As The World Caves In

twelve

R I V E R

The docks were gorgeous at night, the fairy lights were bright and beautifully lit up the water surrounding the dock.

"It's beautiful 'innit?" I asked as i felt Lilian's presence next to me.

"Bit like you" She mumbled for me to hear and we kept our eyes on the water in front of us "Do you wanna know a fun fact?"

She asked as we began walking closer to the docks edge and closer to the water.

"You know when you're drowning you don't actually inhale until right before you black out, the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you won't open your mouth until you feel like you're heads exploding"

"then when you finally do let it in, that's when it stops hurting" i finish her sentence, i had a friend who drowned when we were fifteen. I did so much research, i prayed he wasn't in pain when it happened.

"I'm fine" She spoke "You know, aside from the not sleeping, the jumpiness, the constant overwhelming crushing fear that something terrible is about to happen"

"Hypervigilance, the persistent feeling of being under threat" I knew she wasn't stupid. She knew what hypervigilance was.

Lilian turned around so her back was facing the water and she turned to me, i must've have the most confused look on my face. She was waiting for me to speak.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm drowning" She said and fell back into the water. I'm pretty sure she wasn't going to try and down herself so i waited for her head to pop up.

Her head didn't come back up.

"Fuck" I groaned and jumped straight into the water. Freezing fucking cold, how had her head not exploded from the overwhelming piercing cold sting.

I felt her body and swam closer to her pulling her up with me and we popped up next to each other.

Heavy breathing was all i could hear for the next few minutes as we floated in the water.

"You keep saving me" She smiled putting her forehead on mine "You're like my own prince charming"

"Do i have the charming smile like him?" I asked and put on my biggest smile.

"Yeah, m'favourite smile on the planet" She replied and i was definitely blushing from the small comment.

I cleared my throat and chuckled a little "Nate's having a party, like a birthday thing.
Do you wanna come with me?"

"I don't own any clothes apart from stuff like this" She looked down at her clothes which were hardly visible through the water.

"One word; Masie" I said.

"Okay yeah, now i'm really cold can we get out of the water please?" She asked and i let her swim in front of me to make sure she was safe.

"What do you wanna do now?I kinda don't wanna go home" I asked as i trailed behind her.

"Well i think we need to change" She said and i groaned "My house exists"

"I get to come to you're house?" I overexaggerated and she rolled her eyes shoving my shoulder.

"Come on you fool"