Speak Up (TONI X OC) -The Wilds

Chapter 4

Toni's POV

We only made it three days in the cave. It just was not suitable for living in. Not that anyplace around here is. 

"The weather in this place is spastic" I tell Dot as we lug the last of the supplies from the cave onto the beach. "Like how can it be this hot and this windy at the same time?"

"It's like we're being blasted by a giant hairdryer" she remarks. 

"Yeah and then freezing our asses off in that cave at night." I will admit, those past three nights I definitely was not too upset when Parker inched closer to me for body warmth. 

"Okay, dude, I get it. The cave was a bust, and it was my idea, but didn't I pay the ultimate price? A bat took an actual shit in my actual mouth" she goes on dramatically. 

I crack a smile at this, "yeah, you really got to work on sleeping with your mouth shut."

"Can't help it man. That's just how I breathe. It just sucks that we''re out here again with nothing over our heads. Carnivores, aren't the deadliest force in the wild, you know."

"Don't make me guess what is."

"Exposure. Slow killer."

"Where does thirst rank?" I say through my chapped lips and dry mouth as I raise my diet coke, "Cause I'm blowing through my stash here." I eagerly take a sip, savoring the carbonated beverage knowing we won't have them for long. 

"Hard not to. This reminds me of that like Texas-in-July heat, you know? The kind that makes old people drop dead on their way to the mailbox and sane people sort of...snap. Case in point." Dot nods her head at Martha who was bounding around a couple feet away, showing off her healed ankle to Leah and Parker who sat together nearby. 

I smile at the sight. 

"Leah, Parker, watch this, watch this, ready?" She skips around some more, a walking stick still in her hand. "DOesn't even hurt, I don't even feel it."

"Whoa." Leah enthuses. 

Parker cracks a smile which makes butterflies swim through my stomach. I try my best not to absolutely swoon in front of Dot. I might be tough and all but I am undeniably a simp for Parker Rilke. 

"You like her, don't you?"

Parker's POV

"Oh, you took your splint off?" my sister asked Martha. 

"Yeah. I feel like a brand new woman." She tosses her walking stick aside. "I wonder if I'll actually say that, and mean it one day."

"I kind of hope not. 'A brand new woman'? They only say that in old shampoo commercials." I rest a head on my sister's shoulder, watching the waves breathe in and out on the shore line. 

"Well, you get what I mean." Martha takes a seat on the other side of Leah. "I want to be changed by something."

"You don't think all this will do the trick?" Leah counters. 

"I'd rather be changed by something good." Martha muses. "Like love."

Leah stays silent. 

Suddenly, Martha seems to jump on her opportunity, "What's it like? Like, really being in love?"

Uh oh. 

"Cool. So what did Fatin tell you?" Leah's demeanor changes in an instant. My head lifts up from her shoulder and I place a hand on her shoulder in warning however she seems to ignore it.