“Funny.” I’m not a virgin anymore.
“You need to loosen up.”
I took his advice about modeling to heart. I appreciated that he cared. Here I thought I had been trying to work with what I’d been given all along. Oddly I’d rather wait tables and serve chicken wings than get dressed up in those silly clothes and pose.
Tilting my head up, I inhaled deeply through my nose. I hated this swimming crap; I had to consciously try and breathe. Modeling, tuition, and an education didn’t matter. Not anymore. I was focused on staying alive. “I’m rested now. Thanks for the break. We should swim.”
“Follow me.” He picked up speed.
We swam, maybe another hour. The moonlight illuminated the water, making it appear from a distance almost like snow. Regardless, up close, we swam in black waters. Cold, I tried not to shake. While following behind him, I thought about having him inside me to keep me warm. That togetherness was the most intimate experience I’d ever felt.
Leading the way, every so often he’d turn around to make sure I was okay. Sometimes he’d shout for me to keep going. Leon motivated me to not give up, but more of the accident played in my head too. I couldn’t make it stop.
Images of Blake and the fire made me almost sink to the bottom of the ocean. I practiced what Leon taught earlier, visualizing my GBF in a good place. Blake survived. He had to.
And Vive with her desire to die. I still couldn’t believe she’d unfastened her seatbelt. I had to make this swim to Eden, just so I could slap some sense into her.
The last few years had been hard on all of us. Vive’s scars were cut deeper than mine. She’d buried her only boyfriend and had given up their baby for adoption. I tried to keep that in perspective.
Suddenly, something—unfamiliar and slimy—smacked against me.
What the fuck!
At first, I thought it might be my own limbs. I’d been swimming hardcore and couldn’t tell if I was coming or going.
Shaking it off, I kept following Leon.
Then it slammed into me.
Skin-like.
Leathery.
Screaming for Leon, I practically jumped out of the water.
He stopped, turned around, and swam back.
I knew what it was. “Don’t come any closer.”
“Oue—”
“Shark.”
A fin reflected in the moonlight between us.
Then a second one came up diagonally.
“There are deux sharks.” Leon’s voice for the first time expressed fear.
We’d survived the plane crash. There was no way in hell we were going to get past these two sharks without being eaten alive. This was two sharks too many.
Jaws Syndrome
“Stop moving!” My heartbeat thumped in my ear, deafening me. Itchy nervousness ran over my face and scalp. I resisted the urge to move my legs. Plain and simple, this was a panic attack. I’m sure of it. Inhaling deeply, I tried to control myself.
I couldn’t relax.
Soon I’d be nothing more than a slice of bologna. In my head, the theme song to Jaws played on repeat. Aside from not having a gun, there were also no fire extinguishers to shove in their mouths to blow them up, like they’d done in the movie. We had nothing but ourselves.
Separated by their fins, Leon swam a few feet away trying to get to me. I assume so did the sharks.
Damn. I knew I should’ve taken that marine biology class at Avon Porter my junior year. Lex had though. Thinking back to what she’d said about her studies, I wondered if sharks could smell. Or is it our vibrations telling them where we are? Could they see us at night through the water? Why aren’t they asleep in an underwater cave somewhere?
The life-jacket kept me afloat. Making myself as small as possible, I tucked my legs up and crossed my arms. Maybe, just maybe, they’d pass us.
“Stay calm.” Leon paddled closer.
What was he gonna do? Knock ‘em out?
The second fin brushed my butt.
“Ahhh!” Shivering, I held back a scream. My ass is so gone. Closing my eyes, I prayed…
God…
It’s me, Taddy Brill. We haven’t talked in a while. Well, not since I was thirteen.
Listen, I get that you’re livid ‘cause I applied to work at the pole-dancing place and also at that chicken wings joint. But come on, what other choice did I have? As Leon says, I gotta work with what I got.
Thank you for this modeling gig, by the way.
Now, you want me to get an education, don’t cha? Help me out here. Enough with these low blows already. Three hot men—teasing me—all week long is cruel. A plane crash? I mean really. Now these sharks!
Aside from giving Leon what my BFF refers to as her Lady V (which was the most amazing six or seven minutes of my life), this trip goes way beyond punishment. You’ve completely changed my thoughts about hell.
Yes, hell!
I’d imagined damnation a lot like one of those designer discount outlet stores in the burbs. You know, where people are fighting for deals, there’s never anything in the right size, it’s always winter merchandise being sold during the summer months, and ya can’t find a sales clerk to save your flippin’ life. Let’s not forget the fact that it’s always a final sale and there are never any refunds, only exchanges.
But this plane crash thingy is waaay worse.
Please, I’ll do anything you want. Just make the sharks disappear. When the semester starts, I promise that I’ll be nicer to Vive. I’ll help Blake find a boyfriend. I’ll personally give up my quest to get laid. Wait…I can cross that ‘effer off my list, now, huh? Well, going forward, no more sex. How ‘bout that? I swear it. Cross my heart but I do not hope to die. Not yet. Please.
Leon snickered at me.
Did he hear the silliness going on in my head?
“Why are you laughing?” I asked, opening my eyes.
“Mademoiselle—” His baritone chuckle bounced off the water.
Circling us, the fins didn’t go away.
“How is this funny?” I resisted the urge to reach over and whack him one. We had to stay perfectly still.
“Those are not sharks.”
“Are you blind?”
“They are dauphins.”
“Whaa?”
“How do you say in English? You have a place—SeaWorld.”
“Dolphins,” I repeated. Leon’s accent is sexy as hell, except in times of crisis.