It was like being consumed, slowly. One foot in, and then a full leg. Water soaked through her jeans, clinging to her skin and weighing her down. Her gaze reflected the rhythm of the waves. If anyone were to see her, she would have been in the deepest depths of trouble. Oceans were sacred, feared places. They carried many lost lives, and were responsible for many.

These bodies were unholy, used to dump garbage and any secret you didn’t want others to know. Floating glass bottles with notes inside, containing words of resentment or love. Before her mother passed, she had grabbed her hand and told her not to run from the things others did. To not be like everyone else.

Cora had ignored it then, but the more she looked at the vast blue of a curious world, diverse and untouched, but also plagued by the carelessness of man, the more she felt a certain pull towards it. She hadn’t expected it to be like this, though. Her mother used to swim. It hadn’t been illegal yet. Nobody even talked about why the law was passed in the first place—the law prohibiting people from touching any body of water. Maybe this wold help her understand exactly that.

So that was what Cora was doing. She wasn’t diving head first, but she would sink as far as she could to discover the truth. Because what if it lied within the very place she wasn’t meant to be?

Her breath hitched at the icy waters. It was like a blanket of cold, clutching at her chest and swallowing her up. she forced herself to breathe, deeply. The girl had to remain in control of herself. She was still near to the leg of the dock post, holding on for dear life. Biting her lip, she pushed herself down so the waters kissed her chin. Her lip quivered, and she closed her eyes, willing the numbness to go away.

It was late in the night. There was hardly a chance she would be caught, but she still looked around from time to time, ready to quickly disappear under the dock if anyone came. Suddenly, the distant sounds of partying and music rung close by. Flashing lights of all colors uncut throgh a dark sky alight with stars.

Cora had thought her classmates were only joking when they said they’d hold the most epic party ever after curfew. They weren’t. That was alright. People stayed far from the docks, anyways. As long as she was careful, there shoudn’t be any problems.

She had to make this quick. But something about the movement of the ocean calmed her. It was cold, but it made her feel warm. The way the steady waves brushed against her skin and flowed around her. The chill of the waters gave her goose flesh but the feel of it…it made her feel more alive. Just as she was beginning to climb further down the wooden leg, the cold now reaching up to her lips, she heard voices. They laughed and poked fun at one another.

She knew them well, and if she didn’t hide she’d be caught. But her hand slipped momentarily, and she screamed, before grabbing hold again.

The laughter stopped. This wasn’t good. If these people were really who she thought they were, then they would freak if they saw her like this. But she knew it was over when she heard one of them speak.

“Hey, do you see that?”

This was a horrible idea. Why did they have to be here the same day as her? She didn’t even think they liked partying. We’re they even going to tell her they were going, invite her along? Cora slipped again. Her hand squeaked against the dampened wood. She bit her palm in pain.

“Shit, there’s a person down there!” Her friend responded. The two of them began running towards her.

_No!_

__

__

“Its me—Stop!” She tried, but it was too late. Cal flung his coat to the ground and jumped into the freezing waters. Her other friend, Robin, grabbed his coat and shrieked, seeing Cora. He made his way over to her and reached out.

“Grab my hand!”

She couldn’t leave now, not when she was so close to the reason she came in the first place.

“I’m fine, Cal!” But he swam to her and pried her from the pole, anyways, paying no mind to her resistance.

“Let go,” she told him. He pulled her closer, her head going under for a second. The girl choked.

Her friend never listened. He pushed her up onto the dock before she could even argue. Shortly after, he joined her.

Cora’s white tank hugged around her tightly, sopping. Hair stuck to her forehead. She coughed up the water that had entered her lungs while Cal rubbed her back and kept asking if she was okay, what she had been thinking.

Robin ran over to them and wrapped the coat around Cora’s shoulders as she shivered, but she threw it off herself. Robin stood back and stared at the two of them, concerned and worried.“Why would you _do that?”_

“You were going to drown!”

“I was fine, and you knew it!” Cora was fully capable of taking care of herself. She didn’t need anyone to do that for her. She neither wanted, nor needed protection.

“No, you weren’t! You could have died.”

“So could you, you dumbass,” she yelled. “You could’ve killed us both.” How could he have done such a thing? She was about to finally understand what her mother saw in the waters, what she felt. She wanted to feel the freedom her mother did, the kind she always talked about and lived for. Why was it that every single time she made up her mind for once, something always happened to pull her away? It wasn’t fair, and as far as she was concerned, the waters had been completely safe. Different, but nothing worse than cold.

Then a thought came to mind. Cal had rescued her, but…he didn’t know how to swim. Nobody did. But he was swimming. And he certainly looked familiar with it.

Cora stood, her hair sopping wet, the breeze adding a new chill to her bones. “You—you lied to me!” For a moment, he didn’t understand what she was talking about, but then it hit him.

“I can explain…”

“You’re ridiculous!” She threw her arms out. “For all that talk of wanting to leave—move to a place where we would be allowed to swim and go to beaches, feel sand under our feet. You’ve been doing it this whole time and never told me _once, _haven’t you?”

He didn’t respond.

Her vision clouded as tears threatened to spill over. She began to walk away, intending to go home.

“Cora, please, we can explain…”

She paused. _“We?” _There was no more threatening then. Tears spilled down the sides of her face at their own accord, even though she hoped with every inch of her being she’d misheard.

The more she waited for a response, the longer Robin stayed still and silent. Cora’s head shook in disbelief as she turned to leave.

Robin opened her mouth and closed it. Cal bounded passed her after Cora. He tried to grab her wrist but she yanked her hand back. “You _knew _how much this meant to me—my mother…” she couldn’t even find the right words. “Don’t follow me.” A part of her that she hid, hoped they would.

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Her friends watched her slowly disappear. “Cora, wait—” Robin bumped into Cal’s arm. He was blocking her from chasing after.

“She won’t listen right now,” he said. “Just give her space.”

“I warned you something like this could happen,” Robin stated. “She’ll never speak to us again.”

“She will, trust me.”

“How do you know?”

He took his coat from the floor and flung it over his shoulder. “Because she’ll want answers.”

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(Part 2?)