Seasick

Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.
I was leaning over the side of the boat groaning. I had already puked once and i was just waiting for another wave. One more, I dare you. It came and my body tensed as light brown mush fell into the ocean. I saw a glimmer of silver underneath the surface and I strained my eyes to see was it was. All of a sudden a large silver fish jumped out of the water towards my face. I screamed and fell backwards on the boat deck. I heard laughter.

"Oh man." laughter. "That was epic!" I groaned and sat up rubbing my head. "You like flew half way across the boat!"

"What?" I winced and turned slowly towards the voice.

"That tarpon was like "ARR" and you were like "WHOA"!" he laughed. The guy was short, even where where I was sitting i could see it. He also looked familiar. "Man, that was awesome!"

"Glad to know you care about my well being." I grumbled. He hid a laugh and helped me up.

"Oh sorry." he look my hand. "I'm Frank. You're the guy who I get to chill with, cool. Why don't you dive?" he rambled.

"Uh hi, I'm Gerard."

"I know." he smiled. I raised one eyebrow. "I did roll call." he giggled.

"Oh..." I felt stupid. "I don't want to dive."

"What?"

"I answered your question, I don't want to dive."

"Why not?" he said in a high pitched whiney voice like a kid.

"'Cause I don't like it." well... I never went but I wont tell him that.

"Then why are you here- oh, your wife dragged you huh?" he nodded to himself as if he came up with it.

"She's not my wife, she's my girlfriend.

"Oh sorry, well its a shame you guys have to waste money for two people when only one is diving. I don't know why Bob organized the payment system that way but hey, who am I to judge? I'm just an employe." he shrugged. God this guy talked a lot.

"She wanted to." I shrugged back.

"Well... you do know that if you get under the surface of the water the current wont make you sick. Like, there might be a current down there where you get blown around but your seasickness will go away- oh, you're certified, you know that already, sorry." he laughed.

"Uh I'm not certified." I replied truthfully. Frank raised both eyebrows at me.

"But you...? Never mind, let me guess- she wants you certified?" he sounded amused.

"Probably." I shrugged. He laughed and started walking to the front of the boat. Why wasn't he sea sick?

"Here." he turned around from whatever he was doing and held a paper cup. "Rinse your mouth and I'll give you a Gravol." he smiled.

"Thanks."

"Sure thing." I did as he recommended and swallowed the pink pills he handed me. I suddenly felt a lot better.

"So... was that a shark that attacked me?" I asked casually. Suddenly he burst into laughter.

"Hell no! That was a tarpon!" he laughed. They're just there giant prehistoric fish and they are completely harmless. It just wanted to eat your puke. Bet there's a feeding frenzy going on right now." he went to where I puked in the water and looked over the side. "Must have missed it, but I'll show you." from a small table bolted to the floor he pulled out a box of crackers and took a handful out. From there he tossed them in the water. "Come here." I did as I was told and looked where he pointed. Sure enough, a massive silver fish was engulfing the crackers.

"Whoa." I raised my eyebrows. The thing was like the size of a dog and longer! Another joined the first and suddenly all the crackers were gone and so were the fish.

"Yep, totally harmless. They like hanging out as restaurants too that have flood lights on the water cause they feed them so people can see. Its pretty cool, and funny since the restaurant is feeding the fish but you can't eat tarpon. They're just a sport fish like bone fish."

"You lost me."

"Don't worry about it." he laughed. "Oh look, there back." he pointed at bubbled on the surface of the water at the back of the boat.