i could never hate you {toni shalifoe}

10 . days drone on, emotions run strong

Three days went by and opening the black box didn't seem to have done any good. At all. There was no sign of rescue, the girls were running out of food and morale was extremely low. Even Martha seemed a lot more deflated, which sparked worry in Marley and Toni.

Despite the decrease in positivity or hope within the group, Marley and Toni had spent the last few days practically glued to each other's side, happy with the newfound strength in their relationship. Until they weren't. The second night they spent in the cave, Toni had started to notice Marley becoming a lot more reclused, closing herself off from the others and barely uttering two sentences unless necessary.

But then the cave also turned out to be a bust. Nowhere near as helpful or liveable as they had hoped and the girls decided to gather up all their stuff again and move back to staying on the shore.

***

"We have heard from Marley that the two of you found strength between the two of you over those few days?" Faber questioned the girl.

"You could say that. We had each other again. Didn't matter if the rest of our situation was going to shit because at least we had sorted that out." Toni replied.

"But we've also been told that after you all moved into the cave, Marley started acting strange? Closing herself off more than she had before? Rarely speaking to anyone, not even you?" Faber questioned, unknowingly pushing too hard.

"I'm not gonna comment on that and no one else should have. Everyone was acting different they just don't know her as well so they'll pin anything on her."

***

"The weather in this place is spastic. Like how can it be this hot and this windy at the same time?" Toni complained, as her and Marley brought over more supplies to the shore. Seeing as the cave didn't work out, they had decided that moving everything back out in the open would be their best bet.

"It's like being blasted by a giant hairdryer," Dot retorted, a strange smirk on her face at the cruel jokes of the world around them. Dot and Toni looked over at Marley, who had hardly spoken since she apologised to Shelby the night they moved to the cave, and they were starting to get worried, especially Toni. Marley put down what she was holding and put her hair into a makeshift bun at the base of her neck before wiping the sweat from her forehead with trembling hands.

"And then freezing to death in a cave at night," she muttered, trying to muster up the words to join in the girls' conversation.

"Alright I get it the cave was a bust and it was my idea but I think I paid the ultimate price," said Dot, disgusted, after casting a worried glance over the girl before carrying on. "I mean, a bat took an actual shit in my mouth. In my mouth." Marley kept quiet.

"You should work on sleeping with your mouth shut." Toni teased, earning an annoyed look from Dot, before sitting beside Marley in the sand.

"Can't help it, it's how I breathe." Dot remarked, sitting by the two of them. "I just can't believe we're out here again with nothing over our heads." Dot was more annoyed at herself than anyone else and was worried about how fast they all turned to negativity and anger when things started to take a bad turn, especially Marley and Toni.

"I'm just gonna .. go .. wash the sweat off my face." Marley muttered before getting up and walking over to the rocks just far enough that she can no longer hear the scattered conversation, nor the joy and optimism from Martha in regards to her now healed ankle.

Marley climbed onto the rock and pulled off the sweater Fatin had given her, leaving her in a sports bra and some leggings as she sat with her knees to her chest looking out at the sea. She didn't know how long she stayed the way she was but she was brought back into a sense of reality when Toni sat beside her.