Gavin Is Not So Tired Anymore

Gavin waited for the sound of Heather's footsteps to recede before returning to his video game. Oddly, the screen seemed smaller now, or its contents less captivating, than before Heather had interrupted him.

He still couldn't believe that she liked video games. Not that he thought girls couldn't like video games, of course. Zack and Chloe would come over to his house and play games with him whenever they couldn't persuade him to come outside.

What really shocked him was how easily she destroyed his perceptions of her. He had always thought of her as charming, funny, caring, motherly, and while, yes, she was all these things, he now realized that she could become angry, too.

And that she liked video games.

Without understanding why, he found himself looking in a mirror that was beside his bed. As if for the first time, he noticed that his skin was a bit too pale and that his arms were a bit too skinny. He looked like a much younger Pete Davidson.

Before the fame.

Then he started thinking of Heather again. She didn't seem to care too much about his appearance. There was even the chance that she had a Pete Davidson complex.

Chewing on his lower lip, Gavin debated going to the dock, after all. He didn't have to swim and he could just bring his phone if he got bored. It was running out of battery, but he figured that it would last for another hour, at least.

Fuck it. People would ask a lot of questions if he didn't leave his room at least once while at the cabin.

Closing the bedroom door behind him, Gavin was only a little surprised to see Chloe down the hall, standing in front of the bedroom she shared with Victoria. It looked like she was wrestling with a problem in her head, and it seemed like the problem was winning. Even from here, Gavin could see how tightly Chloe had curled her hand around the doorknob.

"Going for a swim?" Gavin called out to her when he saw that she was wearing a baggy t-shirt over her bikini.

Chloe jumped, which made Gavin stifle a laugh. She looked over her shoulder and smiled upon seeing one of her best friends. "Thinking about it." Then, "You?"

Gavin shrugged. "Thinking about it."

Then they both started laughing. The situation was just too funny. Two people with crippling anxiety about their bodies were 'thinking about' going for a swim. Gavin thought, And the punchline is that neither of them go. Because crippling anxiety does exactly what it is supposed to do: cripple.

"Let's go," he said, with the same degree of confidence that he felt.

Chloe closed the distance between them and put an arm around his shoulder. He suddenly felt very young, even though they were the same age. "Let's," she said, because that was all that needed to be said.