As my right arm glided through the water with one last stroke, I felt the wall at the tip of my fingers and finally, my hand palmed the concrete surface. My head surfaced out of the water and I felt the cheers erupting from the crowd in the stands piercing my ears. I looked up to find the warmest pair of brown eyes smiling at me with so much pride and adoration.

"You did it, Paige! We won the 400-meter relay! We did it!" exclaimed Emily.

I couldn't help but become affected by her excitement and I kicked off the wall to attempt an underwater summersault. I did it! My arm stretched out for a fist pump in the water and I started kicking my legs to rise towards the surface. When I resurfaced, I felt myself being pulled out of the water by a pair of strong arms and was engulfed in an unexpected embrace. The scent of lavender filled my nostrils and I felt myself become a little lightheaded with the intoxicating smell. I knew right away that I was in Emily's arms the moment I recognized her signature smell. God, she smelt so good. I could barely breathe.

"Em…ily" I managed to choke out. She pulled back but still kept me at arm's length, eyes filled with concerned by my weak tone, "What? What is it? Is everything all right? Are you okay?" as she looked me up and down looking for any possible wound on my body.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I just wanted to…" and my eyes zeroed in on her luscious lips after I let them wander around her beautiful face. The chants and screams around us fell upon deaf ears. As the world fell silent around us, I felt nervous all of a sudden and I shifted my gaze back up to where her brown eyes were as I felt an influx of blood flow starting from the tips of my toe make their way up to my cheeks.

"…Breathe." I finally let out and then chuckled softly.

A wide smile slowly crept onto her lips and she tugged on my arms to pull me into another tight hug. I wrapped my arms around her waist and reciprocated with as much love and affection that I felt for her. She pulled back a bit and I felt her breath on my left ear before I caught her soft whisper, "Did I take your breath away again?" and smiled with one of her winning smiles.

I rolled my eyes and gave her a soft peck on her left cheek before I stepped back. Suddenly, our bodies were pressed against one another again and I realized that we were caught in the middle of a group hug. They chanted, cheered, and yelled our school's mascot, "Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!" I looked out into the stands to see my parents laughing with Emily's mom and pointing at us. I looked over to Emily to catch her staring at me and as I was about to pull her in for a kiss to complete this wondrous day, everything around us disappeared.

Simultaneously, I felt the ground beneath me melt away, as were my feet and slowly the throbbing pain centered in between my chest and stomach. The pain jolted me out of my reverie and back to the realm of reality. For a moment there, I felt blinded by an intense force of energy from the sun but as my closed eyes adjusted to the luminous light, a dark shadow loomed over me and I vaguely heard a voice murmur incoherent words.

"Paige! Paige, can you hear me?! Someone bring me a cup of water!" I heard the voice yelled once again but more decipherable this time around.

Arms encircled me once again, and I could only hope they were the arms of the angel in my dream. Where was I? Where is that pain coming from? Why do these arms feels leaner and tender? I tried to open my eyes and slowly as I did, I was so glad that whoever was holding me up in this half-laying and half-sitting position on the ground was hiding me away from the sun. The pain was still present in the midsection of my body and I still did not understand why. My eyes opened wider now and I tried to focus my vision as a blurry face appeared within sight.

Finally, the face that was up-close to mine came into focus and I saw a wave of relief passed through her expression.

"Hi," I managed to get out after the immediate recognition of who was holding me.