Floating

Chapter One

All you could see was blue. A deep, murky blue stretching in every direction.

You looked upwards, hoping to see the glimmering of the water's surface above you, but there was nothing. You were deep this time.

You tried to swim upwards, but no matter how hard you kicked you could still feel yourself sinking. Dark shadows started to circle. Your lungs were burning, panic reaching fever pitch, urge to pull in a deep breath becoming too much to overcome.

'Y/n!'

Your eyes shot open.

Nat was pretty harshly shaking your knee while doing her best to still keep an eye on the road. 'What the hell, man? You were kicking my dashboard in your sleep.'

You scanned your eyes over the spattering of faint muddy footprints in front of you. 'Shit, sorry. Bad dream.'

'About what? Fighting the fucking Karate Kid?'

'Something like that.'

You would've confessed the truth, but you figured that the drive towards a long weekend in a beach-house wasn't exactly the best time to tell her about your phobia-inspired reoccurring dream.

'I get nightmares too, sometimes.' Wanda's quiet voice came from the backseat.

'Yeah? What about?'

'That time I saw Nat's butt by accident.'

You burst out laughing and dangled an open hand over your shoulder, swiftly receiving a high five. 'Nice.'

'You guys suck.' Nat dug into her pocket, pulling out her phone and throwing it into your lap. 'Check if Steve's texted, he should be there by now.'

'Mhmm, he says they've arrived. He also says that he can't wait to get you alone on the beach and make you-'

She grabbed the phone away. 'That's great, thanks.'

You'd only met Steve a handful of times, cause he went to a different college on the other side of the city, but he seemed nice enough. That being said, you were pretty sure that he'd originally organised this weekend as a lads' holiday but didn't have the heart to say no when Nat hinted her interest.

You and Wanda had basically just been roped along to keep her company while the guys butt-chugged beer in the sunshine.

You finally arrived and Steve greeted you at the door, quickly informing you and Wanda that the two bedrooms left to choose from were pretty inconsistent in quality. One was a spacious master with an en-suite and full view of the beach, the other was one of two cramped attic rooms with owls nesting in the walls- guess which one you ended up in.

After unpacking all your stuff and communing with your new avian roommates, you flopped onto the bed, folding your arms over your face in exasperation.

You'd spent weeks before this holiday compiling as many excuses as you could think of not to get into the ocean, but you were convinced they still wouldn't be enough. If anyone tried to coerce you into anything more than a paddle then shit would hit the fan and you'd have to start attacking-

'Hey.'

'Jesus fuck.' You physically jumped, bolting upright.

Snapping your head in the direction of the noise, you were pretty taken aback to see a brick shit-house of a man standing in the doorway that you'd forgotten to close.

'Actually, most people call me Bucky, but for you I can probably make an exception.'

You clambered to your feet. 'Well, Bucky, you scared the shit out of me. Are you one of Steve's entourage or are you just some creep that's broken in?'