Bee and the Boy

Chapter 10

A rattling sound wakes me, and I find myself laying on a shore. I turn over and slowly sit upwards, looking around for the source of the sound. Another rattle. I jump to my feet in a panic.

I remember reading about this in a book about the giant ones in school.  A rattlesnake, the author called it. I walk slowly, stumbling in the opposite direction of the rattle until it stops.

I collapse on a hill. Hearing nothing but the whistle of the wind travelling through the grass, I pass out.

~

"Do you think she's dead?" a phantom and fuzzy voice speaks out in my dreams above me. I wonder who it is, so I fight to open my eyes. 

There is a girl in front of me, surrounded by 5 other curious faces, feeling like they are all staring deeply into my soul. I stare at their unfocused forms while reaching down for anything I can grab.

A blanket? I pull it up to my chin.

"You okay?" A boy around my age asks. He seems concerned. The girl shoves him.

My vision, still blurry from the sleep collected in my eyes. I look to the boy. "Alex?" I say.

The boy doesn't say anything for a whole 2 seconds. Then he responds. "Who's Alex? Is that your boyfriend? The girl shoves him again, this time he falls to the ground.

"Sorry about him, he's an idiot." She pulls me up from my laying position.

I rub my eyes. "He was a friend."

~

That night, I stand in the room that was offered to me. Looking out the window frame, I see the boy approaching, carrying a basket with a single strawberry in it.

"My sister had me come to give you this." he walks in and sets the woven basket down on the floor. 

I nod in acknowledgment and return my attention to the view outside. I owe it to Skater to think of a plan before rescuing him, or at least to try.

"I need your help." I pick up a strawberry with both hands. "To get off this island"

He eyes me carefully. "You want to leave already?" He seems disappointed.

"I can't stay here, I have someone that needs me."

"Because of your boyfriend, I know."

Sitting down, I look at him. "No, Alex was like a brother to me. And it's someone else I have to save."

"Was?" He seems to relax a smidge.

"He..." I stop myself, standing up. "I'm sorry, I don't need to tell you my whole life story."

Surprisingly, he smiles and nods in understanding. And I feel myself missing Alex all over again, wishing we never stopped being friends. 

"But maybe we never did." My thoughts spill out into the conversation.

"Huh?" the boy is confused.

"Oh, I was just thinking out loud." I change the topic and hold out my hand. "I'm Bee," I say with a smile.

"...Owen." He shakes my hand, his confusion growing ever so rapidly.

"Owen, how are you at building a raft?"

~

Owen and Ricki (which I find out is his sister's name) get the rest of their family to help gather supplies. We work surprisingly well as a team for the next few days, that is until Owen collapses from exhaustion. Feeling guilty, I watch as Ricki and the others rush to his aid.