What Are We Searching For, Really?

10.

I shot up, choking and coughing like my life depended on it.

Pain jabbed at my chest and I heaved, trying to maintain my balance, reaching out for any type of surface when my hands landed on wet, rough skin.

"Oh my god, Won! I thought you were gonna die!" a person cried next to me, wrapping an arm around my back and steadying me. I blinked over and over again, shaking my head before turning towards the mysterious person with a pretty voice. Black hair...piercing...the asian eyes...

My eyes properly opened and I found myself staring into the sparkling, dark eyes of Austin.

"Austin...?" I was surprised to hear my voice slightly muffled and sort of distant, like something was blocking my ears. "Why are we here? Where-"

"You fell...into the sea," Austin said slowly.

I frowned, scratching the bottom of my jaw and taking in the area around me. There were rocks as far as I could see, if you excluded the sea next to me. We were probably under the cliff. "I did? Shouldn't I be drowning now then?"

A look of amazement was on his face. "It's really amazing how you can even like, joke around at this time. We're both wet, freezing, and we probably lost our phones!"

"Well, I'm not saying I don't feel terrible," I muttered, suddenly feeling the coldness much more than I had before. "But really? Our phones is what you care about?"

"Well yeah! To get another phone set up is super tedious and annoying!"

I giggled. "But I think my phone is still here." I felt around my pockets in my sweatpants and my fingers swept over a rectangular bump. I swiftly pulled it out and shoved it in front of Austin, a smile creeping onto my face. "Hah."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh my. It definitely still works," he drawled sarcastically.

Biting my inner cheek, I tried pressing the home button to turn it on. When the screen lit up brightly, showing a picture of Ferry wearing a cute bear hoodie and her big green eyes shining, I grinned triumphantly.

"It works."

"It works?!" Austin's hand released from my back and his head hovered over my phone. "No way."

"Yes way!" I sing-songed. "I bet you lost your phone!"

He groaned when he felt nothing in his pockets. "I think I actually lost it."

"Aw." I pouted, patting his shoulder. "Maybe it's up on the cliff and it dropped out of your pocket after you jumped down." I gasped. "My camera's up there too."

"How do you know I jumped down?" his previous look of amazement went back on his face and I bit back a laugh.

"How else would you get down here?" I questioned, rolling my eyes.

"Oh right," he said sheepishly.

Silence fell on us for a few moments. I sneaked a few glances at Austin, finding he had a thoughtful look on his face. It was clouded over and he was staring out into the sea, the flecks of moonlight reflecting into his eyes. It wasn't until he looked over that I realised I had a stupid grin on my face and a hot feeling spread across my cheeks.

"You having fun checking me out?" Austin joked, cracking a grin.

"Hah! A-as if I was doing that in the first place." I barked out a laugh, playing with the ends of my hair.

He still didn't look convinced. "You always do that when you're nervous," he commented, pointing to my fingers intertwined in my hair. I immediately shoved them into the pockets of my hoodie, grimacing when I felt the soaked material.