PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XLVIII. In Love With Our Best Friends

Chapter Forty Eight:  In Love With Our Best Friends

~~~

"Oh, I love it when we're all alive!" Sammy shouted as her, Kenji and Eva ran towards the others, who were down in the jungle. Once they made it off of the gondola, they guessed which direction the others were in— based on the direction the girls were flying in when they escaped off the mountain on a paraglider— and ran at peak Kenji speed to reach them.

The girls looked totally fine, save for the sweat lining their foreheads and the breathless look Brooklynn was sporting. And thankfully when they ran up, Ben and Darius were there, too.

"Yeah! Take that, dino island!"

Eva grinned watching Yaz and Sammy hug. The two could bully her all they wanted but she couldn't get over the fact that they would be hella fucking cute together.

"Yeah, it's a little torn, but we can fix it," Darius said, surveying the damage of the hang glider up in the tree behind them. "And it's gonna be a perfect sail for our next boat."

"Boat!" yelled Sammy. She shook Kenji's shoulder, "Boaaat!"

Kenji had this look, like something dawned on him, and he yelled, too. "Boat!"

They danced around, laughing and yelling "boat".

"Uh, what are we talking about?"

"We saw Tiff and Mitch's boat!"

"It's on some rocks not far off shore! We can totally get to it!"

~~~

Eva slowly followed the others to the shore. It's not that she wasn't excited, but rather worried about getting back in the water. Even if a powerful wave couldn't take out the boat, who's to say something else wouldn't? With their luck, the worst really could happen.

"Hey, that boat's big enough to fit Bumpy!"

She turned her head to the right, where Darius was addressing Ben. Ben was standing by the ankylosaurus, petting her head.

"Darius, I guess you were right. Every problem does have a fix."

Darius smiled, walking away. When Eva looked to Ben, he was frowning.

She furrowed her eyebrows, walking closer. "Why do I get the feeling you still don't want to get off the island?"

Ben jumped at her words. "Uhh, what do you mean?"

"You don't want to leave Bumpy, right?"

Slowly, he nodded. "But it's not— I'm not— I'm not scared. I could get on that boat. I'm not scared."

Eva bit her cheek. "Right..."

"I just mean... um..."

She raised her hands in surrender. "That's fine. Keep your secrets." She began walking to the others, but stopped rather abruptly. "Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"If I'm getting on that boat, you're getting on that boat."

~~~

"Stay sharp," Darius said. "For all we know, Tiff is still in there."

"This is fine," Eva told herself.