The clock hit midnight, Joseph looked at it, exhausted, people clapped when his parents were back on stage. He did too, out of respect.
The Johnson's enumerated his son's achievements, which were a bit embarrassing knowing most of those people were total unknowns to him, so he tried to slip away from there before they could call him up stage for what he knew, or suspected, what was coming next.
Josh rushed downstairs, trying to get back where he met the young chef earlier, remembering people didn't come at that area.
On his way there, he stumbled with a young man, who was wasted to the core, who fell flat on his face without even trying to protect himself in the process.
He blamed himself for hurting the poor man, so he keeled to help the drunken man to get back on his feet.
All of a sudden a loud yell took him by surprise, "What did you do, jerk!", stopping midway to help the man roll onto his back.
A short male ran up to him at the speed of light, landing his little fist on his cheek when he looked back, yelling and cursing at him.
Josh got back on his feet when the shorter male clung onto his back, biting his neck to take him down, "¡Hey! Stop it! It was an accident".
He flung his body, side by side, as the male refused to loosen up his dead tight grip, "accident my rear! You did it purposely, and you were gon' finish him. I won't let you lay a finger on my man ever again!"
"Jimbo, what are you doing?" Another male joined the fight, most likely, trying to stop it as his deep voice was low like a warning thunder from the distance, "You don't treat guests like this". Yet it felt so close, even familiar to Joseph's ears.
"I don't work here anyway, bro. I'm protecting my sunshine from this bully. He beat him to pulp, just look at 'im, Teo. I must defend my man's honor" the shorter male screamed to the top of his lungs, right into Josh's ear, making him flinch a little at the high pitch which drew some attention from the crowd on the main deck, still not enough to stop the whole event.
"Sunshine?" Teo looked down, behind the two males by the deck and, effectively, he found said man laying flat-faced over the floor on the middle deck like a doll,
He couldn't help himself from expressing his worries, his voice barely above a whisper, "the love of my life," yet it reached the shorter male's ears, igniting the fire within.
Joseph felt light when the male jumped off his back, finally free from the dead grip he was in not long ago.
However his relief was short-lived as the next second the shorter male was aiming his finger at his 'saviour'.
"Repeat what you just said, buddy" his voice calm, restraining the evil from coming out whilst he made eye contact with Teo.
"The love of my life" the blue-eyed one spoke fearlessly, facing the shorter.
At this moment Joseph noticed his 'saviour' was the same boy he was talking to hours ago, he looked at the ground realizing that could be his possible date.
/You screwed up real good, man. Now he's gon' hate ya… damn my luck/ Joseph cursed himself as everything made sense.
Meanwhile Teo and his friend were bickering over who had the right to call 'love' to the lying man on the floor.
"How dare you! You know I've had a crush on him since high school!" the shorter yelled out.
"You never made a move. I thought you were over it" Teo defended himself, uselessly.
/Who is gonna help this poor man? I guess I have no choice. Here we go again./ he sighed, wishing to be of help as it was his fault to begin with, a victim of the circumstances still guilty, kneeling down to help the unconscious man to wake up.
He cradled him in his arms, hoping he could at least open his eyes. "Hey, Sir. Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
He peered into his face to make sure he was breathing normally and the fall didn't cause any terrible injury to the unconscious male.
However that was his mistake as the next thing he noticed was a yellow light flying straight up to his face.
He shrunk a little, yet covered the drunken man to prevent him from getting hurt.
The yellow light stopped right before his face, barely an inch away from his nose.
Teo was holding the shorter male, holding his hands down in a tight bear hug.
"What side are you on, bro? Didn't you see he almost kissed my man?" He squirmed within the dead-grip, moving way too close to the veranda trying to push the young chef away.
"He was checking on him. Something we should've done. Yet we haven't and should've been a priority in this case, but who is at fault here?" Teo intended to reason with his friend who only fought back, nudging his sides.
"I saw it with my very same eyes. He was taking advantage of my sunshine!! I must avenge my man!", he wasn't going to let this pass, for him, it was a high offense to his man's dignity and honor.
Joseph laid the man in a safe zone, on a sunchair by the storerooms, whilst they wrestled, dangerously, by the edge of the veranda.
He attempted to excuse his actions, hoping this could fix the situation, "I apologize, it wasn't my intention, I was worried about his–", he couldn't finish his words when he saw Teo flying off the rails like a weightless doll due the shorter male shook his body with a brutal strength.
The young male vanished in a heartbeat, whilst the shorter male bent over his knees, tired due he used all his might to break free, missing the fact he just threw his friend off the ship.
When Joseph realized what he was doing he was already up on the rails, jumping into the dark ocean, ignoring the screams calling out his name, just reminiscing the young chef's words when they bid farewell hours ago: "Don't drink too much. I might not be able to jump into the water to save your pretty arse. I can barely swim"
He had hopes of finding the younger under the surface, all he had as guiding light was the moonlight on his back as be descended aimlessly, and so he did as the young boy was trying to swim up on his same direction; however, it was clear he couldn't as he was diving into the depths of the ocean the more he kicked around flailing his arms around himself.
He did his best to reach the blonde's hand, when he did he pulled him up towards himself, stopping his free diving into the unknown darkness on the ocean floor.
"Joseph" A light brown haired male yelled out Josh's name as he ran up to the middle deck.
"Stop the damn music! Someone just jumped into the water" he yelled out in his desperation to save the ones who vanished into the deep blue ocean whilst he dashed off seeking for the event organizer or any staff member to help rescue them.
"Stop this right now! People is missing"
On his way he passed by people who ignored his pleas, but the organizer -Owner of the ship- ran up to the shaken boy, seeing him in distress.
"Would you mind elaborating?", he held his cold hand a bit concerned as the boy paled in front of his eyes, and his body became colder.
The boy was trying to form words when the cat-like dude popped in.
"Have anyone seen Teo? I asked him to make some bruschettas but he hasn't come back with the tomatoes yet" the reddish male interjected, irritated seeing Ramon cradling the young guest in his sturdy arms.
The shorter blonde male by the rails whipped his head towards the ocean as he just noticed the turmoil surrounding him died down real quick in a matter of seconds, which filled him with dread realising what happened.
"Teo!!" He rushed back on his feet noticing he was alone, staring at the dark quiet ocean, the waters looking impenetrable to even tell someone just got swallowed deep into their mystery waters, his stomach dropped real fast, feeling sick and dizzy.
"Buddy, you there! Don't kid with me! TEO, BUDDY, TALK TO ME! I'M SORRY, BRO!" his body went numb as he screamed, yet he didn't get any answer neither from him nor the unknown.
"Teo? Angello, ask him what's going on, I'll deal with the kid." the younger one cried and he babbled what he saw. Sadly, it got mixed up with his hiccuping, making it impossible to make out his words clearly.
The red haired man approached the screaming man on the veranda, confused yet fearing for the worst.
"What do you mean, dude? Why are you calling for Teo if he's not here?", he interrogated the panicked blonde whose teary-eyed sough far out on the ocean, hoping his gut feeling was wrong.
"STOP THE DAMN SHIP INSTEAD OF ASKING DUMB QUESTIONS!" The teary-eyed male yelled, as his voice cracked more with every word.
Yet he took a little breath to let the other male know what was going on, "Teo and a random dude are out there, needing help, lost in the dead cold ocean and here you're stealing precious time! Do something, Goddam" He pushed him aside, running towards the side where the anchor is located, mad at himself for his early actions.
"Teo and a guest?"