When 17 young adults find themselves on a deserted island, they must build a life from the ground up. Being stranded means hard days, cold nights, dangerous waters and mysterious events where the castaways must learn to survive. Despite the inevita...
I left the infirmary and felt the first tear caress itself down my cheek.
I walked down the trail and wiped my tears before I finally ventured out to the beach. I saw Diana sitting next to the ocean with her arms wrapped around her knees. The wind embraced her hair like a lost lover. She looked like she belonged with the nature, rather than away from it. Everything about her was peaceful except her eyes. That shade of dark blue never presented itself in the natural world. That color only came from years of self-torment.
I walked towards her and sat down beside her. The sun had simmered from this morning, as if mourning for a lost life.
Diana clutched Aspen's ring in her palm, twirling the silver around her fingers. She looked straight ahead at the horizon, staring at it like they were having a silent conversation. She looked beautiful even when she was angry. My heart ached inside my chest and I coughed softly.
"Kit and Rem are going into the tree groves to bury her body."
She turned to me slowly then. She looked at my cheeks and then at my eyes. Her voice came out hoarse, like she'd been screaming all her life. "I'd like to go with them."
I only nodded, but I wanted to say something more. I wanted her to keep looking at me.
"Diana I-"
"I spoke to her yesterday," she whispered, eyes pooling with tears. "She was afraid. She wanted to go home. But not once, did I get the impression she wanted to kill herself."
She spoke like she knew the feeling. I didn't say anything. All I wanted to do was squeeze all the broken parts of her voice and show her that angel's weep too.
"I don't," she frowned and tears spilled down her cheek. "I don't think she took her own life, Piper. Maybe it's denial or just stupidity but I can't imagine she would sign up for this if she-"
"I think we all cling to a deeper meaning when we care about people." I said. I watched her chin quiver and I bit my bottom lip. "May I?" I asked reaching my fingers forward towards her.
I never wanted to be a cause for her aversion to touch, and if that meant asking permission for proximity then fuck it. Her small nod felt like it wasn't deliberate, like she didn't know what she was agreeing to but was too tired to ask.
I inched closer and swept her hair behind her ears before moving to swipe the tears that lined her pale cheeks. I saw her eyes widen and then flutter close. She moved towards my knuckles and pressed her cheek into my hand. I didn't want to move, I didn't want to do anything. I wanted to stay here, sitting on the coarse sand with as much salt in her hair as blue dye in mine and feel her skin against mine.
Then when she moved up and my thumb was on the edges of her lips. Her entire body stilled and I swallowed a breath. I lightly traced the outer edge of her lip with the pad of my thumb and I saw her chest heave and body shudder. I didn't know how but both of us had gotten closer. My face was inches away from hers.
She opened her eyes and half-lidded, I saw her look down at my lips. Both of us were breathing deep and fast now, I could taste her exhales. Then something poured over Diana's mind like liquid magma and every emotion in her eyes disintegrated. She pulled her face away from mine and my hand fell. She fell back slightly on the sand, but caught herself with her elbows. She moved back hurriedly and stood up so fast, I had no idea what I did wrong.
"I-I'm sor-" I began to say but she had already started walking towards the trail.
"I should go," I saw her swallow down. "I need to go."
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