CHAPTER TEN:

Aurelio hadn't slept after the nightmare, mostly because he was too indescribably weirded out. So he spent the night sprawled on his side, staring out the window at the star-speckled sky stretching out behind a row of rooftops.

Time passed by. Slowly, torturously, but it passed. Eventually it was morning and Aurelio got up and got ready. Today Blair had suggested going to the beach, but Aurelio and Leslie knew that Matt hated that place, so they'd proposed swimming in the lake nearby.

Aurelio walked into the kitchen, where his parents were having breakfast. His mom asked if he wanted something to eat. Aurelio told her they were planning to eat at the lake and hurried out. If he stayed there any longer, he knew she would notice the exhaustion, the dark crescents starting to form under his eyes. It would warrant questions that Aurelio just didn't want to answer.

Outside, the early morning sun was shy and the sky was clear. Aurelio trudged along the sidewalk, maneuvering his way to the lake. He yawned twice and could barely keep his eyes open. It's okay, he told himself. Just a few more nights like this.

The lake was surrounded by a carpet of pebbles. The girls were already there, and, predictably, Matt was late. Aurelio tried giving them a smile as he approached. "Hi," he said, but a yawn almost escaped with the word.

"Hey!" Blair looked at him with a cheerful grin and skipped closer to hug him. "I like this place! It's so calm and quiet, but it's still cool."

But that's the best part about it, Aurelio thought.

Matt came in running about five minutes later. His pace gradually slowed, and he stopped by Aurelio. "What's up," Matt said. Then he turned to Leslie. "If your boyfriend's coming, tell me already so I can just drown myself."

Leslie shook her head. "He's not coming."

"What's your problem with him?" Blair asked, looking at Matt.

"Dunno." Matt shrugged. "A piece of cardboard's more interesting than him."

"Matt," Leslie said, voice stern. "Please stop shitting on him. You barely even know him."

"Do you?"

Oof.

With raised eyebrows, Aurelio carefully watched Leslie's reaction: her pissed frown softened, now less angry and more flustered, and her green eyes widened the slightest bit. As if Matt's question stirred more answers in her head than she would've liked, or maybe just punctured the center of the issue.

"I do, don't worry," Leslie mumbled, but she didn't sound convinced by her own words. "We came here to swim. Let's go in."

Blair nodded. "Yeah."

Aurelio cast a sidelong glance at Matt; poor guy loved swimming, but with how insecure he was about being skinny, he'd only ever take his shirt off in front of Aurelio and Leslie. So with Blair here, he'd probably come up with an excuse and-

Matt took his shirt off. In front of Blair. No shyness, no embarrassment, no shit.
Just like that. Blair, standing a little to Matt's right, let her gaze wander along his figure in a relaxed manner, an arch to her brow, a glint of want in her eye.

Aurelio stiffened for a moment, then looked left and right with a baffled expression, trying to figure out if someone else caught Blair checking Matt out in the most unapologetic, un-subtle way ever.

It didn't even bother Aurelio; it only confused him, as did everything these days. Blair wasn't like that. She'd always been fiercely loyal: her eyes set on one person and one person only, her focus undivided. Checking out a guy right in front of her boyfriend just wasn't something she'd do.

Blair wasn't looking at Matt anymore, and there wasn't any awkwardness as she turned to Aurelio and gestured him over. "Elio?" Blair said. "Come on!"

"Dude." Leslie tapped Aurelio's arm. "We've been trying to connect to Elio Land for a while now. Wanna swim or what?"

"Yeah." Aurelio took off his shirt too, set it in Leslie's beach bag, then walked to the lake. He shivered when the water touched his toes, then it drowned his shins, and then he was submerged, swimming next to Matt and Blair. Leslie joined after him.

Someone splashed him. Aurelio glimpsed at his left, and he realized it was Leslie. She smiled. "Elio, why the frown?" she said. "Have some fun."

Aurelio nodded. So they swam and splashed each other and laughed and talked, and Matt was happy and Leslie wasn't angry. Music blasted out of the speaker they'd left by Leslie's bag. Eventually Blair swam near Aurelio, nearer and nearer, until she floated right next to him, then she raised her arms above the water and wrapped them around his neck.

She looked into his eyes, full of confidence, full of life. Aurelio's heart raced. Her hand carded through the hair on the back of his head, the way she did to Matt in his dream. Goosebumps rose on his arms.

Why was his brain doing this to him?

"Can I?" she asked in a gentle voice, looking at his mouth.

The question broke something in Aurelio. She still remembered when he told her he wasn't feeling like a kiss, and she still respected his permission. And he was out there accusing her of ogling his best friend. It was all just a sick game played by his mind. It had to be. Perhaps all the anxiety recently...perhaps it was the reason he wasn't feeling as strongly about her anymore. He should try to rekindle.

So he nodded, and he waited for Blair to lean in. At first her lips were soft and warm on his, and gentle, so gentle. Then she nudged his face aside with her nose so she could get a better angle, and she pried his mouth open, and now Aurelio didn't want to do this anymore.

Nope.

Rekindling failed.

Before he could pull back, Blair did. Hazel eyes wide and disbelieving, like she'd discovered a secret, unraveled a mystery. Her hands fell onto Aurelio's shoulders.

"Oh my God," she said, her eyes glossy. "Elio..."

This gave Aurelio more anxiety than the damn car accident. Still he, maintained a straight expression and a leveled voice. "Hm?"

"I'm so proud of you."

What?

"Proud," Aurelio repeated, dumbfounded. "Proud of what?"

"It's been a while since we've kissed and I didn't taste the cigarette."

What. The. Hell.

Aurelio blinked. A lot. No, really-a lot. He just...what the hell was going on? "I...But I don't smoke," he said. "I never did."

Blair chuckled. "Yeah, we'll pretend it never happened. A mistake in the past, and that's where we'll keep it."

"No." Aurelio shook his head, then he laughed at the idea. "No, no, no. I never smoked. I mean it."

"Elio, don't be silly now. Smoking's the reason we broke up last time."

Aurelio would argue even more in his defense, except something else distracted him.

They broke up before?

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