S.S Anne: Just Give Me a Reason (Everett)

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

With her feet crossed, Erika sat on the deck of the giant cruise ship and watched the ocean bend away to the might of the metal. She loved the ocean. In her eyes it was the most beautiful thing in the world. The colors, the way the sky reflected itself on the surface and all the life that occasionally bounced from the depths. There was nothing in the entire world that made her feel as serene.

Well, it would have made her feel serene if it hadn't been for the fact that she was still nothing but a scared little bunny who kept ducking into her hole whenever she saw a certain blonde with a certain hypnotic power. Was this really how her life was supposed to be? Constantly running away from the one person she once had considered to be her best friend? It was rather pathetic, she knew that much. All the talk about finally growing a spine was complete and utter bullshit, since she was currently hiding. Again.

With a frustrated sigh, Erika rose to her feet and walked over to the railing, her eyes falling to a group or orca's swimming alongside the boat. She ducked her head underneath the railing and pressed herself through the cracks. Stupid, she knew, but anything to get a closer look at the beautiful creatures. It was still a long way down and this probably didn't help a whole lot, but hey, she could at least try.

And besides, with the sun sinking in the horizon, people were probably busy getting ready for the evening. There had been rumors about the several parties planned by the other students, but the orca's were just so much more appealing than getting drunk with a bunch of horny teenagers.

With nothing but her foot and her right arm keeping her from falling over the edge, Erika stretched her neck out in another attempt to see the orca's deep below.

[Everett King]

Surprise, surprise what did he find when he stepped onto deck? Erika attempting to drown herself out of depression of his rejection.
Oh wow. That one actually made him stop short. He deserved a slap for that.

With a sigh he ran a hand through his hair, tugging at it stressfully. Finally he put on a smile and headed towards the railings. Quietly he rested his elbows on the railing , looking down into the beautiful ocean. To his surprise and absolute delight, here were orcas swimming bellow. If he had to wager a guess, that was what Erika was so fixated by, he couldn't blame her.

Still, his heart was practically thudding out of his chest at the close proximity to danger she was hanging. Did she not realize it was not safe. Had she not watched Titanic? Or studied history? Nothing good came out of curiosity.

He was being a hypocrite. After all, he had come out here in board-shorts with a towel and rope, intending to jump overboard and swim. Unfortunately there weren't any waves to surf on. He was going to get the absolute shit mocked out of him by Erika for this one.

"Careful dove, if you fall in I might have to give you CPR." he warned, attempting to be light. Dropping his belongings, he began wrapping the rope around his waist, once over his shoulder. Swimming with orcas would be interesting.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Oh, how badly she wanted to be one of those mutants who could stretch out their limbs, so she'd be able to reach out for the beautiful creatures down below. She had always been fascinated by fish and anything that lived in waters. Having the ability to breathe underwater would also be handy in a situation like this. Or flying. Or water manipulation. Anything that would give her the possibility of going down there without drowning. Like seriously, how was she supposed to get back up again?

Letting her foot slid through the railing, she kneeled down even further, now only hanging on by her right arm - yes, she knew how incredible stupid it was, but man, weren't those ocras pretty? And hey, she had good balance too, and it wasn't like she couldn't swim or anything. Maybe the orcas would adopt her as one of their own and they could live happily ever after.

Yeah, not likely.

The sudden voice - that sudden voice had her practically jumping and she almost lost her balance, but luckily for her awesomely quick reflexes, she managed to steady herself before turning her head, sticking her tongue out at him, ''As you can see, it doesn't look like you're that lucky,''

Hoisting herself up and throwing her legs over to the right side of the boat, Erika sat down on top of the railing and turned her gaze upwards to the orange sky, ''What are you doing?'', she asked before nodding towards the rope.

This was harder than what she had imagined it to be, though at least this time she was somewhat prepared and managed to keep her moody self tucked and locked inside. However, she couldn't keep her heart from thumping loudly in her chest.

[Everett King]

The orcas were beautiful, but they were also similarly called killer whales. He couldn't only hope they wouldn't eat him. Then again perhaps he deserved it. He was a royal ass. He wished Erika would just stand up and hit him, or cut off his head or something.

When she nearly lost her grip he was leaning forward to save her. But of course she didn't need his help, which was reassuring. It firmed his resolve and Everett back up again, finishing his last knot decisively. He was totally going to get rope burn from this. Fun times.

He began tying the other end to the railings. "Make your own luck, dove. That's what I live by, and that's why I've never once won the lottery." he chuckled with a smirk, pulling the tie secure with his teeth.

"Swimming." He replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and not at all crazy. Hopping up, he balanced on the railing, examining the smooth surface below. It was a good day for a swim. "If I start drowning you'll give me CPR, right?" he asked with a wink, then without waiting for a reply, dove over the edge with a whoop!, into the orca pod.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Faking a soundless laughter, she rolled her eyes at his not quite so funny joke, ''Oh, I bet,'' She watched him do his business with the rope with a cocked head and a raised eyebrow. What on earth was he doing? ''Maybe you need a change of pace then,''

Her expression turned into somewhat of a scowl at his response. She looked at him, to the water and back at him again before jumping down from the railing, ''Are you stupid?'' And here she thought she was the reckless one? Well, wow. He just beat her in the game, the season and sent her flying out of the league. And he had the nerve for yelling at her for being out at night, alone? Well, this beat any level of stupidity, for sure, ''You can't be seriou-'' Of course he was.

And off he went into the big blue without as much as another word and... What a stupid idiot. Running over to where he had tied the rope, she leaned over the railing, waiting for him to re-surface. Her eyes glanced over to where the rope was tied and sighed, ''You fucking idiot...,'' she muttered to herself.

Apart from being beyond pissed at his reckless behavior, she was also scared. It felt as if her heart was crawling up through her throat and her stomach was aching. What if he got hurt, or worse? What on earth was he thinking, doing something so foolish? Didn't he know any better?

[Everett King]

The water was colder than he'd expected. No wait, scratch that. It was freaking freezing. Everett kicked to the surface with a splutter, shaking his wet hair out of his eyes. Gasping he kicked onto his back, allowing the water to keep him floating. A fin, or something similarly slimy brushed against his foot and he tried not to move away in response.

Looking up he noticed Erika peering over the railing, and he smiled, though he didn't wave. His fingers trailed across the rope attached to his waist absently. It was taughter than he remembered, he'd chosen a longer rope specifically to be able to swim out farther. It didn't seem logical that he had run out of leeway. Ever gave it an experimental tug, frowning when it didn't move.

"Oy Erika, are you holding the-" his question was cut off as the rope snapped taught and dragged him under filling his mouth with water. There was little he could do to fight it, and being the easy-going soul that he was, Everett let it. After all, drowning and having his carcass eaten by orcas was a more interesting death than most.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Him surfacing had her sighing out of relief, though that relief didn't last long as he called out and suddenly got dragged back under. Everything happened so quickly, it felt as if time itself was moving at the speed of light. She could feel her blood freeze to ice. Why didn't he re-surface? No, no, no, that stupid son of a bitch! ''Everett!'', she yelled out.

Without wasting anymore time, Erika ran over to the wall and pulled the life buoy off of the wall and with quick steps she was back at the railing, lifting both her feet and the life buoy of the cold metal. She didn't think, she simply acted. It was a good thing she was a great swimmer and had been once since a child - or else she'd might have jumped out only to get them both killed. What a tragic end to a already tragic story.

Erika tossed the life buoy into the water and without a second hesitation, she too leapt towards the water.

The ice cold water hit her body like a slap to the face. A little disorientated, she surfaced and wiped the water off of her face, looking around before localising the rope and swam over. Pulling it, she felt the panic fill her veins with ice as she realized the rope was stuck, and firmly so. Taking a deep breath, she dived under holding the rope in one hand, she swam alongside it until she finally saw him. Paying little attention to the orcas circling around them and the ice cold water, she immediately tried untying the rope, with no luck. Feeling the desperation and terrifying panic strike her nerve system, she started pulling at the rope, pushing her own ability to do the same, giving her twice the strength.

If she got this idiot out of this alive, she was going to kick his ass. No, actually. She would murder him. Slowly and painfully. And she'd make him watch too.

Feeling her lungs run out of air, she gave the rope another pull, and then another, and another. It felt truly hopeless, and she was feeling the lack of oxygen starting to tear on her energy, as well as using her powers to its maximum. Nearing the point where it would be unbearable for her to keep her lips shout and the last piece of oxygen down, she felt the rope loosen in her hands, and with a last kick of energy, she wrapped her arms around him waist and swam upwards.

Resurfacing, she quickly reached for the life buoy, which luckily for her hadn't floated miles away, Erika leaned against it, hanging one of her arms over it, still keeping the other under Everett's arms, making sure his head remained above water, ''I swear your stupidity is going to get us both killed,'' she hissed silently, taking a deep breath.

And just when she thought her luck and remaining energy had run out, she heard a voice call out and her eyes drifted hazily back towards the boat where she could see someone waving their arms. Things got a little hazy from there. She remembered the sound of an engine, more yelling and something warm, very warm.

Watching the lights of the small flashlight flicker past her eyes, Erika watched the guy who had dragged them out of the water perform CPR on the stupid moron who had decided that jumping out into the ocean with real equipment was a good idea, though she found some comfort in the fact that the guy now smooching all over his lips were not only fat, but also ugly and had a face filled ready-to-pop pimples. Hopefully Everett would get infected and had to live with the curse of having a pizza-face for the rest of his life. He deserved it, for being that stupid.

[Everett King]

Fricken hell, she couldn't just let him die in peace could she?

When Everett was returned to consciousness there was a cold deck underneath him, signally to his bleary brain that he was out of the water. Damn. When had that happened again? The second thing he realized was that he wasn't breathing; which of course was never a good sign. The third and probably more important was the big fat pair of lips blocking out the sky. His own mouth was moist, so clearly these lips were making a return journey.

Of their own accord his lungs started burning and he coughed, or rather hacked. Rolling instinctively onto his side Everett slammed one hand against the deck as he choked up about a small boat's worth of saltwater. The salt burned his throat and his nose, bringing tears to his already watery eyes.

More or less exhausted he let his head fall, breathing heavily as it struck the deck with a dull thud. He couldn't understand why his plan hadn't worked. It had been essentially full-proof. Stupid boat trying to stupid drown him. While he loved water, right then Ever was dreaming of land.

Turning his head, Everett let his heated cheek rest against the cook deck, blinking tiredly as shapes first blurred and then settled around him. Apart from the pizza face above him (who seemed rather disappointed at his speedy resuscitation), there were a few others he didn't recognize, and one he did. Similarly dripping wet. Everett noted this with disapproval, though didn't have the energy to scowl.

"Stupid dove. What on earth possessed you to go swimming in this kind of situation? You could have gotten yourself hurt," he murmured with more than a hint of disapproval in his tone.

Ok, ok, he knew he'd had his ass saved for a girl. Yes, he was angry about it. At this point he was back on the 'her life is worth a great deal more than mine' and as such, she was an idiot.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Her attention was pulled away as the person holding the flashlight nudged her head forward again, holding her chin tightly between his fingers. She frowned but felt was too tired and exhausted to resist. Maybe she would have felt better if it wasn't for the fact that not only had she almost drowned too, but she had used most of her energy by using her power. So, maybe keeping it on such a short leash all the time was a bad idea, huh.

Who knew when this idiot decided to go out and kill himself again?

Hearing the sound of his coughing however had her sighing in relief, though of course, she'd never admit to it. If anything, she should have let him drown for the sake of ridding the world of one more stupid human being. Sure, she didn't mean that and it was only her own annoyance and exhaustion getting the better of her, but hell, he was still stupid.

Aaaand then he spoke. Aaaand then she wanted to kill him. Aaaaaand she wanted to slap his smug face for even considering saying something so completely out of line.

''You're one to talk,'' she snarled at him, still keeping her eyes on the flashlight annoyingly moving past her eyes, over and over again, ''You must be the stupides- ow!,'' she hissed as the nurse or whatever once again nudged her attention back to the flashlight, ''-stupidest idiot alive,'' she continued.

When the nurse finally decided that she was ok and that she could be left alone, Erika pulled her hair into a knot and tried her best to press the remaining water out of it, keeping her eyes fixated on something in the distance. It was easier to stay somewhat calm that way.

[Everett King]

She was mad at him. Everett somehow found this incredibly amusing and began to laugh, a harsh sound from his dry lungs. Eventually it died out, the stupidity of laughing at any woman in this kind of situation, least of all Erika, finally kicking in. Instead he struggled to sit up, and groaned when his head swayed slightly at the change.

Placing his head in his hand, he waved away the buzzing gnats (nice helpful people that he didn't want to deal with) and looked towards Erika, who was also being taken care of. He noted this with grateful relief, and when Erika was finally left, he scooted closer. "No one cares if an idiot dies." he explained carefully. "Princess." He left that one word as it was, as if it explained everything that no other words could.

He sighed and tilted his head. "Are you going to look at me, dove?"

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

No, him laughing certainly didn't win him any points, if anything, it only fed onto the urge she was feeling to kick his sorry ass to the moon and back. Seriously, who did something so stupid and laughed about it afterwards? God, she really hoped it was the salt water messing with his head.

She pressed her lips into a hard line and pressed her tongue against the back of her lips before relaxing again, still looking away. She ran her fingers through her now drained, curly and smelly hair, ''I do,'' she said coldly, as if it wasn't obvious already. Though, if she hadn't cared, she wouldn't have saved him. She would left his sorry ass to be eaten by the fish, never to be seen again. Clearly, she cared. A lot. Enough to jump out there and save him.

With a sigh, she caved in and turned her head towards him, her voice bitter as she spoke, ''You're a moron,'' she said, as if she hadn't already stated the obvious. She pulled her legs up and rested her forehead against the top of her knees. If she kept looking at him, she was positive she would end up killing him. Or worse. Smothering him in currently undeserved affection.

''What the hell were you thinking?'', she whispered without lifting her head. Man, she was so tired. Every inch of her body was aching and she felt so drained of energy. Her yelling at him didn't exactly benefit her much, but whatever, she didn't even care about that at this point.

[Everett King]

Everett was flippant by nature. It was how he dealt with things, and how he kept people at a distance. It was why he laughed now, and it was how he was able to smile pleasantly at everything as opportunities and people passed him by. He wasn't apathetic, but he was afraid of failing, and so he did not try.

He wasn't surprised at her cold statement. He was touched, and worried. He didn't like people caring for him, it gave him responsibility for the care that the person placed in him. There was too much pressure not to let them down, and he oh so rarely lived up to their expectations. "Erika I-" Everett lowered his gaze, pressing the palm of his hand into his forehead, as if warding off a headache. There wasn't really anything he could say.

She called him a moron and he resisted the urge to smile. "And you saved a moron, what does that make you?" he challenged with amusement in his voice. He was unable to be dissuaded by her anger, he wasn't good at conflict so the only thing he knew how to do was continue acting as he always did.

Edging closer he rose to rest on his knees, reaching out a hand to lightly touch her neck. "Would you forgive me, if I said I was sorry?"

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to hit something, but no matter how hard she wished for it, her body refused to listen. So instead, she just sat there, in silence, silently cursing his every movement, his words and his entire being.

Was he incapable of taking anything seriously? Was he really that much of an idiot that for once, he couldn't just say the right thing and stop treating his own life like it was worth nothing at all? She was so sick of feeling like he constantly put his own worth below hers, for no reason at all.

Was it the money that made up her worth? Hardly. Money meant nothing when it came to such matters. Money didn't define a person. Then what on earth could posses him to think so lowly of himself?

She remained silent until she felt his hand on her neck. In an instant, she felt like a little child seeking comfort, and without thinking she pushed herself forward and wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face against it, ''You can't be so reckless,'' she said with a muffled voice, not caring about the screaming ache in her body. She didn't care. Not right now. It didn't even matter. Nothing else mattered than this, right here, ''You matter too you know,'' she whispered as the burning sensation once more returned to her eyes, yet again in this boy's presence.

[Everett King]

All the breathe rushed out of him as he found Erika's arms around him. Hardly daring to breath he moved his arms and encircled her, pulling her closer to his chest. Without thinking he buried his head into the crook of her neck, taking in the sweet scent the salt water couldn't wash away. "For you." he murmured softly, placing a gently kiss on her neck before pulling away.

His eyes were serious and considerate as his mind quickly churned over what he was saying. But his voice was decisive. "I'll live for you." He wouldn't be able to think of it as a leash. If his life was hers, then that would be reason enough to care. "Is that enough? Will you let me be selfish, and do this?" Ever asked quietly, sliding one hand up to tangle in her wet hair.

He was a despicable person, forcing himself upon a young girl like this. Erika seemed on the verge of tears, and there was nothing he could do about it. "You shouldn't cry over my sake, I hope you're not," he whispered gently. "But if you do, I promise I'll hold you until you feel better."

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Even if it only lasted for a moment, she still appreciated the gesture. Of course, she wished for the moment to last a lot longer than what it did, but after everything, all things considered, she was in no position to be greedy. She could only take whatever was offered.

If the timing had been different, and the situation... Not as dramatic, maybe she would have laughed at how how idiotically sappy his words sounded, like taken directly out from a teen flick. Right now, it was better than anything she could ever imagine hearing. Normally, she'd probably scold him for not taking his own life more seriously and so easily giving it away. But she was content as long as it meant he didn't go jumping off a boat again, ''Okay,'' she whispered and nodded slightly.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, suddenly realizing the how incredible foolish and childish it was of her to sit here, crying like this. God, he probably though she was just another stupid kid crying over nothing. Looking away, Erika shook her head and sighed, ''I'm okay,'' she said silently, feeling the bitter taste of her own words. She really wasn't.