Red

9

Sam and I talk about our life before we got stranded here while we eat the coconuts. He was 19 and was a first year music major. He told me about his teachers, the ones he liked, but mainly the ones he disliked. I told him about my senior year in high school, my art classes, and my least favorite class, math.

"We should get in the water," Sam suggests out of nowhere making me laugh, surprised.

"In the water?" I question.

"Yeah," he says with a happy face. He takes off his shirt and tosses it on the rocks. "I'll go first." He slides into the clear water in his gym shorts. "Ahh," he breaths out. "Feels nice."

I chuckle. "Fine, I'll get in," I give in. I unbutton Annabelle's flannel shirt that I was wearing. I didn't want to get it wet and I was wearing a sports bra, so I figured it was fine. I keep my black running shorts on and am about to slid in when I stop.

I notice my gauze was coming off. I take my leg out of the water and unwrap it. I'll just put it back on before we leave. Van will never know.

I put the gauze next to the flannel and slid in. "Van told me about your cut," Sam mentions. "You seem to be dealing with it just fine."

"Yeah," I say. "It doesn't hurt that much. It just looks kind of bad because it's big." I don't mention how I was a complete baby when Van was putting the medicine on my leg.

Sam nods his head. "You're a strong girl, really. I don't know if I would be able to do all this walking if I had a cut like that," he says.

I smile. Sam was sweet. I dunk my head under the water and then stand back up on my tippy toes since I was only 5'5". I think Sam noticed me struggling to stand.

"It's a little shallower over there," he says, pointing to our left. He holds out his hand, which I take, and guides me to the shallower part.

"Thanks," I say, my feet now touching the rock bottom.

"No problem, shortie," he says.

"Hey!" I say, splashing him with some water.

He laughs and splashes me back. "It's true," he laughs.

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Whatever," I roll my eyes, messing around with him.

//—————

Sam and I get out of the water after spending probably twenty minutes in there. "We should probably head back. It looks like it's gonna be getting dark soon," Sam says, shaking his hair out with his hands.

"Yeah," I agree, squeezing my hair out and putting Annabelle's flannel back on.

"I'll carry the water," Sam says, picking up the heavy water jug.

"Are you sure? I mean, you carried it here. I can get it," I say, feeling bad.

"Don't worry about it. I got it," he says.

"Good. Because I really didn't want to carry that thing," I say pretending to be relieved.

Sam chuckles and we begin walking back.

//—————

We get back in about twenty minutes. It was much faster than when we were going to get water since we didn't stop every couple feet to look at something new.

"There's Van," Sam says. "We should ask him where he wants this," he says, referring to the water. I haven't asked Sam about his opinions on Van yet. Everyone seemed to like him and he seemed to like everyone except for me.

"Yeah," I agree with him, even though I didn't really want to go see Van.

We walk over by the plane where Van was and Sam speaks. "Hey, Van," he says.

Van turns around from Benji and Bob and smiles at us. "Hey...Nice job," he says, noticing the water jug Sam was carrying. "Where'd you even find that?" Van asks.

"In one of the cabinets in the way back," Sam answers.

"Awesome. That's great, really. You can go put it on the plane with the other water bottles. I think Alex was looking for you, too. Might want to go talk with him," Van says.

"Alright, will do. See you both later," he says with a smile before wandering off.

"I'll be back in a few," Van says, turning to Benji and Bob before looking back at me. "Come here," he whispers. His voice sounded upset. He holds his hand out for me. I begin to shake a little and hope he doesn't notice when I take his hand. I'm trying to think of what I could have done that was wrong.

It doesn't take me long to realize at all what I did. I left my gauze at the waterfall. I look down at my exposed cut and I feel my heart beat quicken.

Van and I walk far away from the rest of the group and closer to the forest area. I got more and more scared as we got further away.

Van blue eyes looked furious as he spoke. "You better start talking right now," he says in a low and angry voice. "Where is your gauze."

"It was," I start, but then choke on my own words. "I-" I stop again, unable to form any cohesive thought. "It..." My eyes tear up and my breathing speeds up. I'm praying I don't have panic attack. That's the last thing I needed. I would look even more pathetic.

Van crosses his arms. He was clearly still pissed. "What is it? What happened to the gauze?" He asks me again. His voice no less mad than the previous time he asked.

I try my best to speak again. "I was-" I gasp and then stop. Why can't I just speak like a normal person? Why is Van the scariest person to me? My knees suddenly feel weak and I place my hands on my knees, trying to hold myself up.

Van's hands grab under my arms and he sets me down on the ground. He sits directly across from me, so close that his knees were overlapping mine.