VENUS → JJ MAYBANK [hiatus]

003. diver down

𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗨𝗦 𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 with concern, wondering if she could see it from where she was, unfortunately, she couldn't. The water was just murky to her, there wasn't even an outline of a boat. She knew that Pope would never lie about such a thing, but then again everyone in the group had recently been jumping on the 'Venus is gullible' boat.

"Holy shit. He's right. Let's go." Kie said as she took off her denim shorts.

"You think there's a dead body down there?" Pope questioned as John B and Kie jumped into the water. "Guys wait up."

"Hey, get your ass in here." JJ shouted, watching as Venus made her way towards the edge of the boat and jumped into the water with ease.

She had the perfect form when diving into the water, sometimes the group swore she was secretly a mermaid. Venus would argue that it would historically be a siren they're referring to and go on an hour long binge about the inaccuracy of mermaids versus sirens in the mainstream media.

"Come on, Pope." Venus shouted as he jumped into the water.

She took in a deep breath before swimming down to the boat. Almost instantly her eyes began to sting due to the dirty water, another thing that she would spend hours ranting about. Once the blonde girl reached the boat, she looked at the others and John B motioned for them all to go back up.

Unable to believe that there was a boat down there, Venus found herself trying to string together who it belonged too and if there was a body on it. She hoped that there wasn't.

The blonde gasped for air as she resurfaced, her eyes scanning around the water to make sure that everyone came back up. She let out a small breath in relief after head counting all four of her friends.

"You guys saw that, right?" JJ questioned in shock, he just wanted to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.

JJ made his way over to Venus, his arm wrapping around her waist, knowing that she'd be panicking about everyone coming back to the surface and thinking of the worst possible scenario- that a dead body of a familiar face was lurking inside the boat.

Unknown to others, Venus came from a family of seven- not six. There was an elder Ambrose family that had drowned when Venus was seven, long before the rest of the pouges had made themselves acquaintance with Venus.

"Yeah." Pope nodded.

"Yeah I did." Kie agreed. The five of them began to laugh excitedly.

Venus inched her body closer to JJ's in the water, wanting his comfort as a traumatic past started to drift into her memory.

"That's a Grady-white. A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy." JJ said as they swam back to the boat.

JJ helped boost Venus back onto the boat, shooting John B silent snicker at the fact that Venus's bright pink bikini covered ass was right in his face. Venus turned around and bent down to give JJ a hand in climbing up the boat, this time having her breasts in his face.

"That's a primo rig." Pope commented, causing JJ and John B to revert their gaze from the blonde girls body.

Men couldn't help but to stare at Venus, the girl was the perfect mixture of her parents both of whom where the opposite sex's perfect image. Pope had a crush on the girl for all of ten days before realizing that both JJ and John B had a thing for the girl.

Not that he'd ever tell either of them, but had not only been the only one to kiss Venus but he was in fact her first and only kiss to this day.

They where doing Romeo and Juliet in a summer program, not that either of them would ever tell anyone. Venus told JJ she was visiting her grandma.

"Yeah. Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B said confidently. "Maybe it's hit the jetty or something?"

"You surfed the surge?" Kie questioned frustratedly.

JJ went to find her Venus a top, wanting to cover her up, despite her bikini probably going to soak it. He ended up finding a spare black tube top from last weeks adventure and tossed it to Venus who thanked him.

"That's my boy. Pogue style." JJ picked John B up and high-fived him.

"Wait, wait do we know who's boat that is?" Pope questioned curiously, he didn't recognise the boat at all.

"No. But we're about to find out." John B said as he opened up a hatch.

"Dude it's too deep." JJ said looking at the boat in the water.

Venus sucked in a deep breath, unaware to everyone but JJ she had a huge fear of drowning

"Only for the weak and feeble, JJ." John B muttered as he pulled out the anchor.

"Well I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front." JJ joked, his eyes flickering back to Venus the moment he realized that his comment probably wasn't in best interest.

"That's fine." John B said shrugging.

"John B." Kie looked at the brown haired boy warningly. The brunette motioned towards Venus, hoping that John B wouldn't be stupid and notice that his actions were causing the girl to feel frightened. Everyone cared for Venus deeply, she was a ray of sunshine.

"Diver down fool." Pope saluted. 

"This isn't a good idea, John B." Venus mumbled, she felt her heart racing. 

She knew that if she didn't speak up, then she'd regret it. All she could think of was the worst case scenario. What if something went wrong? What if he drowned? They wouldn't be able to help him. 

It would be just like her brother.

"I'll dive," Venus found herself saying the words out loud. As terrified as she was of the possibility of someone drowning, she knew that has the high-school swim team captain she would be the best one to dive.

Before anyone could protest, Venus tore her shirt off and dived into the water with perfect form. 

"Diver down." John B mumbled.

The first time her head bobbed beneath the waves, no one was worried. She's dived before, she isn't scared of a little water over her head. After a couple seconds she went under the water again, with all her strength she breaks the surface again, gulping at the summer air and then with barely a splash she is under again. 

"Guys what is she doing?" Pope shouted, leaning over the boat and trying to see the girl beneath the water. 

The third time Venus broke the water surface,  she sinks faster and the panic has her heart hammering against her ribs. 

"She's drowning!" Kie screamed. With in a second JJ lunged forward and dived into the water. 

Everyone on the boat watched with racing hearts as both JJ and Venus broke the surface. Kie reached forward and grabbed Venus's hand, helping her onto the boat and gently patting her back as she coughed. 

"My foot got caught in the seaweed." Venus sputtered out, her heart racing and her lungs burning.

"Don't do that again." JJ said, wrapping a towel around Venus and pulling her into his chest. "If you'd have gotten hurt I don't know how I would've lived with myself. What if no one was around?" 

Venus looked up at JJ with wide blue eyes, her bottom lip trembling. JJ let out a shaky breath and stopped talking, pulling her even closer to his chest. He almost lost the single most important thing in his life.