I shut my eyes and try not to breathe. There’s a muddled noise humming quietly around me, but I can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from. I can see the sun through my closed eyes and the gentle quiver of its reflection flittering through. There’s nothing nice about where I am, and I feel like I’ve lost all my senses. A nagging sense of worry has planted its seed in the back of my mind, but I shake it off. It’s alright. My hand reaches up slowly and clenches down on nothing, the warm weight of the water slipping through my fingers.

The seawater’s been heated by the glaring afternoon sun from before, and I can feel the light tremble of waves wash over my body. I’m slowly sinking from where I’d swam up to. I can’t hear anything anymore, so whatever was making that sound must’ve stopped.

The gentle crashing of soft sand to my back forces my eyes open, I’ve quite literally hit the bottom of the ocean. Well, that might be an exaggeration. The water is cartoonishly blue and there are tiny clear-white fish swimming above me near the surface. The sky feels like it’s closer than ever, but I know that’s just the break of water to air. My eyes sting with the clear saltwater and the fine sand still floating next to me in a gentle cloud. The water feels like it’s weighing down on me, and I can’t move. Yet strangely, it’s more comfort than I’ve ever felt before.

I think that the lack of oxygen has rendered my brain useless by now, because nothing’s felt real for at least a minute. There’s the idea to swim back up in the furthest corner of my head, but I don’t know if it’s worth it at this point. I drift off again, this time with my eyes closed and the edges of my mind blurred with shadows. I don’t feel light swimming back up, it’s too loud and scary. There’s something nice about the water.

Wait. No. Screw that.

Some kind of instinct to keep myself alive forces me out of the water and I break the surface with a loud gasp. Nobody else is at the beach, I realize after a moment, and I think they must’ve left already. Shoot. I drag myself back to shore, heaving my body onto the sand and sputtering water out of my throat. Dang, where is everyone? I’d swam pretty far from the original portion of the beach the school had been allotted and now I’m… kind of lost. I’d been gone for maybe thirty minutes now, just swimming away towards nothing. The rest of the class probably forgot about me.

Dang it! Where am I! I know I’m basically at the beach site, but I don’t know how to walk back to the hotel. Oh Jesus…

I groan and rub the salty water from my eyes, looking around to assess the situation. Ok. I can still see the beach chairs very clearly. Surely they couldn’t just forget about me. My best bet is to wait for a teacher here instead of getting lost trying to find my way through a foreign country.

Our school trip this year was to a beach, funded by our parents. They’d wanted to do something “cool” and “memorable” for our last year of school, and that was alright. This was a pretty nice trip.

Forcing myself to my feet, I walk along the frozen sand towards one of the chairs. My backpack’s still on one of the tables, thankfully.

It’s getting pretty late, I’m guessing six or five o’clock. Pale orange clashes with ocean blue in the sky, turning it into a faint sky-rainbow with clouds quietly drifting through. This is really bad. I sit down on the woven pool chair. Man, I’m going to be sent home, aren’t I? Sighing, I fish my phone out of my bag. Getting caught by a teacher for having it on a school trip wouldn’t be fun, but I’d rather not get screwed out here.

Dang it, why had I swum out so far?

One ring… two rings… thank God.

“Hello?” Comes the muffled voice from the phone.

“Hey, Benny. Can you come get me? I’m at the beach.”

“What? Why?”

“You guys left me here, so come get me. I don’t know how to get back.” Pausing, I quickly add, “And don’t tell a teacher.”

“Huh? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but hurry up. It’s cold.” I run my hands down my lanky arms to prove something to myself, regardless of the fact that he can’t see me.

“Um… ok. I’ll be there in five.” The call ends abruptly halfway through his last word and I hum, leaning back against the cool metal of the foldable chair. I could just use a GPS, but where’s the fun in that? The sky is reflecting down onto the ocean with a bright orange hue. Just a few minutes ago, It’d been a normal baby blue color. Hm. I check the time. It’s only 5:30, so I couldn’t’ve been away for that long. Okay. This was fine.

Benny’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since forever, and he only lives a few blocks from my house. I mean, I have other best friends, but who else other than him would come out and get me? Adrian? Of course not, he’s busy slaving himself away for Max’s every need. I bet Samantha’s taking a shower or something, and everybody else didn’t bring their phones.

I stare out into the horizon. There’s nothing there and the water is so clear, even with the sunset reflecting off of it. The ocean here was nothing like the ones I’d been to in America, there were even fish that stayed close to shore. Conch shells, dolphins, hermit crabs, all of that. It was basically the best thing ever. My eyes start burning as a cold wind shifts over and hits me in the face.

“Ugh…” I squint and scrunch my face up, turning away from it. They start to water and I can’t really make out anything, my vision becoming hazy as I try to blink the tears out.

“Hazel! Hazel?” A familiar voice calls from the distance.

“What? I’m here, take me back,” I shout, trying to make out his shape. Finally, everything clears and I can see him.

“Dude, you’re shivering. Where’s your towel?” He asks. Towel?

“Ah, I don’t have one. I gave it to Alexis.” I really shouldn’t have, I was too much of a pushover to people I didn’t know well. 

“Oh.” He sits down on the sand, taking his phone out of his pocket and beginning to type something. He scoffs at his phone and I stare down at the waves crashing into the shore.

“So… how was your little adventure? Meet a cute mermaid? Was her… tail big?” He jokes stupidly, looking up. His sense of humor is… odd, and not very… you know, funny. But at least he tries. Unlike some people. Cough, Liam, uncough.

“It was fun! The water’s really warm. Were the teachers asking about me? We can probably go in again unnoticed.” The water’s probably even nicer now, especially when it’s cold. The temperature fell along with the sun, and it’s gotten colder than Canada.

“I don’t know about that… we have dinner in, like, thirty minutes.” He runs his fingers through the cold sand and rolls his eyes. “Plus, we’re still on the watch list after getting in trouble last time.”

“Ah, who cares!” I abruptly sat up from the chair, getting on my feet and running towards the shore. Fine sand sticks to my still wet feet.

The sand-water slush is grossly warm. I scoop up a handful and form it into a sloppy ball, chucking it his way. It misses him by a hair, whizzing by his back and smashing into the loose sand behind him. Small sprays of wet sand had fallen onto his clean, white shirt and he groans.

“Hazel!” He yelps.

“What! Don’t you want to stop being such a teacher’s pet? Come on, before dinner starts!” I exclaim. Dashing forwards, I sink myself to my knees in the warm water. He looks at me and shakes his head, standing up. 

Teachers might notice we’re gone soon, maybe dinner will start early. Whatever. It’s a nice day and I’d rather get in trouble spending it with a friend than simply rotting in my hotel room with three girls I’ve never spoken to in my entire life. We’ll never have a moment like this again, so why would I not want to savor it?

I turn around and stare at him. He’s inched closer now, standing like a pillar on top of a perfectly lit sunset. I honestly doubt he’ll even get his feet wet. Well, it’s worth a try.

“Hey, you coming, or what?”