Red

8

"I'm Sam," the boy says. He holds his hand out for me to shake, which I do.

"I'm Tris," I say back, trying to sound as confident as possible. Sam was cute, I had to admit. He had a strong jawline and messy blond hair.

"Tris," he says. "I like that name."

"Thanks," I smile, hoping I'm not blushing too hard.

"Let's go grab some bottles and we can go find some water. The others seem to have left already, so I guess it's just us," he says.

I nod my head and we walk to the plane together. "Were you on this plane?" I ask him. I don't remember seeing him get on.

"Nope. I was on the other," he says. "You were on this one, I assume?"

"Yeah. Why'd you think that?" I ask curiously.

"Well, I would have remembered if a beautiful girl walked on to the plane," he says, chuckling a little.

"That was cheesy," I laugh, though my cheeks still were heating up.

"Aw, come on. I thought it was pretty good," he says.

"Hmm. I'd keep trying," I tell him jokingly.

"Gosh, your quite harsh," he says, making me giggle. Sam almost made me forget about being stranded on an island. He took my mind off my sister's death as well. "You check the right side, I'll get the left."

I nod my head and start looking through bags and under seats for water bottles. I stop once I get halfway through the seats. "I think they got all the bottles, don't ya think? I haven't found a single one," I say with a sigh.

"Me neither," Sam says. He then looks at me with a smile. "I got an idea. Betcha they didn't think of this."

He runs to the back of the plane and points to a cabinet which he then opens. "Here is the plane's finest water source," he says in a documentary narrator voice. It was a container that looked to hold about seven gallons. "Advantages of having an aunt who is a flight attendant. I know all the secrets," he clears my confusion as to how he knew where this container was.

I laugh. "That's the only advantage to having an aunt who's a flight attendant," I say.

"No way. I always get free snacks when she comes to visit because she gets all the expired airplane snacks," he says, making me burst out laughing.

"I didn't know expired food was a good thing," I smile.

"Well, it's not, unless it's free," he explains as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, duh, I'm sorry," I fake apologize.

"I'll forgive you, I guess," he says. "Let's go find some water."

//—————

Sam and I walk through the island exploring the nature around us. "Hey, have you ever had a coconut?" He asked me, looking up at one of the palm trees with coconuts hanging from it.

"Nope. How do you plan to get that down?" I ask.

"Climb?" He shrugs. "Catch me if I fall," he says, setting the water container down and immediately starts climbing.

"Depend on my mood," I say.

He looks down at me. "Don't make me laugh," he smiles at me. "Then I'll actually fall."

I sit on the dirt ground and watch him as he makes his way to the top. "You're like a monkey," I tell him.

"I was in my past life," he says. "You ready? Try and catch these when they fall."

"Ok," I say, waiting for the falling coconuts. This probably wasn't the safest idea. Coconuts would hurt if they fell on your head.

Sam pushes one off and I immediately run away with a squeal. It was falling faster than I had expected. I hear Sam's laugh from above. "That works too," he says.

"Don't judge me. They fall fast," I defend myself.

"Mhm," he replies. I giggle and watch him push off the remaining coconuts. There were three in total. "Coming down," he says as he starts making his way back down. He ended up jumping once he was about halfway down.

"Don't hurt yourself," I smile at him, holding one of the coconuts in my hands.

"Thanks for the advice," he brushes off his knees which had some dirt on them from the jump. "We're going to need some big rocks to crack these open, so we'll have to keep our eyes out as we look for water."

I nod my head and pick up two coconuts. Sam picks up the water container and we continue our journey.

//—————

We walk for probably another hour, stopping every once in a while to take a break, but we finally find what we were looking for.

A huge waterfall. We heard it from a while back, but seeing it was absolutely breathtaking. There was a giant pool of water that it spilled into. It was probably about twenty-five feet tall. The water was as clear as can be, something you would see in a movie. I wonder if anyone else had found the waterfall yet.

Sam wanders up to the edge of the pool so he could get a closer look and I followed, climbing up a few rocks, carefully with my injured leg, to get there.

"Look there's fish!" I exclaim, maybe a little too exited.

Sam chuckles. "You're right," he says, sitting down on the edge, dipping his legs in. "Feels good," he encourages me to sit down with him, so I do.

"Oh, yeah. Give me those coconuts. I can crack them for us," he suggests. I hand him both of the coconuts. He hands me the water container in exchange. "You want to fill this up while I get these open?"

"Sure," I say, taking the container. I screw the top off and dunk it under water, watching the air bubbles come out as it fills.

Sam uses a big rock and hits the coconuts a few times each before they begin to crack down the center. He splits one of them open fully and hands me half of it.

"Thanks," I smile. Taking the coconut and placing it next to me while I put the lid on the now full water container.

I grab the coconut and start eating the white inside. "What do you think of it?" Sam asks, raising his eyebrows.

"It's good," I respond. "Nice find."