Page 17

Chapter fifteen

Darla

S omething wakes me, but when I open my eyes, everything is dark.

As soon as the rest of my senses fully come online, I freeze, my breath catching in my throat.

I can hear deep breathing around me, as if there are other people sleeping nearby.

Where am I? My fingers twitch and I realize there’s a large hand holding mine.

Crap shells! What’s going on? Why am I holding someone's hand? I try to take stock of the rest of my body and everything seems okay. I can feel my mattress beneath me, meaning I’m in my hut.

My vision starts to adjust to the darkness as the room starts to take shape.

Turning my head, I see someone laying in the hammock, and another sitting in the chair, resting their head and arms on the desk.

The last is sitting on the ground beside me, holding my hand.

Weston. I can see his short blonde hair from where his head’s resting on the bed beside me.

Why is he sitting beside me, and why is he holding my hand? I rack my brain, trying to remember what happened .

I left the safety of the tree, deciding to help them with Brutus. They hung him up, then I slit his throat and—There was blood, I had a flashback. I don’t want to remember anymore right now.

I can’t believe I passed out in front of them. Did they do anything to me? My clothing still seems to be in place, and I don’t feel any different, like I’ve been touched… down there. And the fact that Weston is holding my hand right now eases something in me. Bad guys don’t hold hands, do they?

As hard as I try, I can’t stop thinking about the blood that was on me. I use my free hand to rub my face and I’m surprised when it feels clean, as does my hand. Did they clean me?

Emotions battle within me. I’m hopeful that maybe these guys might be okay, maybe they’re safe. But on the heels of that emotion comes trepidation and fear. Letting my guard down would be dangerous. I don’t know them, and being this close is a stupid risk.

Deciding I need to get to the safety of my hammock, I begrudgingly pull my hand from Weston’s, missing the comfort it brought instantly.

As quietly as I can, I make my way out of the hut.

I see my bag under the chair Kingsley is sleeping in and decide to leave it, not wanting to risk waking him.

Instead, I quickly exit the hut and carefully make my way around the deck to the large tree trunk behind it.

I take my time climbing, since it’s so dark. It’s the reason I make sure to be in bed before the sun sets. Getting injured out here is no joke.

It takes me longer than usual, but when I finally reach my hammock, I curl up on my side and close my eyes.

Somehow, I feel more alone than ever.

“Zee!”

“Tink!”

I wake to the sound of voices calling my name.

Do they need my help? The sun has barely started to rise and I groan, sitting up.

Were these guys always such early risers?

I yawn, leaning over to grab my teeth cleaning supplies.

I sit and clean my teeth, listening to them repeatedly calling my name.

They don’t sound panicked, so I don’t think they’re in any danger.

When I’m done, I slowly make my way down the tree until I notice Kingsley below me on the skywalk. His eyes are scanning the trees as he calls my name. Why is he looking for me?

I know I spent some time with them yesterday, but today I’m feeling nervous about being around them again. They confuse me. Besides, I’m used to being on my own, it’s familiar, comfortable. Not enjoyable , though.

When I glance down, I realize my clothes are covered in dried blood. “Gross,” I whisper, turning to climb back up to my new home within the branches. I need to clean my clothes and since I’m not alone anymore, I can’t sit around naked while they dry. Luckily, I now have something else to wear.

Grabbing the black shirt from my bag, I make my way high up through the trees where I can avoid the guys, towards the waterfall.

When I finally make my way to the ground, I look around quickly, and, satisfied that they aren’t nearby, I leave the shirt on a rock near the edge and wrap my hair up, tying it on itself in a makeshift bun so it doesn’t drop in the water.

Then I pull off my skirt and top and quickly carry them into the water, swimming towards the waterfall.

I scrub my clothes against each other to remove the blood, and when they are finally clean, I quickly rub myself down before swimming back to the shallow end. When I get out, I hesitate. I’d rather wait until I’m dry to put on the shirt, but I also don’t want to be caught naked.

I hesitate for five more seconds before fear wins out and I pull it on. It sticks to me in a couple of places, but it's so hot out on this island that it should dry quickly. It hangs down to my mid thigh and the neck hole is so big it falls off one of my shoulders.

I untie my bun and braid, combing my fingers through my hair as I watch the waterfall. Something about it has always soothed me. Some days I’ll sit here for hours, watching the water flow.

“Zee?”

I gasp in surprise, spinning around to see Kingsley standing at the edge of the path. His eyes widen as they move up and down my body. He takes a slow step forward as he licks his lips.

“Is that my shirt?”

I look down at the ACDC logo across my chest, then glance back up at him.

“Umm… Whoops?” I say awkwardly. Because it clearly is his, there’s no way to deny it.

Is he mad?

“I’m sorry I took it. It just looked so comfortable, and I’ve had nothing else to wear in so long—”

“Zee,” he says, holding up his palms towards me as he closes the distance between us, stopping only a couple feet from me. I take a small step backwards and he stops walking. “It’s fine. It looks better on you, anyway.”

“Oh.” I don’t know what else to say, his words surprised me.

He gives me a half smile as he looks me over again. “We were calling you, did you not hear us?”

I shrug, because I don’t want to lie, and look at the ground between us as I resume raking my fingers through my hair.

“Are you hungry? Do you want some breakfast?”

I look up at him with a frown, then I try to hold back my smile as I ask, “You have food?”

“I can make a mean guava, or if you give me enough time, how about a coconut?” He cocks an eyebrow at me in question as I start braiding my hair.

“How about I show you some other fruit to eat? Then we can start prepping Brutus, he should be drained by now.”

He looks at me with surprise before a smile covers his face. If I thought he was attractive before, it has nothing on a smiling Kingsley. I swear my heart just started beating faster at the mere sight of him. “Yeah, I’d like that, thanks, Zee.”

He silently watches me finish my braid, then I tie it with a small piece of vine and grab my clothes. They’ll dry better by the beach.

“Ready?” he asks, as I move in his direction.

I nod my head, then he holds his hand out towards me.

I frown at the gesture, wondering what he wants, then guessing he wants to carry my clothes for me, I slowly place my wet clothes in his outstretched palm.

He lets out a small laugh, transfers the clothes to his other hand, then holds out his hand towards me again.

When I look at him in question, he just smiles and wiggles his fingers at me.

Is this how people greet each other now?

The new form of a high five or fist bump?

I lift my hand and wiggle my fingertips against his, then glance up at him.

He twists his lips, as if trying not to laugh, then he turns his hand and grasps mine, giving it a little squeeze.

I stare at our joint hands dangling between us and when I finally clue in to the fact that he’s just trying to hold my hand, my cheeks heat in embarrassment at how long that took me to figure out.

“Oh,” I say stupidly. He thankfully says nothing about my stupidity and gives me a little tug towards the path. We walk in silence for a few minutes as I try to calm my rapidly beating heart.

Why does Kingsley want to hold my hand? And why does it make my stomach feel funny? The even bigger question is, why am I letting him? Am I really so starved for touch and attention that I’ll take any scraps he’ll give me? Even I’m not dumb enough to answer that question.

“What happened to your arm?”

“Hmm?” I look at him and see he’s pointing at my arm. I lift it up and see the red marks I made when I was trying to scrape the mud off. They are looking better today. “Oh, I scratched myself,” I answer vaguely, hoping he won’t ask a follow-up question.

Lucky, as we approach the path that leads to the huts he changes the subject. “You left your bag in the hut, did you want to get it first?”

“Um, sure,” I say, suddenly realizing how vulnerable I am without Steve or McStabby at my side.

As we walk into camp, Bower jumps up with wide eyes from where he’s sitting by the firepit. “Tink! Thank god you’re okay!” He takes a few quick steps, closing the distance between us, then quickly lifts his arms to attack me.

An embarrassing scream leaves me when I drop to all fours, my hand slipping from Kingsley’s as I let Bower’s arms swing through the space I was just standing in.

I turn to look up at him as a wave of emotions roll through me.

I’m confused by his attack, scared he wants to hurt me, and… hurt that he tried to.

“Shit, Tink. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Bower says regretfully as he takes a step backwards.

I push up to my knees as Kingsley squats down beside me. “Zee, Sweetheart. He wasn’t trying to hurt you, he wanted to hug you.”

My eyebrows slowly rise as I turn to look at Bower as he rubs the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable. He doesn’t look like he wants to hurt me. He looks upset.

“A hug?” I ask quietly.