Page 41 of A Little Bit Reckless

“Wells, she’s drowning! Wells, save her!”

I jumped into action, panicked. I swam like my life depended on it.

It did.

I put that out of my mind and spotted Bow at the bottom of the pool. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to me.

Don’t die. Please don’t die.

I breached the surface with her frail little body in my arms. She smelled like nutmeg and cinnamon buns. She smelled like Bow.

Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die.

She was limp when I pulled her out of the water. She wasn’t moving, and she was pale.

People screamed around me. Her friends cried. Everyone was freaking out, but I couldn’t. I was her only hope.

I pressed my mouth to hers, giving her my life, my breath.

Come on, Bow. Come on.

This wasn’t right. She wasn’t the girl who drowned. She wasn’t the girl I couldn’t save.

“Bow!” Water dripped from my hair across her face, her skin ghost white when she was normally rosy red. This girl blushed like a motherfucker, and I always wondered what it would be like to touch it. To drag my finger across the tint and see what it did. Would she blush more?

Would it last?

I never got the chance to see what it would do. All color had drained from her face, and my repetitions to bring her back to life weren’t doing anything. She wasn’t coming back, no matter how much I tried. My best friend’s little sister drowned, and it was my fault. I couldn’t bring her back.

I couldn’t save her.

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

Bru

Wells called out, and it jolted me from my sleep. He was thrashing on Bow’s futon, and I got up off the floor. Bow had set up a makeshift bed for me there.

“Breathe, goddammit! You have to. You have to…” Sweat lined Wells’s brow, and he gripped the blanket that’d been covering him. Bow had given that to him too. Wells sucked in a breath. “If you die, I’ll die. I swear to God...”

An ache hit the guy’s voice, and it ripped its way through me. I’d never seen him like this. I shook him. “Wells?”

“Please, wake up. Please!”

I shook him harder. “Wells!”

Wells jolted awake, and I thought he’d punch me in the jaw since he’d woken so violently. The color drained from his face. Wells gazed around. He looked panicked or in some kind of crazy daze.

I squeezed his arm and my hand came away damp. His cut-off tee was drenched as well around the neck. I ignored it, searching for his eyes. “Wells?”

His green irises focused on me, and right away, he sighed. It was like seeing me brought him some kind of relief.

I wouldn’t let it affect me that my presence did that. I couldn’t get wrapped up with him like that again. Things had been bullshit between us for weeks.

“Bru,” he said, and didn’t call me the kid. He didn’t call me anything else at all.

He just kissed me.