Hey y'all! Sorry I haven't wrote much this week. I've had band camp every day and it's been chaotic. But all is good. Happy 4th of July! Hope you enjoy the chapter

:)

--------------------------

Today was to be our second canoeing trip. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but Cody tried to help me look forward to it. He made the twins promise not to flip us again. And they happily agreed. I guess finding out I can't swim really did straighten them out.

For this trip, I was with Cody again. We packed the cooler with cherry coke and brought some cash.

We got to the river and I hopped right in. The guys all raced ahead in kayaks, but Kelly and jake tried to stay with us for awhile. They stop at the first concession stand while we didn't.

We kept going down the river for awhile until we found an ice cream stand. We go ashore and buy some cold delicious goodness. Cody ordered a chocolate taco for himself and I got a Reese's ice cream bar. It was super good.

We take our treats to the canoe and eat them on the river. For the main part, we eat in silence and enjoy our surroundings.

"You seem a lot calmer this time, Cody says. He was just finishing up his taco. I still had quite a bit less.

"Yea, well, I feel a bit safer now that I know you won't let me drown." I turn towards him and the canoe rocks. I panic a bit, but then it becomes steady again and I smile at Cody.

"So is the reason you're afraid of water because you can't swim or is it something else?"he asks.

"Well. Yes and no. What happended that made me scared of water included me not being able to swim," I say, turning back towards the front. I could already tell what he would say next, so I needed time to prepare myself to answer.

"What happened?"

I sigh. "When I was six years old, my father took me canoeing on a lake. I was excited to go fishing with him, but my mother begged him not to take me. She had a fear of boats, you see, and she also thought I was too young, especially since I couldn't swim. I didn't know it then, but I know it now, he was drunk at the time. My mom gave me a life jacket and we headed out. I mentioned how uncomfortable it was, so he told me to take it off. My mom freaked. At some point, we started fishing. My dad dropped his pole and leaned over to get it. The canoe topped over and I was sinking. I almost drowned. My dad didn't even notice. I had sunk a good 10 feet before my cousin, a lifeguard, dove in and saved me. That incident was one of the last straws in their marriage. They got divorced about a month later."

I finish my story and catch my breath. Cody was speechless. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're dad's an ass."

"Was. Was an ass and yea I know,' I say. "I use to have to visit him every other weekend until the eighth grade. That's the year he was drunk while driving. The cops found him after he drove off a cliff. That's also when I vowed to never to become an alcoholic."

"I can understand why," Cody says. "I'm sorry to hear that." We ride down the river for awhile in silence.

"Maybe we should try to lighten the mood a bit," I say.

"Well, right now, the only thing I want to lighten is my bladder. I have to pee so bad," Cody says. His eyes scan the coast.

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have drank 4 cans of coke." I laugh a little. "Looks like you're out of luck, I don't see any bathrooms anywhere."

Coy starts to move the canoe to the bank. "See, that's the wonder of being a dude. Everywhere is my bathroom."

I get a gross look on my face. "Ew. Like too much information there."

He laughs. "Relax. And face the river. I shouldn't be too long." I do as I'm told as he goes to find a tree or bush or whatever exactly he tends to do his business on.

Eventually he comes back. "Hey, you want to try something?" he asks.

"Sure, what?"

Cody pushes the canoe into the water and stands next to it. "Lay down." I do exactly that. He then hops in and. Lays down on top of me. We enter into a major make out session as the canoe just floats down the river.

We were so lost on each other, we didn't even notice we were approaching the bridge at our landing dock. Or the twins standing on it either. As we laid there making out, the twins lifted up a garbage can. As we passed under the bridge they dumped it on us.

I screamed and Cody flipped them off. "Hey! you didn't say nothing about dumping water in you!" Sean says. "Didn't mean to interrupt your now chicks wow wow." he winks at us and I blush.

He turns to high five his brother. "Oh and you guys might want to get out. There's a water fall just past Tis and your canoe won't survive that fall." Sebastian adds.

Oh shit. Cody paddles hard to the shore to get us to safety. We missed the dock by a bit, but we were able to move the canoe over to it.

The others left without us, so we just walked back to the camp together holding hands. Even though I was soaking wet and smelled like dirty river, it didn't phase me. I was here with my amazing boyfriend and that was all that mattered.