We watch the ship move down slowly for a minute before it starts to pick up speed.
"This is it!" Brittany tells me, moving slightly.
"Oh my god, oh my god." It's the only think I can think to say as I watch the water approach us.
"Hold on." She tells me again, pressing herself against me for a second before shifting. She pulls me up to my knees and takes my hand.
"The ship is gonna suck us down, so take a deep breath when I say?" I'm nodding again. I don't think I can speak without panic coming out at this moment. "Kick for the surface, and keep kicking. Don't let go of my hand." She sounds very serious, the most serious I've heard her sound in our time together, but before she'd even said that I wouldn't of let go. "We're gonna make it. Trust me."
"I trust you." I tell her, my voice shaking a little.
"Ready? Now!" She yells, and I take in the biggest gulp of air my lungs will allow before I'm sucked under.
Being under the water is a very surreal experience. The first thing I can think of is how cold it is. Somehow, it's colder than the water in the boat. The second thing is Britts hand around me. She pulls herself up to me and grabs my life jacket, pushing me up before the current sucks her down, I try to hold on to her but it's useless, and she sinks into the blue of the ocean.
I keep kicking though, like she told me, and break the surface of the water. It's pandemonium. People climbing over people trying to keep out of the water, and dead bodies floating around, bouncing idly from one person to another. I start screaming for Britt the minute my mouth is able to move, looking round wildly. I hear someone shout my name, but before I have time to look in the direction of the voice, a man is grabbing me, pushing my head under the water and trying to use me to stay afloat.
I still scream her name, hoping she'll hear me. Then I see her, swimming toward me.
"Get off her!" I hear her scream at the man, who takes no notice, before she pulls her hand back and I hear it connect with his nose. He lets go. "Quinn." She's smiling at me.
"Brittany!" I'm so relieved to see her that for a second I forget we're in the ocean.
"Swim, Quinn. Okay? I need you to swim." She starts tugging me away from the throngs of people.
"It's so cold!" I yell to her.
"Just keep swimming." She tells me, yanking my arm forward again. "Come on, here." She's pulled me to a door, "Get on top, come on." He helps me climb up out of the water, and I lie on the door, panting. When she tries to get on though, the door tips over, sending her back into the sea. "Stay on it," she tells me, pushing me back. She moves round to the front of the door, and I can see her shivering. "It'll be alright now." She grabs my hand. "You'll be alright."
One of the officers from the ship is next to us, holding on to a chair, and blowing his whistle. "Return the boats!" He yells in the loudest voice he can muster.
Britt looks up over my shoulder, then smiles at me. "The boats are coming back for us, Quinn. Hold on just a little bit longer." She's shivering so hard I can feel the door shake now. "They had to row away for the suction, but they're coming back now.
I look around at the people yelling for help, and I just feel hopeless. I want to believe that the boats are coming back, I want to believe that I'll get out of this alive, but I just can't.
I don't know how long we've been in the ocean when the cries start to die down. "It's getting quiet." I tell Britt, who's still in the water in front of me. I know that most people that went into the water are dead now. We've done well to survive for so long.
"It's just gonna take a couple of minutes to get the boats organised," Her words come out so slowly now, and she pauses frequently. "I don't know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to White Star Line about all this." She's still making jokes, still trying to keep me happy.
I watch her for a second. "I love you."
She looks up at me, some of the spark back in her frozen face. "Don't you do that. Don't you say your goodbyes. Not yet, do you understand me?"
"I'm so cold." It's all I can think about. All I can feel. I know I'm holding onto Britt's hand, but I just feel the ice in my skin.
"Listen to me, you're gonna get out of here. You're gonna go on and you're gonna have lots of babies. And then you're gonna watch them grow. Adopt some kittens. You're gonna die an old lady, warm in her bed." She swallows. "Not here, not this night. Not like this, do you understand me?"
"I can't feel my body."
"Winning that ticket, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you." She smiles at me, and if that smile could've warmed me, I would've been aflame. "I'm thankful for that." She lifts up her other arm from the water, and pulls herself up, kissing me on the forehead before she continues. "You must do this for me. Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens. No matter how hopeless. Promise me, now." She shifts a little. "Never let go of that promise."
I know I'm crying, even if I can't feel the tears on my face. There's a lump in my chest as I realise this is her goodbye, even if I don't want it to be. I want to say no, that I won't survive if she doesn't survive with me, but the look in her eyes is so fierce, so protective, that I agree. "I promise."
"Never let go."
"I'll never let go, Britt."
She presses a kiss to the back of my hand.