Whispers Beneath The Waves (Boy x Boy) [Shortlisted for The Wattys 2018!]

Prologue

Hi guys!

I know I haven't had much time to update my new stories, but I've been working on this new Boy x Boy fiction and couldn't resist posting up what I have so far. I really hope you might like it!

I'll try and post a chapter once every 1 to 2 weeks :)  I'd love to get this story actually finished and would really appreciate any comments or feedback.

Updates depend on whether this gets readers or not... XD

Hope you enjoy!

Becky x

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Prologue

Is it crazy that I talk to the sea?

For some reason, I've always been drawn to the water. I find the rise and fall of the waves so captivating that I could sit by the edge of the tide and watch them rolling forever.

People think it's because I've grown up here in Melwyn Bay. It's a seaside village just off Cornwall and one of the only places in the UK with a sandy beach rather than miles of stones and pebbles. I guess everyone who lives here has a special connection to the sea, but no one else talks to it. Not like I do.

I tell the sea secrets. I spill out all the things locked deep inside me that I can't say to anyone else. And I know it listens to me. I can't explain how or why, but it listens and it understands.

There's a little grotto a few miles out from the beach that I love to visit on a regular basis. Most people need to take a boat out to reach it, but I'm such a strong swimmer that I simply dive into the water and propel myself over there using only my body. The second I move my arms and feel the ice-cold sea waves against my skin, I know that I'm home. When I swim, I'm completely free.

The grotto doesn't go in very deep, but there is enough water covered by arches of cliff rock to feel like a special hideaway where no one can find you. There's nothing but water and rock as far as the eye can see. The perfect place to clear your mind.

I was just a kid when I discovered the place, and a teenager when I started speaking out loud in the safety of the cave walls. At first, I felt self-conscious, hearing my own voice echoing back at me around the grotto. But soon, it became my weird kind of release.

The sea didn't judge me. Ever. It was kind to me. And sometimes I'd even see little ripples on the water, responding to things I'd said, almost like someone was just under the surface, taking in my every word. It's a stupid thought, I know, but a comforting one. Hell, even now at seventeen, it's nice to imagine someone's down there and I'm not really alone. Every time I see those ripples, I still like to pretend they belong to something other than fish.

There is only one time, in my whole life, where the sea ever turned against me. It was three years ago when I was fourteen and it was pretty much my own fault, so it's not like I can hold a grudge.

I'd just had a huge fight with my Mum and had swum out to the grotto to get as far away from her as possible. It was the same old argument we always had around that time period. It was about my father.

"Why can't you just tell me about him? Please, Mum."

"How many times do I have to say this Lennon? I'm not talking about your Dad and that's final."

"I have a right to know. I need to know who I am, where I come from."

"You're my son. You come from me. Isn't that enough for you?"

Of course it wasn't enough. Everything about my Dad, my history, my family tree was a giant question mark, a great big black hole that led to nowhere. It ate me up from the inside and left me completely hollow.