The water was lapping at the edge of the boat, rocking it to and fro.

The giddiness and anxiety was just about bubbling over and out of Jeremy. He _hated _boats and swimming and the sea and anything to do with large bodies of water. It made him sick. He mentally yelled at himself for not thinking of a great excuse to skip this “voyaging adventure”.

He jumped up and stood precariously on the raised bench, planting his fists on his hips and looked out over the lake with a noble expression. His brain was screaming at him, his whole body longing to curl up on the floor of the rickety boat. But he couldn’t. He had to be the risk taker. He wasn’t supposed to be afraid of anything.

Joel, who was sitting at the front of the small boat, was the one really freaking Jeremy out. He kept shaking the boat back and forth so badly the boat almost flipped about a dozen times.

“HARD TO PORT!” Joel was yelling and laughing and the boat was tipping so much that Jeremy had already sat back down and was gripppng the wood of the bench like his life depended on it, which it kinda did.

Jeremy wanted to scream at him to stop but instead he laughed and cheered Mark and Ben on as they canon-balled into the deep blue water, splashing Jeremy and Joel until they were drenched.

Jeremy’s heart was beating so fast, but he had convinced himself that this wasn’t actually so bad. They were having fun.

Mark grabbed the edge of the boat and heaved himself back in, rocking the boat like a storm.

“Hey, you guys have to jump in, too!” He was breathing heavily and dripping wet, sitting at the bottom of the boat.

Joel whipped his head around to look at Jeremy, his expression looking malicious.

“I bet Jeremy’s too scared to swim.”

Jeremy’s heart dropped, but he laughed easily stood up. He jumped up and rocked the boat around, though not as violently as Joel.

“Me? Scared? Do you even know me?”

“Alright, then why haven’t you jumped in, huh?” This was Ben, treading water a few feet away from the boat.

“Hah!” Jeremy shook his head, as if he was amused. He wasn’t. He was terrified.

He stood up at the edge of the boat, looking down at the endless blue that stretched below. He couldn’t let them know he was scared. _He couldn’t. _

At this point Jeremy had practically turned off his brain. He was somewhere else, thinking about anything else. He wasn’t aware when he launched himself into the water, letting out a yell that could’ve been perceived as either fear or exhilaration. It was such a shock when he found himself in the freezing water that he didn’t have time to register that he was supposed to be terrified. But quickly it all came rushing back, and he couldn’t tell which way was up, he couldn’t see anything, the couldn’t _breath. _

He thrashed around, and he was all alone. No one knew him, really.

It felt like an eternity that he was under the deep blue lake, until finally he rammed his head against something, probably the boat, and his terror left him.

And so did his breath.