𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐧; conrad fisher

8

Conrad balanced himself on the edge of the boat, and began walking across it as if it were a tightrope. He seemed to not be sober by this point, or that's what I came to believe.

"Conrad, whatever you gave me sucks! It's not working."

Conrad shot me a confident grin, "Give it some time."

"It's already worked its magic on you, you're walking across the boat like an idiot–not worried at all if you could fall or anything. I told you I've done these before, and I can assure you that the edibles you gave me simply don't work on me."

"You think I'm high because I'm trying to balance on the sailboat!?" Conrad laughed, "You do realize that the worst that could happen here is that I would fall into the ocean water, right?"

Ignoring him, I turned back around and went on my phone. He could be so rude sometimes; most of the time. It was a wonder he got me to fall for him. He was the most immature, self-centered, idiotic boy I had ever met.

In an attempt to distract myself from the nuisance that was Conrad Fisher, I found myself scrolling through Instagram, watching a multitude of silly animal videos. It seemed to be working well, as I felt a thin smile stretch across my lips, eventually evolving into a bit of laughter. I had a video playing on my phone, but I knew it wasn't that I was laughing at. I wasn't really laughing at anything at all.

I couldn't stop, and eventually Conrad took notice of it. He looked more smug than ever, making fun of the huge dopey smile on my face that made it painfully obvious that I was high.

Before I had the chance to retaliate to his sneering, I felt a sudden dryness in my mouth. In fact, I had never been so aware of the feeling of my tongue in my mouth. There was a tingling sensation all over my body, and I began to notice other little things–like the way my skin clung to me, or how heavy the hair on my head was.

Then, out of nowhere, I became very, very happy.

It was as if every problem, mental stress, or worry had completely disappeared. I was in a state of total and complete joy. I looked at Conrad and gave him a big, toothy grin.

"Okay, I can totally feel it now." I giggled.

"You big fat liar, this is definitely your first time."

"Okay, fine." I admitted, "I just didn't want you to be right, but now, I don't care."

I looked down at the still water that surrounded the boat, and an idea quickly formed in my head. Without thinking, I took off my clothing until I was left in my undergarments. I caught Conrad looking at me with pure astonishment, and maybe in another situation I would have been absolutely mortified to have him see me almost nude, but right then I was so happy it almost took away my ability to act reasonably. It wasn't like I was drunk and being reckless, though. I knew what I was doing, it was just that now I finally had the motivation to act on my thoughts–and all I could think about was how much I longed to be back in the cool embrace of the Cousin's Beach ocean water.

I jumped off the deck and splashed into the ocean. Night swimming had always been on my bucket list, and it felt just as calm and serene as I imagined.

Conrad immediately followed suit, undressing himself and then doing a cannonball off the boat. As soon as his head emerged from the water, I playfully splashed him, which began a very long splashing fight between the two of us.

My sense of time had pretty much vanished then, and I couldn't tell how long Conrad and I had been splashing each other before we exhausted ourselves. We swam to a shallower end of the beach and knelt beside each other in the water, taking a moment to finish panting before indulging in another conversation.

"So what draws you to the ocean anyways?" He asked.

I shrugged, "I'm not sure. I've never really thought about it. It's just a nice escape from everything, you know. It's like – on land there's all of these problems I have to deal with, but in the ocean it's a completely different world. It's just me and the waves."

"You're a lot deeper than I thought." He said.

I grinned, "My turn. Do you have feelings for Belly?"

Conrad looked stunned, "What!? No, what makes you think that?"

I instantly regretted asking him that question, and careful to not further reveal my friend's secret, I tried steering the conversation in a different direction.

"Well I've just seen the way you are with Nicole. I've always felt this sort of emptiness between you too. I wondered if it was because maybe you had feelings for someone else."

Conrad leaned in closer to me, tucking a stray strand of my hair behind my ear, "I didn't know you paid such close attention to me."

"It's hard not to," I jokingly sneered, and trying not to smile too much at his nervous reaction towards the heat of my breath touching his skin, "You're an awful actor."

He picked up my chin with his thumb, the palm of his hand gracing the side of my jaw, "Do you think this is acting?"

I smirked, "Prove it to me that it's not."

So caught up in our flirtatious banter, I was underprepared for what was to come, and my eyes widened in shock as I saw his face come closer to mine. However, as soon as I felt his lips press onto mine, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to fully sink into him. His kiss was cold, and his lips were wet and tasted of the salty ocean water, but the fiery feeling in my heart brought warmth to his touch. His lips were soft and they kissed mine delicately; long, yet gentle, as if he was trying to savor every moment of it.

Conrad's hand slid down from my face to my neck, his other hand making its way to my right hip. I held him by the shoulders and pulled him towards me to deepen the kiss. This was it, this was the feeling I had been longing for all Summer. The intensity of emotions that only Conrad Fisher could bring out of me. It was these kinds of moments that I wished could have lasted forever.

Conrad and I kissed for a long time before eventually drifting back to the boat. We climbed back on and dried ourselves with towels in between kisses. After putting my clothes back on, I sat on my sleeping bag, stretched out, and yawned.

"Hey, I'll take the first shift so you can sleep." Conrad rested a hand on my shoulder, "I'll wake you up in a few hours." I nodded, and he pressed a kiss on my forehead as I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, Conrad had been wide awake, still keeping watch of the boat.