KISS: Road Trip

Ch 21: Sharks? (Bruce)

It felt really nice to go to the beach and meet up with Gene, and the water looked really nice too. "Hey I'm going to go swimming," I said, setting down my towel on the sand. "Mm sounds nice, I'll go with," Peter said, pulling Ace to his feet. Paul and Gene headed toward the water as well, and I turned to Eric, raising an eyebrow. "You coming with?" I asked. He shook his head, giving me a pale smile. "Nah. You have fun though!"

The water felt as nice as it looked, and we were all enjoying the waves except for Eric, who was still sitting on the beach. "Why is Eric sitting there by himself? He looks so sad and lonely!" Ace cried, looking at the beach. "Hell if I know. Eric! Come swimming!" Gene shouted, but even from here we could see Eric shaking his head. "Maybe he doesn't know how to swim," Peter suggested, before Paul dunked him in the water. "Dude he went swimming at my place senior year. He knows how to swim."

"I'll just go ask him, I'll be back!" I said, striding out of the water and walking toward him. I sat in the sand next to him, shaking the water out of my hair. "You not going in the water?" He shook his head aggressively, not bothering to look up from the sand castle he was making. "Absolutely not. I hate the ocean." "What?? Why?"

Eric's eyes narrowed and he squinted at the waves. "Sharks." "Sharks?" "Sharks."

He didn't say anything else about that so I kept going. "But why sharks?" "Because I watched Jaws when I was eight and I've been terrified of the ocean ever since." "Just the ocean? I mean you were fine at the lake senior year." "Well duh, there's no sharks in a lake. But there are sharks in the ocean. Which means I won't be in the ocean." "You know you're more likely to get killed by a cow than a shark, right?"

"I'm not going in the water, Bruce," he grumbled. "Okay alright whatever man. I'm gonna go swimming though, have fun on the sand!" I said, ruffling his hair and joining the rest of them in the water.

"So turns out he's afraid of sharks," I said simply. "Sharks?" "Sharks." "But why sharks?" Paul asked after a pause. I rolled my eyes. "Because he saw Jaws when he was eight and he's been scared since."

"If I didn't love him so much I'd totally pretend I was being eaten by a shark," Gene said with a faint grin. "That's very tempting, but he'd be so pissed. Might be worth it later though, not gonna lie."

It was way too tempting and so like two minutes later Gene faked his death, much to Eric's annoyance. "That's not funny, assholes!" he shouted, flipping us off. "Watch your language, there's kids around!" Gene yelled back. Eric held up a second middle finger before flopping back onto his towel and going back to tanning, pointedly ignoring us. "Alright Bruce go make him come swimming, this is dumb," Paul said with a grin, floating a little closer toward Gene, which was nice to see at least. "Good point."

I walked back out of the water and looked at Eric, raising an eyebrow. "Come on, you're going swimming." "You stepped on part of my sand castle, asshole," he muttered, not looking at me. "Eric. You're going swimming." "No! No I'm not!" he said, clutching his towel. "Yeah come on, it'll be fine! We'll just stay in the shallow water." He shook his head again, drawing his knees to his chest. "No. I'm not going. That's where the sharks got them. In the shallows," he muttered.

"Eric, come on. You're 23, you're going to be fine. I'll stay right next to you the whole time, we don't even have to go out that far into the water." He heaved a sigh, rising to his feet. "Alright fine. But if I die I'm gonna kill you," he muttered. "That's fair. Now come on."

I walked with him to the edge of the water and he folded his arms across his chest, shuddering as the waves washed over his feet. "This is terrible and I hate everything about it." "Eric, come on, it'll be fine! You just gotta trust me." He heaved a sigh and followed me deeper into the water, face getting paler and paler by the second. "I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like this," he muttered. "You're fine man, you're fine! It's just water, there's nothing else here," I said, patting him on the shoulder.