ASPEN ➵ Paul Lahote [1]

eleven

Aspen was choking. Large mouthfuls of briny saltwater expelled from her lips as she coughed, rolling over onto her side and into the coarse, wet sand. Her clothing was saturated, clinging her jeans to her skin and sending ice-cold shivers up and down the expanse of her body. Her ears were ringing as she continued to violently cough up the ocean water.

"Come on, Aspen. Breathe for me."

The low tone of a male voice broke through the ringing in her ears and ushered her to breathe. She felt her body ache. She felt pressure on her chest. With a gasping inhale, Aspen finally took air into her lungs. A hot, widespread hand found the space between her shoulder blades as she lurched up and rubbed up and down her back, breaking up the ice-cold temperature that blanketed her body. Continuously gasping for air, another hand, calloused but soft, came to place itself on her cheek, brushing back the clumps of hair that stuck to her temple and sweeping the water from beneath her eyes. She was blinking away tears that welled in her blue eyes from the pain of coughing, and through those tears, she saw a familiar face in front of her.

"That's it, sunshine. Keep breathing," Paul coaxed softly. Water droplets dripped from his own hair, and her eyes cascaded over his bare shoulders, beads of salt water running along his tanned skin. It was only another second later that she was sputtering out the last of the water she was holding in her lungs.

Blue eyes locked onto his amber-brown ones, and she could see, she could feel, so many emotions swirling within. His breathing was rapid, taking in heaving breaths as if he had just run a marathon. His shoulders were tensed, and his brows squinted with radiating anger, but when he looked at her directly, Paul looked scared. She felt his conflict rolling over him, the contradicting soft grasp of his fingers on her face with the sheer heat of his gaze.

"Paul? What- I... I don't know how-," Aspen shuttered, the cold painting her lips blue. The shivers racking her body cut off her raspy attempt to speak.

It was as if Aspen speaking for the first time made her aware of her surroundings. She noticed they were not the only two on the beach. It all came flooding back to her like a tidal wave trying to drown her again. She looked to her left and saw Bella in the same position as her. Jacob leaned over her prone body with hands on her chest, trying to pump the water out of her own lungs.

"Bella!" she yelled, the action scratching claws down her throat. On her hands and knees, she crawled over to her friend beside her. Paul never broke his contact with her, warm hands on her shoulder, her neck, her knee.

"Breathe, Bella. C'mon!" Jacob pleaded. Water spits out of the brunette's cold blue lips, and her eyes open wide to the sky above her. "Bella! Can you hear me?" Jacob asked, tone softer this time as he ran a hand down her wet hair. He was also covered in droplets of the ocean.

Eyes darting between the three people in front of her, Aspen puzzled together the circumstances of what had just occurred. Bella had jumped off the edge of the cliff, and in an attempt to stop her, Aspen had fallen with her. She could remember the roaring waves tossing her around the moment she pierced the ocean's surface. Aspen had opened her eyes wide trying to find the surface, only to find Bella a few feet ahead of her, being thrown by the waves as well. She remembers a flash of red before she hit the jagged edge of a rock and all else went black.

"Jake?" Bella finally responded, Jacob's arms wrapping around her cold and shaking frame.

"What the hell were you two thinking?" Jacob asked, intensity flooding his words.