*is more or less sitting up at this point, but hunched in on himself, his forehead bowed to your shoulder, his hand clutching the front of your shirt in a death grip as he gasps in pitiful half-sobs* Please...let me breathe...please...
*is getting dizzier by the second (hyperventilating as he is), which does nothing to allay his panic (certain as he is that he's drowning)*