I Saw You In The Water [Joshler]

Seven 🐚

"Dad?" Tyler called for his father while slowly climbing downstairs to the basement "Do we you still have your old fishing boat?" 

Chris' head whipped around to look at Tyler. The man raised an eyebrow questioningly. 

"Why do you need our old boat?" The man chuckled 

Tyler rocked back and forth on his heels and shrugged his shoulders.

"I dunno..." the boy murmured "Fishin'..." 

"Fishing?" Chris threw his head back for a laugh "You, want to go fishing?" 

Tyler nodded his head weakly and continued rocking back and forth on his heels. Chris laughed for a moment then his smile dropped.

"Wait, you're serious?" 

"Yeah." Tyler murmured scratching the back of his head 

"I wouldn't fit in that boat with you." the man chuckled

"Y-yeah I know." Tyler bit his lip nervously "I can go alone." 

Chris looked at Tyler like he just told all of the governments secrets. He examined the boy's reddened face and walked up to place a hand against his forehead. The man squinted his eyes trying to figure out why a seventeen-year-old who hated the ocean and water basically all his life wants to go fishing suddenly. Alone. Tyler cleared his throat and looked at his dad.

"Can I have the boat?" 

"Well, yeah but I don't understand..." Chri placed his palm against Tyler's forehead "Are you sure that you don't have a fever?"

"No, dad." Tyler sighed grabbing a spare lifejacket from the shelf "I'm fine."

"You look fine but you don't sound fine." Chris sighed "Did something happen?" 

"No." Tyler answered too quickly making Chris more suspicious "I just..Uhh. I want to overcome my fear and it's better that I do it alone." 

"Alone, eh?" Chris let out a soft chuckle 

"Alone." Tyler nodded 

A smirk curved the corners of the man's lips. He smiled and placed his hand on Tyler's shoulder. He inhaled deeply and looked into his son's eyes.

"Use protection."

Tyler almost dropped the life jacket out of his hands. 

"No! What the hell dad?!" Tyler choked on air

"It's important to use-"

"I'm not talking about that!" Tyler screeched "I'm-"

The boy rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Who do you think I'm going to have sex with in the middle of the ocean? The whales? The seaweed? The coral reef?"

Tyler gasped for air for a few seconds, Chris smiled awkwardly realizing that he just fucked up. He removed his hand from Tyler's shoulder robotically and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Well..." The man took out his smoking pipe and lit it "I just wanted to remind you that-"

"Jesus Christ, dad." Tyler rolled his eyes and grabbed some rope from the shelf "I just wanna get some kind of workout. Where are the oars?" 

"The same where the boat is." Chris let out a cloud of smoke "At the beach house."

"At the be- ugh." Tyler let out a long sigh "Where's my bike?" 

Chris gestured with his head at the corner of the garage. Tyler went up to his bike to check the tire air pressure and dusted off the seat. The boy grabbed the bundle of keys off the hook on the wall and detached two small keys. 

"Will you be back by sundown?" Chris shouted after Tyler as he closed the door

"I dunno!" Tyler yelled back "I'll try!"

Tyler pedalled as fast as he could avoiding the people that were in front of him. Tyler dug around his room and found the books his mom used to teach him with when he just started how to speak. It was simple basic grammar. Tyler managed to reach the beach house without knocking someone down on their feet. Their "beach house" was nothing but a fishing hut, with fishnet on the walls and all that kind of stuff. A basic wooden shack with three or two rooms like you see in the movies. It was kinda cliche, but all of the houses around were the same. Only theirs were abandoned for two summers so Tyler had some cleaning up to do. He swept the floor and opened the windows to get some fresher air. Dust flew everywhere as Tyler tried to remove a cobweb off his face. The boy started screeching when he felt something crawl under his shirt but seconds later the boy realized it was only a leaf that flew in the air and landed on the boy's shirt. 

Tyler plopped down on the chair exhausted and tumbled down on the floor. One of the wooden legs of the chair broke and Tyler fell on his ass with a loud thunk. The boy managed to stand up and rubbed his hurting buttcheek. Tyler grabbed the broken chair and threw it out the window out of frustration. The boy panted heavily still feeling his butt twitching with dull pain. He dragged the boat out on the sand and pushed it into the water with all of his remaining strength. The oars were bigger than the boy and he started regretting his decision. The boy pushed the boat till it was floating in the water. Tyler climbed into it and sat in it panting heavily. The waves rocked the boat back and forth gently, the lower half of Tyler's body was soaking wet. Tyler managed to keep the books dry. Tyler was far from shore when he remembered that he forgot his life jacket. The boy froze in place, suddenly the ocean was a big blue-green monster that wanted to grab his body and drag it deep down where it could devour him. Tyler felt his vision fading, the boy was about to faint when he heard a familiar splashing behind him. One side of the boat sunk down from someone else's weight.

Tyler turned around to see Josh clinging onto the side of the boat. He threw his arms over the board and crossed them while the rest of his body was in the water. 

"Hi." Tyler smiled

Josh smiled too. 

"Hi." Josh placed his chin on his hands 

Tyler sat in the boat silent and just looked at Josh. The merman didn't mind the silence. The boat rocked a little bit more from Josh's weight but it was nothing Tyler couldn't handle. When Josh was with him the ocean didn't look that scary. 

"Ty-ler swim?" Josh asked "With me?" 

"Yeah." Tyler nodded "I'll be in the boat."

Josh sighed.

"N-not fun." 

"I'm sorry, Josh. I want to be in the boat." 

"Hu-man afraid of wa-ter?" Josh smiled innocently

"Yeah." Tyler nodded "I can't swim well."

Josh dove under the little boat and swam out on the other side. Tyler turned around to see Josh's big eyes staring at him again. 

"I teach." Josh gripped Tyler's arm lightly

"N-no." Tyler backed away "I d-don't want to."

"I teach." Josh insisted

The merman kept pulling.

"Josh, no!" Tyler yelled as he felt his body flung forward

The water filled his nose and ears as the boy fell face first into the ocean. Tyler immediately started squirming and paddling to swim but his body slowly sank down. Tyler felt his lungs turn to iron when two strong arms gripped his waist and rose him up to the surface. Tyler inhaled the air deeply, he gasped and coughed feeling the sweet oxygen flow into his lungs again. Josh held Tyler above the water in his strong grip as the boy sucked in the air while almost crying. 

Josh turned Tyler around and the boy immediately wrapped his arms around Josh's neck tightly. He desperately kicked his legs even though he didn't need to do that because Josh was holding him. Tyler closed his eyes when he felt Josh moving. The merman slowly swam forward bringing Tyler with him. Tyler's chest heaved rapidly, his eyes stung from the unexpected contact with water. 

"I hold." Josh whispered softly "Never let go."