You are a young girl of 15 who has a severe phobia of water and of fish. Your therapist wants to try exposure-therapy, and hands you a plane ticket. Can a neurotic girl and carefree boy bring out the best in one another? And what happens when you fi...
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"You have to at least dip your feet in the water."
"Absolutely not. I can barely look at it, how do you expect me to-!"
After you and Alberto had woken up the morning after sleeping under the stars, the lifeguard had told you to wait there while he jumped down from the tree, landing on his face, before rushing out of the garden to do something.
Only a few minutes later he had come back, telling you to follow him, and that's what lead you here, standing on the dock shaking like a leaf as he tried to convince you to put a foot in the ocean.
Apparently what he was busy doing was making sure none of the kids tried to jump in while you were doing it, in case they rattled you.
"Trust me," Alberto smiled, extending his hand for you to take. You began to reach out, only to retract your hand at the last second. His smile faltered but he dropped his hand, wiping it on his shorts idly, "That's okay, we can try it later."
You wanted to say 'no', but you knew he was only trying to help. A couple nights ago you'd have thought his inconsiderate, mostly because he was being inconsiderate in the beginning, but he had shown an attempt at understanding you and your phobia, and you appreciated him for that.
The kids, watching you back out, took that as their cue to continue their play, quickly diving into the water and splashing one another. One child in particular got back up on the docks and attempted to do a very bad swan dive, causing both you and Alberto to tense up in anticipation. You side-eyed him. 'You're a lifeguard, go help him!'
But Alberto didn't do anything. He instinctually moved forward to run after the child, but stopped himself soon after, looking back at you nervously. Your eyes were wide, "I think he's seriously going to get himself hurt! Stop him!"
The seconds seemed to tick by slowly as the kid jumped and arched his back. If he landed like this, it would end badly. Alberto's eyes were squeezed shut as he fought himself internally, before running across the dock as fast as he could, feet smacking against the wood hard enough to give him splinters.
Just before Alberto could reach the boy, Ercole stepped out from behind a wall and grabbed the kid by the hair, yanking him back onto the wooden platform. The boy immediately began crying, and Alberto knelt down to comfort him. Ercole scoffed and walked by, stopping beside you. "What'd I tell you? Useless," he pointed at Alberto who was quietly shushing the little boy, "If I hadn't been there what would've happened, hm? Even though you keep hanging around him I'm still very interested in you..."
"Well I'm not interested in you," you mumbled. He was right though, what if he hadn't been there? "I'm sure he would've been fine, or Alberto would've grabbed him in time."
"You still have faith in fish-boy?!" Ercole's laughter was loud and obnoxious, "If only you were there for the year he and his little friend showed up here. He did nothing. Nothing! So reckless."
You didn't want to believe him.
"I'm going back inside," you said, anger clear on your face as you turned and marched back to Massimo's home. You wanted to put up more of an argument, prove Ercole wrong, but the fact of the matter is you haven't known Alberto for very long at all.
"Okay!" Ercole shouted after you, cheerfully, "I'll be waiting by the Gelato store tonight if you wish to talk more~!"
You hugged your arms tight to your chest before pushing the door open and entering.
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Once the little boy was done crying, Alberto turned to go back to you but was confused to find you not there, instead replaced by Ercole looking smug.
"Hey!" Alberto shouted, tramping over to the bully, "What did you say to her?!"
The older boy smoothed out his still barely-there moustache and grinned, "Simply the truth."
Alberto paled. "The... truth...?" Had he told you that Alberto was a sea monster? But he didn't know about your phobias, or the reason you were here. It made no sense. Unless he was spying and being a creep, like usual. "You're ruining everything!"
