Diving Into You

Chapter Six

Elliot

There was no sound but my own breathing echoing through my ears ,and the thud thud of my sneakers as they made contract with the road.

Running.

It was a necessary evil, something I needed to do in order to be the best I could possibly be but it didn’t clear my head like being in the water did.

Nothing cleared my head like being in the water did. It never had.

But there was a freedom in running. A chance to let my mind wander. There was nothing but the urge to place one foot in front of another. No need to think , no need to…. My thoughts trailed off as a loud bark brought me out of my daydream.

Grinning I looked down at the golden head at my side, slowing I reached to scratch between ears that seemed to have a mind of their own.

“That enough for today huh?”

Flounder, my dog didn’t break eye contact , his giant pink tongue lolling out the side of his mouth as he leaned into the ear rub. He was my best friend. A giant over grown puppy who hadn’t grown up in the years I had had him.

“Wanna go home fella?”

A slight tail wag. The golden tail of doom as I jokingly called it.

“Come on then.” I started moving again but not at a run this time. My breathing had already returned to normal, my tread firm and even as I started the walk back to my house. “Treats Flounder?” I asked when he started to lag behind. Had to remember he wasn’t a young dog anymore. No matter his playful behaviour he just couldn’t keep up like he used to. At the sound of treats, that tail wagged energetically and he finally fell into step beside me.

Flounder, it was a little inside joke of mine. I hadn’t named him because I had an obsession with the animated classic , I had named him after a fish because of the dogs absolute terror of the water. It was comical that a dog of mine had to be wrestled into the bath.

But he evened me out. My best friend. My confident. He kept me on the green earth and not in the water consistently. Before he had come into my life as a tiny bundle of puppy fluff I had spent as much time in the water as I could.

If the press had known how it all started for me they would have a field day. So would the worlds psychologists.

I was messed up on the inside.

The constant arguments before my parents divorce , the screaming and shouting. My mothers sobbing and the sound of doors slamming as the father I no longer spoke to escaped the house and went in search of other things.

I had been older when I had realised what the others things had been.

He had crushed my mother. Destroyed a good woman and all I could do was sink into the warm bath water. My face fully submerged , the water muffling the hell tjsg was my house.

It was only under , when my lungs were burning with the need to suck in great lungfuls of life giving air that I found any peace.

That’s how I had found swimming, and I was good at it. A natural talent people had said. But it went deeper than that for me.

Swimming meant freedom. A chance to calm the chaos of my mind.

The fact I could make a living, a very good living from it was just a bonus.

Even as an adult I would submerge myself in the bath, I would let me mind wander and not worry about all the hell that was going on in the world around me.

It was my drug.

My escape.

Beeping in my ear and I slowed to a stop again as Barry’s voice came through my ear piece.

“You need anything?” As usual his over the top personality only came out when we had company . When it was just me and him he was all business.

“I’m good, just out for a run with Flounder.” I answered automatically.

“Give the fur ball a belly rub from me, listen Elliot.” There was a more of apprehension in his voice that the distance couldn’t diminish. “The girl from last night….”

I paused, yeah the girl from last night. She had been popping up in my head all damn day. With her wide watery eyes, her smudged mascara and pouty lips. She reminded me of me. She had been trying to block something out as well. Only where I did it with swimming she was doing it with alcohol.

We really weren’t that different.

“Did you get her home ok? I’m not going to see her face plastered on missing person flyers am I? I really don’t need that kind of publicity.”

Barry laughed. “Got her home safe. That’s not the problem.”

“Then what is the problem?”

“She’s a journalist.”

I swore. s**t that was not what I needed to hear. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Barry sounded bored. “Had to find her license to get her address and found her News Centre ID badge.” I stayed silent. Had she been playing at the drunk college student as a way to get an interview with me?

No, I shook my head. The girl had been wasted. She had felt me up. There was no story there I had been a total gentleman.

Luckily.

“I did a bit of digging. She’s been trying to get an interview with you for months.”

“Her and a hundred others.” I started walking again.

“And she has a press pass for the race next week. I’m not sure what her angle is or even if she has one but I want you to be aware. You know what journalists are like.” He laughed and I had to crack a smile.

Oh I knew what they were like. I seemed to spend half my life dodging them.

“Find out of she’s going to be a problem.” I hoped she wouldn’t be. But it would be best to find out. “Email me what you find out.”

I had other things to worry about then the attentions of one over zealous reporter .

The olympics were coming up. And I wasn’t coming home with less then gold.