The Impossible

The Impossible

The rays sunk into her skin like water on a sponge. It's really hot today, she thought. Cadence was sitting by the pool with her best friend, Fiona. The sun was burning down on them and the pool was a crystal aqua color, calling their name. Cadence had been texting her girlfriend, Laura, all day and she was getting irritated at her remarks. With everything she said to try and fix her one mistake, it made her even more frustrated with her. After a while Cadence decided to ignore her for the time being and spend time with Fiona.
"Let's get in the pool now, it's so freakin' hot out today," Cadence said to her friend who was sitting poolside next to her.
"You're right, I'll be in in a minute," Fiona replied, "I'm just finishing this chapter." Fiona fixed her eyes back on the page of her book and continued reading. When she concluded the chapter, she doggie-eared the page she was on and put the book on the pool chair next to her. She hadn't realized how much she was sweating until she sat up and felt the cool air hit the beads of sweat that were dripping down her back. The sweltering heat was doing its job and she was about to ruin its progress. Cadence was under water swimming laps from one side of the pool to the other. Fiona slipped silently into the pool and started swimming over to her, planning to scare her best friend of 7 years. They had been friends since they were in grade school and they constantly played jokes on each other. Fiona could see that Cadence's eyes were closed as she was swimming so she swam over to one side of the pool and waited. As her friend swam toward her, she reached her arms out, grabbed Cadence's waist and pinched. Cadence was extremely ticklish and Fiona knew it was always a way to get her. An enormous air bubble rose to the surface and Cadence contorted her body as she quickly broke the surface.
"Arghh!! What was that for?" Cadence spurted out, gasping for air, laughing and choking all at the same time.
"You know, just 'cuz," Fiona replied with a devilish grin. In all the time that they have been friends, Cadence should expect things like this from Fiona.
The water was crisp and refreshing like a cold cloth on a hot brow, only their entire bodies were emerged in that feeling. The torrid sun was blazing its heated waves over the pool, littering the entire surface with tiny diamonds that had endless sparkles. The crystal blue color of the water was calming and relaxing, giving the pool area a tranquil glow. The girls calmed down and began wading in the water, enjoying the coolness of it. They each floated by the poolside, keeping themselves up with their elbows on the ledge. As they filled each other in with the latest gossip about the girls in their school, a pool boy wandered in through the gate. Fiona was struck in awe at his chiseled abs and distinct jaw line. Even Cadence was impressed how good looking this guy was. Tiny beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and shoulders. The bronze color of his skin was enough to make Fiona melt. He was gorgeous and Fiona could not stop staring. He was wearing jeans that were slipping off of his hips, revealing the elastic of his boxer briefs. His arms were well-defined and the muscles appeared rock hard as he skimmed the top of the water with the pool skimmer. Fiona looked over at Cadence and mouthed oh my god before fixing her eyes back on the magnificent form of life. His eyes were the same color as the water and his short, spiky blonde hair shone almost platinum in the sun.
"Hey!" Fiona dared to yell.
"Hi," the pool guy said back.

Fiona was gorgeous with her long, dark wavy hair and bright blue eyes. She had the physique of a model and perfectly tanned skin. Her stomach was toned and flat and her legs were very muscular. She was perfectly proportioned and had the face of a god. Her lips were heart shaped with a natural plump and beautifully pink. Even without make up, her eyes were defined by her perfectly arched eyebrows and long eye lashes. She was a goddess and she knew it because she would constantly flirt. It was obvious that the pool boy noticed this. He stared at her like he had never seen someone so beautiful.
"I'm Nick," he said, walking over.
"I'm Fiona," she said back with a dazzling smile, her straight, white teeth gleaming in the sunlight. She had her flirty face on and you could tell she was enjoying every minute of it.
Cadence rolled her eyes, even though she was used to being the third wheel wherever she and Fiona went, she still hated it. People rarely looked in her direction for longer than a split second, let alone speak to her. She started swimming away so she didn't have to witness another one of Fiona's flirt sessions. Even underwater, she could still hear Fiona's fake laugh. She could even see the sparkle in Fiona's eyes as she complimented the guy, Cadence had seen this many times. Fiona would lead the guy on until he asked her for her number, then she would tell him that she'd take his number and call him sometime and then she would throw it away and never think about it again. If I got some girl's number I would call her, Cadence thought bitterly to herself, I would call her and maybe go out with her. She shouldn't be thinking this way because of Laura, but she was infuriating her to the point where she didn't want to date her anymore. Sorry never fixes anything, but she never seemed to quite understand that.
Breaking the surface, Cadence could see Fiona still talking to the pool boy, Nick. She wouldn't be satisfied until he asked for her number. Cadence continued swimming laps from one side of the pool to the other, waiting for Fiona to finish. She smiled when she heard, "How about I call you?" with a flirty laugh at the end. If the pool boy only knew he might never talk to her again.
Cadence snapped back into reality. She often went off in her own world, daydreaming about things that didn't even matter, mostly rambling jealously to herself about Fiona. The pool boy was leaving and Fiona was holding on to a piece of paper.
"He gave me his number," she said to Cadence, looking shocked, "I can't believe it."
"Yeah, shocker," Cadence said with a little hostility behind her voice.
"Lighten up, Cay, I was just bored." Fiona turned around and swam to the other side of the pool. When she got there, Cadence saw her crumple up the soggy piece of paper and flick it into the bushes. She could tell Fiona was irritated.
For thirty minutes the girls ignored each other; Cadence, jealous that Fiona was able to flirt so nonchalantly and always got a response, and Fiona, angry that Cadence was so jealous of her ability to attract guys so easily. It wasn't her fault that guys found her attractive.
Fiona decided to get out of the pool for a while and lay out on her chair to relax. She lathered up more sunscreen on her already beautifully bronzed skin and she laid on her stomach, untying the back of her swimsuit. As she laid there, she started thinking about Cadence and Laura's relationship. She treated her so badly and Cadence wouldn't stand up for herself. It infuriated her the way that Laura would constantly manipulate her and make her feel like no one else would ever want her. It made her sick that Cadence let Laura do that. Fiona knew that Cadence was in love with Laura, but there needed to be boundaries. Cadence needed to not depend on Laura so much and try to live her own life. Although she was Cadence's best friend, it wasn't her job to meddle in her relationship. She wasn't sure how a relationship with a girl differed from a relationship with a guy. Fiona knew how to work a guy, but when it came to a girl, Fiona wouldn't know the first thing. Guy's minds and thinking processes were so much different than a girl's. This furthered the difficulty in giving Cadence any advice when it came to Laura...Fiona started drifting off, in a state of relaxation from the heat and the small breeze she could feel every now and then.
The beating sun kept her from falling completely asleep. She didn't hear Cadence anymore either, so she reached back and re-tied her swimsuit. She got up and looked toward the pool; Cadence was floating on her back in the middle of the pool with her eyes closed. She looked so peaceful and care-free. Fiona got up from her pool chair and dove into the water.
Cadence was disturbed by water splashing on her face. Fiona had just dived into the pool, creating waves and splashes. Cadence stopped floating and looked over at Fiona's petite figure gliding through the water. No matter what she was doing, Fiona was always graceful and beautiful. The string of jealousy never ended when it came to Fiona. Cadence wanted what Fiona had; it was an envy that had been with her for years. Fiona broke the surface and turned around, giving Cadence a huge grin. Cadence smiled back, glad that their ridiculous arguments never lasted long. Fiona swam over to her best friend and splashed her.
"Hey!" Cadence said, splashing her back in retaliation.
"Hey, yourself! You should do your laps to get in shape for this season." Fiona just wanted to get her back by tickling her.
"Yeah, you're right," Cadence replied, "besides, I love doing laps."
Cadence retreated to one side of the pool watched Fiona sit up on the opposite side. She's probably going to try to tickle me, Cadence thought. Cadence decided that she was going to swim to the middle of the pool and then turn to swim to the deep end, avoiding Fiona. She won't even see that coming, Cadence thought.
Fiona saw Cadence looking toward the deep end and waited for her to go under water and start swimming. Then Fiona got up and ran to the deep end to wait. She slipped in the water silently, careful not to make ripples. As Cadence neared her, she reached out her arms. Suddenly, Cadence veered rapidly to the left, misjudging the side of the pool. Fiona laughed and waited for her best friend to surface the water.
Cadence hit her head hard on the pool's concrete wall, knocking her unconscious. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she started slowly sinking to the bottom.
Fiona sat by the side, waiting. She thought Cadence was playing a joke on her and she wasn't going to fall for it.
After a minute of no movement, Fiona knew that something was wrong.
"Cay!" she yelled. When she didn't get any response, she screamed, "Cadence!"
Fiona dove under the water and grabbed her best friend by the waist and tried to swim to the surface with her. When her head broke the surface, she started to scream for help and she tried to lift Cadence's un-moving body onto the pool deck. Nick must have left already and there was no one else around. Fiona wasn't certified in CPR, and she wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do, so she did what she had seen on television a couple times. She bent down and pushed her hands together on Cadence's chest for a few seconds, then she pinched Cadence's nose and blew into her mouth. After repeating this with no progress, Fiona started crying. It was this point that she hastily jumped up and dialed 9-1-1 on her cell phone.
"9-1-1 what's your emergency?" the operator said on the other end of the phone.
"My f-friend! She's not b-breathing! I, she hit her head! In the- in the pool!" Fiona could hardly spit out her words she was crying so hard.
"Calm down, I have an ambulance on the way. Now, can you tell me exactly what happened? Stay calm, miss." The operator remained calm like they were trained to.
"I-I...she..." Fiona couldn't stop crying, but she stayed on the phone with the operator until she heard the ambulance coming into the pool parking lot. The red and white lights were lighting up the gate even though it was daytime.
She got off the phone and went to sit by Cadence's side. Cadence still wasn't breathing and this brought forth a new batch of tears. Fiona was stroking Cadence's face while the paramedics ran through the pool gate and over to the lifeless girl.
"Stand back, miss." One of the paramedics addressed Fiona while a female paramedic gently pulled her away.
As Fiona saw her best friend being rolled away on a white stretcher, she began to feel dizzy and she stumbled to the ground. As the stretcher carrying Cadence was being wheeled away, three uniformed police officers walked in and came to Fiona. They were asking her what happened and calling Cadence's parents. Fiona could hardly explain the incident because she was so shaken.
She had finally gotten the entire story out when Cadence's phone started ringing. Fiona rushed over and looked at the caller ID. "Laura calling..." is what she saw.
"H-hello?" Fiona answered meekly.
"What the hell kind of joke are you playing on me? It's not funny." Laura sounded irate on the phone.
"What are you t-talking about?" Fiona was still shaky and it took a moment for Laura to realize she wasn't Cadence. The officers were looking at her in question.
"I got a text from Cadence like twenty minutes ago but I was in the shower so I just read it. Are you guys still at the pool? Where's Cadence?!" Laura was yelling now.
"Cadence c-couldn't have texted you; we were b-both in the pool...swimming." Talking about Cadence caused fresh tears to well up in Fiona's eyes and start falling fast down her cheeks. Her eyes were swollen and red now and her nose was running.
"Well, I got a text saying she was drowning and it's not funny. Let me talk to her."
"Th-they took her away. The ambulance. She h-hit her..." Fiona started crying again, "she hit her head!"
"What?! Where are they taking her?" The tone in Laura's voice changed from angry to worried and scared in an instant.
"I don't know...I don't...." Fiona fainted and the officers took the phone to talk to Laura.
When Fiona woke up, she was in the backseat of a moving squad car laying on top of a towel that felt like sand paper.
"We're taking you to the hospital, both of your parents are meeting us there." The female officer and her partner were in the front seat. Fiona laid back down and replayed everything from that day in her head.
When they arrived at the hospital, Cadence's and Fiona's parents both rushed to greet her, telling her grimly that they hadn't heard a word about Cadence yet. Fiona fell into her mother's arms and sobbed.
"I didn't know she wasn't joking...I didn't know it was real!" She was still in her swimsuit so one of the officers brought her a blanket.
At this moment, Laura ran in through the hospital doors with her short, dark hair plastered to her face with sweat. She was wearing ripped jeans and an Alice in Chains T-shirt. As soon as she spotted Fiona, she came toward her.
"Where is she?" Her brown eyes were red and rimmed with glossy tears.
"In there," Fiona said as she pointed toward closed doors, "they haven't told us anything yet." Just as the words left her mouth, a man in a white lab coat and stethoscope walked through the closed doors with a morose look on his face.
"I'm sorry...we did everything we could...but we lost her. She went too long without oxygen to her brain and the wound on her head caused an excessive brain bleed."
Cadence's mother burst into tears and fell to the ground, her father started crying and bent down to hold his wife. Fiona and Laura both started crying at the same time and hugged each other while Fiona's parents huddled around them to comfort their daughter. Cadence's parents were led into the room to see their daughter one last time and Laura wiped her face on her shirt while pulling out her phone.
"Look, this is what I got from Cadence's cell phone when you guys were supposedly swimming."
Fiona looked down and read, the LCD screen blurry from her tears, "I'm drowning...I love you...I'm drowning..."