Page 115 of Cuts like a Knife
“Lex!” he says. “Stop!”
“Let me go!” I claw at his arms.
“Stop! Stop struggling. Stop panicking, you lunatic!”
“Let me go! You’re going to drown us both!”
“I’m not! Just stop! Reach down with your legs. Stop kicking. Calm down.”
“You calm down! I don’t need you to save me!”
“I know! I’m not saving you! Because you can touch the bottom! We’re on a f—ing sandbar!” he says.
Suddenly his arms release me and I stop pedaling. I straighten on leg, then the other. My toes touch sand. Solid sand. I can stand up.
The water is fairly deep — more than chest-high, and the rolling swells make it periodically deeper, but I can see them coming in the moonlight, and he’s right, I can touch.
As another big swell rolls towards us, we both jump at the same moment and are carried over the crest and deposited back down gently on the other side.
Thank goodness it’s nighttime. So he can’t see my face. Which must be flaming335.
“I knew that,” I say, finally, as we jump another slow wave. “I knew it was a sandbar.”
Drew laughs. “You did not! You were flailing around like a dying fish.”
“Shut up, Drew.”
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
“What were you even trying to do?”
“Leave,” I say. “I was trying to leave.”
“Leave how?”
“I’m going to swim to shore. It’s right there.”
“That is a terrible idea. You can’t just swim to shore. You’re going to cause an international incident.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh.
“Do you see anyone else out here? Nobody cares! Who is even on that boat? Trash journalists and reality TV show producers. And a handful of rich a—holes who are famous for being rich a—holes. They’re the worst people in the world and they don’t give a s— about anyone but themselves. If anyone normal — anyone like me, I mean— lives or dies, I promise, they will not care. Nobody even noticed me jump.”
“I noticed! And they should have noticed!” He looks back at the yacht, swaying in the moonlight. There’s no crowd on the deck. No searchlights. No panic. I can still hear the thump of the music coming from inside. “I can’t believe no one’s coming.” He turns back to me. “Do you not see how dangerous this is? It’s insane. You’re insane.”
“Thanks for that. Your client owns the f—ing boat, right?Take your safety concerns up with them.”
I start to paddle away. I can still see the lights in the windows of the shore houses. I’ve got my bearings now. I’ll be back on shore in moments. I’m a strong swimmer. It’ll be fine.
“Lex, you can’t. Come back. Come back to the boat.”
“You want us to climb back aboard looking like this? Like a pair of drowned rats?” Even as I say it, I realize I’m wrong. I may look like a drowned rat, but Drew definitely doesn’t. Even in the moonlight, I can see that he looks completely normal. He’s not fully clothed, for one thing. His chest is bare . He obviously prepared before hitting the water. Unlike me. His clothes are probably neatly folded in a little pile by the stern.
He can go back, but I can’t.
“Lex,” he says in a more gentle voice. “Just come back to the boat. We can talk about all of this later. Besides, there’s news. About your sister.”
