"Sir." Ruben said standing up from his sitting position.

"Ruben, nice to see you." Joseph said as he took a seat next to him. Ruben sat down again after Joseph was seated as did everybody else in the room. I felt like all eyes were on us as I sat down in the other chair next to Ruben.

"Alright, let's get started." Joseph said picking up a large looking weapon in front of him. He pulled out the cleaning supplies and got right into it. Ruben stayed silent the whole time. Joseph did as well. I wasn't sure if it was because they were concentrating or they just didn't want to talk to each other.

*****

After all the guns were put away and locked in their cage we left. We were leaving the door when Ruben caught my arm. "Get some." He whispered in my ear and released me. I scoffed and smacked his arm surly leaving my hand print on his skin.

"Shut up!" I whispered back before hurrying off to catch up with my escort. I heard him laugh behind me as I ran.

"So Jessica I was thinking that maybe we could go swimming today." He said almost shyly.

I raised an eyebrow. We he embarrassed? Was this some sort of date? Why swimming? Didn't he have work to be done? More and more questions kept popping up, and instead of asking them I just smiled and agreed. The tension around us was gone when he smiled down at me.

"Perfect." His white teeth were gleaning in the light. "So I'll meet you down at the pool in about 30 minutes." He said. I nodded at him and he walked off. The moment he was out of my sight I sprinted back to my room. I closed the door behind me and leaned against it to catch my breath.

"Oh my." I whispered into the empty room and rushed over to my closet. I looked for my bathing suit in the clothes I had brought from home. I dumped the bag out on the floor praying that I hadn't left it behind, thinking that I wouldn't be swimming any time soon.

My heart started to decelerate when I spotted it in the darkest corner of my bag. I closed my eyes and thanked the lord it was there. I don't know what I would've done. Gone in my underwear and pretended it was swimwear?

I pulled off all my clothes and tied my hair up loosely in a bun. I pulled the orangish-peach clothes onto my body and inspected myself in the mirror. I posed and stood in different ways to figure out the position I looked best in.

I finished getting ready 15 minutes early, so I decided that It would be better if I got there before him. Pulling a dress over my head I looked myself over one more time before calling it good. I hurried down the halls in my bare feet because I couldn't find sandals.

I got to the pool and to my luck no one was there. I took my dress off and hurried over to the shallow section. I hoped that Joseph wouldn't want to swim around considering I didn't know how to swim.....

--

Joseph POV

As I walked back to my room I kept asking myself why I was so nervous around her. I was afraid to ask her to go swimming with me. It's not even really a date and yet I was acting like a teenage boy asking a girl to prom. I mentally slapped myself on the head.

I got to my bed room and immediately thought about that night with Jessica when I called her a cheap whore. Every time I walked in my room that scene replayed over in my head. It made me cringe every time. I filled out some papers out that were sitting on my desk before i decided that it was getting close to 10:30 and should probably change into a pair of swimming trunks.

I walked down the hall and wondered if she would already be there. I probably should've tried to get there before her I realized as I rounded the corner and saw her already in the pool leaning on the side with her eyes closed.

I stopped just outside the glass door that opened to the pool and just watched her. I don't think I'd ever seen her so relaxed. Granted I'd only known her for a couple months and even during that time I didn't see her very often.

I slide the door open and smiled when her eyes opened. I watched her mouth open to say something but the words were drowned out by obnoxious giggling behind me. I pursed my lips when I recognized the laugh.

I heard her gasp. Here we go. I thought to myself and stepped inside the humid room. "Joseph!?" They squeezed behind me. I didn't respond. Just headed to the bench pulling my white shirt over my head in the process. I placed it beside a dress I assumed to be Jessica's considering she was the only other one in the pool here. I glanced back at her to find her looking down and drawing her fingers along the surface of the water. Her previous smile had vanished. This angered me.

"Ladies. What are you doing here?" I asked as politely as I could, but I had never been known for taming my anger very well. They didn't seem to notice.

"Oh." Mandy giggled looking over at the new girl. She was Jessica's sister but I couldn't for the life of me remember her name. Caitlyn maybe. "We were just going for a swim. What a pleasant surprise to meet you here."

"Hmm." I grunted and walked around them to the shallow end of the pool. "Jessica." I smiled at her and made my way down the steps. Finally got to her and brushed a strand of her shiny brown hair away from her face. "I'm really sorry about this." I whispered. She smiled half heartedly and me and nodded.

"It's fine." She mumbled barley audible. She shook her head and smiled slightly, "what did you take the day off today?"

I smirked slightly at her. "I had Matthias take over for the day. He said he would come and get me if anything serious happened that needed my immediate attention. I told him it better be damn serious." She smiled lightly and her dimples appeared in both her cheeks. I couldn't take my eyes off her smiling face.

"Do you do that often?" She asked curiously looking up at me with her head tilted slightly to the right. I resisted the urge to smile and shook my head.

"Only for you." She blushed and looked down. I grinned at the reaction she gave me.

"Oh Jessica I didn't notice you were here." I heard the new girl speak as she entered the pool.

"Not surprising." I heard Jessica mumble under her breath. I smirked and grabbed her hand under the water.

"What was that Jessica?" The other girl said almost in a way that made me feel like kicking her out of my mansion.

"Oh nothing Olivia just saying hello." Jessica replied back making me frown. 2 things popped up in my head in that moment. Number 1 what happened to my feisty little Jess, and 2 Olivia? Caitlyn was way off.

"Hmm." She said eyeing Jessica. I stepped closer to Jessica subconsciously.

"Joseph do you want to play Marco Polo with us?" Mandy asked as she tied her short hair into a little bun on top of her head.

I rose an eyebrow and looked down at Jess. She shrugged and refused to meet my eyes. I wasn't sure if she meant yes or no so I agreed, not really keen on the idea of just standing around.

"Great." Mandy clapped her hands together and jumped up and down. "I'll go first."

I did my best to stay away from Mandy's hands but I think she was cheating. Where I moved she moved that way too. I was quiet so the only other explanation was that she was cheating. Despite my desperate attempts to not get caught she finally touched me. Her eyes opened and she smiled at me. I looked over at Jessica she was standing in pretty much the same spot she was when the game started. I frowned and looked back at Mandy. Definitely a cheater.

I groaned. I hated being "it." Ever sense I was little. I hated being "it" for anything. Tag, hide and seek. Any of those games. I moved to the center of the pool and ducked under the water counting to 20 unable to hold my breath anymore I came up.

I shouted Marco every once in awhile as I moved around the large pool listening intently for the polo.

All the sudden I heard multiple splashes from the other side of the pool. I immediately started swimming in that direction. I opened my eyes when the splashing continued whoever it was was making it kind of obvious where they were.

It seemed like as soon as my eyes opened the splashing stopped. I looked around and made eye contact with Olivia and Mandy but couldn't find the one I really wanted to see. My eyes widened when I realized what the splashing around was.

I dove into the deep end of the pool. I opened my eyes, the Chlorine contaminated water burning my eyes. I looked frantically around the bottom of the pool to find her. My arms propelled me forward like a torpedo once I saw her lying on the bottom of the pool. My lungs burned for air, and my ears screamed in protest the deeper I went but I refused to go up for air until I had Jessica in my arms. Once I reached her I took in the sight of her for a split second. Her eyes were closed, her dark hair floating up around her head, but worst of all she wasn't moving.

I pulled her into one of my arms using the other to propel me up to fresh air. Going up was 100x easier than going down. Once I broke the surface I gasped trying to get in as much air as possible. I looked down at Jessica. She didn't do the same. Her blue lips didn't open. I laid her down on the side of the pool and pulled myself up and out after her. "Go get Ralph!" I yelled behind me knowing that Mandy and Olivia were there. I didn't hear anyone moving. "Now!!" I screamed.

I turned back to my Jessica and started CPR. I pushed on her chest as hard as I dared. I blew into mouth and watched her lungs inflate. I did this process 3 times until she began to cough and sputter. I quickly turned her over onto her stomach so she could spit the water out of her lungs. She breathed heavily, and leaned her body on her elbows. I breathed a sigh of relief as color returned to her once blue lips.

I pulled her shaking body close to my chest as she started to cry softly. "You're ok." I whispered into her hair. "I won't let anything happened to you."