🚨 DON'T READ THIS VERSION. This story has been rewritten into a separate book with a different title. The new and better version, IN WAVES, can be found on my profile. Please read that one instead! 🚨
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"Wha...
"Happy?" I gasped while my arm muscles vigorously worked, trying to keep my head above water as he gleefully nodded.
"Extremely."
"Great, I'm getting out now."
"Oh c'mon, you just got in." Nate contended.
I took shallow breaths as my arms strained against the current, so eager to make their way back to shore. Now that I was actually in here, I couldn't believe the fear that clenched my stomach. Everything was open, wide and murky. I stared up at Nate who was entirely at ease, treading in place like he wasn't even using any muscles. He got attacked by a freaking shark and he was totally fine swimming in water that you couldn't even see through. It baffled me.
"You were right, I'm chicken." I openly admitted with a huff. "Honestly, this is totally out of my comfort zone and I'm kind of freaking out right now."
"And you're not sad anymore."
"What?"
"Being out of your comfort zone, it makes you aware of everything." He said simply, his voice a steady weight in the moving tide. "And it also makes you distracted from everything. Contradictory, but it's true."
"Like how?"
"You're focused on what scares you the most in this moment." Nate reasoned. "You're not sad anymore because fear is the only thing on your mind. Fear makes you feel alive, so the best thing is to embrace it, don't run. Well in this case – don't swim from it."
"Maybe that's true, and I wish it were that easy...but all I want to do is get out of here." Natural instinct had struck my take on his words, forcing the fear in myself to grow and urging me to swim from it.
"Well, you can hold onto me if you want." Nate boldly suggested. "It'll make you feel better if I'm supporting you." He spoke confidently, but there was still a trace of caution...like he knew he may be crossing lines with someone else's girlfriend, choosing to ignore it.
Eyeballing his bare torso, I hesitated for a few seconds, afraid of just how much I was open to his offer. But he said to embrace fear, right?
I quietly agreed and swam into his open arms. As soon as I reached him, I held on for dear life and wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling safer the moment I touched him.
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God, I forgot how solid he is...I don't think we've even touched since Rachel's party. Maybe a bump or a graze of the skin, but not like this.
My hands found his shoulders and settled on them, and I took note of how close we actually were. Not an inch between us, with only room for the beat of his heart I already felt pulsing against me.
"Better?" He asked, stopping my reveling thoughts of our bodies together.
