Another Chance at My Promise

Sandpaper Sharks - CHAPTER 70 Ate

"Good morning, guys," the man greeted. He had a more English accent than the man that was on their last boat. "I will be your activity host today. If you don't know already, you will be snorkeling."

"Snorkeling!" Remi gasped. He turned to Marcelo and smiled. Marcelo smiled back. Marcelo knew that Remi has always wanted to go either snorkeling or scuba diving. Therefore, this was the number one thing on the list that he wanted to be able to let Remi do.

"Alright. You're gear is over here. You two can go ahead and slip it on while I explain all of the rules."

Remi scurried over to the area of the boat that the host was pointing to. Marcelo followed Remi over and helped Remi put on his gear before he put on his own gear.

"So, there is a specific path that you two have to follow. It has red flags on either side of it, so it will be very easy to tell what the path is once you go underwater. You must stay on said path for your safety. Once you're under, there will be many creatures down there such as fish, baby sharks, stingrays, and things like that. You may pet the stingrays and the baby sharks. For the fish, you may not touch those. It's not that they will harm you. It's just that they are very fragile, and we don't want them to become ill. Questions?"

Marcelo didn't have any questions, so he turned to Remi. Remi shook his head, no, so Marcelo shook his head no as well.

"Good deal. The path goes in a bit of a wide circle so once you've been through the entire path, you'll end up right back here. If you're sure that you have no questions, you may begin."

Grinning widely, Remi dipped his flippers into the water and slowly slipped down into it. Marcelo did the same and soon, they were underwater swimming around. Marcelo ended up pulling his GoPro out of the pockets of his swim trunks. He turned it on and turned it towards Remi. Remi smiled and waved before he turned around and began swimming down the path.

There were little fish all around the two. Beautiful fish at that. Remi was so tempted to touch at least one, but he didn't want to harm them, so he kept his hands to himself. Going deeper into the trail, Remi saw something gray move in his peripheral vision. He looked to his left and saw a little stingray swimming by. There was also one a few feet behind him.

Swimming over to the second stingray, Remi placed two fingers on the top of it and gently ran it down its back. He smiled at how precious the little creature was. Marcelo zoomed right in on his beautiful smile; he would never miss the chance to capture the adorable expression.

As the two kept swimming and got deeper into the path, they began seeing all types of little organisms. Remi even saw a big turtle swimming around. It nearly gave him a heart attack, hence him flinching and making Marcelo bump into him from behind. But this was most definitely not as bad as when he caught sight of the baby sharks that the activity guide mentioned minutes before.

Yelping, Remi turned around swiftly—nearly bumping into Marcelo once again—and swam behind him, clutching onto his broad shoulders. Although Remi's scream was muffled, Marcelo heard it and chuckled as he looked at what Remi had been screaming about.

"Teo, jus a litta sharkshs," he laughed. Remi shook his head and wrapped his legs around Marcelo's torso, hiding his face in Marcelo's back.

Still laughing, Marcelo walked towards the little group of sharks. He reached back and grabbed Remi's hand with his own, wrapping his own around Remi's index finger and middle finger. He then brought Remi's hand closer the sharks, with Remi whimpering the whole way, and he placed Remi's two fingers on one of the shark's back, sliding them down slowly.

Remi squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he felt the shark's sandpaper-like skin underneath his fingers. His eyes peaked open very slowly. Then after a few seconds, he un-tensed and let out the breath that he'd been holding.

It was okay.

The sharks really were friendly. Remi climbed down from Marcelo's back and walked around the side of him. He smiled at Marcelo before looking back at the sharks. He rubbed one of their backs gently, amazed. Most people just see the vicious side of sharks, but they never see this side of sweet kinds of sharks like this.

Even as the path just about came to an end, Remi was still mesmerized by the sharks. So mesmerized that he nearly had a heart attack when he felt two arms wrap around his waist and pull him up from underneath the water. He gasped and turned around to see Marcelo smiling with his goggles now resting on the top of his head.

"What did you..."

"You almost kept going. The path ended."

Remi looked to his left and saw the activity boat and the activity guide standing in front of him.

"Oh," he said before he looked back at Marcelo. "It's over already?"

"It's been nearly twenty minutes. You were entranced by the sharks," Marcelo chuckled.

"Sorry. They were so amazing. I didn't think they'd be so nice."

"We train them," the guide said, his accent still heavy. "They wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Awe," Remi giggled. He then looked back up at Marcelo. "I don't wanna leave," he pouted. Marcelo smiled and removed Remi's goggles from his face.

"We can always come back, Teo. We have more than enough time this week."