Page 104 of Adrift

I glare at him, but fuck this. If he wants to be pulverized into the ground, I’ll do it.

“Whoa, whoa, big guy. I’m done with my fists.” He throws his hands up. One of them smacks a palm frond, and a gallon of water pours over his head. His long bangs drip into his eyes, and it makes me laugh.

“Ha, ha.” He gets his hair out of his face again. “What’s up with you and your brother?”

“No.” I push it out. I don’t mean to shout it, but I do.

“No, what?”

“I’m not your friend. I’m not telling you shit.” He’s going to be lucky if I don’t smother his arrogant face with one of the cushions we have tonight. Although I can’t help smiling, he’s got a nice shiner coming on to match the bruise on his jaw.

“Fine.” He’s got his shoulders back. The fucker is resilient. I’ll give him that. Maybe his life hasn’t been as cushy as I thought.

“Good.” A loud clap of thunder shakes the surrounding jungle. Our necks swivel to the interior of the island.

“That was close.” Easton’s eyes are wide.

“It probably hit on the mountain. Up where I saw the goats.” I need to get back there and see if I can capture a goat. Haley would like that. What the fuck am I thinking? I need to kill it. We don’t have a way of feeding it. She’s making my brain go soft. Then I think about Haley and how much she hates storms.

Another smaller crack of lightning hits somewhere farther away. The rain is really coming down now.

“You just don’t like him, huh?”

“What the fuck, Rockwell? You’re not my friend, and you’re sure as fuck not my therapist.”

“No, I’m not. But I’ve got my own shitty family.” His lips are pursed, and he’s looking at me like I’m his personal project. Which I sure as fuck am not.

“Yeah, I feel really sorry for you. When you cry yourself to sleep at night, do you blow your nose into hundred-dollar bills?”

His chest inflates. His fucking stupid blue eyes blink at me. “I don’t know what happened between you and your brother. I’m sure it’s shit, but money doesn’t make people any different. If anything, it makes them worse.” He wipes the blood off the side of his mouth.

“People are just shit.” I touch my raw lip and take my hand away. I look back down the trail to the massive net I was carrying.

“Not all people.” He says it like he believes it. Like it might be real. It’s not.

“Yes, fucking all people. Every last one of us is a shit. If this were the Andes mountains and not an island, you be fucking looking to eat me.”

“No thanks, you’re not my type.” He smirks again, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He grabs the chair he had and some other things.

Talking to him is pointless. Hitting him? Hitting him helped a little. I’ll deal with the bruises.

I pick up the net, but it pushes on a bruise on my stomach. I was barely able to carry it earlier, before the rain and the fight. “I’ll come back for the net tomorrow.”

Easton nods. There’s an unspoken understanding between us, a ceasefire that’s as fragile as the peace the storm has brought us.

I gather the net up and push it under a palm frond. Then I find a few things that Zane dropped. A ladle, a little orange metal box, and some other cooking supplies. A few feet away, I find a small canvas tarp wrapped up with a small amount of rope, a machete handle sticking out between the folds. I tuck it under my arm.

“Right. Are you okay?” Easton has his arm looped through the chair, a bunch of other stuff under his other arm.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Your lip looks like shit. It’s going to swell.” I can see his medical background clicking in. Like he’s some sort of Florence Nightingale—junior prince of all nurses. He probably doesn’t even have basic first aid certification. I don’t give a flying fuck. He helped Dante. I mean, I’m glad Dante’s good, but I don’t think Easton had much to do with it.

“I’m good. We can’t use any of the medical supplies.”

“For this? I’ve had worse injuries from a light practice.” He turns and walks down the trail.

Ahead of him, I make out a figure coming at us at a quick pace. It’s not Haley, going by the way they’re racing toward us. Her leg is healing, but it’s not there yet.

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