“Happy birthday, Blackburn,” he responds with a broad smile, as if he won the jackpot, “Fun party, although I wouldn’t even consider coming if Aria hadn’t begged me.”
I’m not displaying any of the hurt I’m experiencing right now. Aria begged him to come … even though she knows I despise … she fucking pleaded with him. What exactly is going on between them? Is it possible that she has fallen for this jerk? Hell no! I can’t lose her to a dick like Brain. I seriously want to hit this guy so bad right now, so instead, to avoid a fight, I turn away and walk to the bow where I lean onto the railings, staring at the ocean swallowing the setting sun.
“Hey, why are you not getting wasted with your birthday buddy? I seriously would consume a few bottles of wine if I could,” Mel breaks my trans, force-squeezing herself under my arm her thing when she needs some TLC. I place my hand on her shoulder and draw her close to me.
“I’m contemplating,” I answer, returning my gaze from her face to the ocean again.
“Eh … you? Contemplating? You? Are you kidding me?” She looks as if she just saw Ariel executing a triple backflip in the waves while giving us a thumbs-up.
“Yeah, I think I’ve fallen madly in love with Aria … like in fucked-up crazy in love,” I murmur almost to myself.
“You fell in love with Aria?” she repeats slowly.
“Yes, that girl pussy-whipped me so bad, I can’t even begin to describe it to you.”
“Eh, am I missing something? What’s the harm in falling in love with your girlfriend?” She looks a little befuddled at me and it’s only then that I realize my mistake. Did I just say all that out loud?
I look into her eyes, my mind steaming to come up with the proper words.
“What I mean is … I liked her … but now I’m head over heels for that girl, and I’m convinced I’m gonna marry her,” I say, and then continue under my breath, “if she’ll have me.”
“Ricky! RICKY!!! R. I. C. K. Y!!!!!!” Leyla screams the name she calls me wildly hysterically over the distance and I instantly turn around, knowing something awful must have happened.
“Ricky!” she’s furiously rushing down the stairwell on the port side and I can tell she’s heavily out of breath. I sprint to meet her halfway and grab her as soon as she’s within reach.
“Ricky … ” she exhales quickly, “Luke and Aria fell in the water, ” she takes some more short breaths. An ice-cold indication of doom creeps over my skin and I hand Leyla over to the next person before bolting up the stairs to the bridge.
“Captain … you have to stop the boat … man overboard!” I shout when I get close enough.
“We’ve heard and we’re already slowing down,” he says calmly. He knows … how? No, I don’t have time for shitty details right now … I need to find Aria and Luke. I return to Leyla again feeling like a funfair train going back and forth.
“Pumpkin, where did they fall?” I ask calmly, trying not to panic her even more.
She grabs my hand and pulls me to the rear of the boat as rapidly as she can manage.
“I was fighting with Luke when Aria stepped in and picked his side. I got angry and walked away but when I looked back to stick my tongue out they were gone …” Leyla attempts to explain as she fights to regain her breath, “and a lady was standing there staring into the water.”
“What lady?” Something doesn’t add up.
“That one!” She points to where Amanda and Brian are hanging over the rails looking into the ocean. Amanda? Now, something really doesn’t add up.
“What the heck is going on, Brian?” I ask, demanding an explanation before I chuck HIM overboard. I’m already strung to breaking point … and if this panty-sniffer or his doll just says one wrong word, I swear I’m gonna snap.
“Some boy pushed Aria into the water, but he fell with her. Amanda tried to grab them but was too late,” he explains, his voice quick and sincere, as if he’s genuinely concerned.
Amanda also seems rather shaken. But it could be an act … they’re actors after all.
Brian, who now looks like a lost puppy, adds, “I told the captain to stop the boat.”
Well, at the very least, he did the right thing for once. The remainder of the group gathers around us and judging by their expressions, I can tell they must have heard the news. It’s bad. My sister is clinging to a rather devastating-looking Damion … I’ve seen that look before, he’s on the verge of breaking down. Noah doesn’t seem to do any better, but he’s putting on a brave front for Leyla who’s clinging to him like a nut.
“Tell the captain to do a Williamson turn and let him inform the coast guard,” Alejandro orders in a determined voice at Garcia who seems to be more emotionally stable than the others. He gives a quick signal to one of his crew members, who dashes to the bridge.
“Does this ship have anything we can use to go search for them?” Alejandro asks. Why does it seem that he’s always the one saving everybody? Maybe because of his training … that must be it.
“There are 2 RIBs at the back,” Garcia responds quickly.
“Great, that will work perfectly,” Alejandro says, winking at Damion, “Let’s go get our brother and Aria.”
Garcia leads us to the rear deck, where two red boats are moored. Some members of the crew begin to uncover them, and the RIBs are soon drifting alongside the platform in the water.
Alejandro splits us into two groups, four under his command and four under Jackson.
Despite the fact that none of us had any professional training like him, we are rather accustomed to playing with RIBs in the ocean. He sends the leftover guys back to look after the woman and handle things onboard.
“Guys, take off your shoes and extra clothing, I need you movable. Grab a lifejacket. Let’s go!”
I’ve never stripped so rapidly in my life, let alone with my heart clenched in a vice grip. Then I get into Alejandro’s RIB with Ilkay, Noah, and Garcia, while Damion, Brian, Axel, and Deimos join my twin in the other RIB.
“The coordinates of where they fell are locked on your phones,” Garcia shouts above the boom of the waves.
“Wait, how do we know that?” Damion poses the question on everybody’s mind.
“Before calling Enrique, Leyla pressed the MOB button on her phone’s GPS! She said she learned it at school,” Garcia recalls. I’m proudly shocked she’s one brilliant fucking girl that one. And what a great school I selected it seems. I must remember to buy her teacher a big mother-fucking present.
The boats speed away side-by-side, while Damion and I use our phones to navigate the skippers toward the red pin-point coordinates. We reach the destination point in no time, but now comes the difficult task of locating two persons in the vast bay area, especially with the setting sun and Karl moving in. Fortunately Luke was wearing a life jacket, but Aria wasn’t. And let’s hope they managed to stay together and didn’t drift apart.
We split up and begin hunting in small circles that gradually spread out. Then we’re joined by the coast guard and some private vessels. Everybody in the bay area got the word to be on the lookout. Ilkay is frantically examining charts of the bay’s currents in the hopes of determining the direction in which they would have drifted.
I check my watch it’s been almost 30 minutes since Leyla locked the location, and I know that hypothermia must be setting in by now that is if they’ve survived the strong currents and the passing ships. It feels as if somebody stuck a knife in my heart and is slowly turning it over and over, each time deepening the wound. I’m silently bleeding to death here and I want to scream and fight and curse and explode all at the same time.
And then the call comes in from one of the Coast Guard vessels not far from our present location; two bodies were picked up matching their description; they stopped breathing; they are performing CPR and we race to the closest dock.