.dos.

(*) italics are a flashback, or something that happened in the past.

James woke up the morning after the beach side party with a hangover and a headache pounding on his temples and made his head feel like it was just about ready to explode. He stirred in what he thought was his bed until he realized that it was actually the warm sand of the beach. Startled, he quickly sat up and he looked around. He had never left the beach after the party ended. The sun was up, just barely over the horizon, and it was early morning in Nayarit. Where he laid was a secluded part of the beach, but in the distance he could see the hotel where he had bee partying with his friends, and the remains of the previous night's party.

Tourists inundated that part of the beach now. Some of them on a morning jog, others getting ready to start the day with some surfing. To the other side he could see nothing but a lone hut made out of rotting wood and palm tree leaves. 

The Colombian footballer couldn't remember how he had gotten so far from the hotel area, the last thing he remembered was getting to the party and drinking himself into oblivion. He didn't know where his friends were, and he didn't know if they were looking for him.

He reached into his pocket to get his cellphone out. 

His clothes were damp, as thought they had been drying all night, and when he clicked on the power button, his phone blinked once with the apple logo, before the screen went entirely black. 

He threw his head back on the warming sand beneath him and let out a groan. He was too tired and hung over to even move, but he would need to do so before the press got word of him being passed out on the beach. Soon the area would be swarming with paparazzi trying to get pictures of him for the gossip tabloids. He pushed himself up with his elbows and then got back on his feet, forcing himself to stumble into the safety of the hotel he was staying at.

-

At eight o'clock sharp James made it to the lobby where his friends said they would be waiting for him, but he was the first one to arrive. Little by little, his friends trickled into the lobby and the last to arrive was Edwin Cardona. He informed his friends that his wife had been giving him a lecture about behaving if he didn't want there to be negative consequences. 

"Then you'd better be a good boy." Juan joked with a grin.

Cardona gave a shake of his head, "She wasn't talking about me. She knows I can behave on my own. She was talking about you guys." He gestured to his three friends.

The guys laughed and headed out the opposite exit from the hotel that led out to the beach. It was early evening and the place was lit up with tiki torches, colorful lights and flowers everywhere. A young woman who was ordering around a fleet of waiters stopped what she was doing when she saw the footballers arrive. She went to hug Stefan and Edwin with much familiarity, since both played for her family's football team. She then turned to Juan and James with a hungry smile, pushing a stray strand of strawberry blonde hair away from her face. "Well introduce me to your friends." She said to Edwin and Stefan.

Edwin scoffed, but with a smile on his lips. "I was just about to do that. So demanding."

"This is Juan Cuadrado and James Rodriguez." Stefan beat Edwin to the introductions. And in turn, to his friends he added, "Guys, this is Anna Claudia Salvador. Her father owns this particular chain of hotels, the Coca-Cola bottling company that stocks all of Latin America, and her family owns Club Rayados."

"Guilty." The young woman grinned proudly.

"Pleasure to meet you." Juan said, taking her hand and kissing it, causing a delighted giggle to escape her lips. 

James only shook her hand. "Hola." He said plainly.

He wasn't much interested in meeting women at that moment. What he wanted most was to drink until his worries were no more. 

When she noticed that James wasn't interested, she grabbed Juan by the hand and said to him with excitement, "Let me show you around, you'll love it here. Nayarit is one of the most magical places in Mexico." She dragged him away from his friends while he was completely willing to follow her. That left only three of the four to drink together.

Edwin led them to the bar which was on one end of the vast space for the party. James sat on one of the tiki stools and immediately ordered one drink.

Beside him, Edwin and Stefan made conversation about football. Edwin was still upset over the season's loss in the final to Pachuca--precisely the club that Stefan was on loan at. James zoned him out. He loved football, but it was one thing he didn't want to think about while on vacation. Especially when he had heard rumors circling in the media that the Madrid squad wanted to get rid of him because he had 'lost his touch'.

He thought that it was unfair, really.

He hadn't even been given the opportunity to prove himself.

As he thought about it bitterly, he downed two more drinks, and then another. Soon, he didn't realize where one started and the other one ended. His friends--of course--were too distracted in their debate to even pay him any attention, and Juan was God knows where, with the hotel owner's daughter.

Eventually James stood up from his seat and wandered off, desperately wanting to be alone. He went in a direction away from the blinding party lights and blaring music until he reached a desolate part of the beach where he could be peaceful. The only thing that could be seen for miles there was a lonely little hut in the sand, which a light inside it.

James was almost curious to verify if there was someone in there, but he finally decided against it.

Instead, he stumbled towards the rising tide. He had heard before that a cold shower was just what someone needed when they wanted to get rid of their drunkenness. His thoughts were much too clouded by alcohol to warn him that it wasn't such a good idea.

When he reached the edge, he pulled his shoes off and threw them a few feet off in the sand. His feet touched the cold water and he shivered, but continued on.

-

Marina was in her bed, her gaze trained out her window before going to sleep that night. Her sleep was startled when she saw a shadow stumbling in the distance. No one ever went to her family's side of the beach, it was a known rule among the locals. 

The person stumbled clumsily and as they got closer, she realized he was a young man who came from the direction of the Playa de los Cocos Hotel nearby. He had probably gotten lost after leaving the party and was trying to find his way home. Marina watched him curiously as he took some steps close to the ocean and removed his shoes.

"Hey!" She called over the roaring waves, but she was certain he couldn't hear her. "The tide is dangerous at night!" She warned him.

Soon he had thrown his shoes a few feet off and walked into the ocean, submerging himself in the cold water.

"Oh God." Marina gasped, shooting out of bed and running out the door.

She didn't know the young man and had no obligation to save him, but the last thing she wanted to be was a witness to someone's death. She rushed out the door of the hut and ran across the sand to the waiting ocean where he had disappeared.

He was trying to swim, but his limbs were failing him. It was then that Marina realized that he had no idea what he was doing because he was drunk beyond common sense. The twenty three year old jumped into the cold water, a sharp gasp making its way out of her lips, and she found him nearby struggling to stay afloat. 

Marina grabbed him by the fabric of his shirt and pulled him close to her, using her other arm to swim back to shore. It was difficult, the water was like little frozen needles on her skin and the tide kept pushing them back, further into the ocean. The young man had no more energy to swim, and he was halfway unconscious as he allowed himself to be dragged back by the twenty three year old. 

It was a good few minutes before she got him back on land, away from the growing tide.

He was unconscious now beneath her, and she placed her head on his chest to check for a pulse--there was one. 

"Hey!" She hissed, leaning over him. 

Her hands went to cup his face and she shook him gently. Now that he was out of danger and she was able to get a good look at him, she noticed that he was a handsome young man, but she willed the thought away. She knew she couldn't be thinking those things when he had been on the verge of death just moments prior. Instead, she continued trying to get him to wake up. He seemed to be breathing and she had been able to get to him in time before he could drown. She thought that his unconsciousness was merely because he was drunk.

"Oh god, I don't even know his name." She gulped back a fear. "What if the police comes looking for him and they think I did this to him?"

Hesitantly, she reached into his jeans pocket, looking for a wallet and something that could identify him--something to put a name on his face. She got his wallet out and opened it to find his ID. There was a Colombian driver's licence as well as a Spanish one. She pulled one of them out and held it in the palm of her hand to get a better look at it. He was a twenty four year old young man from Colombia.

"James." She read off the name in English. "James David Rodriguez." 

Beneath her in the sand, the young man whose name was James, stirred. His brown eyes opened slightly to look at her. He saw the wallet in her hand and he snatched it from her hands, getting out the words through the burning in his throat and lungs from the ocean water he had just ingested. "Who are you? What are you doing with my wallet?" He asked her.

"I was just--sorry." She tried to explain, but instead she panicked and ran away, retreating to the safety of her hut by the beach. In her fear and hurry, neither of them had noticed that she had accidentally taken his identification with her. 

James sighed, trying to steady his breathing and let his head fall back into the sand after he stuffed his wallet back into his pocket. Minutes later, all he could think about was sleep and he let it take him.

-

As he made it back to the hotel by himself, memories began to flood back into his mind, but all of them felt like a hazy dream. 

He remembered the ocean, and a girl pulling him out of the water.

He didn't know how he got in the ocean, or what happened to the girl. She was no longer around when he opened his eyes in the morning. He only remembered waking up on the beach now, and that someone had saved him from dying in the cold ocean the night before.

But he wanted to thank the girl for saving his life.

-

here's an update for you all. 

the italics are the memory that he really can't seem to bring back. but he remembers her, and their little mermaid moment. i hope you all like the new chapter and thank you so much for reading and voting.

first gif is james (obviously), second gif is the rich girl who was hosting the party and seducing juan, and last gif is livia brito who is playing our main girl marina.

have a great week! and i hope to be able to update again, very soon! ^.^

-clary xx