amicitiae nostrae memoriam spero sempiternam fore ~ I hope that the memory of our friendship will be everlasting

Sawyer

I hate swimming pools.

Always have, always will. I hate the suffocating smell of chlorine in the air, the deafening screech of the lifeguard's whistle, the hanging feeling of moisture that coats your lungs every time you try to draw a breathe. It's horrible, and if I had it my way, I'd never set foot in this place, but sadly that's not an option.

Quinn and I sit lazily in the gallery of the schools gigantic swimming pool. It comes equipped with state of the art motion censored touch pads, heated water, the whole nine yards. You see, St Benedict's is known for having one of the best swim teams out of all the private schools in England, which means there's even more pressure for them to do well at the bath cup gala. This means that they've been having longer sessions every day after school. So, for an entire week, Quinn and I have been forced to spend our time at the pool, waiting for Emma.

"Sorry sorry sorry guys! Give me one second!" Speak of the devil. Emma shouts out at us as she runs towards the changing room.

"I guess that's our queue to get a move on." Quinn states as she grabs her bag.

Just as we were about to leave, the rest of the team emerge from the pool. They're quite used to seeing us here at this point, so a couple of the boys stop to say hi.

"Hey babe." Floyd puts his arm around me in a cheeky greeting.

"Oh god, you're soaking wet!" I moan at him before trying to shrug his arm off.

He decides to retaliate by shaking his muddy brown mop of hair in my direction, getting me more wet in the process.

Quinn and the other boys laugh at our antics and we suddenly remember we have an audience.

"Floyds been strutting around all week since he found out you're coming to the gala next Friday." Mike chuckles as the boys agree with him.

"I don't strut..." He rolls his eyes as he rests his head on my shoulder and looks at me with those big brown puppy dog eyes.

Gosh he's so cute when he does that...

"Of course, I'm going! Have to go and support my girl Emma."

"You care about seeing Emma swim more than me!" Floyd replies jokingly as he pretends to be hurt.

"Of course she does, I'm her best friend." Emma butts in as she comes out the changing room, drying her hair with a towel.

"4 minutes 45 seconds! New pb!" Quinn exclaims as she looks at her watch.

"Ha ha very funny..." Emma replies dryly. "Now lets go I'm starving."

"Right behind you!" Quinn replies.

"Hurry up Sawyer, say good bye to lover boy and let's go!"

"I'm guessing that's me." Floyd says with a cheeky wink.

"This is awkward they were actually talking about Mike." I say with a cheeky smile, before giving him a quick goodbye kiss.

To this all the boys jeered and started jumping up and down like... Boys really.

"Omg! Food now!!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Beans coffee house is a small local cafe, a 10 minute walk away from St. Benedict's and very quickly became our go to after school location. The inside of Beans is every boho hipsters Pinterest board dream. The walls were painted bright yellow with every inch of it is covered with giant hanging plants littered all over the place. All the tables were mismatched, no two tables were alike. The tables were adorned with either colourful wooden chairs or giant comfy sofas. The menus were printed on normal A4 printer paper that happened to also be mustard yellow.

The prices printed on it were a little higher than the average chain but what you had to get is that Beans is special, everyone that comes here knows it and is happy to pay that little bit extra for an amazing sandwich and their legendary milkshakes. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

I glance at the menu for a fraction of a second before saying,

"I'm gonna get a milkshake."

"Same."

"Me too."

"Duh."

With that I go up to the counter to order our drinks before heading back to the table, we sit at our same table every day after school. Darcey normally manages to reserve it for us while we wait for Emma at swim practise. It'd make more sense for Emma to just meet all of us here but I don't mind watching them practise especially since it means I get to stare at a topless Floyd.

"So what did I miss?" I ask as I pool back into my seat.

"We were just talking about how you and Floyd were all over each other at the pool today." Emma answers with a smirk.

"Yeah, they're so cuddly and cute, it makes me wanna puke." Quinn adds while pretending to puke, such a charmer.

"I just don't get how you're fine with the fact you guys aren't soulmates." Darcey questions in a soft voice.

Darcey is a soulmate purest, she believes there's one person and one person only for everyone. She doesn't see the point of dating if they're not 'the one'. Personally, I think it's a load of bullshit, but Darcey's my best friend so I decide to word it a bit differently than that.

"I mean we're only sixteen, it'll be years, decades even before we find our 'perfect' soulmate, might as well have some fun before all of that."

Just before Darcey could answer, a barista comes with our drinks, and the topic swiftly changes to Emma's match next week and how we're all getting there. Emma's going with the team on the bus, so that means the rest of us will have to try and bum a ride off someone.

"Guys you do realise I have a car right." Darcey announces.

Quinn snorts before saying "yeah but you haven't even passed your test yet."

Emma and I can't help but laughing as well, Darcey crosses her arms in a huff.

"I could always ask River if he could drive us."

"Wait River's back?!"

"Yeah, he got back from Africa a few days ago, I thought he would have told you, he talks to you way more than me..."

"I guess not; no big deal." I try to say casually while sipping my drink. Everyone can tell it is a big deal but decide not to question me about it.

River is Darcey's brother, he's two years older than us and has been my best friend and protector my entire life. When my mum died he was with me everyday until I started to feel better, he always made me laugh and was just always there. So no one was surprised when I developed the biggest crush on him. But everyone was surprised when I told him.
***

I knew it was gonna be one of the hardest days of my life when I decided to follow River to the airport to say my goodbyes. It broke my heart everytime I thought about him meeting someone else over the summer when he's gone.

He never got a tattoo when he was younger, he always joked that it meant he was free to date anyone he wanted but I knew it broke him inside sometimes to think he wasn't special enough to get one.

"Earth to Sawyer, anyone there" River waved his hands in front of my face to snap me out of my daydream. A cheeky smile still etched on his face.

"Right sorry..." I muttered, not really knowing what to say anymore.

We were both standing in front of Gatwick airport, staring at each other not knowing what to say next. People clambered  around us, rushing to get to there gate number on time. River and I didn't move, couldn't move. We had never been apart for this long, ever. We did everything together, we went to the same school, our families always went on holiday together, and now he was gonna be gone for three months.

I felt the tears falling down my face before I could stop them, and before I knew it I was sobbing uncontrollably. River noticed too and pulled me into a bear hug and told me everything's was gonna be alright, that he'd be back before I knew it. My face fit perfectly into his chest as he stroked my hair and started to calm me down.

"I think I'm in love with you."

Rivers arms stiffened around me, I couldn't breathe. I'd just blurted it out and couldn't take it back in no matter how hard I tried; so I didn't.

It just hung there in the air, for what felt like days, months, even years.

But what was more likely ten minutes. River broke the silence by simply muttering

"Well, if I don't leave now I'll miss my flight"

And just like that, he picked up his bags, turned around and never looked back.

***

Ahh! Third chapter up! Love to know what you guys think of it :)

Sparklenightmare