I spent the entire morning studying, got some pasta with Willow from this really dingy pasta place. It was good regardless and now we were walking back.

"So where do you live?" I ask her, the sun is out but the wind is still so cold that I feel like by the time I get back my toes would've frozen off.

"Near Lakewood. What about you?" She says smiling.

"You know the bamboo park? Near the northern centre? Yeah, I live there." I answer when she nods to my question. I check the time on my phone to see that it was 5 pm.

"I actually have to meet a friend at the Rolling Cove lake. I'll see you soon." I inform her and her fiery eyebrows furrow.

"That is not a safe place. Especially in the evening." She tells me grabbing my upper arm and I smile.

"I'll be fine." I smile and she nods not buying it.

"Fine. Give me your number though." She says passing me her phone and I nod. My fingers hover over the keyboard as I forget my number for a second.

"Sorry." I flushed before putting in my number and passing the phone to her. Willow leaves me a missed call as my phone rings and we bid goodbye after that.

It's not dark out but definitely cold. I look at my outfit contemplating if it is pretty enough to go meet Arthur in.

Decent enough.

I shrug before walking to Rolling Cove lake. It is an extremely beautiful lake near the hills in Volterra. It is a dangerous place as every other place in the world at night.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't dangerous as in selling drugs and all that gangs and bullshit. It is dangerous as in murders. A couple of years back there was this 'Volterra killer', an extremely original name I know. He terrorised the Volterra hills, Rolling Cove lake specifically during Christmas times. When families would go to their lake houses to spend Christmas, go ice skating and all that stuff.

But it is not Christmas and I'm pretty sure the Volterra killer didn't get caught but there has been no killing since last December.

The leaves crunch beneath my feet as I wipe the small beads of sweat on my forehead. I pass a couple of cabins and some small lakes, most likely dug by the owners of the cabins. I clutch my binder and the copy of Hamnet that I borrowed tightly in my hand.

"There once was a ship that put to sea

The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea." I sang softly as the birds chirped and autumn leaves fell down in the extremely cold lakes.

"The winds blew up, her bow dipped down

Oh, blow, my bully boys, blow (huh)" I skipped down the small puddles. Huh, did it rain?

I check my phone as I hum the tune to check any messages from her. Nothing.

"Soon may the Wellerman come

To bring us sugar and tea and rum" I sing grinning as I was so close to reaching the lake.

I spot a sign that showed the direction to Rolling Cove lake but my smiles and singing dies down when I see a couple of cars parked.

I wanted us to be alone.

But you can't always get what you want.

I brought the smile on my face back when I reminded myself that at least I would get to meet her.

I sit on a log near the lake and check the time to see that about an hour has passed. Woah.

I tapped my foot in anticipation of meeting her and double-checked my outfit.

Sweater, jacket, boots and a bag, oh the overalls. Yeah okay, I don't look too bad.

"I knew you would be here early." Arthur slid in beside me and I flinched before grinning at her.

She was wearing a vintage Bowie shit with long shorts and converse. A small bag on her back.

"Hey." I smiled waving and she grins before letting her eyes run over me.

"You kinda look like Christmas." She says and my eyebrows furrow as I tilt my head.

"Christmas?" I ask and she nods looking at my eyes.

"I like Christmas." She states and I squint at her with a smile.

"So you kinda like me?" I ask leaning towards her and she grins before leaning her face down to get really really close to me.

"You want me to tell you how much I like you Mer?" She whispers and my smile falls. My mouth opens but no words come out.

"Just what I thought, now come on." She gets up offering her hand. I flush before grabbing her hand and walking wherever she is leading me to.

"So... Where are we going?" I ask softly and she sighs.

"Somewhere." She grins and I nod before leaning close to her so that my body is touching hers as we walk deeper into the hills.

"Okay?" I stretched out the word and followed her.

Her hand clasped onto mine, intertwining our fingers together and I about lost my shit and threw myself clean into the freezing lake.

"Breathe." She whispered in my ear and I blushed before finally breathing again.

"So your show..." I start off and she looks at me as we skip over the roots and walk deeper into the woods.

"It's tomorrow and it's gonna be great." She smiled at me and as she looked at me I averted my gaze.

"What about the one tonight?" I frowned looking at her, she mirrored my expression her eyes already on mine.

All this eye contact is making me dizzy.

"There were some... issues. With the club and stuff, so it got shifted to tomorrow." She said and I internally smacked myself as the mood got down and she noticed my regret. I squeezed her hand lightly not knowing what to say.

"It's gonna be great though. Haven't been on the stage in a while, cancelled and now it cancelled on me." She squeezed my hand back and I smiled.

"Okay, we're almost there." She muttered grinning.

Oh my God.

The forest parted into a large clearing and in the middle of it was a small lake. The water ran clear an old rusty van in the side and a hammock tied from the two large trees. The sun was setting and the air was cold. Arthur's hand left mine as she bent down to get something as I slowly walked towards the lake.

Afraid that this is my imagination and that Art isn't here. Afraid that a single step might shatter the illusion I have created. Afraid that even if this is not an illusion, we are alone.

"Do you know how to swim?" She calls out, I spin around to see her hand digging into her bag and I shake my head.

"No, but I know how to drown." I grin at her and she laughs shaking her head.

"Good cause we're swimming today." She takes out two t-shirts and walks up to me. My eyes widen as I back away shaking my head.

"No-no-no. I am not embarrassing myself in front of you." I laugh and she grins stepping towards me.

"Aw come on. Just a little dip." She pops her mouth when she says the word dip and I laugh shaking my head again and backing up.

"You're gonna have to fight me for that." I laugh and she steps close to me. This time I don't step back. Showing her my brave front but on the inside, it's because I want to be close to her.

"Oh, I will then." She says grinning softly.

"I can take you." I smile big and she raises an eyebrow leaning her head down and my smile vanishes as I stare at her.

"Oh yeah? How will you take me then?" She whispers leaning down even more just one nudge and her lips would be on mine. My eyes widen as I look deep into her dark and addictive eyes shaking my head slowly.

"What are you shaking your head for darling? Words." She whispers again, her warm breath fanning my face and I gulp.

"You can’t just-... say thing’s like that so casually!” I gape at her and she grins looking down at my lips and then back up at my eyes.

“But I just love watching you squirm,” Art answers and I squint my eyes before taking a stupid fucking step and backing away.

"Let's just- let's drown okay?" I roll my eyes and she offers me a t-shirt.

"Why that?" I point to it walking closer to her to examine the t-shirt.

"Unless you're okay with either getting your sweater wet or taking it off in front of me." She whispered, her breath hit the top of my head and I looked up at her.

"Uh- thanks." I smile softly before taking the shirt from her hands and clutching it tightly.

"You can either change in the van or here? I can turn around." Art suggested and I looked at the old van.

"Come with me." She sighed taking my hand again and pulling me towards the van. I reluctantly walked with her.

She opened the door and it was surprisingly really clean inside.

"This used to be my mom's van, we would live here. Me, my mom and one of my cousin brothers. I never got the chance to really re-paint it. But there are cameras in her- for safety purposes of course. My cousin brother, Danny would sleepwalk. So- yeah." She stops after she realises she shared too much but I smile at her to ease her.

"That sounds fun." I look around to see picture frames but they were turned over. Art grunted and I turned around to look at her getting up on the table and wrapping a napkin around the camera.

"There. Keep your clothes here, once you're done changing." She said and walked out closing the door behind her.

"Don't leave me alone," I called out clutching the t-shirt tightly in my hand and the door opened again.

Arthur had a sly smirk on her face as she quickly climbed up the stairs and got close to me. Again.

Holy shit.

"You want me to stay little lamb? Huh?" She whispered, her hand came up to my neck and she let it rest there and if I weren't so intimidated by her I would've asked her to wrap it around my thro-

Shut up.

"No, I meant as in- wait outside don't wander off," I argue and she nods smirking.

"Okay, darling." She grins evilly and I squint my eyes as she closes the door but not before winking at me.

I sigh and change into the t-shirt she gave me. I take off my overalls completely because why would I in my right mind want to get them wet?

I take off my socks and boots. Sniffing the shirt breathing in her scent. There are a couple of Lenon's hair on it and I don't pick them out.

"Are you done sniffing my shirt?" She called out and I gasped looking around.

"Were you watching me get changed?" I call out angrily and she laughs loudly.

"No I wasn't and so you were sniffing my shirt." She says and I roll my eyes blushing before stepping out in no pants and just her shirt.

"Let's go drown," I say as her eyes roam down my entire body. I instinctively pull down my shirt and her eyes snap to mine as quick as the flash. An apologetic look in her eyes as she offers me her hand.

"Let's go." She says, her shoes and socks are off. Hair tied into a bun and I grin before hopping over to her. This time I make the move to grab her hand but I avoid eye contact.

"Okay, so- I can watch?" I say as we get to the water and she chuckles.

"Nuh-uh." She pulls me to the water and I sigh obliging. The water is cold as we trudge more to the deeper waters.

"Okay, I think this would be enough," Arthur said as the water got right under my chest.

"This is cold," I say grinning and she smiles kissing my forehead before grabbing my waist, the only thing neither of us realises is that because of the water my shirt had ridden up and my waist was bare.

I breathe heavily as she pulls me close to her. Her eyes scanned my face and leaned in closer.

In a moment of panic, I push her head underwater and laugh as I trudge away. Art pops her head to the surface and laughs before swimming to me at full speed. I squeal as I try to trudge away from her.

"Nooooooo- it was a mistake." I laugh as I try to get away from her.

Art laughs as she grabs me again by my upper thigh and pulls me to her. At that moment my head instinctively ducks down and I flail my arms around sucking in the air as arms wrap around me and I am pulled to the surface.

"Jesus your body has absolutely no equilibrium." She breathes out as I cough up the cold water.

"Wow, now that was a violation." I laugh pushing her as she dips into the water but this time she pulls me with her, I quickly plug my nose.

Under the water, I feel her hand snake around my waist and I open my eyes. The water was cloudy from the cold and I look at her. Small bubbles of air escape her mouth as she grins at me and taps her finger tenderly on my hand that is plugging my nose. I shake my head and she makes a move to encourage me. I take it off and I accidentally inhale the water and squirm and panic to get to the surface. Art noticing this pulls my body towards her and then to the surface.

"Okay so, we can do that again." She smiles her eyes running over my features to see if she can sense any discomfort. When I grin and nod she smiles and pulls me down again.

This time I don't panic much and grin at her as the air in my lungs run out and I imagine how peaceful it would be. To die in her arms. In this cold cold water. To feel the air escape my lungs and my eyes roll back. My lips turn blue. I quickly shake the thought as I push myself to the surface.

"See? We got that down." She grins and the next of the hours are spent with her showing me 'equilibrium'. Annoying creature.

By the time that we are trudging out of the lake. There is water in my ear, my lungs and my nose. The air is so cold and crisp that my teeth start to chatter immediately and I grin at her as we both giggling and shivering walk to the van.

"Here." She says passing me a towel as I sit on a wooden chair and she takes a seat on the chair beside me.

"Wow, that was actually very fun." I grin at her and she nods smiling.

"See I told you." She passes me a mug of hot cocoa and I grin at her sipping on the thick and got a drink.

"Wow, that is good," I tell her after I have chugged down almost half the drink in one sip.

"Thank you, darling." She says as she raises an eyebrow at me while I stare at her. I shake my head averting my gaze as I head her stripping off the shirt she was wearing. Along with her shorts.

I blush at the proximity of her naked body and my cold and shivering one. I try to think of anything but her. Uh- toe fungus? Snot? Slobber? Pigeon poop?

"You can look now." She says softly and I hesitantly lift my head up to see her changed into fresh clothes and I nod.

"I'm gonna change now," I announce as I sip on the last of the hot cocoa.

"I'll be right outside." She says and I nod as she walks out and I get up.

I take off the shirt that is clinging to Ky body like a second skin and dry myself off. I change back into my previous clothes happy for the warmth it brings me.

Also happy that I spent so much time with her. Swimming or drowning.