Mermaids and Men [mlm]

2. Back From the Dead

Nicki shot up with a gasp, eyes opening and scanning the environment around him whilst panicking. He was breathing heavily and looking around, body aching from the supposed fall he had thought he had taken. When he turned to his right, he saw Aveline lying there, unconscious. Rose was a little ways away, and Natalie was close to the water. They were all on the beach, and the girls seemed to be breathing, but just barely.

Nicki weakly moved towards Aveline and patted her face, sliding his hand down towards her neck to check for a pulse. He sighed with relief at the pulsating feeling her pulse gave off, so he patted her face again and began to shake her in an attempt to wake her up. "Aveline? Are you okay?" he asked, looking over at Rose. "Rose! Rose, can you hear me? Get up!" he turned his head to look at Natalie next. "Nat!"

Aveline began coughing, the other two girls doing the same as they all began to weakly sit up and look around, dazed. "What the hell," Rose grumbled, rubbing her head. Natalie immediately began to panic, scooting around and turning towards her friends, who were all very confused. "Wait... Wait, wait, wait," she rambled, looking down at her shaky hands, bringing them up to touch her face and feel around to make sure she was completely intact. Aveline swallowed and reached her hand up, touching her neck in remembrance of what happened. Rose quickly crawled over towards Nicki and Aveline, struggling to form proper words as they all looked at each other, confused about how they were even here.

Was this purgatory?

"I... This can't be, I... I fell," Natalie whispered, slowly moving over towards the others. "Aveline was hung by vines... And I--"

"You were attacked by a swarm of bugs... I fell just like Natalie and yet..." Nicki paused, touching his head. He tried his hardest to collect his thoughts and make some sense out of this, but there was just no sense to make. "We're dead... We're ghosts trapped on this island forever!" Aveline yelled, eyes wide with fear as she stared at her friends. Nicki got ready to speak, but then they heard a horn come from the ocean, prompting all of them to turn and look, spotting a boat heading their way. "Nicholas! We're here!" Nicki's mother yelled over the intercom on the boat. "Can they see us or are we really dead!?" Aveline whispered-yelled, looking at Nicki. Nicki frowned and weakly stood up, waving his hands as the boat's spotlight immediately shone on all of them. "Way to go, you twit! Always causing problems!" Nicki's younger sister, Annaleigh, yelled with her hands on her hips and a teasing smirk plastered on her face. "We're not dead," Nicki whispered, which had the three girls standing up and looking at him. "Was it a dream..? Did we pass out or something?" Rose asked, looking up at Nicki, who furrowed his brows. "How could we all have had the same dream?" he mumbled, looking at the girls. They all frowned and followed Nicki towards the boat, climbing aboard while letting that thought sit in their minds. "Of course, your dumbass managed to get lost at sea and stuck on a cursed island," Annaleigh teased, clicking her tongue. Nicki's mom approached them while his dad stayed in charge of the ship. "I'm so sorry for my son, ladies. He does a lot of stuff without even thinking and tends to cause problems quite often. He can be quite the screw-up," she apologized, crossing her arms and shooting a glare at Nicki, who just looked away with a scowl on his face. Aveline frowned and looked at Nicki, who seemed visibly upset, but he tried his best to hide it. He never liked showing such emotions, and he definitely didn't like the idea of these beautiful girls seeing said emotions.

Immediately, Aveline turned back to Nicki's mom and glared a little. "I-I don't think he really caused problems for us, and I don't think he's a screw-up either! I mean, sure, he... Got us kind of stranded in the middle of the ocean, but... He saved me! I mean, I could have been stranded in the middle of the ocean alone, but he stayed with me and took us on a pretty fun ride! His intentions were good even if they got us lost... I think he's kind," she ranted, straightening her body up and trying to look as positive and strong about her words as she felt she was. Nicki looked at her with wide eyes and got ready to speak, but Natalie and Rose stepped forward as well. "Av's right. I'm a little mad he got us stuck in the middle of the ocean, but... He tried his best to right his wrongs. He even called you because he didn't want everyone else to know we came to this island, and I'm happy about that. He's a good guy," added Natalie, smiling. Rose gently shoved Nicki a little and grinned. "He's not so bad! He's definitely more interesting than all the other guys in this town," she chimed in. Nicki began to smile, reaching his arm up and scratching at the back of his head sheepishly, blushing a bit at the compliments he was getting. 'These chicks are pretty cool themselves,' he thought, finally feeling like he maybe made some real connections.