The Academy - Friends vs. Family (23 page)

The guys laughed. Gabriel hooked an arm around my neck, his head
touching mine as he walked beside me the rest of the way out the door. “That’s
our girl.”

Out in the car, I was leaning back in the seat, my head against
the side of the door. Now in the warmth of the day and with the lull in the car
and a super full belly, I was feeling sleepy.

Nathan popped my seat belt until it was undone. He tugged lightly
at my arm. “Come here.”

I was confused but he pulled me over until my head was pillowed by
his thigh. I stiffened, nervous. He rested his arm against my shoulder as he
moved his fingers to my ear. He smoothed his thumb over my lobe.

I was asleep
in a minute.

S
ang
t
he
c
heater

I woke up as Victor made the turn onto Sunnyvale Court. I yawned,
rubbing at my eyes and was surprised that I had actually fallen asleep.

Nathan smiled at me as I sat up. “Are you going to want a nap or
swim?”

“Swim.”

His face brightened in a way that made me blush.

Victor parked in Nathan’s driveway. We got out and we took
armloads of the bags into the house. Nathan pointed to the square kitchen table
in the dining room and we dropped the bags on top of it. Collected together on
the table, the pile was overwhelming.

“I don’t think they will fit in my closet,” I said.

“Will you quit worrying?” Gabriel asked. He chopped me on the head
and fished out the bag that had the bathing suit in it. “Go put this on.”

I started to second guess my choice in bathing suits. I hadn’t
thought ahead enough to think of the guys seeing me in a bikini.

Gabriel sensed my hesitation and shoved me toward the bathroom.

When I was locked inside the bathroom, I washed my face to refresh
myself after sleeping in the car. I borrowed some of Nathan’s toothpaste. I
brushed my teeth with my finger. I folded the shorts I had worn and all my
other things. I took extra care with Kota’s shirt.

When I finished dressing, I stared at myself in the mirror. The
suit appeared just as daring as I’d felt it was in the store. Was this me?

A gentle knock sounded at the door. “Sang,” Gabriel called to me.
“Stop being nervous.”

With my cheeks flushed, I unlocked the door and opened it. Gabriel
leaned on the doorway, his arm up on the frame and his head resting against his
arm. He was already in his swimming shorts. His slim frame was cut, his abs
defined, and a line of brown hair came up from his groin, through his abs above
his belly button before the trail faded. Did I miss this part the day before
yesterday in the woods? Maybe I was too distracted by nettle and my stung legs
to notice. He was easily one of the slimmest guys in the group, but he was
exquisite.

His eyes drank me in again and the side of his mouth curled up.
“Knock out,” he said quietly. He grabbed my hand, his slim fingers folding over
my palm. He tugged me back into the kitchen.

Nathan wore red swim trunks. Victor was still dressed, his arms
crossed over his chest as he leaned against the gray granite counter of the
kitchen island. They talked in hushed voices. Gabriel stepped out of the way so
they could see me. Their eyes widened and mouths popped open.

This was worse than if they had said they didn’t like it. Heat
tickled the crests of my cheeks.

Gabriel lifted my hand above my head and twisted it slightly so I
would spin. The hem of the miniskirt flew up around my waist.

“Can I dress or what?” Gabriel asked.

Nathan’s cheeks reddened, his eyes bouncing back and forth from my
face to my legs to my breasts and everywhere. Victor’s fire eyes were blazing.
His eyes slid very slowly to my legs and back up across my body.

“Come on, Trouble,” Gabriel said, as he clasped my hand tight and led
me toward the living room. “Let’s go try it out.”

As we walked through the living room, Nathan’s voice floated to
us. “That was so worth every penny.”

Victor replied, “I don’t think I spent enough...”

Outside, Gabriel insisted on spreading a thick layer of suntan
lotion on my back and stomach.

“Sunburns are not for you,” he said, as he dabbed my nose with a
little lotion.  

It was Nathan who finally pulled me away from him. He picked me up
into his arms. I laughed, wriggling against him as I knew what was coming. He
didn’t stop at the pool’s edge. He simply continued walking and we splashed
together into the water.

The clouds were wisps in the sky. Freshly mowed grass and an ocean
breeze tickled my nose along with the chlorine. The day was perfect for this.

Gabriel took a shallow dive from the edge, and popped up on the
other side of the pool. He shook his head, his blond locks scrambled into the
mix of his dark hair.

Victor emerged from the house. He wore plain gray swimming shorts.
The silver medallion still hung around his neck. His tapered shoulders and
chest were just as toned as Gabriel’s. While Nathan beat them both in
definition and mass, they were all fit, and prime examples of Academy students.

Victor squatted down to sit on the edge of the pool and slipped
into the water without a splash. He did a quick lap across the pool under the
water and surfaced. Water slid across his trim abdomen. He raked his wavy brown
hair out of his eyes. I couldn’t believe how beautiful he looked.

“You know what this means now that we have Sang,” Nathan said,
distracting me from watching Victor. “We’ve finally got even teams.”

“For what?” I asked. I untangled my clip from my hair, twisting my
hair against my head and putting the clip back to keep it out of my eyes.

“Everything,” Nathan said. “There’s been seven of us for so long,
we’ve always had uneven teams unless someone bowed out.”

“So I am useful,” I said, grinning. The water re-energized me. I
didn’t realize how down I’d been until that moment when my blood was pumping
through my veins again. How long had I been sleep walking through life?

He smirked, splashing at me. I laughed, pulling away to swim under
the water to the other side of the pool. When I got there, Nathan was right
behind me. He bumped into me on purpose and broke the surface, slapping the
beige concrete patio. “Another race?”

I nodded, flicking water away from my brow. “What do I get when I
win?”

He laughed, his hand pressed against his chest. “I guess you don’t
want one of my shirts now that you’ve got your own.”

“Maybe I do,” I said, as I fixed a wide open teasing stare at him.
“I will steal all your clothes and then you’ll have to go out with Gabriel.”

“You have to beat me first.”

I took off under the water, holding my breath and racing toward
the other end. There was no point in waiting for him to say go.

It didn’t take him long to break my lead and he touched the other
side quickly enough to straighten up out of the water and lean against the edge
on his elbows as if he’d been waiting for me for hours. When I came up on the
other side, I made sure to splash him more.

Victor was in the corner, leaning against the wall. He tilted his
head at us. “What’s this?”

“Racing,” Nathan said. He turned to me. “And I get all the
strawberries off your smoothie when we go out next.”

Victor’s eyebrows shot up. “Betting?”

“Hell, yeah,” Gabriel said, coming up next to us. He held his arms
above his head and stretched. I got a better view of his abs. His shorts slid down
his hips, stopping at the curve of his butt. “What’s the winner get?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “It’s whatever you want.”

“You better watch that,” Victor warned, but he smiled and got into
a racing position against the wall. “Asking for whatever we want might be more
than you’re willing to give up.”

“Hey,” Nathan said, a warning tone in his voice.

This seemed to confuse Victor but he shook his head dismissively.
“Are we going?”

I kicked off with my legs. The others shot off but it was Nathan
that won again.

“Ha!” he said, his laugh cutting through the air. He pointed at my
face. “I get shotgun next time.”

I smirked, and stuck my tongue out at him.

“Well this will suck a lot of Nathan wins every time,” Gabriel
said, pouting.

“He might not,” I said, slipping him a wink. He caught it and made
a devilish grin.

This time I took off again, but I didn’t swim my fastest. Instead
I waited for Nathan to get close and I grabbed him around the waist, using what
little power I had to push him out of his projected forward motion. He grinned
at me under the water, catching me around the hips and stood up, breaking the
surface.

I struggled and pushed against his arms. I laughed, breathless.

“You little cheater,” he said as Gabriel tagged the other side,
winning.

“It’s not cheating if you don’t set the rules,” I said.

“I won,” Gabriel shouted at us from the other side of the pool. He
pointed in my direction. “And I get your damn clip for an entire week.”

I gaped at him. “And I bothered to help you! I want it while we’re
swimming.”

“After,” he said.

“And why does everyone want my stuff?” I asked, pushing against
Nathan again who was still holding on to me.

They all laughed at me.

Nathan hefted me up over his head. “Get ready for it,” he said.

I held my breath as he tossed me easily across the pool. I landed
with a splash, catching Victor in the face with water.

Victor raised a cool arm to his eyes to block part of it. I swam
to the surface, laughing. Victor’s fire eyes smoldered and a pleasing smile
played across his face.

Gabriel cannonballed into the water and popped up next to me.
“Okay, I have to see you do one of those.”

I splashed at him, thinking he was joking. He came after me with a
wicked grin. I scrambled to get out of the way, running against the resistance
of the pool.

Victor stepped in front of me, and we collided. My hands pressed
to his chest in an effort to keep myself from falling over. “Tell him I don’t
have to?”

Victor laughed; his arms encircled my bare middle and nearly
lifting me out of the water as he tugged me toward the wall. “No,” he said. “I
want to see it, too.”

Gabriel climbed out of the water. I wriggled against Victor, who
held on to me easily with a strength I wasn’t expecting. Gabriel collected me
from Victor.

Gabriel carried me until we were standing at the edge of the
middle of the pool where the water was the deepest. Nathan and Victor sat
together at one end outside of the pool, their feet in the water.

Nathan cupped his hands together and shouted, “Make a bigger
splash than Gabriel, and you get your clip back.”

I brightened at this.

“No fucking way,” Gabriel said.

“What if you win?” I asked him.

His blue eyes glowed at this. He leaned into me to whisper in my
ear. “I get that clip forever.”

My heart stopped and my breath escaped. “Hmm,” I said, pretending
to ponder it. “And it’s whoever does an awesome cannonball splash, right?”

He nodded, his crystal eyes still intense on me. His back was to
the pool. I placed a casual hand on his chest. His eyes lit up again.

“You’re on,” I said.

And I pushed at him as hard as I could.

His face popped in surprise and he grappled for my arm. It was too
slippery to hold on to and he fell back into the water in a mess.

I did a sloppy cannonball next to him, but used the move to swim
to the other end of the pool under the water before Gabriel could grab on to
me.

Nathan stood up on the edge of the pool, laughing. Gabriel was
catching up to me. I reached out for Nathan. He snagged my hands and hauled me
from the water until I was on my feet next to him.

“No fair,” Gabriel said. “She fucking cheats.”

“Yup,” Nathan said, beaming proudly as he kept a hand on my back,
fingers spread over my bare skin. It warmed me and yet my insides were doing
flips.

Gabriel swiped his hands at my ankles. “Get back here,” he called
out to me.

I laughed, squealing and leaping out of reach. Nathan looped an
arm under my knees and carried me. I threaded my arms around his neck to hang
on. He started running from the pool. Gabriel flew onto the patio, giving
chase.

“Hey!” A voice boomed over the sound of our laughter. “Don’t run
with her like that.”

Nathan stopped cold and stiffened.  He let go of my legs to let me
stand but still held my waist.

We turned together to see North coming through the front gate near
the side of the house. His black tank shirt and his dark blue jeans were dusty.
He carried a couple of overstuffed book bags on his back.

Behind him from the gate stepped Silas, Luke and Kota, similarly
dusty. As they looked at us, shyness sparked through my core. I slipped a
finger to my lower lip, blushing as their eyes fell on the pink plaid mini
skirt bathing suit.

“Sang baby, don’t let them do that to you,” North said. “He’s
going to slip and crack your head.”

“Well look who all decided to show up,” Gabriel said behind us. He
hooked his arm around my neck even as Nathan still held onto my hip. Gabriel
pressed his side against mine, which in turn made me lean against Nathan. Skin
on skin.