Red

6

Van comes back holding a first-aid  kit from the plane. "Woulda been nice to have this yesterday," he says, sitting next to me on the sand. "Could have saved me some arguing," he adds with a chuckle. "Now, let me see your leg." I lift my leg up and he rests it on his legs.

"Christ, how'd you even manage to do this again?" He shakes his head as he begins digging around in the first-aid kit.

I shrug my shoulders. I don't know how it happened. I hadn't even noticed it until I stood up in the plane.

"Dunno?" He says, chuckling. He seemed to think everything was funny and I just didn't get it. I nod my head and he takes out a tube of something.

"Alright, well, sitting in the sand wasn't good for your cut. It looks like I'm going to have to clean it up a bit before I wrap it up, got it?" He tells me.

"Got it," I say.

He puts some of the medicine from the tube onto a cloth and is about to press down on my cut, but he stops. He looks up so I look at him. "This'll sting a little," he warns me and then starts rubbing the medicine in without hesitating.

I gasp at the stinging feeling on my leg and try to pull away, but Van kept a tight grip on my leg. It hurt so much and I wanted him to stop. "Stop!" I yell, still trying to squirm away from him, but it was no use. Van was much stronger than I was.

"Calm down," Van says in soft, yet demanding, voice. "This is why you shouldn't have taken the shirt off of your cut and risk getting an infection in the sand. This is why you need to ask for permission before you go off and do things for yourself, hmm?"

I nod my head and look down, ashamed to realize that tears were forming in my eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut and form a fist with one of my hands, digging my nails into my skin to distract from the stinging.

I was probably one of the worst people to be stuck on an island. My pain tolerance was next to nothing and I knew nothing about survival. Annabelle should be here instead of me. She was the smartest person I knew.

"Don't do that," Van frowns. I open my eyes and only look up enough to see what he was talking about. His eyes were focused on my fist. "We don't need you to have any more injuries, now, do we?"

I unclench my fist and close my eyes again. I would not cry in front of Van. I won't let myself.

"Look at me," he says in the same quiet and demanding voice. I don't look at him, though. I would cry. I'm sure of it.

"Triiis," he drags out my name. "I suggest you do as I tell you."

I slowly look up and open my watery eyes. Van bites his lip and looks as if he's pondering something. "You can cry. I know it hurts," he says. I shake my head and look back down. He won't see me cry.

I hear him sigh. "Hold my hand. Squeeze it as tight as you need to," he says. I open my eyes but keep my head down as I look for his hand and grab it. His hand was rough and calloused, but I barely noticed.

I hold his hand tightly while he continues rubbing the medicine into my cut. "I'm almost finished," he tells me. I watch as he reaches the bottom on my leg where I cut ended and he took off the cloth. "There you go. Hard parts over."

I blink away the tears in my eyes before looking up. It still stung a little but not nearly as much as when the medicine was directly touching my skin.

"You okay?" Van asks with a smile. I nod my head. "Good. Can you stop squeezing my hand so I can finish putting the bandage on?" He says, smirking.

I hadn't realized I was still holding his hand. I immediately let go and feel my cheeks grow warm. "Sorry," I apologize, embarrassed. I dig my hand under the sand.

He laughs again. "It's okay," he says. He picks up some gauze from the kit and starts wrapping my leg. "This is just so nothing gets into your cut," he explains to me. I nod my head, understanding. He finishes wrapping my leg and tucks the end of the gauze into my leg so it stays.

"You're all done," he tells me. "I don't want you taking it off," he tells me sternly. "Tell me you understand.

"I-I understand," I say.

"Good," he says, standing up. He looks over to his friends and then back at me. I look down and avoid eye contact with him.

He sighs. "You just gonna sit there?" He asks. I look up at him and shrug my shoulders. I wasn't exactly sure what I should be doing. I felt scared and alone. I wanted my sister back. And I didn't want to be stuck on an island for god knows how long.

"Well, you can come meet my friends over there," Van says. "You're gonna meet them eventually. Might as well be now."

I hesitantly stand up. I can only hope Van's friends won't be as strict and harsh to me. Van grabs the first-aid kit and we start walking to his friends.