Island Rush

by Marien Dore

  The warmth turned into an addiction. Even though we were wet, and some rain was still getting to us, this was helping a lot. It pushed me to slide my hands down to his sides. His hand moved up and down my back, his other moving to my neck where he pressed my face even closer to him.

  It was such a fantastic feeling to take in. One that led to us continuing to do that for a while. We ran our hands all over each other as we laid there. Each touch was a new source of warmth. It got even better when he wrapped my legs around his.

  I wasn’t sure what we were doing. Surely, we would live without needing to do this, right? It was freezing terribly, and this was helping. I won’t lie, though. It’s not like I hated this either. I loved how close we were. He felt warm, caring, and wonderful. It made me feel slightly bad for even thinking about that while we were so cold. Even more so because I imagine his focus was only on the heat.

  It got to the point where I was sliding as close to him as I possibly could. My chest was pressed against his, rubbing up and down as his hands traced down my sides. It wasn’t enough when we both craved more heat. That’s why I ended up pushing him to his back so I was over him, our bodies still wrapped against each other. Even through the dark, I could see his eyes grow wider with the feeling I wouldn’t bother deciphering now. I just pulled myself down and as close as I could, my head resting under his chin.

  My breath was rapid for more reasons than one now. It was clear we were both starting to warm up. He leaned up and breathed into my face, making me want to move closer. He was just so flipping warm and felt so good… He could feel it too and knew how warm this made me. As he was rubbing my neck softly with his fingers, he drew my forehead against his. He breathed out again, and his warm breath flew over my face, warming me more. I exhaled too, doing the same for him as our hands stayed moving.

  Our bodies were warming slowly but surely, especially his since I was shielding him from the chilly air. He seemed to notice too when he sat me up slightly. Moving over me when he rested my back to the ground, he pressed himself against me now. Our hands moving, his breath spreading more over my face, we were moaning more as we became warmer and warmer… to the point where the cold wasn’t bothering me nearly as much.

  He let his weight go, resting completely on me to cover me. His head resting on my chest, he breathed against my neck before moving down to breathe up and down my stomach.

  “Are you warm?” he asked in a strange squeaky voice when he moved back up and stared down at me.

  “Yeah,” I said in a slight daze, searching his wide eyes.

  He rested his head on my chest while his fingers worked on my skin for heat. I did the same along his back. His touch sent sparks over me as we laid there, and it pushed me closer to sleep.

  We were warm and knew it would stay that way until morning. His body over mine would keep me perfectly fine. I was worried about him, but I could feel he was warmer too. We fell asleep like that, his head on my chest and my fingers resting on his back.

  So… we had two very weird nights in a row.

  I was pressed up against him, my back to his chest. Though my eyes remained closed after waking, I could tell we were laying on our sides. I could feel his breath brush my neck slightly. I could feel the warmth of his chest behind me too. Not to mention I could feel one of his arms draped over me. Whatever I did, I didn’t want him waking either. I was enjoying my placement against him, and I knew if he wakes, he will move away. Plus, when he wakes, and I pretend to do the same, I can imagine all the things we would be forced to face.

  However, after a while of lying there despite the heat, I felt something off. Mr. Rush’s breathing. The rhythm of it… was faster than it should be. It wasn’t slow like it would be if he were sleeping. He was awake!

  The guy must not have felt my heart quicken. Mr. Rush thought I was still asleep. But why didn’t he move and why was he still letting me lay against him? I tried calming my breathing.

  Next thing I knew, I felt something. He gently shifted me against him, moving me cautiously so I was lying more on my back. I could feel my cheek was pressed against his chest. With just slightly moving us like that… it allowed for him to actually stare down at me now. I trained my face to stay still when I could feel his stare fall to my sleeping expression. I knew this because his breath also brushed against my face slightly now. I wanted to open my eyes and meet his beautiful ones, but that would reveal myself. His arm still wrapped around me, I just… felt the intensity between us, even with my eyes shut. What was he looking at me for?

  I decided I shouldn’t wait any longer before ‘waking’ no matter how much I wanted to avoid what happened last night. Sure, what we did was for warmth. I wasn’t proud of how happy it made me wrapped around him like that last night. Without even asking him, I just started to touch the man! Mr. Rush probably felt as if he violated me somehow because he did it too, even though it was to keep warm.

  Deliberately, I moaned softly and shifted into a stretch so it gave him enough warning. I heard him curse under his breath before I felt him move away. He left my side in a fast movement, and that was enough of a sign to start slowly opening my eyes.

  When I came to sit up from where I was lying, my eyes instantly spotted Mr. Rush. He was sitting a few feet away from me, not even meeting my eyes when I looked at him.

  He looked straight guilty even though I was the guilty one. I drew in a breath. “Mr. Rush?”

  It looked like he was trying hard to act like it was another normal day. He failed miserably. “Hey, you’re up!” he said too cheerfully with a smile that didn’t reach his reluctant eyes.

  I sighed. “Um, yeah.”

  We sat there in awkward silence. He wouldn’t meet my eyes, making my day crumble more before it even started. I was dying to get a glimpse his eyes and know what he was feeling right now.

  “Look, I just wanted to say you shouldn’t feel weird about last night. We did what we did to keep warm so let’s avoid all the drama and forget about it. I don’t want you to start feeling weird for some childish reason around me.” I was embarrassed just saying it so I tried hiding it with a casual smile he attempted earlier. “Besides, I would go insane if I didn’t have my only buddy Wilson to talk to if you suddenly stopped talking,” I teased with that reference and caught him smiling at my comment. It made me feel better that I went with that lighthearted approach. It finally coaxed him into meeting my eyes.

  “I know. It still felt wrong to do. I feel like I took some kind of advantage of you.” He shook his head. “I know it’s foolish to think that since we did it to keep warm and our lives from freezing away. Regardless, I still feel wrong,” he struggled. I couldn’t blame him. I understood with him being engaged how he would feel a bit upset. Plus with me being his student and probably a kid to him, it must have been awkward for him.

  If anything, I was at fault. “That was how we survived and kept our hands and face from freezing off. If we hadn’t, Jill would seriously get pissed! You wouldn’t have that same beautiful face!” I said in a deliberately snotty and mocking tone. I chuckled under my breath before I could register my own words. I regretted it when I saw his face grow tense. “I’m sorry.”

  “You know absolutely nothing about her. You never met her so the least you could do is keep your opinions about her to yourself. It is none of your business anyway. Just…” he shook his head, and it seemed to have brought on something very different. A sudden change moved across his face as he looked at me with pain, anger, and regret. “Don’t you have enough drama in your life to worry about other than mine and my life?” he sneered at me, and it made my stomach twist. I tried to not let that get to me.

  I shook my head. “I still don’t get why you cared in the first place about mine,” I pushed.

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged angrily, looking away. That anger quickly diffused. “I guess I was curious how a teenager could change so dramatically over so little time. I knew it was rare to see a girl at your age change like
that within days. You suddenly seemed like an extremely mature person. Then again, you always were,” he babbled on.

  He was spot on once I thought about it. How did he know, though? “I talked back in class, disrespected you, and didn’t do my work…” I shook my head, not understanding. “How could you see I was mature when I would do all those things?”

  He thought about it and looked as if he was stumped. “I honestly don’t know. I got a totally different vibe off of you. I just knew,” he said, his eyes still moving back to flashing anywhere but to mine.

  We sat there for a minute before he spoke in a quiet voice. “We should get going.”

  We stood and moved out of the packed trees to where it was more open and grassy. I followed Mr. Rush and a few seconds later, we were back to where we originally fell asleep and had our fire. Damp ashes were visible on the ground along with the spear and five coconuts we had been carrying. We even saw the flint and stone we used last night too.

  I picked up what I carried yesterday and balanced the spear and two coconuts in my arms. When I watched Mr. Rush, he bent down and picked up the stone and flint. However, when he stood back up and dropped them in his pocket, he froze. I paid more attention to him as he closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. He slowly drew back out his fist with the flint and stone, dropping it back to the ground. His hand free, he shoved it back into his pocket and retrieved what I saw to be broken pieces of the seashells that held the dew.

  He dug out the broken shells from his other pocket too, wiping away the evidence in the grass with an annoyed face. He must have crushed them last night when we were trying to keep warm. Rubbing up against each other like that and rolling… yeah, that would have crushed the shells and make him not notice, not with all the rain that came down.

  “Well, that sucks,” he said, putting the flint and stone in his now empty pocket.

  “At least we have the coconuts to drink from. And I’m sure we can find more shells and clay.”

  He nodded to me as he picked up the rest of the coconuts he needed to carry. “Yeah, we will be fine,” he said, brushing his concerns away. I found it somewhat ironic he said that with what happened next.

  Chapter 18

  We didn’t get the chance to start our day of walking. When we were about to walk out towards the edge of trees, it started to downpour to the point where it was hard to see anything. The wind started to pick up too, and we once again sat against a tree that blocked the wind and rain. At least it was hot outside, and we didn’t need to worry about getting cold.

  I would have rather been freezing though than go through a storm of this magnitude. It only took minutes for the wind and rain to pick up to the point where we couldn’t even hear ourselves speak! It got serious real quick. Above us, we could see the trees swaying back and forth in a rough motion, the leaves and branches hanging on for dear life. They bent forward and sideways from what we could see in the blur of this disaster. I instinctively pushed myself into Mr. Rush’s side. In return, he wound his arm around me and held me to him when we realized the tree we were huddled up against wasn’t shielding much.

  I didn’t expect a slightly dark sky this morning to turn into this. As minutes passed, it got worse. The wind began affecting our balance, even with us against the tree! My hair blew over my face and, between those strands, my eyes caught a swift motion. A small tree many yards away was swaying until it snapped and fell to the ground! Another tree nearby also lost its hold but didn’t fall to the ground. I thought my eyes were tricking me with what I witnessed. The tree was being dragged through the air at an intense speed until it disappeared from my vision. I wasn’t sure if I could believe my eyes until Mr. Rush reacted.

  Gripping my arm hard, he pulled me away from the tree. All I wanted to do was go back. That was until I turned around and saw the tree we were against was struggling to keep its place too! Was this a fucking hurricane?!

  It was a blur with how fast everything happened. I couldn’t believe a storm could come on like this. The trees were being whipped into the freaking air for God’s sake! Mr. Rush though understood that we could process this craziness later. He pulled me down to the ground for a quick second and yelled loudly so I could hear him. “We need to—”

  With us kneeling before each other on the ground, I managed to see what happened through the rain and unearthly winds. He was cut off by a large branch that hit him from the side, throwing him to his back a few feet away from me. I watched in horror at his shocked face and the weather around us.

  I scrambled on my knees over to him, gripping the grass for assistance as I moved. When I got to him and saw he was okay, he rolled back up onto his knees. Finding my eyes as he held us to the ground, I noticed he was breathing hard. He seemed okay otherwise.

  He took my hand, a daring moment for him with his next action. Mr. Rush stood and pulled me to him until I was on both feet. Then we were running, with him pulling me back into the heavily guarded woods. It was a hard process no matter how quickly it flashed by. You couldn’t call it running when we were as balanced as a drunk. We nearly fell after each step! All I focused on were my feet since he held my hand in guidance.

  From the corner of my eye, I caught more small plants and trees whipping up and out of sight. You couldn’t even call this rain and wind anymore! The massive gusts led the sharp drops to its destination, picking up sticks, leaves, and now small trees with it. My own hair wasn’t all that was blasting in my face either. Twigs and dirt, water and leaves, wind and salt, held blind me too.

  He was leading us back into the packed woods for more cover, but we didn’t make it. His hand that I was grasping slid down and towards the ground as I saw Mr. Rush fall before me. He wouldn’t let my hand go, which made me feel secure. It came with a price though as my eyes widened. On the ground, he suddenly started to slide back towards me! Being dragged by this extremely forceful weather! It was crazy but not something I had time to wrap my head around. As he slid along the ground, he knocked me to the ground with him.

  “Oh god!” I shrieked out as I felt us being dragged back along the freaking ground! I felt my mind whirl around with the wind, and all I could think was that this couldn’t be happening to us!

  He grasped my arm as I did his arm, sliding over the wet leaves and mud, being literally blown back in the direction of the ocean. We were going fast too. My other hand scrambled along the ground as we were being swept away, trying to desperately grab something – anything at all – to hold on to! We needed to keep ourselves from being sucked away thanks to whatever the hell this was! When I didn’t think I could become more panicked, I felt both my legs swing up into the wind. My legs uncontrollably smacked against a thick tree that was still rooted to the Earth.

  “Ahhhh fuck!” I screamed out as I felt the pain enter my knees. My words and screech were drowned out by the noise of the storm and my heart beating in my ears. From that hit came an instant tug that wanted to break our connected arms apart when I was whipped in another direction. Our grip was firm, though, and we remained holding on.

  It was all turning into a blur when I felt more pain hitting me in every direction. Like little cuts and impacts that came from sticks and bushes as we were still being dragged through the grass and dirt, slowly but surely.

  Mr. Rush realized that this would be it for us when we started to lift off the ground and towards the heart of this deadly storm. Our eyes met in a flash, and his hand gripped my arm tighter. In his eyes, it was clear why. Suddenly, we stopped being pulled! Mr. Rush’s scrambling hand found something on the ground to stop us. That fast force and jerk nearly broke us away from each other, but it didn’t, thank God.

  I couldn’t see much, but I could feel him holding on to my arm hard as his stomach was on the wet ground. His other hand saved us since it was now grasping something I couldn’t see. When I felt Mr. Rush slowly try to find the strength to pull me up closer, I helped him out. I dug my free hand into the grass and mud, holding onto him as I tried in
ching up closer to where he was grabbing whatever was saving us. Digging my foot into the ground too, I managed to pull myself up next to him.

  I felt him let me go so he could put his arm around me to hold me down more firmly. He lifted himself slightly, settling on top of my back to hold me down. I was on my stomach, my body being pushed into the ground and mud with his weight. I felt his breath in my ear and knew his back was to the intense storm.

  “Grab the roots!” he yelled.

  I looked up and saw what was keeping us there. Mr. Rush had both of his hands now twined in the roots of a big tree so he wouldn’t be taken by the storm. He was holding me down with his body since he was already safe with the roots he held. I was in the safest place possible. Hopefully, he could hold on but if he couldn’t, I needed security.

  I wrapped my hands up over our heads in the roots with his. I felt his legs leave on top of mine, his body beginning to pick up with the wind! It was the scariest feeling to experience when my body did the same thing! The wind grew stronger and was making both of us rise. My god, we were literally holding on for our lives!

  Mr. Rush slammed down on me when the wind let us go, only to pick up again. “Hold on! If you can’t, I’m here,” he yelled, and that was when I saw I was shaking without the help of the storm.

  My thoughts couldn’t grasp what was happening. All I could think was that we had to live. But why exactly? We had a very slim possibility of getting out of here. If that happened, I could get revenge for what happened, and Mr. Rush could have the life he wanted. We both wanted those things, and that was probably why he was holding on. Jill was his reason and if he couldn’t get out of this place… well, he must figure living here is better than being dead.

  But why was I holding on? I had faith that I would see my mother in the afterlife if I were to die. Stay here and what happens? There was no going home to take care of my father and brother; I lost hope of ever getting back. So why?