“Come on Julia! Wake up! We’re going to the Bahamas remember?”

          If I knew what was to happen later that week, I would’ve stayed asleep.

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          “So, baby pull me closer in the backseat of your rover, that I know you can’t afford; bite that tattoo on your shoulder,” our voices mix with the radios’ as we made our way to the beach.

          It was spring break during our junior year of college. My name is Julia and I didn’t want to be here.

          My plans for spring break? Study, sleep, binge watch Netflix, sleep, eat, and study more. That should tell you enough about the kind of person I am. My friends however, they had different plans.

          The first of the Fearsome Four was Michael, AKA, my brother. I know, weird right? Why would you want to hang out with your sibling? It’s strange, but we’ve always just seemed to get along, I guess. Sure, we fight, what siblings don’t, but at the end of the day, he was still my brother.

          The next is his soon to be wife and my best friend since diapers, Lauren. She has the heart of a lion and is down for basically anything. If you dropped her in the middle of a forest with no supplies but the clothes on her back, she could probably survive for three months at the very least. It was her idea to go on this trip in the first place.

          Next was Summer. Our little group only met her our freshman year of college, but she fit in perfectly. She’s the kind of girl who gets straight A’s but will also fight with you if you look at her the wrong way.

          Finally, we have my wonderful boyfriend, Sebastian. He’s very sarcastic and funny, but he also has the biggest heart. We started dating junior year of high school and have been together since then. It’s a miracle all of us ended up in the same college together.

It kind of sounds like we are living the life of some cringy college kids you read about in some novel found in the deepest corners of your local library, but it’s true.

          Anyways, Lauren, as I mentioned earlier, had this brilliant idea to go to the Bahamas for our spring break. You can tell I was excited, who wouldn’t want ton to leave the comfort of their bed to go to a place they’ve never been before just so they could spend all of their money and be broke at the end of it?

          I protested many times, but in the end, it was four against one so naturally, I had no choice but to give in. Honestly, it hasn’t been that bad so far; if I’m telling the truth, it’s been kind of fun.

          It’s our last day here and Michael had an amazing idea for what we should do: Go canoeing to some island five or six miles out in the open water! I know, fun right?

          Before I could even begin to protest, everyone else agreed, which left me not wanting to be the party pooper. Again, naturally, I caved.

          “Here we are! The shack to rent canoes is over there, I’ll park the car and meet you guys there,” Sebastian said as he pulled in front of a dumpy little shack.

           “Alright Seb, thanks! Let’s get our canoe on!” Summer yelled as she hopped out of the truck and ran into the shack. Everyone else followed close behind. I hesitated for a moment, not too long, but long enough for Seb to notice.

          “Jules? You okay? You really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You know that, right?” he reassured me.

          “Yeah…yeah, I know – sorry. I’m just a bit nervous,” I admitted twiddling my fingers.

          “You have no need to apologize. It happens, alright? Besides, what could go wrong?” he asked smiling at me.You’d be surprised.

          “Yeah…you’re right. Once we get out there, I’m sure I’ll laugh at how silly I’m being right now,” I said, still feeling nervous, but a bit better about this whole thing.

          After listening to Michael and Lauren bicker for a few minutes about which color canoe we should get, we finally settled on red and white ones.

          “Alright, let’s get our vests on and these babies out on the water, I’ve got a map with us,” Michael said as he pulled a small tourist map out of his pocket.

          “Goody let’s get going,” Summer replied sarcastically as she finally got her vest on, “alright just an FYI, I was told that if you pull these strings,” she pointed to the small set of strings on the right side of the vest, “this will make the life vest send off a warning signal in case for some reason we get lost and need rescuing.”

          “Jeez, that’s pretty fancy for a rundown canoe rental shop,” Lauren said also getting her vest on. By the time we finally got our vests on and got into the water, twenty minutes had already passed.

          “It should take about two or three hours to get there, depending on how fast we row,” I informed everyone as I checked the map Michael had handed me.

          “Then let’s get a move on!” Lauren exclaimed as she and Michael started to travel north, us in tow. About an hour had passed when Summer started talking.

          “Hey guys, should we head back? The sky doesn’t look so good and that storm I mentioned seems to be heading our way a little faster than I anticipated,” she explained as she looked up at the sky with concerning eyes.

          “Nah, we’ll be fine. There’s no point in turning back now,” Lauren reasoned as she and Michael continued rowing forward. “Come on, let’s have fun.  I’m sure we’ll be fine, some gray clouds aren’t going to ruin my vacation,” she said as she rowed forward determined to make it to this island.

After that no one talked and continued forward for another half hour when thunder started to rumble in the no so far distance.

          “Don’t,” Lauren demanded, “it’s fine.” None of us believed her but she had had a point, we were already here, might as well make the best of it.

Not even ten minutes later there was a flash of lightening, then more thunder, then more lightning.

          “Ok this is ridiculous, Lauren I love you, I do, but we should’ve headed back when we had the chance, this is seriously dangerous, and the waters are starting to get really rocky,” Michael explained as he stopped rowing. Lauren was quiet for a bit when another strike of lightning lit up the sky.

          “Let’s try and make it to the island, the shack is too far back now, at least we might be safe there. Just try and row carefully,” she said starting to row at a slower but still determined pace. This continued for another half hour when we heard Seb exclaim.

          “Guys! The island! About a mile forward! Come on quick!” he said as he started to row faster, not wanting to slow us down, I hurried my pace. We were about 1000 yards out when our boat started to rock dangerously.

          “Guys this is so unsafe we could tip at any time; the waves are too dangerous and who knows what will happen if we tip,” I reasoned as I started to panic. I could feel the boat shaking back and forth with such force I almost saw stars.

          “Jules, sweetheart, that island is our only chance, just a little more, please?” Seb asked, grabbing my hands. I looked up at the sky, watching as heavy rain started to fall from the sky.

           I nodded and picked up my paddles. We made it about 300 yards when we hit a patch of rocks. They weren’t above the water line, but they were tall enough and jagged enough that they were hitting the bottom of our boats in ways that, combined with the strong winds and harsh waves, could tip us over. Before anyone could say anything, a huge wave came sweeping up from behind us, almost knocking us out of our boats.

          “Just swim for it!” Michael yelled but before anyone could get out of their boats, another wave came. With the force of a herd of elephants, it smashed into our boats, sending up flying into the air only to smack back into the water.

           I breathed in right before I hit the water, thinking as quickly as I could.

           I hit the water with a deafening smack, feeling the pain explode across my back and legs like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. My arms smacked into the rocks that were hitting the bottom of our canoes and I almost definitely broke something. Thankful that I didn’t hit my head, I held my breath and opened my eyes to see blurry images of bodies starting to swim away.

           My friends. They don’t realize I’m down here.

           I went to swim upwards and catch up with them when I felt a sharp tug in my right arm and realized I couldn’t move. The emergency straps and my right arm were caught in between two huge rocks, about 10 feet under water.

           I couldn’t get my arm free without doing serious damage to it, I couldn’t remove my vest with my arm trapped, and I couldn’t pull the emergency straps because not only were they trapped, I began to realize my left arm was broken.

          I tried but with no avail, to push the rocks away from each other, even just a bit, just enough for me to get free.

          I felt my chest constricting and I knew I needed to get above water, now. I continued to struggle and struggle, only making my need for oxygen stronger.

          I could see black dots beginning to flood my vision like a swarm of locusts. My chest and head burning with a heat of a million fires. I was going to die. This was it. I knew I shouldn’t have said yes to this trip, but I did anyways, and this is my punishment.

          I could feel myself beginning to slip from reality, so I let out one last cry. One last cry, letting all the built-up oxygen in my lungs go out, my muffled scream going out into the open ocean for all the fish to hear.

          Then, instead of passing out and drowning like I should’ve? Instead of loosening my grip on reality and leaving my body to the fishes?

 

           I tore free, kicked to the surface, and breathed in.