[IC] Lost at sea. (With El_Tigre and Touch of Insanity)

[Touch of Insanity]

The sun was bright in the sky, hardly a cloud could be seen. The air was hot, but the speed of the boat kept the heat from being over baring. Carla Swiminer, the younger sister of Hale Swiminer looked out at the sea as the boat sped along to their scuba diving spot. Hale had wondered off to talk to a few of the people. Carla had her head phones on, her music pumped up so high that it could be heard faintly if you were to sit beside her. She wore jeans, a baggy t-shirt and a sweater could be seen lamely tied around her waist. Unlike most people who were enjoying themselves, Carla glared out at the sea.

She didn’t want to be here, hell she hadn’t even wanted to go on this trip. She knew her brother was lying about winning money to go on a trip as they were. They did live in the ghetto of New York City, just getting by pay cheque to pay cheque. She would have much rather spend the money on something useful back home then coming here. The sun was too bright, the air was too hot, and the people pissed her off. Men where here to tap some sexy girl and brag about it when they get back, women walked around without any clothing on, acting so damn happy. She didn’t understand how these people could be happy.

However, her music suddenly stopped, as her ipod disappeared from her hand. “Hey!” She yelled as she started to get up to see her brother frowning down at her. She glared up at him. “Give it back.”

“Not a chance. You need to start enjoying yourself. Hell why don’t you talk to someone. This trip is meant to help you get back on your feet. Yes before you cut me off I understand it won’t happen overnight. But for once Carla just forget the world.”

“I was doing that.” She said as she reached out for her ipod only to have him put it out of her reach. “Hale!” She wined in frustration.

“Not today Car, you can have it back when we get back to the beach.” He said before pushing it into his pocket.

Carla couldn’t help but stick her tongue out at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You better not forget it’s in your pocket and dive with it!” She yelled before huffing to herself and looking off to the side. She snuck lower in her seat pouting a little as she looked out at the water again. She reached up to pull her hair tie out and let her long brown hair fly in the wind before she lowered her headphones around her neck and grabbed the end of the cored and pushing it into her pocket so it wouldn’t drag. She bite her lip a little as she thought about pulling out her book which was in her bag at her feet, but knew that wouldn’t really work at the speed they were going.

Hale had wondered off to talk to some of the other guys on board well keeping an eye on Carla from a distance. This whole trip she’d been anti-social and a total downer. He had to throw her in the water every day to get her to swim. It was like dealing with a child that wasn’t his. Then again he was somewhat of a father figure to her since their father had never been around. He had used the money he kept hidden from Carla so she wouldn’t think he was something more than a bouncer at a Night Club. Carla had finally come out of the closet to him the year before and it took me another year to figure out why she was so afraid and hateful. He had found out about two weeks ago, the day before he threw them on a plane and left them to a world totally different from their home. She had not been happy but once her boss told her not to come back for two weeks and take some time off she finally agreed to come. Grumpily but she came. “If you’ll excuse me.” He said before making his way over to his sister who was still listening to music.

He quickly grabbed the ipod from her hand and disconnected it, holding it up out of her reach, she being a rather short woman. He wanted to smile as he held the ipod out of her reach, but kept up his frown to prove a point to her. After talking to Carla for a moment, well more like arguing, he pushed the ipod into his pocket and walked away. When his back was turned to her, he couldn’t help but sigh to himself. What the hell was he going to do with her. Maybe if he had taken action earlier it wouldn’t be so bad now. Looking up at the sky in the distance, he couldn’t help but notice more clouds rolling in, they were fluffy and white, so he looked around to find a lovely woman to talk to. Walking up to one, he smiled at her. “Ever been before?”

[El_Tigre]

~Alison

Alison stood near the railing along the side of the rather large boat that skimmed over the water. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail and the loose strands danced in the rushing breeze. Alison didn't have anyone with her during the trip to the Islands. She had broken up with her long term boyfriend a couple weeks prior to the trip, thinking she needed a vacation and away from the drama back home. She sighed as she tried to ignore the memories. She took a sip of her bottled drink, some sort of wine cooler with a tropical flavor. It tasted quite delicious and four of them gave her a little buzz. Or maybe a little more than a little buzz. But she held herself together fine. Right? Sure....

Suddenly a voice came from behind Alison, a rather deep and charming voice if she were completely honest. She certainly had to see who matched the voice. She turned around to face the man, a soft smile touching her lips. Jack pot. "No, first time." She admitted with a soft laugh. "It was sort of an impromptu vacation. You see I just broke up with my boyfriend." Then the realization she just brought up drama to a new guy. 'Oh god.... How embarrassing...' She thought as she took another drink to keep from talking.

"Sorry. You know. About that thing. Let's start over!" She took a deep breath as if to settle her nerves. She then stuck out her free hand to shake in greeting. "My name is Alison. It's my first time on the Island. You're beautiful. I mean! It's beautful! The island! The islands beautiful..." she moaned sadly, she was such a klutz with words. Her wine cooler wasn't helping her.

---

~Nikki

Nikki sat away from everyone else. Like Carla she was dragged here to the islands against her will. She lost her father last year and her mother thought it would be a good idea to bring the two on vacation so they didn't sit around at home dwelling on her fathers one year anniversary of his death. Nikki tried acting as if it didn't bother her but it did. It hurt her a great deal and behind her closed off appearance she was torn up inside. Her father was her best friend, she told him everything and he was there for her whenever she was sad. Then he was gone. He fell asleep at the wheel after working a double. He had to take the extra shift to afford Nikki's college fees. Something she always blamed herself for.

Nikki was on the scuba adventure for the simple reason of getting away from her over bearing mother. She never gave Nikki a spare moment to be alone. And she thought scuba diving, something she knew her mother would never do, might be a nice opportunity to get away. Something caught Nikki's attention, across the deck an older man taking away the iPod from some girl. The way they interacted were as if they were father and daughter but their ages seemed more like brother and sister. The girl seemed just like Nikki, dragged along to something she didn't want to do. As the male left Nikki pushed herself up and made her way over to the girl. Without and introduction she took a seat next to the girl. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small blue iPod with a white headphone cord wrapped around it. She handed it over towards the girl.

"Here. I have a little bit of everything so you might find something you like." She offered in a soft tone. "So you were dragged along on vacation too, huh?"

[Touch of Insanity]

Carla had always been pretty good at tuning people out. It was the only way she got through each and every day. She tried to focus on the water, watching the clouds fill the sky in the distance the farther and farther they went. She could see them getting closer and bigger, only a slight change in the white to gray colour. However, as her brother walked away, with her music, her hair flying behind her as the boat sped forward, she couldn’t help but see the girl who came into her space. Carla had picked this spot for a reason, no one was close by, she was alone and didn’t have to interact. But this stupid girl came up right beside her and sat down. Carla’s lips which usually expressed no emotion pulled down into a frown. Her eyebrows moving just slightly in annoyance.

Just as Carla was going to get up and move to a different spot, a headphone was held before her face. Carla stared at it for a moment, before slowly peeking at the girl who was holding it. Carla was half in the motion of getting up, her lips still tugged down into a frown. At first Carla couldn’t really hear the girl, she could see her lips moving but couldn’t grasp any the words at the sound of the boat’s buzzing mortar. They had already been in the boat for twenty minutes, with a least another twenty to go. The reef that they were headed too was far away, which made this trip an all-day thing. Carla almost debated on just getting up and leaving and acting like she didn’t see nor hear the girl, but Carla knew she knew she had seen the head phone. She lips set into a deeper frown as she glanced towards her brother who was now talking to some woman. Carla sighed and finally moved her half on half off self-back onto the seat.

Carla sucked the bottom of her lip into her mouth a little as she thought on how to go about this. Rather than taking the head phone she yelled. “What?!” Trying to point out to the girl that this place wasn’t the easiest to hear. Maybe this girl has never been on a boat before, then again Carla hadn’t been on a boat before, but she was still smart enough to realize you needed to speak up, despite her natural quietness. “I couldn’t hear you, the boats kinda noisy.” Carla then said, trying to be a little nice. She didn’t realize the water was starting to get rougher.

When Hale turned away from Carla and walked blindly back away from her pushing her Ipod into his pocket, he really hadn’t had much of a plan. His eyes skimmed over the choices he had. He was tired of hearing lovely dove stories of couples or hearing about their kids. Trips like these were meant for two people, Hale had his younger sister, but she had been rather hostile this whole time. The idea of this trip had just blown up in his face. Maybe he should try again in a few months, but no so extreme. They did have the money, dirty money, but money all the same.

That’s when he noticed her. A woman whose back was to him, she had long black hair and very fair skin. She looked like the type to burn easily. He paused his walk for a second and glanced around before smiling a little when no one seemed to be with her. Hopefully he wasn’t about to make some movie on some guys chick. Coming up he asked if she had ever been before, she glanced up, he made sure to make eye contact. Although that didn’t stop him from checking the rest of her out. She was hot alright. Slim, with a hint of curve in her body, well rounded breasts, and a lovely face. Even her eyes seemed to go so well with the colour of her hair. He gave a half smile, when she said she hadn’t. “Neither have I, I’m rather looking forward to it.” He said before starting to lean forward, letting her hands coming together as his forearms rested on the railing of the boat. A cooler breeze started to settle in the air, a darkness in the distance. As a storm was starting to settle in.

When the woman started to ramble a little, he rose an eye at her, before laughing softly. He didn’t get a chance to say anything about her rambling before she tried to start over just making him smirk at her. She held out her hand and he hold out his, taking her soft hand in his strong one and give it a small shake. Man it was weird shaking girl’s hands. Sure it wasn’t weird when it was an older woman, but shaking a girls hand when you’re trying to show some interest in her just seem formal. Like you sure as hell don’t shake hands with people you’re going on a date with, going to sleep with or your wife. Then again maybe it had something to do with how tiny and breakable their hands seemed.

However, she totally blew it again, just making him smirk all the more. He leaned forward a little, making sure she had a chance to get a hint of his scent. “Hale, and the both of you a very beautiful as well.” He said just loud enough for her to hear as he referred to both her and the island. Leaning back a little, he glanced out to the water only to see how rough it was getting, before a wave came up and almost got him, he side stepped it and moved into Alison a little making sure, to grab her out of the way. Glancing up at the sky the sun hadn't just disappeared un a cloud of white passing buy, but the whole sky had gone gray. The hair was cooling off quickly and the waver was starting to show signs of a storm. “That can’t be good.” Hale said before glancing towards Carla, worry in his eyes.