Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Athena’s P.O.V.

Shit! His body already submerged in the water, what will I do? I didn’t see any bubbles as well, which added to my anxiety that he could no longer be breathing down there.

Without any second thoughts, I dived into the pool, swam a little to reach him, until I was able to get Cristoff’s body.

Damn, he’s too heavy! He’s not even chubby.

I gently laid his body on the marble side of our swimming pool—careful enough not to hit his head. “Cristoff, are you okay?” I worriedly asked, but he was not opening his eyes. I was gently tapping his face, but still, no response came from him. Terror reared up within me as blood froze through my veins.

It was a good thing that I was a trained medic, and I knew how to do *CPR. Well, I will just do what I knew was the right thing to do! I’ll lift the rest to the Lord.

First, check for ABC—airway, breathing, and circulation. So, I looked at his nose and opened his mouth. He looked okay so far. He had no airway obstruction, but I was not sure if his breathing was still normal. Maybe because of fear that I couldn’t locate his pulse either on his wrists or on his neck… so that was when I decided to perform CPR.

I was on my third cycle of giving him some air, but he still had no response, so I pumped his chest again, and from there, I started the fourth cycle. When I removed my lips from him after I gave a dynamic blow, I saw his teasing stare that totally freaked me out. He was even biting his lower lip and stuck his tongue out like a great maniac!

Damn him, he just tricked me! He tricked me from the very start!

“How dare you?” I growled as I pushed him back to the pool.

That was when I remembered that he was one of the best swimming athletes in the school. I haven’t watched any swimming competition in St. Augustine’s Academy yet, I had only seen his face on some posters.

I held my forehead out of disgust. I guessed I no longer felt any headache caused by my fever—but a different headache because of extreme stupidity! The thought of him getting drowned still lingered on my mind. I didn’t even know what to do a while ago. I worried so much about him, then… I would have found out later that he was only acting and pretending?

Shit! You’re so stupid, Athena. How did you let yourself be fooled by someone like him?

This time, he was laughing while swimming in the water—too blissful of someone’s humiliation. He was even doing different kinds of strokes such as butterfly, front crawl, and backstrokes just to catch my attention. I must say that whatever he does involve rhythmic and coordinated movements of all his major body parts.

Damn you, Cristoff! Enjoy that happiness… because I won’t let this day pass without getting even!

“Helena, I’m sorry! Was it my fault if you worried too much about me to the point that you forgot that I’m a swimmer? Almost all swimming posters at school have my face!” He smiled at me foolishly. He was saying sorry, but he was clearly mocking me.

I stomped off my feet because, for the umpteenth time, he pushed me towards my limit. “The hell I care if you are a swimmer! Should I know about it?” I lied while yelling at him.

Then, I hoarsely continued. “And why do you have to pretend that you can’t even swim? Why do you have to act that you’re totally drowning? Of course, I will save you. You’re here in our mansion, and we would be the ones in charge of anything that will happen to you! You know that I have a fever, but what did you do? You made me jump to the pool!”

“I didn’t ask you to jump, Helena… it was your own decision. Now I know that you wouldn’t want me to die, I like that! But if you would be the one to do me CPR whenever things like this happened, I would love to get drowned over and over again!” I knew my cheeks went red when he said that, but I chose to ignore him. I felt so cold and ended up squeezing my wet clothes.

After a few minutes, he climbed to the side of the pool. He took off his uniform as well as his inner T-shirt. I could now see that he was half-naked as droplets of water continued dripping all over his body, and I just couldn’t take my eyes off him. I must admit that my focus to wring my wet clothes suddenly left me.

In fairness for a sixteen-year-old guy—he was already having some firm muscles and six-pack abs. Though his body was not yet fully enhanced, I must admit that he was quite a head-turner, and once you saw him, you wouldn’t even believe that he was only sixteen. Did his ex-girlfriend realize this? And when he jerked his head to brush his hair up, it felt like everything abruptly moved in slow motion until…

“Enjoying the view?” he asked that suddenly made me aware of what was going on. I then blinked a few times.

Shit! Did I just drool on him? No. He’s my rival, and I always hated his guts!

“You wish! Your overconfidence will do you no good, Cristoff. Enjoy the pool because you have to clean that later. I’ll go ahead because I need to dry myself. If my fever gets worst, it is all your fault… stupid!”

Then, I rushed inside our mansion and went up to my bedroom. I needed to escape my flushing cheeks from Cristoff as fast as I could. Who knows, his ego could grow even bigger if he would know that my eyes were stuck at him like glue moments ago.

When I entered my room and closed the door behind me, I didn’t know why, but I found myself smiling while reminiscing all the things that happened today. I even placed my fingers on my lips while feeling the incredible sound of my heartbeats. The sensation was tingling my innermost veins, and I just couldn’t get away with it.

It feels good. Of course, not the kiss. Actually, it wasn’t even a kiss. It was only CPR. What I mean is, it feels good to be with him!

Wait, what did I say? What is wrong with me? I poked my forehead.

I held my chest as I was feeling something inside me that I couldn’t totally explain. Racing pulses made me light-headed that I couldn’t think straight anymore. It was as if my mind was floating around while my heart was beating so fast. This feeling was so foreign to me, and I guessed I didn’t know how to deal with this one.

Am I falling in love?

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CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)* is an emergency procedure that combines chest compressions often with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest.