And Along Came You

“Where are you taking me?” Jack asked as I pulled him out of the elevator once we’d reached the ground floor.

“Sh!” I turned back to him, pressing a finger to my lips. He shut up pretty quickly, causing a smirk to stretch across my face. “You’ll see,” I whispered, turning the corner. I led him all the way down the empty hallway until we reached a white door with a small rectangular window in the center of it. The words above it spelled out P-O-O-L in big red letters.

“What are we doing here?” Jack asked in a low voice, his face twisting up in confusion. I turned to him with a sheepish grin.

“Do you remember my list…?” I asked. His face was blank, but soon his eyes widened as the memory flashed in his mind. He nodded and a small grin spread across his face. I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I reached forward to open the door. “Shit.”

“What?”

“It’s locked…” I frowned, looking around for another way to get in.

“What about down there?” Jack pointed down the hall where there looked to be another door to the pool room. I shrugged and followed him over to it. This time when I tried to turn the knob, the door opened with no trouble at all. Clearly someone hadn't bothered to check the second entrance tonight. “Score!” Jack offered me a high-five, proud that he'd broken us in. I laughed softly and crept inside, looking around the dark room for any sign of lingering hotel employees. The coast was clear.

I walked over to the edge of the pool. The pale blue water moved in a constant push and pull motion, tempting me to jump in and break through the surface, disrupting the steady flow. "Boo!" Jack jumped up from behind me, making me jump.

“Jesus!” I screamed holding my hand to my racing heart.

“Most people pronounce it Jack, but I’ll take that too,” he smirked.

“Ha. Ha.”

“Ladies first?” he wiggled his eyebrows, tugging at the hem of my t-shirt. I playfully slapped his hand away.

“Turn around,” I ordered.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re shy,” he teased, looking somewhat surprised. I crossed my arms over my chest and stuck out my hip, narrowing my eyes at him. “All right, all right, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he said and turned around, covering his eyes like a child counting down to play hide and seek. I sighed, shaking my head and began to strip. I started off with my shirt, then slid my shorts down my legs and stepped out of them. “Okay…” I kept my back to Jack, standing in nothing but my bra and underwear. “You’re turn.”

Without hesitation, the boy ripped off his clothes and tossed them to the floor before cannon-balling into the pool. I waited for him to come back to the surface. When he did, he slicked back his hair and looked up at me with disappointment written all over his face. “Now I know you’ve never done this before, but the general rules for skinny dipping are that you have to have no clothes on whatsoever,” he said.

“Well I’m new at this, remember?” I tried to dodge the bullet. “I don’t know all the rules yet.”

“Just get in here!” he demanded, splashing water up at me. I jumped back, wincing as the water touched my skin. This had seemed like a lot more fun to do when I was writing it down on my list. Now I just felt silly. “Come on,” Jack said in a softer voice, trying to coax me in. “What are you afraid of? It’s just me.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“Mel,” Jack frowned. He could see right through me.

“Fine, so maybe I’m a little afraid…” I admitted quietly, looking down to my feet to avoid his brown eyes.

“Well isn’t doing something you’re scared to do on the list?” he asked. “This is your chance, kill two birds with one stone.”

I rolled my eyes. “You just want to see me naked.”

“That too,” he smirked shamelessly.

“Perv…”

“Stop stalling!” he whined, splashing me again. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. I could perform in front of a bunch of strangers every night, but I couldn’t swim naked with a friend. Go figure. I sat down on the edge, letting my legs sink into the warm water. Jack waded over to me and held out his hands for me to take.

I took them and let him pull me in, dunking me under the surface so that I was completely submerged. “Not so bad, huh?” he said when we resurfaced, his hands still clasped around my wrists. I let my feet fall to the pool floor and looked up into Jack’s warm chocolate brown eyes. A slight chill rippled through my body and I felt my cheeks blush. I shook my head no. My heart was still thudding against my chest, but it was for a different reason now it seemed.

I didn't really care that I was in a pool at 4 AM practically naked. I cared more about being in a pool, at 4 AM, practically naked…with Jack (who was actually naked). We stood there silent and still—with the exception of the water slowly swaying us—just watching each other, wondering what the other was thinking. I suddenly had the urge to kiss him, or at least if he had tried to kiss me now I knew I wouldn’t have stopped him.

"Jack?" I said my voice barely above a whisper. He said nothing, but craned his neck down and leaned in, pressing his lips to mine and locking them in a soft kiss. Just like that, all the tension in my body melted away. I kissed him back then pulled away slightly, biting my lip as I fought the smile that was creeping up the corners of my mouth.

"Mel—" he began to say, but stopped short. The lights flashed on and voices could be heard from outside.

"What do we do?" I panicked, looking towards the door we'd come in through. Without a word, Jack sprang into action. He quickly climbed out of the pool, turning back to help pull me out. We grabbed our clothes, hastily pulled them onto our wet bodies, and ran for the other door, praying that it could be opened from the inside. I'd never felt so scared in my life. We got it open and looked down the hall to see if anyone was coming. There was a big man in a black polo shirt and khaki shorts with a walkie-talkie standing at the end of the hall by the elevators. "Shit!" I muttered under my breath.

"Take the stairs," Jack whispered and cracked the door open a bit wider so I could make a stealthy escape. He followed closely behind me, slowly at first so we didn't attract the man's attention. As I continued creeping towards the stairway, I felt something sharp prick my foot and yelped out in pain.

"Hey!" the man spotted us and reached for his walkie-talkie, taking off in a run after Jack and me. We took off in a full on run, racing down the hall. Nearly tripping over our feet, we zipped up the stairs refusing to stop until we reached our floor. When we finally got there, we burst into the hallway and dashed over to my room where I was sure Angela was still sleeping, heavy as a rock. I put my key into the slot, my hands shaking, and pulled open the door.

"My lungs are on fire," Jack panted as I shut the door and leaned back against it. Now that I had stopped moving, everything hurt. I couldn’t breathe or feel my feet. The room was spinning and I couldn't stand up properly.

"Do you…think…he saw…us?" I wheezed, doubled over with my hands on my knees. He shook his head and started to laugh. I started laughing too, though I couldn't breathe just yet. We tried our best to compose ourselves for Angela's sake, but our attempts were unsuccessful. When I was finally able to collect myself, I stood up straight and turned to Jack. "Well I guess we better clean ourselves up before we wake the whole floor…"

He nodded in agreement and pulled me into him, squeezing me tightly. "Goodnight," he mumbled as he drew away. I laughed softly to myself. It had to be almost five in the morning by now.

"See you in a few hours, Barakat," I replied and watched as he unlocked the door and slipped back out into the hall.