Alabaster Island

Chapter 5

Afterward, Chloe and Ethan stood waiting in the square. None of us asked each other about The Binding or who we put in for. Chloe insisted we walk up to see "the dead bird". Maxie. Poor Maxie. It surprised me that Chloe would want to do that. I'd watched her avert her eyes when Cunningham reeled in a snapper fish. And she'd almost thrown up when we'd found a dead baby frigate bird, its carcass cleaned by squirming, white maggots. 

When we reached smooth luck rock, Chloe turned and swallowed. "It's horrible. What happened to it?" 

"Her," I corrected. "Her name was Maxie." Ethan picked up one of her feathers, long and white with grey at its tip.

"And you took the long way to school, Ethan?" Chloe asked.

 "I wanted to um, ask Marei something," Ethan responded.

Chloe nodded and looked at me with cold intensity. 

My eyes widened. "You're not serious. Please. Tell me you're not..."

"Are you crazy? Of course not." She laughed, turned and breathed in the ocean air as she looked out to the ocean below. "You're my best friend. I was curious why Ethan came all the way up here to walk to Assembly that's all."

Ethan took Chloe's hands.

"Don't touch me with your dead bird hands!" she protested.

"I came to ask Marei's advice. 'Cause you were upset about me not wanting to say if I put in for you," Ethan said.

"Yeah, and?" 

"I still think it's bad luck," Ethan admitted.

"That makes no sense. What's done is done. Telling someone doesn't change ink on paper. Things are as they are." 

"No. I agree with Ethan," I said.

"Well, you would." Chloe sighed and then smiled at me. "You're both annoying." 

I laughed. These two were my best friends in the world. I didn't know how things would change after The Binding, but I knew things would change. These next two days might be our last days of freedom.

"I'm sorry," Chloe said. "I haven't been sleeping right." I nodded in agreement and so did Ethan. None of us teens were sleeping right, I imagined.

"We should do something fun," I said.

"Swim at Pelican Rock?" Ethan suggested. 

"Yes, can't we forget all of this?" I asked. "Let's swim!" And I grabbed both of their hands and pulled them along with me down the path. We released our hands, but ran together. Every rock, every turn, every bump and bush of this path was familiar to us. It was the main artery that connected Pelican Rock with the Assembly Hall. And as we ran together, the disturbing tension that had clung to us scattered in the wind. 

Twenty minutes later we floated in pristine, tropical water. The three of us dove under and competed to see who could go deeper. We didn't call it as such anymore, but it was an old game we used to play. Treasure Hunt we'd named it. Officially, we stopped playing it after Daniel died. Unofficially we still fell into it as an old habit.

I dove past Chloe and Ethan down to where the water changed from aquamarine to cerulean blue. I always went far deeper than either of them. Today I found a piece of white stone shaped like a ring. Back on the surface, I grabbed Chloe's hand and placed it on her finger.

"Maybe we'll be bound," Chloe said taking me in her arms. We laughed and held hands, whirling in a circle in the water sending out rings of silver ripples. 

"They don't bind girls with girls," Ethan mumbled. We stopped, and I saw that Ethan had an odd look on his face. Something mixed between jealousy and desire.