Lifeless Daisies

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

Atlas

"Fuck, my eyes hurt," JJ complains; all of that saltwater burns after a while.

"Same, Let's get back to Rox," Lo mumbles while swiping his soaking hair back off of his forehead.

I turn around to face the shore when I realize how far we went out; fuck, we must have been gone for a while.

Swimming our way back to the sand, I narrow my eyes in search of Roxy but come up blank.

"Hey, can either of you see Ro-" I'm cut off when a woman starts screaming and pointing to something to the left of us.

"What the fuck is that?" JJ questions, Lifting his hand to his eyes to block the sun beating down on his face.

Speeding up, when we start to see more people gathering around, we start to close in on the scene when I see it when I see her.

A body, floating face down in the water, dirty blonde hair fanning out around her head, and a purple dress plastered to pale skin.

No. Not my Rox. Please no.

A cry of pure agony rips from JJ, but I can't move. I'm stuck watching the lifeless form of my baby floating in the waves.

Lorenzo barges past me, and I see him picking her up and rushing her onto dry land.

I'm trapped staring at her limp body as Lo dumps her onto the sand and starts chest compressions, taking breaks when needed to blow air into her lungs.

"Can one of you fucking do something?" He shouts at us, the panic clear as day in his voice, as he carries on trying to resuscitate her.

What seems like hours but is probably only minutes later, water shoots up from her throat as she starts choking.

Relief like I have never known before fills my entire being, and I feel JJ crumple to the ocean floor as his knees give out on him. Tears threaten to spill over as I see her roll over onto her side and cough up even more water.

Behind her, I see Lorenzo tipping his head up to the sky and his lips moving silently, clearly thanking whoever was up there for not taking the light of our lives away from us.

I quickly snap out of my stupor when Lo screams, "The fuck are you useless pricks doing?" I look down at JJ when I realize he's not moving and wrap an arm around his waist to lift him up.

Once I was sure he wouldn't fall back down, I let him go and rushed to Roxy, thumping her on the back a few times to help her get any leftover water up.

She's probably going to be sick tonight with the amount of saltwater she consumed, but we will be there every step of the way.

"I'm okay." she croaked out as she started shivering furiously.

Jesus, what if she has hypothermia?

Looking around at the others, I notice their teeth chattering as well and finally feel the cold breeze on my wet skin.

"We need to get her home." JJ stuttered as if he was still in shock and picked up Rox from the sand.

"I can walk." She said weakly, but we all looked at her as if she'd grown three heads.

Lo goes to pack up our shit, and we make our way toward the truck; I jump in the back, JJ places her in the middle, and he sits on the other side as Lo drives.

"Lay down, love," JJ whispered gently, and she did as he said. Laying her head on my lap and her feet on JJ's.

I moved the hair out of her eyes and felt her cheek which was ice cold; I glanced at JJ, who was trying to warm up her feet and nodded at me, clearly thinking the same thing.