Watered Down

Chapter Twenty.

Two weeks later and we were only six people away from being out of here after only a few months, all thanks to Theon.

"Are you excited?" He asked while he cleaned the beach.

I followed behind him, raking the sand. "I guess."

He rounded on me and narrowed his eyes. "You guess?" He repeated. "I'd be doing backflips right now if it meant I was about to be leaving here."

I laughed. "Yeah, I'd love to see that." I smirked.

"I could do it too." He said, nodding his head to me. "I used to run track and I was a pro at the hurdles." He bragged.

I laughed at his bold expression and he turned back to finish working. That certainly explained his super athletic build. "When did you graduate?" I asked him and he seemed to lose a little of his pride.

"I didn't." He responded after a while. "My parents died when I was seventeen so I never finished school. I dropped out to start working to take care of Tally."

"Oh." I mumbled. "Do you ever think you'll get your GED or something?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Probably not." He said softly. "Besides, even if I did, there is only one small community college on the island, and they'd never let me in."

"Why not?" I asked and he turned to give me that look that meant he couldn't say.

"I told you the people on the island are very superstitious." He reminded me. "And you know I'm cursed, after all." He said shaking his head. "That's why we had to move out of our house too." He said. "Well, that, and I couldn't have afforded to keep it anyway."

I raised my eyebrows. "I just assumed you lived there with your parents." I admitted.

He shook his head, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Nope, I built that house that Tally and I live in." He said. "I used old materials from a jobsite I was working on when I was doing some part-time stuff for a construction company." He explained and I stopped raking in amazement. "I wish they hadn't moved on to another site on the mainland." He told me. "They paid really well, they weren't from here, so they didn't buy into the whole cursed thing, and I actually really liked doing that kind of stuff. Creating something from nothing, you know?"

"You're amazing." I said without thinking about it.

He looked a little embarrassed, and he turned to finish cleaning up. "Yeah right." He laughed lightly.

I rolled my eyes at myself, but I took a step towards him. "I mean it." I told him. "I can't believe how much you do to take care of Tally, and then on top of that you're like this super amazing carpenter guy, and you paint?"

He looked down at me and smiled. "I guess so."

I smacked his shoulder. "Stop being so modest." I told him. "I've seen the things you made for Tally, and the pictures you painted, plus you freaking built a house." I laughed. "I think that qualifies you as pretty amazing."

He looked down at me with those eyes and I couldn't help smiling up at him. He reached out and pushed my hair behind my ear and then pinched my cheek gently with his hand. "You're amazing too, kid." He laughed.

I reached down to grab a handful of sand and chunked it at him as he ran away. "Don't call me a kid!" I yelled through my laughter as he threw sand back my way.

"Oh, I'm sorry, princess!" He chuckled.

I stomped over to him while he laughed, slapping his thigh with his hand, and I stood in front of him. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared up at him, trying not to laugh. "Are you done yet?" I asked and he stopped laughing.