Hopeless (ON HOLD)

Chapter 36- Meeting Kalia

Paisley's POV

After changing into the almost-skin-tight wetsuits, Ashton and I follow the executive to a door leading to the large pool where there are 3 killer whales. Ashton looks a little frightened, as well as incredibly attractive in his new outfit, haha. He's probably thinking about one of the whales biting into his leg and dragging him to the bottom of the tank, ultimately drowning him, which is not going to happen. Well, most likely not, let's hope.

Damn, these trainers weren't over exaggerating when they said that the water was freezing cold. I reach out for his hand as I step into the cold water first, hoping that he'll follow my lead and feel more comfortable since I'm doing it. I'm not scared at all, I've wanted an experience like this for so long, and to be able to share it with Ashton made it even better. I shudder as I take a few more steps on the platform that's submerged underwster about 8 inches, which comes up to the top of my calves, but not quite at the knee. The water is literally bone chilling, but Ashton doesn't seem to mind.

A couple trainers enter the water on the same platform as well, and they have buckets of fish and ice with them, for tricks, I assume.

Ashton's POV

"Hi, I'm Michelle, and this is Andrew," the female trainer says as she introduces herself and her coworker.

Paisley and I both say hi and give them our names as well.

Michelle gets a couple more things ready for us before we start our interaction with the whales. I had seen the documentary, "Blackfish", and it scares the heck out of me to think that these animals could kill Paisley or I in a second.

While the trainers are still getting everything prepared, I sit down on the raised edge of the platform. Paisley takes a seat right next to me, still holding onto my hand because she knows that I'm kind of scared. It was amazing how well she knew me.

"You okay, Ash?"

"Yeah, just fine. You?"

"Amazing. You don't have to do this if you don't want to," she says. I know that she's always wanted to do something like this since she was younger. She always had a way with animals, from what I saw, and wanted to be a vet. How could I be a party pooper in this situation?

"You're making me seem like a chicken," I joke with her to lighten up the topic. "Of course I want to do this. It's not every day that you get to play with orcas for free."

"Let me know if you're scared, okay?" She asks. I nod in response, looking off into the distance at a flying seagull and she turns my head so I'm looking at her. Then she kisses me, and it's amazing. All of the fear that was churning inside of me vanishes and I feel like I'm invincible. Before I'm able to insert my tongue into her mouth, the trainers come back with their supplies, accidentally interrupting us.

Paisley pulls away as soon as they arrive and she wipes off her bottom lip a little while she stands up and offers her hand to me to help me get up.

The trainers have toys and a ball for the whales to play with. I'm excited yet nervous at the same time. They're just whales though, there's nothing to be afraid of, right? I'm glad that Paisley is going to do this with me though because if it were anyone else, I wouldn't have even had the nerve to get in the water in the first place.

Before the two Sea World Shamu trainers can even blow the whistle, the medium killer whale swims up onto the platform, right in front of Paisley. The whale is literally like 4 feet away from her, and she seems surprised at first, probably because she wasn't expecting it to just swim up to her on its own. Michelle and Andrew look a little shocked too.