Status: Working on it :) Comment/reccomend pretty please it makes me more inclined to write. :)
Would You Bargain With Hell?
Friends
I turned the corner to go into the back yard, the pool house just three or so meters ahead. My bare feet padded along the warm grass, as the sun beat down on my pale brown hair. My swim suit was modest in coverage, not in price. Grace had bought it for me when I moved in. I hadn’t owned one previously as I had never learned how to swim. So here I walked, embarrassed in a one-piece silver studded swim-suit, walking through the back yard.
The pool house was stone lined, each misshapen stone placed atop another and cemented in. A fence ran a length of space around the pool house, marking the perimeter of the pool. I pulled open the sliding glass door.
The lobby had linoleum tile flooring, and walls. A couch was set up in the corner and against the back wall were two signs with arrows pointed in either direction reading “Girls” and the other “Boys”. The locker room was small, a contrast to the largeness of everything else. I draped my towel over a shower hook, and followed the path out to the pool. Grace was sat in the Jacuzzi with her husband and the three girls sat in lounge chairs in bikinis.
I took in a deep breath and let it float out of my mouth before I staggered my way to the side of the Jacuzzi. Grace turned her delicate head.
Her hair was in a tight pompous pony tail. She stuck her nose in the air and let out a snort of a laugh when she saw me. Her eyes were a dull blue, lackluster with her age. Her cheeks were high and her skin firm from countless visits to the plastic surgeon. And her breasts floated above the water in her top like pool floaties, unnaturally big.
“Oh, Rayder. How nice to see you.” The big smile she gave made my stomach fall, I knew she didn’t like me and this sarcasm was indeed to be inspected but that didn’t demean me any less.
“You as well, mother.”
“Are you going to get in or…?”
“I guess, yeah.” I stuck my foot in the hot water, the bubbles crowding around me.
“You guess? How indecisive can you be?” She laughed snidely and scooted closer to her husband, playing with the hair on his bare chest.
I sat still; terrified any move I made would put in the position for further ridicule. I closed my eyes allowing myself to fade and my muscles to relax in the hot water. I had never been in a Jacuzzi before I moved here. I heard sloshing and when I opened my eyes, Grace was with the girls tanning her fake body, and Marco had headed into the locker room.
I closed my eyes and dropped down into the water, the hot liquid enveloping me, my long hair floating up above me. My face burned but I remained. I held my breath, until my lungs began to beat in my chest. I came up gasping. I shook the wet hair out of my face.
At this point I hadn’t been sure what to do so I found the stone steps in the large Jacuzzi and walked out. I wasn’t ashamed of my body, I was thin. But I was ashamed just to be there. I walked over to Grace, unphased by the hot pavement separating us. She had on expensive shades and sat in her tiny bikini besides her girls.
“Mom.” The word never seemed fit.
Grace removed her shade revealing the mute blue eyes once again. “What Rayder?”
“What would you like for me to do?” I stood awkwardly, twiddling my thumbs at my hips.
She looked disgusted. “I don’t care. Do whatever you like. Go play snooker or something, or make a god darn friend.” She put her sunglasses back on as a sign of “leave me alone now”
I bowed for no apparent reason other than it seemed more appropriate than just nodding and jogged to the locker room. I grabbed the towel off the hook where I had left it and wrung my hair out. Then I took to drying myself, and wrapping the towel around me to journey back into the house.
Once I was back in, I decided to change, then to do whatever felt right. I looped around a few times before I found the right hall, in the back of the house. I opened my small door and walked in dropping my wet suit at my feet and grabbing some clothes. I put on a vintage inspired circle skirt and a polka-dot blouse. It was nothing I’d pick out on my own.
I was buttoning the shirt when I saw the corner of a piece of paper tucked under my pillow. I sat on my knees and pulled it out. It was folded twice over. Once unfolded I saw the messy handwriting scrawled over it. It read:
Raider or Rayder or maybe Raeder,
Hi, it’s Mason, duh. I just wanted to thank you, and leave you the number you can reach me at, it’s a bar, but the owner is a friend and he can get me your message. In case of emergencies only though :) 718-906-7675.
-Mason
I nodded to myself and put the note under a pile of clothes. Grace’s word echoed in my mind, “Find a god darn friend”. I never really had a friend, except maybe Greg. I couldn’t help but find myself thinking that maybe Mason Connors could be my friend. No, I thought, that’s ridiculous.
The pool house was stone lined, each misshapen stone placed atop another and cemented in. A fence ran a length of space around the pool house, marking the perimeter of the pool. I pulled open the sliding glass door.
The lobby had linoleum tile flooring, and walls. A couch was set up in the corner and against the back wall were two signs with arrows pointed in either direction reading “Girls” and the other “Boys”. The locker room was small, a contrast to the largeness of everything else. I draped my towel over a shower hook, and followed the path out to the pool. Grace was sat in the Jacuzzi with her husband and the three girls sat in lounge chairs in bikinis.
I took in a deep breath and let it float out of my mouth before I staggered my way to the side of the Jacuzzi. Grace turned her delicate head.
Her hair was in a tight pompous pony tail. She stuck her nose in the air and let out a snort of a laugh when she saw me. Her eyes were a dull blue, lackluster with her age. Her cheeks were high and her skin firm from countless visits to the plastic surgeon. And her breasts floated above the water in her top like pool floaties, unnaturally big.
“Oh, Rayder. How nice to see you.” The big smile she gave made my stomach fall, I knew she didn’t like me and this sarcasm was indeed to be inspected but that didn’t demean me any less.
“You as well, mother.”
“Are you going to get in or…?”
“I guess, yeah.” I stuck my foot in the hot water, the bubbles crowding around me.
“You guess? How indecisive can you be?” She laughed snidely and scooted closer to her husband, playing with the hair on his bare chest.
I sat still; terrified any move I made would put in the position for further ridicule. I closed my eyes allowing myself to fade and my muscles to relax in the hot water. I had never been in a Jacuzzi before I moved here. I heard sloshing and when I opened my eyes, Grace was with the girls tanning her fake body, and Marco had headed into the locker room.
I closed my eyes and dropped down into the water, the hot liquid enveloping me, my long hair floating up above me. My face burned but I remained. I held my breath, until my lungs began to beat in my chest. I came up gasping. I shook the wet hair out of my face.
At this point I hadn’t been sure what to do so I found the stone steps in the large Jacuzzi and walked out. I wasn’t ashamed of my body, I was thin. But I was ashamed just to be there. I walked over to Grace, unphased by the hot pavement separating us. She had on expensive shades and sat in her tiny bikini besides her girls.
“Mom.” The word never seemed fit.
Grace removed her shade revealing the mute blue eyes once again. “What Rayder?”
“What would you like for me to do?” I stood awkwardly, twiddling my thumbs at my hips.
She looked disgusted. “I don’t care. Do whatever you like. Go play snooker or something, or make a god darn friend.” She put her sunglasses back on as a sign of “leave me alone now”
I bowed for no apparent reason other than it seemed more appropriate than just nodding and jogged to the locker room. I grabbed the towel off the hook where I had left it and wrung my hair out. Then I took to drying myself, and wrapping the towel around me to journey back into the house.
Once I was back in, I decided to change, then to do whatever felt right. I looped around a few times before I found the right hall, in the back of the house. I opened my small door and walked in dropping my wet suit at my feet and grabbing some clothes. I put on a vintage inspired circle skirt and a polka-dot blouse. It was nothing I’d pick out on my own.
I was buttoning the shirt when I saw the corner of a piece of paper tucked under my pillow. I sat on my knees and pulled it out. It was folded twice over. Once unfolded I saw the messy handwriting scrawled over it. It read:
Raider or Rayder or maybe Raeder,
Hi, it’s Mason, duh. I just wanted to thank you, and leave you the number you can reach me at, it’s a bar, but the owner is a friend and he can get me your message. In case of emergencies only though :) 718-906-7675.
-Mason
I nodded to myself and put the note under a pile of clothes. Grace’s word echoed in my mind, “Find a god darn friend”. I never really had a friend, except maybe Greg. I couldn’t help but find myself thinking that maybe Mason Connors could be my friend. No, I thought, that’s ridiculous.