After a few seconds, Camila pulls her hand back, and Valeria wishes she could reach out, make the moment stretch a little longer. Instead, Valeria fiddles with her thumb ring, keeping her hands busy, trying not to show how much she misses Camila’s touch. “Thank you,” she says, turning toward her.
Camila’s mouth twitches into a small, nervous smile as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, then immediately does it again, almost like she forgot she’d already done it.
“No problem.”
Valeria needs a distraction, so she immediately drops to her knees, pulling everything out of her backpack and grabbing the pump. Once everything is set up, she works the pump, each push sending out a wheezy gasp of air.
Everyone’s complaints rise with each stroke, drifting over them in dramatic waves about how theyreallyshould have bought an electric pump by now.
“Need help?” Camila asks, nodding at the paddleboard sprawled lifelessly on the sand.
Valeria nods and drops beside her, trying to catch her breath.
She gives the pump a few determined plunges. Thehose twitches, and the board stirs. She keeps a steady rhythm, each pump sending a faint puff of warm lake air into Valeria’s face.
Sweat beads at Camila’s temples and slips in a slow trail down her neck. Valeria swallows, averting her eyes, not daring to keep following the drop any further south.
It’s an extremely hot day in August, and the heat hangs over everything like a heavy, invisible quilt. Valeria can feel that the ground is hot even through her shoes.
Alejandra starts on her and Clara’s paddleboard, but after a few pumps, she tosses the pump to the side.
“I need to get in the water before I melt,” Alejandra announces as she turns, marching straight toward the shoreline, not bothering to check if anyone else is coming along. Clara doesn’t hesitate. One heartbeat, two, and she’s up with a grin, sprinting after her.
Clara catches her from behind, arms hooking around Alejandra’s waist, lifting her clean off the ground. Alejandra yelps, kicking in the air, but Clara’s already charging into the shallows. They topple forward together right at the sweet spot where the lake deepens, bodies hitting the water with a splash big enough to echo.
They all laugh and shake their heads before going back to pumping the paddleboards. Lily and Isabella finish first, hoisting their newly inflated board under their arms and wobbling off toward the water.
Then it’s just Valeria, Camila, and the pump. They trade it back and forth until the board grows firm enough for Valeria to press a palm into it and nod in satisfaction.
Camila leans back on a tree. “I wish I’d remembered my paddleboard. I have an electric pump.”
“Rude,” Valeria says, giving her a mock glare before it turns into a bright smile.
Camila laughs before brushing a strand of hair from her forehead, the sun glinting off the tiny beads of sweat that have gathered there. “Ready?” she asks, hand slipping under one end of the board.
“Ready,” Valeria says, grabbing the other.
The board wobbles between them as they lift it, warm from the sun and surprisingly heavy for something full of air.
The first touch of water slides over Valeria’s ankles, and it’s relief made physical. The board slips from their hands and lands with a gentle thud, bobbing once before settling.
“Hop on, I’ll walk it in deeper,” Camila says.
Valeria nods and sits on the board. Camila pushes the paddleboard a little farther out, the water swirling around the board. When her lower half is completely submerged, Valeria offers Camila a hand while trying to steady the board for her to climb on beside her. Valeria’s knees wobble before Camila can make it onto the paddleboard, and swiftly topples them both over.
Valeria’s scream slices across the lake. Her body hits the water, and the impact steals the air from her lungs. For a second, there is only cold and the echoing thud of her own heartbeat. As her body sinks deeper, a memory flashes through her mind: Brooke’s face, tight with disappointment.
Valeria’s stomach clenches on instinct, muscle memory older than thought. When this had happened with Brooke, Valeria had barely come up for air before Brooke’s anger flared. A small worry whispers that Camila might react the same way.
Valeria resurfaces, blinking water from her eyes, already bracing for a harshcomment.
“I’m sorry.” The words are halfway out before Valeria can process that Camila is laughing.
Valeria blinks, trying to make sense of the scene before her, then blinks again as if the image might correct itself. The knot in her chest doesn’t loosen immediately. Her nervous system insists this is a trick—that the reprimand is coming next.
But it doesn’t.
Instead, Camila says, “I’m so sorry,” struggling through the words as her laughter grows.
