by J. J. Bella
"A ‘dime'?" asked Jade.
"A dime – ten years," said Leon. "Pretty standard sentence for drug and gang-related shit. They throw you before a local judge, he takes a few seconds to think it over, then bam – a decade of your life gone, just like that."
"Oh," said Jade, appearing to grasp the gravity of the situation.
"And I don't think ten years in federal prison would do much for your budding writing career. Unless you're thinking of writing a prison memoir."
"I'd like to avoid that, if at all possible," said Jade.
"Then don't do anything stupid like that again."
Leon could tell by Jade's shamed demeanor that he'd made his point. Reaching into his pocket, he grasped the paper bag full of money.
Jesus, he thought. Thirty percent; that's enough for the rest of my tuition, at least. Anton must've been desperate to see this deal go through.
Now that it settled on him that the deal was over with, Leon suddenly felt his mood lighten.
"But you did fine," said Leon. "You kept your mouth shut and didn't act in a way that made the buyers feel sketched out."
"Thanks," Jade, a small smile returning to her lips.
"But stick with college," he said. "I'm getting out of this game as fast as I can."
"Well," said Jade. "Now what?"
It was a good question. Looking around him at the urban wasteland that he'd grown so accustomed to over the years, Leon suddenly felt like getting out for the evening.
"How about some dinner," he said. "My treat."
Jade's eyebrows raised.
"Really?" she asked. "What's the occasion?"
"Figure I'd be a little change of pace."
"And is this part of today's thrilling adventure?" asked Jade with a sly smile. "Are we going to dine and dash?"
Leon let out a dry chuckle.
"I think I'm done with my law-breaking for the evening. Come on – I know a good place downtown."
After heading back to Anton's place to drop off the bulk of the cash, Leon and Jade were off. During the ride, Leon couldn't help but think about just how dangerous his lifestyle actually was. Sure, he was getting paid big tonight, but he'd seen enough of this business to know that, like he told Jade, things could go really south, really fast. And plenty of mistakes were made by guys thinking they were kings after pulling off a big deal like he'd just done.
I gotta get out of this fucking business, he thought, Jade's arms wrapped around him tightly as he tore down the road to downtown. What would Hunter do if I had to spend ten years in prison? Mom and Dad would tear him apart.
He shook the thoughts from his head, knowing that he just had to get through the rest of the year and he'd be done. Then, he could see about getting Hunter out of that house before too much damage had been done.
Leon couldn't help but think about Jade, too. As much as it pained him to admit it, she was right- she really wasn't like the other girls he'd known. And he'd known more than a few. She was eager to get out and see the world in a way that other girls typically would turn their sweet-sixteen-present-sculpted noses at. Not to mention that she wasn't a snob like most rich girls. She had an open mind and an open heart, and despite her naïve innocence, was eager to live life. Not to mention just how remarkably good-looking she was.
What to do with this one, he thought, looking down at her slender arms wrapped around his stomach. Something tells me that I couldn't get rid of her now if I tried.
Leon pulled in front of an upscale French restaurant and killed the bike's engine.
"This is where we're eating?" asked Jade. "La Provinciale?"
"Not your thing?" asked Leon as he stepped off the bike and looked through the large windows on the front of the building and into the elegant interior of the restaurant.
"No," said Jade, "it totally is. But this place is, like, a ‘birthdays and special occasions' kind of place."
"You need a special occasion?" asked Leon. "How about the fact that you're now officially a criminal?"
Jade scrunched her nose in the manner that Leon couldn't help but find irresistibly charming.
"Not the kind of thing I'd really be down for celebrating, but whatever gets some escargot in front of me."
Leon took the helmet from Jade and hung it on the handlebars of his motorcycle.
"How about the fact that you've, so far, been able to handle everything that I've thrown at you."
Jade's expression brightened.
"Now that I'll celebrate."
Leon opened the front door for Jade and moments later they took a seat at the white-cloth-covered table that the hostess had led them to. Leon ordered a bottle of red along with two veal specials, and hallway into the first glass of wine he realized that he'd felt a sort of comfort with Jade that he hadn't really experienced with another girl before. It was strange.
"Refill your wine, sir?" asked the waitress, a gorgeous brunette in a tight-fitting dress.
"Yes," said Leon, not looking up. "Thank you."
Once the waitress left, Jade looked at Leon with an expression that was a blend of surprised and conspiratorial.
"Wow," said Jade. "She wasn't even subtle."
"Sorry?" asked Leon.
"The waitress was totally eye-fucking you," said Jade. "And right in front of me. For all she knows, I'm your girlfriend."
"Well," said Leon. "You're not my girlfriend."
"I know," said Jade, her face turning a deep shade of red. "I mean, yeah, but my point is that she didn't know that."
A silence fell over the table.
"But you're probably used to attention from girls," said Jade.
"How do you mean?" asked Leon.
He knew just what she meant, but he couldn't help but watch her squirm a little bit.
"I mean, well, you're a good-looking guy," said Jade, looking away as she fidgeted with her fork, her fingers moving up and down the stem of her wine glass. "And it's easy to tell that you're the kind of ambitious guy who's probably going places. That's all I meant."
Leon half-smirked.
"Thanks," he said. "I tend to be a little more focused on things other than women these days. School's just a little too important for me to get distracted."
"Women other than me, that is," said Jade with another crafty smile.
"You're a different situation," said Leon.
"Oh?" asked Jade. "And how's that?"
"Well, for one, you won't leave me alone."
Jade rolled her eyes playfully.
"I would've thought that you were someone who'd know all about attention," said Leon.
"Me?" asked Jade, placing her palm on her chest. "Are you kidding?"
"Not at all," said Leon. "You're stunning; I'd think that you'd be getting all the attention that you could handle. In fact, I'm constantly surprised with how little time you spend playing around on your phone; it's a nice change of pace from most girls I know."
Leon didn't think it would've been possible for Jade's face to turn redder than before, but the crimson that washed over her fair skin in those moments proved him wrong.
"That's, um, not the case at all," said Jade. "You actually couldn't be further from the truth on that little subject."
Leon raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, um," said Jade, wringing her napkin with both hands as she looked away bashfully. "I've only had, like, two boyfriends before and, um, well, we didn't really, um, do anything."
"'Do anything'?" asked Leon.
"Oh, don't make me have to spell it out," said Jade. "You know what I mean."
"I guess now I do," said Leon.
He watched as Jade grabbed her glass of wine and took a long swig.
"That's…not something that I was expecting to hear. You're not secretly a religious nut or something, are you?"
"Nope," said Jade. "Just a weird, socially-awkward girl who spends more time with books than people."
"Give yourself a little credit," said Leon
. "I wouldn't quite say that you're socially-awkward."
"But weird?"
"That, I think, is a pretty accurate word."
Jade smirked, tore off a crust of her bread, and tossed it playfully at Leon.
Their food arrived soon after, and the two of them dug into their meals. Leon had to restrain himself in order to not scarf down his food like an animal; something about deals always made him very hungry afterward. And during the dinner, Jade and Leon continued their conversation but moving the subject into lighter matters. By the time the bill arrived, Leon and Jade agreed that they were both pleasantly full and thoroughly tipsy.
Once the bill was paid and the two of them were back outside, a thought occurred to Leon.
"You think you're up for one more field trip?" he asked.
"Always," said Jade.
"Exactly the answer I was hoping to hear," he said. "Hop on."
Leon took off once Jade's arms were once again wrapped around him. He headed out of the city, towards one of the spots that he'd always liked to go when he needed a break from his home life and school and everything else. They soon reached a road off the main highway that took them into a secluded area, and once they reached the end of the road, Leon came to a stop and killed the engine.
"What've you got in mind this time?" asked Jade looking around at the forest that surrounded them. "Another pack of wild animals? Bears, this time?"
"Nothing like that," said Leon. "Come on."
He held out his hand and Jade took it. Leading he through the woods, they soon came upon a massive lake, the waters still and sheened with silver from the light of the moon above. Jade walked closer to the lake, taking in the sight of the calm water.
"Wow," she said. "Wait a minute, is this Lake Winnihochunk?"
"The very same," said Leon.
"I keep meaning to get out here, but I always manage to put it off until the next weekend, then the next. And then it's too cold to go."
"You're here now," said Leon, stepping closer to the edge of the water.
The two of them stood in silence for a time, their eyes on the reflection of the moon in the dark water.
"It's beautiful," said Jade.
Leon nodded. Then, he headed back to his motorcycle, grabbed something from his storage compartment, and returned. Jade looked down and saw that it was a bottle of red wine.
"Oh, perfect," she said.
"I got a little something to go," said Leon, opening the bottle and handing it to Jade.
Jade took a slow sip before passing it back over to Leon.
"I always forget that we're surrounded by so much beautiful nature," she said. "I always think of the Midwest as boring suburbs and strip malls, but there's so much more when you get away from the city."
"And when you live where I do," said Leon, "you're always looking for places to escape to."
Another few moments passed as the two of them sipped the wine and looked out into the lake.
"Well," said Jade. "This is lovely and all, but it's not exactly thrilling."
"That's because we haven't gotten to the thrilling part yet," said Leon, a wicked smile forming on his face.
"Oh?" asked Jade, placing her hands on her hips. "And what exactly did you have in mind?"
"I thought we'd go for a little swim."
"'A little swim'?" asked Jade. "But I didn't bring anything to-"
Jade stopped mid-sentence, a look of awareness forming on her features.
"You can't be…" she said.
"What's the matter?" asked Leon, stepping out of his boots, "afraid of a little dip?"
Chapter Seven
"Don't be a baby," said Leon, pulling off his socks and shoving them into his boots. "You've been through way worse with me than taking a swim."
"No way," said Jade, looking around.
"Give me one good reason," said Leon.
"Well, for one," said Jade. "This isn't exactly the most secluded lake in the world. Plenty of people come here and are probably in the woods not too far from here."
Jade took a deep breath after she spoke. Fear crawled all over Jade's body, the idea of getting completely naked and jumping into the water before her just too much for her to handle.
But Leon only smirked at her fear.
"That's the whole point of something like this," he said. "You get naked and swim despite the fact that someone might see you."
Before she could say another word, Leon pulled his shirt off, exposing his upper body. Jade's eyes went wide as she glanced at his leaned, toned physique. His entire torso seemed carved out of granite; not a drop of fat was on his body. Without thinking, her eyes snapped down to the notches of the hip bones that peeked out from waist of his jeans.
"And, um," she said, hardly able to form the words. "I heard once about someone in the town where I grew up who jumped into a lake, just like we're about to do now, and, um, they got some kind of amoeba or something, went right into her body and she got some weird disease where her brain basically cooked in her head. She died, you know."
"So," said Leon, stepping out of his pants. "You're not scared of heights, you're not scared of wild animals, and you're not scared of drug-dealing criminals. But you are afraid of brain-frying amoebas?"
It all sounded so stupid to Jade now that Leon had said it all out loud like that. But really, she just didn't want to get naked in front of, well, anyone, really. She'd always felt like her body was too weird and stick-like to be seen by anyone; she hated even being naked by herself in the bathroom. But as she looked at Leon, who now stood in nothing but a pair of skin-tight boxer briefs that clung tantalizingly to his sculpted legs, the bulge of his cock large and enticing, the idea of taking a swim didn't seem all that bad to her.
"Then you can hang out on the shore and drink wine or whatever," said Leon, stepping right up to the water and dipping his toes. "But I'm gonna take a swim. And if you want to be a chicken, then that's fine. But you'll always be a little scaredy-cat in my eyes."
He flashed her another devilish smile before sticking his thumbs into the waistband of his boxer-briefs and yanking them down.
Jade's eyes went wide as she looked up his absolutely magnificent ass.
Oh man, oh man, she thought, a feeling that was a perfect blend of arousal and anxiety running through her.
And as he strolled blithely into the water, jade caught the long, thick silhouette of his cock before he reached a waist-high point in the lake. Soon after Leon was far enough into the water that he had to swim. Jade watched Leon wade back and forth in the dark waters of the lake, his perfect body cast under the same silvery sheen of moonlight as the rest of the forest.
Maybe a little more wine might help, thought Jade, snatching the bottle from where it lay and taking a long sip. I swear, this guy's going to be the death of me.
As Jade watched Leon swim, however, she noticed that his smooth movement through the water became a little more erratic. He was about fifty feet out now, and was surely in a part of the lake where he'd need to take care not to go out too far. Then, his arms began splashing in the water. At first, Jade thought that he was playing around, but as she watched him and saw that there was an element of struggle to his splashing, her heart began to race.
Something's wrong, she thought. That's not normal swimming.
Leon continued to splash, his head now dipping below the water.
"Help!" he shouted out before sinking back under again.
Oh fuck, oh fuck, she thought. He's really drowning. Shit, shit.
Jade took a deep breath, realizing now that she was going to be skinny-dipping whether she wanted to or not. She pulled her shirt off, stepped out of her shoes, and quickly took off her pants. Once she was wearing nothing but her bra and panties, she considered briefly going into the water in just that, but once she thought about the idea of wearing wet underwear, she quickly took them off.
"Help!" said Leon. "There's…something-out-here!"
What the hell? thought Jade. What
would be in the water?
Her heart pounded harder and harder as she approached the water. Glancing down briefly, she shook aside the fact that she was as naked as it gets, and stepped into the water. The lake was chilly at first, but the adrenaline rushing through her body warmed her up quickly. Jade broke into a smooth swim, making her way to Leon's splashing body as quickly as she could.
Just be careful, she thought. Don't forget that a drowning person can easily pull you right in there with him.
"Jade!" Leon shouted. "Something's got me!"
This is too fucking weird, she thought, her mind racing.
She closed the distance between her and Leon; only a few feet remained.
"Hurry!" said Leon as Jade approached. "It's got hold of me! I think it's a, a-"
Right as Jade swam up to the side of him, his expression turned from one of panic to one of impish delight. And he ceased thrashing.
"-an…amoeba!"
Jade realized instantly what was going on.
"You fucker!" she shouted, splashing water in Leon's face as he swam in place. "You were just screwing with me?"
"Hey," said Leon. "It got you into the water, didn't it?"
"You jerk!" Jade exclaimed, trying to swat at Leon but missing completely.
"Aren't you glad I did it, though?" he said, turning around where he swam and looking at the large full moon hanging over the lake and the forests that surrounded them. "Beats the hell out of the view from the shore."
"Maybe you're right," said Jade. "But making someone think you're dying is a pretty fucked up thing to do."
"Alright," he said. "Sorry about it. But sometimes people need a little push to do something that they're more than capable of. And look at you, swimming like a champ."
Jade looked down, her face turning red when she saw that the water was clear enough to make her breasts fully visible. She wanted to cover herself up, but once she realized that the choice was between being modest or sinking to the bottom, she chose the latter.
Turning towards where Leon looked, Jade began to appreciate just how peaceful and lovely the lake was. The air was still, the water was pleasant, and the only noise was the sound of her and Leon's arms moving gently through the water. And, of course, Jade found herself stealing glance after glance of Leon's incredible body through the water.
