Quoted By:
>Chill out
You dream.
—
You are lounging by the side of a swimming pool with a book and a glass of lemonade and one leg crossed over the other. In the deck chair next to yours is a coiled snake, hot to the touch, tongue flicking idly. It likes the sun. You, whose skin burns like nobody's business, are in the shade of a great pink umbrella.
You could swim, but you are completely content to lay there and flip pages. You have read this book many times before and will again. Also, the pool is occupied: Gil is swimming in it. He is wearing what most men wear to swim, and you steal a peek every time you flip a page, though you're uncertain why. Maybe you're just hoping he'll put a shirt on. Any page now.
You sip on your lemonade and pat the snake and push hair from your eyes and flip a page and try to control yourself— but can't help it. You look. There are two Gils in the pool now, one taller and one shorter, one with goggles and one without, and the one with goggles pulls his up to his forehead, and the one without pinches his nose and blows water out his ears. You sit up a little.
"A pool," the shorter Gil mutters, and wades towards the shallow end. Towards you. "Of course i-it's a—"
"It could be worse."
"I-I-I mean... okay, yeah. There's no giant eyeball. Yet. But I-I-I— now it feels like we're interrupting. Look! She's reading a book! This was a—"
"You're getting cold feet."
"Yeah, I-I-I'm getting— look at her! She can't hear us! I-I-I-It's fucked up, messing around in her—"
"She can hear us. She just isn't comprehending." The taller Gil turns his head. "And it was your idea."
"I-I-I have shitty ideas, Teddy. You're supposed to stop me before I-I fuck everything up with my shitty ideas. <span class="mu-i">This</span> i-is a colossally shitty— it's not just shitty, it's messed-up, okay? I-I-It's like I'm manipulating her."
"Mhm."
"I-I-It's like I don't trust her at all. Like I think she's stupid."
"Mhm."
"She's not stupid, but she gets these <span class="mu-i">ideas</span> in her head, Teddy, and they get stuck there, and I-I-I-I have no idea how to dislodge them. And i-i-if I could dislodge them, she'd be way happier, and everything would be so much easier, and—"
"Do you honestly believe that?"
The shorter Gil stops halfway up the pool steps. "Um, yeah? I-I-I've been thinking that from the minute she— I think she was raised all fucked-up, or something. She tries to make it sound cool, but... I-I mean, she sucks at lying. So i-i-it's not her fault, I guess, but—"
"You're not selfishly motivated?"
The shorter Gil, one hand on the railing, turns all the way around. "Of course i-i-it's— are you fucking with me? I-I-I'm a selfish piece of shit. This is selfish. I'm fucking with her head for <span class="mu-i">my</span> benefit."
"Not for mine?"
"Shut up."
"Not for hers?"
"Shut up."
"You don't think she'll be better off?"
(1/3?)
