Someone clears their throat and rasps, “We need food.”
I jump up and to the side, nearly breaking the wall of the freshly built bungalow. The man rises up and sits on his butt, turning away from me.
“Yeah!” I cry out when I didn’t need to and run outside.
Only when I’m outside do I remember that I’m still wearing his blazer, duck undies, and a mismatched bra without padding. In horror, I turn toward him. Only to find him turningawayfrom me.
Do I really look so bad? Tough shit, he’d better get used to it because I’m not jumping back into my ripped shorts and T-shirt. We’re on the island, and he can pretend I’m wearing a bikini. I’m not sure why I’m so embarrassed being seen in my undergarments.
I drop his blazer and straighten my back with pride.
“We need to look for food,” I remind him about his own words.
“Yeah,” he rasps. “Give me a second.”
“What are you doing there?” I start walking toward him.
“Nothing.” He quickly grabs his pants and pulls them over his lap. “I just need to get dressed.”
I raise my brow. “There’s no dress code here, you know. You can pretend your boxers are swimming shorts. I won’t tell anyone.” I smirk.
“I know.” He waves his hand dismissively. “Just for mosquitoes and stuff.”
I snort. “All mosquitoes are fried. They’ll come out at night, so you should be good till then.”
“Yeah, sure.” He disregards me, turns completely away,and starts pulling his pants on. I didn’t know he’s such a prude, but to each their own. I walk to the ocean and splash some water over my face and even gargle some. There is no better disinfectant and mouthwash than natural, salty water. Works for wounds too which I feel right away. All of them. On the soles of my feet and little cuts all over my legs and arms. And my poor bruised knees.
Welcome back to nature, Maeve.
“You ready?” He walks up to me.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
He quickly washes his face too, and we head toward the trees. At the waterfall, we drink. A lot. And once again I regret not having a bottle with me because we don’t know how long we’ll be roaming around, and we might get thirsty. Halves of coconuts don’t hold much, but it’s the best we’ve got.
On cue, my stomach lets out a loud growl of a wounded animal, and I regret eating the last banana yesterday evening and thinking that I should have saved it for energy in the morning.
“With so many chickens, we should be able to find some eggs,” he suggests, and my belly growls even louder. He looks at me with an amused face. “Let’s go.”
I follow him deeper into the woods. “How are you not hungry?”
“I am.”
“Then why doesn’t your body let out these god-awful sounds like mine?”
“Discipline. Ever heard of that?” he asks mockingly.
I let out a growl. Like an actual growl of anger. Which makes him snicker. Which makes me even angrier, and him snicker even more.
Suddenly he presses his finger to his lips. “Sh-sh,” hehisses, pointing toward a pile of medium-sized rocks not far from us. “There.”
I follow his hand and find a few chickens walking by. Two of them are lying under one of the rock formations, making funny sounds.
“We wait.”
“For what?”
“They’re sitting on the eggs. Or maybe laying them. Eventually, they’ll get up. Maybe,” he adds with a lopsided smile, looking boyish.
