After helping Dot and Fatin finish up the current inventory, Marley, Toni and Martha left for a walk along the shore and past the rocks to look for a makeshift crutch for Martha to use. It also gave them the chance to talk, just the three of them, without fear of anyone eavesdropping for the first time.
"You know, if this was under different circumstances, this island would make a nice vacation." Marley remarked, looking over at her friends as Toni carried Martha on her back. "There would be a huge resort, shit tonnes of food and endless amounts of cocktails."
"But we're all under-aged, Marley," Martha replied, being the wholesome one of the group whereas Toni just laughed.
"Well sure, but you know us, we'd find a way to get round it," Marley retorted.
"We wouldn't have to worry about when or what we would eat and we would be able to sleep in nice luxury beds," Toni added before setting Martha down to sit on one of the rocks.
"Oh hey, what about this, Marty?" Marley asked, holding up a broken tree branch. "It's strong enough to give you support and the way it's broken almost looks artistic." Martha nodded and Marley went back over, handing it to her before sitting beside Toni in the sand.
"We'll get out of this you guys. And then we can go home and forget this even happened. It'll be just us three again," said Toni, trying to convince herself that when they were rescued nothing would change. "Marty put your foot in the water for a bit, it'll help." Martha did as Toni suggested, tensing slightly at the cold temperature of the water.
"So how does it feel?" Marley asked.
"I don't know? Cold," Martha muttered whilst Toni let out a small laugh.
"Yeah, that's the point Marty."
"Someone is definitely coming for us though, right?" Martha asked, vulnerability laced clearly in her tone.
"Obviously," Toni stated. "You have noticed the amount of rich white girls on this island right?" Martha chuckled.
"She's right. There's no way the Texas Pageant Princess will be left on an island for long." Marley added.
"You know, Shelby said her dad's probably at the White House right now. Just yelling at the President to come and find us." Martha said, looking out at the sea. She didn't realise how Marley and Toni's attitudes fell slightly at how much more faith Martha seemed to have in Shelby than in them. "Do you think we'll be famous after? Shelby said they'll probably give us a nickname. Something for people to remember us and our story with." Martha carried on.
"Let me guess, Marty. She also told you about talk shows, interviews and a shit ton of press? Told you we'd be famous?" Marley asked, bitterness laced through her tone, not that Martha noticed.
"Jesus Christ, Marty, you can't go two seconds without bringing her up can you?" Toni snapped, where Martha seemed slightly confused at the harshness.
"What?"
"You know she's just gonna drop you once all this is over?" Toni questioned, looking over at her.
"You don't know that," Martha replied feebly.
"Look, Marty, I love you but think about it. She's from Dallas first of all and there's no way she'd invite you down there. She's a Christian. And she does pageants. And after all this is over she'll soak in the fame and go on back to her little Christian friends pretending the world is perfect." Marley spoke up, ignoring the surprised look from Toni at her outburst. "I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm just trying to get you understand the reality."
"I do understand the reality. You two were prejudiced against her from the second she spoke. And the two of you don't get to sit there and lecture me about reality when you're living in your little fantasy moments as if you're still together and like you didn't break her heart, Marley." Marley shrunk back at the statement, watching as Martha used the branch to stand up. "I'm gonna head back and let you two calm down a bit." And with that, she left, hobbling back along the shore to find the others, leaving the ex-couple sat in a strange silence.
"She didn't mean that, Mar. She's just scared. We all are." Toni reassured the girl, wanting to wrap a comforting arm round her but also not wanting to overstep when Marley was so unlike herself.
"I know she is, I know. But she's not wrong is she? I broke you."
"No, you didn't. I deserved it. And anyway look at us now, hey? Here on a deserted island together. Together, Marley. We can put last year behind us, okay?" It was strange for Marley to see and hear Toni in such a soft tone after how stern she had been on the island and the majority of the past year.
"You smashed my car," Marley said, a small laugh escaping her lips.
"Yeah well, you didn't like the car anyway did you?"
"Not the point .. but you really mean that? We can put it behind us?"
"Yeah of course," Toni replied, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders, Marley leaning her head against Toni's.
"But, just to clarify .. you don't hate me for everything I said? Because I didn't mean it and I know you did it to protect us .. and instead of thanking you for it I ruined everything."
"You didn't ruin everything, Mar. If you had, why would I still be here? Why would we have stayed friends so soon after? I could never hate you, you know that."
"I could never hate you, either," Marley replied with a smile. "I still care about you Toni, I just don't want to ruin things again."
"I know what you mean, Mar, and you know I still care about you, I always have. But we can tale things slow, not address anything so we don't put any strain on it, and figure things out over time okay?"
"I like the sound of that," Marley replied with a smile and the pair stayed sat in the same position for a while, neither wanting to move from the position they had found themselves in, feeling at home and happy again despite the situation.
"We should head back before it starts getting dark. See if the others realised they wouldn't see anything on top of that mountain." Marley spoke up after around an hour, lifting her head from Toni's shoulder.
The two girls chuckled before standing up, Marley sliding her hand into Toni's nervously as they walked back along the shore to their 'main camp', remaining hand in hand the whole way.
"So, you remember the girl I threw piss at?" Toni asked on their way back, curious as to how and why the girl remembered it.
"Of course I remembered. And she did deserve it like I told you last night. She was all up her own ass talking shit about us and how disgusting we were so you kissed me right in front of her and her friends before throwing your own piss at her," Marley replied with a laugh, "and she never spoke bad about us again. Homophobic asshole." The two girls headed back over to the group, sitting just a little away from Martha before she gave them a smile, encouraging that their mini dispute had been forgotten, and they sat beside her again as though nothing bad had happened.
***
"So yourself and Toni reconciled on the second day? Was that not a bit rushed, don't you think?" Faber questioned.
"I don't think you should be asking that question since it's really none of your business." Marley retorted, sipping the coke they had given her. "But we were seeing each other in a newer light, I suppose."
"And would you say that made your time on the island easier? Knowing that you both still felt the same way about one another?" Young piped up.
"Yes and no. I mean, I've always cared about her and it was nice knowing she still cared about me but we were still stuck on an island. With people we didn't know. Not a lot could make that easier."
"And another question, yourself and Martha. You mentioned how you knew from a look that the argument had been forgiven?" Faber asked.
"That's what happens when you're friends your entire lives. You make your own type of language without words. We all understand each other and we can't really hold grudges against each other." Marley replied.
***
Shelby was the only one yet to return to the group, but when she did, she had a huge, triumphant smile on her face and held up a black bag, nothing too discernible about it from the distance.
"From the looks of things this was our pilot," Dot said, looking through the bag and finding the ID. "Well, sir, I don't have a good feeling about where you're at right now but I can promise you that the shit you left behind won't be wasted."
"Dottie, don't be morbid." Shelby piped up.
"What's in the bag?" Marley asked, laying on the sand with her head in Toni's lap, ignoring the strange looks cast their way by Shelby, knowing that was a hill she didn't want to climb. Not yet anyway.
"Pain pills. Disinfectants. There's near enough an entire medicine cabinet in here." Dot whistled, impressed.
"Vicodin?"
"Yep."
"Oxycodone?"
"Yep."
"Codeine?"
"Yep again, how do you know all this?" Dot queried, Marley only just noticing the confused looks from the others and the unsettled one from Toni.
"I could ask you the same thing." Marley retorted, closing her eyes to the sun. "Give Martha a couple vicodin with the water and then one and a half oxycodone with some food." Dot gave Shelby the pills and the blonde made her way over to the trio.
"Down the hatch," she said brightly.
"I've only ever had the store brand kind before." Martha said, looking up at Shelby with bright admiration clear in her eyes.
"She didn't buy them for you Marty, it was just dumb luck." Toni said sharply as Shelby handed her the rest of the pills.
"Thank you so much Shelby," Martha gushed, earning groans and scoffs from the two girls beside her.
"How do you say you're welcome in Native-American?" Shelby wondered, with too much fake positivity in her voice for Marley to handle so she took Toni's hands and used them to cover her ears.
"Well," Martha continued, ignoring the behaviour of her two best friends, "In Ojibwe it's miigwech." At that, Toni patted Marley's shoulders, a wordless gesture she understood, and the pair got up before walking over to sit on the other side of Martha and Shelby.
"Okay," Shelby replied.
"She's all pretend." Marley scoffed, laying back in the sand as Toni sat beside her, knees to her chest.
"Yeah, but Marty's too pure to see shit like that even when it's right in front of her face." Toni replied, her glare locked on the two.
"It's annoying I know, but ignore them okay? Lay with me."
This earned a small smile from Toni as the pair laid back in the sand, hands brushing each others as they tried to calm down and relax, blocking out Shelby and Martha's voices if only for a little while.
What they didn't notice was the looks from the other girls - especially Fatin and Dot - as they saw a newfound closeness between the two friends, and they started to piece together that the two may have been more than friends at some point in time, as Dot and Fatin just gave each other knowing smiles.