"It was soooo boring," I complained on my cell phone as I walked towards the swimming pool. "Who the hell came up with the idea that statistics could be important?" Sienna let me whine while I could hear her typing on keys in the background. "Oh, you'll manage. It's only one course and it won't go on forever." "But my studies involve so much math. Why?" Sienna didn't answer. She didn't need to. We both knew I was mainly doing this for my dad. I wanted to study, he wanted to determine what I studied. It was as simple as that. Wasn't it? "Now concentrate on lane swimming. You want to be a shark and not a fish, don't you?" I laughed and stepped into the tropical warmth of the pool. "You're right. Why are you always right?" Sienna made a noise like she was amused, and we hung up. Swimming. One of the things I was really good at. One of the things I always enjoyed, no matter what mood I was in. Swimming. I had already signed up for the tryout session at university, so I was waved through without any problems. The lady at the counter recognized me and winked at me. "Good luck, sweetheart." The pool hall wasn't too full, but the sounds of water hitting bodies, footsteps pattering on the wet floor and loud talking and laughing echoed off the walls. I wrapped my towel around my arm and looked for the team. A group of young swimmers shouldn't be too hard to find.

While I was groping across the almost slippery floor in my squeaky flip-flops, I caught a glimpse further back of dark blonde mid-length hair that was still dry and then revealed a familiar face that I had only recently met. "Hey, drinking buddy," I said as I reached the eight or so swimmers and punched the team leader lightly on the shoulder. "Please don't say that so loudly," Calum said, half seriously half-jokingly, grinning at me. I bit my lips and nodded, throwing my towel behind me on the bench and clutching my goggles. "When do we start?" He looked at a sheet in his hand. "Well, we're still waiting for three more. But I think we can start slowly. We'll assess you all individually today anyway." I nodded, put on my goggles, and got in line behind a boy who was a little shorter than I. He shook out his shoulders and then got ready when it was his turn. He jumped and I went to my designated place - the starting block. I stood on it, stretched my arms again and got ready. I tensed my legs, the right one slightly forward, both bent, and my arms brought together to form my body position. Then I jumped. I pushed off with all my strength, feeling a beautiful curve in my body, which immediately dissolved again as soon as I broke the surface of the water, splitting it into thousands of tiny drops of water, like shattered glass. The trick was not to work against the water but with it. The silence around me was all that filled me. I slowly emptied my lungs, resurfaced after what felt like an eternity and made a few slow but strong-arm swimming strokes, and then the familiar movements were all I could think about. First the right arm, then the left, then the right again, then the left again. One after the other and with every fourth arm swing, I turned my head to the side and filled my lungs with air. The water was like a cool wetness that tickled me. I could feel my muscles tensing and relaxing with every movement and it felt so good to be able to feel my full body strength again, from the cool part of my hairline to my last toe. It had been too long since I had done any training in the pool. The summer break had made me lazy and now I realized that I was a little out of shape and my fitness had suffered. But I loved working out and kept going. After about six rounds - I hadn't really counted - I looked around and saw that the last ones of the group were already doing their rounds and would soon be finished. So, I pushed myself up on the edge and walked towards the others, dripping wet. Calum gave me a pat on the shoulder and grinned. "You're a machine, I knew you'd do it," he added, writing something onto the list on his clipboard and then showed it to me. "I've entered you as one of the fastest, so we'll divide the lanes according to speed and ability during training. Congratulations!" He winked at me, and I tousled my hair with a grin. Training was over quickly, and we decided to go to a café together to talk and get to know each other better. As far as I could tell, everyone at training today had made the team and so, after showering and getting dressed, we went as a group to the nearest café, which was between the swimming pool and the university.

"Yo, dude, where did you learn to swim like that", asked me a broad-shouldered brunette guy that went by the name Tobias. He glared at me with something that I would in this context call fascination and a sprinkle of humor, while sucking on his milkshake straw. "Uh", I said a bit too dispassionate, "my dad taught me when I was younger. I just enjoyed it and I guess I never stopped." I laughed a bit uncomfortably. I didn’t like to be stared at by 10 mostly good-looking guys waiting for a more satisfactory answer. "I mean, I don’t have the best relationship with my dad, but swimming is one of the things that connects us. Or rather connected" I was squirming and started to drink my beer, hoping the alcohol would make me less tense. "Come on, guys. This is no deep confession session. Keep it light", joked Calum and cheered with his drink. "I agree, Elias has the potential to become the new star of the sharks team. But you all performed well today. Congrats, I'm proud of you." There was a general murmur of approval. Then Tobias said: "I know, everyone hates that, but let’s do a short introduction. I still know no names." Calum nodded at this suggestion. The group was starting to say their names, but I could only pay half of my possible attention span. This situation reminded me so much of my friends at home that I had a weird heavy feeling somewhere near my stomach area. Or was it my bellybutton area? I usually wasn’t the type of guy to miss home much, or at all, but I knew that those people knew me for real. I wouldn’t have to learn new names, put on a face which is usually considered polite and kind when meeting new people. I could be grumpy with my friends without seeming like an asshole. Gosh, maybe I should tell them from time to time.

In the end, I could remember exactly four names - Tobias, Matteo, August, and Juan. And Calum, of course. Including me, there were eleven of us, which I thought was quite a small group for a swim team. The other names were either too complicated or too unimpressive for me, but I relied on the fact that I would soon know them by heart out of habit. We stayed for a while, talking about swimming teams from previous years, the courses everyone was studying and about other stuff that my brain successfully eliminated later. As I was winding down more and more, I decided to say goodbye. I couldn't take any more and after two beers on an empty stomach I already had a heavy head. While I was walking home, I fumbled out my phone, tipped something that appeared to be muscle memory by my fingers because my head was definitely not fast enough to follow when there was already a very familiar and beautiful light voice on my ear. "Elias, you okay?" Sienna sounded worried which made me smile. Not her worries but her caring for me. "Yes, I was at the swimming training. They called me the new superstar", I giggled a bit and Sienna snorted. "You’re drunk, aren’t you?" I nodded and added "yes" when I realized she couldn’t see me. "The boys and I went for drinks and holy shit I cannot hold my alcohol on an empty stomach." She laughed a bit. "Well, its good training for Uni life, isn’t it?" I didn’t answer and I walked in silence for a bit. "Should I come over tomorrow and visit you?" "No, that’s okay. I will come to you this time. I want to visit my parents anyway and its close by then. Next week, after this event I told you about, school and swim training will start for real and then I probably won’t have as much time." Sienna took a deep breath which sounded like she was sucking the air away from the phone. "You sound sad, you’re usually not like that. I thought you’d be glad to leave home.“ I shrugged, again realizing that she could neither see my face nor my gestures. "I know, and I feel stupid and totally overprivileged to say this, but I am now realizing that I am growing up and it’s just something I have to get used to."

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"You know, you’re really handsome", Sienna said while brushing her long slim fingers through my very light blonde hair. I was resting my head on her lap while watching some trash tv together. Earlier this morning I went by her place. She quickly showed me around and it was a very pretty but not too big apartment. Her roommates were not at home so we could have some alone-time resulting in eating vegan chocolate brownie fudge ice cream on the sofa and her running her fingers alternately between my facial lines and my hair strands. "I know", I said jokingly and just enjoyed her touch on my head. Having my eyes closed I could not see her facial expression, but she gently touched my forehead with her lips and said: "I am very glad you’re here. I know you’ll be very busy and me too when my courses start. But still." I opened my eyes and looked into hers, looking for something that would tell me her feelings. Her love and warmth were sparklingly dancing in her eyes while their shape changed when she smiled. "I love you." Those three words sounded so simple, and I had heard them so many times before from her lips. But she wasn’t wasteful with them and when she’d say those words, she’d mean them. I formed my lips slowly and intensely to a smile. "I love you too." Then I put my hand on the back of her neck and pulled her towards me.

Her lips tasted like chocolate and desire left with a tiny sprinkle of coldness from the ice cream that has already melted long ago. The mix of hot and cold gave me chills and I opened my lips which she quickly accepted. With a slight moan of hers that went directly from where our lips touched through my chest further down while leaving a trace of hotness like hot wax running down on the side of a candle, I lifted myself up and put both of my hands around her face. She smelled so good, a mix of orange and cinnamon. I never got to know how she could mix those two scents which always gave me a small hint of Christmas without smelling confusing in summertime. I released her lips just to give her little wafer-thin kisses on the sides of her throat, down her neck to the tender spot where the soft part meets the hard slender collarbone. To tease her, I take the strap of her top between my teeth and slowly run it down her shoulder while running my tongue lightly over her skin. A very slight salty taste mingled with the already mixed sensations of my senses. Sienna moaned and pulled me closer to her. "Not here," she then said, reluctantly detaching herself from me and pulling me to my feet. "I don't want them to come back and see us." She pulls me by the hand to her bedroom and then closes the door behind us. She pushes me onto her cream-colored soft bed and sits on top of me. Then in one swift movement she removed her top and started kissing my neck. I realized that I had really missed this and didn't let her keep me in suspense for long. I turned us both around, undid her zipper and kissed her stomach. I played with her belly button piercing with my tongue and her light moans spurred me on. Once her pants and the rest of her clothes were on the floor, I worked my lips up from her feet, further up her legs and higher. When I arrived between her legs, she moaned in anticipation, but I grinned, breathed a light breath of air on her sensitive area and then leaned over her. "We've got time!" Sienna rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure your parents want to spend a little bit of time with you too." I gave her an annoyed look. "Please don't bring up my parents in a situation like this." She laughed, pulled me on top of her and began to undress me. After we had tortured each other long enough, I settled down between her legs and we both groaned as the moment we had both been waiting for finally arrived. Having sex with Sienna was a change of rapid heartbeats, waves of heat all over my body, goosebumps on every centimeter and tingling everywhere. And at the same time, it was so familiar, a feeling of intimacy that you can only build up over a long time, a connection that you have to earn. Her body, her smell, her presence was so familiar to me that it felt like I was at home with Sienna. And where she was, there was the familiarity, the connection that I wanted. "I love you," she said against my lips as we kissed again and again.

We were just dozing, my fingers stroking slowly and repeatedly up and down her shoulder, her back, while she laid in my arms, when suddenly I heard the turning of a key in the door. I was startled. "Is that your roommates?"