The Mix Tapes // n.h. {Watty Awards 2013}

Cassette 5; side A and B

My body went numb. It was frozen with pain shooting threw my body. I literally felt like an ice cube and I could barely move my body. My lungs started to burn for air and I could slowly feel myself losing control over my mouth and opening open.

I tried to swim up to the top, but failed. My mouth slowly opened up, only to a small slit, but that was all it took for the icy water to come pouring into my mouth.

I moved my arms viciously around in the water, even though they felt like a 100 pounds each, and tried to swim to the top, but I-I failed and just ended up going down. down down down down and down. deeper and deeper by every second and suddenly everything went black and the last thing I remember was thinking of how much I love Rosie.

***

Air went into my body right away and I sprung up from the ground. My body was shaking and shivering and I had no control as I was freezing right now.

"Niall! Oh my gosh are you okay?" I heard a familiar voice yell.

I tried to speak, but instead coughed up water.

After a few moments of coughing and spewing out water, I was finally able to talk. "Y-y-yes. I-I-I-I'm f-f-f-f-fine. J-just a b-b-bit c-c-c-cold." I said as my teeth clattered together.

A warm cashmere blanket was wrapped around my body. My body heat didn't go up by much, but it was enough to keep me from shivering so badly that it effected my speech.

My lungs burned and my vision started to clear up.

"What happened?" Dean asked me.

"I... jumped?" I told him but it came out more so as a question.

"Why would you do that, you arse head!" Dean yelled at me as he hit the back of my head.

"Sorry. I don't know why I would do that. Things were just getting too much." I told him. and with that we went quiet. He understood, even if he didn't understand or know about the tapes, he understood that no more needed to be said. That whatever I was going threw was getting too much for me and I just needed it to stop. That's why he was my friend and one of my bests at that. He didn't need me to explain, he just... he just understood.

"Why are you here?" I asked him, suddenly curious as to why he was at the park at such a eerily late hour of the night.

"I was hanging out with my friend, Ashton, and I saw someone, you, jump off the bridge. I rushed over and found you drowning so I saved you. With Ashton's help of course." He explained.

"Buddy, I've been drowning for a long time now. You merely saved me from dying, not from drowning." I told him in a tired voice.

Then it hit me like a hundred pound bag of bricks.

Ashton.

"Can I meet Ashton?" I asked.

"Niall, I'm not retarded. Just because you didn't tell me about the tapes doesn't mean that my other friend, Ashton, didn't. He told me everything and, honestly, I think you need to stop listening to the tapes." Dean said in a calming voice.

I gulped. "Why does everyone think I should stop listening to those tapes?"

"Because they aren't good for you, lad. They're messing you up, man." He said.

"Well I'm not going to stop and you can't make me stop." I said almost in a childish tone of voice.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Niall, I'm not going to make you stop nor did I expect you to stop, all I was saying is that you probably should stop. But if I was you I wouldn't stop until I was finished either. I'd want to know what happens, man. It's no surprise that you want to too."