by JE Hunter
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
By the time we reached Ernie's dock, I was smiling and laughing. I laughed even harder when Juan jumped over the side of the boat, slipped on the wet wooden surface, landing hard on his backside.
Ernie came outside, saying hello as we tied up the boat. “Bring it back in one piece,” he said as we climbed into Grandma’s car. “And make sure to stick together.”
“Of course.” I answered. Getting behind the wheel of a car after not driving for half a month was amazing. It was like I'd really gotten my freedom back.
“To the grocery store,” Caesar said, climbing into the passenger seat beside me. His long legs barely fit in the seat that was pushed all the way forward so Markus could fit in behind him. Amynta was squished into the middle of the backseat, between Juan and Markus. She looked perfectly at home in the close quarters. Markus smoothly threw an arm around her shoulders.
“Where are we going?” I asked, hoping someone was more familiar with Tofino than I was.
“Straight in on this road, the grocery store will be on your left,” Caesar responded before beginning a discussion about what was required to feed twenty-some people on an overnight camping trip.
“Let's split up,” Markus suggested when we wandered into the small grocery store. “Amynta, Juan and I can grab the fruit, vegetables, and hot dogs. Caesar and Nessa can grab the junk food.”
Immediately, I shook my head. “Were not supposed to split up, remember? There’s a hunter here.”
Markus frowned. “We’re still in groups and in the same store. I don’t really consider that to be splitting up.”
“Alright. But let’s not take long. Meet back here in ten minutes.”
“Agreed. Ten minutes.”
“Come on, Nessa.” Caesar reached out a hand, lightly brushing my back. I shivered. “Cookies are this way. I like anything with icing.”
“Vanilla or chocolate?” We walked in the opposite direction of Juan, Markus and Amynta.
“Vanilla.” Caesar followed me, walking slightly behind me and to my right. “What about you?”
“Chocolate.”
“That’s a good sign. Opposites attract you know.”
I laughed. “Do you seriously have a line for everything? Can’t we just have a normal conversation for once?” We reached the cookies and I grabbed a few bags of Oreo’s and some regular chocolate chip. Caesar grabbed some packages as well, throwing them on top of my stack. Before I knew it, my arms were full and I was helplessly stuck between the cookie shelf and Caesar. He leaned in closer, staring at me intently.
“Sure we can. Ask me anything.”
I tilted my chin up, looking boldly into his eyes. “Okay. Why do you pretend to like me when you’re so obviously into Shia?”
Caesar’s pupils dilated for a quick second and then contracted again. “Shia? She’s just a friend. Why would you think I like her?”
My heart beat quicker. “Because you’re always talking to her, and the two of you spend so much time together.”
“I’d spend time with you if you weren’t grounded—and if you let me. You’re the one I like.”
I used my right foot to draw circles on the floor, distracting myself from the fact that my lips were mere millimeters from Caesar’s. “Why do you like me?”
“Oh, that's easy. I thought you were going to ask me a hard question.” Caesar gently lifted his hand, tucking a loose strand of red hair back under my hat. “I like you because of the way I feel when I look at you, and because you're fun, smart, witty, and a little piece of fire.”
My mouth was dry. I had trouble finding my words. “How do you feel when you look at me?” I couldn't help but wonder. I wanted to know if he felt the same way I did.
“I feel like my skin’s on fire. I feel like you're standing behind me, blowing gently on my ear, giving me goosebumps. How do you feel?”
“Clean-up on aisle one!” The loudspeaker made me jump. I smacked my head into the stack of wafers behind me. A bunch of the brown packages tumbled to the floor.
“We’d better get moving before someone finds this mess. Plus, we still need to grab some chips, chocolate, and ingredients for s'mores.” I sucked in my stomach, slipping out from between Caesar and the cookie shelf, heading straight for the chip aisle. I tried to slow my racing pulse. Caesar had almost kissed me. If it hadn’t of been for that announcement I was pretty sure he would have. The thought made me dizzy.
“What are s'mores?” Caesar asked, walking as close beside me as possible.
“You don't know what s'mores are? I thought you guys went camping every year.”
“We do.”
I shook my head. “No you haven't, not if you haven't had s'mores. They're the only thing I like about camping. Can you grab the chips? My hands are full. And so you know—I like ketchup flavour.”
“Sure, no problem. I like helping out.” Caesar shifted packages of cookies to his left arm, grabbing five bags of chips with his right hand, two of them ketchup.
“Amynta told me you volunteer, in the summer, building houses and stuff?”
Caesar shrugged like it was nothing. “It’s a tradition my dad and I have. Mostly we work on houses and schools to help the poor in the Caribbean. Dad grew up down there, mostly in Mexico but also a bit in Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican. He considers the sea his home, really. I think I do too.”
“So, uh, since your dad went missing this year, what did you do?” I bit my lip as I asked, hoping that the question wouldn’t upset Caesar.
“I went to Mexico and stayed with Grandma for a bit, then I met up with the organization that we always work with for a couple of weeks. Markus and his dad picked me up after that and I spent a few weeks sailing before returning to school.” Caesar paused, inspecting the packs of chocolate bars closely. I had a feeling he didn’t want me to see his face. “We spent that time looking for my dad.”
“I’m really sorry. I hope you find him, or he finds you.”
Caesar turned and looked at me, a semi-smile on his face. “Thanks. It’s nice to know that other people are hoping for the same thing I am.”
Caesar moved away from me, loading his arms up with chocolate bars until his body was hidden under the mass of junk food. “So, do you maybe want to hang out with me tonight? Watch a movie or something?”
“I…” I shifted my gaze to the ground. The heat in my stomach was building. I wanted to say yes. “I don’t want to hurt Colleen…”
“Is that what this is about? Did she say something else about me? Because I already told you about the Jim thing and how sorry I am. I’ve tried talking to her, I’ve tried apologizing, but she won't listen.”
“I know,” I said, feeling awful. My muscles were tight, even my heart hurt. “But she’s my friend, and now that I’m off grounding we can finally hang out again. We just went swimming this afternoon and it was fun. I don’t want to lose all that. There isn’t much on this island and she’s been great to me ever since I arrived.”
“Maybe we can be friends without hurting her.”
I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”
“We don’t have to tell her that we’re hanging out.”
My veins throbbed. Could we really hang out without Colleen finding out? “Okay.” I relented. “We’ll hang out. But you have to keep trying to get Colleen to forgive you—and I’ll try to get her to forgive you too—because I’d really like to be friends with you both.”
Caesar's eyes twinkled as he led me back toward the cash register. “Anything for a such a beautiful, flawless pearl as yourself.”
I rolled my eyes and dropped the bags of cookies on the checkout counter. “I’m hardly flawless.” Amynta, Markus, and Juan came up behind us and added their stuff to ours, burying the checkout counter with food.
I scanned the pile of items. “Where are the hotdog buns?” I asked.
“Oops,” Amynta said. “I guess we forgot them.”
“I’ll get them,” I volunteered, my pulse
still racing from my decision to hang out with Caesar tonight. I needed a few minutes to calm down without Amynta giving me more suspicious glances.
The bread was tucked away in the far corner of the store. I walked straight up to the wooden racks and scanned them. There were loaves of bread, hamburger buns, pitas and tortillas.
“Hot dog buns, where are the hot dog buns?” I asked myself, turning to scan the other side of the aisle. I jumped.
“Hello again.” The hunter wrapped one tight arm around me, pressing a small cloth over my nose and mouth. I tried to scream but he was pressing too hard for me to make a sound. Where had he even come from? I hadn’t seen him as I walked up. And what was this smell? This chemically… smell… making me… dizzy…
“Nessa!”
Caesar’s voice raced toward me. The pressure on my face disappeared. I crumpled to the floor. Gasping.
“Nessa! Are you okay?”
I panted, my hands resting on the cold tiles. “Yeah. Yes. I think I’m okay. Help me up.” As I stood, I looked around. “Where did he go?”
Caesar gently wrapped an arm around my back. “He ran out the back the minute I called your name.”
I leaned into him as he picked me up off the floor. I swayed on my feet. My purse fell from my shoulder, dropping onto the floor. Caesar bent down, picking it up. “I shouldn’t have let you go alone. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I remembered the moment you were out of sight. I just never…I forgot. We all forgot. Thank the sea you’re okay.”
I was still gasping for air, partly out of panic and partly from the burning sensation in my throat and mouth. I coughed. “We’d better get back to the others.”
Caesar began to lead me away.
“Wait, the buns.”
He grabbed some with one hand while keeping hold of me with the other. We walked quickly back to the front of the store. When we got there, the others were halfway through the line. The smiles vanished from their faces when they saw me. Amynta came right up to us.
“What happened?” She asked in a whisper, so that humans nearby wouldn’t hear.
“The hunter,” Caesar whispered back.
Amynta’s face turned as white as her sweater.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said, my stomach heaving.
“Here.” Caesar handed Amynta the buns. “I’m going to take her outside.”
We barely made it through the door and onto the asphalt before I threw up.
“How could I have been so stupid?” Caesar was pacing a foot from me, running a hand through his dark hair.
“It’s not your fault.” My voice was croaky and thick. I dug into my purse to find a tissue to wipe off my chin.
“I feel like it is.”
“Don’t.”
The others came out the door. Amynta saw me and turned to Markus, digging into one of the bags he was carrying, pulling out a small bottle of soda. “Here, this might help.”
I opened it up and took a sip. Slowly the burning sensation and the taste of vomit dissipated. “Can we go?” I shivered. “I don’t like standing here. Out in the open.”
The others looked around. There was no one in sight. We placed the groceries in the trunk and then piled inside the car. There was no escaping Ernie when we reached his house. He immediately called my grandma. “She said you’re to go directly home. You’ll be safe on the island, but just to be sure, she’s going to go out and strengthen the boundary. She said you should ask one of your friends to stay with you until she gets home.”
I nodded. Ernie gave me a sympathetic smile and then tapped the side of the boat with his left hand, signalling for us to take off. I knew I didn’t have to ask anyone, I knew Caesar would stay with me, and I was glad.