Pink • Grotto AU [✅]

• 1 • Gloom Boys •

For those of you who didn't read the description, I own nothing from this story at all. All ideas are from @/geoffwiginton on Twitter or homosexuality here. I am merely writing these ideas into story format (mostly because Grace wants to read it haha) (btw Grace if you are reading this I hope you like it ^-^)

Gray days. Every day is gray. Wake up right before dawn, when the sky is between black and blue—when it is gray. Spend all day on gray waters hunting for slick colorless fish in bland wetsuits. Go back home at dusk, shower off the smell of fish, and go to bed to prepare for the gray day to follow.

This is the life of Otto Wood, a fisher in Maine. Fishing was all he knew. Though he had lived in Texas, he had wanted something different than the arid heat in Houston. He left, along with his only two friends Geoff Wigington and Awsten Knight.

He found himself in Maine, where the wind would cut at you like knives in a fistfight: it felt like Mother Nature was cheating. Maine, where the world had no color, no life, no pep or bounce. The world was gray.

"Man, this blows," Awsten muttered as he cast out a line. Otto couldn't agree more. "At least we're not in Texas. I'm sick of being in Houston," Geoff commented, rubbing his hands together in an attempt to warm them up. Awsten nodded and hooked the rod to the boat. "Me too, although I don't think that this is what I had in mind as we left."

Awsten glanced at Otto as he spoke, brushing his faded blue hair off his forehead. He had attempted to dye it to bring some color into their gray days, but it had faded much too quickly, turning from teal to blue-gray in a matter of days.

Otto glanced over the side of the Waterparks at the dark water beneath them. This boring, dull life was definitely not what Otto had had in mind when the trio had moved to Maine. It'd be so easy to change this, he thought, his eyes on the water. To make it go away.

A flash of color, less than a foot below the surface, suddenly appeared, and Otto fell to the deck and let out a small yelp. "Dude? You good?" Awsten asked, turning his attention away from the lines. Otto nodded slowly, his eyes on the side of the boat. "I-I think I saw something in the water."

"What did it look like?" Geoff asked, glancing over the side before looking down at Otto. "I don't know," Otto muttered, thinking about the color he'd seen. "How do you not know what it looked like? Can you at least say what color it was?" Awsten asked, confusion spreading across his face.

"It was... pink," Otto murmured in awe. Geoff and Awsten exchanged a glance. "I don't think there are any pink fish around here," Awsten mumbled. Geoff shrugged. "A bit of plastic, maybe? It's probably nothing to worry about."

The two returned to their work, but Otto found himself sitting up and looking over the side of the boat. He looked into the gray water beneath him, but he saw no pink. Maybe I imagined it, he thought, tearing himself away from the side of the boat. There's nothing pink in the ocean.

Ayy first chapter complete :)) there will be shorter chapters for this book but that's alright :3 I hope you liked it <3