Echo lake, it really did echo. Not in sound, although she imagined the space perfectly capable of carrying noise, like a bandshell or an auditorium…but no, it was more like it echoed in feeling. Picking up a smooth stone from the shore, she turned it over and over in her hand. Something about the water and the warm Summer breeze made her loneliness fester and rot inside her, the hole in her chest growing each time she saw a little firefly flicker from the corner of her eye in the darkness of night. She threw the stone and watched it skip across the water.
On, two, three, four, plop!
“You know,” she said, “it’s rude to watch people and not say anything, actually, creepy would be a better word for it.” She picked up another stone, inspecting it to see if it would be good for skipping…
With the full moon behind him, Berkeley was feeling better than he had been. It always came with mood swings and muscle aches, and it took a decent bit of time to actually get over it. Still, he was pretty much back to his normal self, and decided to take the risk of swimming in the lake. It wasn’t smart, especially by himself, but that’s also what made it fun.
He stopped as he saw someone through the dark, illuminated by the moonlight. The young man stood and watched as they tossed a rock across the surface of the water. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He’d always wanted to be able to skip rocks, but never could figure out how, especially with his left hand.
“Oh, sorry! I was watching you do the whole... skippy rock thing. I never could do it, even when I had my dominant hand.” He grinned and approached casually, slinging his towel bag over his shoulder as he did. “Do you mind if I swim? I don’t to disrupt your rock throwing though. In movies it usually means you’re doing it to think or escape from stuff, so maybe that’s what you’re doing, and I’m not here to bother.”