Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 16:21:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Ryan West Subject: Diving In: Floating Away 1 Floating Away Chapter One: Consequences Cameron Wright sat in his car looking down at his car keys. He had been doing this for the past twenty-four minutes. He glanced at his clock. 7:34. Class started at 8:30. He had initially decided to come early so he could see some of his old friends, but then as soon as he returned to Mineola High School he realized that things were not going to be that easy. He had been away for three months with Matt. His entire summer. And now he was back physically, but not mentally. Things were going to be weird. But he was excited to see Travis and Alex. And James. Well, he was bitter-sweet about seeing James. He knew it was going to be incredibly awkward, but he was definitely eager to see his face. That night suddenly flashed before Cameron's eyes. The kiss. James' hands on Cameron's hips. He had managed to block the memory out of his mind all summer, but now that he was back it came back. Sitting here in the parking lot wasn't doing him any good. He decided that it was time to go inside. He grabbed his backpack and swung open the door to his car. He walked across the front lawn of the school and up the stairs. However, as soon as he entered the school he wanted to turn back. He was overwhelmed with faces he had forgotten. Just random students, but nonetheless it was weird seeing these people. He headed over to the Mr. Genson's, the guidance counselor, office- he had to pick up his student schedule and locker assignment. After doing so, he headed over to his locker. However, along the way he heard his name being called. He swung around to see Travis McCarthy and Marissa Tampa standing by a locker. Travis' hair was much longer, it now hung on his face. He hadn't cut it all summer. "Hey fuckhead, get over here and give me a hug." Travis smirked. Cameron walked over and did so. He kissed Marissa on the cheek. "It's great to see you!" Cameron laughed. "Both of you." He was kind of lying. Not that he didn't like Marissa, it was just that he literally knew nothing about her. He only knew that she used to be the most popular girl in school and now for some reason she was with Travis. "How was your summer? You went away with that kid, right?" Travis asked. "Matt, yeah. It was great." Cameron blushed a little bit. He realized that he probably should've lied to Travis about where he'd gone, because it must've seemed weird that he had gone away with another guy. But then again, Travis wasn't the smartest kid in the world and it would never cross his mind that Cameron was gay. "Where'd you guys go?" Marissa chimed in. "His summer house," Cameron wanted to change the topic, but he felt he owed some sort of explanation. "My parents were lecturing me about getting a job and stuff, so I found a way out of it by going away." Cameron laughed nervously. "That's sick, man." Travis looked at Marissa and smiled. "We all should go out to dinner this weekend." "Yeah, absolutely." Cameron agreed. "Us three, then maybe Alex..." "I wouldn't be so sure about that..." Marissa muttered. "Yeah, uh," Travis searched for something to say. "Alex isn't exactly...the person you might've remembered." "What do you mean?" Cameron asked. "You'll see," Travis laughed. ... Alexis Lucas stood in front of the school bathroom mirror as she applied her make up. Clad in a pink polo shirt and a pair of jeans, she stood next to Meghan O'Halloran and Darcy Granger. They both were doing the same. "I can't believe she had sex with him," Meghan laughed. "He's just so...fat and...fat." "No, I can't believe his dick was big enough to go inside of anything," Darcy smiled. "Kevin told me that he saw it in the locker room and it was barely an inch long. Literally." Alexis and Meghan laughed. Alexis put her eyeliner pen into her purse and inspected herself one more time. She was all done. "Lexi, why do you put such little make up on?" Meghan asked. "Here, sweetie, borrow my blush." "I don't want to look like a fucking clown, Meghan." Alexis laughed. They both chuckled. "Plus, it's not like I'm trying to impress anyone." "That's not what I heard..." Darcy smirked. "What?" Alexis blushed. "Oh, nothing..." Darcy laughed. "Oh, you bitch, just tell me!" Alex playfully hit Darcy. "Okay," Darcy started. "Well, I heard from like three different people that Ricky was bragging that you guys had sex at Kevin's party." "What?" Alex blushed. "Are you serious? I was with you guys the entire night. When could we have..." "I know, babe" Darcy smiled. "I'm just letting you know what I heard so you can do some damage control." "Yeah, thanks..." Alex thought for a moment. "I'm gonna go get my schedule and stuff, I'll talk to you guys later." "Later bitch," Meghan and Darcy said in unison Alex quickly left the bathroom leaving Meghan and Darcy to gossip more. Alex wasn't thinking clearly. Why would Ricky say that? Her mind was racing so much that she didn't see Cameron Wright waving her down. She didn't hear him when he called her, and she only finally realized when he grabbed her shoulder. "Alex!" Cameron smiled. Alexis shook her head and then took a moment to realize it was him. She then hugged him. "Cameron!" She lit up. "Oh my god! How are you?" "Well, I..." Cameron started to answer. "Sorry, actually, can we catch up later? I have to go get my schedule and stuff," Alex was flustered. "All right, yeah sure." Cameron shrugged. "Later." "Later bitch," Alex yelled as she rushed off towards the guidance office. "Later bitch?" Cameron repeated questioningly. ... Cameron had been wondering the hallways all morning looking for James, but he was nowhere to be found. And he really didn't have anyone to ask if they'd seen him. He continued to keep his eyes peeled as he went to his third period class- American History. However, he couldn't exactly find the room. It said room 232, but there was literally no room 232. It went from 231 to 233. He was searching for ten minutes after the bell rang when he finally decided to go to the guidance counselor's office. When inside, he was informed that the room was under the stairs. Cameron quickly rushed over to the room. However, he was stopped when he saw a head of curly brown hair walking the hallway ahead of him. "James!" Cameron called uncontrollably. He had planned this meeting out in his head a hundred times and none of them had involved him blurting out his name. James turned around to see Cameron. They were separated by fifteen feet. They both looked at each other for a moment. "Cameron," James smiled. "What are you doing in the hallway?" "Oh, I got lost," Cameron explained. "Great first day, what about you?" "Bathroom," James said. This was definitely not that conversation Cameron had planned out in his head. Far from it. "How was your summer?" Cameron asked. "Good, good." James answered. There was a long awkward pause, where Cameron was expecting James to ask him about his summer. Nothing. "All right, well I'll see you around. Good luck getting to class." "Yeah, you too." Cameron mumbled. "Hey, wait! Do you want to get lunch or something? Catch up on stuff?" "Uh..." James was taken aback by Cameron's request, but decided to be polite. "Yeah sure." "All right, meet on the bleachers?" Cameron smiled. "Sounds good," James nodded then turned down the opposite end of the hallway and began walking away. Cameron felt his heart racing as he quickly walked to his next class. That was the most awkward encounter. He couldn't imagine how uncomfortable lunch was going to be. But hopefully it would get better. Cameron didn't have much time to think as he crept into room 232. "You're a little late, aren't you?" A balding man in his fifties standing in the front of the room smirked. "I'm sorry, I just got a little lost trying to find the classroom," Cameron explained. "Hm, okay." The man whipped out his attendance sheet. " Everyone else seemed to find it just fine..." "Oh, uh..." Cameron felt his face get red. "It's fine, Mr..." The teacher searched the sheet. "Wright, I assume." "Yeah," Cameron took a seat towards the back of the classroom and began to take out his books. "Okay, well hopefully you'll know how to locate things better on a map than you can locate this classroom," The teacher smiled. "I'm Mr. Nichols by the way." "Hi," Cameron forced and awkward smile. Mr. Nichols continued with his lecture. Cameron could already tell they were off to a bad start. ... Alexis Lucas was done with all her morning classes. She put her books in her locker and headed over to the cafeteria. She searched around to see where her friends were sitting, but only saw Kevin Trainer sitting alone at a lunch table. She walked over to him. "Hey Kev," Alex kissed him on the cheek. "Hey Lexi," Kevin smiled. "Where is everyone?" Alex asked as she looked around. "Everyone went into town to get food. James was supposed to eat here, but apparently he's eating outside? I don't know. I'm glad I didn't have to end up sitting by myself," Kevin laughed. "That sucks," Alex smiled. "Oh well. Have you seen Ricky by any chance?" Kevin's smile faded. "No." Kevin said. "What's wrong?" Alex asked. Kevin thought before speaking. "Nothing," Kevin shrugged. "Stop it! Tell me, you jerk!" Alex pleaded. "Look, I get that you didn't want a relationship with me, I do." Kevin said. "But I think it's really fucked up that you started hooking up with one of my best friends a month after we ended things." Kevin and Alex had dated for a few months during the summer. During those few months, he had introduced her to all of his friends. Without Cameron around, she really didn't have anyone to hang out with. She hit it off really well with them, and they all hung out the entire summer. However, a month before school started Alex and Kevin ended things- Alex said that she wanted her space. "I'm not hooking up with him," Alex moaned. "He's making it up, I don't know why thought. That's why I'm looking for him." "Oh," Kevin looked embarrassed. "I would never hook up with him," Alex smiled. "Don't worry." ... Cameron waited for James on the bleachers with a ham and cheese sandwich in his lap. He didn't start eating yet, because he felt it would be rude to. However, he was beginning to wonder if James was going to show up at all. He had told him to meet at the bleachers ten minutes ago and... His fears subsided when he saw James appear at the bottom of the bleachers. However, then his fears returned literally a moment later when he realized how awkward things were going to be. James got to the top and sat down next to Cameron. He had brought a slice of pizza on a tray. "Looks good," Cameron smiled. James nodded. Awkward silence. "So tell me about your summer, was it fun?" "Yeah, I mean I just kind of hung out, you know." James nodded. "What about you? How was Matt's summer house?" The mention of Matt made things significantly more awkward. "It was good," Cameron kept it brief. "He's at UCLA, right?" James asked. "Yeah," Cameron couldn't believe that James was continuing to talk about Matt. "So that must being annoying, I mean that's all the way across the country, right?" James thought aloud. "But I mean, you guys should be able to figure something out." Cameron thought for a moment before speaking. "We, uh...we broke up." Cameron stated. "Really?" James looked confused. "Yeah," Cameron began to explain. "I mean, the whole long distance thing was going to be hard, and Matt wanted his space in college..." "Oh," James nodded. "I see." "Yeah," Cameron looked away. "So, excited for senior year?" "Yeah, I guess," James smiled. "I have to join a bunch of clubs to make my college resume look better." "Yeah," Cameron nodded. "I'm actually joining the swim team this year, I think." "Really?" James asked. "You got over the whole...you know, fear of water thing completely?" "Yeah," Cameron said. "I used to love to swim, and I think it'd be a good idea. The first meeting is after school today, so I think I'm going to check that out." "That's funny," James smirked. "Why's that funny?" Cameron asked. "No, I just have a friend on the swim team," James explained. "It should be fun." "Yeah," Cameron nodded. "Wait, so what happened with the whole Max thing?" "Oh, right!" James said. "I forgot that you left before that whole thing got resolved. Um, well basically, I decided that I was going to turn him in, and I called him to give him a warning, and it turned out he had already turned himself in." "Wow, seriously?" Cameron was in shock. "Yeah, it's still in trial process and stuff, but it looks like he'll get like ten years or something," James said. "Wow, that's crazy." Cameron shook his head. "Tell me about it," James said. "Have you seen him?" Cameron asked. "Like visited him or anything?" "No," James said. "I don't think he'd want to see me. And I wouldn't really want to see him. But yeah, it was a scary experience. It's nice to be back at school with stability." "Yeah, I agree. But so much has changed," Cameron wiped his forehead. "Like your haircut, jeez, it's so short!" James laughed. Cameron had gotten a buzz cut over the summer. Cameron laughed. "It's good to know that you're still the same," Cameron smiled. ... Travis McCarthy and Marissa Tampa sat in the woods behind the school. The bell signaling the end of the seniors lunch had already rung, but they were way too stoned to go to class. "This was a bad idea," Marissa laughed as she threw out the remnants of a joint. "No it was a great idea," Travis began to tickle Marissa. She laughed uncontrollably and begged him to stop. The tickling soon turned into kissing. Travis started to suck on her neck as she began to undo her top. "Now this is a bad idea." Travis laughed as he began to undo his pants. Travis slid down his jeans and unbuttoned Marissa's. He was already erect and ready to go. He slid down her panties and whipped out his eight inch erect dick from his boxers. She grabbed his back as he slid himself inside her and slowly began to fuck her. Her fingernails tore his back and she softly moaned. He slowly moved his hands down to her legs and moved them up to her hips. "You took the pill today right?" Travis panted. "Mhmm," Marissa mumbled. Travis planted his feet into the ground and began to thrust his hips into her. Her soft moans got louder and louder until they were interrupted by a cough behind them. Travis turned around to see Mr. Genson, their school guidance counselor. "Oh, hello..." Travis smiled. "This was a bad idea," Mr. Genson smiled. ... Alexis Lucas waited after school for Ricky, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. And she didn't know where his locker was either, so it was just a bad set of circumstances all around. She decided to go to the guidance counselor to find out where his locker was. When she got there, she found Travis and Marissa sitting in his office. "...there is a time and place for sexual activity and..." He said to them. Great, Alexis thought, now she had to awkwardly listen to her ex-boyfriend/ex-best friend get lectured by a guidance counselor about having sex with his girlfriend on campus. It was not her day. She decided to back out, but the guidance counselor had already seen her. "Alexis, can I help you?" He asked. Alexis walked back in. Travis looked up at her, but she avoided eye contact. "Hi, yeah, um, do you know where Ricky Buchanan's locker is? Sorry, I just can't find him and..." She began to explain, looking down at the ground. "Yeah sure," He smiled then reached into his desk and pulled out a box filled with index cards. He began to flip through the cards, while Travis and Marissa began to whisper amongst themselves. "Okay, he's on the second floor, locker 245D" "Thanks," Alexis nodded and walked away without acknowledging Travis or Marissa. She walked down the hallway and up the stairs to locker 245D. Ricky wasn't at his locker. Great luck. Alexis rolled her eyes and decided to just go home and call him later. She walked downstairs and out the front door. However, someone else was trying to come in and she smacked them in the face. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" She yelled before she realized that it was Ricky. "Ricky! I've been looking all over for you." "Sorry, I was talking to Kevin," Ricky rubbed his head and stood up. "What's up?" " `What's up?' Are you serious?" Alexis raised her voice. "Why have you be telling everyone that we had sex at Kevin's party!" "Uh...because we did..." Ricky looked confused. "Yes," Alexis sighed for a second. "But I specifically told you not to tell anyone, let alone Kevin." "I didn't tell Kevin," Ricky said. "I told a couple people, but..." "Why did you do that?" Alexis yelled. "Woah, chill the fuck out." Ricky took a step back. "Seriously, it's not that big of a deal. No one cares. So what, we had sex. It's really no biggie. Kevin will get over it, trust me. He didn't care when I had sex with Darcy after he did, so why would he care about you?" Alexis was really hurt by how he was handling this. Was she just like Darcy? No, she was different. Was she? Was she really just like all the other girls? "You're a fucking asshole," Alexis said and pushed passed him as she regretted having sex with him. ... Cameron Wright made his way down to the gym locker room for the swim team meeting and saw that a bunch of kids were already down there changing into swim suits. He clutched the flyer that said "Want to join the Swim Team? Meet in the locker room after school!" in big blue letters. He didn't understand why people were already changing into their suits; he thought it was just a meeting. He approached one of the students who hadn't gotten dressed yet. The student must've been a sophomore or junior- he looked younger than Cameron. "Hey, sorry, why is everyone getting dressed in their suits?" Cameron asked. The kid looked up at him. He smiled at Cameron as if he knew him. "Your new," The kid smiled. "Yeah," Cameron nodded. "Sorry, this is my first year doing this..." "Okay, um, go talk to coach he should be in his office, just tell him your name," The kid explained. "We're just doing some basic exercises today, don't worry." "Oh, I didn't bring a suit..." Cameron felt embarrassed. "I have an extra one," He smiled, then reached into his locker and pulled out a pair of red shorts. "We just use these ones for practice, they give you a Speedo for meets and stuff." "Wow, thank you so much," Cameron smiled and looked up. The boy had a slope nose and dark brown straight hair. He was definitely only a sophomore, maybe even a freshman. He had green eyes that had certain mischievousness to them. But overall he was pretty cute, and he seemed like a nice enough guy. Cameron was glad that he had made somewhat of a friend. "I'm Cameron, by the way." "I know," The kid said, then removed his shirt. His body was smooth and hairless, but definitely fit. There was only a few little brown hairs underneath his armpits. "I've seen you around. I'm Devon." "Thanks a lot, Devon." Cameron smiled. Cameron headed over to the coaches office, still uncomfortable. He held the red bathing suit in his hand as he knocked on the door with the other. The coach looked up. He was old, had a bunch of stubble, and a gut. He also looked stoned. "Yeah," The coach muttered. "Hi, I'm Cameron," He stepped into the coach's office. "I'm here to try out for the swim team..." "Do you have a suit?" The coach asked. "Yeah, right here," He replied. "All right, your good," The coach nodded. "I'm Coach Z. Fill out this index card and give it to me." He handed Cameron an index card asking for name, age, weight, etc. Cameron did as told and headed into the locker room. He unbuttoned his shirt and slipped into the bathing suit. The rest of the kids had already headed over to the indoor pool which was adjacent to the locker room. Cameron walked out into the indoor pool area to see that the other kids were all sitting on a bench next to the pool. He scanned the crowd and didn't know anyone. He recognized some of the other seniors, but wasn't friends with them. Deciding to just awkwardly stand to the side, he gazed out at the pool. A year ago, he had been completely afraid of it and wouldn't even go near it in gym class. Now, here he was trying out for the swim team. "Cameron!" He heard his name being called and saw Devon sitting on the bench with an open seat next to him. Cameron walked over and sat down next to his new friend. "Hey, thanks for saving me a seat, I don't really know anyone..." Cameron admitted. "Oh, it's cool," Devon smirked. "I wanted to sit next to you anyway." Cameron felt himself blush a little. What did he mean by that? Before he could analyze it any further, Coach Z entered holding a clip board. Coach Z explained that today would just be basic laps and strokes, but that try outs would start the next day. That made Cameron relax a little bit more, because he wasn't ready for try-outs today. "You'll be pairing off into groups of two, with one group of three. Each pair will go on one side of the lane and wait there while the other side completes there laps," Coach Z explained. He paired off everyone, and luckily it was by where the boys were sitting so Cameron was paired with Devon. The two boys headed to the opposite side of the pool and sat in one of the lanes and waited while everyone else got situated. "What's your favorite stroke?" Devon asked. "Uh, I'm not sure yet, what about you?" Cameron admitted. "Back stroke, probably," Devon answered. "I like being on my back." Cameron wasn't sure if that was supposed to be some sort of sexual innuendo or not, but he decided to ignore it. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Devon asked. "Nope," Cameron shook his head. "You?" "Nope," Devon smirked. "I'm surprised you don't." "Why's that?" Cameron asked. This conversation was beginning to make him a little uncomfortable. "I don't know," Devon shrugged. "You're just really cute." Cameron's face got red. This conversation was way too fast. Was Devon hitting on him? Even if he was, he was being way too forward. "Uh, thanks, I guess," Cameron laughed it off as a joke. "I'm not joking," Devon smiled. "Let me ask you, have you ever sucked another mans cock?" Cameron's heart began to race. Why was he asking him this? Did he know about him? Was this all a cruel joke, or was Devon really hitting on him? Before Cameron could answer the question, Coach Z told him to swim a couple laps in breast stroke. Cameron raced away as fast as he could, leaving Devon to smile off to himself. The rest of practice went well, mostly because Cameron and Devon were alternating laps so they didn't get a chance to really talk to each other. However there was one point in the middle where they ended up together at the far end of the pool. "You didn't answer my question before," Devon smirked. "I don't know why you're asking me this..." Cameron blushed. "Because, I told you, I think you're really cute," Devon wiped water from his face and slicked back his hair. "Look, I don't know if..." Cameron started to argue, when Devon reached down and grabbed Cameron's soft penis through his shorts. "What are you doing?!" Cameron yelled and pushed his hands off. "Not bad," Devon calculated in his head. "I mean, factoring his shrinkage, I'd say about seven inches hard." Cameron looked at Devon as if he were insane. He might actually be insane. Cameron didn't have to say anything, because Coach Z blew the whistle and Devon swam off to do laps, but not without giving Cameron a quick tap on the butt first. After practice, Cameron ran into the locker room through his pants on over his bathing suit and quickly put his shirt on and left. He didn't want creepy Devon trying to rape him in the locker room. He got to the parking lot, with his hair still dripping when Devon caught up to him. Devon was still in his bathing suit but had thrown on a t-shirt and some sandals. "Wait!" Devon yelled. Cameron was struggled opening his door, while Devon caught up. Cameron felt like he was literally in a stalker horror movie. "Look, I don't know what your deal is, or if you..." Cameron began. "Wait, wait. Look, I was just joking." Devon explained. "What?" Cameron asked. Who would play a joke like that? "I said I was just joking," Devon repeated. "Look, James told me all about you, and that you were trying out for the swim team and I thought I'd play a joke on you. It was a joke. I didn't know you'd completely freak out about it." "What?" Cameron felt his heart racing. James told him that Cameron was gay? Why would he do that? How many other people know? "Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone or anything," Devon calmed him . "Why would he tell you that?" Cameron snapped. "I don't know, because I'm his boyfriend." Devon shrugged. Well this is the beginning of Floating Away, the sequel to Diving In. I hope you like where it's starting off, because I know a lot of you were upset with the ending of Diving In. Don't worry, I have a overall plan. Anyway, e-mail me with suggestions or comments or whatever at ryanwest25@yahoo.com