem doesn’t mind!”
“That’s disgusting,” Ella laughed from the dock.
Arlo looked down at her with his arms crossed, a smile spreading across his face. “If I remember correctly, you made a new tradition last season,” he said, bending down and scooping her up before she had a chance to scramble away. He held her against his chest, and she scowled back up at him.
He launched them off the dock, and before I knew it, everyone was in the water, having fun and letting loose after the hard first half of the season. I watched as Josh stopped to talk to Coach before climbing the hill to the cottage. I wish he had stayed, but for all his growth, he was still getting used to the crowd, and that was alright.
He got into the lake.
I smiled and started roughhousing with Cael as the sun hung high in the sky. That evening we all sat around the tables, eating too much food and laughing as our families started to arrive. At first, I thought that I would miss my own being there, but as seats started to fill and the rooms echoed with laughter, I realized I didn’t even notice their absence.
Josh was pissed that he was losing atTroubleand Mark was having the time of his life strategizing with Ella.
“Isn’t that cheating?” Josh scoffed, and Ella laughed with Mark.
“How exactly do you cheat at a children’s game?” He asked Josh as he moved around the board.
“I don’t know, but somehow you’re both doing it,” he grumbled.
“Someone’s a poor sport,” Ella giggled as Mark sent one of Josh’s tokens back to the start of the game. He started to cough, bringing his handkerchief to his mouth to conceal it.
