I don’t know what happened last night, whether I fell down and knocked myself out like I usually do or just simply fell asleep, but whatever it was, it was pretty dumb of me because I just woke up in a tent, their tent.
‘Hey, there, had a good sleep?’ Zach smirks as I sit up rubbing my blurry eyes.
As soon as I could see him properly I roll my eyes, and step out of the tent looking around and taking everything in.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ he warns. ‘You got me in trouble,’ he says angrily, face cold and hard.
‘Where’d you find me?’ I ask still looking around for who knows what.
‘On the floor somewhere, but I wasn’t the one who found you. One of the other guys did.’
I started to get bored so I started to walk off. ‘Hey, you can’t just do that!’ he says, holding onto my arm and glaring at me.
‘Do what?’ I ask simply, smile, and shake off his hand.
‘You can’t just walk off,’ he says fiercer and grabs my arm again making me turn around.
‘Watch me,’ I shrug him off and keep walking as if he wasn’t there. He stops me once again. ‘What now?’ I whine. ‘We’re going the wrong way. I’m a man and I'm older than you, I should be leading you not the other way round.’
I think I made him embarrassed because I snorted at the end with the thought. When I looked away again I kept on walking but after three steps he stops me again.
‘Remiah, I mean it. We’re going this way.’
I moan, which made him pull my arm harder. ‘Ow! Relax, geez! You’re gonna end up pulling my arm off!’ I hear him mumble something, so I stop and stare at him.
‘What was that sorry? I didn’t quite get it.’ He ignores me and tries to pull me his way but I dig my heels into the earth and wrench my arm away from him.
‘Go on share your little secret.’ I say, starting to act like an annoying little child. He ignores me again and grabs my arm, this time tighter, fiercer.
Being me; I use my other hand and pull my other arm free. He grabs it again just as tight as last time but pulls me down a bit and turns me until we were face to face. I look away, and try to ignore him, but he turns me to look him straight in the eye.
‘Stop! Don’t do that staring thing with me again Zach! I’m warning you.’
But he doesn’t stop; he just kept on staring, just as black and cold as last time. I try to match his death glare but there was no point.
‘Zach, stop it! I don’t want to hurt you again, but I will and you know it.’ I try to look away but he turns me again, the silver shimmer rippling through his eyes, I could feel my body turning cold and numb and my breathing starting to slow down just like before.
Then in one swift movement slap him, and that was it; the instant he let me go and looked away I ran and ran, once again.
In a way I was lucky that it was morning and the sun was behind me, this time I could see where I was going and not having to worry about what was underneath me.
After a while I knew I lost them, and started to walk a bit, to conserve my energy, and then started to run again.
I got so caught up in my thoughts I wasn’t looking at where I was running and literally bumped into someone.
‘Remy?’ a deep voice says as I groan. ‘Billy?’ I look up and there he was. ‘You alright?’ he laughs.
‘Yeah I’ll live. What are you doing in the forest, so far from town?’
‘To get fire wood I guess.’ He says simply.
‘This far from-’
‘-How about you?’ he cuts in looking somewhere else in the forest.
I hesitate, ‘to explore,’ I lied, he looked at me weirdly, ‘I got bored and came here and then, well, I got lost.’ I look away trying to ignore him.
‘Fair enough. Hey, why don’t you stick with me? And we can both find our way back, cos I’m kinda lost too.’
‘Um… nah, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,’ I start to walk off.
‘Oh, come on Remy, it’ll be fun. Plus you’re going the wrong way, town’s that-a-way. ’ he points at the way I came from but a little to the left, smiling at me with an eye brow up.
‘Don’t look at me like that,’ I say about to start laughing but I thought otherwise as I realised who was really in front of me.
‘So you gonna do it?’ he smiles looking at the so called “right direction.”
I contemplated him for a moment. ‘Nah, sorry. We’re going to have to go our own ways,’ I started walking off again but a bit faster and to the way he pointed, and he let me.
When the sun went down I just kept on walking, I didn’t stop. Not until it was pitched black and I was shivering, and my legs were aching. I told myself not to fall asleep but I guess it just happened as I lay under a tree not far from the beach.
¼
‘Hey[mj3] , rise and shine princess.’
I open my eyes and find Billy right beside me, his arm around my neck and a put out fire nearby. ‘Billy? What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go your own way.’ I say angrily moving away from his arm and sitting up.
‘You did, and I didn’t listen, and well, I followed you,’ he sits up smiling as if it was nothing. ‘You followed me?’ I say affronted.
‘Yeah kinda, at the start I did but then I lost ya. And then I found you again, all cold and alone,’ he comes up closer and puts his arm around me again looking at me with such a helpless innocent expression.
‘Okay… well, you can go your way and I’ll go mine,’ I shrug him off and look for a way I can go trying my best to avoid him.
‘Aw, c’mon Remy, don’t be like this.’ He says in that calm voice of his.
Why won’t he leave me alone? I wondered.
And then I thought: if I can’t talk him away maybe I can scare him away.
Ha! As if. But I tried anyway.
‘Billy, don’t you know about them people, the ones who live on the other side of the island?’
‘Yeah, everyone knows about ‘em.’ He says cocking his head to the side and staring at me as if wondering where I was going with this.
‘Yeah, so if they really are here, I think it’s better that if they do find one of us; we’ll be separate.’ I ask, now standing up.
‘Hmm, that’s true. But don’t you think if they did find one of us than their just gonna find the other one eventually.’ He debates, standing next to me, smiling. He did have a point, but I wasn’t finished yet.
‘True, but then it would be easier for them to find us if we’re together, making us both an easy target.’ For a moment he seemed to have something else to say but then it deflated, ‘Okay, fine, you’re right,’ he says defeated, ‘can I at least stay with you till the night? I mean I did tell you the right direction,’ he smirks.
I got caught off guard for a second at his quick reverse but then recovered just as fast. ‘Okay fine, but only ‘til the night.’ I sigh, this time I was the one who gave up.
‘Sounds like a deal,’ he smiles.
‘Oh, and we’re heading to the beach,’ I start walking. ‘Why we goin’ to the beach?’
‘Um… cause… I’m… scared…?’ I replied like a question, both knowing it was obviously a lie. ‘Okay… I’ll take it,’ he grins with a wink.
We walked in silence all the way, until we got to the beach, a few things were said but that was it. ‘Wow! It’s beautiful!’ he exclaims as soon as we see the beautiful scene before us.
‘Hey,’ I say to myself quietly, ‘I’ve been to this beach when I ran away…’ I trailed off realising Billy was listening to me.
‘What?’ he asks. ‘What? I didn't say anything,’ I replied too fast.
‘Remy, don’t play dumb with me. I heard you.’ He says taking a side way step closer to me.
‘So why’d ya ask then?’ I walk off toward the water trying to avoid him.
I hear him sigh, then follow me near the water letting it go, and we stood there in silence.
If this is part of the beach, than that means we’re going the wrong way. I thought carefully.
‘Billy, are you sure we’re going the right way?’
‘Sure, I'm sure,’ he grins. ‘Hey, wanna go for a swim?’
Before I could answer he takes off his top and pants and runs into the cold sea water.
‘C’mon Remy, it’s not that cold.’ He smiles, splashing the water playfully.
I watch him for a bit and decided; sure, why not?
‘Yeah! C’mon Remy,’ he grins, diving under the water.
I take off my jeans and touch the water with my toe first, sending a slight chill up my spine. When Billy gets back up to the surface and starts treading water, I could tell he was watching my every movement before I got to the deep bit and I could feel the heat creeping its way up my neck. By the time I reached him I could barely touch the ground and had to tread to get closer to Billy.
‘See, ain’t it nice?’ he smiles, the water right under his chin. ‘Yeah, a bit deep for me though,’ I force a smile still trying my best to tread and not drown.
‘You’ll live,’ he winks and he was under the water again.
I followed him to the shallower bit where I could touch the ground with my feet and stood up.
We swam by ourselves for a while then Billy got bored and swam to me. ‘Good swim so far?’ he asks.
‘Yeah, haven’t had a swim for ages now,’ I say looking at the endless dark blue sea.
He chuckles then goes under the water and before I knew it I was sitting on his shoulders.
‘Ah! Billy!’ I squeal. He moves around a bit with me still on his shoulders, and then falls backwards making me go under the water.
‘You ‘right?’ he chortles when I get back up, ‘yeah I’ll live,’ I smile.
Then he picks me up “princess style”, like Daniel did. He looks at me for a while with an amused glint in his eye, smiles cheekily before throwing me in the water and diving in after me.
We ran around the beach chasing and tackling each other, he picked me up a lot and threw me into the water just as many times.
When the sun was starting to set, Billy went to get firewood while I waited on the beach.
As he came back with a whole lot of firewood he sets it out in front of me carefully, standing on the other side.
‘Do you even know how to start a fire?’ I ask. ‘Nope,’ he smiles. ‘So, how are you gonna make a fire if you don’t know how to start it?’ I got up and stood next to him looking at the side of his face in amusement. ‘I have a lighter,’ he winks and I couldn’t help the laugh that came out this time.
I rested on Billy as we watched the evening turn into night, just listening to nature take its course around us, talking about random things. I got so caught up in everything that I forgot about our deal.
When it was pitch black and we were about to sleep that’s when I happened to remember it.
‘Billy, we still have a deal you know and it’s night time already,’ I start now opening my eyes wide.
‘Aw, c’mon Remy. Didn’t you have fun with me today? And plus, it’s already late, does it really matter?’
I prop up on my elbows and turn a bit so I could face him. ‘Yeah, but we had a deal. A deal’s a deal. Keep it,’ I look away and sit up properly this time.
He sits up too, ‘Remy, what do you want me to do? Just leave you?’ he asks sounding sad and concerned, but I knew better than to give in.
‘That was our deal,’ I say simply. ‘Remy…’ he puts his arm around me, but I move away.
‘Fine,’ I said, ‘if you won’t leave, then I’ll have to leave you.’ I stand up and look around, that didn't help because it was pitch black.
‘Remy, don’t do this,’ he says standing up. I take a quick look at him; grab one of the sticks poking out in the fire and start walking. ‘Remy!’ he calls following me.
He grabs my shoulder softly making me turn around. ‘Remy, please. We’ve already gotten this far through the night, just stay till the morning and we can work something out tomorrow – I swear.’
I was tired and annoyed and didn’t have the time to fight so I gave up so I said okay and let him take me back to the beach.