Drea

Chapter five: Leaving Cyan

I drifted in and out of a fitful sleep until the light of dawn started to peek through the cave entrance. I rub my eyes, still swollen from crying.
My blonde hair is a tangled mess and I try to comb it with my fingers as best as I can, before throwing on my grey pom pom beanie. I slip my feet into my hiking boots and do up the laces.

I brought them two years ago, with the money I saved from working part time at the local gas station owned by Jeremiah, one of my dad's old friends. I quit working there about the same time I dropped out of school, a couple of months after my mother and sister died and my dad went off his rocker. Cyan was twenty two and had graduated high school five years earlier, when it happened. He took over dads little mechanics shop and hired our neighbours son, Thane. Thane didn't really have any experience as a mechanic and there were a few better qualified candidates, but we had been friends with him since we were children and he really wanted the job. It took him a few days to pick up on the basics, but in the end he turned out to be a natural.
Cyan runs the only mechanic shop in our little town of Trenton, so the business relatively good. I on the other hand, was hired at the local hunting and fishing store soon after I quit school. Mr Carson said it was because "I was charming and people loved me." But I knew it was because he pitied me. Every one in town does, but I don't mind. Cyan said to milk it for all it's worth, so maybe we can get something good out of our loss.
I don't make as much money as Cyan, but it's better than nothing. I work hard and try not to take days off during the spring and summer so I can have most of Autumn off to prepare for Winter just like we are now........ Or we were, until Cyan broke his shin.
If I had the choice I would have finished off my last two years of high school, but I couldn't let Cyan pay all the bills on his own.
I'm turning nineteen in two months and I'm still stuck in the same old town of Trenton. The same town I'll be stuck in for the rest of my life. A town famous for the big hunting competition that's held every Autumn and for having the most blizzards during the cold months of Winter.

I pack the things I will need into my backpack and leave the rest for Cyan. I split the food we have left between us as evenly as I can. Five cans of spaghetti, two cans of peaches, six packets of crackers, a big packet of nuts and raisins and the other nine bags of moose meat that I cooked last night. I leave him three cans of spaghetti, a can of peaches, two packets of crackers, the nuts and raisins and five packages of cooked meat.
I pack the rest of the food into my backpack along with my sleeping bag, the box of matches, the pistol ammunition and a hunting knife wrapped in a rag.
By this time Cyan is awake and trying to get me to take more food. "You need it more than I do Drea, your the one who needs to keep your strength up." He keeps this up until he finally convinces me to at least eat some nuts before I leave.
I grab a handful and eat them just to get him to shut up.
I chuck the painkillers at him and they hit his chest landing in his lap.
"Make them last." I say in all seriousness.
"Okay." His pupils dilate as he looks at them like a teenage boy looks at his first crush. I lie the rifle and the ammunition down next to him. He looks at me in astonishment. "Look after Mackenzie." I say again in all seriousness.
He stutters "Drea....I-I."
I roll my eyes. "You need to protect yourself, who knows who might seek shelter in this cave."
His face contorts from shock to anger in the blink of an eye. "You think I can just let you go out there without a weapon!" He shouts, his face turning red with rage.
"I won't be unprotected." I yell just as equally pissed. "I'll have this." I state firmly, picking up the pistol lying on the stone floor next to Cyan.
"Why can't I just have that."
I clench my teeth and reply in as calm a voice as I can manage. "I can't just leave you here with a pistol Cyan. You've got a broken shin for gods sake! If a predator comes you won't be able to move and a what good will a pistol do against a pack of hungry wolves!" We sit in silence for what feels like minutes before Cyan rubs his face. His defeated sigh vibrates through his whole body. "Fine, whatever." He takes the pistols holster belt from around his waist and hands it to me, wincing in pain as he does. "Your so stubborn." He says with a little smile on his face.
I tighten it so it's snug around my waist before holstering the gun. "I have to go now." I say awkwardly because I know what's coming.
"Okay........" He replies, just as awkward.
"I love you, Drea. Don't forget that."
I blink in surprise, did he just say "I love you" without making a joke out of it?
"Uh... Yeah, love you too." As soon as I say it I'm on my knees and I try to clear the ashes and snow that's accumulated over the night, out of the little entrance. I shimmy halfway out of the cave before hearing the joke about me being daring he always makes.
"Don't be to daring out there." I smile before shimmying the rest of the way out and starting the long hike back home.