Two Boys Healing (Book Two)

13. Lake (Part 2)

"...I spy, with my little eye..."

"Ash," Will groaned. "Stop it. I don't care if you've seen another lily pad."

Ash huffed. "It wasn't a lily pad," he argued. "I thought I saw a fish."

Will twisted around to look at him, deadpan.

"What!!" Ash said defensively. "What else are we gonna do?"

They'd been floating around for almost two hours now--it could have been longer, but neither of them had watches, and they'd left their phones back in their cabins--and had gotten the canoe flipped back over, the oars dropped into the bottom of the boat. They'd already tried to climb back in several times, but the canoe had tipped again, so they were now just hanging onto the side like bats.

Will groaned. "Ugh, I don't know. Not that."

Ash sighed, falling silent.

The sun beat down on them overhead, and Will was 99% certain they would come out of this with terrible sunburns.

"Hey Will?" ash's voice was so quiet he almost missed it.

"Yeah?" Will said, distracted.

"...I think...I'm...remembering something..."

Will snapped his head toward Ash, immediately alert. "Y-you are? What is it??"

Ash flushed staring at the side of the boat as if it held all the answers he was looking for in it's ugly yellow pant. "I--it--you. And me. And...my dad..."

Will stomach dropped as Ash closed his head and let his head thud against the side of the canoe. "Oh, my god. He really did abuse me, didn't he..."

Will didn't know what to say. He looked down at the water as it lapped against their bright yellow canoe and made his clothes heavy.

"Ash, I--" he began, but Ash cut him off.

"It's okay, Will," he said, shooting a reassuring smile in Will's direction. "Really. He's not here anymore."

Will nodded slowly and looked up, biting his lip.

Ash met his gaze for a few long moments and then looked behind him awkwardly, then swore. "No, no, no, NO!"

Will blinked in surprise. "What--" he turned to look at what Ash was staring at and saw, to his horror, the other canoes docking on the complete other side of the lake. It looked like it had to be miles away.

"SHIT," he groaned. "There is NO WAY I'm swimming all the way back over there. God DAMMIT."

Ash whimpered. "Screw drowning, we're gonna get eaten by a bear. It's gonna rip us to pieces. I can't get eaten by a bear, Will!!"

"We won't get eaten by a bear," Will sighed, still staring across the lake. "Your whines are too high-pitched for that. It'll think it's coming to eat a fucking dolphin."

Ash stared at him, his jaw dropping, and then whapped him on the arm. "You jerk!" But a smile was pulling at his lips, and soon Will was smiling, too.

They were getting closer to the shore (the wrong one, but it was still dry land, and Will knew how to make a fire so at least the wouldn't be too cold when the sun went down) and soon Will's feet brushed the ground. He started walking the boat up the beach and he and Ash pushed it out of the water. As soon as he could, Ash yanked off his life jacket and shirt and tossed them with a wet plop into the canoe, his shoes and socks following and then after that his pants, leaving his in only his boxers.

Will tried not to stare, but he felt heat rising in his face. "I, uh, what--why did you--"

Ash wasn't really paying attention to Will, though, and he once again gathered his soaked clothes and strung them up on tree branches to dry. "You should do the same thing," he called over his shoulder, heedless to the way Will was gaping like a neanderthal. "That way our clothes will be dryer sooner.