A World Beneath

Murphy can be so forgetful sometimes, he has one job to remember. I swear all of these years sitting out in the sun, chasing girls on the beach has fried his brain entirely!

My name is Marina, typical name of a girl living in the Outer banks, as the offspring of two marine biologists. I've lived here my entire 20 years of life, and still wouldn't change a thing. The two big knuckle heads that I spend the majority of my time with are my two best friends, that have always been there for me, Murphy Deets, and Nick Hall.

Murphy is the stereotype guy that everyone thinks we all look like out here, beach tan skin, sun bleached blonde hair and blue eyes. Luckily his voice doesn't match with a "surfer boy" tone, or we wouldn't be friends to this day. In high school he was always skipping to go to the beach, I'm honestly shocked he graduated, but I'm pretty sure the teachers just didn't want him to come back for another year.

Nick was the complete opposite of Murphy in high school, always on top of the class, as a straight-A student. He was the captain of the football team, and every girls dream crush, except mine of course, that would be weird. His dark chocolate skin, matching with his hair, but his eyes were what stood out to everyone, as they are a bright emerald green. Girls would swoon over him, and to be honest, they still do, in fact, they do More now!

Me on the other hand, I kept to myself in school, making average grades and laying low. I'm not much of an extrovert, which is why those two guys are my only friends.

They kind of forced me out of my shell in elementary school. I used to like to hide behind my thick auburn hair on the playground, pretending to be invisible, but like a gnat to a light, they found me and I felt oddly comfortable with them!

Flash forward to two years post high school, and we all found mediocre jobs. Mom and Dad want me to be a marine biologist like them, which I don't mind, so I go to school part time and work part time at our local bait shop Bobber Bobbies. It's a ridiculous name, but old man Bobbie has had this place for...ever, I think.

I'm pretty sure he has quite literally lost his mind over the years. He has old news articles all over the shop of "creature" sightings, that he believes are mermaids. Around 30 years ago on his boat, with his buddies, he lost his left hand, while reaching to grab a crab trap.

He claimed that it was one of those creatures that did it to him, but since nobody else saw it, they deemed him crazy at the hospital. They told him it must have been a small shark that was attracted to the big ring on his finger, that he forgot to take off. Whatever it was, he still likes to remind everyone about these so called "creatures" every...single...day.

Murph decided to skip going to college, as his dreams are all reserved for scuba diving. He plans to be the best scuba instructor of OBX, working along side his uncle who takes tourists out on his boat to dive. Meanwhile, Nick left his dreams of becoming "The newest and best quarterback in NFL history", as he would say, to study computer engineering. I don't know how he does it, because I don't understand a thing he is talking about when he tries to lecture me about his studies. On the side of his studies, he works as a server, saving up every single penny he can.

Grabbing our necessities, we head to my fathers fishing boat for a day of deep sea fishing. It's a Weekend ritual of ours. We've only missed a few Saturdays here and there if someone has a date, or called in for work.