Rescue Me

Alex saw him disappear.

One minute there, shouting nonsense that Alex couldn't possibly agree to, furious words that had the anger torn from them in the breeze.

The next minute, gone, and this scream was in the air. Faint, getting whipped away from Alex's ears by a stronger wind. And he couldn't believe something like that had really happened.

He rushed to the edge, and panic swelled in him, because the grey water was just that -- grey. No sign of Jack in his stupid orange jeans.

"Jack!" Alex screamed, dropping to his hands and knees, feeling rock scratch skin.

And like he had heard, Jack resurfaced, gasping and choking and splashing. Alex could see that even from so high up. He stood once more, staring down at him with the greatest sense of relief. He could swim to shore. It would be alright.

Alex tried calling down to him, but Jack couldn't hear, and he didn't seem to be looking up. He was kicking around uselessly, getting carried in entirely the wrong direction. He was going out to sea rather than towards the beach.

The older boy watched the endless sea drag him and toss him around like a toy, helpless to the water's will. There was anger still fresh in him, boiling over and making him hurt. That was all because of Jack and it wasn't going to go away by the click of his fingers as Jack seemed to think. He was so fucking stupid, he'd fucked everything up and Alex wasn't even sure he'd ever be able to look at the him the same, and if that was true, he didn't know what that meant for their future together.

All these thoughts rushed at him, hardening his heart. He shouldn't even bother to save Jack. Alex could leave. He knew he could leave so easily and let Jack get carried away forever because he deserved it, to get lost at sea and never be seen again.

Clenching his fists, he turned away, walking some stumbling few steps from the edge. He could run to his car, tell everyone it was a tragic accident on a walk one day and get therapy immediately, have Jack totally wiped from his mind, convince himself it was all a dream.

It would be just like the way he left the girl in the alley to be dragged away. Dragged away by Jack but that seemed irrelevant when the part of Alex's brain that told him he loved Jack so much kicked in. Maybe Jack would change and make it all better and they could somehow put this whole mess behind them and be happy.

Alex's hands flew to his hair, tugging on it with an anguished cry, and he started sprinting. As fast as his legs could carry him, down the cliff path, past his car, all the way to the sand. Down the whole length of the beach, totally disregarding the freezing conditions and throwing himself into the water.

He could see Jack, he wasn't that far, he could reach him and they'd get back to the sand together.

Alex sobbed with the cold once he'd waded in enough to swim, adrenaline forcing him forward.

He could save him.

He could make it.

/////

On the shore, blue lips grew chapped in the wind.

Jack was crouched by a rock, leaning on it for support as he coughed, slapping himself in the chest with a wet thud, droplets flying off his soaked shirt.

Alex lay on his back some twenty feet away, eyes slipping shut, water leaking from his mouth.

He watched Jack with blurred vision, feeling tingly in his fingers and toes. His breath rasped in his throat, oxygen fighting to get in, but the water fought back harder not to let it.

He hadn't ever imagined drowning would be so painful.