My Waitress (NOT EDITED)

Chapter 8

I suck in the cool early night breeze and dip my head back under the water. I look around, seeing if I can spot something rainbow, something shiny, something that's mine, that I swore and promised to myself... to my mother, that I would never lose it. But it's right now sinking into the deep abyss of the lake. Somewhere. All I see are the bottom halves of guys and girls at this level. I need to go deeper.

And so I do. But I'm running out of breath. But I need to find it. If I lose my bracelet forever, it's like I'll be losing my mother forever. This bracelet is the only thing that I left of her. She'll be gone... forever. C'mon, it has to be here.

The bottom halves of the guys and girls are now above me. They're having fun. At least Naomi and Ashton are having fun. And his twin, Ashley. And Jace and Noah... and—

Something bright catches the bottom corner of my eye below me. Something shiny, colorful, worth memorable to me. My bracelet... my bracelet! My....

Mother?

Instead of the bracelet sinking it's my mother. The brightness makes her more seeable, but as she's sinking more, her light dims. Her long midnight waves float freely underwater as she smiles and reaches out to me. Her baby blue eyes that I didn't inherit are still bright. But her eyelids are slowly closing. I wouldn't be able to see her. I would lose her. No...

I swim deeper. I'm running out of time, running out of breath. But she's right there, I can reach her. I throw my hand out to her. I couldn't help but open my mouth to call out to her. Her eyes fully close, and she fades away into the deep end as soon as I touched her hand, the brightness disintegrating her.

I immediately suck in the water. I cover my mouth, but I'm already choking. I try to swim back up, but something is preventing me. Something's pulling me down. I look down.

My father.

He has a sad look on his face as he grips my leg and pulls himself up to my height. The melancholy look in his green eyes grow deeper as he opens his mouth. I miss you. His mouth curls into a smile, where some wrinkles form at each corner of his mouth and under his eyes.

Even though I'm underwater I can still feel the warmth of my tears on my cheeks. My vision grows blurry as my father becomes blurry too and disappears. The hand that covers my mouth drops to my side. My eyelids feel heavy as I close them. You won't have to miss me anymore, Dad—

Suddenly an arm hugs my stomach and pulls me up to the surface. The cool air hits me while I cough out the excess water that was in my system and try to breathe in all the oxygen I can. The mysterious arm lets go of my stomach and quickly turns me around facing the body. Hands cup my face and move my head like an examination. I look up at the person to see shaking ocean blue eyes, already knowing who he is. He doesn't say anything.

"M... Mala..chi—"

"What were you thinking," he finally says. "I get out the water and wait for you to follow behind and yell at me or chase me or hit me for making you jump in the water with me, but you don't come out. You don't even come up from under the lake. I go back in the water and call out to you but you don't answer. I see you going deeper and deeper. Like you're sinking. I don't want to lose you. You could of told me before that you couldn't swim, but if you do and that was suppose to be some kind of prank and scare me, ha ha whatever, don't do that again. You actually scared me, Milkshake."

Malachi sighs and pulls me closer into a hug. He saved me. Malachi, the asshole from summer, or that's what I thought he was, actually cares about me. How does he go from teasing me and not caring about what I do to saving me from drowning? He needs to make up his mind. But his hugs are nice. Malachi himself is... nice.