enchanted [toni shalifoe, the wilds]

day three

The two girls woke up more or less the same time, with Toni abruptly waking up when she heard a twig snap in the distance, and then instinctively nudging Ava as she woke up. Ava grunted slightly, kicking her back gently. 

"Hey!" Toni chuckled, pretending to clutch her side. Ava smiled slightly, squinting against the warm sun cast on the two. 

"We got to get back, come on," Ava convinced, dusting the dirt off her and trying to get up off the ground. "Oh, balls."

"Hmm?" Toni turned around, already up from the ground and fighting to stay awake and vigilant. Ava clearly wasn't a morning person, so it'd be pretty useless if they both were. "Hold fuck, Ava, that's infected!"

Ava's right forearm was glowing red, and had doubled in size since last night. On further inspection, Toni saw that there was puss starting to build up underneath the wound. She cocked her head, trying not to let her disgust show through too much - it wouldn't do either of them any favours. 

"Dude, you need to let Dot fix that. Seriously, that's not the kind of shit you and your whole independence bullshit can handle." She continued rambling, raising an eyebrow and slightly judging her. 

"Yeah, yeah, well me and my independence bullshit asking you to help us up." Ava mimicked, making fun of Toni's accent. 

Toni hesitated for a minute, trying to think how to help her up without hurting her arm or her bruised leg, which she'd injured from falling on the rock last night. 

"Don't freak out on me." 

Toni leaned down and gripped both sides of Ava's waist, and slowly picked her up again. She was actually pretty light, probably more so from the distinct lack of food she'd been eating in the last three days. 

"Okay, I'm not a toddler, I can walk!" Ava huffed, dangling her legs slightly in protest. Toni nimbly set her down on the ground. 

"You might as well be, you're like... tiny." Toni joked, receiving a jokey push from Ava, who was struggling to hold back her smile. 

"Oh shut up, you're like what, 5"3? You can hardly talk." Ava jested back, looking her up and down before bursting out laughing. Toni bit her lip and smiled before changing the subject. 

"So... what do you want to tell them?" Toni faltered, looking at the ground where they walked, half to avoid yet another injury, half to avoid Ava's glance. 

The two were coming up to the beach now, and could see the camp - well, what was left of the camp - in the distance. Toni hoped that the other girls would be too busy trying to salvage the fire and other remnants of their makeshift home to stop to question them. Honestly, Toni wasn't ready for Fatin to make assumptions. 

Ava almost burst out laughing, and Toni's focus darted right back to her as they began to approach the camp. 

"Chill, it's not like we had sex or anything." Ava reminded her, looking at her as if she was an alien before she continued walking, shaking her head in amusement. 

"Yeah, I know." Toni blurted out, catching Ava's wrist. "I just wanted to check just in case, you know."

"Okay, can you go back to being normal Toni? Where's the girl who looks like she wants to scrap me? Where's she?" Ava joked, waving her hand in front of Toni's face.

"That's not fucking funny." Toni said simply, curling her fists slightly. She turned her back to Ava, and flounced down the hill to the beach. 

"Oh, there she is!" Ava shouted, making the girls turn round and look at both of them, quickly assessing the conversation. Leah buried her head further in her book, Martha widened her eyes at Toni and Fatin leaped up from her spot to rummage through her soaking wet suitcase.