Down World by Rebecca Phelps (beach read TXT) 📗

I could tell I had really hurt him, and I immediately regretted it. But I couldn’t help myself. I had never felt so frustrated.

Brady stood, and I was afraid he was going to leave. “What do I lie about?”

I sighed, wondering if I really wanted to do this with him, if it was even worth it. “Nothing.”

“No, say it.”

“Okay.” I turned to face him. “Your dad is not in Alaska. Is he?”

Brady stared at me like I had stabbed him with a knife.

“Good night,” he said, turning to leave.

“You can’t do it, can you? You can’t be honest with me.”

“What do you want?” he asked, turning to me.

“I want you to tell me the truth, just once.”

“I came here to help you.”

I could tell he was getting angry, so I tried softening my tone. “Then help me. Don’t make me do this alone.”

“When have you been alone, Marina? I’ve been with you the whole time.”

“In the lake,” I reminded him. “You wanted to kiss me back, I know you did.”

He didn’t say anything, looking down at his feet.

“Why didn’t you? Because of Piper?”

“Of course because of Piper,” he said, still not looking at me.

“She left you, Brady,” I reminded him. I took a step towards him, trying to catch his eyes, to get him to acknowledge me.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” he said, still addressing his feet.

“It means everything.”

“Your mom left you. Did you stop loving her because of it?”

The words stung, and I backed away a bit, seeing a flash of regret in his eyes. He took a step towards me, but I kept inching away.

I walked back to the window, where the slightest trace of blue morning light was starting to divide the blackness. It was eerie and quite beautiful, like staring out at the surface of the moon.

Brady stepped a bit closer, and his voice was calm. “I don’t know where my dad is, Marina. Okay? He was in Alaska for a while. And then he was in jail for a while. And for all I know, he’s in Alaska again now. I don’t know and I don’t really care. He wasn’t a very good guy when he was here.”

I turned to look at him from the window and nodded to let him know it was okay to go on. That I would never judge him.

“I don’t have a mom. She left him when I was three. Then she died when I was ten.”

“Oh my God.” My hand reflexively covered my heart, as if to protect it somehow.

“It’s okay. It really is. I’m not sad. I’m fine.”

“It’s not okay.”

“No, it’s not okay,” he agreed. “You’re right. It sucks. But what I mean is that I’m okay. Do you understand the difference?”

I nodded, wondering if I could have survived a childhood like that.

“I don’t have parents. I have my cousin. I have my friends . . .” He paused for a moment. “And I have Piper.”

I nodded, finally understanding what he had been trying to tell me. And I realized how incredibly selfish I had been, trying to get him to leave Piper, when she was really all he had. And for what? So he could be with me instead? No wonder everyone had been treating me like a child. I had been acting like one.

“Okay,” I said, making my decision right then and there.

“Okay what?”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

He shook his head, not sure what I meant.

“We came here to rescue them, didn’t we?” I asked. “My dad will be here in a few hours. If we go now, we’ll be back before he even arrives.”

I looked back out the window, towards the breaking light and the shadow of the trees, slowly emerging into form, which held the trail to the lake. “Let’s go find them.”

We ran hand in hand down the trail, the forest around us becoming clearer and clearer with every step as the light began to flood down through the treetops. It was the opposite experience of the night before, which had been clouded in darkness. With every step, I could feel the urgency of the lake calling to us. I had no idea what kind of portal was under there, or where it would lead. Would we be back in our town? Would I be in my kitchen again, like I had been before? And most importantly, would Robbie be there again, or had I gone too far away from him?

We reached the lake, kicked our shoes off, and dove in wearing our clothes. Wherever we ended up, I hoped it was as warm there as it had been here, because we didn’t bring anything to change into.

We swam out a bit to where Brady had found the hidden doorway the night before. Sunlight was beginning to brim over the trees, washing the lake in a blurry gray. Brady took a deep inhale and I followed suit. And then we both went down. Brady hoisted the trapdoor open and we stared at the blackness inside for a beat before diving in together.

The flash of light passed and we were in darkness. And it wasn’t until I opened my mouth to breathe that I realized we were still underwater. It was terrifying, to be in the dark with water filling my mouth. Were we still in the lake? Were we at the bottom of the ocean? Dear God, would we drown here? I reached for Brady’s arm, and within seconds, my eyes adjusted and a stream of light shot through, illuminating Brady’s face.

He pointed to his own air bubbles, indicating that they were floating downwards. We had become completely turned around in the whirl of water. My mind quickly adjusted to the reality that up was now down, and we followed the bubbles like a shot out of the water. I broke through the surface, gasping in a huge gulp of air. I had never felt so grateful to inhale.

Brady popped up next to me and we surveyed the world before us.

We