When It Rains

by Bedanta Chakrabarty

CHAPTER SEVEN - Skimpy red bikini.

  The four day trip from the port in San Diego all the way out to Isla Guadalupe near Mexico wasn’t how I had imagined it to be. Ryan, his parents and I had arrived in San Diego together, but only Ryan and I had hopped on the boat or vessel as they called it, out to Isla Guadalupe. It was out there that they would sink a cage down into the water where you could see the Great White Sharks up close. I thought that it would be filled with daredevils, but to my dismay, it was filled with jocks and girls who looked like Paris Hilton who flocked all over the much younger Ryan. My Ryan.

  We spent the first day exploring, getting to know the other fourteen people on the vessel and getting acquainted with the boat crew and our diving instructor. The second day we learned all the techniques about diving and the general etiquettes with becoming friends with sharks. Although the weather wasn’t great that day and was too dangerous to dive, we did see whales, dolphins, sharks and otters on the surface.

  I skipped onto the deck. The third day was beautiful, the sun was smiling and nothing could go wrong since it was the day we’d finally get a chance to go swimming with the sharks. Even the Paris Hiltons, who were all lined up on deck in skimpy bikinis, sun bathing while drinking a Bellini or a Cosmo, couldn’t have bothered me.

  I turned to Ryan, who had woken up only fifteen minutes ago and was now sleepily rubbing his eyes. “Hey wanna have breakfast on the deck today?” I asked him.

  A murmur of recognition tumbled out of Ryan’s mouth, but his thoughts were completely elsewhere, and all it took was to follow his line of vision to see who had preoccupied his mind: Christa Hebert.

  Figures – I can’t even say I’m surprised.

  Christa was exactly the type of girl you’d love to hate. Not only was she insanely gorgeous with big, doe eyes, long flowing blonde hair, and a luscious figure with curves in all the right places, she was also the epitome of awesomeness. Down to earth, outgoing and energetic, Christa looked like a supermodel, but had a personality and a love of dirt-bikes that rivalled any tomboy’s.

  Before I had the chance to turn Ryan’s attention elsewhere, he raised one arm up in the air and started waving at her frantically like some star struck teenager. “Hey Christa,” he called out and I inwardly groaned as I dragged my footsteps after him to where Christa sat confidently on a lounge chair in a bright red bikini.

  It wasn’t like I disliked her – we both enjoyed the same things and she was nice to say the least – but I wasn’t exactly fond of her either for whatever the reason.

  Christa turned around at Ryan’s voice, whipping her golden locks in an array of sparkles as she smiled at the both of us. “Hey there Ryan. Hi Dannie.” Her hand waved briefly at the chairs beside her – motioning for us to take a seat. “Isn’t it gorgeous out? We’ll finally be able to dive today for sure!”

  Ryan sat right down beside her without hesitation. “I can’t wait for that!” He exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting to do this forever.”

  Christa laughed and flicked a loose curl behind her shoulder. “Oh and guess what?” She leaned in and whispered something in his ear that made the both of them crack up before Ryan whispered something equally as secretive back.

  At that point, I realized I was the third wheel and decided to leave honourably – though it wasn’t like it would have made much of a difference even if I stayed. While Christa was probably the center of numerous male fantasies, I had roughly about the same sex appeal as a hippopotamus taking a mud bath that reeked of cow manure.

  “Whatever,” I muttered to myself and started trudging down the corridor after I walked back inside the ship.

  If Ryan wanted to run off and flirt with older woman then there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it!

  In fact, I don’t even care! I don’t even want to know!

  My footsteps pounded against the carpet as I stomped my way toward the dining center. Stupid Ryan! Moronic buttface! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

  My name echoed down the corridor suddenly causing me to jump in surprise. “Dannie! There you are!” Ryan rushed up to me, a little out of breath as a sleek smile spread across his face. “What’s up? You just vanished suddenly.”

  I glared at him before crossing my arms in front of me. “I’m surprised you even noticed,” I muttered.

  “Yeah, of course.” He gave me a weird look. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  I let out an unladylike snort before continuing down the path with Ryan trailing after me.

  “It wasn’t me, was it?” He asked after a moment, and when I didn’t give him a proper response, he uttered a sigh. “So it is me? Did I do something to make you upset?”

  My face flushed. I didn’t know how to explain how I felt to him since I hardly understood how I felt myself. On one hand, I was extremely frustrated with him, but on the other, was there really a reason for me to?

  No there wasn’t, but the point was I was still mad at him and I couldn’t help it.

  Ignoring him, I trudged up the ramp to the restaurant before turning around. Ryan stopped walking when I stopped and stood a metre behind me with an innocent smile on his face. I threw him a glare in return. “Stop following me!”

  “But I thought you wanted to eat together,” he murmured, sounding like a lost child.

  “Well, I changed my mind,” I grunted, “so stop following me.”

  I continued storming up the ramp until I reached the restaurant’s glass entrance and then stopped before spinning around once more. “I said ‘stop following me’ didn’t you hear?” But he wasn’t there anymore.

  A part of me wanted to die.

  He wasn’t actually supposed to leave!

  “What- Whatever!” Leaving my troubles behind me, I went ahead, got seated inside the diner and ordered enough food for ten people.

  Ten minutes later – still waiting for my food to arrive - Ryan showed up in front of my table and slid into the booth across from me. He didn’t say anything at first, just sat down with a frown across his face before pulling out something from behind his back.

  It was a teddy bear – one that was wearing a shirt that read ‘I love Sharks’ that he must have gotten from the souvenir gift store when he disappeared earlier. Ryan tuned his voice into a childish, squeaky pitch as soon as he sat the bear on the table. “Ryan, Ryan,” he squealed, moving the bear’s head back and forth, “why do you look so sad?”

  “Well.” He cast me a nervous glance. “It’s because Dannie is mad at me.”

  “Why is she mad at you?”

  Ryan looked at me with puppy eyes and a pout. “I’m not sure, she won’t tell me.”

  He moved the bear towards me. “Hey Dannie! What did Ryan do? You have to tell him if he’s making you upset you know! He can be a realllllllll idiot sometimes. Do you want me to hit him? I can hit him for you!” Ryan moved the bear towards him and slapped his own face with the bear’s paw making a dramatic sound every time he got hit. “Now say sorry Ryan before I beat you up some more!”

  “I’m sorry,” Ryan said sincerely. “Will you forgive me for acting like an idiot?”

  A small smile escaped my face. “Well whatever,” I scoffed. “Only this time.”

  He laughed and gave me the bear, “for you.”

  “Thank you.” I felt the bear’s soft, smooth fur underneath my palms. “So anyways,” I started, “where is Christa?”

  Ryan raised one eyebrow in a devilish expression. “Dannie,” he murmured mischievously, “were you jealous?”

  All my blood rushed to my cheeks at that one precise moment. “Of course not!” I yelled, jumping up. The few people in the dining room all turned to gawk at me and I quickly sat back down as Ryan explained to me what happened.

  As it turned out, Christa was engaged to our diving instructor, but they had a huge fight right after going on broad and Christa had blurted that she wanted to cancel the engagement in an angry fit. Ryan had caught Christa crying up on the deck that night and comforted her and the two had become friends. What Ch
rista whispered into his ear earlier had just been of something really corny and sweet the diving instructor did to reconcile with her.

  The rest of the trip was amazing after that and the shark diving was completely beyond! Christa, feeling a little remorse from my misunderstanding, even asked her fiancé to let us go night diving with them. It was another world to dive underwater, but another universe to dive underwater at night and see all the sea creatures that glow in the dark.

  Christa pulled me aside and offered me a drink after we got up and changed out of our diving suits. “I’m so sorry about the misunderstanding earlier. I really hadn’t meant for it to end up that way.”

  “It’s totally okay!” I leaned against the railing on the deck and sipped on my Coke. “I have no idea what you think happened, but there’s nothing you need to apologize for. Though I did enjoy the night diving.”

  Her ruby lips shaped into a perfect O. “Well, I was just going by the fact that I would want an apology if it was the other way around. You were jealous, weren’t you?” She said oh-so-casually. “Since you like him.”

  My jaw dropped and I whipped my head to the side and stared at her... and stared at her and stared at her and stared at her. “No- No way! It’s not- I can’t- That doesn’t-” For the first time, the idea actually swam around in my head and when I realized it made sense, my cheeks blew up in flames.

  “Well,” Christa pressed.

  “Well, I guess it’s not like, you know, impossible.”