His eyes widened when he saw the panic in my face. He grabbed me. By the time we pierced the surface, I had nearly passed out. He cradled me in his arms, making sure I was okay. I coughed. I was too messed up to speak, but I gave him the okay symbol. He smiled. I gave a shaky smile back. It didn’t escape me that he was incredibly handsome. We treaded water on the surface together, catching our breath.
“Let’s head back to shore,” he said and didn’t need to tell me twice. Tired as I was, I outpaced him in the front crawl. I kept looking back to make sure we weren’t being followed. All the while, Alyx’s words kept repeating in my head. Please come. But where?
Chapter Five
Exhausted, we pulled ourselves up onto the black rock and lay with our chests heaving.
“What the hell was that?” I gasped. The surfer looked confused. “Didn’t you see it?” I paused. “This creature…man tried to kill me, pull me under. You must have seen him?”
“I saw you were in trouble. Couldn’t see well, but it looked like you got stuck in some kelp and rocks. You were down so long I thought you had to be gone.”
“There was seaweed, but there was also…”
Now I doubted myself. Had there been a man? I examined my ankle; it had already healed.
“You hurt?” he asked, leaning over to look.
“Nah. It’s fine,” I said. I turned my leg. Concern showed on his face.
I guessed him to be in his early twenties. His blond hair was matted and tussled from the ocean. “Where in the hell did you learn to dive like that?” he asked.
“I dunno. I just learned.”
“Wow.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Nate.”
“Alysa.”
He laughed as we awkwardly shook hands from our prone position. I was still slightly out of breath. We lay a few feet apart. Yes, Nate was extremely cute. That should have been my cue to freeze up, lose my power of speech and become the Uncool, a complete imbecile like with Daniel. Maybe it was because I had nearly died, or maybe it was him, but for the first time in my life, I felt attracted to a guy and didn’t crash and burn. I smiled. He smiled back.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, “just a bit freaked.”
“Want to walk back or rest up more?”
“I’m in no hurry, I guess.”
It wasn’t every day I met a cute surfer boy in the middle of the ocean.
Nate pointed to an orange and sky-blue fish that nibbled at a rock. “Masked angelfish, a girl.”
“Never seen one.” I leaned over and tried to spot a fish to match his, but aside from a few yellow raccoon fish, I didn’t see anything rare. We continued to sun ourselves on the large, flat black rock. Nate pulled off his wetsuit while I went behind a rock and changed into a dry shirt and shorts.
“When I surf, I wear these, but only under a wetsuit,” he said with a shy smile. He wore a yellow pair of Speedos with cheerful blue cartoon ducks. I looked away and laughed, embarrassed to stare.
“Is that a tat?” he asked, looking at my birthmark. I covered the back of my shoulder with my hand self-consciously. Alyx and I each had identical birthmarks on opposite shoulders. They looked like homemade tattoos of one by one-inch octopuses.
“Nope, birthmark.”
“Amazing birthmark. Lucky you.”
I’d never considered it lucky, and my entire body blushed.
“Come to Hina next weekend. Can’t believe you’ve been doin’ this solo.”
“It’s like a dive school?”
“Kinda. We take folks out, teach them to free dive. Well, Ivan does most of the teaching. I’m still learning. But I teach the basic stuff. Down to ten feet for newbies. Ivan taught us all to go deep.”
“After today, I’m not sure I’ll have the guts to dive for a while,” I joked. But I knew as long as Alyx called, that was a lie.
“Nah.” Nate grinned. “Gotta get back on that horse.”
“Do you really think he could teach me to go deeper?”
Nate burst out laughing. “Yes, definitely. You’re a natural.”
Nate looked out at the water, shook his head. “Diving alone like that is dangerous. A lot of shit can happen down there.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“I’m serious. You’ll die one day if you keep doing it alone.”
If anyone else had said that, I’d tell them to piss off. But not him. It was early to say so, but it seemed like he cared.
“At least I’d die doing something I love. Anyway, I almost drowned once already. Probably won’t happen again,” I said.
“You coulda drowned today.”
I blushed. “Today was different. I mean seriously drowned.”
We both went silent. Then Nate spoke. “You know, I almost drowned once, too. What was it like for you?”
I considered making something up. I searched for a scrap of memory, anything. Then something real came. “Terrifying. Then silent. Like being a piece of coral, or a shell. Absolutely nothing.”
“What happened?”
“An accident, on a boat. I don’t remember it to be honest. Most of it I’ve heard from my dad. I don’t know what’s true.” We’d entered shaky ground. “What was it like for you?”
“First, like I got shot,” Nate said.
“Seriously?” I couldn’t imagine how drowning could feel like getting shot.
“I used to party like a fiend. Meanwhile, I was training for some epic competitions. Mainly on the North Shore with its massive waves.”
Nate reclined and looked up at the sky. It was awkward being above him, so I lay down next to him. Our shoulders touched, and I wondered if he would reach out and hold my hand.
“One day, I got the bright idea that a bump of something might give me focus. It did. I could read the waves. Swear I saw the future sometimes. A microsecond, but I knew which way to turn, to adjust, to dance with the ocean. Soon that wore off, and I slid back to where I started, which was a massive downer. I did more and fooled around with harder drugs. One day, I surfed from dawn to dusk, didn’t eat a damn thing. Looked like shit, but felt amazing. I wasn’t human anymore, just wave and wind.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m blabbing too much. I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”
I smiled at his sudden shyness and put my hand on his arm without thinking. “You can’t stop now! What happened?”
“I had a heart attack out on the water. Over a year ago now. Twenty years old, and bam. I was cutting through a big wave and crushing it, right? Totally on. Suddenly I got this stabbing pain right in my chest. I thought I’d been shot. I even looked to the beach for a hit man, but nope. I tumbled. Everything went warm and calm. So, I sank into that warmth and gave up. I know what it sounds like, but I wasn’t suicidal or anything. Next thing I knew, I was on the beach and people were shouting, paramedics, cops. But I lived. Obviously.” He gave me a shy glance.
“Where do you guys dive?” I asked.
“All over. The money we raise goes toward our mission to help the ocean, save the planet.”
I pictured hanging out with Nate and his friends, diving.
“It’s getting worse,” he said. “The Glitter.”
“What is it?”
Nate shrugged. “I’m no scientist. Ask Paula or Ivan. They’re both PhDs. You’ll meet them on Saturday.” He smiled. “If you come, that is, but I hope you do.”
“So, you’re like a research organization? Or are you college students?”
“We care about the ocean… a lot. Everything we do is about that. We use free diving to raise money to live. We’re fixing up a decommissioned research vessel, gonna head out to the deep ocean this summer. There’s something big out there Ivan wants to do. Could change everything.”
“And you live together?”
“In a place in Hina that Ivan bought. We’re leaving next Saturday, 6:30 AM sharp. Here.”
He sat up and gave me a business card from his div
e bag. The symbol of an octopus in a blue ring and The Ocean Alliance in red text with an address and email.
We chatted on the rock for another hour. About the ocean, things we’d seen. I even told him about my missing sister. I didn’t tell him about the messages from her or the water creatures hanging out in puddles. I had no intention of screwing up what had become one of the best days of my life. If only I could have shared it with Alyx, it would have been perfect.
Nate knew a shortcut back. He helped me scale a tall outcropping on the way up. My skin tingled where his bare hands met my skin. We bypassed the public beach and soon clamored up a mix of scrub and stone to the edge of civilization.
“Which way is your car?” he asked.
“I felt like walking,” I told him, embarrassed to admit I didn’t own one.
Nate offered me a lift, and I accepted. Neither of us said much, but it was an easy and comfortable silence. Then we pulled up at my house.
Of all the days for Dad to mow the lawn, he chose today. There he stood out front, shirt off and pasty paunch peeking over his cracked, brown leather belt. Dad idled the belching mower and shielded his eyes in the afternoon sun. It wasn’t every day—never—that I got dropped off by a guy in front of the house.
“Sorry. That’s just my dad.”
A surprised look flitted across Nate’s face. “Cool.”
“Thanks for the ride.”
“No worries. So, are you in college or…?”
“Mahina High,” I blurted. I instantly regretted it when his face flushed and he blinked several times. “I graduate this year,” I added.
“Right on,” he said. But I felt him back away, even though he hadn’t moved an inch.
“See you Saturday,” I said as I got out.
“For sure.” But he didn’t meet my eyes. I felt about as smooth as a barnacle as I shut the door and watched him drive away.
Chapter Six
“So, who’s the boy?” In the living room, Dad grabbed me from behind and tickled me under my ribs.
“God, you stink.” I pulled away.
He had changed into a T-shirt, but hadn’t showered.
“I was waiting for you to finish.” He sniffed under his arm. “Not so bad.” From the glassy look in his eyes, I knew he was baked. Whenever he got smacked, he went into this jokey little bro mode like he thought he was my age. I hated it.
“First date, uh?”
“It wasn’t a date. He gave me a lift from” — I remembered my promise not to swim at the ocean — “from the pool.”
“He’s not from school?”
“Dad, please…”
Dad raised both hands and laughed. “Just askin’!” He walked over to the fridge and looked in aimlessly. “May’s coming for dinner tonight. FloAnn too. You in?”
No. No. No.
“Oh, I’m going over to Charlie’s.” Charlie was my best, well only, friend at school.
“I’d like you and May to spend more time together.”
“Yeah, that’d be cool.” Never.
I looked at my phone.
“Oh, I missed a text from Charlie. I should run.”
If I didn’t leave, being around him would obliterate my day.
Walking up Kinoole Street, past the dying Mimosa tree, my mind buzzed through what had happened. Alyx’s underwater message. Nearly being drowned by a creature. Was it real? And then lying on the rocks with Nate. Not only had I never met anyone like him, but I hadn’t realized he existed as a possibility.
u home? I texted Charlie.
It was only 5:30, still enough time to hang out, maybe get invited for dinner unless her dad came home. He hated me. But he usually got home late from work on Saturdays.
* * *
Charlie’s house was a single-story beige rancher with a few scraggly tropical bushes on a lawn cut by her dad every Saturday. The mailbox had a bullet hole, which I found strange since her dad was a cop. I walked past her mom’s rusting Mazda and under a white metal awning that covered the side door.
When Charlie tried out for the girls’ water polo team, FloAnn did everything she could to keep it from happening. I mean, she wrote letters to the local paper, everything. So, I gave my team a choice. Either Charlie played on the girls’ team, or I would walk. And now Charlie was part of my team, and the world was right again.
I rang the doorbell and knocked on the metal when no one came. Charlie’s mom answered, still in her airport uniform. She worked at Mahina International, did something for United customer service.
“Hi, Alysa,” she said with a tired smile. “Charlie’s in his room.”
“I texted her but she didn’t text back.”
“Oh, he got busy helping unpack groceries.”
lol i was just gonna text u. i hear ur voice.
“Awesome, she just texted,” I said.
Charlie’s text thankfully ended the pronoun war with Charlie’s mom. I dashed past, not wanting her to get a last he in to counter my she.
I fell into Charlie’s room and allowed the door to slam shut, leaning against it. “God, I’m happy to see you,” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“For a start, the cops closed Alyx’s case.”
“Police,” Charlie corrected. “Shit. What are you gonna do?”
“I’ve had some other leads.”
Charlie raised her eyebrows and nodded. “I figured you might.”
“Even you think I’m crazy.”
“No. Not true.”
She sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of her mirror, applying a pale-whitish shade of lipstick. The mirror was a gigantic gaudy thing ringed by a floral panel of once-dark wood painted white. Chipped and gouged, we’d pulled it off the street together and half-dragged half-carried it all the way from North Valley to Charlie’s Volvo.
“Well?” Charlie turned, pressing her lips together.
“Uh uh.”
“Why not?”
Charlie was already pale. “Way Casper. That shade is too light.”
Sitting next to her, I grabbed a red lipstick. “Hmm, maybe…”
“Oh, not that one.”
“For me.”
“Really? You never give a crap about makeup except for when…” Charlie smiled. “Oh wait, is it Daniel? Did he ask you?”
I rolled my eyes. “He like totally dissed me.”
“Uh oh. Because of what happened with FloAnn and Tracy?” Charlie asked.
“Maybe. Dunno. Anyway, you owe me realistic mouth damage for Monday.”
“I feel bad. I saw her follow after you, but my dad distracted me. You should tell Coach Davis.”
I made a face in the mirror. “No. I want people to forget it, not make a big deal about it. And it could have been worse. At least it didn’t happen on the pool deck.”
“Don’t smear it.” Charlie helped blot my lipstick with a tissue. “So, who will you go to the prom with?”
“I thought we’d go together, unless you have other ideas.” I examined the lipstick. “It’s very red,” I pouted.
“Told ya.”
We leaned our faces together and looked in the mirror, laughing at the contrast. Charlie was pale and slight with curly blond hair down to her shoulders and big blue eyes. She sighed.
“I heard you with my mom,” Charlie said. “Thanks for representing.”
“Well, duh. It’s stupid.”
Anyone who called Charlie “he” was delusional, no matter what the birth certificate said. This kid was made all girl. As for me, my granddad came from Russia and Mom was Japanese-American. Tracy said I had exotic looks, and I’d thanked her until I realized she was being a total beeyatch. I had Granddad’s Celtic cheekbones. Not high and chic like a model, more practical and sturdy. But diving and water polo had left me lean and toned, so at least there was that.
“I went diving at Lonesome and met this dude. Well, he kind of rescued me.”
“Doing your breath holding thing?”
“I was under fo
r about three minutes. He thought I drowned.”
“You shouldn’t be doing that by yourself, girl.”
“This weird thing happened… but maybe I’d been under too long and my mind was playing tricks. He helped me get back up to the surface.”
“Name?”
“Nate. Used to be a surfer, but now he’s part of some kind of free diving school.”
“Surfer, huh? How old?”
“Dunno exactly. Not in high school anymore, that’s for sure.”
“How about this one?” Charlie pouted.
I wrinkled my nose.
“Is there another rescue date planned?”
“Nah. He invited me to Hina to visit their dive school. But… I kind of forgot to mention I don’t have a car.”
“No,” Charlie blurted. “I have to study for finals, and you’ve proven you can’t drive stick.”
“Please? I’ll help you study on Sunday. Anyway, you have a photographic memory.”
“I’m not invited.”
“Of course, you are! It’s caj. They could help me learn to dive deeper.”
“Alysa, you’re my best friend, and I’ve gotta tell you, you aren’t gonna find Alyx diving.”
“We’ll be on a boat with a bunch of other people.”
“On a boat?” Charlie’s eyes lit up as she blotted her lipstick with a tissue.
“Yes!” I said.
“What kind of boat?”
“I don’t know, but we never do anything like this.” I picked up an eyelash curler and applied it to my ultra-straight lashes. But no curl action occurred.
“My dad will say no. And you need to heat the metal or it won’t work.”
I dropped the curler back in its tray. “If you ask, he’ll definitely say no.”
“Okay and where will I say I’m goin’?”
“My place.”
“But you always come here, and he likes it that way.”
“This time, say that I’m not feeling well and you’re going to my place.”
“When?”
“Next Saturday. We need to be there by 6:30 AM so you’ll hafta sleep over Friday.”
Charlie let air out of her teeth. “He’s been in a bad mood all week.”
The Atlantis Twins Page 3