Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

DARCY

I ’m incredibly lucky to have Maya. She’s the best best friend in the entire world. I hope she knows it. There is no one I would rather spend a shitty day with than her. She just has a knack for brightening even the darkest of moments. It doesn’t matter how sad or angry I am. Five minutes with Maya and I’ll be smiling and laughing as if nothing was ever wrong.

Maya is special because she doesn’t try to fix my problems. Instead, she carries them with me so they aren’t as heavy. She eases the weight on my shoulders. I don’t think I can ever repay her for that, though God knows she deserves for me to. That girl has given me so much. I don’t know how I will ever give back even a fraction of that care in our lifetime, but I’ll continue to try every single day.

“So whatever happened with Louis anyway?” I ask her as she scrolls through the TV menu for a new movie to watch. I believe this will be movie number four of the day, but honestly, I’ve sort of lost count. We aren’t really paying attention to the TV anyway. “You were so obsessed with him, but I haven’t seen him around the past couple of days.”

The smile on Maya’s face momentarily slips, but she recovers and puts a new smile on, but this one is not nearly as genuine. I can see how strained it is, from her lips all the way up to her eyes.

“Oh, I don’t know. Nothing happened , exactly. He didn’t fuck me over or anything like that, if that’s what you mean. I guess it’s more like… I realized my priorities, and right now, he isn’t one of them.” Her face softens a bit. “He’s been calling, though. I talked to him for hours last night. It’s weird, Darcy. I know you think I’m kind of a slut?—”

“Maya!” I reel back like she’s slapped me. “Never in a million years would I think that!”

She waves me off. “No, it’s fine. I don’t care. I know I bounce around from guy to guy. But this feels different. The way I feel about him… I’ve never felt like this before. And honestly, D…” She looks up and her eyes meet mine. “It’s kind of scary.”

I’m always taken aback by how beautiful Maya is, but right now, I’m genuinely breathless. My best friend—my sweet, generous, selfless best friend—is the most beautiful person in the world, inside and out. She would never say it out loud, but I know that she’s always felt broken when it comes to love, as in—it never stuck. Guys came and went. They loved her beauty but weren’t adventurous enough to want her personality. So, she had her heart broken time and time again. But now she’s finally found a guy who wants to talk to her for hours—listen to her silly rambles all while admiring her undeniable beauty—and she was willing to give it up for Cody and me.

“Oh, Maya.” I reach out and take her hand, squeezing it tightly. And then I smile at her. “It’s supposed to be scary, babe. That’s how you know it’s worth something. And don’t get me wrong, I am so happy we spent today together, but you could’ve gone to see him. I wouldn’t have minded.”

I see some of the wariness resting within the lines of Maya’s face soften, and I wonder if this is what I look like when she eases my worries. “If he really is worth it, then he’ll wait. If he wants to be in my life, then he has to understand that I have a family that comes first. And that includes you, D. You’re my family.”

“And you’re mine,” I say to her. “Being here with you is a million times better than any honeymoon of mine could have ever been.”

“Hell yeah,” Maya agrees with a grin. Her eyes brighten. “Hey, I have an idea! Let’s go down to the pool. It’s closed for the season, so we’ll have it all to ourselves.”

Ah—Maya’s one notable flaw: her absolute lack of comprehension that choices have consequences. I like to say that I’m her common sense, because sometimes it seems like she just does not have a lick of it.

“Are you kidding? It’s closed for a reason . Do you want to get us booted out on our asses in the snow? Or your brother fired ?”

“Well, that’s the fun of it!” she explains as if it’s obvious. “Oh, come on, Darcy. One, Cody will be fine. Two, don’t you want to do something a little rebellious? We have no control over anything that happens in this life, but we have control over our choices, and sometimes bad choices make you feel just a little bit better about the crappy hand you’ve been dealt.”

She’s not necessarily wrong.

“And besides,” she continues, “I bet Cody has sneaked cute girls in here tons of times.”

I ignore the comment.

It would feel nice to take back a bit of control. It’s seemed like, lately, I’ve had no control over anything. And it does get so draining trying to make the right decision all of the time. Maybe for once, I should be a bit adventurous. Just like Maya.

“Alright,” I agree, swallowing my anxiety for the sake of a bit of fun. “Let’s do it.”

“Yes!” Maya hops up from the couch. I don’t think I’ve seen her this excited since we got to the resort. At the very least, I’m doing something to please Maya, and that will be worth the risk of doing something wrong. “I’ll get the wine!”

“No more!” I command Maya as she reaches for an unopened bottle of rosé, but even I can’t take myself seriously with the way I laugh through the demand. I think we’ve already gone through two bottles. I don’t know. We’ve lost count, but I know it’s too many, especially considering most of the drinking was done by Maya. I’ve had enough to feel a bit fuzzy, but she’s completely wasted.

“Yes, more !” she counters through giggles. She holds the bottle above the surface of the water and I’m suddenly terrified that she’s going to drop it on her head and get hurt.

“Maya, be careful!”

She waves me off. “Stop worrying so much. I’m fineeeee .”

Fine , I scoff. Sure.

“Would you please just put the giant glass bottle down?” I ask. Maya rolls her eyes but does as I ask, setting it on the side of the pool. But then she unscrews the top and takes a swig right from the bottle.

She smacks her lips together. “Delicious!”

“No, it’s not,” I counter in exasperation. “You hate the taste of wine, remember?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty gross,” Maya says with a shrug, but the smile on her face doesn’t disappear for even a brief second. She takes another few sips from the bottle, and I don’t bother to stop her. She won’t listen to me anyway. Trying to control her is just a waste of breath.

Maya seems to detect my annoyance. “Are you mad?” she asks. “Oh God, you’re mad, aren’t you? I’m sorry, Darcy. This was supposed to be fun and?—”

I like to say that Maya has two stages of being drunk. The first is unbridled joy—excitement like a kid in a candy shop— and the second is horrible, terrible anxiety— the kind that’s stressful to experience even secondhand. We are very quickly entering the territory of Stage Two.

“No, Maya, I’m not mad,” I assure her. “Just chill, okay? I am having so much fun, and I love you as much as I did two hours ago.”

The worry dragging at Maya’s face eases and she sinks back into a content smile once more. And I’m once more consumed by the patronizing thought of sweet, precious Maya because really, this poor girl could not be any duller. Drunk Maya is like being with a toddler. A wildly overgrown toddler that can’t be subdued no matter what you do.

“Okay, good. I’m glad,” she says with a satisfied nod. She takes two more long drinks of the wine, then sets it on the side of the pool. She wades toward me in the water and grabs my arm. “Come on, Darcy! Let’s have a race!”

“That is a terrible idea,” I tell her bluntly. She frowns, and I have half a mind to give in just for the sake of making her happy, but I know this time I can’t. Letting someone who’s been drinking so much try to swim in the deep end is asking for disaster. And I don’t quite trust myself to be able to pull Maya out of the water at the moment, should it become necessary. I’d rather have Maya be mad at me than helplessly watch her drown.

“Oh, come on!” Maya pleads. “It’ll be just like high school. You remember? You and me, the stars of the Coppolo High School Swim Team.”

I scoff at the idea.

“More like Maya Banks, star of the Coppolo High School Swim Team and Darcy Gray, best friend of Maya Banks, star of the Coppolo High School Swim Team. ”

“Oh, stop!” Maya waves me off. “You were just as good as I was. A valued member of the team. And you can prove it by racing me right now.”

“Maya, no?—”

“Darcy, yes!” Maya laughs, wading backwards into deeper and deeper water. I can see her start to struggle to touch the bottom and it strikes fear into me. Why the hell is she doing this? I’m not having fun anymore. Not at all.

“Maya, stop!” I demand. “You’re going to kill yourself!”

“No, I’m not,” Maya says matter-of-factly. “I am an excellent swimmer.”

“Yeah, but you’re also wasted,” I counter. I can hear my voice pitching up, but I don’t do anything to level it. I want her to know how stressed I am. I want her to stop going deeper and deeper into the freezing cold water. God, I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it and I told her, but I let her convince me that it wasn’t. Just like always. Just like coming on this godforsaken trip to begin with.

Why don’t I ever stick with my gut?

“Just come back, Maya, alright?” I try to rationalize with her. “We can race tomorrow when you’re sober.”

“Too late!” Maya exclaims through laughter, launching herself off of the bottom plastering of the pool and diving into the water. I struggle to see her through the ripples she’s creating in the water, but I can tell she’s going deeper and deeper and?—

She reaches the far wall. I think she touches it, but she’s too far away for me to clearly see. I wait for her to come up for air. I wait and I wait and I wait. Every second feels like a minute. And she doesn’t emerge from the water. No matter how long I wait, she doesn’t come up.

“Maya?” the word is whispered, voice caught in my throat. But then all at once, it comes out with a vengeance. “Maya!”

I take off into the water, swimming with a speed like none other to reach her. I don’t know how long she’s been without air when I reach her, but I know it’s too long. I grab her by her arms and yank her up. I struggle to reach the surface. I think we might be sinking even further. I feel my lungs burn from a lack of oxygen and I try to scream, but that only allows me to inhale more water. I’m dying and so is Maya. We are going to die here.

Just as the world starts to turn blurry around the edges, I feel two strong hands grab me by my waist and yank me to the surface. And then everything goes black.