Finding Lily

39- Alex

Luke drifted off to sleep somewhere after the first hour. His head was leaned back into the crook of my neck so the change in his breathing pattern was obvious. My body had started to hurt by that point but not nearly as bad as his. I tried to forget for a moment where we were as the waves rocked us. We still had a whole day ahead of us.

Hunger pangs came next. Those I could ignore pretty easily. The chapped lips and dry throat were a little harder but I knew it was only a matter of time before the rain came. The top of the cage was positioned well enough to block the sun but I knew that with some wind, we'd be able to drink up whatever precipitation came our way.

At around noon, Luke started to stir. When he realized where he was, he reached up his hand to place it over the one I had wrapped around him. He squeezed it so I let him go, and he crawled out of my lap to sit next to me. After stretching my arms and flexing my toes, I looked over at him.

"Morning." Luke greeted.

"Morning." My voice was more monotone than his, earning me a confused look.

"Uh oh. Alex is back, huh?"

"What?"

"Whenever you get closed off. That's Alex."

In all the time he'd been calling me both names, I never understood if there was a reason he picked one over the other. Now I knew.

"You make me sound bipolar."

"No, just having an identity crisis." Luke said. "Right?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I guess."

"You know Lily is gonna win, right?"

"Maybe."

"You saved my life and suffered through hours of pain just to make me comfortable." Luke pointed out.

"You're my partner." Even I knew how stupid that sounded. Still, it was hard to admit I could care about someone. Everyone I ever cared about had left, either by choice or not.

"Uh huh. Sure."

The tide only fluctuated a few feet as the day wore on. At its worst, the water was up to our waists and we had to stand to fight it before it went back down. With dark clouds brewing in the distance, though, I knew it wouldn't be easy for much longer.

At around six o'clock, Luke scooted closer to me. We'd been keeping a tiny bit of distance since he woke up but apparently he was tired of it. I was too. When he was next to me, I rested my head on his shoulder. It was my turn to try to sleep.

****

The biggest problem with our cage was inability to see the stars. Instead, I looked out to the ocean, at the reflections of moonlight bouncing off the waves, imagining them to be constellations. Lightning struck in the distance, each one coming closer as a boom of thunder shook the sand washing over us.

"What was your favorite memory as a kid?" Luke asked me. I lifted my head off of his shoulder to look at him.

"I'm not sure."

"Come on. You must have something."

I concentrated on the crashing waves, digging deep in my memories. The strongest ones had been dark, full of death and pain. They were easily accessed whenever I needed more motivation to get revenge. Happy memories were trapped underneath. Dusty. Unused.

"My mother's garden." I replied.

"What kind of garden?"

A rainbow of color danced in my brain. "Flowers. Purple, red, pink, yellow, white, she loved them all. Especially lilies." I could picture her in a white dress, standing in the middle of them all, twirling, without a care in the world. "Every weekend, we would make bouquets and give them out around the neighborhood. I was young then, maybe ten. One day, we delivered a bouquet to a woman who had just lost her husband in a car accident. She was a wreck. Those flowers made her smile, if only for a brief moment."