Hell in Our Paradise

Chapter 7

23rd August 1990

I naturally woke up early for once. Surprisingly, I felt awake as soon as my eyes were pried open, and a burst of energy pulled me up off of the floor. I took my blazer and skirt off, already beginning to heat up, and folded them onto the sandy floor of my leafy room. I gave my matted hair a quick detangle with my little brush that always sat in my blazer pocket, and then I was good to go. Annie was of course already awake, but once I left my hut I saw that many others were still sound asleep. I strolled to the hut that Ralph shared with Piggy and Simon to see if they were awake. I knelt down to properly look inside and was shocked to see the only one left sleeping in the straw shelter was none other than Simon. His eyes were swelled shut, his chest moving up and down as he took delicate breaths. Even asleep his cheeks were still flushed. I hadn't realised how creepy I must've looked watching the boy sleep until a hand reached at my shoulder from behind, making me jump slightly. My head whipped around to see who had just frightened me half to death. It was Ralph.

His huge coffee stained eyes peered down at me, he was softly chuckling.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He said in a hushed whisper.
"It okay. Simon's still sleeping?" I questioned, nodding to the boy. Ralph then bent down to my level, and he too, looked at the boy.
"We didn't wanna wake him. He's extremely sleep deprived Lay, he usually stays up watching over Benson and when he does sleep it's only for a couple of hours at a time. I know it's awful to say but, that man was slowly killing him." He frowned, now looking back in my direction. My eyes met his and I simply nodded. I gave him a small pat on the back before rising to my feet and waking off to go get food. My stomach grumbled angrily, I was always hungry in the morning. Clearly our little 'pile' hadn't been refilled, so I had to venture into the forest to get my breakfast. I was feeling selfish and groggy this morning, so I didn't bother to get extra fruits to revive the pile, someone else could do that job. Within minutes of extracting bananas from a tall tree, I'd engulfed the rich and juicy goods, I was feeling much happier already.

I had a change in mood and practically skipped back to the beach, where I met Annie. She always looked so good, even in the morning. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, her rouged lips instantly forming a smile. I walked up to the girl and was engulfed in an embrace, it felt nice, she was really warm, she felt like home. We parted and a few strands of my golden hair blew into my mouth, I went to waft them away but Annie did that for me. Bringing her slim fingers to my face, she removed the hairs but left her soft touch on my cheek. Oh how I loved her so. Best friends before we could even walk, Annabelle was basically my sister. It's almost funny how much had changed, only months ago we were still in school, stressing over homework and boys, now we were here, stressing over how many mangos we could find and how much clean water there was. I shook off all of the thoughts though, thinking too deeply into things would send me spiralling down a road of insanity. Instead me and Annie just talked, about normal teenage girl stuff I guess.

I was making some dumb joke about how fashionable our clothes looked now, all dirty and torn despite washing them in the ocean, when Simon approached. His eyes were puffy and full of sleep, he was rubbing them. He let out a loud yawn before sitting down next to me.
"Morning sleepy head." I chuckled. He didn't laugh.
"Why?" He asked, his voice rather shaky.
"What? Why what?" I said, fear beginning to crawl into my mind, was he upset with me?
"You didn't wake me up. It's nearly midday and you didn't wake me! Benson could be anywhere by now..." His voice trailed off, like he was thinking of all the horrible places Benson could be in right now.
"I'm sorry Simon, really I am. But you needed the sleep. I know you want to find Benson, trust me so do I, but I'm not letting you kill yourself over a man who was half the way to death anyway!" I snapped, my hand immediately flying to my mouth as soon as the words left it. I didn't mean to say it like that, it just came out. Simon didn't even flinch at my harshness though, he didn't react with sadness or anger. He just stared at me. This made me more nervous, I'd rather him have lashed out at me for gods sake. I waited impatiently for his response, just for a slight reaction so I could tell what he was thinking, feeling in this moment.