I Saw You In The Water [Joshler]

One 🐚

"Wake up, boy!"

Tyler's eyes shot open as he felt the cold and salty ocean water being thrown on him. The boy jumped up coughing and gasping, rubbing his eyes to see better. His father stood near his bed with a smoking pipe between his teeth and an empty bucket in his hands. He had his rubber boots on already with all the proper fishing attire. Tyler shook his head and tried to unclog his ear.

"Can't you just wake me up like a normal person would?" Tyler murmured picking pieces of seaweed out of his hair

"You shouldn't have slept in!" The man chuckled

"What time is it?" Tyler glanced at the clock and started screeching "It's five in the morning! Five in the morning!"

"Get dressed, boy. " Chris said calmly scratched his beard. He was used to Tyler's little tantrums by now.

"Dad, how many times do I have to say that I hate fishing?" Tyler sighed and ran his finger's through his wet hair

"Don't be silly. " The man scoffed "Come on, hurry up. "

The man exited Tyler's room. The boy let out an annoyed groan and removed his salt water soaked clothes. He hated summer because that meant he had to go stay at his dad who was obsessed with the ocean and didn't want to hear anything about Tyler's phobias. He had a fear of the water, he didn't even look at it while they passed some kind of body of water. Tyler had thalassophobia, fear of the ocean. His fear started at a young age when he almost drowned during one of his fishing trips with dad. He never liked fishing, he thought it was boring and pointless because he never caught anything. Now, not only he hated fishing, now he was afraid to go fishing because his dad's fishing boat was a rusty old bucket that his grandad gave it to him. It was named "Bait Me" which Tyler found quite funny.

Tyler took a quick shower to remove the salt from his skin. There was nothing that he hated more than ocean water. It was all green, salty and weird, with all kinds of specks and particles in it. Tyler never learned how to swim properly. He hated the public pools, the other option was to learn how to swim in the ocean. Tyler decided that if he has a life jacket he'll be fine.

The boy skipped breakfast because he knew that when he's on the boat he's going to throw everything up immediately. Chris was waiting for Tyler with his fishing rod in his hand. Tyler grabbed his fishing equipment and walked to the boat. He obeyed his father but it didn't mean that he couldn't roll his eyes a million times. Tyler felt fine as long as they were near the docks but as soon as they got into open water's Tyler felt his stomach twist. He leaned over the edge but had nothing to throw up. He stood there gasping and tightly gripping onto the ropes of the old "Bait Me" while his father laughed.

Tyler saw his sad pathetic reflection in the water that made him want to throw up even more. Why couldn't he be normal like other kids?That's what Tyler thought to himself at night. He wanted to be able to step one foot into the water without crapping his pants three times in a row. He would get insane panic attacks just by looking at pictures of giant waves in the ocean.

"Come on, grab your stuff." Chris said putting a piece of crab onto the hook. Tyler scrunched up his nose, the crab even f it was frozen smelled like socks that were worn to run a marathon three times.

Tyler picked up a small bait fish with his shaking fingers but couldn't put it on the hook. He opened a box of artificial bait, live bait was too gross to the boy. His father started lecturing Tyler how to properly hold the fishing rod and that Tyler's throw sucked. Tyler just rolled his eyes while his father rambled about his family business and how Tyler should respect it.

"You're not gonna catch fish without any fishing nets." Tyler mumbled under his nose

"So what are you waiting for, boy?" Chris gently smacked the back of Tyler's head