island love // grayson dolan

eight

when grayson woke up the sun was just rising, he exited his tent and saw that everyone else was still sleeping. 

he had felt really bad about kissing crimson. he hadn't realised he was growing feelings for her until he saw her that night, the shine of the moon glowing on her made her look even more beautiful than she already did. all he wanted to do in that moment was kiss her, so he did and in doing that he messed up his friendship with her. he wasn't ready for a relationship and when he told her that he could tell her hurt her, which hurt him. 

he walked over to the other side of the rock pool and stripped his clothes and jumped into the water, the cool water was nice and refreshing after sleeping on sand. after his swim, he cringed as he had to get back into his dirty clothes. 

when he walked back to beach he saw that everyone else was now up. crimson and justin were sitting together eating breakfast and taylor was in the ocean. 

he assumed justin had said something funny because crimson cracked up laughing, he felt a pang of jealously but pushed those thoughts away as he approached them. 

"good morning." he greeted sitting down and taking an apple.

"good morning man. where were you?" justin asked. 

"i went for a swim over there." grayson gesturing towards the rock pool, "so what's the plan for today?" 

"well i think you and crimson need to go on another fruit picking walk because were running low and i was thinking taylor and i are gonna plan some sort of way to get water from the lake and keep it here, you know like make a well or something." justin said. 

"you want grayson and i go to get fruits?" crimson asked. grayson frowned, he knew things were weird between them but he still wanted to hang out with her. 

"yeah is that a problem?" he asked. 

crimson looked from justin to grayson, "no it isn't." 

-- 

twenty minutes later, after crimson had a swim, both her and grayson set off to find fruits. "this is becoming a thing, you know us going and picking fruits." grayson had said, trying his best to brake the awkward silence but he just seemed to make it worse. 

"yeah i guess it is." she had said with no emotion in her voice. 

after they had walked for fifteen minutes, they found their first fruit tree. "so who's gonna climb first?" crimson asked starting up at the tall banana tree. 

"i can go if you want." grayson offered. 

"if that's okay? it's just this one is really tall and i don't want to fall on you again." she said with a small smile.

"yeah, i don't want that either." he replied back. he put his coconut shells on the ground and started climbing. 

once he got all the bananas he came down and they moved on. things were still awkward which he hated, he didn't want this tension between them so he decided to just say something, "look crimson, i'm really sorry for kissing you. not because i didn't want to but because it wasn't the right time and i just really hate you ignoring me and-" 

"i'm not ignoring you grayson! you said you didn't want a relationship right now which i understand, i understand it a lot but i can't help that i like you and the only reason you probably think i'm ignoring you is that i'm trying my best to not become clingy or whatever. you need your  space and i get that." crimson confessed. 

"but i don't want space from you! i like being your friend and i like hanging out with you and maybe in the future we could be something more but for now you think we can just be friends? and like proper friends not just the say hey and barely talk kinda of friends, friends-friends." grayson said.

crimson paused for a few moments, she knew she wanted more from him but she knew he needed time so she smiled and said, "of course." and she meant it, she was fine being friends with him. she knew it was for the best.

-- 

when they got back to beach taylor and jason had already cooked dinner. "i'm so happy you guys made dinner, i'm starving!" crimson said as she dug into her food. 

justin laughed, "yeah i know how hungry you can get." 

grayson frowned, he hated that way he felt. he had to kept telling himself, you were the one who said you didn't want a relationship with her, so act like it. 

after dinner everyone one went into their tents and grayson was happy they had built their tents because that night it started pouring down raining. 

grayson couldn't sleep so he walked into the jungle, it was covered mostly by trees so he was protected from the rain. it was really dark and he didn't know where he was going and he regretted coming to the jungle in the first place and felt stupid. 

 when he was walking back, he saw one of him and crimson's coconut shells. he was a bit confused, he hadn't remembered leaving one behind and it didn't have any fruit in it. 

he walked over to it, as he walked over he heard a noise and jumped. "hello? crimson? taylor? justin?" he called out. 

no one said anything, he realised it was probably just a animal. he bent down too the coconut shell to pick it up, he was about to step back up when he felt something cold against his neck. 

"don't move or i'll shoot." 

shoot? 

"okay." grayson said, scared out of his mind. 

next thing he knew, white cloth was blocking his vision and he was brought up by too arms and was being dragged through the jungle. 

i should've really fucking stayed in the tent.