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“Are you sure you don’t want to go in the water?” Patton asked once again. “Or at least take off your hoodie?”
“I’m good,” Virgil said for about the millionth time even though he was getting a little warm at this point. It hadn’t been as bad when they’d gotten here at about 9am, but it was getting closer and closer to noon, and it was starting to get hot. Virgil just… wasn’t feeling it though. Not with all of these people around.
“Do you want to go home?” Patton asked.
Virgil shook his head stubbornly. “I might go in the water later,” he claimed, though if the heat still hadn’t pushed him past his anxiety by now, he probably wouldn’t. Still, he couldn’t just leave. It was Roman and Remus’s 21st birthday party, and their moms had rented out a small waterpark just for it. Roman had been coming by every 30 minutes or so to hang out with him briefly before being forced back into the water by the heat. Virgil couldn’t just go. “Plus, I’m staying for cake.”
“Are you sure?” Patton asked. “You don’t have to stay.”
“I’m good, Dad,” Virgil said. “Really. Why don’t you go hang out in the lazy river with Logan for a couple of minutes?” Logan had spent a good chunk of the morning hanging around with Virgil but had gone to cool off for a bit. “I’m going to go buy some more of those mini corndogs. I’m almost 18. I don’t need to be babysat constantly.”
“But…”
“Shoo,” said Virgil, waving him away.
Patton sighed. “Well, alright,” he agreed, leaning forward to kiss his forehead. He frowned when he drew back. “Get a smoothy too,” he said. “You’re too warm. I know you like your hoodie, but could you please change into the swim shirt just to be a bit cooler.”
Virgil picked at the sleeves of his hoodie. “Yeah, alright,” he grudgingly agreed.
“And drink lots of water!”
“Alright, Patton.”
He stood up then and grabbed his bag with the swim shirt to change into in the locker room, having already been wearing the swim trunks all morning. It was marginally cooler; he did have to admit.
He rewarded himself for this accomplishment by walking directly to the nearby food stand.
“More mini corndogs?” the teenage girl asked when he stepped up to the counter.
“You know me so well, Mabel,” he said, despite having only known her for a few hours at this point. “Also, I’ve been coerced into a smoothie to prevent overheating. So… can I have a chocolate peanut butter one?”
“Sure,” the girl replied. She didn’t take his money, of course, because Roman’s family was rich as hell and were paying for everything. Virgil had been using this opportunity to drown himself in mini corn dogs for the past 3ish hours.
The smoothie took a bit longer to prepare than the microwaved mini corndogs did, so he stood to the side and snacked on some of the corndogs while waiting for it to be done.
“Hello, Virgil,” a voice greeted, and Virgil glanced down to see the only other person at this party with a completely dry swimsuit on.
“Hi, Mayor Silvia.”
“You really can just call me Rhea.”
“I really cannot,” Virgil argued back.
She rolled her eyes good naturedly and turned to order a bowl of ice cream from the food stand, probably for the same reason Virgil was waiting for a smoothie. Both cold foods were finished at about the same time.
“So,” she said, after swallowing her first spoonful of ice cream. “Not interested in going in the water?”
Virgil shrugged, moving the fingers of his hand not holding the smoothie as though to pull at hoodie sleeves before remembering he was now in a tighter long sleeve shirt made of material that wasn’t as satisfying to run his fingers over. “It’s just a lot,” he said. “I’m only an okay swimmer anyway and…” The number of possible things to do and the number of people around was just overwhelming. It was different than the pool where he’d learned to swim where the only options were walk around or swim laps. There was just so much and so much he wasn’t really comfortable with. Anytime he thought about trying to do one of them, his head went to all of the ways it could go wrong. He took a sip of his smoothie.
Mayor Silvia watched him for a moment. “You should try at least one thing,” she said. “If you want, at least.”
Virgil shrugged again. “I wouldn’t even know what to do.”
“Hmm,” she said, glancing around. Then she pointed. “How about that?”
Virgil followed the direction of her finger. “Oh, yeah, the most terrifying thing,” he said dryly. “Thanks.” To be fair, it probably wasn’t the most terrifying thing. That award went to the giant slide whose slope was basically a 90-degree angle. The one the mayor was talking about was taller, but a much more sloped slide, a red plastic tunnel with a lot of loops.
“Oh, come one,” she said. “You’re young. Live a little.”
He rolled his eyes. “Or die a lot.”
“What?” she asked, pleasantly. “Afraid of falling from a large height?” She then laughed loudly at the face he made in reaction to that. What was he supposed to say though? That was a really dark joke to make, but he guessed the woman who’d almost fallen to her death was the one most allowed to say it. “Go on,” she said. “You know you want to.”
And he did. A little. There also was no way he’d manage to climb all of those stairs on his own power the way his head was right now, let alone then actually slide down the slide. “I’ll go if you go,” he sassed.
She considered him for a moment. “Hmm,” she said and looked around. Her eyes landed on Remus who seemed to be walking back from the bathrooms. “Remus,” Mayor Silvia called.
Remus paused and turned to walk over to them. “Need something, Mom?”
“Do you want to help me stress out your mother, brother, and all of my security guards?”
“Wait…” said Virgil.
“Do I?!” replied Remus.
“Virgil here said he’d go down the Tsunami if I did,” she said. “Carry me?”
Remus’s eyes lit up. “But of course, my dearest madre. Would you like a piggyback ride, a bridal style carry, or a football carry?”
“Well, I imagine you’ll have to carry Virgil as well if we’re going to make it up there before they realize what we’re doing, so piggyback for me and you can carry Virgil in your arms.”
“But of course!” Remus said, kneeling down in front of his mother’s wheelchair. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he stood back up with her clinging to his back a moment later. Then, Remus opened his arms in invitation to Virgil, wiggling his eyebrows.
Virgil glanced around them to see if anyone was watching. “If anyone asks, especially Roman, I did not consent to this, nor do I approve of you shoving your mother down a waterslide,” he said stepping forward.
He was instantly swooped up into Remus’s arms. “Of course not,” Remus agreed. “I’m simply an uncontrollable scoundrel.”
Then they were off at an impressive speed thanks to Remus’s superstrength letting him take the distance in bounds.
They were already a quarter of the way up the slide’s stairs by the time there was a shriek of “Rhea, Remus, no!” However, it was far too late as Remus was taking the steps 5 at a time. He slid to a stop at the top of the waterslide. “Virgil first!” Remus said. “Then me, then mom so I can catch her. Out of my way water slide attendant!”
The poor teenager standing at the edge of the slide seemed unsure what to do as Remus gently muscled himself to the front of the line. He set Virgil down on the slide and before Virgil could comprehend the fact that his bottom half was now soaked and have a chance to rethink this whole endeavor, he was being shoved.
He yelped, but there was no stopping gravity as he slid down the tunnel of rushing water. It wasn’t as bad as he thought it might be. It wasn’t even way too fast. Still, it was only a matter of seconds before he was being spat out into the pool below. He sputtered and swam to the surface. Why had he agreed to let Remus do this?
Remus.
He remembered as he heard a wooshing noise from the slide behind him that Remus was coming down the slide right after him, and tried to swim away, but got bowled into a moment later.
He gasped as he came up for air once again and started treading water.
“This was a horrible idea, and I hate you,” he groaned at Remus. Remus just laughed and turned back to the waterslide. His mother came down the slide next, luckily not running into them. Remus grabbed her out of the water a moment later.
“Thank you, dear,” she said with a laugh.
Then there was more splashing coming not from the slide, but from the edge of the pool. “What do you think you’re doing?!” Roman shrieked.
“Having fun,” Remus replied. “Duh.”
“That’s dangerous!”
Remus rolled his eyes and splashed Roman. “Anyway,” he said. “What do you want to do next, Mom.”
“No!” Roman screeched. “Absolutely not. You two are done.”
“Roman Silvia,” the mayor said, suddenly serious despite being soaking wet in a pool being held by her son. “21 years ago on this day I…”
“Oh gross!” Roman said recoiling.
“To the wave pool!” Remus yelled, propelling himself and his mother away from his brother. His movement sent a wave of water right at Virgil and Roman.
“Ugh!” Roman said, whipping the water out of his eyes. Remus was already halfway across the waterpark, though Virgil could see Mayor Silvia’s wife running after them and yelling something. “Are you okay?” Roman asked.
“Fine,” Virgil said with a laugh. “At least I’m cool now.”
“Want to help me go drag half of my family out of the wave pool?” he asked.
Virgil thought for a moment, but he was already wet. “I want one of the life jackets first.”
“Good idea. I’ll also get one for my fucking paraplegic mother,” he said. Then, he mumbled under his breath, “Remus can drown.”