Body of Water Read Online Free

rubbed her leg.
    "I'm really sorry," she stammered. "I didn't mean to upset you."
    I put my arm around her and patted her hair. She fell against me, sobbing freely now. "It's all right. I don't mind talking about it."
    Shaun appeared bearing a bowl of ice cream and a bag of frozen peas.
    Without speaking he handed her the bowl, crouched in front of her and applied the bag to her leg. She ate her ice cream with such a forlorn expression that I chuckled.
    Red-eyed, she gazed up at me. "Is it very horrible, being adopted?"
    "I'm fostered. I'm a bit too old for adoption now. It was horrible at first, being sent to live with all these strangers. I always felt like I had to do tricks to be accepted."
    "Why have you been with more than one family?"
    "I kept getting sent back."
    "Why?"
    "Beth," warned Shaun. "You're being very rude."
    She offered me her ice cream as an apology but Shaun took the bowl and stood up.
    "Who's still hungry?" He headed back into the kitchen and I helped Beth follow him.
    Rummaging in the fridge, he pulled out more food. "I have to keep my food intake up while I'm training," he said, eager to explain that he wasn't just being greedy.
    "Leven's not sporty," piped up Beth. "He prefers to draw, like me."
    He tore off some cooked chicken and chewed it thoughtfully. "How about a swim?"
    I went cold. "I've never been allowed to go near the water."
    "Why not?"
    "It's complicated."
    "I could teach you."
    "I don't even have a pair of trunks."
    "I have a new pair you can have. Still got the tags on. Why not give it a go?"
    Now he wanted me to stay? I asked myself why I was coming up with reasons not to. All I wanted to do was get some answers; ask him why he'd kissed me that night, and find out why he'd left. It was clear that he wasn't going to acknowledge that we already knew each other in front of his sister so I played along.
    "Sure, why not? How far away is the pool from here?"
    He grinned. "About twenty feet straight down. It's in the basement." It was his first smile since he arrived home.
    I'd expected plans to be made for later, not right now.
    Beth groaned as her mother appeared looking no less testy but infinitely more sober. "Darling," the woman made it sound like an insult. "Come along. We have to go to your tiresome friend's equally tiresome mother's... thing."
    "Ugh," Beth said, and then mother and daughter were gone to get Beth ready.
    Shaun led me to his room, keeping the conversation light. I didn't know what to expect his bedroom to look like but I certainly didn't expect one wall of stacked firewood and furniture made from reclaimed materials.
    "Do you like it?" He studied the room carefully.
    "It's like a lodge."
    "Is that good?" His uncertainty reassured me somehow. This was probably the first time he'd been in this room, his room, and he was nervous about my reaction to it. In a way, I felt like we were now on equal footing.
    "Shaun, why did-"
    "Later, okay? When we're alone."
    "But-"
    "Please?" He crossed the space between us and held the back of my head, holding his forehead against mine. "It's complicated."
    I wanted to put my arms around him and kiss him but I knew he wouldn't want that, at least not right now, so I nodded and he set about finding me some trunks. He tossed them to me and I waited for him to leave, or at least turn his back but he stood, expectant.
    Oh no. I wasn't ready for this. "Aren't you going to get changed too?"
    "My costume is already on, see?" He pulled up his t-shirt and hiked down his shorts to demonstrate, revealing a solid torso as well as a band of brightly coloured fabric.
    I decided that I'd probably changed in front of him before in a physical education class so I pulled off my jeans and underwear. Leaving my t-shirt on made me feel less naked.
    He whistled. "Your girlfriend must be very happy."
    I pulled on the trunks quickly, my face hot with embarrassment. "I don't have a girlfriend."
    He took a step towards me. "Boyfriend?"
    I shook my head and fell quiet