Castaways

TWENTY-THREE

Liz’s POV

I fell to my knees immediately when I emerged from the water. My stomach heaved up and down, currently exhausted from all of the paddling I had to do to get here. My hands firmly grasped a big chunk of the warm sand, and I smiled. Land. We finally got off that damn raft. 

I turned my body around to face the others. They were on the ground, breathing heavily.

“Is everyone okay?” Liam asked us, as he got on his knees and shook off the sand on his stomach. 

“Define okay,” I laughed and followed Liam’s actions. 

I brushed my hands over my torn up shirt, and winced when my fingers traced over my ribs.

“Are you hurt?” Someone placed their hand on my shoulder. I looked up only to see Louis. “I don’t know, maybe I bruised my ribs or something,” I pondered. Louis leaned in closer to me and placed his hand on my left rib. I whimpered softly and pulled away from him. 

“Maybe you broke a rib,” He questioned himself, and furrowed his brow. “Why didn’t you complain about the pain while we were on the raft?” 

“I think we were too busy escaping from a deadly plane crash, fighting sharks, and me, almost drowning,” I smiled sarcastically. He laughed and agreed. 

“Lift up your shirt and let me get a closer look,” He addressed me. I stood there stunned,  not really wanting to show him my bare stomach. After a moment of hesitation, I carefully lifted up my tattered shirt, trying not to cause any more pain in my rib.

“What are you doing?” Liam broke in, as he walked up right next to Louis.Louis groaned. “Nothing suspicious mate, just checking on her rib. I think she broke it,” 

Liam squinted at Louis and shook his head. “You are no doctor, Louis. Just go and help Harry get the raft onto shore, okay?” 

Louis opened his mouth to protest, and he looked at me, expecting me to defend him. I didn’t say anything. Louis rolled his eyes and walked to the water, where Harry was struggling bringing the raft to the beach. 

“Let me see your rib,” Liam demanded. I snapped out of my gaze to Louis, and gained more attention towards Liam, who was already lifting my shirt. 

Uh, okay. 

He pressed his forefinger on my rib, and applied pressure dramatically. I yelped in pain. 

“Yup, it’s broken,” He sighed, and moved his hand off my lower chest. I pulled my shirt down, feeling a little self-conscious. But at the same time, I didn’t really care that Liam Payne was touching me?? 

“So, Louis was right? My rib is broken,” 

Liam clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. “Yeah, Louis was right,” And he stormed away from me. 

I stood there stunned, not knowing what just happened. 

"Someone has a crush on Liz!" 

I turned around, and saw Deanna with a big smile plastered on her face. 

"Liam doesn't have a crush on me," I protested, but tried not to be too loud. Liam was sitting on a log not too far away from us. "Oh he does, and so does Louis," She smirked. Deanna walked away, heading towards Niall, who was still gasping for air on the floor. 

A crush? Both of them?

Well that's news to me. 

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Thanks for reading! Very short chapter:( I'm trying to get back in the groove of the story again. Please be patient:)