Back at camp, the men were stunned as they registered our muddy bodies. We relayed the events before they could ask too many questions, and Jake set me down so Derek could take a look at my ankle.
"Are you okay Cassie?" Cam asked as he left his spot by the fire to come by me.
I nodded, "it's been a rough day." I was trying my best to not be so ashamed of what happened. Wes and Adam fell in too and they were acting like nothing happened, so I wasn't sure why I was being such a baby about it.
Wordlessly, Cam wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. I hugged him back, enjoying his comfort.
"Hey, I fell in too, where's my hug?" Adam called from somewhere behind us. This got me to chuckle a little bit. I loved Adam sometimes.
Cam pulled away to face him. "You want a hug man? Come here," he opened his arms wide.
"Ummmmmm... no. Sorry, but that doesn't seem genuine," Adam said as he backed away. "I'm gonna go wash off. Cassie you coming?"
I glanced at Derek who had just returned with a new, clean wrap for my ankle.
"Yeah go ahead, I'll be able to see it better if it's clean. Just be extra careful of it," he said, waving me off.
"Woohoo! Let's go then!" Adam ran over and scooped me up. I squealed at his aggressiveness.
"Hey careful with her; she's fragile right now," Jake smirked.
"Oh I know! I'll take good care of her." He smiled sweetly in Jake's direction and I giggled. I tightened my arm around his shoulders to help support my weight.
He did take good care of me. He placed me gently in the water and helped me scrub the mud out of my hair. Wes joined us a little bit later and they both were trying hard to cheer me up. It was working. When we came out of the water, I got dressed in an army print, cropped t-shirt and black sweatpants.
Luke and Nathan returned with a rabbit to add to dinner, and them two along with Jake and Cam were finishing cooking while Derek checked my ankle.
He told me that it was more swollen than the day before, and I may have set my recovery back by about a day, but it didn't appear to have fractured any further. I'll tell ya though, I was getting real sick of being poked and prodded.
Dinner was nice. The stew actually ended up being pretty flavorful because of some new herb Nathan was rattling on about that gave it it's flavor. Since we didn't have many dishes, we all ate together, and passed around a few bowls. I didn't mind though, it made us all talk and get to know each other.
Tonight's dinner conversation was lighthearted, as we all talked about what kind of food we'd rather be eating right now and our favorite food of each category: ice cream, candy, dinner, breakfast, etc. The guys were all so different; ice cream flavors were all over the map, ranging from strawberry to pistachio to coffee to cake batter.
Although I enjoyed our conversation and spending time with the guys, after dinner I just needed to take a moment to myself. The sun was going down already anyway, so when we were finished I hopped over to a rock that jutted out above the water. I sat down and just stared out at the sunset. I tried to focus on the beauty, and not the fact that we were stranded. The breeze picked up, rustling the surrounding trees. Although I loved the sound, I was regretting coming all the way over here without a sweatshirt.
I began thinking about the guys and how much I appreciated the efforts they were making to cheer me up today. As much as I was beginning to care for these guys, and appreciated their gestures, I was just having a bad day and it wasn't anyone's fault. I was just scared. I missed my family more than ever—even my mom if I was being honest, and I felt alone. I wasn't sure how much time had passed when I heard someone approaching.
"Hey Cass..." Jake spoke from behind me, pulling me from my thoughts. I turned around and looked up at him. Since it was getting dark it was hard to tell, but he looked good in an athletic fit, light blue hoodie and white shorts. The bright colors made his skin look really tan.
"I um, I felt the wind pick up and thought you might want this since you always seem to be cold." He presented a black hoodie to me with a shy smile.
"Wow, yes I actually could use one. Thank you Jake," I smiled up at him and reached out for the sweatshirt.
"Want some company?" He asked.
"Sure. You can sit down if you want to." I quickly pulled the sweatshirt down over my head and scooted over to make room on the rock. "This sweatshirt is big," I said, holding the arms up and noting how much extra sleeve I had.
"Yeah, it's mine. It's the thickest one I could find for nighttime," he explained as he sat down next to me.
I felt better at his gesture and I loved that he let me wear his clothes. "Thank you," I said again in a quiet voice.
We both were silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"What's wrong? Before I thought it was just about the quicksand, but at dinner and even now you just don't seem yourself. Your smile isn't meeting your eyes like it always does... and I don't know. I just want you to know that you can talk to me about anything; that is, if you want to." He locked his big green eyes on mine while he spoke.
"I know I can Jake... but I don't know exactly how to even explain it." I looked up at him through my lashes. I could tell him how I was feeling, but doing so would make me sound insane and emotional, and that was not the kind of girl I wanted to be.
"Try me."
I took a deep breath. Despite my hesitation, I supposed if he was willing to listen, I'd let him in. "I guess I'm just kind of feeling a lot of things today. Like, I'm INSANELY frustrated because of my ankle; I can't go anywhere on my own, I'm not being very helpful, and today I couldn't even get myself out of the quicksand because of it. I'm just used to being so independent, and now I can't be," I paused to gather my thoughts.
"And I feel kind of defeated because of all the trouble that I'm always in, and Adam and Wes saying it's my fault. I know that they were just messing with me, and I like how you guys do that, but I already feel bad about getting into the situations that I do. I mean, it's not like I do these things on purpose, but I don't want to be someone who's always needing to be saved you know? Sorry for the rant." I let out a breath before looking up at Jake who seemed to be deep in thought.
"I see what you're saying. Right now yes, it does suck that your ankle is busted, but you're healing and it won't last, so you need to remember that. And as for feeling like you cause trouble... maybe; but you don't even understand how much you've helped us out. You're just looking at the negatives but do you even recognize everything you've done?"
I shook my head and looked out at the disappearing sun. I didn't know what he was talking about. It seemed to me like I was the least valuable person out here.
"You gave Derek stitches, you helped everyone clean their wounds, you're the one who heard the water first. I mean, who knows how long we would have walked before we found anything close to this? You found the cave, and you killed the deer. You see Cassie? you really aren't giving yourself enough credit. So what if I have to kill a spider for you, or pull you out of some quicksand here and there?"
I chuckled, "Well, let's hope that won't happen again. But it does help to hear it all put like that. I guess I wasn't aware of some of the things I was doing." I turned to look him in the eyes, "Thank you."
"Anytime," Jake said as he nudged me with his shoulder.
"Can I ask you something now?"
"Shoot."
"Are you scared?"
"Scared?" He cocked a perfect eyebrow at me. "Can you elaborate?"
"I mean, today I really didn't know how far I was going to sink, and if you think about quicksand, it's certainly not the biggest danger out here. I guess since the plane crashed, I looked at it like we had already survived, and were just waiting to be rescued; that there isn't really anything else that can be thrown our way that would prevent us from returning home to everyone we love. Clearly, that's not really the case, and now when I think about my friends and family, I miss them. I was okay to leave them for a month, but now knowing it's going to be at least that long and then some until people even start looking, and there's still a potential we won't even get home... I don't know. I can just hear my mom telling me "I told you so," and at the moment I would almost give anything to hear it. Bottom line is, I'm just feeling scared, and wanted to know if you are too."
"Hmm. I mean I'm not scared all the time, but yeah. Of course I've had my moments since I've been here. My situation at home isn't exactly simple, and honestly I haven't been home in a long while even before this, so I can't really relate on the missing my family part although I can imagine," he answered, but he didn't look me in the eyes.
I could tell there was a story here but I didn't want to press him. "Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to, but you help me so much, I'd like to help you if I can," I offered, placing one of my hands on his.
"Jeez, why is your hand so cold?" He wrapped his hands around mine, avoiding the question.
"Sorry," I shrugged. "You can just tell me if you don't want to talk about it you know."
He took a deep breath and it was quiet for a moment before he spoke. "My parents were both killed in a car accident when I was 17."
"Oh my gosh. I'm sorry Jake; I had no idea," I squeezed his hand tighter in mine.
"It's okay. It was hard for me, I'm sure you could imagine. Anyway, my brother, sister, and I were sent to live with my Aunt and Uncle. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but after my parents' death I kind of spiraled.
I nodded. "That's understandable Jake. What you all went through is tragic. Are you close with your siblings?"
"I wasn't for a while after my parents died. One day I'll tell you the full story, but right now I'm only comfortable saying I was getting into some trouble, and out of concern, my sister and brother shipped me off to join the military. I was there for a few years and when I returned I had changed, but I resented my family for just sending me away," he paused to take a breath before looking me in the eyes and continuing on.
"I realize now that they were doing what was best for me, and I was working on rebuilding my relationships with them when I came here. Now thinking about it, when you asked if I was scared... I guess I'm scared of my family not knowing how much I love and appreciate them, even after everything."
"Jake, I'm sure they know; and if for some reason they don't, you make sure they do once we get home," I smiled up at him and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you for sharing with me even if it wasn't the whole story. I can tell that wasn't easy for you,"
"Thank you for being a good listener. That's another good quality you bring to the group," Jake smiled down at me, "and I promise one day I will tell you all of it."
I smiled up at him and released the hug.
"Hey guys! It's pretty dark and I think we're moving into the cave soon. Did you want to sit by the fire before we put it out?" Derek called to us.
"No thanks man! We're coming in too," Jake called back. He turned to look at me, "We should probably head in with them. It's getting chilly now that the sun's under anyway."
"Yeah. Let's go," I agreed.
Jake stood up first and offered me his hand. I placed my hand in his and scrambled up to my foot. Knowing me though, of course something stupid had to happen.
Since it was dark, I accidentally stood up a little too close to the edge, and the thin tip of the rock crumbled away under my foot. I let out a startled cry as I slipped down off the rock's edge. I caught myself with my free arm on the edge, and my other still holding onto Jake's hand as the rest of my body hung down towards the water.
Jake hadn't fully released my hand from helping me up when it happened, thank god, so he was quick to jump into action.
"Shit!" He yelled as he quickly grabbed my other arm with his free hand. He let out a small grunt as he pulled me up back onto the ledge. "Are you okay?"
I made sure I was stable before answering. I was fine, my ego was not. Cliff-1, Cassie-0.
"Yeah I'm fine. Thank you. You can add "falling off of cliffs" to my list of trouble," I said with a halfhearted chuckle. I couldn't believe that just happened after everything I just said about getting into dangerous situations. There wasn't much else to do except laugh at my own stupidity, or I would go insane with frustration.
Jake laughed, "Okay trouble. Let's get you inside before something else can go wrong." This time, he bent down and scooped me up off the ground instead of helping me up first. I wrapped my arm around his neck to make it easier for him.
"Hey Jake, can you do me a favor and not tell the rest of the guys about our little cliff situation?"
He chuckled, "Sure Cass, but I'll know it happened."
"I can live with that."
"Good. So do you still want to sleep next to me tonight?" He asked as we were approaching the cave.
"I mean, you've been keeping me warm so I would like to, but if you don't want to we can sleep separate," I tried to read his face but it was too dark.
"Oh no it's fine. You always have a place next to me if you want it."
I do. Always.
Despite the incredibly rough start to my day, my heart was soaring as we entered the cave.
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Hello!
Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts thus far on some of the characters?
Comment, vote, critique, enjoy! See you in the next chapter! Some events from Cassie's past may or may not get brought up ;)
-Haley