Red

3

"Fine," Van says. He walks around so he can see my face again. "There's been a few disagreements at the meeting. You know, the one you probably should have attended so I wouldn't be stuck here answering all these questions."

"So?" I ask. "What does that have to do with me going somewhere with you?"

Van shakes his head and lets out a breathy laugh. "God, you are difficult," he says while looking up at the sky. "So, there are groups now. Four of them, and you're part of my group."

"What makes you think I'm part of your group?" I continue my questions.

"You want to go with another group? The pleasure is mine. But they're not going to take you. If they wanted you with them, they probably would have come down here and asked you, huh, princess? Anyway, two of the groups already left to find shelter. My group gets a plane and another group gets a plane. That's how it played out," Van explains to me.

"I'll wait for the rescue plane," I say.

"Hm, and just how do you think a rescue plane is going to get here when the radio is dead and the map is completely blown out, princess?" Van says with a smart mouth. Why did he start calling me princess? I didn't like it at all.

I ignore his reasoning, even though it made a lot of sense. We were alone here. No one was coming for us. "I need to stay with Annabelle," I tell him, making up another excuse to not go with him.

Van doesn't say anything for a few seconds, so I look up at him. He had a slight smile on his face that confused me. He was laughing at my dead sister.

"Annabelle is dead," he states, rather bluntly.

"Shut up," I say back, giving him a glare.

"Annabelle wouldn't notice if you left," his voice was almost mocking me.

I look up at him again. "Stop it!" I yell, tears forming in my eyes. "You're a jerk. Go away."

He doesn't leave, though. He kneels down next to me instead. "You see all those people up there?" Van ask me, pointing to the group of people near the planes. His voice was softer now. If he hadn't been such a dick earlier, I probably wouldn't have minded him in this moment.

I look behind me and see all the people and nod my head.

"Yeah? And you see all these people right here?" He asks, pointing to the dead bodies next to us.

I nod my head again.

"Well, those bodies were relatives of people up there. They were friends of people up there. I know it may not seem fair that you lost your sister, but you're not the only one who lost someone today. Now, you can either stay here, outside all night, no food and water, or you can come join the rest of the people up there," Van says. The harsh tone was back, but it wasn't nearly as harsh as before.

I don't say anything again, being stubborn as usual. "Let's go," he tells me, holding his hand out again.

I stare at his hand. "Why do you want me to go with you?" I ask curiously. "You're so mean."

Van chuckles. "Yeah, I might be mean, if that's what you want to call it, but I'm not inhumane," he says. "I'm not going to let you die out here simply because you're being annoying."

"I'm not annoying," I defend myself. "You're annoying."

"Okay," he says. "Come on." He stands up now, keeping his arm extended to me.

I look at Annabelle one last time and dig my nails into the sand, still finding it hard to believe that she was gone. I then look at Van's open hand, and without fully thinking, I grab it. He sighs in relief, probably thankful that he finally got me to come back with him.

When I stand, Van's shirt, which was wrapped around my leg, falls to the sand. He notices and picks it up. "I told you to wrap it tight," he says accusingly.

"I thought I did," I say back.

"Well, you didn't," he retorts. "I'm going to have to retie it in the plane, I guess. And get a new shirt too. This one has sand all over it now. Could cause an infection."

I decide not to respond to him. I was on his bad side already and I had no energy to fight him.

Once Van and I reach the crowd of about forty people, people casually stop talking and turn to him. "We should probably get in the plane now. It's dark out," he says in a calm voice, but there was still a sense of authority in his voice that made everyone acquiesce.

Van waited for everyone to get on, leaving only us. I look up at Van. "Get on," he said. I could scarcely see his eyebrows rise as he spoke in the dark night. "I gotta close the door."

I get on the plane and sit in the same spot that I had when we were getting on the plane. My carry on bag was still under my seat and it reminded me of this morning. How I wish Annabelle and I slept through our alarm and missed our flight. I sigh and fall into the plane seat.

I watch Van as he walks to his seat, which was also the third row of the plane, like me, only he was on the right side of the plane. He started talking with his friends, the ones who were acting super childish on the plane earlier. They now weren't cracking jokes or pushing each other's seats. They were talking quietly amongst themselves.

I look down at my leg and see the cut. It was pretty big, but it wasn't that deep. Van told me he was going to rewrap it. I look over and see him still talking with his friends. Maybe he forgot about me. Or maybe he just didn't care.