"WHAT IN THE JESUS CHRIST WHO I DON'T BELIEVE IN WERE YOU THINKING!?" Carol screamed at the top of her lungs as she paces back and forth in her room through our shared video feed.

"Calm down, you drama whore," I roll my eyes at her as I tug on my space boots.

"If only I could choke you through my screen," Carol darkly threatens.

"Jokes on you, I'm into that shit." I snicker.

I see Carol's face change colour and she almost chokes on her own spit. The sight was beyond comical, but I had to stop her spiral before I started to have too much fun.

"Listen Carolina,-"

"How dare you use my full government name!"

"The absolute worse that could happen is I die," I say to her reassuringly as I tug on my gloves.

I wonder what that says about me that my mortality isn't really held in much high regard by myself.

Should probably get that checked out by a professional first chance I get when I get back to earth.

If I get back to earth.

As much as I insisted on going on this little underwater adventure, I didn't fool myself into ignoring the ten million different possibilities that could go wrong.

And that was outside the ones presented by Leo and Dion themselves.

What if this was the perfect opportunity they were looking for to off me?

A violent and visceral gut reaction came slamming into me as a response to that thought.

I don't know where this boatload of confidence came from, but I knew, down to my very core, that they wouldn't hurt me.

Period.

Or was that just hopeless lovestruck wishful thinking?

"The fact that you think that would console me worries me Melissandra."

I glare at her but say nothing as she smirked at me in revenge for using my own full name.

I then flinch as I see her bring out a pint of Guinness and spike it with her signature Jack Daniels.

"I swear to God, you drunk bitch, if you drink that- THE SUN ISN'T EVEN UP WHERE YOU ARE YET!!!" I yell at her.

"I'd say it's a perfectly acceptable drinking hour somewhere in the world, but I don't really care for that excuse. So fuck you, I wanna get drunk before kids have to go to school," and she drains half the glass.

I seriously worried for Carol's kidneys.

Considering with how her divorce was going, her ex-wife would probably get one of them when things were over anyway.

The look of sheer dejection with life in Carol's eyes tugged at my broken heartstrings. As much as I tried, and Lord knows I tried, I could never fully hate her. She was made this way by the shitty card life had dealt her.

I could see she was a good person underneath all that...Carol. But for the sake of her own peace of mind and sanity, she had to hide it under ten layers of narcissistic bitchy assholery.

And honestly? I respected that.

I don't appreciate overly sensitive friends who can't handle an insecurity-creating joke.

I play rough and I liked my friends rougher. So I sincerely don't mind Carol's more unhinged or downright toxic outbursts. I had thick skin, and being an online creator hardened it three-fold, and I knew she truly didn't mean any of it.

Or maybe she did. I didn't care either way.

Maybe being isolated from other people created a Stockholm Syndrome effect where I just accepted Carol's near-abusive behaviour.

I didn't think so, but my chat sure as hell insisted on that fact.

I shrug at Carol's response and turn to the door to open it.

The boys will be here soon and our agreed-upon rendezvous time was nearing.

"If, hell, when you die, I call dibs on your other kidney," I paused at that. "In fact, scratch that. They'll both be fucked. I wanna call dibs on another organ, you're heart maybe?"

"What am I, a fucking drive through KFC to you???" Carol's face scrunches up, but I could already see her eyes glaze.

I chuckle and walk back to the computer screen with my helmet in hand under one of my armpits.

"Carol?" I say.

"Yes!?" She answers a little too harshly.

"I'll be fine. I promise."

I tried to infuse as much sincerity and hope in my voice, and I think it reached her before the drunken stupor overtook her brain.

She instantly calms and pushes her last gulp of alcohol in the pint glass to the side.

All menace and malice fade from her tone and demeanour as she meekly looks down and nods in response.

"Okay..." she simply says.

Now that's the true Carol I know and tolerate.

Love might be a strong word for now.

Let's give it a few more years.

I see comments whirl by in my peripheral, but I pay it no mind at the moment. Since there's no gold comment at the top, it can wait.

My audio was on mute again, but I knew I wouldn't hear the end of it if I didn't take them with me on the underwater expedition.

I didn't bother to turn off the mute as I head out the door after ending my video call with Carol. It wasn't like they'd be able to hear anything once I went under the water, outside of anything I said into the receivers.

And for whatever reason, I wanted to keep more of my conversations private, especially with Leo and Dion.

I don't know why. I felt like a bratty child who didn't like sharing her toys.

But I blame that trait on being an only child.

Not my fault I never learned how to properly share things as a kid.

I sat down on my doorstep, it seems to be my most popular hangout spot as of recent.

Not more than 2 seconds after I sat a male form breaks through the immutable black liquid below me and arms frame around my hips as a face rises up close to mine.

Only the gold glint of the skin snaps me out of my mild shock and clues me in to who had arrived.

"Are you done giving Carol a headache?" Leo teases.

My heart slams into my chest and I try my best not to fog over my helmet shield.

I didn't even think it was possible to fog over an electromagnetic force field.

"Who says I'm the one giving and not receiving the headache?" I squint at him.

Leo tilts his head to the side and gives me a look.

I cave.

"She's fine, I calmed her down," I reassure.

My arm twitches to end the stream, I didn't want them to see such a harmlessly intimate moment. But the comments flying by don't miss a beat.

[Homeboy is too close. Sir, please kindly back up.]

[Please DO NOT back away. If possible, GET EVEN CLOSER!!!]

[Y'all are too horny. This is barely even considered an interaction in an intimate capacity.]

[^ You act as if Mel isn't a horny bitch eating this up as well.]

[We should bully her into wearing a heart monitor next time she sees Leo and Dion, so we can TRULY see what's going on inside her head/body.]

"Y'all are sociopaths. Every last one of you!" I hiss at the comments, moving my head to the side to make sure Leo didn't think I was referring to him. "So not only do you want to see everything I see, but also what goes on inside me as well!?"

I'd turned on my mic for a moment to rant before swiftly turning it off again.

[Yes exactly.]

[Who said you had any privacy in this situation?]

[If you TRULY didn't want us here, you could just turn off the stream.]

"DO NOT TEMPT ME!" I scream, turning the mic on and off again.

But I couldn't dispute the fact that they were correct.

Sons of bitches. Every last one of them.

Absolutely couldn't live without them.

"So, ready to go?" Leo simply asks next.

I was caught off guard by that.

Just like that? No preamble? Just, 'let's go'!?

For someone, hell, both of them, who were so against this, he seems a bit in a...hurry?

"W-where's Dion?" I say, not wanting to come off like I was stalling but maybe I sort of was.

"He's down there...scouting out things." Leo simply says cryptically.

"Oh good, I thought you'd arrived first for once." I tease.

Leo's face sours playfully.

"That was only once! He's not always more punctual than me!"

It was my turn to give him a look. I didn't even know them, but I knew that was bullshit.

"Between you and me? I have faith and believe you'll beat him one day," I fake whisper at him with a wink and one hand blocking a side of my mouth. As if pretending to say a secret.

"I highly doubt that, but I won't stop the man from dreaming." Dion says.

"AAAGHAHA!"

Leo and I scream in surprise as Dion just appeared out of thin fucking air.

A small smirk tugs the edge of his lips at our reaction.

"We're running out of time Leo," Dion cautiously warns him.

"Right," Leo turns back to me and asks again. "Ready?"

"Nope. Let's go!" I say, placing my hands confidently on both of his shoulders.

I may be having cold feet, but that has never stopped me before.

An impressed smile spreads across Leo's face.

Dion disappears under the water, and Leo wraps his arms around me protectively and pulls me down.

I feel his strong arms engulf me, squishy yet smooth, as I descend.

One second, I could see and feel everything. Then the next-

Nothing.