AllFreeNovel
Share Us
August refuses to take them and watch me sink to the depths. “We’re notdying. We’re going to swim. Since the far shore is closest, we’re just going to have to swim to it and walk around to our car.”
“I’d rather die,” I decide.
“Landon!”
“Death would be much kinder and less painful, August! I can’t swim the miles!”
“It’s notmiles.”
“Then hike Mount Everest to return to our car!”
“It’s completely flat!”
“Save the cat, August… just… save the cat… and my book.”
August sighs as our mighty swan is engulfed, leaving us behind as I try to hold the cat and book above water.
“This is my end! I love you!” I say as we’re all dunked into the water. Zacia isnotpleased as she leaps onto my head, digging her little needle claws into my scalp and wrapping her tail around my eyes.
“Come on, Landon, you can do it,” August says as he starts swimming.
The thing he doesn’t understand is that I may be able to swim but not after I’d already used up both legs pedaling out here! And now I have to swim with one hand? I must protect Zacia and my book at all costs.
“You… do know how to swim, right?” August asks.
“Why yes. My father taught me by throwing me off a bridge. Thankfully, Nolan jumped in after me. You want to know what my mom said when she learned what my father had done? ‘Mark, you know that you shouldn’t use the Park Street bridge, we use the Hayes bridge since it’s not as tall.’”
“How are you alive?” he asks, sounding mystified.
“I’m going to be honest… I have absolutely no idea,” I say as I one-handed paddle after him. He looks like he’s going for a leisurely Sunday stroll. He seems like he’s just enjoying life to its absolute fullest while I’m over here staring death in the eyes.
August, noticing this, turns back to me. “Landon… I know this is going to hurt you, but you have to let the book go. We’ll buy you a new one.”
“No! I… must… protect it!”
“Landon… you might not know this, but they make like millions of copies of books. They won’t have run out. We can even stop on the way home! This one isn’t even a collector’s edition!”
I look up at the beauty, still clear of a single drop of water. “August, I can’t do it.”
“Let me,” he says, as he reaches out with water dripping off his fingertips that want totouchmy beloved book?
“August, don’t you dare.”
He sighs but allows me to continue my struggles. “I would volunteer to hold it for you, but I have absolutely no way to dry my hand off and am positive it won’t fly like this.”
Now I’m holding hands with death. My legs are cramping, I can feel blood running down my forehead from Zacia’s claws, and my lungs have given up all semblance of working.
“Here, let me carry Zacia at least,” August says as he reaches over to pick her up. All he manages to do is show me that I was a fool when I thought her claws were embedded in my scalp. Nope. Nooooo those claws didn’t eventouchme until he tries taking her from me and then it’s like they all activate at once, sinking in even deeper.
“Oh my god, myHEAD.”
“I’m sorry!” August says as he tries to pull them out of my head, but she just digs in deeper, her tail whapping me in the eyeball so we areallaware of her displeasure.
“I’m going to drown.”
“Do I bother mentioningagainthat you could let go of the book? No?” August grabs onto me, clearly understanding that what he asks of me is too much. “Come on. I won’t let you drown,” he says as he presses into me with his manly muscles. The wet shirt sticking to his chest makes the experience tolerable. I flip onto my back, keeping my head high enough out of the water that Zacia isn’t getting too wet and just begin to float, book up toward the sky.
“Leave me, August. I will simply float until I reach shore. It may be hours, it may be days, but someday… I will come home to you. I will find another in the home we shared and be forced to—”
