Go shower.

With not much else to work off of, you have one Hail Mary idea that will either knock it out of the park or blow up in your face. You stand up and start to stretch as you announce out loud to everyone, “Whelp, time to hit the showers!”

The girls give you quizzical looks as you grab your towel and saunter to the exit.

“Hey, you’re not going in the girls shower, are you?” Abigail asks.

You stop, turn and shrug, saying, “It’s the only one open.”

“You can’t go in there, that’s our shower!” Carly protests.

You shrug again and say, “You’re welcome to join me!” You give her a dirty grin, then continue on your way, not looking back. That was enough to get their attention, now to see if they follow you. You measure your pace so that you are just at the door of the women’s change room as the gym door begins to open behind you. They are following you after all!

You slip into the change room before they can see you and head to the back, where the showers are located. Before entering, you decide to drop your trunks and leave them out for them to see. They’ll know what to expect this way.

Now stark naked, you step into the shower room. It is becoming creepy how familiar you are with the room. You walk over to the shower faucet and turn it on. Cold water splashes over your head. You shiver and turn the other knob. After a minute of freezing cold water, you’re relieved when it finally warms up. You douse your hair into the rapid stream and try to rub out the smell of chlorine. You let the water run down your head, over your chest and down your legs, wishing you had brought some form of soap or shampoo.

Since you don’t have anything to actually wash with, you make do with rinsing yourself off. The warm water has heated up even more. You don’t remember the water ever getting this hot during the day. It’s either from a lack of other shower-ers or the girl’s shower gets better heating. Either way, you tilt your head and let it rain, enjoying the sensation. You stay like this for a minute, starting to wonder if you made the right move. Maybe the girls are waiting for you to finish before they take their showers. If that’s the case, at least you got a shower out of this and don’t have to reek of chlorine on the ride home.

You feel a presence in the room. Someone coming through the entrance. Afraid to scare the person off, you continue rinsing yourself as if you didn’t notice. You feel a little knot in your stomach. You want to turn around to see who it is, but you don’t want to appear overeager, so you quietly count down from thirty in your head.

As you count, you feel the presence step up next to you. A small hand reaches forward to turn the faucet next to yours. It hesitates. You risk a glance. It’s Carly. She is beat red and looks like a frightened bunny. She is still in her Speedo and she is holding a shampoo bottle. It looks like she’s too petrified to do or say anything. Were you taking too long in the shower and she had to brave your presence? Or did she come in here for something else? You feel compelled to break the ice with some words.