Free Eternal Spring A Young Adult Short Story Collection by Various Page B

Paxton—or maybe
Payton—interrupted his pity party. She thrust her ultra-glossy lower lip
at him in full on pout mode. Clearly, she expected more attentiveness from the
Quimby pool boy. “Are ya coming, or not?”
    “Not.” Ty knew that he was just another accoutrement to
these girls. A piece of hot Latin arm candy. He might as well be dead on the
inside, for all they cared. He’d give anything to meet a genuine girl, one with
real relationship potential. Maybe in the next lifetime …
    Provoked by his rudeness, five surgically perfected faces
puckered into a singular expression of dismay. So he added, “I mean, no, thank
you. I’m just going to chill for a while—enjoy the sunshine.”
    “Whatever.” Blondie was clearly “out.” As she
circumnavigated a precarious spin in her brand-new stilettos, one of the
brunettes in her entourage stepped forward. It appeared that Blondie had
competition for the final word.
    The brunette, Alayna,—or possibly Aylana—arched
her brow in a manner that could only be described as très supercilious. “Don’t sit too long
by the Vanishing Spring,” she chirped with a smirk. “We’d be totally bummed if
you ended up like Eleanor Quimby.”
    “Who’s that?” Apart from the logical connection of sharing a
last name with Quimby Acres, Ty had no clue who she
was talking about.
    “You haven’t heard the story of Eleanor Quimby?” Scandalized
by Ty’s ignorance, she paused until he confirmed her accusation with a twist of
his head. As gleeful as a reality TV junkie in the throes of watching someone’s
private humiliation become public spectacle, she continued, “Quimby Acres used
to be a farm. Back in eighteen seventy-two, seventeen-year-old Eleanor Quimby
threw herself into this very pond to escape being married off to an old man.
Eyewitnesses saw Eleanor tumble into the water, but by the time they got to
her, she was gone.
    “Everyone assumed she drowned. They tried to dredge the pond
for her body, but they never reached the bottom. That’s how they figured out
the pond was a spring. Some think Eleanor was swept away by an underground
river. Others believe she’s down there, still. Waiting.”
    Ty suppressed an eye roll at the girl’s excessive
dramatics—no wonder she hadn’t gotten the lead in the fall play. “Waiting
for what?”
    “For you!” The brunette’s bespangled hand shot forward and
grabbed Ty’s shoulders. He flinched while the audience cackled in delight.
Apparently, it was an old joke and he was its newest victim.
    Regaining his composure, he leveled his gaze at the gaggle
of pampered, urban princesses. “I think I’ll live dangerously and take my
chances.”
    “ C’est la vie ,” she giggled.
    Not to be outdone, the blonde turned back, her eyes holding a
slightly different invitation for Ty than the one that fell from her lips.
“Drake’s parent just left for Paris. He’s throwing an epic party tonight. Meet
me there? Ten o’clock?”
    Whether because he wanted them to leave, or because he
couldn’t face another dismal night watching Discovery Channel with Helga, he
said, “Sure. I’ll stop by.”
    Clearly the victor, if only in her own vacant mind, the
blonde flashed her dark-haired friend a satisfied smile that declared “ Game on !” and
ordered, “Let’s go, Biatches.”
    As the Quimby girls sashayed away, Ty picked up a small,
white stone and plunked it into the spring. Small ripples danced across the
previously smooth surface as the rock sank into the bottomless depths. Maybe it
would come out on the other side of the world. In China.
    As he mused about the opposite end of the earth, the water
rippled again. Then the rock broke the surface with a faint pop. It curved
through the air to land at his feet, which was undeniably weird.
    Ty raised himself off the bench and walked to the water’s
edge. Something shimmered like sapphires just below the surface of the water.
He knelt for a better look, ignoring the jagged rocks