“I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t say it now.”

Mateo’s eyes are green, with specks of brown. I never noticed that before. He continues.

“You know what, never mind sorry- this was stupid-“

“It’s not stupid.” I say. My heart beats faster. Weird. I’ve told this little fun fact about myself to random people all the time and never once has my body acted like this before.

“I have something to admit too. I can’t swim.”

Look at him being nice. I can tell he’s holding back that laugh I want to hear so much.

“What? Don’t you live on a boat?”

“Yup. Embarrassing, right?”

We turn the corner and see a community pool across the street. Kids splash water to each other, their laughter fills the air. Mateo notices and begins to smile.

“I bet you don’t have any swimming trunks in your backpack, do you?”

“Uh…no?”

“But you are wearing underwear?”

“Course-“

He grabs my hand and we fly through the street towards the pool, almost getting hit by a car on our way there.