Hayley Elliott
It’s not until the boat’s nearly out of sight that I realize we’ve been pranked.
“Did that seriously just happen?” I turn to my raft mate, Ryan, AKA secret-love-of-my-life-but-I-would-never-admit-it-even-when-forced-under-pressure.
“Looks that way.” He shifts on our tubing raft, his wet limbs bumping into mine.
Our arms strategically crisscross to increase our odds of staying on during the chaotic ride we’d anticipated our friends to taking us on. But no, they’d towed us out here only to unhook the rope and leave us adrift a mile from shore.
Being marooned in the middle of the lake floating aimlessly sets my pulse racing until a whiff of Ryan’s woodsy soap wafts through the air. The scent is so familiar to me, a sense of comfort washes over my nerves.
“They’ll be back, Jennifer. They can’t leave us out here forever. First off, it’s illegal. And second, the last thing Josh wants to do is explain to his dad how he got a ticket while borrowing his boat.”
The gentle waves lap against the raft, rocking us back and forth. It might’ve been soothing if I wasn’t floating in the middle of the lake with my long-time secret crush. Ryan and I have been neighbors since we were twelve. Our moms are best friends and our parents do weekly cookouts together.
There’s no graceful way to slip into a conversation, oh, by the way, I’ve had a crush on you since the first night you rode your skateboard through the neighborhood and did a magical, heart-stopping hair-flip and cool-guy wave in my direction. Yeah. Not gonna happen.
For ten years, since middle school, we’ve maintained the same friends, a close-knit group who are staying at a lake house at Table Rock Lake for the weekend. One last hoorah before we start our “grown-up” jobs after college graduation. Problem is, everyone slowly coupled up. We’re the single oddballs of the group.
“Hold on, I’m going to help push the raft toward the shore.”
Before I can process Ryan’s words, he disappears into the water.
He pops back up and whips his long hair to the side, the setting sun making his blonde waves even more golden and gorgeous than the first night I saw him. I gulp.
Not to be outdone by his helpfulness, I glide into the water like an elegant mermaid.
False.
In reality, I underestimate the bulkiness of the raft, the slipperiness of its surface, and miscalculate my descent by ramming my heel squarely into his life vest. We both go underwater.
Resurfacing, he laughs. “Are you trying to drown me?” He swipes his hair from his face, his body inches from mine. Our legs brush.
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Unthinking, I place my hands on his slick biceps, and by their own volition, they move upward to his shoulders.
His gaze steadies on mine. And when his mouth opens slightly, he licks his lips.
Holy jeepers. What am I doing? I propel my body backward and latch onto the raft’s strap like an anchor, refusing to acknowledge what almost just happened between us.
The raft tilts as he grips the strap next to mine, facing me. Seconds tick by. I study the finite stitching on the raft’s surface.
“Jenn?”
“Mmhmm?” The tips of my ears burn like fire. No big deal—just the most intimate touch I’ve ever shared with my childhood best friend.
“I think we should talk about—”
“Nope. No. We definitely should not. Let’s just pretend nothing happened.”
“I don’t want to.” His large hand encases mine, drawing my resistant gaze to his open, earnest one. “I’ve actually been meaning to tell you for a while…”
I inch closer, trying to hear him better. The water laps around our shoulders, our bodies bobbing in unison as the distance between us shrinks.
“Something started to change for me during our game night a few weeks ago.”
“The one where we played truth or dare?” I’d replayed the night a hundred times over. The teasing, the flirting, the laughing over nothing until dawn.
“I can’t help but feel like maybe there could be more between us?”
“More?”
“Yeah. More.” His thumb grazes back and forth on my hand. Goosebumps erupt along my arm.
I’m positive I must be hallucinating.
“It’s been hard since then, acting like I don’t have feelings for you. I figured you could see right through me.”
I lick my lips. “I couldn’t.”
His smile broadens. “Everyone else could.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because they asked me, so I told them.”
My mind whirs, thinking of all the opportunities our friends could have told me, but didn’t. “No one said anything to me.”
“I asked them to let me be the one to tell you.” He scoots closer, his vest bumping into mine. “That’s also how I know the boat will be back in fifteen minutes.”
I smack his arm. “This stunt was your idea?”
He nods and twists my braid between his fingers until I can’t even remember my own name, much less why I’m stranded in the middle of the lake.
His gaze drags from my bare shoulder to my face. “I like you, Jennifer Rylee Cooper, as more than a friend, and have for quite a while.”
My heart hammers against my chest. “I’ve liked you for quite a while, too.”
His lips quirk to the side. “Maybe we should test these newfound feelings?”
He doesn’t need to tell me twice. I merge the gap, release the raft, and latch my arms around his neck. We plunge underwater briefly before reemerging, laughing.
“Let’s try that again.” With a strong arm anchored to the raft, he slips his free arm around my waist, pulls me to him, and kisses me soundly on the mouth. And somewhere in the back of my brain, I realize that being marooned with my best friend is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
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Spark Flash Fiction 