Double Life: Between us

The ride back was made in the same groups, Lex and the three boys since the other group decided to have dinner there but Chris´ driver was already there. Josh was glad to have met Lex and Chris, they were friendly. At the school they went to their rooms, the twins went to the cafeteria for dinner.

“I´ve been wondering…” Josh started

“What?” Aaron made a face of ‘here it comes’

“What made you change your mind about Nic? You used to hate her”

“You can never hate a hottie” his expression smug

“right, you didn´t think so before”

“I did I was just more busy taking care of my broken nose, I doubt you´d be nice and happy around the girl that has broken your nose”

“ok, I´ll say you´re right but then, how did you go from being mad to defend her from rumors?”

“Worried, Josh?” he raised his eyebrow. Josh scoffed.

“I´m not thinking in ´dating the hottie´ you know” Josh saw a quick succession of images, both about a hand in silk black gloves, one where the fingers of that hand were over his and then his hand being brushed by that same gloved hand. Why am I thinking this, he thought furrowing his eyebrows.

“It´s just as you said, Josh, that´s ridiculous” his twin answered after his silence, misinterpreting it.

“Is it embarrassing?” Josh smirked

“What?” Aaron answered too quickly

“You tell me, what happened?”

“Ok, but let´s get to my room” Aaron sighed. The boys took their dinners to the dorms.

***

“We´re here now, tell me what made you change your mind?”  Josh took a bite of his sandwich

“Fine” Aaron sighed heavily “like a week before our birthday, the swimming class was changed to late in the afternoon, from four to five thirty or something… at the end of it the coach wanted to talk to me…”

“What did he want?”

“Will you let me tell the story?  -Aaron waited a moment to continue- and after that, I went back to the changing rooms and…”

“You didn´t tell what the coach wanted”

“He wanted me to join the school swimming team instead of just taking the class” Aaron said annoyed by the interruption

“Did you join?”

“Nah, I´d have to practice all the time, I prefer to be in the class only”

“You´re so lazy, Aaron, you got what it takes” Josh lightly smacked his twin´s head

“Yes, mom”

“Whatever, what happened then?”

“My cloth was gone and you know how they make us wear this embarrassing swimsuit, I was not going to walk all the way to my room in that!”

Josh laughed “Couldn´t you just take a towel or something?”

“Ah, Josh, I´m so dumb! How didn´t I think of that –he glared at his twin- of course I looked for a towel but there were none! I sat waiting for the coach to decide to return and then I heard the doors being locked, I ran there but no one heard me”

“What did you do?”

“I tried to climb out the window, I figured no body was around anymore but it was too high and I just ended up with scraped knees and hands”

“Who took your stuff?”

“I don´t know –Aaron shrugged- I guess the others in the class”

“You didn´t find out?” Josh was surprised at how little his twin seemed to care about it. It was so strange in him not to be angry at whoever pranked him.

“Not really”

“How did you come out?”

“I think it was around nine when I heard the front door being unlocked, I ran there and guess who I saw?”

“Who?”

“Guess”

“Just tell me”

“Nose-breaker Nichole!”

“What?!” in all honesty Josh wasn´t that surprised, he already knew she liked to swim but somehow he was hopping it wasn’t her.

“Yeah, I was that surprised. She locked the doors behind her and asked me what I was doing there, as if it was the most natural thing for her to brake in just like that. She laughed when I told her the reason for me being there, it was so embarrassing, but I made my best to not show it to her” Aaron looked away remembering the feeling he had felt that night.

“What was she doing there?” Josh asked after a few minutes of silence, even though he already knew the answer.

“She said she liked the pool and then she told me she was sure my things were on the storage room which she opened –did you know she has a key?! I´m telling you, that girl knows how to do her tricks –he said excited- anyways, I took my things and she told me to close the doors.

“She stayed?”

“Yeah, she went to the changing room and came out… wow! There I was convinced she was hot. –Josh had both his eyebrows raised, Aaron drank his juice enjoying his twin´s expression- what are you still doing here she said when she saw me there… but we ended up swimming”

“What?! She let you swim with her?” Josh´s eyes were wide with surprise, Aaron smirked.

“I sort of asked if she didn´t mind. I don´t own the pool she said so I got in” he admitted.

“Ah” was all that Josh managed to say.

“But, I don´t know… she has anger issues or something, she told me to stay in the opposite side of the pool and she said that if I dared to get near her she´d break my nose again as well as my arm”

“Wow”

“I mean, it´s not like I was scared but who knows it seems that she knows how to go all martial arts  on people…”

“Yeah…”

“She can swim, though, she´s so fast even with that bandage on her hand”

“She swam with that?”

“Yeah, it was weird, what does she have, do you know?”

“No, not really”

“Thought you knew… But that´s not all…” Aaron started to laugh

“What?”

“When we were about to leave, she went back to the changing rooms telling me she´d forgotten her sweater, I waited, the next day my swimming suit was super-glued to my locker. I was mad and started yelling, the coach came and long story short my classmates ended up having to clean the pool as punishment”

“Do…Do you think she glued your…”

“I´m almost sure… apparently no one can get in the pool except the people in the class right when the coach enters and that day I had been the last”

“So lucky for you to enter last”

“That day I had invited Nicky, I mean, Nic, to our party, remember, she ran and I followed her, which made me be late”

“Wow, you better be on her good side then” Josh was surprised at Nic´s actions

“Yeah… she´s not that bad when you meet her… after all, though I don´t really have proof, I know she helped me get back to those losers” Aaron said grinning, Josh shook his head.

“You should´ve seen her in that bathing suit!” Aaron said. Josh raised both his eyebrows. “She´s got the body of a gymnast; she´s gotta be good at sports, right?”

“She hardly ever participates during P.E, she sits back and when it´s running she´s quite slow”

“Really?”

“Yeah”

“That´s weird then… “

“She´s a bit strange” Josh added more to himself than to his twin.

“ Yeah, guess what she did then?-this time he didn´t wait for Josh to ask- … she gave me half of her sandwich” Aaron smiled

“Just like that? She offered it to you?” Josh was surprised he´d have to pretty much force himself for her to let him have a lunch with him and Aaron…

“No, I took a look at my watch –Aaron interrupted his twin´s train of thought- and complained that my classmates were going to pay for this since they let me there and now I was not going to get dinner, she looked at me, took a sandwich out of her bag and gave me half”

“I see”

 “Have you… swum together again?” Josh broke the silence as he wondered why he asked that.

Aaron laughed. “Guess”

“Nah, I don´t think you have…”

“Ok, if you say so” Aaron smirked.