By Your Side

Chapter 4: Oh My God Hannah

James was ultimately out of his element now but so was Clare. Regrouping with the popular kids, Hannah broke away from the two outcasts and rounded up her girls before heading up to one of the waterslides. The jocks still mesmerized by the women and their swaying hips, they took a second before following close behind them as if being pulled in by a sirens song.

Like the jocks, James remained frozen at the sight of the love of his life walking up the stairs to the water slide. That is until Clare grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the edge of the pool. Carefully dipping her feet in the water, she sat on the side of the pool while James took the spot next to her. They remained quiet for a minute as the two of them kicked water ahead of them until James finally broke the silence.

"So what was that back there with Hannah?"

"I'm just not a fan of PDA; it grosses me out a little."

"Really? Because it almost seemed like you were jealous?"

"Look. Let me be real with you for a second. I don't want you to turn into another one of those dumb jocks, okay? You're better than that."

"Thank I guess but-"

Before he could finish, Clare was already trying to change the topic. It was hard enough to keep her feelings for James quiet, but seeing him ogle the body that she would never have, only tore her heart to shreds. 

"Mind if we talk about something else, like Australia?"

"Oh yeah...right."

"So are you coming or not?"

A moment passed while James stared into Clare's glittering blue eyes, that rivalled the colour of the pool. At a lost for words, he debated the thought when a sudden wave came crashing down from the slide and splashed the two of them. It was Hannah, she was the first one down and was swimming over to the side of the pool. Clare recovered from the rush of water first, then looked at Hannah and her eyes quickly widened.

"Oh my god, Hannah."

Turning his head, James looked to see what was the matter. However, as he rotated his body, he quickly felt Clare move toward him, and her hands covered his eyes. Not sure of what was going on, James tried to break the grasp or look through the spaces between Clare's fingers, but she kept a firm grip on him, as her fingers dug deeper into the flesh around his skull.

"Hannah, your top!"

Hannah looked down realizing that her bathing suit was now in a compromising position, to the point that she was now exposing herself, and James' heart started to beat a little faster when he heard this. However before he could take a peak, Hannah had reset herself and had her chest covered back up. Clare's grip slowly began to relax around the boys head until she finally pulled them away, and Hannah and her both looked at him. Both of their cheeks were rosy pink, as Hannah pressed herself up against the pool wall, while Clare began James' interrogation.

"Did you see anything James?"

"No."

"Good."

"I guess."

"Don't be a perv, James. You're one of the good ones."

"Hannah's right James, we can at least still call you a gentlemen."

Suddenly another wave crashed against the water's surface blinding the three of them this time. Nathan, the football team captain, and Hannah's most recent fling resurfaced next to his girlfriend. The boy had a muscular physique, he spent every day in the gym training to become a bodybuilder or at least that's what it seemed like. He was the typical run of the mill high school jock, his parents were wealthy, and he never worked a day in his life giving his personality an entitled vibe.

Now swimming over to the side, he pulled Hannah into his embrace and planted a passionate kiss on her lips while coping a bit of a feel under the water. Seeing that, James flashed backed to all those years ago when he was in a similar position with the girl under the blanket fort, but the memory was short lived. Separating their lips, Clare and James continued to stare, before Nathan finally looked at Clare and then at James.

"Well, I'll be. The old gang is back together, how long has it been James? Three years?"

"Yea something like that."

Three years ago James, Nathan, and Hannah were all next door neighbours and spent every day together. Except that all changed on one fateful New Years Eve when Nathan had the idea to play a couple rounds of truth or dare. However when it was nearing the end of the night and the final few questions were asked, everything changed.

It was Hannah's turn and she had just picked dare and Nathan told her to remove an article of clothing, Thinking that she wouldn't overdo it and would just take off a sock or something to get past the dare. She instead left everyone in shock when she decided to remove her shirt. Looking at her sister that night, the two girls went to the corner, and her sister took off her hoodie and held it up to keep Hannah in a what was her best attempt at a makeshift change room.

Leaving the two boys enthralled by the display while their imaginations ran wild, they saw the shirt appear over the collar of the hoodie. Then moments later her sister wrapped her up in the jacket while her T-shirt fell to the ground, leaving the boys to pick up their jaws when Hannah turned to face James. Her attention was set on him, and he tried his best not to stare at Hannah's cleavage that was peeking out from the hoodie's partially unzipped zipper.

"James, Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Okay, do you have a crush on anyone?"

The question came out of left field, and James was flustered with how he should answer. On the one hand, he had a massive crush on Hannah, but yet he didn't want to damage his friendship with Nathan. Giving it a moment to come to terms with his decision, he looked deep into her eyes and finally answered.

"Not at the moment."

"Really, wow I thought you would've."

At the time he never gave two thoughts to his answer, but when it was too late, he realized what Hannah might have been asking. Two days later, Hannah's relationship status's on all of her social media sites changed to In a relationship with Nathan. As James's heart shattered and he fell into a deep depression and continued to feel that same pain now whenever he saw her.