Jeffie and The Lonely Boys (boyxboy)

Chapter 4: Leg up

"What the...how am I...?" He trailed off, and Keaton started explaining the situation to him in soft tones. I dropped my head into my hands, rubbing my eyes.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lance asked, putting a hand on my knee. I kept my hands on my face to conceal the blush. "Um, yeah. I'm good. Totally peachy. Totally didn't almost just die. Totally." I felt Lance move to sit next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"Well, you're not dead. So there's a plus. I prefer you breathing, don't you? Breathing is attractive to me, keep that up." I actually laughed, surprising myself. My hands dropped to my lap as I looked over at him and his smiling face.

"Yeah, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. You?" He chuckled, shaking his head.

"I like living, thanks. Even if I am in a jungle full of deadly traps. It's like the gay version of the hunger games. The homo games."

"Oh my gosh!" I started laughing again, covering my mouth. What an idiot.

"If you two lovebirds are done over there, we'd like to get a move on." Elijah said sarcastically. Elliot was waggling his eyebrows at us, and my blush returned. Jerks.

When we all had our fill of water, we cautiously began walking away from the oasis/slow death by quicksand hole.

"So, where exactly are we headed?" Elliot piped up, leading the way and swinging his arms to and fro.

"Who are you asking? It's not like any of us know." Keaton responded, keeping pace with Felix. Elliot gave Keaton a dry stare back.

"Well, we should probably try to figure out a direction, at least. I don't like wandering around out in the open of this place. I feel like I'm going to get speared in the back." He looked around as he said this, amplifying all of our paranoia and making us glance around as well. 

Elijah shook his head at his twin, pulling him out of the way of a branch he was going to trip over while walking backwards and turning him so he faced forward. "I don't think this place works that way," he said, scanning his surroundings. "I think we're being played with. What we do affects what happens to us. We have to be cautious."

Keaton snorted. "And what if we aren't being played with? What if we're all just stuck on some island, doomed to die?" I rolled my eyes at that.

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine." He scowled at me. "What?" I said. "The last thing we need is a giant Debbie downer telling us we're all doomed."

Lance nodded, agreeing with me. "Jeffie's right. And so is Elijah, I think. We need to keep a positive attitude, but we also have to play this carefully. If a path appears out of nowhere, go the opposite way. Same for water, since it's probably a trap." He gave me a dimpled grin as he said this, making me blush and look down.

"How was I supposed to know it was a trap..." I mumbled. Lance ruffled my hair, making my blush deepen before he continued.

"So, let's just head wherever it looks like there's a way out, and keep a sharp eye for food. Okay?" Everyone nodded or made some noise of agreement in response. Really, it was the best plan we had right now. We had no idea where we were, where to go, or what we were even doing here.

It's been over a day and a half, and we're alive. Hungry, thirsty, and irritable, but alive. At least there's that. Felix and Keaton, Elliot and Elijah, and me and Lance walked in pairs of two through the dense of the jungle.

Once we passed a large purple eggplant looking thing that Elliot tried to grab, but as soon as he got within two inches of it spikes erupted from it's flesh, making Elliot yelp and yank his arm back. Elijah smacked him for being an idiot, and we kept walking.