When 17 young adults find themselves on a deserted island, they must build a life from the ground up. Being stranded means hard days, cold nights, dangerous waters and mysterious events where the castaways must learn to survive. Despite the inevita...
Cortland was cleaning and re-wrapping my leg but we both sat in silence. The room smelt of salt and iron, like the ocean and blood had joined hands in holy matrimony and now they were inseparable. A ceremony none of us wanted to attend.
Everyone had returned to their jobs. Piper ensured that everyone knew what happened before sending Kit, Rem and Diana out to bury the body. She also made sure to tell everyone that if anyone needed to talk, they could come to her. I felt like she was carrying the weight of this entire island on her shoulders but somehow, she never asked for help and we all assumed she could do it.
The smell was suffocating so I broke the silence, "It feels like we've known each other for years."
Cortland looked up at me and held my gaze. He began to say something but shook his head instead. He went back to attending my wound. I held my sight on his profile. He clenched his jaw, conscious of my stare, but didn't look in my direction.
"Cortland?" I whispered.
He finally looked up and it felt like all the air in the room vanished in between the cracks.
"I used to – I used to see you next to the medical science library." He spoke and moved my old cloth into a bowl of water next to him. He dipped the cloth in the water, washing off the dried blood.
My mind reeled from the understanding that he knew I existed from before our time on the island. I suddenly felt self-conscious, knowing that he saw me when I was probably tired, sad or wearing sweatpants. I looked up at him and realized he was waiting for an answer.
"You didn't ask a question."
Cortland's lips quivered upwards and then he said "What made you walk halfway across campus? The English department is on the North side."
Oh.
Then his face fell mimicking mine and I heard his voice break, "Were you waiting on your boyfriend or something?" He was wringing the cloth so hard, I saw the whites on his knuckles.
"No," I sputtered. "No boyfriend"
"Girlfriend?"
I smiled, "No girlfriend either."
"Good," I saw his chest rise and he bit his lip, trying to hide his smile.
"I uhm," I frowned. "My dad and I used to stop over in that coffee shop on the way to the airport whenever he came to visit me. He passed away last summer and I just kept going."
I looked around and then up, shaking my head at the roof.
"Hey," Cortland whispered and then he was much too close to me. His palms came up to my face and he wiped the tears from my cheeks. "I'm really sorry, Amara."
I nodded. I was tired of hearing it but somehow coming from him, it felt like a comfortable embrace. I focused on his cold touch instead, letting his words ease the ache in my lungs.
"Both my parents died in a car accident when I was sixteen years old," he said, his hands still cupped my face and he brought my eyes to his. "That's when I knew I needed to pursue medicine. Some lives aren't meant to end as soon as they do."
We both looked at each other and I knew who both of us were thinking of. Aspen.
He moved one hand behind my neck and then the room became a furnace. My eyes moved down to his lips and I felt like writing a novel just on its curve. I licked my bottom lip and heard him inhale softly. I wanted to glance up to understand what his problem was but I couldn't seem to move my gaze away. I felt pulled in, if I looked away everything would fall.
Then his thumb moved to my mouth and I felt him trace my upper lip. My body shuddered, but it only made him move closer.
"You're so beautiful, Amara," he whispered, almost to himself like he couldn't believe he was holding me. I couldn't believe it either. His thumb moved to my lower lip and it parted under the pressure. He took in a breath and I fought for mine.
Kiss me then, you idiot.
He shut his eyes and moved away, the moment collapsed into slivers in front of me. He took a moment, fists clenching and then unclenching before he moved to finish the wrapping on my leg. We both went back to the silence.
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