Stranded(18+)

Part 5

A/N Hello loves. Just wanted to mention a trigger warning for this chapter. There is some mention of suicide, and sexually assault. It is brief, but I will take sure I put some * around the section in case you want to skip. Thanks!

I was dead alseep until being thrown onto the floor of the cabin. By the collection of  "ouches," "ows," and "fucks," I could tell I wasn't the only one that felt it. We all looked around each other and groaned, except for Eric and Rae. They immediately shot up and ran up the stairs to the deck. What time was it?

"Gotta take care of the boat, waves are getting bad!" Eric yells to us behind his back to us.

With my high being completely gone and my mind now being fully awake, I begin to panic. I start picking at my fingers and try to focus counting on my breathing.

1...2...3...3...3... fuck. it isn't helping. People sometimes like to ask me if Dad left me anything when he died, to which I respond, "Yep. Crippling anxiety," with a big thumbs up. This would definitely be one of those times.  

As I can feel the boat swing back and forth with the giant waves I am too frightened to imagine, Tom says, "You okay Danni?"

"Fine!" I snap back. I honestly just want to be left alone. When my anxiety spikes, having people try to talk to me can actually make it flip into a full blown attack. I close my eyes and picture fixing up piece of shit cars, trying to distract my mind. 

"It's all right everyone! We got the sail down and we should be riding out this wind and light rain within an hour," calls Rae from the top of the stairs. We all breathe a collective sigh of relief, and Ricky stands and walks to the stairs. 

"I'll come help make sure we don't lose anything loose," he says, his voice low from just waking up. 

Tom stands and follows with a, "me too."

Annie comes over to me sitting on the floor and puts her warm arm around my shoulders. 

"Danni girl, it's gonna be okay. It's totally normal to get some crazy waves in the gulf."

I keep my eyes closed and breathing steady. I'm not listening to a word she's saying, but just the sound of her voice is making me feel better so I am focusing on that inside.

We sat like that for what I think was an hour, and when I finally opened my eyes, the rolling of the boat had stopped. We were actually pretty still. 

"See!" Annie smiled while pulling me to stand with her, "That wasn't so bad was it?"

I give a weak laugh and say, "I could've still done without it." I check my watch to see that it's already 2:00pm. Fuck. We must've all slept in pretty late.

We gather ourselves and head up to the deck. The sky is still very much filled with thick dark clouds, but it is really warm and the wind has significantly died down.  Rae and Eric are putting the sail back to where they want it, and Tom and Ricky have pretty much cleared up all the loose items. 

"I'm surprised that was over so quick," said Eric, "Weather station said it should've lasted longer than it did. 

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I could definitely use a swim after that," said Ricky, once again taking off his shirt. 

We all nod in agreement, and us 3 girls go into the cabin to change into our bathing suits. When we're finished, I turn to Annie and Rae in my new sage green bikini. Their eyes land on my, then my boobs, then back up to my face. Their jaws literally drop.

"Holy Moly Danni," said Annie, a smile growing on her face.

"You're even sexier than the FaceTime call," says Rae is disbelief, "We better get up there before I ask you for nudes, Danni." We all laugh at this and head up to the deck to go swimming with the guys. We see the guys studying the pole with the sail on it, and all murmuring something in agreement. Rae looks over at Annie and I.