Bra Boy Romance || Bondi Rescue

Chapter 48: She Left Us

When I reached him, I plucked him out of the ocean and let him catch his breath for a moment.

“Put your feet here, and chest here.” I told him. The man was Italian, but luckily understood English. He climbed on and I adjusted his positioning before catching a wave and heading in back to the shore. Once we arrived, I made him stand up.

“Did you swallow any water?” I asked him, sitting him down.

“No. Thank you, you save my life.” Was all he could get out. I smiled and watched over him, for the next few minutes, making sure he recovered and had enough strength to go back to his stuff. Once he walked off, I returned to the buggy and sat next to Tom, who looked worried and was radioing central.

“Yeh, I’ll head out, get Reidy to come and get Nals though.” He said. I looked at him confused. I looked back out to the water and saw Kaitlin frolicking around. Except that wasn’t Kaitlin.

“Tom, where’s Kate?” I asked. He didn’t answer but ran in with a board. Reidy arrived and blocked my view.

“Reidy, what is going on?” I demanded to know. He shook his head and pulled me onto his buggy and drove us up to the tower.

“Reidy, why can’t you tell me? What the hell?!” I was starting to get agitated, and as we approached the tower I was about to get off the buggy and storm off, but he stopped me.

“You need to listen to me carefully Nals.” He said calmly.

“Where is Kate?!” I growled. Reidy put a hand on my shoulder to stop me storming off.

“Listen Emilee. When you went to get the man in trouble, Hoppo was watching in the binoculars when your step sister caught our eye.” I rolled my eyes. But Reidy ignored me and continued. “He and Chappo had been introduced to her by Kerrbox when she arrived with him, and were worried. She was walking backwards into the rip, and waving at Tom. Then she looked over at you doing a rescue, blew a kiss, and…” He trailed off. I stood there, shocked.

“And? Reidy tell me!” I begged desperately.

“She had tied a rock to her foot.” He whispered. “Jesse came past on the Jet Ski as you were making sure that the man hadn’t swallowed any water, and tried to pluck her from the sea as she went under. He had to dive in and get her. Your sister just committed suicide.” He said. It was barely audible, but suddenly, everything went numb. I stumbled back to where Tom, Yatesy, Jesse and Ben were performing CPR on a woman, who I now knew was my sister. The only connection I still had to my mum in female form. I ran as fast as my legs would take me. I heard Reidy telling me to come back and help console my father, who had seen the whole thing, but I ignored him. As I approached a police officer who had been removing everybody from this part of the beach told me to keep back. He could see I was a lifeguard.

“I’m a lifeguard!” I protested.

“Go back and talk to the family. I’m sure they need help, and we need information.” He said, continuing to usher me back.

“But officer, I am the family.” He gasped momentarily, and I took my chance. I ran over to them and all I saw was Kate’s blue face. The paramedics pushed past me. They looked at her and began to help the boys. Somebody dragged me back and sat me down without my complaining.

Then they all stood up and walked away. The paramedics put a sheet over her and took her in the ambulance.

“NO!” I cried out.

-End of Flashback-

I was still lying in my dad’s arms. I didn’t open my eyes from the bad dream, but listened to the sounds around me. The television was on, playing something about a drowning. Dad was talking to Jesse about some girl named Kaitlin and who she was.

I shot up, reconnecting the incident to what happened today. Jesse’s eyes widened.

“Em?” He asked.

“Is she really gone?” I asked numbly. I saw him nod. So it really did happen.

“Daddy?” I asked.

“Yes honey?” He replied. I turned to face him.

“I know why. I know why she left us.” I whispered. Dad stared at me shocked. I began to tell him about it. How she was pregnant, kicked out of Jonathans house, how she was abused. It made feel better telling them about it. I knew it wasn’t my fault, and although my heart was shattered even more from when mum died, and although I was sad and depressed, even though I knew I would never get over it, I also knew I had to continue on for my life.

That’s what Kate would have wanted.

Guys, this chapter is dedicated to all the families of suicide victims out there. Loving and watching Bondi rescue has taught me that this happens alot and what the families go through is rough and not easy, and the horrible thing is, is that a lot of people go through this and do commit suicide. A lot of lifeguards are now working to prevent this kind of stuff from happening, and I commend the work that they are doing. Jesse and Maxi did an amazing job with the Ride, and Matt Dee is doing great things through his clothing line FTW. 

I want people to know that there is help out there, there's places like Headspace who offer help with depression. 

Just remember, if you're going through something tough, it's just a bad day, not a bad life.

A/N This chapter leads into something else that will happen later in the story, something involved with the big twist. 

Love you all xx