GET YOU • KIRIN O' CONNOR

002, triple didge

tw: blood/death

KIRIN'S GROUP WALKED away and the five of them. seth looked over to josh with concern. he leaned over to talk to the boy who was holding onto his suitcase. "so, hey? you doing okay? you bouncing back?" seth asked and josh nodded. "way back, yeah. i always get a cry high." josh chuckled.

"so, look, as much as i hate taking advice from a triple-didge." seth said mentioning kirin.

"a what?" dj asked.

"oh, sorry. it's just this thing that i say. you know, when someone has a triple-digit SAT score, it...thank you for laughing." he said to rafael. "i know. look, i know it's smug and it's mean, but the point is, he's not wrong. if we stay sitting here with our thoughts, it's just gonna break up. let's get moving and we'll be out of this place in no time." seth explained.

present

"so what happened when you were out looking for things with that group?" the man on the left asked.

"we all walked along the shore of the beach for a while trying to find something. we didn't know what. we were hoping for some four season hotel, i was at least. then uh dj—dj he was struggling to walk." isa remembered the boy who was dragging his injured foot in the sand. "uh—from the rock he kicked. i was kinda behind everyone collecting shells. i just wanted to distract myself for a little bit." she said looking down at the necklace that hung around her neck.

"nice necklace isabelle. did you make that when you were on the island?" isa shook her head "no."

"okay keep going."

"uh—we reached these tall rocks—or whatever you call them and you had to climb a little, but dj was struggling. it was hard his toe was broken and everything."

day one

"fuck a duck!" dj shouted trying to get up some rocks. isa caught up to josh and ivan. "i think his toe is broken." isa said watching dj try to jump up the rock that was up to his knee. ivan chuckled a bit. "have you ever broken a bone?" josh asked and isa nodded.

"i play soccer, i get hurt all the time." she responded.

"i broke my arm in fourth grade, and i didn't have many friends then, so i forged a whole lot of signatures on there. my therapist says it's a foundational wound." josh said and ivan nodded.

"damn it!" dj shouted "ah! ah! damn it! take five! take five! i need to take five!" everyone walked over to him "i know it's just a toe. and if i were with the other guys right now, that steak-head triple didge would be calling me a pussy." dj sat as he sat down resting on the rock he was trying to get up on.

"you used triple-didge."

"yeah, it's good." dj chuckled "it's catchy."

"you got anything in your medicine cabinet for this?" ivan asked josh. "oh my god. yeah. i have everything for this. are you on team ibuprofen or team acetaminophen?" josh asked dj and he shrugged "uh both?"

"yeah, man. i mean, look, if you want to head back, you can. nobody needs to be a hero." seth said. "are you serious? i mean, i'd only be slowing you guys down."