Happy New Year all of you!!! I hope you all had a great time!! 2016 was amazing but 2017 will be pretty epic too! So, starting with angst because that's me, isn't it? Sorry it's short, I couldn't elaborate much on this idea... -C

His foot is tangled. He has never been more terrified about that. How did that happen?

Alex flails beneath the surface of the water, silently screaming. Panic roars in his head as he tugs on the seaweed wrapped around his ankle. He's going to drown. After all those times he almost died, Alex is going to drown right here.

John and Eliza and Maria thought it would be fun to go to a beach for New Year's. Do they realize Alex hasn't surfaced? Or are they giggling and flirting, preoccupied with themselves?

   Alex casts his gaze around, the salt water begging for him to shut his eyes and give up. He blinks it away. He's not giving in...He can't. John needs him. Maria and Eliza would miss him, wouldn't they?

   In front of him, he can see pale legs splashing around. The skirt of the swimsuit flares out, stark red in the midnight waters. Is Maria looking for him?

   Alex lunges forward, but the seaweed grips his ankle tighter. He could break it, couldn't he? He could get the seaweed to snap!

   Desperately swimming forward, he pulls and pulls and pulls. The seaweed is unyielding.

   His vision turns blacker and blacker. The pain is clawing at his chest. He heaves outwards, but there is no air to breathe beneath the surface.

   I am sorry, John. You can move on without me.

   Alex gives up, limbs going limp as they begged for. He lets his eyes close, and he listens to the call of the ocean. It shifts into voices. His mom, his friends killed in the hurricane.

   "Alex? Alex!"

   He bolts at that. It's John.

   Alex splashes meekly before the blackness traps him, refusing to let him go.

   "Oh my God."

   "Is he going to be okay?"

   Hot tears land on his bare chest. Alex feels the water bubbling up, a reprise he both hates and loves. The water gushes out his mouth, choking him. Alex hacks them out. It feels sour and foul.

   Exhaustion sets in his limbs after the water is done being puked up. Alex's head weakly hits the sand.

   Someone gathers him into a hug, desperately clinging to him. "Oh my God, you're okay. You're okay. Thank God."

   "John?" Alex's tongue feels oddly defiant in that moment. It doesn't want to work for him. He forces the word, probably working just due to the familiarity of it.

   John chokes out a sob. The raw anguish and horror washes over Alex. It's palpable, but Alex can't snap it and comfort John. "You 'Kay?"

   "You are ridiculous! You nearly drowned. And you asked if I'm okay?" John shoves Alex back as if to take a full assessment of him.

   Alex feels oddly naked after the threat on his life. His black hair sticks to his face, clinging to the wetness of his cheeks. His skin shimmers with water and sand, itchy but unable to tear off. The burden on his chest hasn't quite lessened. There is no time to swallow the proper amount of air that he desperately yearns for. Air has never been so sweet.

   He nods slightly, eyes starting to droop. "You seem scared."

   "Really, Alex? I seem scared? I wonder why," John drawls. In the panic and rush of saving his boyfriend, John has slipped back into his Southern accent.

   It's...Nice. Much better than Thomas's accent that makes him sound like a total douche.

   Someone clears their throat, dainty and soft. "May we cut in and hug our friend who almost died and left the world forever?"

   "Oh yeah," John sheepishly laughs.

   Eliza is suddenly in front of him, clutching him to her chest. It's an odd feeling of familiarity that rolls over him. Like...Like in another life, this would have happened as well. He wants to question the Schuyler, to see if she gets the feeling as well. Instead, his tongue falls limp in his mouth and he's forced to look elsewhere.

   She snuggles her head against him. "Don't you dare ever scare us again. Got it, Alex?"

   "I didn't mean to," mumbles Alex.

   Maria scoffs from behind him. She sashays in front of him, nudging her girlfriend out of the way. She taps Alex's cheek. "We don't care. It still freaked us out."

   "Were you the one-" A painful cough cuts him off, and he's left panting in Eliza's warm embrace.

   Maria nods, finishing for him. "I was the one who found you...Unconscious, I should add. It was the most terrifying experience in my life."

   "I'm sorry-"

   "It doesn't matter," John interrupts. "We are all together now, are we not?"

   "And we will be...For the rest of the year," whispers Eliza.

   Alex nods.

   If the rumor is true, whatever you did when the clock strikes midnight you will do for the rest of the year, he will be content.

   He is fine loving John, Maria, and Eliza.