Islands Away

Chapter 3

When I awoke the next morning, it was pouring rain. Julian's place was empty; he must have gone back to his lean-to. I jumped up immediately, regardless and oblivious to my sleepiness, and ran as fast as I could to my room.

When I arrived at the sorry-looking, run down shack, I was even wetter. I shivered and went inside. Everything looked the same, but Julian was sitting cross-legged on the dry sand, his eyes closed. As soon as I focused on him, the pitter-patter of the rain seemed to be drowned by a peaceful silence. I examined him until his eyes opened, and he gazed back into my eyes.

I sat down next to him.

"Hi," I said.
"Hi," he replied. His messy blonde hair was swept over to one side messily. I realized that I liked him now. He wrapped his long arms around his legs. And rocked, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and buried his head in his arms.

He turned his face toward mine, and smiled. I smiled back shyly. "Do you ever miss your parents?" He asks, looking out toward the downpour. "No," I answer. My voice is firm.

"I do," he says. He rests his head on my shoulder, as if it is the most natural thing in the world. I suck in a breath, hoping he doesn't notice.

He doesn't. He continues, saying, "my family was in Rome. Journey before blood, they said, and enrolled me into a list of teenage boys sent away to seek for new land. If we found it, Rome would be able to place claims on it first, and expand its area. And so we left. I missed my family regardless of our belief, in monte sicut prius sanguinem-- journey before blood."

I carefully rest my head on his, breathing shallowly. In through the nose, out the mouth. In through the nose, out the mouth.

And then Julian holds my hand. He slips his fingers in between mine, slowly, hesitantly. I hear my breath catch, and I can't bring myself to look at him. "Yeah?" He murmurs, his breathing slowing.

"Yeah," I reply.