𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯

Audrey's POV:

The yellow rays of the bright, morning sun pierced through the leaves of the small hut, flooding my eyes with an unwanted light. I scrunched my nose in disapproval as I slowly sat up from my spot in the warm sand, looking over to find Jack was still sound asleep. I knew he must've been exhausted, he's barely slept since my encounter with Roger a couple of days ago. He hasn't let me out of his sight since then, and neither has Ralph. Taking advantage of the fact he was unconscious, I stood up and decided to go find Simon. For some unexplainable reason, I felt the need to talk to him, to check on him and see how he was doing.

After a few short moments of scanning the shoreline, my eyes were met with the radiant presence of Simon's small figure, the gentle touch of his fingertips colliding with the damp sand and tracing small hearts into it's textured surface. I smiled at his softness, he hasn't changed despite the harsh conditions we've been faced with, and that in itself takes a lot of strength. I quietly approached him and placed a single hand on his boney shoulder as I sat down, making a conscious effort to avoid ruining the pictures he had sketched into the sand. His round eyes quickly looked from his artwork to meet my smiling face. He returned the smile as he turned to face me.

"Hey, Audrey!" he spoke enthusiastically, making his energy hard to match. Simon's always been a morning person, one of our biggest differences.

"Hey, Si!" I beamed, trying for his sake to seem more lively and awake than I felt.

"How are you holding up?" I questioned him, tilting my head to the side as I did so.

"I'm doing well, considering the circumstances, of course. No need to worry-"

"You've been thinking," I quickly interrupted, something was on his mind.

"Not that you ever stop thinking," I giggled, giving him a moment to collect his thoughts.

He laughed softly as he looked down to his hands, his fingertips still covered in grains of sand and small fragments of broken shells.

"I know what happened, to you, Audrey. Everything was fun and games, until it wasn't. It got me thinking, and anything can happen to any one of us at anytime. Not that this isn't something we didn't know before, but it was a wake up call."

"I can't lose you, Audrey. My whole life, it's been my biggest fear. Having to live without you, I mean. It scares me, because even when everything else has fallen apart, I've had you. The thought of being without my sister, my best friend . ." he trailed off, tears brimming his eyes and threatening to fall as they soaked his wispy eyelashes in a wave of salty sadness.

"It feels too real now," he continued, taking a shaky breath as he carefully chose what he was going to say next.

"You're everything to me, and my whole life all I've wanted was to protect you. I've been meaning to remind you of this, especially now,"

"If anything happens to me, I love you," he finished, smiling through the tears that now streamed down his cheeks.

Without saying a single word, I leaned over and wrapped him into a tight hug. I cried as the moment reminded me of the night before we left home, both of us unaware of the fact that could've been our last day with our mother, our last day anywhere but this island.

"I love you," I whispered to my brother, holding him a little tighter as the ocean waves crept onto our toes and around our shaking bodies.