The Heartwarmer

Chapter 10

June stood at "the spot", with both her sleeves missing and a warm breeze blowing through her hair. Her thoughts were continuously interrupted by her grumbling stomach. Nutrition was the only thing she had for a long time, but now her safety felt seriously compromised. She felt bones now where flesh was before, and there were new hollows and dimples where her joints met. There were no vegetables in her diet, and fish were in short supply this season. They scavenged what they could, which would sate them until the next meal.

That was June's life now. Just hanging on until the next meal.

June wanted to start a routine for the two of them, but she didn't know how. She wanted to treat this island as her own, but she didn't know how. In her normal home, she could have cleaned the place, decorated it, made it smell like cookies every day. But here, she didn't have a definitive boundary to clean, let alone find things to put on imaginary shelves. They didn't have enough nutrition for themselves, they could forget about finding eggs, chocolate, and an oven to bake.

She sighed. Luckily, her whole fiasco with Luke blew over pretty quick. Of course, he had his numerous doubts, but luckily he kept almost all of them to himself. Apparently, he could portray himself as a dumb brick pretty well. But she wasn't one to complain.

June stopped needing too much alone time. She learned to quiet down her mind without silencing her surroundings. The environment helped a lot; there was just something about the constant yet pleasant breeze, the eternal crashing of waves that only ever diminished in sound but never really stopped, the occasional bird that came along surprisingly often. The slow rhythm of her days helped slow her heart down so that she felt at peace.

Although, she happened to be alone right now because she was waiting for Luke. He was really peeing, but it seemed to June that he was too embarrassed to admit it. June wanted to scoff in his face; I had my period around you! She wanted to scream. I should have the right to be embarrassed, not you!

"Hey June, didn't expect to find you here. What're you doing?" Luke suddenly piped up from behind her. June jumped as she turned around.

"Oh, hey. Nothing much, really. I just rarely come up here these days, so thought I'd enjoy the view for a while." She replied.

Luke sighed. "It is such a drag coming here. Too much walking." Then he winced and said, "Says the guy who walked all the way up here just to say hello to you."

June laughed. "Hello to you too, stranger. Well, you're here now, so do you wanna walk down together?"

"Do I!" He exclaimed in mock enthusiasm, which made June laugh harder.

The sun was high in the sky. It was peak summer, which meant that they needed a good dip in the ocean just to get their body temperature back to normal. June was still hesitant to step into the same ocean that tried to kill her.

"You know what, Luke? You go on ahead. I'll just stand here, get my ankles wet a little bit." June shouted to Luke, who disappeared further into the waves with each word.

Luke poked his head out from the water. "Oh, come on, June! You will die of heat stroke if you spend another minute out in the sun!"

"You know what, I'm fine with that. Water doesn't help me relax anyway."

June turned around to leave, when suddenly she heard a great deal of splashing. Surprised, she quickly turned to the source. Luke was waving every available limb to swim against the tide, but he was only mildly successful. He swam slowly, which was as fast as he could muster, towards June. As she realised what was happening, she screamed for him to stop, but he couldn't hear her over the ruckus. Finally, he reached the shallow shore and struggled to walk towards her.