Just A Slight Training Mishaps
Marella was seriously wishing the pool had more comfortable sitting options after spending the past hour and a half shifting on the bleachers. Her phone had long since died, so she had nothing better to do but watch as Linh swam back and forth across the pool.
She honestly didn’t understand why she was even practicing to begin with. The swim season had just ended and Linh had taken the silver medal in the women’s 800 metre freestyle, but she kept saying that she couldn’t let up now if she wanted to get gold next year.
Personally, Marella thought that Linh should be spending this time to celebrate herself and take it easy. But once Linh got set on something you couldn’t stop her. It was actually really endearing how headstrong and competitive she could get since it clashed so much with her usual demeanor.
So when Linh had asked her to drive her to the pool on a Saturday, she couldn’t say no to her. And it wasn’t like Marella hated the feeling of Linh depending on her. If she was being entirely honest, she liked it a little too much for it to just be-
She was dragged away from that dangerous flow of thoughts by an erratic splash from the far end of the pool that followed by a sharp scream.
Marella ignored the age old saying of no running by the pool to get to where Linh had resurfaced, clutching her foot.
She knelt down beside where Linh had pulled herself out of the pool to see a small puddle of red accumulating around her foot. “What happened?”
Linh swore under her breath. “I pushed off the wall funny and chipped my toenail. It’ll be fine, I just need to grab a bandaid and I’ll be good to get back in.” She tried to stand as she said this, but as soon as she put weight on her foot she winced and crumpled back to her sitting position.
“Wow, there,” Marella said, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, “how about I get the first aid pack and come back here? You don’t want to risk falling flat on that pretty face of yours, now do we?”
Lihn’s cheeks flushed ever so slightly to the softest pink as she giggled at the last bit. “Okay, I get it.” The chipper creeping back into her voice as she leaned back on the palms of her hands. “Just get it quickly.”
When Marella came back, Linh had pulled off her diving cap, letting her long dark hair gracefully flow about her.
Marella knelt down to clean off her foot and apply the bandage. “Your hairs getting long”
“Yeah, I know.” She took a lock to examine it more. “I’ve been thinking of cutting it short.”
But it looks so good” Marella blurted out a little too fast. She felt her face heat up as she looked anywhere but her.
“I just mean that the swimming season is over so there really isn’t a reason to keep it short. And you could always put it in a bun like what you have been doing. I mean fix something that isn’t broken, right?”
She chanced to glance back at Linh, who seemed to be feeling as awkward as she was feeling.
Linh clapped her hands together. “Okay, now that I’m patched up I’m gonna get back in the pool”
“Oh no you’re not,” Marella said as she grabbed her arm before she could slip back into the pool. “I think it’s time to call it a day.”
The slumped posture and heavy sigh made it clear that Linh was not too happy about this, but she tore her hand through her long, dark hair and let out a rattling groan. “I guess I can take it easy since it’s still off season”
Marella chuckled to herself while she stood up. “May I remind you that most of the girls on your team are in their dorms taking it easy since the off season only started a week ago?” She extended her hand in front of Linh’s face.
Linh flipped her hair back in a playful flourish before using Marella’s outstretched hand to balance herself while standing. “I guess I could stand to loosen up a bit.” She started to hobble her way to the locker room to get her things.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay by yourself?”
Linh glanced over her shoulder and gave her a playful smile. “What? You wanna help me get changed?”
Marella looked anywhere but Lihn and played with one of her braids. “Yeah I’ll leave you to do that on your own. I’ll just wait in the car for you.” She was sure her face was the same color as the bright red sunset she could see through the windows.
And on that note, Marella made her less than elegant escape back to her car. She sat down in the driver's seat and slammed her head against the steering wheel out of sheer embarrassment of it all.
“Why does she have to be so hot?” She mumbled to herself.
The drive back to Linh’s dorm was mostly quiet. Linh sat there, lazily staring out the window. It was only when she parked outside the dorms that Marella realized that Linh had fallen asleep. Her hand was keeping her head propped up against the window and a small stream of drool was visible on her chin.
The thing that killed her most about that moment was that her phone was dead and she couldn’t take a picture. She would have loved to show it to Linh later and see if her cheeks would go bright pink like when she gets flustered. But instead, she gently shook Linh’s arm.
Linh’s head immediately snapped up. So fast that it Marella jumped a little.
She sat up straighter, fixing her hair and wiping the drool off her chin.“Sorry, I hadn’t realized I had drifted off.”
“It’s alright, you needed the power nap after all that work. Plus it’s already pretty late, so you should probably head up now.”
“Yeah about that,” Linh paused, letting the words hang in the air, almost as if she was unsure how she should finish the thought. “Could you possibly walk me up? The neighborhood isn’t the best.”
Marella scrunched her eyebrows together. She had never heard of anything bad happening around here before, but considering how it was already dark out, chalked it up to Linh being extra cautious.
Marella stole a glance at Linh, only to find her breathtaking eyes fixed on her with such subtle intensity that she wondered if she was imagining it.
That’s all it was, right?