I jumped in. The water really wasn’t that cold at all. When I came to the surface, I was suprised that the lake lacked the algae smell that I was expecting. I didn’t have the pool/chlorine smell, but it smelled clean. I swam away from the dock so my friends could have room to jump in, too. They did and after treading water for a bit we decided to swim out to the buoy.
They were giving free body-mass tests at the Recreation Center one day, so I did it. The girl said that I was easy as she pinched the caliphers around my thigh and then my chest. Six percent. I was a bit proud at the time, but as I swam out the buoy I wished the number was higher. The less fat you have, the more you body is made up of things like muscle and bone. Heavy things. Things that take a lot of energy to keep afloat. Before I reached the buoy, I flipped on my back and glided the rest of the way.
I clung to the buoy to keep from sinking. My friends talked for a while and we headed back to the dock. With some effort, I pulled myself onto it and rolled onto my back. I looked up at the stars. The city lights made it so you couldn’t see many. My friends continued their conversations. I realized that the dynamic I’ve had with my friends is going to be very different this, my last year in college. I sighed and remembered the friends I left back in Wyoming. I missed the ease at which friends were made there and lamented the relative difficulty the same task here.
My friend’s roomate recently broke-up with her girlfriend and she wanted to get back to console her. So we left. A laid my head against the window and looked out. The trees whizzed by as we drove in the summer night. When we got to the house, plans to contact each other for the next night were made. I drove home and got a glass of water and ate some oreos. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll have seven percent.