This is a work of fiction. All characters depicted are 18 years or over
*
Beck was treading water at the deep end, breathless with laughter. Twenty meters away on the patio, Maya dropped to a crouch, then sprang like a sprinter leaving the starting blocks. Reaching the pool’s edge she took a flying leap, hugging her knees to her chest the better to bomb her little blonde target. She surfaced under the subsiding cascade and they wrestled, squealing and cackling, before Beck broke off and crash-dived to the bottom.
Back at the shallow end they hauled up onto a submerged terracotta step, where they lay on their backs, propped on their elbows under the hot mid-afternoon sun. “I usually swim naked.” Maya announced out of nowhere, her belly rising and falling, breasts quivering atop her heaving ribcage.
“Me too.” Beck said, still breathing hard.
“Mum made me wear this. To be polite.”
“Same here.” Beck commiserated. “My old boy said I had to act civilised.”
“How do you normally act?”
“Natural.” Beck said without missing a beat. She nodded in the direction of Maya’s bikini bottoms. “Still, I really love your bikini. Reminds me of rainforest.”
“Why thank you.” Maya smiled. “I lost my last one. You know the Blue Lagoon? Near Reykjavik?”
Beck shook her head.
“Iceland?”
“Iceland? Is that like some kind of theme park?”
Maya gave her the eye and decided she was joking. “You should go you know, the Blue Lagoon. There are geysers and steam vents, and the water’s as warm as a bath. I reckon you’d love it.”
“What do you do there?”
“You just wade around and stuff. The water comes from deep underground and it’s supposed to be good for you. There’s even a bar if you feel like a beer, like a swim-through. Anyhow, I hate wearing swimmers so I took my bottoms off and stashed them under a seat near the bar, but when I came back some asshole had stolen them.” She shot Beck a lopsided yet dentally-perfect grin. “Mum had to dig up a towel real quick and come to my rescue. I said, ‘don’t come in, I’ll come to you’, but she didn’t want to start an international incident. Holy shit she was cranky.” She snapped her waistband elastic. “Got these in Hawaii. Only three hundred bucks. How much were yours?”
“Not sure.” Beck hefted a shoulder. “They were a present.”
“To Dive Fors?”
“Uh huh.”
“Somebody loves you.” Maya said, then slid forward a ways and dipped the back of her head in the water. “Your boyfriend’s nice. He’s a writer, right?”
Beck screwed up her face. “Boyfriend? Gawd. Wait till I tell him.”
“Well what do you call him?”
“Damon? I don’t know. I call him lots of things.”
“But he’s your partner?”
“I suppose. He’s more like my guide I guess. He’s my teacher.”
Maya rolled over onto her tummy to sun her back. “I thought that sort of thing was illegal.”
“What sort of thing?”
“Teachers. Having relationships with students.”
“What? No. That’s not what I meant.”
“Doesn’t worry me.” Maya said blithely. “I do lots of illegal stuff. Mum always says the law is for losers.”
“But it’s not like that!” Beck persisted, “You see Damon and me... I mean he... I guess... I guess you could say that he saved me.”
“What from?”
Tell her the truth? How she’d fled her meth-addict mother and her mother’s drug-dealing boyfriend, escaped by stowing away on the old man’s yacht? Describe her life as a scumbag’s child, dressed in rags, foraging for food in restaurant dumpsters? “Truth is I was lost. Lost at sea. And Damon found me.”
“What were you doing out there?”
Beck narrowed her eyes. “Fighting for my life.”
“I mean seriously?”
“I mean trying... not... to die.”
Maya thought about it. “That’s cool.” She rolled onto her back again and idly kicked at the water. “But you’re a couple, right? Like you’re in a relationship?”
“Of course.” Beck frowned, suddenly wary of where this might be heading.
“I mean a physical one.”
Beck nodded. “That’s part of it.”
“Really? How old are you?”
“Nineteen.” Beck said, the standard reply. “What about you?”
“Just turned eighteen.” Maya said then swung the wheel back. “Nineteen and in a relationship. That’s pretty amazing.”
“What’s so amazing?” Beck said defensively. “We’re just two people who love doing the same thing. Sailing.” ‘And each other.’ she added silently.
“But... why not a younger guy?”
“I don’t know any younger guys.” Beck replied a little impatiently. “At least none who come with their very own yacht. Who know how to sail. Who don’t freak out the minute the weather turns nasty.”
“I guess.” Maya said. She still had so many questions; How often did they have sex? And when they did could he ‘perform’? And did she ever feel the need for someone a little less... wordly? “I’m not prying, am I? Mum told me not to pry.”
“I don’t mind,” Beck replied, “but there’s not a lot I can tell you. I mean, we might seem odd but we’re actually quite ordinary. I bet your life is much more exciting.”
“Mmm...” Maya thought about it. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“Okay? You could fit my entire bedroom in one of your drawers.”
“That’s just stuff.” Maya said dismissively.
“Maybe. But I bet you’ve got dozens of boyfriends.”
Maya looked at her. “Not a one.”
“Oh, go on.” Beck rolled her eyes. “Someone as gorgeous as you?”
“Me? Gorgeous?” Maya grunted with derision, “Hardly. If you want gorgeous you should see the girls at my school. I’m one of the ugly ones.”
“Rubbish!”
“No, it’s true. Anyway, when it comes to guys there’s not much on the market. Bankers and barristers and stuffed-shirt SC’s. And most of them are already married. Dated a couple, just because, but I kept winding up with an angry wife breathing down my neck.”
