Fresh Waters

"That’s the thing about this city. I used to want to leave here." Lena threw her head back sighing and breathed the humid air. The lights of her small town in the distance, the silhouette in front of the purple sunset already made her feel homesick, a pain she had never known before.

"Watch out. Not that you swallow all these mosquitoes." Lena looked up. With a sweeping gesture Peter pointed over the greenish shimmering mirror surface of the lake. The hum of countless insects filled the air. Swarms of mosquitoes had gathered to enjoy the late-summer evening. Without answering, Lena laid her head back in her neck.

"Why'd you want to leave?" Peter moved closer to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

Lena and Peter sat together on a picnic blanket spread out on a footbridge. Other than them there was no one to be seen far and wide. Only now and then a lost soul strolled by the remote Kammerlake.

"This city just couldn't give me anything."

"Hm."

"Now I want nothing more than to stay."

Lena opened the laces of her shoes, pulled each off her feet one by one and set them aside, then she did the same with her socks.

"I don't want to go," she said, crawling forward to the edge of the footbridge, where she dangled her feet in the water.

Peter sat down next to her cross-legged, put his arms around her body and hugged her tightly. Lena could not look at him and just kept contemplating her feet. But she appreciated his closeness. He gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek before whispering in her ear, "You don't have to go." His voice was sobbing with sorrow.

"I do," she replied with eyes closed, briefly reciprocating the kiss. She had made the decision years ago. She would study and leave behind the confining hometown. But there was so much that held her here.

As if to emphasize her choice against the doubts, she pulled her shirt over her head and slid off the edge of the bridge, just so that her arms kept her hovering in the air, her legs submerged in the lake to her knees.

"What are you doing?" asked Peter releasing his grip on her. "The water is freezing cold."

Without hesitation she pushed off the footbridge and let herself fall into the lake. The levity of the water welcomed her. Its coldness was a relief. Life pulsed through her veins and her thoughts seemed to rearrange themselves. When she opened her eyes, she saw the world so clearly. She saw Peter. His bright eyes, fuzzy hair, and a dark scar on his chin, that he said had always had and made his face so lovably unique. He had jumped up and stood now on the edge of the bridge.

"You’re crazy."

She swam up to him laughing and longed for his hand, which was too far away to grab and throw him into the water. But Peter still took a step back. Now he was way too far away, Lena wanted to wrap her arms around her boy and pull him in.

"Ey, don’t! Be gone!" he laughed. Lena returned the mischievous grin on his face as he threw his shirt aside and placed his own shoes next to hers. As soon as he bent down far enough, she grabbed him by both upper arms pulling him off the bridge. He shrieked and protested. "Cold, cold, cold, cold."

With one continuous movement his arm sped through the water and pulled up a wall between them. Cold droplets shot through the air, while Peter brought a safe distance between himself and Lena.

Lena raised her arms in a protective motion, screamed, laughed, then suddenly fell silent, thoughtful. Peter, too, slowed.

"I'm so scared," Lena said quietly.

"Scared? Of what?"

"The future." Lena threw her arms in the air and hit the water with her flat hands. Nothing much happened, only her hands were now throbbing unpleasantly. "Of everything."

"Are you afraid of me?" asked Peter, cautiously floating towards her.

"No," Lena replied with eyebrows drawn together.

"You better be."

Suddenly she saw only darkness and breathed water. She pushed back to the surface and coughed until she got air again. "You ass! You ass, you -"

He choked her screams by pressing his lips onto hers and restrained her kicking by clinging to her.

"Don't worry, okay?" He looked deep into her eyes. He was so close; she could see the red glitter behind the green and brown colors. They held themselves above water only with their legs, tightly wrapped. The worry overflowed her at that moment like an arching wave. She wanted to slow down time and capture the feeling of his embrace forever. At the same time, she realized that soon she had to leave all this behind.

"I know I can be really scary." With these words Peter tore her out of her thoughts. Turning her eyes and laughing, she broke free from his arms and pushed his head underwater. Peter had expected this reaction and let Lena have this moment of triumph, she knew that.

"I’m serious," Lena said in frustration as Peter gasped for air.

"Sorry," he said reaching out for her hand. "You have to look at it like it’s an adventure,” he added when she did not take it.

They started swimming towards the middle of the lake to not freeze on the spot.

"I'd love to take you with me." She looked over her shoulder. The sun disappeared behind the small town, which she saw with completely different eyes today. Everything seemed infinitely far away. "I'd love to take it all with me."

Silence spread between them. They thought the same thing, but Lena did not dare say it out loud.

"That's not how it works unfortunately," Peter said eventually.

"I know."

"We'll meet again soon. I'll come visit."

"I know."

"You’ll show me the whole campus and we try our way through all hundred and eighteen restaurants."

"If you pay."

Peter laughed. "Certainly not." His laughter died once more. "And it's no goodbye forever. The three years will pass in a flash. And I will always be there whenever you need me."

Lena was glad she could duck under water when she felt the tears coming. A few strong swimming strokes later she resurfaced meters away from Peter. "Even -"

"Even at three in the middle of the night," he stopped her, catching up to her a little slower. "But I believe in you. And you got this."

Lena smiled and waited for Peter to get to her. Then she embraced him and buried her face in his shoulder. "I love you."

She felt a broad smile creeping on to Peter's lips. "I love you too." He drove his one hand through the wet strands of hair and rowed with the other to keep them both afloat, as Lena hung motionless from his neck.

Then he took her face between both hands and gave her a kiss.

"But I really need to get out of here now, otherwise I'll freeze to death."