“Guys, that was awesome!” Lara shouted from her coxswain’s seat in the rear of the crew racing shell.  “We’re going to kick some major ass in our regatta this weekend.  I know it…I have faith in you!”
            Gwen high-fived Lara from her position in eight seat.  Gwen was the “stroke” of the boat—the rower who sat in the back, facing the coxswain, and kept the timing and pace for all other rowers in the boat.  Whoever rowed in eight seat was usually responsible for the performance of her boat in a race, but Gwen felt up to the task.  She was experienced and she knew what she was doing.
            “Lara, that felt great.  We kept a strong, steady pace for the entire piece, and our balance was perfect.” Gwen took a long swig of water from the bottle she kept stowed next to her feet.  She closed her eyes and remembered the exquisite rhythm in which she had taken part moments before.  The boat had hummed swiftly down the river, her oar cutting through the water cleanly, her body swinging in time with the other girls’.  Everything in the outside world had faded away…the calling of the seagulls overhead, the hot Florida sun…everything except the burning in her muscles and the deep rush of her own breath.
            A good workout puts me in a good mood.  She smiled.  Right now she could forget about her problems and her loneliness and simply enjoy being alive.
            The boat pulled up to the dock, and Coach Tom helped the girls get out and lift the heavy boat up onto their shoulders so that they could walk it back to the boathouse.  Gwen felt her aching arms start to quiver a little with the exertion of trying to walk and carry the boat at the same time.
            “Yes!” Gwen could hear Adrienne exclaim from behind her.  “That practice rocked.  I feel so sweaty and gross though.  I’m absolutely dying to go home for a nice, long, hot shower!  Oh my goodness, that would be so relaxing.  I just bought this lavender scented shower gel the other day and it smells so heavenly.  I could just drown in it.  Hmm…I think I might have plans tonight.  What plans, you might ask?  Well, I was actually thinking about…” 
            Her monologue abruptly stopped as she emitted a high-pitched squeal of delight.  Gwen felt the boat drop down on her side and practically crush her as Adrienne forgot about her need to keep holding it up and sprinted enthusiastically in the direction of the parking lot.  Gwen barely managed to stop her exhausted body from dropping the $10,000 boat.
            What the hell? Why did she just leave the boat like that? Gwen muttered to herself silently.  If it weren’t for Coach Tom helping us out on our side, we would have dropped it.  That was really irresponsible.
            After her brief moment of annoyance, Gwen quickly forgot about being angry and simply helped put the boat away.  When she re-emerged from the boathouse, she saw Adrienne hugging someone about a hundred yards away.  She squinted her eyes, but in the bright sunlight, she couldn’t make out who the person was.  She shrugged her shoulders and continued about finding her athletic bag and keys so she could go home.
            After gathering all her things and waving goodbye to a few of her fellow teammates, Gwen began to trudge out toward the parking lot.  The sweat rolling down her forehead, her cheeks, her nose began to evaporate in a cool late-afternoon breeze very unusual for that time of year.  Gwen raised her face to the fresh air, closed her eyes halfway, and gave a small, pleased smile.  She felt wonderful.
            When she reached her car, blissfully unaware of her surroundings and in her own world, Gwen plunked her bag down on the asphalt beside the driver’s side door and rummaged through it, searching for her old pair of plastic orange flip-flops.  Finding them, she sat down on the ground next to her bag and slipped off her sneakers and sweaty socks.  Just as she was sliding on the clean, dry sandals—
            “Gwen, oh my gosh, you won’t believe who’s here!”  Adrienne’s high-pitched voice coming from less than three feet away made Gwen jump, startled.  She looked up to see Adrienne and a familiar-looking guy standing in front of her; Adrienne had her arm around the guy’s shoulders.  Gwen felt uncomfortable sitting on the ground with the other two looking down at her, so she scrambled to her feet quickly and pushed a couple sticky strands of hair back from her face.  She felt acutely aware of looking—and smelling?—terrible.  God, this is so embarrassing…
            Adrienne, on the other hand, had managed to clean herself up in the few extra minutes she’d gained by escaping her tasks of helping with the boat and equipment.  Everyone else can take care of that, she’d thought.  I have more important things to do.  My boyfriend came to practice to visit me!  She felt a glow spread over her face as her voice babbled on to Gwen.
            “This is AJ, I’m sure you’ve heard me talking about him!  He came to practice to visit me, obviously, since he hears me talking about it all the time, don’t you baby?” She smiled sweetly at him but continued without giving him time to respond.  “This is so adorable.  I can’t believe it.  Oh so anyway, AJ, this is one of my bestest friends, Gwen.  She’s, like, the leader of our team.  She’s also really smart and…”
            “It’s nice to meet you,” AJ interrupted her with a sideways glance.  He smiled politely at Gwen and offered his hand for her to shake.  She accepted, noticing that his grip was firm but at the same time unusually gentle.
            “Yeah, same here.”  Gwen returned the smile, meeting his eyes.
            As soon as their glances connected, they both froze for a fraction of a second as recognition rushed through them.  For that instant their hands stopped moving, they stopped breathing, the world stopped turning as their eyes locked together and they realized that this was indeed not their first meeting.
            However, they immediately resumed their hand-shaking and attempted not to show outwardly—to each other or to Adrienne—that anything was out of the ordinary.  A slight awkwardness existed now that hadn’t before, though, and they looked away from each other in a desire not to meet the other’s eyes.
            Meanwhile, Adrienne’s chatter continued.  “Oh man, this is so fun!  I love it when my friends are friends with my boyfriend.  If you know what I mean.  We can all hang out together now!  And Gwen, if you ever get a boyfriend—I mean I know how likely that is to happen, haha—we can do double dates and stuff!”
            “Right,” Gwen muttered uneasily, shifting her weight from foot to foot.  Okay Adrienne, I love you but please shut up, this is really weird…I think I’ve met your boyfriend before and I know those feelings that I felt a few seconds ago weren’t just friendly…
            She tried to look interested in what Adrienne was saying, but all she wanted to do was escape and get back to her apartment and take a shower or maybe even a bubble bath and read a book and go to sleep and she was NOT having feelings like this for someone she hadn’t even really met especially if he was Adrienne’s boyfriend because this was just too confusing for her and she couldn’t stop her mind from racing—
            “Actually, Adrienne, I have to get going,” she cut in, looking at her watch.  “I’m supposed to meet Corrina for dinner in an hour and I need to go get ready,” she lied.  “Sorry to have to run,” she smiled politely at AJ, still avoiding his eyes.
            “No problem,” he replied, his voice deep and a little scratchy.
            Adrienne only smiled even more brightly.  “Excellent!  Where are you guys going?  We’d love to join you.  I want to introduce AJ to Corrina too!”
            Gwen groaned silently.  Shit shit shit…This is not what I had in mind.  “Umm…we were just gonna go grab some sandwiches from Panera,” she said weakly.
            “Yes!” Adrienne practically screamed.  “I love Panera!  So you’re meeting there at, what, seven?  We’ll see you there for sure, although we might be a little late.  I have to go back to my place and get ready too, and you know, I can be a little slow, so…”
            Gwen quickly grabbed her athletic bag from the ground, shoving her discarded sneakers and socks inside.  Trying not to be rude, she hit the unlock button on her car’s remote control, opened the door and tossed the bag inside.  She glanced up and noticed that AJ’s eyes were wandering, somewhat glazed over, and she had to stifle a giggle that threatened to burst out at any moment.  She’d never seen someone look less interested in what his girlfriend was saying.
            “Well then, I guess I’ll see you guys later,” Gwen said, hopping into her Jeep and turning the key in ignition.  Adrienne and AJ waved and started to walk back to their respective cars.
            What a mess, Gwen whimpered silently.  She grabbed her cell phone and quickly dialed Corrina’s number.

            AJ was in a daze.  This is too frickin’ unreal. 
            He shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts that raced around his brain like darting, disorganized fireflies.  He tried to pay attention to what Adrienne was saying and gathered that she wanted him to follow her back to her apartment so that he could wait there while she got ready.  He simply nodded and got into his car.
            As he drove behind Adrienne’s shiny silver Civic, he tapped his fingers anxiously against the steering wheel and flipped through radio stations listlessly, not even listening to them.
            Okay, so that girl…Gwen?…I’ve met her before.  Where?  It was pretty recently, I know that much.  But maybe I didn’t actually meet her, maybe I just saw her.  At a bar?  A club.  That was it, I’m pretty sure.  Oh god, I remember…
            And it appeared to him in a flash, a blinding burst of memory: those dark eyes gripping him across a room full of smoke, that incredible bloodred mouth, those gorgeous mahogany curls tangled beyond hope – those five seconds stretched out into a blur that could have been hours or days.  And then he’d met Adrienne and forgotten it all.
            Well, it’s probably better that way then, he nodded.  Adrienne is…great.
            And he left it at that.

            “Corrina, listen, I need some help and I need it fast!” Gwen shouted into her phone, trying to be heard over the wind rushing through the Jeep’s open windows and the music on the radio.  The volume of the music Gwen listened to in her car was usually directly proportionate to how upset or agitated she was.  Today Gwen’s music was very loud.
            “Hold up, Gwen, what exactly is going on?” Corrina sounded perplexed.
            “Okay, so Adrienne’s boyfriend showed up at the end of crew today, but I realized that I’ve kinda met him before, remember that night at the club?  And things were pretty awkward so I wanted to get out of there, but I sorta told them that I had to meet you for dinner and of course, knowing Adrienne, she just merrily invited herself along, and her boyfriend too, so what do I do?” She finished with a wail of despair.
            Corrina’s laughter rang out like a song.  “Calm down, honey!  It’s not a big deal.  Luckily I’m in Tampa at the moment visiting Jake” – her brother – “and not up on campus.  I’ll just meet you for dinner and everything will be fine.”
            Gwen sighed with relief.  “Thank you so much, Corrina, you have no idea how much I love you.  Umm, we’re supposedly meeting at Panera at seven.  Will you come a few minutes early if you can?”
            “I’ll try, but no promises.”
            “Why am I not surprised?” Gwen grinned.  “You never promise anything, silly.”
            “I’d hate to make a promise I couldn’t keep,” Corrina repeated one of her favorite phrases.
            “I know, I know, I’m just playing.  I’ll see you there then?”
            “You bet.  And Gwen?”
            “Yeah?”
            “You owe me big time."

Continue to Chapter Nine: Whispers of Your Name
Send feedback to Becky

There and Back Again Index
Becky's Stories
Underwater Backstreet World