Moment of Truth - Kasie West Page 0,3
and the whole room laughed. And this wasn’t even the most childish thing he’d ever done. Yet everyone seemed to love him, in the way they loved puppy videos or chocolate—they couldn’t get enough.
Those thoughts kept me from fleeing. Maybe it was time to humble Jackson a bit. Make him realize he didn’t always have to be the center of attention, loved by all. He wasn’t an athlete. I could win a swimming race against him easy, sore shoulders or not.
“Are you sure you’re okay being beaten by a girl?” I said softly.
He stripped off his shirt, his toned chest making me think twice about his athletic abilities, and jumped in, jeans and all. When he surfaced, a playful gleam shone in his eyes. The gleam that shone there most of the time. “The water’s great.”
I stepped out of my shoes, then eyed the island. Did I really need to do this? My skin buzzed to life, telling me I did, in fact, need to do this. I pulled off my sweats and waded into the water beside Jackson. Unlike the school pool, which was heated, the chill of the lake immediately sucked the air from my lungs. The water smelled like mud, fish, and mildew. I almost got back out.
“Can’t pass up a competition, can you?”
Someone standing above us called, “On your mark, get set, go.”
I took off, not knowing if Jackson followed. Not really caring. My shoulders ached a bit, but I didn’t press them and the more I swam the more they loosened up. It was weird swimming in silence. I was used to having my music on for everything but races. It gave me a rhythm to swim to and kept my head clear of unwanted memories.
About halfway through the swim, I felt a movement by my foot and then suddenly it was yanked backward. I went under for a second and came up coughing. Jackson treaded water next to me. It was nearly black in the middle of the lake, but I could see his teeth glowing with a smile. He smiled way too much.
“I thought you were going to try, Moore. Make this hard on me.”
“What?”
“I thought you were on the swim team.”
I coughed again and wondered what the best way to dunk him would be.
“Lighten up. I was kidding. I could barely keep up with you. Couldn’t you give me a tiny break?”
It was only then I noticed him panting for breath. “Oh.”
“And I’m tired. I thought I was going to drown out here in the middle of nowhere and you’d be all the way to the island, leaving me with no help.”
His smile made it hard to tell if he was still kidding or not.
“That was the last chance I had to make a grab at your foot before you were gone.” He looked down at the water, his head bobbing with his movements.
The people back on the shore looked as tiny as insects. The island was closer. If he really was having trouble swimming, the island was where we needed to go.
“I think I can make it,” he said, probably noticing my analysis. “Do you think there are fish out here? I’m kind of scared of fish. At least there aren’t any sharks. Do you swim in the ocean a lot?”
“Rarely,” I said. Even though we lived within a five-minute drive of the Pacific, the waves didn’t mimic my race conditions so I didn’t practice there much.
“If . . .” His eyes got wide, then he looked down again.
“What?”
“Did you feel that?”
“No.”
“It must’ve been noth—” He went down fast, under the water, and out of sight.
I gasped, then reached forward, feeling around for him. I dived under, but between the murky water and the dark night, I couldn’t see a thing. I surfaced and propelled myself in a circle, panicked. The people back on shore couldn’t hear me through their loud music as I yelled for them. I gave up and continued to search around me.
A full minute later, Jackson broke the surface fifty feet closer to the island. “I think I’m going to beat you.” With those words he began to swim.
My heart turned from beating in fear to beating in rage. I couldn’t believe I fell for that after I had just reminded myself what he had done to Mindy in the cafeteria. “You are the biggest jerk,” I called. But he acted like he couldn’t hear me as he closed the distance to the island. I thought about