together we made purple • toni shalifoe

red hot

Day Three - Part One

The thunder boomer as some of the girls shouted. Juliet was curled up next to Leah, protecting her bag while Leah protected her book.

"I used to think thunderstorms were, like, majestic," Leah shouted over the storm. "That still your take?" Rachel asked followed with a book of thunder.

"No," Leah responded. "Alright! Come on!" Dot dragged the piece of emergency slide she found the day before over to the girls. Everyone got under it to protect themselves from the storm.

"How's your ankle?" Shelby asked Martha. "Better, I think. It's just so itchy." A few other girls agreed sharing how they felt itchy themselves.

"Shit, sand fleas," Dot realized. "Sand what?" Fatin asked with an upset tone. "Sand fleas. Well, they're not really like fleas," Dot's thoughts were concluded by Juliet. "They're more like tiny little shrimp. I googled it once when my legs wouldn't stop itching at the beach."

"They're not lethal. They're just annoying. Once the rain stops, we can just go scrub them off before they get a chance to burrow," Dot tried making the situation better but it only resulted in Fatin jumping out of the tent and screaming out to the storm, "Fuck my life!"

The girls yelled words of disapproval while pulling Fatin back under.

***
"Blue crab sushi drizzled in ponzu sauce with a kiss of wasabi," Fatin told Shelby, Martha, and Juliet who were head to head laying on the ground in a circle, and also Toni would was sitting up.

"I just want some Indian tacos. The way my mom makes them with black beans and Velveeta," Martha almost drooled.

"I would destroy some Velveeta right now. I would just house it straight from the pack," Toni added.

"I'm thinking Cheesecake Factory. Four-cheese pasta, fresh brown bread," Shelby reminisced on the restaurant.

"Okay, the Cheesecake Factory is grotesque," Fatin argued. "Grotesque?" "I'm just saying the Cheesecake Factory is a mall restaurant for mall people. No judgment."

"What is a mall person? And why do you say it all derogatory like?" Shelby questioned. "What about you, Juliet?" Martha asked putting the attention on the girl.

"Mmm, I don't really know. I was never a big foodie, honestly." "You're seriously telling me there's nothing that you're craving stranded on an island where the only thing there is to eat are bags of shitty nuts?" Toni looked down at the girl who opened her eyes and sat up.

"Okay, there is one thing," the four looked to Juliet waiting for what she'd say. "My plug used to sell me some fire edibles. They were these huge Reese's Pieces, but like ten times better cause, well, obvious reasons."

"You have a plug?" Toni asked in disbelief. "You don't?" Juliet responded making Toni smirk.

"Dottie, what is that?" Shelby smelled the air. "Wet wood gets us black smoke, gets us a signal fire. Probably a good idea to keep it going during the day. And guys I was pretty slack on this yesterday, and it cost us. We got to get real about shelter. If we all pitch in, grab the materials," Dot stopped talking as she noticed Fatin raising her hand eagerly.

"Yes, Lady in leopard?" "That's sounds really unappealing, and I'm exhausted, and there's rescue coming. So for those reasons, I'm out," Fatin concluded.

"Just because you shot me down Shark Tank style doesn't make me any less annoyed." "Hey, where y'all going?" Shelby called out to Leah, Rachel, and Nora.

"We're swimming out to the wreckage, see if we can find anything useful," Leah informed them. "Yeah, Leah! Put those two surf lessons to use, sis!" Juliet yelled out, laughing. Leah flipped her off, but she couldn't contain a smile herself.