Let's Fanboy/ Zayn Malik

Chapter 17

Dedicated to:  Vanz_1D4 , GopsWatty_4 and swathygops

.....

"What could possibly happen if we fall off from the boat right now?"-Lilac murmured. "I wonder if it's deep..."-she trailed off. "We won't fall off, Lilac. It's just a little rain that won't be enough to drown us," I assured even though I wasn't very sure myself. She quietly hummed a song, I didn't recognize to herself as she stared at the water lurching beneath our boat and raindrops kept tapping on our foreheads.

"You know how to swim, Zayn?" "Uhh...No."-I don't like swimming at all. "Do you know how to swim?"-I asked her. "Nope. If we happen to fall, we would be helpless,"-she gave me a reminder I didn't need as I was already losing my chill but, on the outside, I was acting like a brave guy.

The other three boys were talking to each other and keeping to themselves, that's a good thing. I wonder if they're freaked out because of the rainy weather too. "Zayn, it's getting scary now," she whispered as my eyes followed hers up to where a bolt of lightning stretched across dark-hued sky.

It was only a little after breakfast time and the sky was almost as dark as it is in the evening. The raindrops came down faster than before and I felt the boat shake a little. Wow, this is going to be a problem. We were nowhere near the shore so, this was even scarier. The rain was beating down and we needed to shield ourselves from it first. Looks like Lilac and I had the same thought at the same time as we both reached out for the plastic sheet in front of us. After that what we did was spread it over our heads and wait for the rain to stop but, it didn't.

Our boat as rocking with the waves and we had no idea how to handle this situation. Lilac's features were twisted in a frown caused by fear and worry. "Calm down, we're with the school authorities, remember? They won't let us drown."-I soothingly ran a hand over her back.
They were supposed to give us instructions about how to handle a boat in these kinds of situations but, I guess we took off too soon; we should have waited for them. I hate myself for not being properly educated about what we were going to do next. I should have been more cautious but, then again, we were here to have fun.

The sky was darker now, waves met each other with raging fury as our boat continued to stumble on them. The downpour grew every moment and even though both of us were holding the plastic sheet above our heads, we weren't spared from getting drenched. The three boys too had a plastic sheet with them but, I guess ours was better since all three of them couldn't take shelter under it properly.

Some waves crashed and water entered our boat from one of the sides which made it tilt to one side. Lilac screamed as she fell backwards due to it. It was getting bad now and this could be very dangerous. I placed my hand on her back and picked her up. She coughed out some water she had accidently swallowed as I held her close to me. She was completely drenched. So was I.

"This can't good, Zayn. I want to go b-back,"-she spoke through her quivering lips. I wish I could do something, it's unbearable for me to see her in this condition but, it wasn't in my hands. Our boat was slowly giving way to all the water that was on it and tilting sideways which means it won't be long before all of us sink along with it.

"Hey, guys!'-I called the other three boys towards our side. "Let's grab the life jackets because it looks like it won't be long before the rain takes us all down,"-I suggested and tossed a life jacket to each one of them. They quickly wore it as Lilac and I did the same. "I'm petrified. I think we shouldn't have come for boating at all," she admitted.

"It's all a mistake of mine, Lilac. I should have let us wait until instructions were given to us at least, we would have known what to do in a situation like this. I'm sorry."-I realized how much of an idiot I have been to skip the important part now; all of our lives were in danger just because of me. "It isn't your fault, Zayn," she said and before I could reply, a big wave splashed across the side of the boat we were standing on, knocking all of us off the boat and into the cold river.

I suddenly felt lighter as I tore through the upper layer of the river, which engulfed me in its coldness and felt all the air I had breathed in, get sucked out. I thrashed my limbs wildly, not sure what to do to reach the surface, it wasn't long before I would be gasping for air, my lungs already felt like they would burst. I had to find Lilac too.
Letting my arms go forward and using my feet to pull myself further seemed to do the trick. Looks like I taught myself to swim. As I reached the surface, I opened my mouth and breathed heavily.

I started looking for Lilac but, she was nowhere to be found. I panicked and went into the water again to see if she was drowning in there but, no, she wasn't there either. I called her name few times but, that didn't help.

After a few minutes of getting worked up and frantic search, I heard a familiar sound of coughing. There she was, standing about five feet away from me and hugging herself. I reached for her and hugged her from behind. All of our teeth were chattering and we were surely going to catch cold but, at that moment all that mattered was that we were with each other. "Zayn, what will we do now?"-her voice was barely a whisper. I didn't know. I had no clue where we were or where we should go.

Suddenly, one of the guys who were with us on our boat came to me and said something that made us all let out relived sighs-"Another boat is coming this way, we can ask for help."

Soon enough, a boat with four students and a teacher came by. We shouted with all the strength we had left so that we would catch their attention. We were helped up into the boat and as we took a seat, we got an earful from our teacher of how being careless has risked all of our lives. I was ready to listen to it. It was worth it, this lecture was better than drowning and dying.
Lilac was a seated beside me, her wet clothes and hair stuck to her body, she was still shivering. I, once again wrapped my arms around her but, that didn't help since I was wet too. But, at least we were safe.

After we reached the shore, we went to our camps to get changed. When I entered, Harry, Louis and Niall asked in unison-"Zayn, what happened to you, mate?" "It's a long story," I shrugged. I collected my clothes and headed straight for the washroom. It never felt so good to wear dry clothes before as they did now. I ruffled my hair and saw Liam walk out of one of the stalls with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Oh, hey," He smiled when he saw me, I returned the gesture. To be honest, he had a toned body and nice abs. That was something I envied. I was working out hard to achieve that though. We went back and talked about how our day was.

The rest of the day passed quickly and nothing significant happened until we went for dinner. During dinner, I sat with Lilac. She was still a little taken aback by what happened in the morning and she said now she has developed a fear of water bodies. The same thing has happened to me to.

After dinner, we sat near the bonfire. "It might be frightening but, it was quite an adventure,"-I said. "Yeah and it was only our first day here," she shook her head. "Well, we made some memories..." "Yeah, memories that are going to give me nightmares," she laughed. "You won't get nightmares if you are with me," I smiled cheekily as she blushed.

I took hold of her hand and kissed it as she looked at me in surprise. "I would want to be with you, even on the blackest days," I said truthfully. "And I can't think of another day without you. You really do mean a lot to me, I hope you know that," she replied.

We looked at each other fondly as our faces came closer with every breath we took. For a minute I forgot everything; it was just her and me. I placed my hand on her cheek and Liam's enthusiastic voice yelled-"Who wants pizza?" right behind us as we pulled apart from each other.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading. :)

My twitter- ria17sep