I'm not sure how it happens, but I end up standing on the pool's edge, soaking wet, holding my swim shorts in one hand. My memory of Fish as a kid is distant, but he's there, lingering in my thoughts along with a better understanding of how I knew him.
"Carter!" I hear a shout, and the door leading back into the school opens. It's Emilio, all packed up and ready to walk home with me just like we always did after practice.
"Oh my God!" He immediately gasps, hand flying to his mouth, "Carter, honey, you're too young to be having a midlife crisis! Why the fuck are you naked? And what happened to us having lunch earlier? Is this some Britney Spears shit I should know about? "
"No!" I blurt, quickly covering myself with my shorts. "I was in the pool with Fish... and..." I trail off and look over at the water, fully expecting to see Fish swimming around. Instead, he's standing on the other side of the pool fully dressed, his stingray backpack slung over one shoulder.
Bastard.
"Alrighty then!" Emilio trills, his head cocked to one side, "Mental breakdown it is? Can you at least put on some clothes before we leave? I don't want people to get the wrong idea about us. I'm too pretty to date you, and your little friend is too weird for me. "
"Yeah! Fine! " I grumble, and then shoot another glare at Fish, who lifts his hand to wave a little at me. Had he seen what I had seen? Worst of all, had he pulled me into the water on purpose?
I pad back into the locker room to wash off and change, which only takes a couple of minutes, but by the time I come out, Fish and Emilio have moved on to bigger and better things.
"You just type whatever you want to look for into this app," Emilio is instructing Fish, "and it hooks you up with a guy who's similar to your interests in the area. Then you ask him if he wants to go on a date, you know? Oh! Here's Carter's profile. Isn't he adorable? "
Fish bobs his head and then points to what I assume is my dating profile picture eagerly.
"Hey!" I bark, "Emilio! What the hell are you doing? "
Emilio jumps a little, and then he tosses his hair and rolls his eyes. "I'm giving your friend a tour of Grindr so we can find him a boyfriend. He's really cute, and he's, like, totally pan. Did you know that? "
"What?" I squint, unsure of what I'd just heard, "How did you figure that out? He can't even talk."
"Um..." Emilio scoffs at me, "He's mute, not stupid, Carter. The whole time you were showering, I've been showing him people on this app that he might like. He's picked all of them so far except for Anderson Crick, but Anderson has a picture of himself with chest hair drawn on in Sharpie as his profile picture, so I don't blame him, or anyone, for not picking him."
"Oh my God," I sigh, and then I go over and snatch Emilio's phone from him. "Can you not show him my profile?" I grimace a little, "I haven't updated my crap picture in years."
"He likes it," Emilio shrugs, and then he slaps Fish's arm lightly. "Right, Theo? Carter's pretty handsome, huh? "
Fish immediately blushes and turns away from me, his arms crossing in front of his chest.
"Red hair, green eyes," Emilio continues, trying to sound all seductive, "smells like a big, fat tuna fish."
"Seriously?" I scowl at him, but I'm blushing just as hard as Fish. "Let's get out of here. My mom's making me pack my stuff tonight so we can go to my stepdad's cabin this weekend. "
"Oh, how fancy!" Emilio teases me as we walk home, one arm wrapping around my shoulders.
Of course, I couldn't leave Fish standing there alone, so when I notice he isn't following us, I turn around to see him standing there, his lip trembling a little, staring at the floor, and it's literally the saddest thing ever. "Hey!" I shout at him, "Come on!"
Fish brightens and dashes after us, his bare feet slapping on the cool floor. But all I could think about was how adorable he was, all excited about making new friends. But, honestly? I'm pretty sure it would have killed me to leave him standing there alone. He reminded me of a cute puppy or a pufferfish, all sweet-faced and happy.
"What did you mean earlier when you said Fish was pan anyway?" I ask Emilio as we're heading home, taking our usual route down the sidewalk through the middle of town. We usually stopped to grab a basket of fries or some Cokes from the Tipsy Turtle, and today was no exception, even with Fish tagging along.
"Pan, you know?" Emilio takes a wad of cash out of his wallet and starts counting it. "It just means he's interested in someone no matter how they identify. I met a guy like that once on vacation and he was super cool. My parents played bingo and drank three nights in a row while me and him slept together. "
"Wow," I reply, totally shocked and kind of horrified by his story. "What about wanting to sleep with someone without actually wanting to date them or anything?" I meant Luke, of course, but I wasn't about to tell Emilio about him and have Creed Foster find out so he could beat the shit out of me.
"Oh, that's---" Emilio stops abruptly, and I follow his gaze over to Fish, who had suddenly decided to wander into one of the nearby hippie shops. The kind with weird plants in the windows, crystals displayed, and stuff made out of coconut shells.
"Oh... no," I groan, and then I push past Emilio and start after Fish, "Wait here for a second. I'll be right back! "
"Are you crazy?" Emilio snips, shoving his money back into his wallet, "There's no way in hell I'm missing a second of this disaster! Carter! Get back here right now! "
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