VOLATILE (I) : peter pan ouat

When Forgiveness Happened

Day: 16

"Can I talk to you?"

I turn around, leaving Johnny standing on the beach, as I push my wheelbarrow up into the forest.

"No." I tell him.

He doesn't seem to care that I said he no. He runs up along beside me, keeping pace with me as I stalk back to the forest. I wish the walk wasn't twenty minutes long, and I wish I didn't have the wheelbarrow so I could run away from him.

"Look, you can't still be mad at me." He says.

"I believe I can." I say. "There's no laws against it. There aren't any laws her at all."

"Don't be a smartass." He mutters.

I don't reply. The silence is more comforting then his voice could ever be.

"Why are you so angry?" He demands.

"You hit me." I state.

"You then proceeded to beat me up." He says. "I have another black eye because of you. I think it's pretty fair."

"I didn't hit your face." I say stopping to look at him.

The black around the eye Alex hit is finally beginning to fade away. A soft shade of purple remains, and it'll probably be gone with the day. It feels like we only got here yesterday, when it has already been a full two weeks. Two weeks is long enough for it to heal, but not completely.

If a bruise can't even heal after two weeks, why should he expect me to forgive him after a few days? Especially when skin and bones is simple science, and I am a person. People have feelings, memories, and emotions. The only think skin carries as a burden is scar tissue.

"Let's not play semantics here," he sighs. "I came to apologise."

"You slapped me," I say. "Doesn't matter that you're sorry."

"And you beat me up," he says. "Way more violent than I was."

"I was defending myself."

He laughs. "From me? Honestly Charlie do you think I would hurt you like that? I was just trying to help you be reasonable."

"You hit me." I say. "I can barely call that reasoning."

"You don't learn!" He argues.

I nearly wince, remembering Alex's words. You seem to use physical strength before your brain. Maybe Johnny is right. Maybe I did overreact.

But then again, maybe I didn't.

It's more than him hitting me. It's him not trusting me, calling me selfish, plotting and keeping secrets. It's about who he has become since he came here. Who have I become?

"Alright look I'm sorry," I tell him. I'll tell him whatever he needs to here, no matter how much I stand by my decision. Especially if it means getting him off my case. "Look maybe I did get carried away."

"We both did." He agrees. "That doesn't mean we should stop talking because of it. We are in this together, you and me."

I nod. "Yeah we are." Are we?

"Here, I'll push this back for you." He offers, grabbing a hold of the wheelbarrow. "You should go find Harry, keep training."

"How do you know about that?" I ask, beginning to head back towards camp with him.

"Nothing stays secret on this island for long." He says. "Besides, I hear that something big is coming in a week. A game of some sort."

"Don't you guys play games all the time?" I ask.