Above Water ✔️

3 - the ring bearer of bad news

The Nemo room lived up to it's name.

Clownfish everywhere. On the sheets of both twin beds on either side of the room, on the curtains, they even had a hand painted bedside lamp with clownfish all over it. I must have stared at the framed artwork depicting a school of coexisting clownfish and Regal tangs for ten minutes, reevaluating my every decision to come here.

As soon as I dropped my bags off and said my hellos to everybody else, I turned in for the night and announced I would be going to bed. I was exhausted.

I was just finishing putting clean shorts on after my shower when there was a knock at my door. Erick stood in front of me with a sheepish smile.

"What's up?" I asked, taking my towel through my hair.

He ignored the question and stepped past me into the room, glancing at the bed I had already claimed with my blanket from home and my journal sitting on top, then at the other bed where I'd tossed my bags for the time being.

Erick turned back to me with a more confident smile, though I could sense something was about to happen. "Is the room okay?" he asked weirdly.

"Yeah, man. It's perfect," I said, then after a beat, "Maybe too many clownfish?"

My suspicions were confirmed when he erupted into the most obnoxious fake laugh I had ever seen come out of his mouth. I dropped any hospitality and crossed my arms, waiting for him to spit it out.

"Okay, I just want you to know that I love you, brother, and I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose," he said, making me narrow my eyes. "I fucked up and I just need verbal confirmation that you're not going to kill me after I tell you how."

I dropped my towel around my neck and didn't say anything. He stared at me with big, hopeful eyes until I broke and rolled mine. "Fine. I won't kill you," I snapped, but didn't mean it. I might kill him.

"I am such an asshole. I miscounted the rooms. For some reason, I thought we had nine rooms, but we really only have eight," he said and I felt my stomach dropping with unease. "Listen, Phoebe's brother just got here and I didn't realize until I saw him that there's nowhere for him to sleep. He's a chill guy, Meek, and he wakes up early so you probably won't even see him."

No words came out when I opened my mouth. This was my one saving grace for this vacation; I'd have my own room.

I sighed. "Okay."

Erick scanned my face, eyes piercing into mine as if checking if I was mad or not. "You're gonna kill me," he said and smacked his hands to his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I know I promised you."

"It's fine," I said, though I was kind of pissed.

Why did I have to share my room with some fucking random dude I'd never met? I think I'd rather share with Aubrey again. Erick made a whole bunch of promises before he left the room: he'd let me pick dinner three nights out of the week, he wouldn't pester me about doing things if I said no the first time, he would do my laundry the whole trip. I just brushed him off. I didn't want to spoil his vacation because I was a moody prick.

He left the room and I waited. What would Phoebe's brother even be like? Fifteen with a dirt 'stache and a knack for watching porn under the covers? Forty and fresh out of a divorce?

Before I knew it, I was reaching for my journal and my hand didn't stop. I wrote all about how I was feeling about this, per my therapist's advice, and how I'd violently like to solve this, against my therapist's advice, and where I wished I was at that very moment. That was easy.

Home.

Some ten minutes later, there was a knock on my open door. I looked up and Phoebe was standing there with a crooked grin. "Sorry, Meek. I know you wanted the room to yourself," she said, but I hardly paid her any mind for about forty-five seconds.