Page 81 of Indigo

I open my mouth but force myself to think before I speak. She’ll freak out if I tell her I’m trying to find her mum right now because Mrs Neil is worried. There is no one in the world my girl loves more than she does her mother, and there’s no point putting thoughts in her head when for all I know Lana’s sitting down on the sand, soaking in the rays with her toes dipped in the water.

“Yep. On my way. Got your brekky sitting on the passenger seat next to me.”

“Oh, good. It feels like my stomach is eating itself right now.” She laughs, but I don’t join in, because as I lower the window of my car, trying to let the breeze in, I hear someone yelling.

The voice is faint, but I can hear it.

“See you soon. Love you,” I say quietly, ending the call, and tossing my phone to the passenger seat in front of the bags.

I jump out, closing the door a little too forcefully behind me, allowing me to hear whoever is yelling more clearly now.

“Help! Someone help!”

Rushing to the edge of the sandbank, I peer over, and it feels as if the world stops spinning.

A surfer is pulling a woman out of the water, screaming for help as he drags her across the wet sand. The moment I see the pink pants, my heart stops.

No.

I move quickly, scaling down the side of the sandbank, not even flinching as the jagged rocks lodged in the hard sand tear into my jeans, leaving their marks along my skin.

“Help! Help!” the surfer yells, frantically.

It can't be her. She can't be. No fucking way.

People start running down the beach as I get closer, and the surfer begins performing CPR.

I can't breathe.

I feel dizzy as I reach her side, throwing myself down on the sand beside her.

She’s pale. Way too fucking pale.

“Lana!” I push the wet hair from her face. “What the fuck happened?”

Her body jerks with every compression, but nothing's happening.

“I was out too far, saw her fall on the jetty and hit her head. She rolled into the water, and by the time I got to her she wasn’t breathing,” the surfer huffs out as he keeps going.

She should be coughing up water by now, shouldn’t she?

I kneel beside her, frozen, holding my breath, waiting for her to breathe.

Breathe. Breathe. Fucking breathe.

I look up and see Mr and Mrs Travis, and Pete from down the road standing around us, panic written all over their faces. Two of them hold phones to their ears, and I hear the wordambulancesaid multiple times as they try to explain what’s happening to the operators.

Indie. Oh, god.

“Indie. Someone has to call Indie!” I scream, my eyes darting back and forth between the bystanders and Lana’s lifeless body.

When no one seems to take notice of what I’m saying, I sit back on my heels, scrambling, patting the pockets of my pants, trying to find my phone when a hand grabs my shoulder.

I look up, the sun blinding me as it shines behind him.

“I've got you, Pax. Ambulance is on its way,” Jagger says, his phone pressed to his ear. “Indie, sweetheart. I need you to stay calm.”

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