Taylor's POV
Calum cried in my arms for a good 5 minutes and I didn't mind. He had the right. He'd lost his sister, his support, and we needed to be there for him.
Calum stopped crying. He just sat there, his head in my chest. He'd stopped shaking, but the pattern of his breathing told me he was still awake.
I ruffled his hair slightly. "I'm really, really sorry, Calum," I said quietly, almost like a whisper, "I didn't know. I'm going to be here for you whenever you want and I'm going to try my best to help you."
Calum got out of my arms and embraced me into a hug. I rubbed his back in circles, still trying to comfort him.
He pulled out after a moment, and sat down next to me.
"Are you hungry?" I asked.
Calum nodded in response.
"I'll be back in a sec." I said.
I got up and made my way back to the boat where I'd left the biscuit packs. I opened the compartment again, this time to get two bottles of water. I carried the two biscuit packs and the bottles of water back to where Calum was.
I sat down next to Calum, handing him a pack of biscuits and a bottle of water. He immediately opened the bottle and started to drink the water as if it were his oxygen.
After seeing how thirsty he was, I realized how thirsty I was myself. I opened my own bottle of water and started drinking it, enjoying it.
I finally stopped drinking and saw that I'd drank half the bottle. Calum drank about 2/3 of his. We opened the biscuit packs and started eating from them.
"Thanks." Calum said after a minute.
"For what?"
"Lending me a shoulder to cry on."
I smiled, "Anytime."
We ate, while the sounds of biting into biscuits, chewing, and occasional drinks of water filled the void of silence between us.
After we'd finished, we went back to the main area of the island.
Ashton was up. Calum went over and started talking to him, while I saw Luke approaching me. He seemed to have calmed down from the incident with him and Michael.
"You okay?" I asked when he was right in front of me.
"Yeah," Luke said, "um, Michael apologised to me, and um, he said that he had, like, he was letting his anger out on me. So I'm guessing he's, like, he might need to talk to someone."
I nodded. "Did you say anything?"
"Yeah," he said, "I suggested he should talk to you, but um, I think you should talk to him."
"Yeah, okay, I will." I said, "Have you had breakfast?"
"Yeah, I had it with Ash."
I was slightly surprised by his use of nickname. I smiled, "So how's Ash?" I said, teasingly.
Luke punched me lightly on the shoulder, "Shut up!" He said. He couldn't resist the smile on his face.
I gasped. "Are you gay?" I whispered, wide-eyed and excited.
"Eww! No! What the heck?!"
"Seriously?" I said, not whispering anymore, "You say 'yuck' about gays?"
"No, it's just.. I've always been straight." Luke said. "You take things way to far sometimes."
"So you're just friends with Ashton?"
"Yup. He's a really nice guy, though. He's really funny, nice to talk to. Very giggly, can't forget to mention that." he said.
I nodded. "Well you go hang out with 'Ash' and Calum, I'm gonna go talk to Michael, yeah?"
Luke nodded and headed off to where Ashton and Calum were having a conversation, while I went to Michael at the other end of the main area we'd set.
He was laying down, looking at the sky.
I felt a little scared. Was he going to hurt me because he couldn't hurt Luke? But when he turned to see me approaching, I saw his green eyes which were for a different intention, they seemed soft and apologetic. So instead of turning around, I continued walking to where he was, letting him sit up at my arrival.
"Hey Michael." I said.
"Hey, er, Taylor," he said to me, his fingers scratching the back of his neck, "look, I'm sorry about what I did to Luke."
"Don't worry, you don't need to apologise to me." I said before he could say anything else.
Michael smiled at me while I sat down next to him.
"Hey, you know, you seem like a really nice guy, and you wouldn't usually shout at people, also judging by how you apologised. I have a feeling you need to talk to someone. You know, reduce the burden on your back."
"Luke told me," Michael said, "he told me about how trustworthy you are and comforting and all."
"So do you want to talk to me right now?" I asked.
"Yeah, if you're not doing anything else." Michael replied.
"So as far as I remember, you told us that you rebelled against your parents and got piercings and your hair dyed." I said.
"That was a lie." He said.
I was slightly taken aback, but shook it off quickly. "Okay, so what's the truth?"
"It wasn't to rebel against my parents, it was peer pressure in school. I didn't want to do it."
I understood exactly what he meant. School peer pressure can practically control you to do anything at all.
"I came back home and my parents wouldn't even listen to what I had to say. They wanted me out of the house within minutes. And I had no choice."
"So do you really care about what they think?" I asked.
"Yeah. Especially my mum."
"How did your mum react?"
That's when he broke down into tears. He obviously didn't want to talk about it. I put my hand on his shoulder, and instead of leaning on my shoulder, he rested his head in my lap.
'Maybe that's how he used to cry in his mum's lap.' I thought to myself.
"It's going to be okay." I whispered as his whole body shook with sobs.
2 hours later
Michael and I sat together and talked for a while. Then we went back where Ashton, Calum and Luke were talking and laughing.
Calum saw Michael and I walk over. "Should we have lunch now?" He said.
"Yeah, I'll get the stuff from the boat." I said.
I went to the closest boat which this time was the boat Luke and I came in.
Today was like a day where I kept spotting things in boats.
As I opened the compartment and got some cans, something caught my eye in the boat.
My phone.
I dropped all the cans I was holding and dived to grab my phone. As soon as I felt the soothing touch of the farmiliar device in my hand, I got up and ran to the others.
"Guys!" I said, "I found my phone!"
All their faces seemed amazed. When I got to them, I unlocked my phone.
"Call someone." Michael said.
As I was about to do just that, Ashton spoke up.
"Wait, we have to remember that we can't charge it."
Ashton had, no doubt, raised a brilliant point. I checked and saw I had 94% battery left. That was pretty good. I closed all running apps and put the brightness to the lowest.
It was barely possible to see the screen because of the sun's glare, and as Michael saw this, he blocked the glare with his hand.
"Thanks." I said. Michael nodded in response.
I went straight to the Phone app. My fingers hovered aimlessly over the number keypad, unable to understand what number to dial.
"Who should I call?" I asked. It sounded like a silly question, but no one seemed to have an answer.
"We don't know where we are, so we don't know what police number." Ashton said.
"Call mum." Luke said. Everyone nodded in agreement. It didn't have to be his mum, it could be any relative of ours.
I went to My Contacts, then into My Favourites and tapped the first contact which happened to be my dad.
I put it on speaker and we all stayed silent, listening etentively.
A woman's robotic voice spoke.
"You have no signal."
'Beep beep beep'
"You have no signal."
'Beep bee-'
I hung up.
"Well keep it safe," Ashton said, "don't use up all its charging. Use it only if necessary."