EMILY'S POV.
It had been so long since I had laughed genuinely. Laughing with Dahlia was a totally different thing. When I was with her, it felt like I was somewhere that wasn't included in my life at the moment. It was like the gloomy abyss was suddenly flooded with light. Immediately after the call, everything went back to being gloomy.
So, laughing at Lucas was actually the first time I was laughing genuinely in the gloom.
It felt so good to laugh, to have something that made me crack up, but then, it was all messed up. The person who made me laugh could not be more wrong. Why would my ex's uncle be the one to make me laugh?
"Okay, you're laughing now, and I guess this was for you, since you had a load of things to let out, but I think we should get down now." He said, making for the stairs, and I looked down, and got the chills. We were really up high.
Before the crazy impulse to throw myself down manifested, I figured it was best to go down. I didn't know why, but whenever I was at such a high place, I always felt compelled to go down— Like something was always drawing me close to the edge.
I hurried after Lucas, feeling strangely scared, after getting all the resentment out of me.
After getting down, I could see the sun beginning to set. Hours had passed by in the arcade.
Lucas' driver took us to an indoor water park next, and I wondered just how many games Lucas needed to play to perfect his stress-relieving day.
When we got there, I looked around at the large place, which had different wide pools in it, and lots of play things in the pools, like slides, floats, and other things I didn't recognize. Lots of people were crowded around the pools. Lucas did a few things that went completely unnoticed by me— before we were given matching T-shirts and shorts because I was just so impressed with everything I saw.
There were a lot of games going on, and Lucas and I signed up for only two. Then we were led by two employees to a space where eight people stood, waiting and talking. They seemed to be couples or friends. No one came alone. Four more people joined us, and they announced the game would start in two minutes.
In front of us were round floats lined in front of a large balloon table on which stood a gleaming crown.
The floats were quite different. They didn't have holes in them.
"When I was younger, my dad and I used to come here a lot. Just the two of us. It feels weird to be back here again." Lucas said, looking at the water, and I wondered how it had felt. He was probably so little that the others didn't have fun playing with him, and since dads were always crazy about their youngest children, he was probably the only one Lucas was really close to.
But his dad was long gone. I wondered who he talked to, and if he was finally old enough for his siblings to talk to him. I was about to pity him when I stopped.
He had John. When he was five, John was born. Maybe John was too young to play with him, but when he was fifteen, John was ten, and I didn't think boys cared much about age, so they probably got on well. Also, I didn't know when his dad died because I was never for once interested in politics, but it couldn't have been when he was really young, could it?
The first game was a game involving the line of arranged floats, and we had to walk on them and get to the crown which was in front of the last float. The winner got the crown, and honestly, it was a beautiful thing. I wanted it.
If two or more people got to the crown, they would have to compete against each other for the crown.
Yeah, I thought it would be easy, until the first four people tried, and fell into the water woefully, screaming and laughing.
"Woah, it's that hard?" A lady next to me said, and I looked at her. She had short blonde hair, and deep brown eyes. She also had a butterfly tattoo on her arm. It was pretty, but I wasn't the type who loved tattoos.
A man began to walk on the floats with such grace, and everyone got scared he was going to win.
"Go baby!" The lady he came with screamed, and Lucas' fingers subconsciously tightened on my cloth. He didn't even know he was holding me. It was so obvious he was against the man winning.
Unfortunately, the last float he stepped on, flipped over, and he fell into the water. Lucas let go, and gave a smile, before turning away to hide it.
When it was Lucas' turn, he ran atop the floats quickly, like barely stepping on them for a second would stop him from falling, but oh, he was wrong. He got to the third float out of ten good floats, and fell with a little yelp. I burst into laughter, as he came up looking embarrassed, but my laughter quickly froze, as he brushed his wet hair back.
"Damn, your guy is really handsome. He should be a model, is he?" The lady next to me asked.
"He's not my guy."
"He's not." She said, with a weird smile.
"Yeah, he's my boss', uh… brother." I didn't want to say Uncle.
"Then he's definitely into you." She said, with a weird smile.
"No, he's not. I'm… I'm here as his stress manager." I said, and she laughed. Although her laugh showed that she didn't believe me. Rather, she thought I was denying that we liked each other, or something, which was totally wrong.
"I'm Lucy." She said, extending her hand, and I shook it.
"Emily." I replied, and we smiled at each other.
My number was called right after Lucas stepped out of the water, and with my heart beating, I went towards the round floats.
I stepped on the first one, and wobbled, making everyone go 'Woooooooooooah!' as they watched me try to raise myself.
"She's flexible, man."
"Woah, she's gonna make it."
"She looks good."
I stepped onto the second float, and chuckled nervously.
"Woah! She's doing it. She's getting the crown."
"Are you kidding me? Woah!"
I was just on the second, Please!
All the compliments and reactions got to my head, and when I stepped on the next one, trying to look cool, I went down immediately with a scream, and felt embarrassed afterwards.
The water was a little cold, and when I got up, I was gasping and trying not to scream. Both my hands tried frantically to push my hair out of my face. Lucas was laughing, and when I swam to the edge of the pool, he was there to help me up.
He laughed, and handed me a napkin to wipe my face. So embarrassing. I knew I fell without much grace. Who knew what I looked like, while falling?
"You did great." He said, and I dabbed the napkin over my face, still laughing about how awesome that had been, even though I lost.
Unfortunately, everyone played up till three times, and someone finally made it.
It was Lucy.
She was so happy, and kept on squealing, along with her boyfriend, who tried to stop her from doing it continuously.
The next game had to do with a water slide. We'd slide down from a wet giant slide, and when we came out into a huge circle that would enable everyone to see us, and also drop us into the water; our partners had to demonstrate given words, using their bodies, and not their mouths.
The first couple to go on had the word 'Cucumber', and when his partner slid out from the watery tunnel, into the circle, everyone gasped as he grabbed his private area. Even Lucas was shocked.
"What!?" The girl screamed, and when she was flushed into the pool, she came up coughing.
"What was that? Is the keyword your…? I'm sorry, I don't know." She said, and burst into laughter, as everyone else began to laugh. Then, the keyword was shown to her, and she collapsed into the water with a scream. He had embarrassed her. "Wasn't there anything else you could use to demonstrate!?" She asked, throwing everyone into endless laughter.
"That is so crazy." I muttered, and bit my lips.
Many other couples went, and when it was time for me and Lucas to go on, he chose me to go to the slide.
I climbed the staircase, hoping the keyword wouldn't be a cucumber or anything embarrassing, and at the signal of the employees behind me; I went into the hole with force, and slid down immediately.
The slide was watery and going so fast that I screamed. It was so curvy, and took so many turns. When I slid out into the open circle, I saw Lucas, and he immediately held his belly, acting like a pregnant woman stroking her unborn baby.
I slid out into the water, and emerged, pushing my hair out of my face.
"Pregnant?" I asked,
"Yes!" He shouted, and the keyword was shown to me.
I gave a scream, and swam out of the water, climbing out, and everyone got more excited to play.
When we left the water park, we ought to be drinking warm tea, but instead, we were licking ice cream. I hoped I wasn't going to catch a cold. Colds had a thing of getting to me easily.
"Gosh, you were so cool." Lucy said, as we made our way towards the car.
"I doubt that. You were cooler when you walked on all those nasty floats, and got to the crown." I said, smiling and she laughed.
"Really? You think that?" She asked, and I nodded. "I was so scared half the time. But wait, doesn't this feel like a double date? My guy and your guy are talking, and we're talking." She said, and I glanced quickly at Lucas.
"He's not my guy." I whispered, and laughter bubbled out of her.
"Alright, alright, if you say so." She said, and we continued chatting. It was nice actually. When was the last time I had a girl friend? John had taken up all my time.
"So, it was nice meeting you both." She said, when we got to where her and her boyfriend's car was parked.
"It was nice meeting you both too." Lucas replied, and I waved at her. We walked to our car, and drove home. Lucas and I didn't talk on our way home, and there was the insane urge to fall asleep in his car.
But I didn't want to. I didn't want a stupid scenario where he carried me to my bedroom with a movie excuse, saying he didn't want to wake me up.
When we got home, he thanked me, and I headed to my room immediately. I took off my clothes, and went to the bathroom.
I needed a shower urgently, to try to clear my thoughts. I had completely forgotten all about my bad day. The day had been marked off as good, and probably one of my best days since I stepped into John's hell of a house.
I stepped out of the shower minutes later, wrapping a towel around me, feeling a little weird, but not really understanding why. Then I picked up my blow dryer, turning it on, and began to pace in front of the door.
"Okay, the day was nice Emily, but we can't deny it feels wrong. It feels completely wrong. I feel guilty. I mean… I'm having fun with another man, laughing and… and… Gosh, I broke off my engagement with the man I've been with for over four years, weeks ago. Am I crazy?" I asked myself, still pacing around.
"What?" I suddenly heard, and I looked at my bed. Someone had magically risen from underneath the sheets.
Sadie. Again.