*****Disclaimer: Strong Language will be used in this chapter
"That was perfect!" Director Jimenez loudly announces with a large megaphone in his hand. "Let's try it a few more times, and then we'll proceed with the waves."
"The only thing perfect with that scene was when Delaware threw sand in Georgia's face," I mumble under my breath, taking a sip out of my bottle of water underneath a tent where we could watch from a distance. Omar hears me and chuckles.
"Seems like the ocean isn't the only thing salty today," he eyes me as Leo returns to his initial position with Georgia, with his arm over her perfectly smooth, acne-free bare shoulders.
"I'm not salty. I'm stating the obvious." I reply, checking my watch for the time. I was slowly starting to get hungry despite the breakfast. "You cannot tell me that was not the highlight of the scene."
"Uh-huh." he switches the weight on one side of his leg to his other. "Then why the frown? Is someone a little jealous?" he playfully nudges my shoulder with his.
"My face is always like this. It's called having a resting bitch face." I explain to him, narrowing my eyes in his direction. "Besides, me, at my grown age? Being jealous? Oh, Please! I am far from being a jealous person."
"Who's jealous?" Leo suddenly says as he approaches us with a sunscreen bottle to reapply. My heart jumps a little, and speeds up faster when Omar entices the conversation with his nosiness.
"Steph." Omar smugly replies, waiving his eyebrows suggestively in my direction.
I abruptly jab him in the stomach with my elbow and add, "Because Delaware got to throw sand in Georgia's face."
Regret immediately hits me in the face as I should've said something less grudging. In my defense, it sounded better when I told Omar, and I had a bit of pent-up animosity inside of me.
Now I definitely sound jealous.
I cannot sound jealous to Leo. It's one thing to have been jealous of all his wins, but another to be jealous of him.
We are not a thing. I remind myself. Our relationship is fake, and he is not mine. I have no reason to be jealous. I need to get a grip and control whatever is going on with me.
"You know what. I'm hungry. I'm going to go grab a bite with the extras." I swiftly reply, excusing myself.
Maybe food is exactly why I need to bring some sense to myself. I am the type of person to get hangry if I don't eat snacks between the morning and the afternoon.
"I'll come with you." Leo offers.
"No, it's okay, " I vaguely dismiss, hoping he would catch a hint.
"But I want to," he says, sidestepping towards me, with the edge of his hips brushing mine. God dammit, it was hard to keep my eyes above his neck.
Deep breaths, Stephanie. Deep breaths. You need to remain calm. This is your hormones speaking, not you.
BBBZZZZ.
TING.
BBBZZZZZZZZZ.
By the grace of god, a small vibration in the pocket of my pants warrants me the excuse and space I needed. I pulled it out to check the caller's name, and to my disappointment, it was not a call I wanted to receive. However, it was a better option than losing what little self-control I had left with Leonardo.
"Actually, I have to take this." I gesture to my phone. "I'll catch up with you guys once I'm done."
"We'll be by the waves," Leo says to me, pointing further down the beach. I give him a reassuring thumbs up and disappear into the tents.
My phone vibrates once more, and I hit the answer button before he hangs up on me.
"¿Qué quieres?" I respond to him, with my eyes rolling to the back of my head.
"Mom wanted to know how you were doing," my brother bluntly answers, tapping what I believe is his gaming controller. It was his signal to show me mom wasn't in the room, stalking our conversation. Had it been silent in the background, I would've shut down the call faster than it took her to steal the phone from him.
"Of course she does," I mumble, running my hand over the top of my head. "I'm fine. Everything is fine."
"I still can't believe you blocked her," he says, holding a laugh. "Pretty dramatic of you if you ask me."
"Easy for you to say. You're mom's favorite." I defensively respond. "And you're a guy. All Mom ever asks of you is if you need your clothes to be washed or when your girlfriend is coming over."
A few more clicks of his controller pass the phone. "Sure. If that's what you say. What's your deal with Leonardo anyway? I thought you hated that guy?"
"Hate is a strong word…"
"You literally threw a fit and stayed at the library whenever he came over to play video games with me."
"I was going to my book club meetings."
"On a Saturday?" he adjusts the mic of his headphones closer to his mouth. "I don't think so. You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool me," he affirms, spamming his thumb on a specific button to shoot his opponent in his game.
"Alfonso," I say, feeling the weight of the phone in my hands. "Things are different now. I can't explain it, but they are. You're just going to have to believe me."
"If you say so," he mutters the same phrase I deeply loathe. "But if he tries to hurt you-"
"He's not going to." I blurt into the phone. "He's not like that, and I don't need help from my little brother."
"But if you do-,"
"I won't." I snap.
"But if you do," he stays firm. "Tell me,"
"So what, you can beat him up?"
"Yes."
"No." I shake my head.
"Come on. Bethany got to with Travis."
"She didn't need to." I reason. "We ended on good terms."
"HE ended it because he was a terrible boyfriend who had commitment issues." I hear him adjust in his squeaky gamer chair. "I just don't want you to end up like that again."
I knew what he was referring to. The breakup with Travis did more than enough damage. A lesson on love was indeed learned.
"I won't," I reply, and turn my attention to the beach as extras rush into the tent. They were covered in seawater and sand from head to toe. Other staff came rushing in, with medical equipment as though someone had been injured.
"Hold on. Something is happening." I say to him, holding the phone away from my ear.
The voice of one of the lifeguards boomed from a megaphone, shouting orders to evacuate the beach. One person immediately came to my mind, stopping me completely.
"What's going on?" my brother's voice audibly shouts from the speaker of my phone.
"I have to go. Tell me, Mom, I'm doing fine. I'll call you another time." I say in between breaths as I run in the direction of the waves Leo had said he would swim in. I hang up my phone and chuck it in my backpack. There was more than enough sand in the wind to distort anyone's vision of the wave. Like a hungry lion, the ocean roared over the lifeguards shouting at their posts.
I managed to run into Omar as he was dragging Leo's look-alike out of the water. "He's still in there." Omar frantically says. "I thought this was him. I already sent the lifeguards out to get him."
"I'll help you look for him," I say to Omar, and glance at his double. "Make sure you get him to safety.
I see that he tries to deny me, but I don't give him a chance to.
I chuck my bag to the ground and start sprinting towards the waves, calling Leo's name. I swim in between the motions and conserve my breath when I dive headfirst until I have to come up for air. I shout Leo's name a few times until suddenly a single head bursts to the surface and swims in my direction of whom I recognize as Mitchell. I tug on his arm and drag us out of the water with the surfboard he was holding onto.
"Where's Leo?" I immediately ask him.
Mitchell coughs in between his breaths and goes on all fours. I pat him until his breathing remained stable.
"Mitch, where is Leo?" I repeat to him, with my arms on his shoulders. He points in the direction I found him and explains that the waves were too big. One minute, they were out there surfing, and the next, he and Leo were wiped out.
I take the surfboard he was on and start heading back in the water. He gets up almost instantly and firmly snatches my arm, pulling me to the sand. "Wait!" he heaves, with a rasp in his throat. "Didn't you hear? It's not safe. The lifeguards will find him. Let them do their job."
"There is no way you could possibly be saying that right now." I scoff. "Was it the lifeguards that fished you out of the water? Huh?"
"That's because you found me while I was close," he keeps his hand tight around the nook of my wrist. "The waves are getting worse and-"
I aggressively tug my arm in the direction of the water. "And I will find him the same way I found you. Now let go of me, Mitch!"
"No!" He pulls me closer to his body. "I'm not going to let you risk yourself."
"I SAID FUCK OFF!!!!" I strike Mitch right in the nose and use the end of a surfboard as a divider and knock him off his feet. "I'm not leaving him out there."
I dive right in with the board and brace myself. The water was as icy, and the waves were launching in full force, one after another, attempting to shake me off. I stick to the core of my stomach and measure each wave as though they spoke their own language. I continue to shout for Leo's name, and soon enough, after less than two minutes of fighting the salted waters, I found him lying face down. His dark hair was completely washed out, and his body was drifting at the stir of the ocean.
"Shit." I curse, nearing the surfboard in his direction.
When I do, I use all my strength to lift his heavy body upward and place him on top of the surfboard. We were quite an alarming distance away from the shore as we were past the floating beach markers.
"I'm going to get us out of here", I say over my shoulder, bending my knees in a tight formation as another wave is threatening to approach us.
I paddle as hard as I can and call out for any potential lifeguards. It was practically useless as the roars and protests of the ocean drowned out my voice. I paddle and paddle until another wave picks us up and rushes our board closer to the shore.
When we arrive, I lie Leonardo flat and start doing compressions on his chest, following the beat of "Stayin' Alive" that I was taught in a CPR class I took while obtaining my teaching credential.
"Leo, you better fucking stay with me." I put my lips on his, exhaling my breath into his lungs.
"Leo"
Push.
"Please."
Push.
"Don't"
Push.
"Die"
Push
"On."
Push.
"Me."
Counting my compressions, I blow a second time in his mouth and push a few more times.
I was beginning to lose hope, until by a miracle, Leo coughs sea water out of his mouth, and his consciousness regains.
A lifeguard finally finds us, to whom I wave and gesture to Leo. "Hang in there, Leo," I say to him, with my hand intertwined with his.
He examines Leo and calls over with his monitor that was clipped on his waistband. With his other hand, the lifeguard flashed a light over Leo's eyes once he was in an upright position.
"Look over here, sir," instructs Leo as he planted his eyes on me with his mouth slightly open as if he were to say something.
Another lifeguard approaches along with Omar, telling me to give them space. He wraps a towel around his body, and the other lifeguard provides me with one and asks me if I was okay.
"I'm fine," I answer and provide the lifeguard with details of what has happened. When I was done filling them in, I picked myself up and went in the direction of where I dropped my bag in the sand. I take out my water bottle and keep my breath steady from the weight of all that has happened.
A singular thought fills the surface of my brain as I replay everything over and over like a movie.
Had it not been for me jumping into the ocean, Leonardo Ramero Vasquez would've died.