Shipwrecked (A short story.)

Shipwrecked Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Dilemma

*Four weeks later*

Things had been . . . . Okay the past four weeks. It was four weeks since I started grieving properly, and I was almost over it. Almost. I still needed to occasional hug from Dan - who wouldn't - and I found myself getting more and more friendly with him. We were actually friends now. I know, strange. But there it was; that mutual friendship that had brought us together, and, well, saved our lives. The drama lessons at my school - I know! School seemed so far away - were always valuable. The teachers taught us things without even realising it, and one thing that I remember from one of the lessons is that when you are shipwrecked or stuck, every person counts, and if you lose even one member of the group, you were almost certainly dead. So that's how we had saved each others lives . . . . Kind of. In other ways, I owed him way more than he owed me. So there we were, four weeks later, going through our daily schedule. I had just washed and tried my best to scrub most of the dirt out of my costume, and Dan had been kind enough to politely look away - as he always does. That's another thing about Dan; he is always so polite. He had never been rude to me, and probably never will. I walked forward towards the beach, but I couldn't see Dan.

'Dan?' I shouted out. I had stopped walking and was wondering where he was.

'Hi,' I heard him say softy. I spun around and he was behind me, hardly ten centimetres away from me.

'Um . . . . Hi,' I replied, wondering what was going on.

'Do you want to go for a swim? Its been work, work, work since we got here. Don't you think its time to have some fun?'

'Uh . . . . Sure,' I answered, still not realising what was going on. We swam out silently for a while, until my feet came off the surface of the ocean. I was a fairly strong swimmer, but I didn't want to waste my energy.

'Can your feet touch the bottom still?' I asked.

'Yes, why? Can yours?' There was a slight hint of humour in his voice. I wondered why that was.

'No, actually. They cant. Can we please go back?' My feet and legs were getting tired from treading water, and I really wanted to feel some support under them.

'Well, if you're getting tired, why don't I just support you?' He didn't wait for an answer. He rested his hands on my hips, and carefully held me up.

'There, now you don't have to worry,' His voice was very soft and gentle, but I was extremely uncomfortable.

'Dan, I'm uncomfortable,' I told him straight.

'Can we please go back?'

'Sure, just . . . . Just one more thing,' He took a deep breath.

'Um . . . . Okay, sure,' My voice was shaking slightly. I knew that something was coming, something bad, but I didn't know what it was. He slowly leaned forward, and I didn't realise what he was trying to do until the last second. I pushed away from him with all my might, and he opened his eyes in surprise.

'What's wrong?' He wanted to know.

'I couldn't let it happen, I couldn't let you kiss me,' I told him. He shook his head in disbelief.

'You know what? You really are a jerk. You expected me to just fall into your arms. Well I'm not into you, so get over it,' I stated my views rather strongly, and then began swimming towards the shore with my head held high. He must not have been following me, as I heard no sound behind me. As I was swimming, I finally got it. The hugs, the sincerity, it was all leading towards this. Jerk. I suddenly noticed the tears streaming down my face. I thought that he was a real friend, someone to turn to when I was sad, or even happy. Someone who was there for me. Maybe not. Obviously not.