I, Celeste Bianchi, have always had a weird phobia towards water. I never understood why. There was no childhood trauma involved, no accidents or such reasons for the fear. I just felt queasy whenever I went near a water body. My body felt like it had invisible spiders crawling all over it and my heart felt like it would burst any moment for how hard it'd beat.
My friends, Jordan, Richie, Layla and Nessie (short for Venessa) know about it and always try to avoid getting me near water bodies.
Tonight, however, I wasn't so lucky. We were at Jeremy's (the biggest douchebag with private pool and bar in his place) house party. The only reason I was in the house was because Nessie had practically kidnapped me from my apartment when I had refused to join her. According to her, quote unquote Jeremy had the best alcohol for free. That resulted in me sitting by the patio, listening to the faint vibrations of the music blasting inside the house with random people stumbling outside to either make out or jump inside the pool.
I had made a mental note to sit as far as possible from the pool because one, I had a fair amount of alcohol in my system and couldn't walk without wobbling and two, I didn't have my friends around to save me if I were to fall inside.
However, the mental note didn't work because I couldn't find a seat away from the pool and had to sit on one right by its edge.
That's exactly when I felt movements behind me. I looked around only to find the quiet student in my class sitting on the seat behind me. Park Jimin. The cutest guy in the entire college campus but also the quietest which leads to him getting bullied by Jeremy and his group of dogs that he calls friends.
"Hey Jimin. It's a surprise to see you at a party, let alone at one hosted by Jeremy."
He just gave me a tight smile and a small nod as a reply.
Okay then
I turned back around and found Jeremy and his girlfriend Bethany laughing at something their friends said. However, their laughters died down when they saw Jimin and me.
"Hey there chubby cheeks. Whatcha doin with Cece?"
They called Jimin "chubby cheeks" because as the name suggests, he had chubby cheeks but the rest of his body was a slim as a whip. The cheeks gave him a cute aura and I honestly didn't understand what their problem was with that.
I felt Jimin shift uncomfortably behind me and getting ready to walk away when I held his wrist and stood up, still a little wobbly but Jimin's wrist gave me enough support to not trip and I suppose he caught on since he shifted his hands so that he was holding mine properly.
"Don't leave Jimin. It's time you face them and see what is these clowns' problem."
Jimin froze, looking at me with wide eyes. He then slowly leaned in and whispered in my ears, the feeling sending shivers down my spine.
"Don't do this. Don't put yourself in trouble for me. They're not worth it. Let it go."
I frowned, going to reply but I was cut off by Bethany roughly turning me around, making me step closer to the pool in the process and making me nervous.
I could fall in the pool any minute but I still found the courage to fight for Jimin I don't know from where.
"Touch me again and you won't have a properly functioning arm."
Bethany looked shocked by the way my voice had dropped and it took a moment for her to reply, Jeremy coming up behind her.
"Bold of you to spit snarky comments at my girlfriend while being in my house, Bianchi."
"Bold of you to call me Cece and commenting on my friend's appearance, Scott."
Jeremy chuckled.
"Friend? Jimin is your friend now? Aww would you look at that! Celeste Bianchi is standing up for the cute guy. What do you want from him babe? Dick? Is your pussy that des-"
Jeremy couldn't get the words out of his mouth before laying on the floor, knocked out, like a light.
I turned to my side to see Jimin looking down at him with a serious, almost scary expression which softened as he turned to me.
"I- what took you so long to throw a punch at hi-"
My sentence was cut short because I was thrown into the water by Bethany, a person who knew very well about my phobia.
For a moment I couldn't process what was happening. But once I did, I could feel my limbs going numb and my head hurting. I kept wheezing for air as I heard Bethany laughing but it sounded distant. My ears kept ringing and my vision started getting blurry as I kept gasping and struggling to breathe.
I felt an arm snake around my arm but I was too shocked to react.
"Hey. Celeste hey. Hey. No no no don't close your eyes. It's okay. I got you. You're okay. "
I couldn't make out who was speaking but I could vaguely make out Jimin's face, in the water with me, concern all over his expression.
"Oh my God Jimin get her out of the water!"
Richie. That was the last thing I heard before I passed out.
Jimin
Everything happened so fast that I didn't have time to react. Bethany kept laughing as I carried Celeste out of the water. Richie, however, had enough of her and pushed her in the water and three her phone in it with her.
"She's scared of the water you psycho!"
My ears perked up at that and I whipped my head back at Celeste who looked pale as milk.
Richie soon joined my side and slapped her face gently.
"Shit."
"W-what is it?"
"She gets an attack whenever she gets in water. We always prevent it but this time we weren't there. Fuck man. "
He hung his head low as I looked at Celeste, her pupils moving under her eyelids.
I hastily leant over her and shook her.
"Hey Cel. Open your eyes. Please. Hey."
She fluttered her eyes open and took a moment to process what happened and then looked at me. Her eyes filling up with water as her body started shaking again.
I brought her close to me again as I soothingly rubbed a hand over her back.
"Shh. It's all good, angel you're okay. I got you. You're just fine."
I rocked us side to side as she held onto me tight, hiding her face in my neck.
Richie looked like he had seen a ghost so I nodded at him to ask what happen.
"She has never touched anyone after an attack. Not even her mom. But she's... hugging you."
I looked down to see her calmed down, breathing softly, asleep.
"I-I think she fell asleep. Would you mind if I took her to my place? Or hers. Whichever she'd prefer."
I added hastily.
Richie raised his hands tilting his head sideways.
"You saved her man, you decide. We won't mind. You're a good guy. Trustworthy. So I don't have a problem."
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TBC
