And I was too swept up by glorious sensation to be afraid. The way Riley held me against his body as we moved through the water made me feel safer than I’d ever felt in my life.

I don’t know how long we stayed under. I could see nothing, though I knew not if my eyes were open or closed. And yet somehow, without sight, I was aware of cyclopean shapes that weren’t shapes rising and falling around us. They were accompanied by monolithic sounds that were of a frequency I couldn’t hear, and yet I somehow perceived as if with a new sense I’d never before been capable of tapping into. I felt no stinging from the salt, no pain from the pressure despite how deep we must have been, no burning of my lungs to breathe. I felt nothing at all beyond the pure, perfect bliss of sharing the timeless, spaceless moments with Riley, and absolute elation in the power of his command over the element that surrounded us.

When we finally surfaced, it felt like the world must have ended and begun again afresh. The cove surrounding us looked the same, but it was as if the pattern of the stars above had become entirely new. Riley set me on my feet. The waviness of the sand made me wobble, and I caught onto him for support. The water around us lapped at my elbows.

I took a few slow breaths, trying to process the experience we’d just shared, but it felt so tenuous to me, like a vaguely remembered dream that was already slipping from my grasp.

Riley brushed some of my wet hair from my face, and then ran his fingers through it to pluck out the elastic that had pretty much given up on holding onto its former bun. He smiled as he pulled the wet strands down over my shoulders. “Yes, I like this better.”

I blushed. I must have looked like a drowned rat. His own hair curled darkly around his flawless ears, and the moonlight reflecting off the water defined his chiseled features even more perfectly than I thought could be possible.

“So you really aren’t going to leave?” I breathed.

He cupped my face in his hand. “How could I?”

“But what will this mean? Will you just keep going to high school? Pretending to be human? Pretending to live a normal life?” Will you be my boyfriend?

I didn’t dare ask. It was more than I was worthy of to even have him here in this moment.

“I will go where you go,” he said, his voice a warm balm over every insecurity I’d ever suffered. “If that is high school, it makes little difference to me. Anywhere.”