discovery lake. (owen+romeo)

Romeo stared at his distorted reflection on the water's surface as minnows crawled around his toes. They nipped at his feet, tickling his skin and causing him to twitch. The reflection of a skinny, sunburnt kid stared back at him, a small smile lighting up his features. The sun caressed his bare skin as he took a step forward into the water. His swim trunks waded in the water around him, his breathe hitching the deeper he sunk into the water.

Discovery Lake, as he nicknamed it, was a lake just minutes from his house that his grandparents often encouraged him to go to on hot days. Especially the days when the central air in their small cottage broke down, which was more often than not. The path to Discovery Lake was about a half kilometer walk away from the central road of his small District Seven village In the heat of the day, he was often left alone to his own devices at Discovery Lake until sunset hit and all of the older teenagers began their shenanigans. He had made the mistake once of sticking around for that - he learned quickly that the taste of stale beer was not pleasant after the older boys tried to convince him to stay to compromise him of his innocence. Not for him, he thought, he'd stay far away from those deviants as possible.

Just as Romeo held his breath to dive deeper into the water, the brush from the trail began to shake and he heard the familiar cracking of branches on the trail break underneath the weight of footsteps. On pure instinct - and the frightening thought of having to taste alcohol again - Romeo dipped his head under the water, holding his breath. He counted to thirty seconds (that was only as long as he could hold his breath, anyway) and waited. When he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he popped his head up above the water and sent a silent prayer that the threat had disappeared.

As the anxiety began to rise in his body, he shouted to the potential deviant, "You can't peer pressure me!" his voice cracked as he attempted to deepen the high pitch of his voice, "I'm not trying your gross bread water today! You can't make me!"