At the point when his lungs burned so bad he knew he’d have to go up for air, his hand grazed something—an arm—and Jack latched on, pulling them both to the surface and swimming hard for shore, glancing over his shoulder only once to confirm he had Tyler firmly in his grasp.
The moment they flopped onto the beach, they were swarmed.
Immediately, Tyler flipped onto all fours, coughing and spitting a concerning amount of water onto the sand. Jack, meanwhile, fell onto his back and closed his eyes, attempting to calm the rapid rise and fall of his chest.
The cacophony of voices around them grew until they became a roar, and Jack retreated into his mind the same way he did during a game, where the only sounds that reached him were his deep breaths and beating heart.
Sometime later, when a shadow fell over his face, Jack opened his eyes to find Tyler hovering over him.
“Bro,” Tyler said, giving Jack a shaky smile. “You fucking saved my life.”
Jack sat up and settled his hands on Tyler’s shoulders. “Do me a favor, Ty?”
“Anything.”
“Stay out of the ocean for the rest of this trip.”
Tyler boomed out a laugh that turned into a coughing fit. When he finally collected himself, he said, “Deal.”
A hand settled on Jack’s left shoulder, and he turned to find Jessica’s face a hand’s width from his own.
“You okay?” she asked quietly, eyes shining with concern.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “A kiss might help.”
Jessica rolled her eyes but couldn’t completely fight off her smile.
“Only because you just saved someone’s life,” she said, then leaned forward to press her mouth to his.
An hour later, after a resort medic came down to examine both Tyler and Jack—and given both clean bills of health—the group returned to its standard spring break shenanigans.
Amidst the commotion, they’d managed to overlook the DJ booth being erected in the center of the beach, and when the opening notes of “Get Low” blasted from the speakers on the plywood stage, Jessica grabbed his hand and towed him across the sand, bobbing her head to the beat.
“What are you doing?” he yelled.
“Dancing!” she yelled back, shimmying her hips and dropping to the ground.
Like an absolute dumbass, Jack stood still while Jessica writhed against him. The space around them quickly filled as vacationers joined them, and soon they were completely surrounded.
Jessica spun toward him and rested her hands on his shoulders, looking up at him as she moved side to side.
“You have to move!”
“I don’t…I wasn’t sober!”
“C’mon, big guy,” she said. “Put your hands on my hips and move with me.” Then she turned and backed into him, reaching for his hands and settling them on her hips, using her ass and grip on his wrists to force him to move with her.
“I need a drink,” he muttered.
Once more she faced him, and said, “If that’s what you need to stop acting like a robot, then go get one. And bring me back a tequila sunrise while you’re at it!” she added with a playful shove.
Jack grinned at her then snaked through the crowd, looking over his shoulder once to find she’d already been swallowed by the mass of bodies on the makeshift dance floor.
When he’d secured their drinks—a beer for him, the requested tequila sunrise for Jessica—he paused halfway down the stairsand took a moment to survey the scene in front of him. There had to be at least fifty people gathered on the sand, but Jack easily picked out Jessica’s vibrant hair smack dab in the middle of it all.
By the time he made it back to her side, about a quarter of each of their drinks had sloshed out to cover his hands and wrists thanks to people jostling him. A thin trail of grenadine ran down his wrist, and when Jack handed her drink over, Jessica took the opportunity to lick it clean.
Her tongue on his skin had his dick instantly hard, and when she pulled away, he quickly adjusted himself in his swim trunks. The peal of her laughter was quickly lost in the crowd, and Jack tugged her close and pressed his mouth to hers, silencing her.
