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Comfortable Silence: Part Three |
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One and on the roads went; twisting and turning in the fading sunlight as the clouds came in signaling the daily afternoon showers. They were on a highway now, though where it was leading them they didn't know. Joel was starting to get frustrated. She wanted a ride for something, the least she could do was talk to him.
"Stop the car!" Her shrilling voice broke the dull silencw. The tires screeched to a halt and Rina ran out of the car into the woods.
"Where are you going?" Joel ran after her, able to keep pace perfectly with her.
"I know where we are!" She did seem to know where she was going in the thick underbrush and she navigated the terrain as if she had memorized the path. She stopped at a lake that seemed about two football fields in both length and width; and they were standing about 100 feet above the surface of the water. "When I would drive up to my uncle's place in Canada, we would always stop along the way to this lake to relax." She began stripping down to her underwear; an act that forced Joel to instinctivly look away from. Rina laughed to herself, "It's alright," she grabbed his shoulder to turn him around to face her. "See?" She had been wearing a swimsuit underneath her clothes.
Joel was shocked and slightly dissappointed. "Do you swim often?" The sight of the girl in Rina's state made his voice quiver a little bit.
"I used to. Back in South Carolina, right after school most of my friends would go to the gym pool to let off steam. Before school I always put on a swimsuit under my clothes, I guess it just became a habit." She laughed, sized Joel up, and frowned, "You don't have anything to wear, do you?"
"I actually don't really know how to swim, anyway" He avoided her eyes when he said "You go ahead, I'll just watch you from up here." Unfortunately for Joel, he didn't see the glimmer of mischief in Rina's eyes when he said this.
Rina walked backwards a few paces, crouched down like a sprinter before the starting gun, took a last glimpse at Joel, and started running to the edge of the short cliff. Yet, in the last moments before she jumped, Rina leaned towards the right: towards Joel, and before he knew it, she had ran into his stomach at full speed, knocking him off the cliff and into the water below. Rina was laughing all the way down as Joel was screaming for his life. She grabbed his hands before they hit the water so when he sank, she would be able to hold him up.
They hit the water and Joel was already struggling before Rina surfaced. "Okay, all you need to do is kick, that's it. Just move your feet quickly and move your arms in circles to balance yourself out." He obeyed, cursing under his breath and giving Rina angry glares.
After he had calmed down and learned how to tread water Joel finally said, "What the hell is wrong with you? I could have been killed! You can't just tackle someone into the water like that. What if I landed wrong and hit my head on a rock or something?" He tried to kick horizontally so he would be able to move, but was unable to. When Rina saw this she swam over and grabbed his hands to support him, but he pulled away and tried again to swim to shore. After multiple tries he gave up and sulked in the crystal clear water.
Rina saw him give up then swam to him. She grabbed Joel's hands and threw his arms around her back and put his hands on her neck and began swimming to shore. When they finally reached the shore, Rina dragged Joel to the grass and sprawled him out, back on the grass. He was still silent and his mouth and eyes said nothing. Rina lay down beside him and pulled his arm around her shoulder and inched closer to him until he could feel the warmth of her skin on his. She leaned her head into his ear and whispered "I'm sorry," into it. Joel smiled and pulled her closer; he had been starting to feel the air on his wet skin and he started shivering. Rina smiled and she rested her head on his hard chest to listen to his heartbeat as it began to slow down. She felt her lids all of a sudden become very heavy and she closed them and listened to the steady beat. Joel pulled her closer as her breathing slowed to the lull of a deep sleep and he, too felt the sudden wave of faigue and fell asleep.
Joel woke up an unknown time later to find that the clouds had become sinister and he started feeling the electricity in the air. After a few moments of appreciating Rina's warm body and slow breathing, he ever-so-slightly rubbed her cheek until her beautiful eyes fluttered open. "It's going to rain" he reminded her and they both started climbing the cliffside to get Rina's clothes and head back to the car. The headed through the woods in silence, but in slow proximity to each other.
The ride back to town was a quiet one as Rina was still sleepy and Joel still felt the fatigue of his first swimming lesson; not to mention the unexpected turn of events afterwards. He couldn't believe what had just happened to him. Why did this girl like him? She's new here, she didn't even get to see the entire litter before she made her pick. Or was she just being really friendly? Did she feel bad for him? Did she know of his lowly social status and take pity on him? So many questions swam in his head, so few he couldn't ask. He still felt the warmth she left on his side and he smiled to himself. He didn't care if she was being a friend or pitying him, he was happy. He softly grabbed her hand next to her face and held it in his hand for the duration of the drive.
When they finally got back to town, the rain had already started. It woke up Rina who did not flinch from Joel's hand around hers; which Joel did not forget. Rina recited directions to her house and wrote down her number on Joel's arm at stoplights; Joel planned on calling her as soon as he got home. As Joel reached Rina's driveway, she leaned in to kiss Joel's cheek. He refused to smile at this gesture but his eyes lit up and Rina laughed at the thought, "You really like me, don't you?"
"Yeah"
"Why?"
"I don't know, really. You're the first interesting person I've met in a long time; and I have barely had a meaningful conversation with you." There was a long silence afterwards in which both could only hear the beat of the rain on the car. After what seemed like an hour Joel reminded her "Is that what you call an uncomfortable silence?"
"I don't know what you call that." But at his question her eyes told a different story. She kissed him one last time on the cheek and walked out to her house in the rain, looking back at him as she closed the door.
 Gilliganiganiganigoo · Sat Jul 14, 2007 @ 08:52am · 1 Comments |
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