Rising Shards

Skinny dipping was exciting in a really weird way. We just kinda did this without thinking about it, not wasting too much time debating if we should really do it. Maybe things would be weirder if we did stop to think. I had the excuse of my clothes getting ripped up to be naked, but Marmalade just got naked with me. We were naked, swimming together. I could have been thinking about that, but instead it was reminding me of something else.

"This is kind of a camping tradition," I said.

"You've done this before?" Marmalade asked.

"No! But in like every camping movie they gotta get a scene in like this," I said.

I remember when my Mom and I were doing a marathon of all the Undead Killer Camp Counselor movies, half of them had an awkward scene where they shoehorned in skinny dipping. Ma and I just roasted the movies top to bottom, so the idea of swimming around naked became kinda funny to me.

"That's true," Marms said. "I never thought I'd actually skinny dip with anyone."

"Well, stick with me and you'll get to do lots of fun stuff you never thought you would," I said. "Maybe we'll bump into some other people doing this."

"Hopefully not," Marmalade said.

"Who else do you think would do this?" I asked. For some reason, the idea of us running into our classmates doing the same thing was exciting.

"It'd probably be like Ovie, 09, and Risa making out in the water or something," Marmalade said.

"Pfft, yeah," I said. "Then if it's like a movie the slasher gets them first."

"There better not be any slasher is out here," Marmalade said.

"If there is, I'll protect you!" I grinned.

I watched Marmalade's long hair moving in the water with each stroke through the waves, looking almost like octopus tentacles floating.

"Any slasher would seriously piss themselves if they saw you all beastified," Marmalade said.

"That cool?"

"Seriously! I got a bird's eye view of it all," Marmalade said.

"It wasn't like, too freaky, was it?" I asked.

"No way, it was awesome!" Marmalade said.

"Heh," I wasn't sure what to say to that. I had so much stress about this devil thing, and wondered if I should regret it more, so Marmalade being so down for it was a breath of fresh air.

"What finally triggered you going full devil mode?" Marmalade asked.

"I, uh..." I guess there wasn't any point in hiding it. "Chickadee did one of her illusion tricks. Of her stabbing you with her horns."

"Oh," Marmalade said. "Damn."

"Yeah," I said.

"That's pretty sick," Marmalade said.

We just swam for a bit until Marms came up with another question.

"Would you do this with anyone else?" She asked.

"Uh, I dunno," I said. "Not like Ovie's group if we really do run into them, I wouldn't want that. But, hm..." I tried to think if there was anyone else I'd seriously skinny dip with.

"Hint: It'd make me very happy if you said I was the only one," Marmalade said.

"Well, I can't guarantee that," I said.

Marms splashed me.

"Hey!" I laughed. "No, but like, listen. Say the beam chasers team bus falls into a river. All our clothes gone. That wouldn't be the worst thing, I guess. So I wouldn't be unhappy? And I'd still technically be with you though, so!"

She splashed me again, but we were just giggling now.

I felt weirdly great too, in spite of getting my ass kicked after a huge all out fight.

"You think that drink is gonna mess me up?" I asked.

"I mean, you did just turn into a monster a few minutes ago," Marmalade said.

"Yeah, but I feel OK," I said.

"If it gets really bad, say something, alright?" Marmalade said. "I won't tell anyone, but we need you up and running, ya know?"

"Right," I said.

I didn't realize this would be this fun, I thought they just made that up in those camp movies. It was like, with no clothes and just us in the water, we were free.

For however long this takes, we're free. No burdens, just two friends enjoying that rush of letting it all go. A break from everything crushing me lately. It doesn't have to mean anything more than that.

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