just dive in [reed bishop spin-off] ✔️

thirteen

— t h i r t e e n —

OLIVER SHOULD HAVE been expecting it, but when he saw Hampstead Swim Club listed under the teams competing on the programme, he was still surprised.

Not at the fact that they'd qualified. No, that was the least surprising about seeing their name. Oliver's old swim club hadn't part of a high school but their own respective team that trained outside school hours, and one of the best in the area — it was unsurprising they'd bumped out the other clubs to represent North London in the competition. It just meant Oliver would be seeing old teammates sooner than he'd been expecting and rather than swimming with them, he was competing against them. An interesting change.

No one else was paying any attention to the programmes Coach Jeffries had handed out. They were milling in the foyer of the leisure centre where the competition was being held, which was filled with teenagers each wearing their respective kit to mark out which club or team they were representing. Oliver himself was wearing the navy-and-pale-blue sports jacket which told everyone he was swimming for Woodway High School — the school's logo stitched over the breast pocket and his name, STERLING, printed across the back in white block letters. Oliver scanned the crowds for the familiar splash of red and yellow that were Hampstead's colours but he couldn't spot them.

"Check this out," Charlie said excitedly, scampering back from the vending machines he'd been checking out. Coach Jeffries had left them to go sign their team in at the reception. "Those vending machines have Cheetos! Spicy Cheetos, no less. I'm moving to London just for the vending machines with spicy Cheetos."

Dex eyed the packet in Charlie's hands. "Should you really be eating those now? It's just that we're going to have to swim in an hour..."

"Dex is right," Kessy said, snatching the crisps from Charlie before he could rip them open. "You're seriously going to eat this shit right before a meet?"

"They taste good! And you don't just get them in any vending machine!"

"Then eat them after the meet, dumbass."

"But I want to eat them now."

"I don't care if you want to become an astronaut. We're here to win and you certainly won't be doing that if you stuff yourself full of crap."

Oliver's attention wandered away from their predictable bickering and found Reed, who was standing a little way off from their group in a deep discussion with Bailey. Whatever they were talking about didn't seem to be a heartwarming making up over whatever had been the issue over the past two weeks — Bailey was frowning and even though Reed was facing away from him, there was a tense set to his shoulders. Oliver watched as Reed shook his head and Bailey gestured, the furrow between her eyebrows deepening, only for Reed to shake his head again. Neither of them looked happy at all.

"I think they're going to break up," a quiet voice said.

Oliver started, more out of guilt at openly watching than anything, and glanced over at Dex who had just addressed him. Oliver had never really spoken to Dex before, not properly — he was always there in the background, silent yet observant, but he rarely voiced his own thoughts. It was easy for someone as reserved and soft-spoken as Dex to fade into the background in the presence of people like Charlie and Kessy, so loudly brash. Now that he thought about it, Oliver didn't think he'd ever been alone with Dex long enough for the two of them to have a proper conversation.

"Really?" Oliver asked, but he wasn't surprised. He'd been suspecting the same thing for a while. "Why?"

"Just from what Bailey was telling me about it," Dex said, with a small shrug. "I just...I thought you would have known. I thought Reed would have said something to you."