Pah.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Sigh.

I slammed my hand over the pen and the hand holding it. Startled grey eyes shot up to me from where they'd been examining the half filled page.

"Send the letter tomorrow. Stop clicking that thing before I let the ocean claim it," I threatened and turned back to gripping the frosty railing. The waves around the gliding vessel churned, the deep cerulean blue endless as I breathed in a deep inhale.

My dearest friend took the threat seriously, shoving the notepad and pen into her seemingly endless bag. "You're just grouchy Josh is here," Morgan mumbled and leaned against the railing with me. "I can't believe he brought the bitch he cheated on you with. Miles is still livid."

She tucked a clump of curls behind her ear with a glare for the happy couple on the other side of the deck. Morgan Rogers spoke her mind with a ‘no way but through’ approach. When she wasn’t being (almost painfully) candid, she could be seen charming the pants off any willing male in her path.

She was worlds’ away from her brother.

Another lucky recipient of The Ticket, Miles Rogers enjoyed the company of dusty books and animals rather than people. He tended to be more than happy to ignore the lives of everyone outside our little found family bubble.

The siblings were my favourite people and once upon a time 'Josh' had been my best friend. Then we were together for four months. In those months he found the pleasures of sleeping with other people, one of them a mutual friend.

Said couple seemed to make it difficult to ignore them when Jane clicked picture after similar picture to post on her socials as the boat glided along.

Somehow, Josh continued to be an annoying bastard and got a Ticket himself not a day later.

When I received my Ticket in a nondescript envelope on a dreary morning, I thought it was a joke. Then I thought it was a month-long escape from having to deal with Jane’s constant jabs and weak barbs. I would be able to avoid Josh’s weird sad face.

Then he got a Ticket and Jane invited herself as his plus one.

At least I had a nice ocean to swim in.

I itched my hip, feeling the tingles under my skin starting to spread to my waist. These phantom tingles were expected whenever I got close to water, salt or otherwise. Before the extensive testing, I had worried I’d be allergic to salt water.

'Ignore him. Ignore him,' I chanted in the safety of my mind. 'You don't need him'.

"No, I don't," I smiled at the cresting waves. They soothed, meeker the closer we got to the 'lagoon'. It was an exclusive island off the coast of a country I couldn't hope to pronounce surrounded by an atoll lagoon. Miles had a few books on the currents and the terms for the ocean but most of the words turned to mush in my brain when he had started rambling. He understood. I’d never been the most academically inclined and he liked a sounding board.

Our first glimpse of the island stole the breath from my lungs. It may be a speck in the distance but the greens and darker waters felt like a kick to the gut. The energy in the air flavoured every inhale I took of the ocean. I wasn't sure if it was excitement or gut-wrenching trepidation but I felt eyes on me.

A few of the staff watched me lean over the railing, tending to some part of the deck or fiddling with trays of delicacies for the guests.

They averted their gazes when I glanced back but I shrugged off the weirdness of it. Maybe it was a culture thing. Miles would know, maybe…

Morgan tapped my shoulder, drawing my see-sawing attention back to watching the speck get bigger with each passing second.

The buzz of a radio sounded and I felt my skin prickle. A man's voice crackled from the device. 'Report!' The stranger barked. 'I want everything in place for the arrival of the new guests, got it?'

"Yes, boss," One of the darker dressed employees rasped, a little point to his pale ear. It caught my attention when it twitched.

‘Remember the delivery,’ The same sharp voice crackled through.

That voice would bring me trouble, and I knew somewhere deep down that it wouldn't be easy to scramble out of.

I wasn't sure the beauty of this place would be worth all the future headaches.