May 21 11:00 p.m
After chatting with Ilsa and hanging up, I heard Vanessa gasp and when I saw a splash and realized that Lisette wasn’t with us, I looked at Vanessa.
“Nessa, what did you do?”
“S-she tried to use the oar and she knocked herself out,” I jumped into the canoe and as I heard our names being called, I stuck my head underwater and saw Lisette panicking as she tried to float. She couldn’t swim. The canal water wasn’t as deep as I thought, but it was still a considerable depth as I swam and when she passed out, I swam quicker.
My heart raced as I reached for her and when I finally did, I wrapped my arm around her waist as I swam back up. When we reached the surface, Angelo’s canoe was helping us up and the tour guide looked as white as a sheet as we were forced to park nearby.
Everyone stared at us as I laid her on the ground and began to pound on her chest. When I couldn’t hear her pulse, I started panicking and as the tour guide was about to call the ambulance, Lisette’s eyes flew open as she coughed up the water. Kat helped her tilt to the side as she coughed and I sighed in relief. Her eyes were teary, but they were wild as she looked around and when she finally spotted her, I finally gulped.
“You stupid bitch!” she yelled, lunging for Vanessa. Kat tried to stop her, but she quickly pushed her away and I pulled Lisette by the waist.
I still wasn’t able to stop when Lisette’s hands wrapped themselves over Vanessa’s throat and wasn’t able to stop how she pulled Lisette’s hair, the viciousness in which she tried to beat her up and I gulped. Jealousy did that to people. It corrupted them until nothing but darkness was left. I pulled them apart and Lisette’s tears streamed down her face.
“You shoved me with the oar!” Lisette cried and everyone stared at Vanessa as she defended herself.
“How dare you accuse me of such things? You know I’d never-”
“Vanessa, that’s enough.” I gritted out and the betrayal written on her face made me want to shrink away.
“You believe a stranger over your best friend?”
“Nessa, I-” The slap that came to my face somehow was well-deserved as she walked away and the tour guide quickly ran after her as the other canoes stared at us. Professor Campbell asked us if we were okay and we went back to the canoes, rowing back to our location. After a lot of reluctance on Lisette’s part, I took both of them and rowed us to the place where we’d be staying.
She looked at her hands for the entire ride, finally silenced and I didn’t know what to say to try to diffuse the situation. But she was always a step ahead of me.
“You saved me. I can’t thank you enough for it, Ayden.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry-”
“But I do worry. I put you under the spotlight and pitted Vanessa against you and she slapped you because of me. I-”
“It’s not your fault. I don’t regret what I did,” I said honestly and she gave me a surprised look as we rowed in silence for the rest of the way. Once we got to our rooms, Kat met up with us and wrapped us both in a hug.
“Thank goodness you’re both okay,” she said to us and I smiled at her.
“I’m drenched, but we’re still alive,” I laughed to myself and once they filled out an incident report regarding the accident, we were finally able to go to our rooms. On the bright side, we all got our own room and Angelo whooped about how he’d be able to sneak to Elaina’s room. Kat rolled her eyes and as I was about to enter my room, Kat looked at me.
YOU ARE READING
Between Perfect Strangers
RomansWhen model student Ayden Carrington gets hungover at a frat party, he wakes up on the same bed with a beautiful girl who he falls in love with at first sight. But he has no idea who she is and when she knocks him out... all traces of her are gone. ...
