Refreshing Swim (Patreon)

It's a little embarrassing to admit but I never learned how to swim. I tried, once upon a time, but almost drowning three times in an hour was more than enough for me. I became determined to keep my feet firmly in the ground and only in water if I was bathing. Swimming was one ordeal I simply wasn't prepared to deal with.

No matter how frequently my parents complained, whenever we were on vacation I simply refused to spend any time in the pool. I was scared of embarrassing myself in front of the other teenagers, especially since I had already been labelled a nerd for preferring the company of my Nintendo 3DS over that of people my age. The fact my douchebag older brother was hanging around to highlight the differences between us really didn't help either.

After yet another intense argument with my sibling though, I stormed out of our shared hotel room and only realized minutes later when I was already outside that I had left my 3DS behind. I stood alone by the pool in the swim shorts my parents had all but forced me into that morning, desperate to calm down before I snapped at some poor stranger.

I don't know what possessed me to descend the ladder into the pool but as the lukewarm water touched by skin for the first time I felt strangely relaxed. Submerged up to my neck, I let out a long sigh and closed my eyes. I was surprised by how good this felt and before long I had begun to push my arms out forward and began to swim. My body seemed to know exactly what movements to make and it felt like the most natural thing in the world, as if every moment I'd spent playing video games had instead been spent in a pool.

By the time I pulled myself out of the pool with upper body strength I never knew I'd possessed, I felt more relaxed than I had in a long time. In fact my argument with my twin brother - he was my twin, right? - was all but forgotten. Truth be told I was just glad I'd had the chance to show off my hot body at the pool. This vacation's been pretty awesome and the highlight's definitely been showing off in the pool. I'm one of the stars of my high school's swim team after all so this shit comes naturally to me!