Micah leaned against one of the stone pillars that marked the edge of the patio and pushed off his sandals. “Come on, I saw you surfing in the Pacific! You have to banish that kind of negative talk, Karina. It doesn’t serve you.”

She felt herself trembling and tried to calm her mind. He hadn’t led her astray so far. And he had helped her get into the ocean. Perhaps it was time to do this, finally. “Okay,” she said, turning back toward the house. “I’ll get changed.”

“What?” Micah laughed, pulling her by the hand toward him. “Seriously? Don’t do that. It’s so beautiful to swim naturally.” He smiled, dropped her hand and pulled his T-shirt over his head.

It didn’t have to be a big deal. Skinny-dipping wasn’t a capital offense. The marks on her inner thigh had faded to the point they wouldn’t be visible from a distance. Karina followed Micah down the steps toward the swimming pool. She stood next to a lounge chair in the far corner of the patio and undressed as slowly as she could. Zoe bundled her dreadlocks on top of her head, standing buck-naked by the side of the pool. August ran past her from behind and cannon-balled in, generating a splash that nailed everyone. Justin threw a beach ball to August, then jumped in himself. Karina rolled her clothes into a ball to hide her undergarments and turned to face the pool.

“Come on in!” Micah said. “It’s not cold once you get used to it.”

Karina sat on the edge of the pool, arms wrapped around her knees. A whiff of chlorine reached her nose and she held her breath against it. Her brain and nerve endings felt like they were on fire. She was shivering and fighting the desire to flee when she spotted Justin floating face down in the center of the pool. Her heart began to beat faster as she watched for what felt like several long moments. She tried to scream Micah’s name, but no sound came out of her mouth. Terror began flooding her chest cavity. She stood up and stepped down to the first stair of the pool, then the second. The water level was up to her mid-calves when Justin spontaneously stood upright and shook his head rapidly, spraying water like a lawn sprinkler. “Dead man’s float,” he said to August, standing next to him. “Totally meditative.”

Karina froze in place, her brain flooded with a potent mix of relief, fear, anger. Her breath came hard; tears were ready to burst forth. She turned quickly and climbed back up out of the pool. A distant part of her mind heard Micah call, “Karina, what?” but she didn’t look back as she grabbed a towel, wrapped it around herself and ran toward the house, leaving her carefully wrapped clothes behind.

She ran up the stairs and into the bathroom, where she locked the door and ran the shower at its hottest setting. Her breath was still coming fast, her heart racing. The bathroom filled with steam; when she took in a big, deep lungful, she began to cough. She ran cold water from the bathroom faucet and drank directly from the tap. When she looked up, the mirror was covered in condensation. She drew a big heart on it with her finger. “You’re okay, Kiki,” she said to her partial reflection, then dropped the towel and stepped into the hot shower.