From The Place I Hate, Came My Love

Friends...?

 So...apparently driving a boat isn't that hard. News to me. I wasn't sure how it was gonna go, but I had to act confident at the docks because that guy watched me leave. But now that I'm out here, I'll be honest, it ain't that bad.

 Now my biggest concern is knowing whether I'm going the right way or not. I'm just kinda...going straight and hoping that maybe I'll see it in the distance or something like that. I mean...it's not the biggest object in the water...this might not have been super smart.

 I've been going straight out for about ten minutes and nothing. The buildings that are now behind me look about the same distance they did when I was on the rock, so it can't be far now. Maybe it's to the right?

 Man...why did I do this? This was a dumb idea. I didn't really have to do this, did I? I mean, I'm a man of my word and all that, but was this really-

 "Hey!"

 Who?

 I stop the engine and turn looking around the water surrounding me. The voice definitely could've been Amelia's, but I don't see her anywhere. Where did she g-

 "Hey! You came!"

 I swear I almost just fell out of the damn boat. When she said that, she popped up quickly from my right, the opposite way I had been looking. The loud splash and sudden voice totally caught me off guard. I thought she would just...float up nicely. But no, she just had to give me a fucking heart attack.

 "Uh...are you okay?" she asks quietly. She pulls herself up so that her arms are holding onto the side of the little boat, but with my weight on the other side of it, it doesn't tip.

 I can't help but sigh at her, "You didn't need to sneak up on me like that."

 "I didn't know you were the jumpy type." she giggled back. "Are you okay, Mark?"

 I take a deep breath in, steadying my breathing and calming down, "Yeah I'm fine. Just...avoid doing that again, please."

 "Sure." she smiled back. "You almost made it back to the rock, it's just to the left over here. Just follow me and I'll take us there." She dived back under the water before reappearing just under the surface and began swimming to the left.

 Well I'm glad she found me then, cause I was totally going in the wrong direction. Now...I just have to be careful not to go to fast and hit her or something. I don't think she'd like that very much. Amelia was right though, it didn't take long for us to get to the rock.

 Now I just have to get out of the boat. Harder said than done, personally. Boats rock too much. She must have noticed me struggling to time jumping out of the boat and on to the rock, cause she grabbed the opposite side of it and is just smiling at me. Only slightly embarrassing.

 "Thanks." I say once my feet are both planted on the rock.

 "No problem." she smiles at me with her cheery, naive, smile. "Not much sea legs, eh?" 

 "Uh...not really." I shrug, sitting down on the rock. "I actually...dislike the ocean a lot."

 She laughs and smiles again, "It's not that bad. Probably not as scary as the world you live in."

 I never really thought of it at all before. I hate the ocean because there is just too much unknowns, but yet it makes up so much of the same planet. It's right here in our backyards and we don't know of half the shit that lives in it. That's terrifying. But for her I guess it could be the same way. My world, above the water, could be totally different from hers, but it's all full of unknowns. It's right in her backyard and she might not know half of what goes on in it...terrifying.