Page 20 of Bound By Obsession

“Same as yesterdays.” I answer blandly, leaning against the granite counter and deciding to keep my voicemails secret for now. With the protective way mom’s been acting, she mightconfiscate my phone if she thinks I can use it for anything other than photos.

Contrasting with its surroundings, the interior of this place is magazine worthy. Pristine white cupboards line the kitchen wall, a double door chrome refrigerator matching the shiny appliances covering the counters. A shiny glass table fills the center of the room with enough chairs to seat twelve comfortably.

“Well don’t just stand there. Fetch the bacon and eggs.” She orders, despite the fake smile she’s grown accustomed to wearing lately. Huffing, I take my time guzzling the rest of my water and refilling it from the filter jug. Returning with her ingredients, I hop up onto the counter beside the hob and watch her make our breakfast.

“Mom, seriously, when can we leave?” Her smile falters as she clenches her jaw impatiently.

“I will have to return to work soon, but not yet. You should be having the time of your life. No school, no stress. What more could you possibly want?”

“Avery mainly. I didn’t realize we’d be gone so long and it’s almost Christmas. I can’t spend the entire festive season without–”

“Oh, enough of this!” my mom shouts, her brown eyes flickering furiously at me before she schools her features. Sighing deeply, her smile reappears and she leans over to grip my hand. “I’m sorry. I just want to enjoy our time away from reality. As soon as I hear we can return, we will.”

“Hear from who?” I question, jerking my head back. This is the first time I’ve heard her speak of anyone else being involved with our beach getaway. Judging by the roundness of her eyes, she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Flicking her hand through the air to end our conversation, mom busies herself crackingeggs into the pan while I hop down to make some coffee. It’s not like I have anything else to be doing.

“What shall we do today?” Mom asks. She plates up scrambled egg and bacon onto bone-china plates and carries them over to the table with a stack of buttered toast. Following with two mugs of steaming coffee, I sit beside her and open my mouth with some sarcastic reply when a sound cuts through the silence. A sound that’s not the sea lapping or a seagull, not the coffee machine or water heater humming. No, it’s the screech of tires on the dirt path. Mom looks at me as if I’m about to bolt. She’s right.

Flying out of my seat, leaving the screams of my name behind, I rush to the front door and fling it open. There’s a monstrosity of a white vehicle looming over my mom’s mini, something akin to a SUV before it was modified. A faint ringing in my ears is too delayed, because if there was any danger, I’ve just ran into the center of it.

Luckily, the only danger here are the rasping coughs of those falling out of a white SUV, holding their noses and wafting their hands through the air. Garrett slides out of the cab last, looking over at me innocently.

“Bad beef jerky,” he shrugs, as if that explains everything. I watch the scene as an outsider, the others coming back to themselves one by one. Large blue eyes flick up to the house and then land on me, flowing blonde hair falling about her slender shoulders. My heart swells, a choked gasp escaping me.Avery. I’m running again, vaulting the porch steps and wrapping my arms around her middle. She’s here, she’s really here.

“Beach!” I yell, shoving past the girl’s mini reunion. Avery is stunned, asking what the hell Meg is doing here in a harsher voice than I’m sure she intended. Ignoring Huxley yelling about helping with the bags, I push my legs at top speed toward the shore. Pulling my phone and Air Pods from my pocket, I chuck them into the sand for someone else to pick up and charge into the water. The cool water splashes around the heavy pound of my sneakers, my shorts and tank top sticking to my body as I dive into the water.

It’s fucking freezing.I surface on a gasp, my lungs burning as if they are shutting down, but I don’t care. Flopping back, I spread my arms and legs wide like a tattooed starfish bobbing on the water. I’m the tide’s bitch now. Throwing me around, I makemy way back to the sand, only to twist and toss myself back in to do it again.

“You’re going to catch your death in there,” Axel shouts, his bare feet sinking into the wet sand at the shore’s edge. My phone and Air Pods are in his hand and I chuckle gently to myself.

“We’ve been stuck in a car for days. Let loose and come catch my death with me!” I wave at him, diving beneath the next current. This time, I don’t fuck around. I swim hard, pushing my limbs to their limits, fighting an invisible force. Salt burns my eyes, a darkness beckoning me to carry on. It’s chaotic on the seabed, rocks and sand being hurled around, small creatures not standing a chance. I only come up briefly for air and sink straight back in.

Being trapped in Huxley’s SUV has been slowly chipping away at my sanity. There’s only so long I can be the Garrett everyone adores. Cracking jokes, inventing games, boosting morale. I’m like a Ken doll, plastering on a plastic smile for everyone else’s benefit. At some point, even my energy wains and I need a respite. A reset. This right here, swimming through the turbulence, this is for my benefit.

Some way out, I breach the surface to see a huge wave about to crash down onto my head. Being pulled underneath forcefully, I tumble and roll, fighting to find the way up. The tide steals the sneaker from my foot causing me to shout underwater and lose precious air bubbles. Finally breaking free of the undercurrent, I gulp in air and wipe the water from my eyes to look for my missing sneaker when another wave plummets onto me. Forcing my legs to kick powerfully in time with my arms, I push myself further onward until there’s no longer the sounds of crashing overhead.

The beach house and Axel’s outline are tiny in the distance now, my sneaker well and truly lost. I bet some fucker finds it washed ashore and shits a brick at the custom-made high-top Iprobably should have laced tighter. Bending to pull the left one off, I launch it as far as I can into the vast ocean. Hopefully, the lucky son of a bitch can find the other to have a matching pair.

My limbs are aching from getting to this point of calm beyond the waves. Not wanting to waste my efforts, I take my time both floating and swimming lengths back and forth towards a fence I find down the coast. The burn of exertion fills me like my own brand of adrenaline.

I love everything about the sea, mainly the freedom it holds beneath its surface. To a boy once locked in his own house without a scrap of food to eat and the electricity cut off, all that’s left is to dream. To wonder and imagine. A whole world is hidden from view, mountains and volcanoes, sunken shipwrecks, stunning displays of coral and whales that could swallow me whole. Well, that’s some of the best shit to wonder about right there.

Axel’s whistle carries to me in the wind, a spec of a figure waving from the beach. Yeah, yeah. Reality is calling. I turn back just as a sea turtle drifts by, lazing contently under the sun’s rays. A marbled effect covers his brown shell which is smooth beneath my fingertips as I stroke it. Watching the creature pass, barely having to move its limbs, I smile to myself. That’s the life - no stress or commitments, just enjoying the peace each day brings until a bull shark jumps up to eat you. Deciding turtles are my new spirit animal, I start to head towards my...whatever he is. Just Axel.

Nearing the beach, the waves begin to pick up again, helping to push me the rest of the way now I’m not resisting. Realizing I can stand on the seabed, I rise to my full height and walk the rest of the way with water slapping across my back as I go. Emerging onto the beach in my soggy socks, Axel’s hazel eyes assess me with a hint of amusement. I close the gap between us, I throw myself into his body and squeeze him tight, ignoring the soundsof disgust. After forcing his hands between us and pushing me away, I smirk at his now see-through white T-shirt sticking to his muscled torso.

“What happened to your shoes?” he questions.

“Sea stole ‘em,” I shrug. He shakes his head at me.

“Here, take these back and go fight over a room like the oversized man-child you are.” Axel puts my belongings into my pruney hands with a roll of his eyes.

“Yes, Boss.” I run my tongue up his cheek, seeking out the dip of the dimples that I love. I mean, like. Mildly tolerate. Ugh whatever, dimples are for douchebags really.

“Huh. Why don’t I have any?” I mumble to myself, pushing my tongue against my inner cheeks.

“Have any what?” Axel frowns, wiping his cheek dry with his sleeve. Without answering, I peer up at the building. Framed by a wraparound porch, the pale blue exterior blends seamlessly into a cloudless sky, a picturesque holiday home. Nothing like the safe house I was expecting. Avery is standing in a huge bay window, her arms clasped around herself. I mentally catalog which room she has chosen. Another one I’ll be crashing into at my leisure.

Striding to the porch, I leave my phone on the porch swing. After noticing there isn’t a single bar of service out here, I strip out of my socks and shorts, hanging them over the railing. My boxers and t-shirt remain in place, the latter glued to every crevice of my chest and abdomen. I tug on the cotton, trying to lift it away from my body. It snaps back every time.

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