They’re further away than they look, taking a good thirty seconds or more to get there. Once I’m there, I test the breaks and almost fishtail off the damn thing. Leonard laughs at me while I course correct, so I flip him off. He laughs harder, like that was an acceptable response, so I think I might be getting the hang of this “rich kid” gig.
We tee up at the starting buoy, and I look toward the dock. Kira is too far for me to see her eyes clearly, but her huge smile is unmistakable as she cups her hands around her mouth and cheers for me. Her voice is nothing but a faint echo, and I can’t make out what she’s saying, only that she’s cheering. When I wave to her, she jumps out of her chair, leaving it to a reclining Lexie, so she can stand and throw her hands up above her head, like now that I’ve waved to her she has to wave back butmore. Her enthusiasm is adorable.
“Ready?” Leonard asks, wiping water and sweat from his forehead. He juts his chin toward the buoy directly ahead of us, maybe sixty meters away. In the far distance, the speedboat zips around with the water-skiers, but we aren’t anywhere near them, so we’re safe to go full speed. “We’re going there, circling it, and coming back. Don’t fucking circle to the right. Goleft, alright? Greg almost crashed into me going the wrong direction.”
“Got it, go left.”
“Good!” He salutes me, his grin jaunty, smug, and a little condescending. He’s playing nice, but he’s still a giant asshole. “On three. One… Two…Three!” He shouts as we both go full speed ahead, churning the water beneath us and spraying it everywhere as we lurch forward.
I almost tumble backward off of it, and only the death grip I have on the handles saves me from immediately wiping out. Resettling in my seat, I lean forward and speed up.
I don’t even realize I’m laughing until the spraying water lands on my lips and teeth, cool pinpricks against my hot skin. The wind blasts right into my eyes, and I’m going sofast. Just like on the plane, I start vibrating with a delicious surge of adrenaline because I know how easy it would be to get hurt while moving at this speed. I love it. Iloveit.
We roar past the turning point and both curve around it, cutting as tight as we can, trying to beat each other to the inside. I hear Leonard laughing, too, and feel like maybe rich people do know how to have fun.
I glance at the dock, my smile wide. Kira’s jumping, her smile huge. Lexie dances in the background, both of them cheering for me. I can’t hear anything over the roar of the engine, but I can tell she’s having a good time.
And then.
And then.
My smile sours. My stomach flips and I go rigid in my chair.
Brian is walking down the pier behind Kira, his eyes on her unprotected back. And I know–Iknowwhat he’s about to do.
Swerving hard, I turn the throttle as far as it’ll go and hurtle straight for the dock.
“Kira!” I scream louder than I ever have before, but my jet ski is so loud I can barely hear myself, let alone be heard from all the way over there. But she sees me coming straight forher, abandoning my race, and she realizes something isn’t right. Smart girl.
All her waving and jumping peters out. Her body language tells me she understands there is danger nearby.
She turns and looks over her shoulder, sees Brian, and spins fully around to face him. And for a moment, my panic eases because she’s seen the danger now, she’ll be prepared–
But she didn’t see it soon enough. Already right behind her, too close to avoid, Brian shoves her hard, his face twisted with a cruel and vindictive smirk. Kira’s mouth widens in a scream I can’t hear as she falls backward, arms pinwheeling. She hits the water with a splash.
Without help, I know she won’t be coming back up.
“FUCK!” I can’t make this machine go any faster. But I’m nearly there, I’m nearly there!
Janessa rips off her lifejacket as she takes a running dive off the pier, making straight for Kira. Lexie is about to do the same before Gregory–fuckinglaughing–grabs her from behind and swings her around, like it’s funny to keep her from saving her best friend. She beats on his arms with her little fists.
I’m nearly there!
Brian’s smile turns to confusion, his eyebrows puckering in a derisive sort of befuddlement as Kira stays underwater, like he didn’t know that would happen.
And then I’m there. I leap from the jet ski, sending it careening toward the shore as I swim hard for Kira.
Janessa surfaces with a gasp, yanking Kira’s flailing arm with her, but she’s quickly pulled under again as Kira’s panic undermines her efforts. With a final burst of speed, I’m finally underwater right on top of them. A hand hits my face and I instinctively shut my eyes to protect them, my cheek smarting with pain. I wrap my arms around the first person I bump into, but I can tell it isn’t Kira; the waist isn’t the right size. I yankupward anyway, to get her out of my way, and we flail out of the water.
“Kira!” Janessa struggles in my arms, gulping for air. “Kiiira! Help her, help her,help her!”
I let Janessa go and dive. The lake is mostly clear, which is Kira’s only saving grace. Without two bodies flailing around and clouding the water with bubbles and silt, without two sets of arms lashing out at me and getting in my way, I can see her well enough to grab her hand as her limbs spasm in uncoordinated terror.
I try to pull her up, but even though she grabs onto me like a vise, her fear causes her to unintentionally work against me. She doesn’t know how to move in order to help me while I help her. So I yank her closer and wrap my arms around her middle, trapping her arms at her sides, hoping to convey that she needs to stop moving. My chest is already burning for air, so I know hers must be feeling unbearable, but I need her to hold still! She’s face to face with me, her nose an inch from mine, and I look straight into her eyes, hoping she gets what I’m trying to do.
The surface is soclose, we can’t be more than two feet below it, maybe less.
Her face is pale as a ghost, her stare wide and bloodshot, and I see the moment she loses the battle with her need for air and sucks in water. Watching her mouth open and inhale, watching her start to drown, is probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. With a grunt of effort, I kick hard, dragging her dead weight up and up, kicking harder, faster, up and up until her head breaches the surface. The shore is in chaos, I can hear people yelling but it’s going in and out because I’m bobbing up and down, almost drowning as Kira’s weight and uncoordinated seizing drags us down again. Desperate, feminine hands grab my shoulders and start helping to drag us closer to shore.
