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“Ok, thanks for the help, Ken…” Already irritated, the older blonde left us all.

Becker moved closer to me. “Introduce the two, Veronica.” he began saying. “She's an adult and she's just asking you for a small favor. No one is setting a trap for your brother or Colleen.”

That conversation was going from bad to worse.

“If you do that, I'll kill you.” Kendra threatened. “I don't like you and I think your brother is the kind of trouble Colleen doesn't need right now, so don't do what she asked.”

Becker looked perplexed:

“Are you serious?”

I wanted to agree with Kendra, just the two of us were both enough trouble without involving anyone else in the mess. Colleen and Derek weren't just our friends, we were talking about her cousin and my brother. That meant family, and deep down in my gut, the last thing I wanted was to be responsible for becoming the same family as Kendra Winfrey.

“I'm not going to do anything about them.” was my final sentence.

Becker seemed very annoyed with us, completely in disbelief as he followed Colleen.

Karlee then called us to start the practice.

We were still in the phase of showing ourselves to her and exposing our talents, weaknesses and strengths. The coach always took notes on everything and, in the end, ended up pointing out what needed to be improved or modified.

Almost three hours later, my body felt wet with sweat and my muscles asked, or rather begged, for a rest.

“Tomorrow the first training session is in the morning, again, don’t be late. And don't come to the gym at night having stuffed yourself with food, please.” And then Karlee dismissed us.

I picked up my bag, feeling the material weight absurdly heavy under my shoulder. If I could, I would crawl out of the gym that afternoon. Troian didn't look any better than me, Emily just didn't show it, but she wasn't that different.

“Hey.” Jazmine called us. “We're going to dinner, do you want to come along?”

Even though she was Kendra's roommate, she was super friendly. And the girls seemed to like her. Troian and Emily accepted the invitation, I had to deny it, because I had arranged to meet MJ at the aquatic gym.

“Are you sure you don't want to go?” Troian insisted and I smiled at my new friend.

“Yeah. I'm going to see my boyfriend.”

In the background I saw Kendra make a face. She looked like she'd never left the damn fifth grade. She acted like a spoiled and bored child most of the time and that only made me want to punch her in the face even more.

“Okay, then let's go!” Kendra made the group move and I waved to everyone, heading in the opposite direction.

The sun was still setting, so there was natural light to guide my way. I liked the late afternoon weather, even more so with the arrival of fall. I took my time walking and, luckily, when I reached the pools, there was no one other than Martin in the water. My boyfriend was very dedicated to the sport, just like me. I really admired that about him. Besides, it wasn't bad at all to be able to admire his broad back as he took steady strokes in the water.

As soon as he finished his sequence of back and forth, back and forth repetitions, he stopped in front of me, but still in the pool.

“Hi, kitten…” The wide smile that took him made my heart flutter. MJ took off his swimming goggles and allowed me to look into his blue eyes. “How was practice?”

“Exhausting...” I confessed, bending down and sitting on the edge of the pool. “Are you going to train more today?”

“No, I've been here alone for an hour... I was just waiting for you.” Dedication! I loved him for that so much. Besides,‘I was just waiting for you’made me feel a bit silly, like a little girl in love. I didn't know how to explain it.

“Oh, yeah? I bet you're hungry then.”

“Ah, chlorine always makes me hungry as a lion.” he joked.

“So... shall we?”

He nodded and jumped up from the water, using his arms to push his body out. Which resulted in him getting me a little wet.

“Martin!”